Aeneas gave a nod of thanks to his alien companion, just barely managing to capture the new, extremely heavy weapon. This creature…wasn’t exactly made to carry things over ten pounds, at least not in his arms. Using this gun might take some getting used to.

Now, how exactly does one use a gun?

Contemplating this, rather befuddled by the idea that he could actually attack from a distance, Aeneas was just distracted enough to catch the spectacular scene created by his human friend Matt. He was dumfounded for most of it; if the gesture was something he’d been familiar with, Aeneas’s jaw would’ve dropped. Admittedly he was still skeptical about that ‘magic’ business that Matt had brought up a while ago, even after seeing him create vines and gusts of wind seemingly out of thin air.

No. This was fairly convincing.

Unfortunately the display took quite a lot of energy out of him. Startled by Matt’s sudden bout of weakness, Aeneas edged over to him towards the back of the line. This diversion was sufficient to keep him from noticing the nutcrackers begin forming together…

“Matt, that was amazing!” Aeneas trilled, caught in a temporary struggle between astonishment and concern, “Are—did that injure you in any way? You should probably go inside the portal and res—“

Giant candy cane!

Without thinking, Aeneas dropped the plasma rifle and flung himself at Matt.