Ash 3, 4621¤
“Look, I know it’s hard but it’s just a little bit longer.”
Came the voice of her okhai mentor, Izul, the dark-red skinned woman who had been her companion for several years. Although they were the same age Izul’s face was lined with years of toil and sun, while Miki still looked in her early thirties. Miki brushed stray hair from her horn and kept an eye out.
They were watching for a caravan they had heard was making a pass to the local respite. On the edge of the Badlands it wasn’t even safe, no, the pair were perched in a rocky outcropping eyeing through the crude scopes of their hacked together rifles for any sign of kicked up dust.
“You’re sure this will be a good haul?”
Miki asked again, she was getting impatient and felt like they were being set up. Something about this whole day was off.
“Of course, I’ve told you. In and out job. No biggie, just watch and wait and when they come we got this.”
Izul sounded so positive but something was horribly off.
Then, sure enough, on the horizon in the scope Miki saw the familiar dust kicked up by what could only be a large group of travelers. The pair waited and waited until the caravan was close enough to get a good shot at the riders. That was when the bomb went off. It was heard even from their distance of five miles from the Burns and Miki knew exactly what it was.
“Goddammit!”
She shrugged off her rifle as the caravan turned tail and fled the other way.
“Dude, it was Old Man Reiki with his confabulated mega horse. The damn thing blew finally! We gotta go!”
They scaled down the side of the rock and hopped on their hogs, the motors revving like angry lions, before tearing off to their home. Miki was greatly displeased, fearing the worst. She rode like the wind to her residence, hoping and praying the damage wasn’t too severe.
~~
They came not to their ghost town of a home but to the ruins of a ramshackle hole in the ground. There wasn’t even blood, the bomb had destroyed everything. Their home was completely gone, now just miles and miles of desert remained. Everything that once was the Burns was gone. Miki wiped out her bike in her shock, skidding along the ground and stopping around twenty feet away from the edge of the crater. In her adrenaline induced shock she barely felt it, she got up and limped towards the giant hole, hands clawing at her face while sobbing.
‘This can’t be happening.’
Izul tried consoling her but it fell short, Miki pushed her away and hissed a deep growl, swishing her tail in anger while baring her teeth. Izul ended up kneeling beside her and they held each other for a while, sobbing.
Hours later...
Miki found herself in Shitport without a home, without a cause, looking into the swill of another drink thinking no thoughts. Just feeling numb.
“It was that damned Wurmblood that made him do it. Fuckin’ petrol made him sneeze so hard the damn thing blew.”
The hollow voice of Izul came. Recently her wanna-be gang had come upon a vast amount of wurmblood from hunting the largest wurm any had ever seen. The cave led them to a plethora of the stuff, so much they made multiple tips to harvest it all. Old Man Reiki, their de facto leader, had gotten in his mind to make a three wheeled, tank-like, chariot from the surplus of the blood. The construct seemed so complex all of the rest of their crew had told him not to do it.
“But he gone and done it.”
Replied Miki, putting her hands to her head. For her it was less that a group of people she was close to died and more the burning urge she had for being part of a new upstart gang.
That was Old Man’s Reiki’s vision. He swore they would overtake the Bloodbreakers and rule over the Badlands as Kings and Queens. She truly believed in it, now her future was gone. How could this have happened? She never had any real love for her compatriots, more or less just relied on them for bodies. In reality, she was just another body as she was not near as close to Reiki as the rest of them. But she had hopes eventually she would slide into power either by usurping him or schmoozing. Izul and she were on the same page with that.
They had been good friends for a long time, Izul was the one who took her in during her insanity and showed her the ways of the Badlands all those years ago. Izul always complimented her on being a quick learner, when they joined the group all those weeks ago they made a pact to rise quickly to the top and over take Reiki, the ancient sod. What they surmised was they would whisper misgivings after being part of the gang for the long haul, when the time was right they would use the power of suggestion to root out Old Man Reiki. It was simple, people always followed hearsay. If the duo did it right they could control around thirty people and from there, well, they would only be going up.
~~
“Amoren.”
Came Miki simply.
“What?”
Izul looked nonplussed.
“Yeah listen,”
Miki lowered her voice and continued on. Although they were the only two in the bar, even the tender was nowhere to be seen.
“Amoren because it’s out of sight of the Big Four. Just listen, there’s going to be plenty of wigs that want to get out of their knickers and find it big time. Not to mention, the poor and the ugly will want to make some quick coins. Hire a few people for a job, make ends meet for them, earn their loyalty. Boom.”
She winced,
“Bad turn of phrase, but still. That’s all Reiki did. We can do that too.”
They stayed in their tents that night in one of the transient rest spots inside Shitport. When dawn broke, they rode off towards Arlain. They were taking the next ferry across the river and headed straight for Amoren.
At the Ferry and Across the River. Ash 4, 4621
“Have you ever been to Amoren?”
Izul shook her head yes to Miki’s question.
“I haven't.”
Simply said Miki.
Yet they were off, crossing the yawning river. The tossing and the churning of the boat was enough to make Izul sick, Miki patted her back while the other yacked and heaved over the side.
Finally across the river they unloaded their hogs and started to scheme more.
“You see, these people know nothing of us… Although we know plenty about them. Maybe we fudge a little bit of details, spend time spiffing up the place in their minds so when we get them back home it won’t seem so bad. Drinks on us boys!”
Izul was rattling on ideas, worked up. In truth Miki agreed partially but said little, they were ready now to ride their hogs across the Southern Marches headed fast towards Amoren. Without responding Miki saddled her chariot and made sure all the straps were tight. Finally Izul stopped prattling and asked,
“You know where we’re going?”
Miki turned her head side to side, orienting with the stars, then nodded.
“I know the way southwest, we may need to stop a few times but I think I can get us there safely and sound.”
Izul shook her head in disgust,
“Fuckin’ creepy mate. How do you do that? But let’s go, we’re burning daylight.”
~~
That night they sat around the fire eating the remnants of a rabbit sized rat Izul had hunted down in the wilds and prepared for them.
“A few wild onions and garlic later, damn. I’m surprised you found them this early in the season.”
Miki said with a mouthful. The stars were out in full force tonight, glinting their silent rays on the pair. It was much cooler here and less dangerous than their homeland. Miki spent no time staring at the stars or being whimsical. Though something again nagged at her, something bad.
The feeling of dread she felt was persistent. It was as if nothing would ever come to fruition in her life. Even now sitting here half listening to Izul’s visions of grandeur she half thought it was a sham. The sense of anger and dread never left her fully even in peaceful moments like these.
“Right well I’m off to bed. It’s time for a snooze before the sun starts beating us out of the tent and we have to ride until our asses are sore-- again! Good night.”
Izul climbed into her tent and stayed there as Miki laid back on the ground and looked at the stars.
She wondered about her kids and her husband, what they would be doing now had the Outsider not have destroyed their home. A flashback of pain and suffering played through her mind as she relived the moment her horn snapped. Then, no more memories. She remembered running for her life from her people and into Izul’s arms. It was over twenty years that she had known Izul, they were both girls when they met. The thoughts somehow made the night seem colder than usual.
When the duo woke in the morning to the sun’s beating rays just as Izul had predicted, they immediately headed out. It would be five days until Amoren. They would arrive on the ninth.
