yutzen: Histiotus Macrotus bat looking more amused than a bat should look (Default)

In an upside-down forest of lichens and mold, clinging tightly to the dangling, dripping flora, a swallow and a skink crept their way from one stalactite to the next, with one eye always fixed on the rolling, dusty expanse below. One flew between them with ease, a streak of red and blue that flitted from one to the other and dug her spurs into the moss to survey the next flight, while the other practically submerged into the mass of lichen, with little more than their turquoise crest poking out from underneath. There was half a mile between them and the dunes, and they knew not even the “sand” that shaped them – a deep, sodden layer of fuzzy spores and other drifting detritus flowing from the forests to the North – would soften their fall if they slipped off the ceiling… But they hardly worried; even the one that couldn’t fly had a grip that would hold tight on bare rock, let alone these gnarled, overgrown fronds.

Don’t start slipping now, I don’t wanna have to catch you.Even the Cheli’s whispers were shrill, almost unwelcome in this breezy silence, and her sneer only made them worse. “You and that rifle of yours that’s gotta be half your weight. They’re gonna hear you all the way in the fucking Lakes with that thing!”
“You’d be surprised” was the Troxi’s reply, calm as they could manage under the strain of moving upside-down. “
Besides, isn’t this a distraction, miss Chitwy? Better for them to hear the shot, make them realize it?
Chitwy hung from her talons to face them, fixing them with a scowl before she deigned respond. “If you actually nail the shot, you don’t need the noise, it’s a bigger giveaway than anything else! You’re lucky this place barely has any echo, we’d be found real quick if it did.
Again, doesn’t that make the distraction better? We’re not the ones piloting a whole airship through the stalactites, looking for two little figures scrambling through the moss.The skink was barely even looking at her, their eyes wandering all over the land beneath, admiring a landscape they’d never seen.

“Look…” Chitwy lingered, lingering on an empty pause where a nickname should be, before giving up. “Qarretzu, was it? Sure, this is a distraction, but we’re also supposed to
survive this. Tag them and leave, gotta make sure they search where we ain’t, and where the boss and the others ain’t. And a big roaring gunshot’s good for the second one but it sure fucks us over!” Her wings stretched towards the distant ground, and reaching behind her, the claws on them pulled out a simple, dusty bow and a single arrow, which she couldn’t help but glare at. “I swear, just hitting one guy with one of these would be enough, they don’t even hear anything, and by the time he’s lying on the deck we’re just gone. But that’s the simple way, and that isn’t how we do things in this enterprise, isn’t it?

The Troxi, however, was busy looking at the bow, and for once in this whole climb, he looked less than impressed. “Miss Chitwy… with all due respect, if we have to get close enough to use that they will see us, which is… worse. We might not get to shoot the ship in the first place that way…” After a second of thought, they looked back at the Cheli, with just a bit of embarrassment. “Or I might not, at the very least, miss Ziv-Ziri said you had practice with close-up hunting, with hiding until the last moment. I don’t, miss, my forte’s not at point blank range…”

Chitwy stared at the rifle in their hands, then at its wielder. Back at the rifle, long and soot-stained and scratched up, then back at the Troxi. She looked like she
wanted to scowl, but was holding it in. “Fine then. You’re the new guy-”
“I’m not a guy, miss Chitwy”, they cut in with just a smidge of annoyance.
“Right. You’re the new hire,
you tell me what your forte’s supposed to be here, that’ll keep us from getting blasted off the ceiling and falling off in little pieces?”

They’d heard a few warnings already about this one, but if they were to guess, it’d seem something about the rifle or its usage just set her off entirely… still, she wanted the facts, she’d get the facts. And so they began, hefting the weapon into their hands and looking it over. “I don’t need to get that close, miss Chitwy. I don’t need to get close at all by any metric, not with this one. I don’t mean to criticize your aim, but a bow is a bow, and this…

A smile crept into the Troxi’s face, one that showed plentiful fangs – even the new ones, growing to replace the ones they lost back in the Luscent Steppe. Right where they got this rifle, from what would’ve been one of their captors had it not been for those two… A newer model from the Republics, a brassy repeater with a barrel that was almost too long for comfort, a Flarewood stock and room for ten bullets, each of which could kill even a war machine with the right aim. Hardy and deadly, everything one could ask for in the field if you had the size and know-how. “When you need to kill and run, being a mile away always helps, and this little beauty can make that happen, maybe even further. Mm, I have to wonder why it was in the hands it was, back there. That one seemed like the biggest idiot of the lot. And too short for it. Ironically…

Yet when they looked back at the swallow, she looked skeptical. Baffled, even. “A fucking
mile.”
The skink smiled just a little wider. “Maybe more, in fact, in good hands. And I’d like to think mine are! Proved it during my, erm, recruitment, didn’t I?”
Chitwy’s beak opened, but it took a few moments for her to actually say anything. “Alright, fine, I’ll give you THAT. But… still, a
mile!? You know the kind of arc you need to land a shot a mile away, everything that can go wrong in that kinda travel time!?”
Their smile fell back to neutrality, and it took slight effort to keep it from falling to a scowl. “This… isn’t a bow, miss Chitwy. It doesn’t fire an arrow, you won’t
see a bullet. You hardly need an arc for it, the shot’ll be there if you know how it’ll go.”
The Cheli remained unimpressed. “Don’t start acting like I don’t know what a bullet is, or like I can’t see one, you don’t know
my eyes! But I know everything that can go wrong in half a second, or less, and with that kind of distance, it’s even WORSE. A shot a mile away does nothing if you miss it, other than give us away!”
Now Qarretzu frowned, stopping themselves before they outright snarled. “Miss Chitwy, I don’t appreciate these… t-these comments of your, if you have these doubts about what I can-”

They stopped cold, a
nd both pairs of eyes turned downwards, to the empty air underneath.

Breaching through the spore-laden fog, the two saw a
n oblong shape, bigger than either of them would expect or hope. And on a closer look, they saw it had plenty of far less oblong shapes all over it, a variety of unidentifiable fiddly bits and points; some of them presumable weapons thanks to their length, and far too many of them much harder to infer. And with the sight of it, came its sound, a constant, rattling hum that should’ve been far louder to match a thing of that size.

An airship. A
n Urul Canyonking, to be exact, prowling what the Bannerbound thought was the rightful edge of their nation. It would’ve been overkill for the Pact’s hunting parties that usually wandered here, and it was definitely overkill for them, yet here it was, lingering and ready to rain down hell.

The first to break the silence was Chitwy – which Qarretzu was almost thankful for, despite wishing she’d shut up moments before. “Why the fuck is one of these here? That’s not some patrol boat, that’s an actual fucking warship! Did the Pact start something without telling me? Are we caught in the fucking crossfire!?” She landed on a stalactite, creeping backwards into the thick mass of lichen almost on instinct. Again, she chirped to herself, quiet yet perfectly audible to them: “No, couldn’t have been away so long that I’d miss a fucking war, this has to be some… coincidence. It’s alone, right? It’s gotta be alone.”

After a moment, the skink cleared their throat, and offered a meek answer. “I’d… I-I’d like to think so, and I can only see one, much as we almost missed t-this one…” They clung to rock and rifle alike so closely they found themselves with no free hand to use, and barely enough space to maneuver and keep an eye on the vessel… The oversized vessel,
dozens of feet below, just past the stalagmites. “O-on the plus side, I don’t believe anyone there’s seen us yet. That’s a positive, I hope, though the idea of making them look up…” They couldn’t finish. Not when the thought of having to distract that crept into their head.

Yet as the vessel passed underneath, they both realized they’d have to do it, because if this drifting metal hulk caught so much as a whiff of the team down below in their wagon… it was a sturdy thing, sure, a boxy assembly of brass and iron with thick plate all over, and even the triangular cabin jutting out front for the driver was pretty reinforced for something so glassy. But it wasn’t a war machine in the least; just one cannonball would scatter team and wagon alike across the dunes, in smoldering pieces. Down there, they’d have little room to maneuver around an actual fusillade, especially of the caliber this aerial monster packed. Up here, they’d have far more maneuverability, they’d barely be seen, and they had actual cover, even if that meant little against the artillery battery pointed at…

“...wait how many of those are actually pointing
up?”, Chitwy blurted after a moment of thought. “I don’t see any.”
And with a longer look, Qarretzu couldn’t help but confirm this suspicion. “Actually… hardly any, as far as I see. There may be some… observation decks, and… those are bare hardpoints, aren’t they?” They asked absentmindedly, noticing some oddly clean and oddly bereft spots over its armor.
The swallow nodded. “I guess, I think I see sockets but I sure don’t see guns.”
A different thought crossed Qar’s mind in turn. “Now that I think of it, it’s flying fairly high, isn’t it? We’re… closer than I’d like, but that might mean something. No guns above, and nearly scraping the roof…”
And the Cheli answered in turn, showing some actual joy for once. “It means something, alright. They’re not expecting
us.

And with that, she took off without warning, flitting from pillar to pillar, mosspile to mosspile, hiding her approach towards the dirigible below with bow in hand… nothing more to it, the Troxi thought. Time to make a distraction. It’d be nice to have her as a spotter, but they were understaffed as it was. Nothing left to do but to crawl into the lichens, wrap their tail around an uneven rock, and get into position with their rifle aimed downwards, pointed at the airship, looking for anything that looked like a soft spot, even just a window to smash or a sentry to drop. Ideally something opposite of where Chitwy was going, to keep their attentions away from her, and perhaps make them think they were being attacked from two different angles. If they wanted to be a hassle, and make themselves harder to find, that’d be ideal…

Yet circumstance wouldn’t let them have it, as the first watcher to take up their spot on the decks was right on the Cheli’s side, becoming priority target number one. If the blurry shape down there so much as looked up, they’d blow their surprise. So they took aim, readying up a snap shot towards the deck, something that would distract this one even if they missed – if the alarm was to ring, better that it ring before they knew where to point
their guns. With the target in sight, obscured by clothing as all Bannerbound were – a raincoat of sorts, might be Clan Sofize – they felt the wind running through the vines and their scales, took a second to measure the ship’s speed, accounted for it all as they aimed… then tilted said aim just a tinge, to make sure the shot would land behind the target if they missed. More distracting that way.

BLAM

Sparks flew, but a few inches away from the sentry’s heels. Damn it. At the very least it would indeed be a distraction, as the target wheeled around in a panic, almost stumbling away from the impact area and staring at the bullet hole, realizing just how close they’d come to death. Immediately they began glancing around, immediately looking upwards-

And missing the shadow that flitted a few dozen feet behind them, as well as the thin blur that raced away from it and into their upper back. But Qarretzu sure saw it, watching the unfortunate sentry seize and collapse with an arrow right through them. Nice to see she could pounce on a chance like that
without being told of it.

Nevertheless, they were committed to this little operation now, the shooting had started and they couldn’t stop yet. On to the next bullet, and to set an eye to the scope to see who came out next. Or what was next, with a rifle like
this possibilities were fairly wide. First, a wider look around the hull, to see if any of the hardpoints had anything left open, or if the other observation decks had anyone on them. Scanning the outside, all over the plating, they saw nothing to pounce upon, not immediately at least. The hardpoints were plated over, and no one was yet leaving the observation decks…

Even as the vessel started tilting, turning towards its left, there was no immediate weak point exposed. At most, the observation decks were a little more visible and open, with one’
s door just exposed enough to put a bullet through, even if Qarretzu had little idea of what laid behind it…

Nine bullets left. Might as well.

BLAM

Good, right through the window! Hardly any idea what they’d just hit on the other side of it, but it would’ve felt that shot for sure. On to the next bullet, again… though the Troxi felt a pang of curiosity, and looked around, just a bit away from the warship beneath, to see if they could spot Chitwy anywhere. Their eyes glanced around, all over the vessel’s surroundings, trying to spot even the slightest hint of red and blue, but that was far harder to find in this fog than the airship itself. Not even so much as a flitting shadow…

There she was! Lit up by a searchlight that had just turned on, pointed right at her as she zoomed towards the vessel itself, loosing an arrow at the spot right above the light – which got stuck halfway through the hardened window behind the projector. Damn it, even knowing she had that light right in her eyeballs that was
far too impulsive – much as hitting it at all with a searchlight blinding her was remarkable, let alone breaching the damn thing somehow. Had some frightful strength on her claws, clearly. Still, she was spotted, the thing was following her, and it also presented a much more valid target than an empty window if it meant drawing attention from the crew. So, with a careful squint, making sure not to get too much light in, Qarretzu aligned their ironsights, accounted for movement and breeze, aimed for the very center, and…

BLAM

The crashing and sparking of the searchlight were barely audible at this distance, but the beam of light cutting through the fog visibly shorted out, before vessel and Troxi alike lost track of where Chitwy had gone. Watching the ship tilt further, just enough for other searchlights to start scraping the tips of the stalactites, they decided that was too much provocation from this one spot, and packed their rifle away to start moving. Better to find another stalactite to hide in, three shots was more than enough for
this one. Into the brush of lichens, slipping their tail inside and lowering their crest as they crawled their way through the ceiling’s underbrush, hoping the trail of dust and spores wouldn’t give them away…

“We sure got their fucking eyes on us now! Get over
that one, they won’t see it at first!”

It sure gave them away to the swallow herself, flapping in the air about a dozen feet away already. “You’re… fast, miss Chitwy”, the Troxi couldn’t help but blurt out.
“FINALLY finding out for yourself, huh!?”, she answered, stopping herself from outright shrieking. “Just keep moving, they’ll show more of those soon!”
“More searchlights, yes… Ideally, we take enough of those out, they won’t be able to find us, or anyone”. Qarretzu mused out loud as they scurried through, reaching the ceiling and dashing from vine to vine to get to a better, smaller stalactite to crawl onto. A better vantage point.
“More ANYTHING, you mean! Maybe it’ll even be anyONE by then, if you can put one of those through a window like I fucking
couldn’t!”. She sounded miffed. A hunter denied her kill…
“If I can see them, of course. I only have so many bullets… but they only have so many lights, and can hardly find us even with them.” They popped their head out of the underbrush to answer, and found themselves at the base of the stalactite they were looking for. Down they went.
“Look, if by busting the lights you make them come out, then sure, keep at
that and I’ll thin them out. But we gotta leave a mark!” She landed right behind them, clinging to the moss at the base while watching them crawl into the underbrush for a shooting spot.
“Ideally not so much that they keep hunting us after this, but enough that they’ll neglect our colleagues below, true…” Another musing from the Troxi, as they found a spot where they could wrap their tail around a rock, and get their rifle out once more…

Both settled down on the lichens for a look, to assess the vessel again, and locate any weak spots now that it had changed its plans and movements. “Not seeing anything yet, barely even turning the lights on on THIS side”, Chitwy muttered as she leaned with eyes peeled, “anything you’re seeing there?” Indeed, there were less targets than expected, though there were a couple searchlights already. No one on the observation decks, and the guns… they didn’t seem able to reach up where they were,
yet, but they could hardly see any ammunition stocks, or anything other than the barrels. Though maybe, just maybe, if those things aimed directly up here, just enough to get a peek into the barrel, they could put a rifle shot down there and-

BOOM

...or maybe the guns could explode all by themselves.

“You’re not gonna fucking tell me that was YOU!?”, Chitwy shrieked, unable to contain her furious surprise.
“I-I won’t, miss Chitwy, I d-didn’t pull the trigger…!”, Qarretzu answered, about as startled if not more.

They looked again at the vessel, and the gaping hole it had right beneath one of its cannons. Pointed inward, ablaze, and clearly made by something with actual
caliber, an actual artillery piece. The iron at the edges was still glowing hot, more melted than gashed. And more importantly, by the angle, it very clearly came from somewhere else in the fog. Somewhere to the East.

They both glanced in that direction, spotting a faint, pointed shadow moving alarmingly fast.


And they both followed a single streak of light, its tip almost blinding, as it rushed through the spore clouds to crash against the vessel they were supposed to distract, leaving a trail of flames. It crashed against the gasbag’s armor, almost weightlessly in spite of a resounding BOOM, leaving a massive wash of fire that poured over its surface; the core of the streak plunged right past the metal plates, leaving a perfectly round hole.

T-that’s not a bullet, n-not a cannon shot…!The Troxi gulped, with a glimmer of recognition in their mind.
“No shit,” Chitwy shrieked out, “that wasn’t ANYTHING I’ve seen, that was just FIRE! Does Embers have some older sister nobody told me about!?”

‘Embers’, or rather Usherrimi, their Ifchi pyromancer,
who was down below in the wagon they were supposed to distract from. She had a point, that did look like mostly fire, and mostly…
Something clicked. Quiet nights at a Legion outpost, sifting through the pages on what they could expect to find and fire if they ever len
t a hand to other nations – or faced them.

“...c-closer than you think, miss Chitwy, I think that’s.. a f-flame cannon. F-from Ishiss. No c-cannonballs, just… a marble with a seal and as much fire as it can carry around it. Marble c-cracks and the flames go everywhere.”
Their voice trembled, as they watched the airship start dropping, meter by meter.
The swallow turned quickly, a full-body jolt to face the skink. “Wait was THAT what that was- I’ve HEARD of those! One of those things had set a swamp on fire on one hunt I did just East of here!
They gulped, giving the idea some thought. T-they do that, miss Chitwy, must’ve m-missed… t-they’re not subtle weapons. T-they save it for other nations, n-never defense, b-but…
Ain’t a hunting weapon either, if you’re gonna burn down all the spoils! Someone’s trying send one loud fucking message!The swallow snorted, laying eyes on the vessel’s blazing wounds.
“O-or they’re raiding well above t-their weight, or they’re outright m-mad…” The skink’s eyes went elsewhere, trying to find the one responsible…

And there it was, bursting from a distant cloud of spores and ash, as Qarretzu nudged Chitwy to made sure she’d see it.

A pointed vessel with a strangely pearlescent hull, as if metal or timber had been plated over with a shell of its own, strung to long and narrow gasbags that seemed to have light of their own. It was barely a sloop, yet had spinning, buzzing engines fit for a ship twice as big, and an outright frightening array of energetic armaments they could not recognize at a glance… save for the unmistakable arrangement of a flame cannon, with its thick and short muzzle, abundant tubing and an ammo rack that resembled an enormous, hissing boiler, all mounted right at the prow. Right beneath that was the figurehead, a lustrous sculpture of a naked Ifchi, clinging tightly to the vessel itself while holding a golden orb right in front of them, pointed wherever the ship went.

And right behind that, in perfectly clear and styled Common Tongue, was the vessel’s name:
Midnight Alight.

The sight answered some questions, and spawned many others. That wasn’t a navy vessel, and that was not an Ifchi name; whoever crewed that thing wanted to be
known. And known they’d be, the way they bore down on this armored cruiser that seemed so menacing, so… excessive, a minute ago. Yet, watching the sloop do a breakneck turn to expose its broadside, and pelting the Clan ship with a fusillade of volatile energies that neither of them could identify, Qarretzu suddenly realized why a vessel of that size had been here.

“I d-don’t think this ship was the first one t-they dropped…!”, the skink sputtered, trying to sink further into foliage that could offer no protection.
“Yeah, they brought the big guns for a reason
and it still ain’t enough!”. Chitwy sounded more startled than terrified, perhaps enjoying the luminous spectacle far more than Qarretzu could.
“W-what… what do we do now!? If that thing f-finds us, we can’t run! B-but neither c-can they…! What do we do, miss Chitwy, what do we
do!?” They were battling their own growing panic, and they weren’t doing well at all. Deferring to their senior was the only option that seemed… safe, right now. She wasn’t panicking, right? Right…?
Not at all, from the sound of her voice. “Either we watch, or we take a side. If these guys want glory, we ain’t bringing it. If these guys want loot, they’ll get more than he can carry
there. And if they want to piss off the Clans, then… fuck, let ‘em! I might even join in!”

The Troxi stared at her, concerned and confused at the same time. Back in the Republics, and even in the Legion, they hardly covered the myriad sorts of bad blood there could be between nations, so her comment left them wondering ‘
what did the Clans even do?’ And yet, furrowing their brow, they realized it didn’t matter right now. If this sloop was raining hell on a Bannerbound ship, and had done so before, bad blood was a given – and maybe, just maybe, they could bank on being the enemy of their enemies, even just this once.

“…
I can’t say I ever had trouble with the Clans, but…Qarretzu said, peeking out of the greenery to aim their rifle once more, “…it’s been the first time for many things, hasn’t it?”
“Ain’t the first time
I fucked with the Bannerbound, I’ll tell ya THAT!”, Chitwy almost squealed in return, before soaring off to get closer to their common target – not nearly as close as last time, but close enough to draw beads on anything that moved.

It was time to reassess the situation, and
properly. The Canyonking was losing altitude, not quite precipitously, but still fairly quickly. It was trying to maneuver itself away from the stalactites, and back towards the presumable West, in a retreat that wasn’t looking likely. The Midnight Alight was circling the thing like it was already carrion ready for the taking, keeping above the bigger ship’s firing line at all times even if it meant having its gasbags mere meters away from the spiked ceiling of the cave. They must’ve known this thing would be hunting low rather than high, somehow… Or they just got lucky, not that they needed much luck with an ambush like theirs.

Still, the flame cannon had seemingly done its job, with the rest left to lesser, though abundant ordnance… some of it fiery, some of it seemingly explosive, but for plenty of these they couldn’t see the full effect of each impact. The only common threads were that they all seemed to be energetic, rather than any kind of shell, and that they were
all luminous, leaving streaks of light as they traveled and flashing brightly as they made contact with anything. Some of them even seemed to be going past the hull itself, and lighting the vessel up from the inside, somehow.

Complete with several members of the crew vacating onto the observation decks, followed by puffs of smoke in some cases. Lucky them!

Narrowing their eyes, Qarretzu started aiming properly, looking to maximize chaos and minimize bullets spent. Which of these looked the most calculating, or at least fanciest of the lot, which of these looked like they gave the orders down there? That could be hard to ascertain with Bannerbound, it was seven different uniform schemes to keep track of. They still
seemed to be Sofize, with ample hats and glistening coats that reached boot-covered ankles, but on one deck – opposite to the Midnight Alight’s assault – there were a couple different ones. One, probably from Zau, was wearing a patch-work nightmare of an outfit, with scraps from what might be five different uniforms seemingly sewn together into one cowled robe. And that one in the tight, silky white bandages that boasted their (probably her?) twisty figure while showing none of it directly was probably from Vesh-

And was the one Chitwy immediately shot with one of her arrows, nailing her(?) midsection and taking her out of the fight. Not from
life, at least not yet, but kneeling like that with an arrow buried that deep, this Vesh-bound wouldn’t be shooting at anyone. As the others swarmed the injured, it was clear that’d be enough for one deck, time to check the next one.

A good decision, too, seeing this little crew gathering had a couple rifles of their own. More Bannerbound, that was certain, and again most of them were likely Sofize, dressed for rains that’d never come. But judging ranks was difficult, when a couple of them seemed straight out of Clan Vesnor; those fine silks, those flowing dresses that almost dragged across the deck, those buttons that gleamed like medals, and those glimmering veils they wore over their heads, hiding even their eyes? Hard to tell rank by refinement between those two, all that was left to do was compare with the others in their raincoats. See when they opened, as two acted as spotters for another who laid their rifle on the guardrail, presumably to aim at Chitwy. Then another stepped right in front, pointing with one finger, letting their open coat show the undergarment within and a pinned, golden badge-

BLAM

A snap shot. Better to just take it and make a mess than let them shoot unimpeded, even if the one with the badge – probably and hopefully a high-ranker – was in the way. And thankfully, it paid off, thanks to their powerful rifle and the lack of any actual
armor within all those layers of cloth. The Sofize-bound with the badge held their torso and fell on their side, pretty much on the spot, though Qarretzu saw no actual blood. The sniper behind, however was both more and less fortunate; that shot to the hip didn’t look too deadly, but there was a fair chance they’d never walk again. And no one’d be shooting at Chitwy just yet, hopefully. A bullet well spent! The next one would need haste, though, as already one of the fancy Vesnor sorts had turned towards the ceiling, and the way they fixated, the skink could tell even without seeing that one’s eyes they’d probably spotted-

A blinding flash, and Qarretzu looked away, blinking rapidly and trying to readjust. Looking back, they saw the side they’d been shooting at was being pelted with streaking lights and immaterial projectiles, as if the
Midnight Alight had already rounded the vessel. And turning towards the spore clouds, they could confirm exactly that: The sloop had made it all the way around in moments, and was evening out the barrage. It was hard to look at it, but at least one observation deck took a direct hit that scattered the occupants… ‘Should I be glad I can’t see what happened to them’, they wondered, before casting that thought aside…

Out of curiosity, they looked back at the sloop – rifle still pointed at the Canyonking, just in case – and leaned in, trying to discern just what kind of overly bold captain was steering it through this lopsided battle. They could see a steering wheel at the very front, right behind the guardrails; the one turning
said wheel was obviously an Ifchi, with skin the tone of tarnished copper and long, lime-colored gills that seemed to flow behind him as if stuck in the breeze of his piloting. The captain’s eyes were hidden beneath thick blue traveling goggles, and around their sinuous body was a long, black tunic, with a high collar and trailing coattails right over the tail. His (they assumed) motions were… smooth, yet exaggerated, as if even the slightest twist of the wheel deserved a show of its own to all that were watching. And even at this distance, the skink could see a smirk, thrilled and just a little smug. All of this as if there was a spotlight to be shared, and he was trying and succeeding in snatching it from all others in his crew…

They saw him call out, and swing that wheel until it spun like mad, swerving the whole vessel around in a maneuver that would’ve flung someone off the deck if he hadn’t warned them first… just so he could turn the Midnight Alight on a dime, show the other broadside, and order a salvo on the exact same spot. Was that faster than reloading?

Qarretzu screwed their eyes shut as the guns flashed, one after the other, nearly scoring their eyes as a casualty. It
was faster, presumable bruises aside.

Once the skink’s eyes stopped seeing colors in their own eyelids, and they could trust their own eyesight again, they glanced back at the vessel as it… stopped dead in its tracks, its only movement being downwards. Its gasbags burned, the hull crackled with the leftover energies that had rent several more holes in it, and the engines did all they could, even catching ablaze, just to slow the thing’s deceptively slow fall to the cavern floor beneath. What little they could see of the crew was… scrambling all over, some grabbing onto the guardrails on the observation decks and staring down, others rushing out and pulling said gazers back into the vessel, and lights flickering all around where the windows allowed a peek. There was even one unwise Bannerbound peering out one of the holes in the hull! What could a simple bullet do to a mess like that? All that was left was to find Chitwy and-

“Yeah I think we’re done here, Squib!”

They gripped their rifle tight, turning violently towards her with wide eyes. And yet in spite of being annoyed at the startle, relieved to see them arrived, and just a little terrified at the destruction before them, all they could
say was one sputtered word: “Squib…?”
Yet the only acknowledgment she had of this new nickname was a dismissive wave of the wing as she went on: “If there’s gonna be any attention here, it’s gonna be on that guy, and he’s gonna be busy looting ‘em!”, she said, pointing at the dropping hulk.
“If anything is left by the time it hits the dunes…” they answered, staring with unease at the devastation. “B-but… you’re right, it’ll draw far more attention than any wagon down below. If there is even anyone left to pay attention…”


It was settled, then. Once the Canyonking had struck the earth, and the sloop landed to ransack what was left, they’d scramble away, down the nearest wall and towards their rendezvous. And indeed, the greater airship gave out at last, its engines puttering out in a blast of flame but a few dozen feet above the dunes. Even muffled by the soft bed of spores that passed for ground in this place, the thing still made an echoing, thunderous crash as it landed on them, the weakened metal crumbling around the holes its opponent had made. A great blast of flame was shoved out of the gasbag as its armor’s inertia crushed it to nothing, flattening the whole into the damaged hull below until it was practically blanketed by it, smothering its fires into the bed of sodden spores… Lucky them, if anyone had survived that. Knowing these caverns, and knowing the Bannerbound, someone likely had. But there was no time to check; just enough time to watch the Midnight Alight touch down next to it…

...which, after a few seconds that kept stretching, it
didn’t. In confusion, they both looked around, then forwards.

There it was, still aloft, nearing the ceiling. Closer to the two than it had been a few moments ago. And it was pointed
right at the two, and coming closer still, as its captain looked in their direction – with a Troxi at his side that was looking right at them.

Qarretzu froze, instinctively trying to bury their long and colorful self into the lichens, only to find those eyes were still on them. They glanced at Chitwy, who was already flying away, yet before they could even think of the idea she was leaving them to be caught, she was already flying back – and before they could be relieved in turn, she dive-bombed the skink off the stalactite, snatched them out of the air (while they barely held on to their rifle) and tried to carry them off, downwards and away from this thing that had so easily thrashed the vessel they meant to distract but a few minutes ago. Yet all she did was put them both in the spotlight as the vessel approached them anyhow, almost languidly in comparison to the breakneck pace they’d seen. They couldn’t outrun it, they’d have to out-maneuver it somehow…

“…M-miss Chitwy, above it! T-try above it!”, the skink sputtered, pulling on her tailfeathers to make sure she heard it. And she did; the swallow made a sharp, vertical U-turn heading upwards… and back towards the vessel itself, as if aiming to hide right above its gasbag where neither crew nor vessel could fire on the two. But where would they escape
after that, they couldn’t wait out this ship forever, would she fly past it, force it to make a U-turn itself? All they could do was hold on tight, curl their tail around themselves, and keep a grip on their rifle, even if taking a shot like this wasn’t an option. Still, it paid to keep an eye on the targets…

But as soon as they looked at the deck, they saw a and a glimmer. Something sweeping,
swirling through the spores. They yanked on Chitwy’s tailfeathers, hard enough to pull one off, to make sure she stopped in place and saw it as well. And so she did, stopping cold and flapping backwards, even if it meant Qarretzu had to hold tight as inertia made them swing forwards-

Leaving their tail to be caught in a spore-laden gale, strong enough to tug on it but not enough to actually pull them in. It went wide, right ahead of the two, barely dispersing until it struck the ceiling and scoured it of old lichens, leaving only that which was lively enough to take root.

And looking down, the captain was there at the prow with one boot on the railing, looking at them with a sly, confident smile. He had one finger pointed at them, his palm facing up as if he were about to beckon them closer. Then, once he saw he had their attention, his smile widened enough to show a surprising array of pointed little teeth, and he finally spoke: “Please, this is time to calm down! We had the same enemy!
Don’t know what has a Troxi and a Cheli working together, but you helped, no? Come down, to meet properly!”

He had a voice like a tenor marred by the slightest rasp, an unwavering enthusiasm in every word, and a
bizarre accent that Qarretzu could hardly recognize; the only other Ifchi they knew well was Usherrimi, and she didn’t sound quite like this. A glance at Chitwy’s face confirmed the confusion was mutual, much as hers seemed almost offended. But as the rest of his crew came on deck – mostly Ifchi, with the Troxi that found them and one… wax-riddled Bee, the most perplexing of the lot – it was clear they may as well take the invitation, whatever it was. Outlaws with a common interest, that’d have to do. They were about to tug on her tailfeathers one last time, gently now-

“Alright, FINE. If only because watching you fuck
that thing up was the most fun I’ve had in weeks”, Chitwy cawed. And down she went, though Qarretzu was the only one to notice she dug her nails into their scales until they hurt. With some embarrassment, they handed back the plucked tailfeather as soon as they hit the deck, which she snatched off their claws quickly and brusquely. “All you need to know is we didn’t want that thing and its crew snooping. We were gonna just distract them, but”, she paused to look over the railing at the fires below, “this works just fine too.”

“Only distracting?” he asked with a little chuckle. “
Distracting them for me, or were you going to shoot them like flies until you ran out of them? Though you were doing it! They were lining up for you, hah! Hahah!The chuckle evolved into a sharper laugh, genuinely amused. “A distraction it was, they never saw us coming, and I think you got one of the spare captains too!”

“...spare captains..?”, Chitwy muttered, the bafflement taking the wind out of her wings.
“M-must’ve meant copilot of s-some kind, miss Chitwy”, Qarretzu whispered into her ear (or where they thought she had one), trying to hide it from
this captain in a moment of distraction.

Then, this strange Ifchi shook his head as his smile warmed up, rounded the two, and laid his slimy arms around their shoulders, bird and skink alike wincing – not that he noticed. “You made this easier for us”, he said, “we lost nothing, and neither did you!
I say this calls for at least a favor, no?” Letting go, and crossing between them before turning around on one heel to face them, he raised one arm high in the air, and lowered it to bow before them, his tail carrying the motion with a flourish that sent slime droplets far behind him. “So! A favor from me, Captain Shurrum Nish Isharral of Midnight Alight: Tell me where you need to go, and you will be there.”

Swallow and skink glanced at each other in silence, trying their best to communicate without a word. All they really needed, and all they really
wanted, was to be away from here and back with their boss now that they had (more or less) done their job. This… exuberant captain clearly had business of his own. The business of… fame, probably, of someone that would shoot one of the biggest vessels the Clans could construct out of the air just to let everyone know it was him who did it. The kind of business with collateral damage none of them could afford.

But it seemed Chitwy had reasons beyond that, by the growing look of genuine
disgust on her face. She was opening her beak, lingering on her next words, and… no, they couldn’t afford to taunt the captain either. With one hand on her (still slimed) shoulder, Qarretzu stepped forwards with the best smile they could manage, and spoke first. “Very kind of you, c-captain, b-but we were j-just going to leave, this is…”, they said, pausing to think of a way to say ‘you’re too blatantly showy to help’ diplomatically, before having a different idea: “…c-could you take us to our wagon? We’re h-heading on f-from here, a-and we have to be quiet about it…”

Then, Chitwy herself stepped forwards, nudging them back to presumably take it from there. “Yeah we’re running something quieter here. If you’re one of those ‘leave one to tell the tale’ guys, tell ‘em it was your guys.” Oh, that sounded clever, letting him claim a little extra fame if he wanted to, no harm done if he didn’t – hard to tell which he’d go for. “So all we’d ask is for a quick lift to the others, and we’ll be on our way.” A moment of silence, as she… squirmed, mentally, as far as they could tell, but a quick nudge from their tail and she got out what she needed to say: “
Thanks though.” Practically spat the word out, but, it would do.

The captain nodded, keeping his smile. Ah. From the shadows, then! I understand it! Very good, I won’t make you wait!Striding over to the steering wheel, with his hands behind his back his tail slithering over the deck, he continued: “You tell me where this is, and I will get you there, ladies!”

I’m not a lady, captain”, Qarretzu cut in almost instinctively.

Then, slight panic bubbled in their mind, suddenly concerned about their reaction. It was unlikely, but neither of them could afford a bad one. But they weren’t expecting Shurrum’s
actual reaction: He froze mid-step with one hand clamping tightly around his other wrist, his eyes went wide, his smile twitched, and they got the sense he would be blinking hard if he could. Like they’d just hit the brakes in his brain, almost by accident… But after half a second of this, he was back to normal, like this pause never happened, and he just resumed his walk to the steering wheel with his voice just as lively as before: “Then you tell me where this is, and I’ll get you there, friends!”

Crisis averted, much as they didn’t know what to make of
that.

Still, off they went, as captain Shurrum took the wheel in one hand, and the (presumable) speed lever in the other, and gave them both a pull, letting the vessel respond in kind as the engines kicked in, and sent the vessel sailing into the spore clouds beneath. It took Qarretzu a moment to realize they hadn’t told him where they were going yet, but before they’d taken two steps forwards Chitwy’d already rushed in, practically ramming onto the railing, to point a talon into the darkness. “More or less over there, I’ll let you know when I see ‘em!” She huffed, and glanced back at the skink with a look both alarmed and annoyed; all they could do was shrug.

“Yes, of course”, he answered while flashing a bigger smile still, one that almost let them see his sharp little teeth. “Same cavern, no? We’ll be there in just minutes! Must be important if this had you shooting at the Canyonking with a gun and a bow, no?”

Another glance between the two outlaws. This time, Qarretzu moved first, and rushed to reply. “W-we couldn’t afford the risk, captain, one shot from it and that would be it f-for our… enterprise as a whole.”
“Yeah why WAS that thing there anyways!?” Chitwy outright demanded to know, turning back to the captain. “Was it hunting you? ‘cause it sure wasn’t hunting US, even the Clans don’t do that much overkill!”
Yet in spite of the accusation, the captain just laughed. “Of course it was! They have been looking for me for months! And I always find them first!”
Qarretzu couldn’t help but mutter as they reasoned out loud, “they must think the bigger they send, the better the chance at getting… g-getting one shot on this. T-they might think it’ll be enough if it’s a b-big enough shell?”

And suddenly, they found the captain sidling up to them in an instant, with just one hand on the wheel, grin practically pointed at them. “It doesn’t matter how big if they don’t get to fire it, my friend!”

They would’ve said ‘fair enough’, but with that kind of invasion of personal space they just saved their words until a tug from the wheel snapped his attention back to piloting; learning their lesson, they backed away towards the railing, and turned around to search for their destination in the billowing sporeclouds, as they all made their way through. Four knowing eyes was better than two on this. And, more importantly, it kept them both out of this captain’s overly friendly reach…

…six eyes, now, as the skink that acted as the captain’s spotter stepped forwards and looked over the railing. Dull palette on him now that they got a closer look, mostly an earthy red with a light brownish underbelly. His crest was a
brilliant purple, though, as if his very feathers were made of amethyst… to match his eyes, in fact. Not unheard of, but kind of unusual. He leaned in far over the railing, reaching out with his tailtip to latch onto the guardrail and practically throwing himself over it, landing just far enough to see directly below the vessel if he needed to… all without a single word.

Chitwy just stared, her face stuck in an odd expression that was between concern and annoyance. “You… seeing something down there?
I could always just fly and check.
This other Troxi’s response was to wave his finger in the air, a denial of her words, before leaning further into the cloud as if the extra inches would help him find something. “Don’t mind that”, the captain said from behind them all, “my first mate never speaks.”
Said first mate’s only reaction was to glance back at the bird, motioning with one thumb at a spot somewhere in the spores, then turning to Qarretzu to do the same, one brow raised with what might be annoyance.

After a quick look at each other, both outlaws focused on the spot this Troxi was pointing at, seeing nothing but the fungal fog before them… at first. After a few moments, a few more meters, and a finger pointed far more aggressively, the tell-tale glint of a wagon’s lights…
their wagon’s lights, cutting through the spores as the vehicle made its way across the dunes.

“T-that’s the place, yes” was all Qarretzu could say, wondering how the first mate’s eyesight could pierce the clouds before their own, or before Chitwy’s. They’d always thought of themselves as a good spotter, but this one-
“How in the fuck did you even
see it!?”, she blurted out right then and there, voicing their thoughts in far more crass a manner than they would have.
The captain’s voice answered in his stead. “He has very good eyes, lady, keeps surprising me! Could see the end of the cavern without the clouds!” For good measure, he left the wheel behind momentarily just to lay his arm across the first mate’s shoulders, pulling him in. “Shame we can’t shoot that far, no?”, he added with a grin – completely ignoring the skink’s resigned (if amused) look.

But then, Shurrum slid right back to the wheel, steering their gradual descent. “Now, I think they’ll like to see you two first, so they don’t think we’re shooting them, no? No need to waste bullets!” Yet again he laughed, as if his boundless energy had no other outlet. “
Get on the prow, so you’ll be the first things they see! Then you let them know it was me. Might not see you again, but good for you all to know it was Captain Shurrum that made your job easy today, and easier tomorrow, whenever you come again!

The two spared each other furtive, baffled glances, before turning around to peer over the railing, with Qarretzu holding their rifle in front to make their silhouette easier to spot. The wagon was closer still, they could see the lights moving already… and slowing down. Even at its size, a ship as unsubtle as the Midnight Alight was hard to miss… Chitwy leapt on the railing, clinging with her claws, and waved with one wing holding her bow, just to make sure they knew they weren’t about to get shot. And narrowing their eyes, Qarretzu already saw the cowled, spindly figure of their boss coming out of the vessel, claws in the air, before lowering them…

Yet before either of them could call out, and put this odd workday to an end, the captain made a question, a very casual question, that sent it right into a tailspin: “But before I forget it, one question! There’s been this fire, ah… fire-channeler, yes! Also Ifchi, black body with white tail, and
very red branches! She’s made a name, already, even back in the city! You know her?”

Qarretzu was very, very glad Shurrum couldn’t see their jaw drop. They looked at Chitwy out the corner of their eye, and found her with her beak clasped, almost grinding, and her wings’ spurs flared in alarm. Their eyes met… This was a terrible moment to find out Usherrimi was somehow famous in his circles.

The Cheli bolted into the air and practically divebombed the wagon, landing loudly enough on it the Troxi could hear her nails scratching iron. That left distraction duty (again) to them… so they slowly turned around, resetting their jaw, and tilted their head in the most confused-seeming manner they could. “F-fire-channeler, c-captain?”, they asked, not even trying to hold in their stutter, “You mean… p-pyromancer? Isn’t that… i-it sounds rare, I didn’t think it happened…!”
What else to say, something that would take his attention, feign even more ignorance, perhaps? Ignorance that’d draw him to answer, even! “I-it even seems so… contrary! S-so often they twist water, b-but fire, t-that’s the absolute opposite…!” It even seemed to be working, ever so slightly marring the captain’s smile before it twisted back together, getting him to lean from behind the wheel…

Only for them to notice he wasn’t looking at them.

They followed his gaze, and
realized, far too late, that with Chitwy heading down there and Qarretzu handling the captain, there was no one left to distract the first mate, who could spot red gills and a white tail in hiding even through the spores, and through the window of a lightless wagon. Could, and more importantly, had, leaning right over the railing to point directly at her while his tailtip waggled in the air.

Captain Shurrum’s eyes went wide, and he returned to the wheel to give its lever a harsh yank that nearly toppled everyone on board, including Qarretzu, as the vessel practically threw itself downwards only to brake at the last moment to land smoothly – more or less – on the spore-strewn grown beneath. Right after that, he rushed out, outright leaping overboard to get to the ground faster, and the Troxi could swear they heard a whooshing sound as he presumably landed… a whooshing sound that very much wasn’t there as they ran for the guardrail and immediately pivoted over it to crawl down the hull to follow him. They couldn’t stop him by now, but might as well be with their boss for
this.

Off they went, yet already this captain was far ahead, right at the wagon, having crossed the distance far faster than their thin, slimy legs should’ve allowed in a place like this one. They could barely focus on his figure as they rushed across the spores, but they were very sure they saw it bowing before the wagon and its gathered group, much as he had earlier for the two. But with their heart pounding in their ears from the rush and the shock, they couldn’t pick up on his actual words until they’d finally arrived behind him, getting to see Chitwy digging her claws into the spores with one hand on her bow, Ziv-Ziri with her clawed hands clasped together and wings flicking within her cloak as she bore her usual smile, and Usherrimi, the very target of this all… emerging from the carriage, looking merely annoyed, as if she’d been woken from a nap.

First time I have someone chasing me all the way from Ishiss, this better be good”, she said, the irritation clear in her voice as she combed through her gills with her own fingertips. Then, tilting her glasses, she noticed the skink’s approach, and immediately turned to them. “Alright, that’s everyone. Qarretzu, if you could please tell me who this one is? All Chitwy had were insults.”

Something about the way she asked them made the captain have another full-body freeze, like the one they’d already seen when he called them a lady. Right when he was almost done bowing, too, stopping him in place; they’d swear his eye would’ve twitched if they could see it right. Or if it had lids to begin with.

“W-well…
we were d-distracting the Canyonking”, they began, pausing to see if she registered what that meant. When her gaze did not change, they clarified: “M-massive airship, m-much bigger than that one, would’ve… b-blown you up. B-but we were d-distracting, a-and he showed up in t-that, a-and shot it down… said he’s been d-doing that for some time. T-then he offered a ride, a q-quick trip, and we just… wanted to get out fast, s-so we came right here. B-but… t-then he asked for you. T-that’s all I have, miss…!”

But it was Ziv-Ziri that answered, practically springing out of the driver’s seat and onto the spores to run towards Qarretzu and practically lift them off the ground. “Canyonking? Aren’t those actual cruisers up there!? With cannons you could stuff Vel in!? And you were shooting at THAT!? We don’t have anything for that, for nothing even close to that, were you just gonna plink at the windows until we left!?”

Qarretzu tried, and failed, to say something, as their stutter consumed the first few words – Chitwy filled in instead: “Boss, it was either that or letting that thing find you, decide ‘eh whatever we can spare one shell’ and blowing you UP! And besides, we got a few of ‘em! I know I got one right before everything back there started! And I know you had to hear Squib’s gunshots, got actual aim with that thing! Better than any moron I saw using one of those things.” Said ‘thing’ being the Troxi’s rifle, which she pointed at just a little dismissively.

And then”, the captain cut in, in what would’ve been a polite tone if it hadn’t been both loud and sudden, “before anything could start going wrong, I arrived!” His smile was almost a little too wide at first, practically stretched, before he settled it once heads had turned. “Jumping on the distraction the two made, the Midnight Alight made her entrance, flying across the cavern like a shooting star!Ignoring the several tilted heads at this simile, he continued, spreading his hands towards the ceiling. “With sharp eyes on the deck and good hands on the wheel, we were there, and the Canyonking had shown its big, soft side to us all. It was then or never, we could see it, because it brought every gun, every last gun!”

“T-they were all mounted b-below, n-none of them could point up,” Qarretzu interjected.
I felt like an important detail.

The captain’s expression didn’t change, but he inhaled sharply before continuing. “Oh, but that’s what you think, my friend, there are ways to tilt a ship, even a ship that big, to get them pointing up. I’ve done it before with her, and I know I will do it again, even if she grew! But that one did not get the chance. Before it could start, before the crew inside could get out and shoot back, the Midnight Alight struck! Blasting precisely where the ammo could be reached, where it would kill the guns, where no amount of armor could stop it! And then another shot, just as precise, into the gas, right where the plates could do nothing! In the shot went, a perfect strike within!”

“H-he has a f-flame cannon on board, h-he used that for both shots…” That
also felt like an important detail.
“A
flame cannon”, Usherrimi repeated, apparently agreeing with them. “Ten inches of steel couldn’t stop that, the real trick would be in getting that thing bought and mounted there to begin with”, she added, pointing at the Midnight Alight’s prow.

Captain Shurrum’s smile strained, just a little. “Oh, but precision matters, lady, it matters very much even there! You have to know what lies behind the armor, and then hit it still!” Taking half a second to relax, he picked up again. “
Anyhow, we struck well and hard! And from that moment, it was a matter of finishing. Gun and arrow softened those that came outside to look and aim, while cannons ablaze poured in to kill the very ship itself! Around it we went, fast as our winds could take us, letting out all we had, lighting it up until it could have no more! Always above its cannons so that it would not take revenge – I could see in their eyes, they would’ve done it! But they did not get to do it. We all made sure of it. After that, only a matter of courtesy to bring the two that helped before you.

“Only because your guy actually SAW us somehow up there, we would’ve gotten here our damn selves just fine.Chitwy seemed to consider that an important detail, or at least frustrating enough to squawk it out.

This time, there was no real stumble or stutter. The captain just stared at her, for several seconds, with a strained, frustrated and utterly unhappy smile. The sort of smile Qarretzu’d only seen
once, on a newly-minted sergeant who just realized, three explanations in with zero progress, the kind of squad he got. Then he just stared at the ground for a little longer, giving them the impression he’d be screwing his eyes tightly shut if he could…

“Moving on, then”, Usherrimi interjected almost mercifully, “what’s this all have to do with
me?

She had to regret it, from the bewildered look on her face as the captain was immediately inches away from it, with his usual dashing smile back on. “Everything to do with you, because if they are with you, then it all makes sense, their skill suddenly makes sense!” As he spoke, he went back to pacing, with his usual wide gestures, before the other Ifchi could light up in annoyance – though Qarretzu still expected that soon. “But you are the one making a big name in Ishiss! Whispers about the one burning soldiers in every country, leaving just ashes. About the big family heir that got pushed too far on what she thought, set an entire University ablaze, and walked away!”

Throughout it all, Usherrimi’s face was an active battleground, somewhere between thrilled, horrified and simply baffled. Lost for words at accusations spoken like actual praise, from this airship pirate (corsair maybe?) that’d just fallen out of thin air as far as she knew… If she had any words for this, they weren’t coming out.

But the one that
did have words that’d flow was Ziv-Ziri, who immediately popped up behind her shoulder as she emerged from the wagon, and cut in. “Uh, sorry to undermine this whole thing, and sorry to undermine ya Sherry, but these whispers sound pretty exaggerated.” She spoke casually, a marked contrast with the captain’s bombastic words, turning repeatedly between him and Sherry. “I know she’s not ‘burned a soldier in every nation’ ‘cause I was there, and we didn’t have to. Though were ya hiding the ‘whole university’ thing from me? Not gonna be mad if ya did, I still get it either way, but it doesn’t sound like ya did?”

“Because it
is exaggerated, Ziv.” Sherry’s voice was even, low, and utterly unimpressed. “That kind of rumor’s just undercutting me, making it sound like I’ve lost my damned mind, slinging flames before I even open my mouth. As to the university thing,” she paused, turned towards the captain to directly point at him and added “which is none of your business,” then went back to the Vezarym to finish her thoughts with “no, it was barely even one room. I knew exactly who had to burn, and acted accordingly.”

After a frozen millisecond on Shurrum’s part, he sprang back to life with his smile renewed. “But you did burn! You survived that and more, and if you wanted to leave just ashes, you could have! Less furious and less happy to burn, but just as impressive as I hear, I bet! Ah, rumors always give a crooked picture, and I must say…” He let that linger, and slipped
just a little into the pyromancer’s personal space, drawing an indignant look he ignored. “The real picture is far, far better~!”

The wink that followed lit a flame in each and every one of Sherry’s gills, and had her fingers stretched outwards. Qarretzu knew what that meant…

But so did Ziv-Ziri, who quickly wrapped herself around the fiery Ifchi with a slightly smug smile…
and a small whisper that Qarretzu couldn’t hear; all they could see were her lips moving, right behind the olm’s gills where the captain couldn’t see them. Then, as Usherrimi’s eyes twitched, and she herself blushed, the bat offered a far bigger grin before speaking in a lilting, smug tone. “I know, right? Way better than any rumors, than any hearsay! Though I gotta wonder about mine though, what they mention. The daring escapes, the little heists, maybe the fact I’m with her, so that she’s not open for business in any sense of the word?” She almost hissed those three words out, then went back to her smile, punctuating it all by turning Sherry’s snout and kissing her right on the front, briefly but with just a bit of tongue for him to see. “Then again in this business, not having a name’s pretty helpful, maybe the less everyone knows the better, hee~!”, she finished, turning that smile into an outright grin, smug and with a little menace.

That outright paralyzed the captain, leaving that dumb smile frozen on his face with wide eyes as he just stared at the bat. Almost cathartic to watch… for a moment, before something in his mind finally leapt a hurdle, and his eyes lingered further on said bat, up and down, then at the pair as a whole… and that smile regained its life, with some slyness to boot. And then came his reply, looking straight back at Usherrimi once more, with not a single inkling of a comeback in his tone: “Hah, hahah, very good taste, too, fantastic!”


Then he just spun on his boot’s heel, striding with hands behind his back like he hadn’t just left a trail of dropped jaws and eyes both shocked and vexed right behind him; the skink could swear they heard the words ‘I thought that would work’ whispered indistinctly, before the captain’s voice drowned it out. “But there is one problem. I have sources in the city, and they say that family is looking for you. They want you back! And they are moving lots of money for it! You can’t stay out of their eyes forever, they’ll know more than I know. And they’ll have someone chasing you once they do. And there goes everything!

The pyromancer got a dark look on her face. Outrage and fury, with just the slightest hint of fear, all tempered with a growing, menacing calm as she outstretched her fingers once more. “They hardly know me. No matter how much they think they do. They won’t find me, and none of their trackers that do will ever go back to Ishiss.” Qarretzu’d seen what she’d done to their hunter and warden back in the Hills, they knew she meant that.

But they will”, Shurrum just repeated, his smile flattening to something almost dour, before perking up again and adding “but it won’t matter!” Now, he turned to the side, hands still behind his back as he looked at Sherry with one eye with one finger raised in her direction. “It doesn’t matter if they know where you are when they can’t reach you or catch you! And on the Midnight Alight, they can do neither! The only ship fast enough to keep away from them all, until they tire… no matter how long it takes!” He made one sweeping motion towards it – his own tail swishing across the spores at the same time – as his grin grew wider still, now showing actual little fangs. “And she is in need of one like you, I am in need of one like you! One fiery one, ablaze! With gills of ruby and blood of blue! A perfect match, perfect story!”

He left but a moment to let them ponder what he said (Blood of blue…?), before practically
lunging, ending up right in front of Sherry once more and making her flinch as he just smiled in her face. “Here, they will never get you. Here… we shall all make names across the caves, to be feared and admired. We will soar! Down here in the mud and spores, you will not last. They will find you. But up in the air? Glory waits~

And he bowed, yet again motioning towards the vessel… and letting a long,
long silence linger as everyone else was left to process this speech of his. And as said silence stretched on, one had to wonder even he had to catch on that it wasn’t in his favor. The faces that surrounded him were all baffled, some affronted, some simply unsettled. Qarretzu’s was twisted by second-hand embarrassment, they knew that much. But Usherrimi herself looked… neutral. Steely even. Her gills were almost sagging, and the only indication she was even tensed up were her outstretched fingers…

“…I won’t last, you’re saying. They’ll find me, then? Suppose that’s true. Suppose all I can do is delay them, if I were to stay down here…
They will reach me, and they might catch me.She uttered that, yet her voice didn’t sound defeated. Quite the opposite. “But even then it won’t matter. Because if they get their hands on me, anywhere close, even if I was alone, they would be ashes.” Her tone was lighting up as much as her gills, which now bore a tiny flame at each tip, as she glared back at the captain. “Maybe then I’ll be burning someone in every nation, like you heard. Maybe then they’ll get it. If it comes to that, it’ll be on my own terms, with those I chose.

And as if to drive the point home, her tail raised in the air and nudged the bat forwards, where one of her arms could wrap around her waist and pull her in. But
there, the skink could see five more flames that the captain couldn’t, one on each fingertip…

Yet the captain didn’t seem bothered by this rejection at all. His eyes seemed brighter still, from a quick glance as he got up and approached the bat and the olm once more. “Hah! Hahah! That’s what I look for! That’s the spirit we could use! That’s the attitude I
need! How could Midnight Alight even dream to bring light to this dark without you in her? No, she needs one with powerful waves, one with real light in them! A sun cannot swim in the mud, a sun should swim through skies!

Said “sun” interrupted him, raising her voice over his next words. There is no sky here, you tadpole of a captain-

Then the captain practically barged into her personal space, his smile strained to the point of failure, as the strange insult – was that more biting in Ifchi? – seemingly landed true. “IT’S CLOSE ENOUGH”, he outright yelled, before his tone evened out, and his expression relaxed, walking back but never turning his back on her. “It’s like the night, darker than any night, and it needs light of its own, it needs a sunrise! And so it needs a sun, a proper sun and not just steel and magic! So I am giving you an invitation you will never get, and you will never find here: To join us, to join me, and be that sun yourself~!” Yet again he bowed, so low he could huff the spores beneath everyone, and motioned towards his own ship with both hands, seemingly in the most dramatic gesture he could manage.

But this time, he glanced up from under his hat until he could look Usherrimi in the eye. From their angle, however, Qarretzu saw that smile drop to a dour, affronted and perhaps slightly depressed frown, as he tacked on one last addendum. “It’s that or stomping in the mud. Chased by family forever as they keep finding you. No ship, just a rusty cart and these dull crawlers, who just know more mud.” He even waved dismissively at them all, carefully avoiding Ziv but very much including the skink themselves.

The looks on the crew… varied. The only reason Chitwy hadn’t shrieked something was Ziv’s hand holding her beak fast, while the bat herself looked perplexed… no, disgusted, that looked too disdainful to be mere confusion. And they couldn’t help but agree with that, by now. This captain… whatever he was even trying to do, whether some twisted flirt, some recruitment attempt, or a threat, if not all three at once, it was so far from right they could hardly call it a fumble, it had started as a mistake and went down from there! It was only clear, from looking at Usherrimi herself, who-

...seemed to be smiling, as what little light was in these caverns caught in her glasses and blocked her eyes from others’ sight. A tiny smile, a
dark smile, you’d have to be a fool to think there was any mirth in there, except perhaps…

“A sun, you said. I think I like that, actually. But there’s one caveat to that.” Watching the captain stand up quickly, she strode over to him, calmly, slowly, her movements a little
too fluid, as she made her way to right in front of him and his hopeful expression. “Now we miss suns, now we know what a blazing star in the sky was needed for, why its absence can kill a world.” She even reached out to perk up his chin, make sure he looked her in the eye – that brief moment of contact making his eyes gleam with expectation – all before she stepped back, her hands behind her back. “But the thing you forget, city boy, you fountain tadpole, the thing about suns, is that back then, and even now, once you’re before them, if you ever get too close, too careless...”

“...
they burn.

Usherrimi brought her hands forwards, and a tidal wave of flame and heat erupted from them as she clapped right in front of them. Like a towering, utterly vertical flame of fire that was sent forth, setting the spores beneath them ablaze where nothing else had, crashing into captain Shurrum and engulfing him entirely until not even his shadow could be seen. The remnants alone kept going as eyes followed them, catching several crewmembers and starting a fire on the hull, dangerously close to the cannon. All Qarretzu could think at first, witnessing this, was that it seemed even bigger than last time.

It took a moment of thought as Sherry then turned around and shoved everyone back towards the wagon, urging them all to leave
quickly, a moment to take in the expressions of the others – had Chitwy never seen this before, with how startled she looked? And did Ziv enjoy seeing that, with that smile of hers? – and a moment to get on board to look back at this newly-spawned memory and realize the flames may have bulged as they traveled, right around where the target would be.

The skink looked back, leaning out one window of the wagon as it turned to flee, on a nervous whim.

The captain was there. Arms outstretched, fingertips singed to the knuckle, gills trimmed by the flames, and with his hat still ablaze, right above an utterly bewildered expression… and a startled, get strangely genuine
smile.

And before they could alert the others, they witnessed him raise his own hands, and
thrust them downwards at the spores, scattering the burnt, the burning and the intact alike as he was propelled backwards and upwards into the air, launching himself up as if he’d pushed right off the very air with that motion. As if he could… turn the wind just the same way Usherrimi could turn fire and flame. Another motion, and he sent himself backwards, landing right besides his own steering wheel, his expression steeling and his grin brimming with more little fangs than ever.

Now they choked out a warning, as best they could. “H-he’s alive, a-and he’s b-boarding again, miss Ziv-Ziri…! H-he’s g-got wind! He has wind in his…”
“Ah,
fuck, it would’ve been too simple for that idiot to just die, wouldn’t it. He’s good at it, if he could turn that blast.” Usherrimi didn’t even give him the dignity of turning back to look.
I think I speak for everyone here”, Ziv-Ziri said as she took the wheel and lit the engine, “when I ask: what the hell was up with that guy!?”
Chitwy grabbed the seats and barged her head into the front of the cabin just to shriek her answer: “I’ve been asking that from the moment I SAW the guy!” Though before she could continue, Qarretzu pulled her back so she wouldn’t distract the driver.

Sherry sighed, one pitch-black hand sliding over her face in aggravation. Her tone was more aggravated still. “My guess? This
should be some… idiot princeling. Some scion of a big-name family that roped himself into a scheme. His accent, the way he talks, you can tell he barely knows Common, some Magus families do that on purpose thinking it’s beneath them.” She slid her glasses back into place, glancing into the rearview mirror – as Qarretzu turned back fully to see the ship starting to rise into the air, while the crew worked to put out the fires. “But he still turned my blast. He’s an idiot, but he’s either well-taught or talented. I’m betting on talented.

As the skink turned around, they gulped, and tried as best they could to give their addendum. “W-what about p-piloting, do they t-teach that…? He’s g-good at that too, reckless, b-but good…” After the olm turned her head to glance at them, they gathered their wits to elaborate. “H-he almost t-threw his crew overboard from how fast he turned, b-but… he never g-got shot at or hit. Got that ship with both b-broadsides in a minute. Didn’t so much as brush a stalactite… a-and on a ship that fast, with a f-flame cannon and everything else, if he’s g-going to f-fly it low, e-even in… h-he might…”

They gulped again. With a terrible feeling, Qarretzu turned around, gazing through the back window to check on the sloop, just in case…

“...
h-he- he’s- HE’S- HE’S AFTER US!

And everyone was shoved back into their seats as Ziv’s wagon sped up, its engine belching a black plume as it roared to full throttle. “Already!? Guy left the engine running that’s for sure!” Nervous, but not panicking, the Vezarym thrust her ears forwards and narrowed her eyes, her claws firm on the wheel. Her smile thinned out to nothing, but her tone remained cheery, if steelier now. “It’s gonna be a rough path to lose this guy, but I know the route for it. Gonna be like driving into a crag monitor’s mouth but can’t think of a better place to lose an airship. If he shoots, I’ll be dodging, so hold fast!

Qarretzu could only obey, digging their claws into their seat and slipping their tail under the one in front, turning around to keep an eye on the vessel trying to approach. They briefly grabbed their rifle, wondering if it’d be necessary, if only to go out fighting. Or maybe provide a different kind of distraction. This was a bad position, but the target was getting far closer. But that’s if they had a chance to set up, before they got turned into nothing but a smoking crater on this impacted, spore-strewn road.

Said chance wasn’t looking good, as they saw that a tiny, yet blinding fireball had just left the prow.

“FIRE! OPENED FIRE!”, they screamed, unable to look away – thankfully, as they noticed it was arcing far more than it
should to hit them straight on, even leading the shot. “Ahead of us! H-he’s f-firing on t-the road…!” That’s what it looked like at least.

Ziv-Ziri lowered herself, humming louder and squinting at the road. Almost gritting her fangs, before relaxing enough to smirk. “Bet he’s trying to box us in. Thinks I won’t drive through a pit of flame – and I won’t! Sherry, if you please~!” At her word, Usherrimi quickly pulled the window down, leaning her head out and making sure one of her gills was exposed to the air outside. The bat then snapped her claws and pointed back at the Troxi, with a question on her tongue “How far ahead?”


Another look at the fireball before it disappeared above the wagon’s roof, then turning their head to look ahead at the road before them, curving around a hill of spores… They pointed right at the start of said curve as best they could, and barked out “Right where that s-starts!” just to be sure.

Now to hope they were right, as the bat hardly reacted other than getting all the speed she could… before swerving so hard Qarretzu almost flew into the still-closed window (where Chitwy
did crash). They saw the flame cannon’s shot crash into the start of the curve, which had been right ahead just a moment ago before Ziv-Ziri swerved into the spores instead, thoroughly clouding the air with them as a wave of flames washed over towards the wagon-

Before shutting down completely, barely able to get past the spores they’d risen as Usherrimi reached through the window, concentrating. Could Ifchi shut down what they usually wielded, just like that? It was either that or the spores being too wet to light, which made little sense. Yet there they were, missing the fires by mere inches as the wagon went right over the incline, so inclined it almost tipped right into the expanding blaze. Then, another swerve towards the road proper, and they rushed right ahead of the wave of flames, picking up speed once more as the wagon found (relatively) solid ground.

All Ziv had to say to that was “Right you were, Rezu!”, with a big grin she actually turned to flash before focusing on the road again.
Maybe that crash course in mortars back in the Legion hadn’t been a waste of time after all.

The pursuit was on, but they’d made it through the first salvo. And if they all shot ahead rather than directly, they might just want them alive after all – or maybe just Sherry. Lucky either way, unless they got caught. Up to them to keep an eye on what this ship was doing as it pursued them, advancing on them with ease. Catching up moment by moment, not firing yet, but shortening the distance. Soon enough, the Midnight Alight was close enough that Qarretzu could actually see Captain Shurrum, complete with big fanged grin, as he gripped the wheel and held the lever tight, lowering the ship inches at a time as it closed in. His gills weren’t even trailing in the wind, they were almost static, perhaps glimmering…

Was he trying to get close enough to blow them off the road, while he still could? It was insane, but he could pull it off, he was mad enough for
that, and it’s not like they could fire back-

“Miss Ziv-Ziri, p-permission to break your window?” Better to ask for permission, adages aside she was the boss.
“What- wait no just lower it, pull the lever in the corner! Why?” She hadn’t caught on yet. If this worked it’d be a pleasant surprise.

One pull of the lever, and the back window lowered itself. Not
entirely, but it’d do. Gently, quietly, they slid out their rifle through the opening, just enough to get their eye on its sights, before turning their attention to the vessel, and its crew. Quickly, they hovered their sights over the captain as best as they could in this rattling wagon, stuffing as much of their tail under a seat to anchor them better. This rattle was troubling, but manageable, all they had to do was hold steady, wait just a moment for the vessel to come closer. Already they could see the captain’s smile, the glint of his goggles, as he leaned to the side of his steering wheel with one hand raised towards them, rearing back…

But yet
again they missed his first mate, who was already in the midst of tackling his own captain as they pulled the trigger.

BLAM

And a miss, unless a clear gash on the underside of the sloop’s liftbag counted as a hit. Sure had to for whatever unfortunate had to patch it up later.

The vessel wavered in place, and quickly fell back as the first mate was the first to get back up and yank the lever back.
As they cycled the next bullet into the chamber (five left, was it?), they kept their eye on the retreating Midnight Alight, particularly on the captain they’d almost taken out and the first mate that prevented that. The latter was pulling the former up, and from the increasingly-blurry motions they could see, he wasn’t happy with his boss over that little stunt, berating him almost like one would a child. But the captain was on his feet, and… smiled it off, that was surprisingly hard to miss at this distance – before the sloop pulled up, hiding the two from view behind the deck.

They sighed, and cracked their neck while they waited for the next chance. That’d teach them to get close at least, better to keep them further away. And they’d bought the group time to reach the stalactites ahead – as Qarretzu found out when a violent swerve right behind the very first of them almost threw them into a window. The thing was barely a nub surging through the spores, but cover was cover, even just to throw their aim off before their boss surged the wagon down the road towards the rest.

Alright”, Ziv-Ziri said from the cabin, glancing backwards for just a moment, “we should be closer to the clear now! These only get thicker and taller from here on out! Don’t think he’s that dedicated, even if he’s that good, right? Which is good ‘cause this isn’t a place to drive that fast. Keep an eye, warn me if he shoots anything outta spite or something!” Another swerve, and her driving stabilized, sticking to the road as it curved around the stalagmites – each a little taller than the last. It wasn’t a straightforward drive, but it had cover, at least…

Yet as the skink sighed and looked forwards, taking their eyes off the vessel, it was Chitwy who took the chance to look back at their pursuer, and deliver the bad news: “Boss, they ain’t slowing down. Like at ALL.”

A surge of speed almost sent Qarretzu face-first into the back seat before they’d finished turning around to confirm.
But from a quick glance, the Midnight Alight had stopped falling back, and was again leaning forwards as it gained speed. How it intended to catch up with them, in this smaller wagon that could stick to the actual road, they didn’t know, yet there it was. And true to form, rather than just turn a little and let the stalagmite pass at its side, it damn near crashed into it before violently swerving around it, for no reason they could think of other than show off!

…and expose the broadside, for just a second.

“…B-B-BRACE”, they cried out, before the rattle of the sloop’s cannons drowned their words out momentarily. Multiple streaks of light and sparks shot from the vessel, crossing the spore-laden air above them at a high angle, an ample miss. But when they looked forwards, they saw the
actual target: One of the stalactites ahead. All they could do was barge into the cabin to point at it, making sure Ziv-Ziri caught it…

…and she looked down under that stalactite, then back up. Then the engine roared, spewing smoke into the air as the whole wagon accelerated so violently the skink was thrown back into their seat
again. “Still trying to wall us off, sneaky! Bet he thinks he’s the only one who knows their way around a wheel!” She sounded outright chipper. As everyone hurtled down the narrow road, a glance at the bat let them see a grin – a big, fanged, gleaming grin – as she gripped her own steering wheel tight, and her tone dropped to an outright growl heard even over the roar of crumbling stone: “And he’s dead wrong.

She didn’t slow for the curve right ahead of them. She just turned anyways, the wheels skating over stone and spore alike as momentum alone carried them forwards – all their spinning did was keep them on the curve. Another swerve, and they were all back on the road, the wheels finding enough purchase to practically shoot them forwards into the path ahead…

A thunderous, crumbling impact deafened them all momentarily, and a rush of wind shot into the wagon from the back window, as the stalactite finally hit the ground behind them.

“Easy~!”, Ziv said, her voice lilting as if they hadn’t just outraced death. “But just to make sure I don’t have to keep doing that, never know when I’ll get it wrong… Chi, Rezu, could you both see if you can put a hole in that guy?”

So long as you don’t leave me behind, boss! How’s the road ahead look!?For the first time in a while Qarretzu had forgotten the swallow was even there, which was usually unthinkable.
Curvier than a Toskar matron, as a friend used to say!”, Ziv answered, giggling, which got her an odd look from Sherry that stopped the giggling in its tracks. “Okay, better said: It’s gonna be twisty. Also downwards.”
Works for me, right on it boss!That was all Chitwy even said before pulling down the window and throwing herself off the wagon into the dark…
Nothing left for the Troxi to do but lock in place in this rattling wagon, get their eye on the sights and start looking for a shot. “...I’ll cover her, m-miss Ziv-Ziri, I’ll t-try to hit him this time…”

Time for a joint operation, then. From their sights, they could already see the airship turn just enough to straighten its path towards the wagon, closing in once more. Eyes on the prize, as the captain came into view… before stone blocked their sight once more. Another stalactite. Pulling back, they saw another narrow dodge to match it, sweeping right behind the hanging pillar. No hitting the captain on this one.

...but if another broadside was coming, Qarretzu thought, maybe they could do something there instead. The
Midnight Alight had yet again presented its side, and its assorted cannons were pointed right ahead, angled from the rest of the ship. Their barrels glowed already, laying exactly where they were as they charged up the next salvo. And as the road smoothed out, just for a moment, they aimed for one glowing, sparking muzzle…

BLAM

Streaks of light shot through the air once more, aiming for another chunk of stone to drop on their way – but there was one less this time. Their sight lingered just long enough on the cannons to see one was sparking and smoking from its back; almost a shame they were gonna miss the look on that gunner’s face. Might make them hesitate a little next time.

Nevertheless, they turned around to track the shots that
did fire and point right at the stalactite they’d hit, bracing themselves for a burst of speed – which came right on time, as the wagon’s wheels skated on a mass of spores at the edge of the next curve, the wheels practically launching the spores off the road as they kept everyone on track. Yet another tilt, and they all hurtled forwards into the next curve – where Ziv repeated the process almost flawlessly, whirring the engine until it practically screamed… so that when the wheels caught firmly on the path once more, they’d all be thrown right past the shadow of the collapsing stalactite.

A closer call than last time, but still made it with seconds to spare, much as they were fairly sure they heard pebbles bouncing off the roof.


Got too close again”, they muttered to themselves with the faintest smirk, getting the next bullet in the chamber with a pull of the lever. “Maybe… m-maybe he’ll show his face this time”, they said a little louder, now scanning over the scene with one eye on their ironsights. Nothing seemed to be on fire on what little of the deck they could see, but that was asking for too much, perhaps. It was enough of a distraction, at least, that the Midnight Alight didn’t swerve to show that side once it passed the next formation, simply avoiding it as a sane captain should…

…and drifting slowly and continuously in that same direction, until it practically brushed a large pillar of stone on one side. There, the thing turned twice as violently as before, and ended up practically perpendicular to the road underneath it, and the road they themselves traversed. Leaving
every last cannon on that side pointed right above them, starting to glow as the next salvo was readied…

But the skink’s gaze kept going to focus on the blue-and-red streak that swept dangerously close to the firing line before diving beneath the hull. A flick of the Troxi’s gaze, and they saw those manning the cannons drawing armaments, distracted from their duty. One of them, a white olm with red gills and a redder overcoat, even peered over the edge to try and keep track of her…


Big mistake.

BLAM

Was it a bullseye, or a ricochet off the hull? With this vehicle’s rattling jiggling their aim, they’d never completely know, but it mattered little: It was enough to make said Ifchi lose their footing on the deck, and immediately fall over the edge of the vessel to the ground below… Would they live? Hard to know, but it was one gunner out of their business.

The other gunners, however, would be a problem. As they pulled the lever, they saw a roil of activity behind the firing line, what looked like raised limbs shaken in their direction, before all suddenly scrambled behind each cannon once more.

And then, the salvo… far from a neat array of destruction streaking above them, this was a chaotic mess of sparks and light shooting either vaguely above them, or almost directly at their wagon – where it should’ve been, at least. “I p-pissed them off m-miss Ziv-Ziri, t-they shot
everywhere!” was all Qarretzu could offer to that, before listlessly hiding behind the seat, as if it’d help…

Before a slimy hand hot enough to almost steam yanked them right back up. They found a pair of lidless violet eyes staring into theirs, before their head was almost shoved against the absent back window. “Find the pointless ones, ignore, then
focus. You don’t get to panic, you’re our best pair of eyes”, Usherrimi said, her tone curt yet encouraging.

All they could do was nod, and get back to it. A second glance – they were too close for much reaction, but this meant the clear misses were clear. All that left were the ones overshooting, that ideally wouldn’t scatter much stone, and the one that was heading directly-

“TURN LEFT M-MISS ZIV-”

The whiplash got them before they could finish, though they at least didn’t hit the window (or the olm) this time. They raised their head just in time to see Sherry backlit by a wash of blue light streaming through the window behind her, as her lidless eyes went
just a little wider. Whatever comment she had as she opened her mouth was drowned out by the crack of thunder, real or metaphorical, that came from the shot they’d narrowly dodged. By the time she’d actually turned to look at the impact zone, enough of their hearing had come back to hear the pebbles raining down from the other shots that had missed them more widely, or failed to bring down one of the bigger stalactites above.

With that moment over, Qarretzu peered at the
Midnight Alight once more, watching it swerve back into place, parallel to them and slowly gaining once more. Then, it was oddly still. At a glance… they couldn’t quite see the captain, but they sure saw a dot, some distant object, get flung over from the prow where Shurrum ought to be towards the still-cooling cannons… before diving suddenly right behind them, as if the very winds had sent it down. “Captain’s mad”, they muttered to Sherry, before holding their breath to aim properly, and get a better view of the action…

Said action yet again involved a flash of blue and red right over the deck, and a far smaller streak lunging from it towards the front of the vessel – before swerving wildly to the side, enough to miss the ship entirely. Chitwy must’ve shot at the captain, who saw her coming and simply swung the winds in his favor. And she must’ve realized this, because she was trying to dive away from the front as fast as possible, from the looks of it, but had the very air under her wings turned against her until she damn near bounced off the liftbag.

The vessel turned, to either swerve the other way or just stay in pursuit after that failure of a broadside. It tilted just enough in the process to start seeing the captain once more, along with his first mate, seemingly focusing on driving once more and not looking their way. And – as they checked through their sights on a quick hunch – just enough to see the crew that
delivered said broadside were quickly rushing to crowd under the Cheli. And was that a gun one of them raised-

No can do.

BLAM.

A simple snapshot, barely even aimed beyond making sure it’d hit the mass. But right on time, there was movement, enough that the pistol they could see was immediately lowered, if not dropped. They all scattered, diving out of sight under what should be their posts, as Chitwy took the distraction and zoomed away in moments, taking a far safer distance. Crisis averted, then…!

But the vessel was still coming for them, finishing its turn and coming straight for them. Lower and lower it went as the ceiling closed in; Qarretzu turned their head towards the road ahead of them all, and the ceiling only closed in
further on the twists and turns to come, with many of the stalactites merging with their counterparts below. Yet the Midnight Alight kept coming, and wasn’t even slowing down as it found its narrow way through the incoming thicket of solid rock.

It rose in the air suddenly, nearly scraping its gasbag on the moss above, its prow alight with red, then orange, then a pure white… before a single tiny bead of blinding light shot across the air, trailing a mass of roiling fire. The flame cannon again, aimed high…
way high, not even coming close to them or their route as it crashed into one of the natural columns far ahead, right under the ceiling. Leaning out the window, they could see the moss catch ablaze, and heard the stone crack under the shift of temperature, softening just enough for the whole mass below to shift. Not enough to measure, but definitely enough to form a faint cloud of dust all around it, shaken off its mossy cover…

“What is he doing?”, the skink mused out loud, as they turned their sights back to the sloop to find a chance to end this chase. As they’d expected, rather than simply steer between the stones, the captain yet again swerved it wildly once past one of the stalagmites, this time just enough to pass right between two more. A narrow, entirely unnecessary maneuver, yet one that thoroughly threw off their aim as they passed right behind the pillar, making them lose track of Shurrum himself for a few precious moments. Was that the intention, or was he just showing off? It could go either way; the fact they could only guess was strangely irritating…

Another barrage came from its side right as it emerged, its munitions pointed far lower than the last shot. They noted three things: It seemed smaller than before, its sparks illuminated Chitwy’s form flitting right above the gunners, and the shots seemed to fly in the same direction as the flames just had, despite being lower-

...he was gonna drop the whole pillar on the road, wasn’t he. Softened it above, and now aimed to cut it down like a stalk.

Qarretzu barged into the cabin and pointed right at it, motioning almost desperately even if it meant missing the chance for a shot. “T-that’s gonna d-drop, r-right on the road…!”
But Ziv-Ziri was smiling again, and gently nudged their snout back out of her territory with one finger. “Warned, thank ya! Now you take care to shoot his eye out if you can find it and I will take care of this~!

They had little time to process her intense grip on the wheel or the sheer size of that grin before the roar of the engine drowned out all sound, and they were further smooshed into the seat by sudden acceleration. Scrambling back to their sniping position, they did not dare look where they were going, not just now, and tried to distract themselves with the next shot. Even as the shifts in inertia tried to throw off their aim in every direction, and the ground underneath the wagon got bumpier and… muddier, they hoped, they did not look behind them.

Instead, they focused on the Midnight Alight, looking it over as it counter-swerved to avoid crashing into one of the jutting walls of this narrowing passage. A turn so narrow it made them wonder how anyone up there (besides the gunner they shot) managed to stay on that deck. No one opened fire this time, but it brought the sloop far closer, and lower as well; it was practically scraping against the surrounding rock with each movement, yet its pilot was undeterred. Even Chitwy was forced to start dodging around the columns in this place just to stay aloft! A bigger target, sure, but at this rate, one had to wonder if he was going to crash this thing into them, or try that windy trick from before!

No, they had to focus, and see if there was
anything they could shoot to put an end to this. Or even just delay it enough for them to get away, and trust their boss and Chitwy to do their parts. From the way the ground beneath them rattled, and from the outright screeches beneath them of wheels against the dunes (rather than the road), hopefully the former was happening.

So they took aimed, and while the vessel lowered its prow to keep away from the ceiling, it was taking a surprisingly straight shot through the air, no turns to leave them vulnerable or expose anyone. Just the cannons to the sides at this stage, and this was the wrong angle and the wrong moment to get a malfunction out of them. They focused, desperately trying to keep the roar of crumbling stone out of their hearing, and the shifting pillar in the corner of their eye away from mind. There was, at least, a smidge of the Flame Cannon – to be exact, the “boiler” of it, reinforced as could be, but still a target for a rifle of their caliber, if they were lucky enough, but would they-

“If you’re gonna take a shot”, Ziv-Ziri turned to yell, “it better be now ‘cause I’m gonna TURN!”

Damn it, no choice but to roll the dice.

BLAM

Oh, good, an elongated flash of white hot light that would’ve been blinding if this thing had a scope. At least
that would buy them some time.

Then, Qarretzu’s train of thought was thoroughly derailed as the momentum of the wagon tossed them into Usherrimi – who’d shielded herself with her white tail knowing this would happen. Clawing for anything that wasn’t more olm or olm clothing, they tried to stabilize and look forwards at whatever they were doing – only to find themselves looking at the ship,
again, through the front window.

Glancing between front and back, they tried to paint the picture of what the hell was happening: They weren’t driving backwards, but rather had simply spun the vehicle around so violently inertia was still carrying them in the same direction, and right now the bat was spinning the wheels to counter that momentum. Behind them, a deep incline of spores and a cavern wall, an actual
ditch. Ahead of them, the road they left, and a road to follow – meaning they were right in the curve between them-

The wheels caught, and the wagon was launched forwards into the lower path, accelerating just enough to send the skink back into their seat again. Zooming down the road, with a glimpse of the
Midnight Alight tilting down and the first mate’s eyes peering over the railing on one end, and a glimpse of mossy stone on the other disappearing behind the roof of the vehicle, lingering just long enough to notice it was moving.

Tentatively, if not fearfully, the skink looked out the back.

And they had to close their eyes and hold on, as a scouring wind full of dust and spores blew into the open wagon until they found the lever to slam the window shut.


They were busy wiping the dust from their eyes, but the deafening sound of stone crashing against stone and its echoes traveling through the cavern, made sure they didn’t need to. The stones that pelted the back of their vehicle, and the wind that scoured its steel and its path, only confirmed it. The great mass of crumbling rock captain Shurrum meant to wall them off with had almost crushed them, and it was only the bat’s maddened driving that both put them so close to death, and let them escape capture.

Then, as their ears stopped ringing, they heard a shrill giggle, practically mad with glee. Gheehee, a perfect turn, outright flawless~!” It was Ziv-Ziri herself, proud of her own work. Her giggling cut off suddenly, however, and she added “Not sure I can pull it off that well next time though, so, if there’s a way to stop him from doing that again, please give it a shot?” She caught herself giggling again, perhaps she spotted her own pun.

Nevertheless, she was right. Even if all they had was a rifle, even if they only had one last bullet left (if they were counting right, and they sure hoped so, no time to check), that bullet in the right place would put an end to this ordeal. So they made sure it was cycled in, got their eye on the sights, and looked out the back…


Not one moment too late. This U-turn (if it could be called a turn, rather than a controlled spin-out of some kind) had left the Midnight Alight facing the wrong way, aiming towards the cavern wall. And true to form, it had to do a U-turn of its own… they were just in time to witness it. It barely slowed before tilting to the side and yet again swinging about in a turn so tight and narrow Qarretzu still didn’t understand how the crew remained standing. The deck had to stand like the steepest of hills during that twist, weaving the ship through the pillars and the stalactites…

They’d know. So tilted it was that they could see the whole thing, including Captain Shurrum himself twisting the wheel in a blur of hand motions. Just clear enough for one last shot. They’d have to account for every motion: The wagon’s movements, the vessel’s turn, gravity’s own pull at this distance, the meager breeze blowing from their destination, and the First Mate potentially ruining the shot again. Already he seemed to be peering this way, starting to move…

A tiny, elongated blur out the corner of their eye, a movement from the First Mate. and they saw him stumbling down, bleeding, with a
long black speck through the base of their tail. An arrow… They’d need to thank Chitwy later.

And just in time, in the midst of it all, the captain turned to look at him! He did not let go of the steering wheel at all, but he was distracted nonetheless, his body stock-still even as his hands steered the vessel, just as it started to turn towards them all in another risky maneuver that’d scrape the
cavern stone. Just as the road beneath the wagon smoothed and stilled, if only for a moment.

One bullet. Now or never.

BLAM

Ping…

Time seemed to freeze. They clung as tightly as they could to their post, letting their empty rifle drop on the seat. Was it done? Or where they done…?

Captain Shurrum was still standing. No blood to be seen, no falling motions. Yet he seemed to be struggling, his hands no longer a blur. His steering wheel wasn’t turning at all-

Now a falling motion, as the captain stumbled and fell to the side. Yet he got back up immediately… with the steering wheel still in his hands.

Qarretzu saw no sparks, no whirling from the spot where the captain stood a second ago. But the Midnight Alight slowed its turn, flattened its curve, stabilizing and plowing forward like nothing was wrong, bereft of Shurrum’s direction.

Now sparks flew. The sloop scraped the walls of the cavern, scattering dust and pebbles that hid all crew from view, and snagging its liftbags on the upper side, letting abrasion work away at them until they popped in a burst of flame that briefly lit the cavern. Was the captain trying to brake? It mattered not – the vessel started dropping, little by little, as it blind advance sped up, until they lost sight of it behind a column of natural stone…

Very briefly, as it turned out. A deafening crash and screech, worse than the scrape of the hull against the wall, rattled everyone’s ears, before the bent and cracked prow of the
Midnight Alight plowed through the crumbling mass of rock, bereft of all lift, to finally drop out of the air and come aground against the spore-laden road beneath it. A mass of shattered, burning wood and bent metal, and the scorched tatters that remained from the liftbag that once let it sail… all partly buried under rubble of its own making.

It was over.
If they had meant to do that it would’ve been absolutely brilliant, far more certain than even what they themselves had intended, but this had been a lucky miss. Joy of joys. At least Qarretzu could live with it – literally, who knows if the others would’ve spared them. One of those questions one was better off never having to answer. And so, they watched the rubble settle on the fallen ship, and let out their held breath as the dust cleared at last…

“Don’t know if that was you, his own idiocy, or both, but I don’t care. Perfect shot there, Qarretzu, thank you”. Usherrimi’s sheer relief was palpable, and they didn’t need to look to see the smile on her face from this angle. “Let that ship be his damn grave, I say.”
Then, she turned towards Ziv-Ziri, with a less-than-confident gaze and a slight blush on their face, and began to speak in a far lower voice: “Anyhow, Ziv, about that little moment, back there, erm…”

Yet a distant shift in the rocks behind them all clued the skink in that Sherry’s hopes were misplaced. They saw a single copper-green limb rise, followed by the rest of the olm. “He’s… alive, still. J-just crawled out of the pile, and… ” They trailed off, watching their motions, as the captain seemed to still, stare back, and bring one hand to his snout to… “...d-did he j-just
b-blow a kiss at me!?

Their own olm’s groan of sheer exasperation did not wait,
with her gills briefly lighting up in sheer frustration. “Of course. Of course he lived. As unkillable as an idiot would be. Of course he did.” Once her palm had left her face, she turned to Qarretzu to finish her thought. “He came for someone brilliant, and found much more than just one. Got far more than he bargained for. I should’ve guessed he’d like that. That… kiss wasn’t just for you, but he’d know it wasn’t me with that rifle, so… yes, bad news, it was for you too. Enmity’s… a little like that in Ishiss.”

That’s not a thought Qarretzu wanted in their head. They turned to answer, but it was a mess of an answer. H-he almost d-dies and… l-liked that? H-he’ll know it was me! A-and it’s… n-not just you now b-but me t-too!? I-I’m n-not even-
As their words came to a hard, sputtered stop, Ziv took over. “And I’m gonna guess me too? He did say you had good taste, and while I’m not gonna deny that it sure sounded like he’s including me on this little… thing of his. I mean he almost died here and he’s still flirting?” She was handling it better than they were…

Before they could put together something close to a reply, they were knocked over onto the seat by a feathered mass, one they had been far too distracted to see coming. They heard the twang of a bowstring before the feathers finally gave them space. It was Chitwy again, with the biggest smile they’d seen on her face so far… odd, how expressive a beak could be.

Yet all she had to say, after leaning in and laying one spurred wing on their shoulder, was “Good hunt, Qarretzu.
Even I never brought down something that big.

The silence stretched, as the skink couldn’t help but wilt a little at the praise, much as they had a smile of their own. Didn’t even have to force it, either. Hers was a nice voice when she wasn’t shrieking, was it…

But that smile came to an end, as they forced themselves to confess. “Brought down the ship, but not the captain. He’s… back there. And miss Usherrimi says he’ll come back for us.
All of us this time…” Their next words were blurted, almost spat out, as they shivered slightly, their eyes staring at the floor. “H-he blew a kiss at me… a-at us, b-but I saw it. H-he’ll be back…”

When they looked back up, they flinched, finding a spur inches away from their snout, pointed at them, with Chitwy’s gleeful face right behind it. “Hah! My bad on THAT” she said, “but then again all the best hunts are the ones that keep coming back for MORE! Hope I’ll be there when the fucker finds us again! See who finally gets to land a shot through his actual heart!”

Or head”, the skink answered before they could catch themselves… though then again, they did mean that. They turned towards the back window, closing it as they took a look outside one last time, at the stalagmites, the mossy walls, and the distant plume of dust and smoke they’d left behind, before adding, with a sigh and a small smile, “But next time… we should try not to miss.”

The pleasant silence between them was broken by their boss, who turned her head to look at the olm besides them. Soooooo, Sherry, gonna guess we’ll need to keep our presence in Ishiss to a bare minimum, if this guy said they were looking for ya and now he ain’t coming back for a while? He didn’t exactly look like the sorta pirate to ransack their ships, if ya catch my drift. Someone’s gonna be looking for people outta place.

Usherrimi sighed, leaning into the cabin. “They will. Whatever this scheme he leapt into is, if they’ve got the money to casually hand him a vessel like that one, they’ll notice its absence. And they’ll give it back, too much invested in it all. Whatever ‘it all’ is… either the Erudites are making a bigger push than usual somewhere and this is just a part of it, or the Clans finally did something to piss them off all at once. Took ‘em long enough.”

Ziv stifled a little giggle, and glanced back at Sherry briefly before seemingly remembering it was still driving even if it wasn’t the shrieking madness of earlier. “So to sum it up, we’re not crossing
this border if we can help it, huh?” Her smile twitched slightly, and her ears drooped, before she muttered her next words. “And we can’t, since we gotta pick up Vel and Kal for their side of the haul. We’re gonna have to skirt the border for a while, huh. All the way until we can just barge up by one of the gorges, pick ‘em up at the Soddenvaults where we agreed and bail before anyone can see us.”

The Soddenvaults… pretty far North, at least for Ishiss. You could have the Custody breathing down your neck if you took a wrong turn, that’s how far North it was. “W-why that far, miss Ziv-Ziri”, Qarretzu asked with some trepidation.

“’
cause that’s where their part of the haul was! If my client was right, and they usually are, they’ll be finding a train to open up right around… this time, I think! We’ll pick ‘em up away from the train lines though, don’t worry about that bit! ‘specially since they never did tell me whose train that was.Her voice betrayed no worry at all, the trust she had in those two had to be something, alright. Especially if there was a non-zero chance that was a Custodial train they had to rob…

...still, if this detour was unplanned, Qarretzu thought to try and distract from
that idea, then there’d need to be some sacrifices, or at least maneuvers, to make it on time, if a time was decided on. At the very least, they’d need to hurry, though after miss Ziv’s showing just now, that likely wouldn’t be a problem… at least, not a long term problem. In the moment, in the actual, nerve-wracking rocketing through tunnels and caverns to make the time, it might.

they glanced at Ziv-Ziri’s reflection in the cabin glass, and saw her usual warm smile twisting slightly, like a snicker without the actual sound. Then, a plume of smoke from the engine outside… no, it would be a problem, would it?

At least she wouldn’t be racing death
this time.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the depths of a sodden cavern, two portly figures sat against a cracked pillar of natural green stone, with trickles of distant water flowing from cracks in the walls as the only sound to accompany them. Between them laid a large and heavy bag, with an ingot of a faintly yellow, sickly-looking metal poking an inch out of its neck. Their side of the haul, as their boss would've surely put it.

One, the biggest and tallest of the two, whose grey, leathery torso was bared to the world, turned to the other one. “If it’s alright to ask, Vi, though it’s fine if it’s not… Don’t think you told me about how you got outta that creek after getting stabbed. You’re here, so I know you got out, but bleeding face-down in the mud like you were…”

The mole waved him off, his perpetual smile far shinier than the dull iron that covered his form. Ah, don’t you worry about it, Askal, it’s… perhaps the least interesting part of the tale, all in all, but it does deserve a mention anyhow, doesn’t it? And besides, it is where this whole new… life of mine began, and it deserves mention as such…He laid back, with one claw behind his head and the other digging into the waterlogged stone beneath, sinking until it felt wet. “Settle down then, and I’ll finish it as I should’ve, mm?”

And so, Velardi began. “There I laid, bleeding face down in the mud just like you said. I understand that’s an idiom, in your land, for doom and utter defeat, I imagine it flows much better in your tongue. And… well, I remained there. Hardly saw much of who did it, I… suppose I felt it hardly mattered. For all I knew down there, it might as well have been
him holding the blade in my lung. I didn’t even bother looking up, if you can imagine it, I just… laid there, hearing them splash as he ran off, and my assailant ran right after him, from the sound of it all. Must’ve thought I was already dead by then, limp and unmoving in the mud, sinking in…”

Then, a sigh. A forlorn, familiar sigh from the Ferigozi, as his gaze grew distant enough even the shadows in his helmet couldn’t hide it. “Close enough, I suppose. It did strike right through my heart, after all. Not literally, thankfully, but in so many other ways. Looking back… while I was down there, I couldn’t even think about fighting back. Or moving. Or much of anything at all, besides… Mm. I remember… feeling the cold, muddy water against my face, against my nostrils, and thinking… should I just breathe it in? Should I just be done with it? I considered it, outright, because… perhaps because I thought I’d earned it, by then, but mostly because… pain like that makes your mind wander down such places. Any option that would make it stop, no matter the cost, seems worth a shot… to the point a part of me wished that one hadn’t missed my heart. It took some time to fully quiet that one down…

It took him a moment to continue, as he drummed his claws on his own helmet. Perhaps letting it sink in, or just gathering his wits. “But then, as it all went silent, as I held my breath, I just… pushed against the mud, raised my nose above the water, and took a breath of humid air instead. I’m… still not sure what pushed me to keep going, looking back. I couldn’t say it was spite, or anger, or anything of the sort. Certainly no need for vengeance, then or… now, I’ll admit…” Turning to face Askalim again, he drew breath to continue, but it took him a moment to actually find the words for it. “The only thought I can remember of that moment is… ‘To hell with it. To hell with all of it’. I was done with prospecting, with knighthood, with the family name, with… the kingdom as a whole. They didn’t want me, not even… not even the man that was closest to me, I’d… chased him off at last, I thought. No one was left…”

Askalim rubbed his snout, trying to hide a small smirk. “Guess it might’ve been a little spite after all”, he said. “Sure sounded like me when I got thrown out, ‘cept with less anger and way more heartache. Gave your all for ‘em, for your countrymen, for the country, for everyone, and this is what they do to ya. Damn right, ‘to hell with all of it’, they sure didn’t think twice to try and send us there. By then, might as well live for you, since that’s all you have left by then. Gonna guess there was something like that for ya.”

Again, the mole sighed, his claw moving over his helmet to rest on its forehead. “Suppose as much. Yet I didn’t even think of… living, much. No plans, no plots at all, nothing but the thought, ‘to hell with it’, as I stood up, and just… started walking, one step after the other, trudging through the mud with little idea where I was going. I didn’t have the map, after all, just a soaked backpack we’d mostly emptied out by then. I just knew, more or less, where the Kingdom was, and walked opposite to that, wherever it is that would take me…After a moment, he let his smile return, tiny, but sincere and fond, and his voice softened. “I hardly know how long I walked like that, it took some time, but whether it was hours or days, I can’t say I remember, and I doubt I cared, back then, but… as luck would have it, I ended up at a little Ifchi town, some manner of river homestead, I believe. Suppose they took pity on me, this wounded, hollow-eyed young mole with nothing but the torn clothes on his back and a sodden backpack. Not even a weapon, by then. Hardly a threat, I bet they saw it on my face…”

Then, as the distant rumble of a familiar engine made itself known, and they both raised their heads, Velardi smiled a little wider. “Just in time, it seems…”. Standing up, and stretching audibly with both claws in the air, he turned to Askalim to finish the tale. “After that, with what meager common language we could find, I overheard some trouble they had with a raider from the East. I never found if it was a deserter, or just one of the more corrupt roadwardens, as they tend to be around the fringes, but… well, they offered a bounty on him. And from there, the rest is history, and the start of a long, and I suppose oddly illustrious career, heheh…”

Illustrious enough if ya ask me, if you mean bounty huntin’”, Askalim answered, holding onto the stone behind him to pull his bulk up. “Most of the lot I’ve met were… not even assassins, word’s got a class they didn’t have an ounce of, they were just highwaymen with a license. Hardly worth telling apart. Even the ones that soldiered, once, it got real clear why they left. But you’re still a knight. I could tell at a glance, and it’s clear now. I mean that in the best of ways, mind you.”

The badger couldn’t help but smirk, seeing he had Velardi covering his face again, this time with a twitchy, but flattered smile. “Ahah! Askal, please, I do try but there’s no need for that, it wouldn’t do for Zi-Zi to catch me red-faced like this! Ah, lucky me that she’s still a good way away, if that really is her…”

But then, that smile faded, little by little, followed by Askal’s own… as they noted something odd about the sound. And Velardi himself was the first to bring it up: “Does that seem… louder to you, than it usually is? Or closer, perhaps?”

The Toskar didn’t answer. He hardly had the time for it, when the wagon that came roaring and screeching from behind one of the cliffsides, sliding sideways on its wheels before they caught on the road proper and sent it hurtling forwards in their direction, answered for him. He found himself just pointing at it with one thick index finger, as it rushed in their direction – close enough for him to see those big, glowing yellow eyes, unmistakably Ziv-Ziri’s. Reassuring, but the manic joy in them was just a little concerning…

And before either of them could comment on it, before they could do anything but smile and raise a hand to greet the arriving group, Ziv’s wagon made a skidding turn, swerving on the flat, rocky plain before them and stopping only once it had turned around completely, right in front of them all to the point the mole flinched at its arrival. Before even one word could leave his mouth, the doors had swung open.
Qarretzu was inside, shifting over with rifle in hand to make some room, and Usherrimi was right behind them, looking almost pensive, for whatever reason, barely sparing them a glance.

But at the other end, right behind
her, was Chitwy, who burst out the other door, flew over both them and the wagon in the blink of an eye, and started shoving against them, nudging her spurs into both of their backs as a shriek of “GET THE FUCK IN THERE!” pierced their ears far more painfully than her spurs.

Askal could stand his ground if he could, and he was almost tempted thanks to this greeting, but he just shook his head in disbelief, and squeezed in there with ingots in hand, his bulk sinking the seat until it creaked… and as soon as Velardi followed in, the Cheli shoved him inside so harshly he landed on the Toskar’s lap, before slamming the door right behind him. In moments, she had barged back into the wagon through the other side, shoving Usherrimi to make room for herself. At least there was no bias there.

The badger raised a finger, with a barb on the tip of his tongue, but the wagon launched itself forwards so fast and suddenly he had to swallow it as momentum shoved him back into his seat – and the rattling roar of the engine would’ve drowned it out if it had left his mouth.

Velardi, however, didn’t let that get in the way, and piped up with clear annoyance in his voice. “Well hello to you too! Fine greeting, all around! Dare I ask what the damned hurry is, that I had to be packed in here like luggage?” Throughout it all, he crawled off his lap, dropping onto his spot and almost smushing Qarretzu under his ironclad bulk in the process. “Apologies, and hello, shame we meet with this kind of haste”, he muttered, offering the skink a claw.


Usherrimi took a moment to glare at the bird at her side before answering. We can’t linger in Ishiss right now, they’ll be looking for us. Specifically us. And it’ll be airships, minimum.
“On the plus side”, Ziv replied, “it might take ‘em a while. We did knock the first of ‘em down, which is why! Well, kinda, it was a group effort between us and his, uh, stupid idea.”
“M-mostly the idea, a-all I did was get a lucky shot at the wheel, h-he crashed it all by h-himself…!” Still stuttering, this skink… but they lent their own hand to the now-smiling mole. “M-mister Velardi? Charmed…”

airship, they said. With a rifle at best. An Ifchi airship, after what little he’d heard of those. Oh, he’d need the details on this. Turning towards the cabin, Askalim leaned in, and muttered close enough for the bat to hear, “I’m gonna need the details on all of this, ‘cause it’s sounding like you all had way more fun than we did.”

Her reply waited until she’d swerved down the way she came, so wildly and harshly even the Toskar himself was shoved against the door, and away from the cabin. “Plenty of time for that, Kal! It’s a long, long drive from here to the South, and from
there on! But this part right here? From here to the border? You better hold tight for it~!”

…all he could do was glance at the others. At an apologetic Qarretzu, at a grinning Chitwy, and at Usherrimi, who was just… distant, staring at Ziv as if she had something on the tip of her tongue. “Not a side of you I knew about, Zee, but… alright then. Sure beats the
train I bet, least the one we boarded.” It also beat climbing cliffs, trudging through ashes on foot, and wading through mud and spores, looking back.

And as the mole at his side settled in, still in armor yet oddly warm to the touch as Ferigozi often were… Mm, yes. Definitely better by miles.


yutzen: Histiotus Macrotus bat looking more amused than a bat should look (Default)

Target is believed to be in the Western side of the Lusterhills. A token force is to accompany the Tracker to facilitate apprehension, though they must be informed to prioritize mobility over protection, as the target is believed to be alone and highly mobile. After capture, the target is to be brought in alive for trial. Recommendation to set off as quickly as possible to minimize possibilities of escape.

It had all gone completely, utterly wrong.

It had been going wrong for months already, but only now could Qarretzu see it. In the moment, they hadn’t even come close to considering signing into the Legionary Exchange would’ve led to getting marched across these rolling hills of stone so flat it almost seemed polished, but there you had it. Looking back, starting their stint by having an altercation with another Legionnaire, let alone with the quartermaster and the… higher up that defended him, could barely remember that one’s rank, had to earn the Troxi a spot in someone’s shitlist. Even if they were right then and continue to be right.

But the trip from that, to asking to leave and being denied, to leaving anyways, to this bit? That was more of a blur. Hard to decide what they could’ve done differently there, would’ve meant mostly just… not being Qarretzu. Maybe, in the end, they really just weren’t cut to be in any kind of Legion. Even one away from the capital and all its crowds. And in the end, thinking they could even be one cost them what little they had, and this would be the last moment out in the open before they got imprisoned, slammed in together with a bunch of dangerous strangers, never to see the outside world again… not even this subterranean wilderness, let alone what laid so far away now.

The skink turned to their captors, one of them holding the leash to their neck like a damned animal. The Legionnaires were to be expected, at least, even if they seemed underprepared for the occasion. Almost insultingly so, barely an ounce of metal on them. Even for fellow Troxi, packing light as they usually did, they didn’t seem ready for an actual fight, which made the smug look they got in return from one of the five sting even worse. But their current, likely temporary “boss” was the bigger problem… Literally in fact. The Shumhaq that held the chain was barely taller than the skinks, but far wider, and far stockier, with an exoskeleton that was almost bulbous with what Qarretzu could only assume was muscle, not knowing what exactly Hive sorts had for muscle. But with massive pincers like hers, and that stinging tail in the back that could stab right through their chest, it was clear she had plenty of it, neatly packed in a shell of pitch black chitin…

…And she caught her looking, with those compound eyes shifting their tones into the best impression of a scowl. The sandhusk twisted the pincer that held their chain, giving them a sudden yank that forced them to stumble closer, and almost fall. “Whatever you’re thinking of, don’t”, she warned, before taking the lead once more with the other five – two of them giggling – trailing behind. Couldn’t even get one glance past this… tracker of theirs, could they?

It would only keep going downhill from this moment forward, where they’d miss these limestone hills, wouldn’t it? Just because they might be the last bit of the outside world the Troxi ever sees before being locked away for desertion, somewhere in… It didn’t matter where. Somewhere in the Gyre, with dust creeping through the bars being the only thing to remind them that there’s still a Subterraneum out there. Damn it all…

Nothing else to do but march. And look about with wide open eyes, trying not to tear up so these last visions would be as clear as possible. Something to remember in the dark. These windswept limestone hills – or were they swept by rain instead? It had to be both, there were creeks cutting deep into the stone, carving their way in through the years and making slopes and even little cliffsides in the process. The group was walking right next to the top of one such little cliffside, and if they looked at the bottom, past this flat of stone that almost shined, they could see the tiniest stream of running water, glistening under the meager light of their lamps…

…with two fairly large figures – comparatively speaking – right next to it.

Qarretzu blinked, then immediately faced forwards, only side-eyeing the two at the bottom. It wouldn’t do to be spotted this time, these captors were impatient as it was, but they had to make sure this was at least a possibility. Even the most remote. They were neither Troxi nor Shumhaq; rather, they looked like some very distant strangers indeed, an olm and a shard-badger, with the former seemingly fetching water off the creek. But they’d need to lean in to get a better look, as they were all passing right over those two…

They heard the chain on their neck jangle, maybe from a single misstep, a simple error in coordination. It should’ve been minor, but under their watchful eyes, and in this moment where they’d gotten distracted again, having no idea there were people down there? With both danger and opportunity opening at the exact same time? When this may be the last chance they get to be anything other than a prisoner? They didn’t even think about it.

And so, feigning a stumble, and yanking the chain as hard as they could manage to get it off the husk’s distracted grasp – successfully, thank the Lords – Qarretzu sent themselves soaring off the little cliff, cried out well past the edge of it, and braced for impact, hoping not to hit their head, but knowing either way they’d land right next to these two strangers. Nothing left to do but hope-

And, as they found out upon contact with the ground – thanks to a very audible crack somewhere within – try very, very hard not to scream. Easier said than done, of course, all they could do was limit it to several seconds of agonized groan, twisting in place as the other two just stared at the suffering skink before them. Several seconds of silence, with the Toskar raising one webbed finger as if to say something, but not finding the words for a stranger that had just fallen on them out of nowhere, and was squirming in pain right before them, unable to say anything.

Right, damn it, they needed to actually say something, even just one word! With some effort, they twisted themselves onto their back to actually see the two, getting a better look at them – and a better feeling of where the pain was coming from at that – while taking a sharp breath and holding it, trying to focus…

What they saw was some good news at least: Neither of these two looked like they had official business of any kind. No badges, no uniforms, weathered clothing, really mismatched species… Hell, even individually they didn’t look the part. By the glasses and the tunic with the fancy color, the Ifchi might’ve had money or status, once, but by the wear and tear on both that was probably in the past. And the Toskar was straight-up wearing a patchwork of different armor pieces, kludged together for coherence in a way their eye couldn’t miss; even accounting for his unusual size wouldn’t lead to that kind of improvisation if he was being backed by anyone. He could well be just like Qarretzu, another soldier on the run!

But when the time came to release that breath, they jolted at the distant sound of falling pebbles, quickly turning back towards the sound – before the flash of pain that followed nearly made them go limp. Yet even now, out the corner of the eye, the skink saw a distinctly arachnid figure crawling down towards the creek over a distant passage to make her way towards them. They couldn’t see the other five, but they had to be coming right along, too. Damn it, they hadn’t seen that passage! Misfortune to go with the fortune of these two being there, but…

All this skink could do was turn back to the badger and olm, wincing, and hiss out through battered lungs: “Help me…!”

Both of them looked at each other; the Toskar looked more baffled than anything, but the Ifchi seemed concerned, almost like she’d been threatened; she glanced around, and when her eyes focused up the creek and spotted Qarretzu’s pursuers, seemingly relaxed, as if expecting something bigger. Promising, perhaps? Or was she just resigning herself…? “Just our luck, isn’t it, Askalim?”, she finally said in a low, refined tone – confirming the skink’s guess – with more irony than any fear or irritation. No fear, that was a good sign! Hopefully…!

The badger’s response was to step forwards, in front of her, and in front of them in turn, sparing the skink a disbelieving, slightly irritated glance. As if he still couldn’t convince himself this entire situation had just fallen on him out of seemingly nowhere… They could apologize for imposing later, when they weren’t about to get locked away. If this worked, at least, but even if it didn’t, they tried, and that had to count for something. It’d be all they’d have left by then…

Still, soon as the Toskar stepped forwards – with a stride suggesting they would’ve gotten shoved aside if they dared stand up – and crossed his bulging arms, the Ifchi was there, right behind him with fingers tented, and gills flared… It was easier to get a better look at the two as they took up position, watching the approaching party with wariness, but no actual fear.
The former was big even by Toskar standards, for sure, and wearing this… patchwork of metal for an armor, that let some quills show at the back of his neck; young, but not that young. Still fluffed, with fur striped black and white- no, it was a light cyan almost like snow, still a strong contrast. Green, oddly piercing eyes, very judgemental from the look he shot at them. Experienced fighter, by the scars, but hard to tell if he had any formal experience or it was all… this kind of thing. He stood at the front with crossed arms, not reaching for the oversized, roughly-made axe at his side yet…
The latter, though? That one was intriguing. Finding Ifchi this close to the Great Dust Gyre was always an endeavor, but this one seemed straight from one of their big cities! At least some time ago, that wine-red dress had seen way better days. Intriguing palette, too: Violet eyes, scarlet gills, and a pitch-black body that abruptly turned white from the tail onwards. Qarretzu didn’t know olms came in those colors at all. And her attitude was interesting too: She looked more insulted than anything else, every movement practiced and filled with a worrying confidence…

And when they found themselves standing before the tracker and her five momentary cohorts, it almost seemed like it could go either way… But then again, the skink didn’t know the whole story. All they could do was let it play out, and perhaps steer it a little.

Of course, the tracker was the first to speak, crawling right ahead of the other five. “I’m going to request you hand over this Troxi you have. This one is a criminal, a cunning one. Don’t believe anything you’ve been told.” Opening strong, it seems, with a pointed glare at the “cunning criminal” in question.
But the Toskar just turned, staring long and hard at them with one raised eyebrow – the same eyebrow the Shumhaq could see – then turned back to her, just a little incredulous. “This one?”, he answered, clearly skeptical… making Qarretzu hope that was just a bit, they weren’t too bad a legionnaire, right?
One of the five in the back cut in, snickering: “Believe it or not! I guess when this one can’t cut it as an actual soldier he just had to go cutthroat instead!” And there it was. Neither a he nor a cut-throat, and already this smug little bitch was-
“Legion’s more of a ‘ranger’ thing than ‘soldier’, don’t you think? And I always thought this one looked more like a she.” Oh for Lords’ sake that one was wrong on both accounts too! Just had to sound all teacher-like about it, too! Getting caught was bad enough, but getting dragged back by these idiots-

A glance at the two wayward travelers stopped that thought in its tracks. The big guy seemed deep in thought, especially after a glance back at the “criminal”; seemed to want to hide something in his expression with that glance. Maybe they’d been right in thinking this was some kind of deserter too… But it was the Ifchi that stepped ahead. Looking serene, almost a little haughty in fact, and speaking with an impeccably polite tone: “If you wouldn’t mind, may I know what, exactly, is this one’s crime? In this state they’re in they barely even look like a common pickpocket, let alone some dangerous outlaw.” Great. While pointing out this ragged getup of theirs was useful, it was hardly any less embarrassing, even knowing there were good reasons for it, like being on the run for way too long for example.

“That isn’t your business, ma’am”, answered the tracker, who looked like she’d narrow her eyes if she had lids on them; the colors there very much looked the part. But she was glancing towards the other five as she said it, as if she wanted them to hear that instead of the olm.
And yet the little squad just couldn’t help it, and the giggliest one stepped forwards, shoving aside the pincer that tried to shush her. She was grinning as she spoke. “Cowardice! He fought his own more than he fought anyone else, and even that was just yelling matches!” They clenched one fist impotently at those words… Words twist even quicker than they spread.
Another one, shaking his head, stepped right in front of her – and right ahead of the tracker’s pincer as well, to clarify: “To be specific, the charges were dereliction of duty and insubordination. Not in that order of course.” Suppose that is the closest thing to true any of these five idiots have said.

Again, the “criminal”’s attention drifted back to the two, if only to stop looking at their fellow Troxi in the face. They were looking discreetly at each other, and side-eyeing Qarretzu in turn, muttering words to each other in a language they couldn’t recognize. Flighty, vowel-laden, they would’ve bet it was Ferigozi if they were a betting sort. Then the Toskar looked back at the five, directly at the five and at the last interlocutor in particular, with an unimpressed look. Then, he snorted audibly, and said: “Sounds like someone fucked it by signing this one up then. No one saw that coming? However many eyes over this in the Republics of all places and no one saw that one coming?” He even crossed his arms as he stood back with a sardonic grin… before glancing back at them for just a moment, a glance that came just in time before they could get more offended than they already were.

But it seemed this last pencil-pusher that’d decided to clarify was even more offended. Maybe the big guy really was a soldier. “Performance during testing and field performance are very different things, unlike what you’d believe, and just because this one couldn’t-”
That was as far as he got before the Shumhaq lunged like black lightning, crossing the distance in moments, to pinch that Troxi’s jaws shut with her inner pincers, the outer ones lingering menacingly to remind him to shut up lest he get them sheared off. The other four were startled, for sure, and even the two at Qarretzu’s side seemed a little put off. Faster than she looks, and they knew it, though at least the two found out without getting captured by her.

And yet, the tracker’s glare was directly fixed on the Toskar. Daring him to try something, her other pincer raised in the air. Her mandibles opened only to hiss out three words, low and furious: “Hand. Them. Over.”

A stand-off, then. If this was to end in Qarretzu’s favor, then this Toskar better be even more capable than he looked, because that match was rough enough as it was, and with five others… That, or the Ifchi better have something to surprise them. Either or. None of them was looking, though, so they took the moment to roll onto their belly, just in case they needed to scamper. But they couldn’t hold in the grunt of pain from landing right on a fracture, which made the Shumhaq turn to them-

Which was exactly the right distraction to provide, for the Ifchi to indeed prove she had a surprise for them, in the form of a blinding pillar of flame and heat that exploded from her hands and gills with but a single motion, blasting sideways into the six captors with a roar that drowned out every other sound. Ifchi could do that!? They’d heard of plenty of things they could move and control, but it was usually just water, and in less cataclysmic manners; this lady just went off on them like a volcano, so fast and hard they didn’t even hear the screams! Oh, no, wait, there they were. Very weak, barely a gurgle somewhere in the roaring of the flames, but there they were, as the silhouettes of the six were all that remained in the smoke, the smaller ones still ablaze and falling one by one, while the biggest one-

Lunged out of the flames, thoroughly singed and covered in crackling chitin, yet utterly furious, going right for the one that burned her. The olm was fast enough to flip her tail in front of her, trying to catch her pincers in thick flesh and bone that was presumably expendable – but not fast enough to pull her hands away from said tail before the pincers caught them alongside it. They could see them dig into her flesh, hear the cracking of bones big and small and a groan of contained pain that was slowly failing the “contained” part. They could witness, a moment in, what looked like digits falling off, leaking and covered in blood as the claws dug past them…

With the Toskar shoulder-slamming the tracker right off, raising his iron axe and burying it into the softened chitin of her chest, right where a bonier sort’s lungs would be. Driving it in deep, as deep as he could, until the blade just snapped off its shaft and was left in place.

As Qarretzu scampered through the chaos for something, anything to do, they kept the fight in the corner of their eye as it proceeded. The wounded olm, doing her best to stop her own bleeding with mutilated hands. The sandhusk throwing herself at her new opponent, trying to stab him with her tail only to find the heat had softened her stinger until it bent it half against his helm. The ensuing struggle as she went for him anyhow, trying to grab him with her pincers only to get both caught on the shaft of his broken axe. And all the while, they scampered through the scorched remains of the five legionnaires that thought this would barely need any preparation, as the two fought it out…

Finding the burning remains of the affronted one, the one that apparently made Qarretzu worth saving, they found a spear to his back… A softened spear whose shaft had bent on impact with the ground. Wouldn’t do, especially with an upper half still very much ablaze making it hard to retrieve. When they glanced back to see if they still had time, the olm was backing up towards the water, and the Toskar was trying to bend the shaft upwards and around, perhaps attempting to trap both his enemy’s pincers in one place. Yep, still time.

On they went, as the adrenaline of another’s battle let them keep going in spite of the fall. Already they could see none of the other four had survived the blast either – and if they did, would’ve preferred not to – leaving them ripe for looting whatever was left… which wasn’t much, clearly. The bitchy one had gotten it especially bad, and they couldn’t tell if she had even brought a weapon along or not. It was all just a heap of ashes and burnt bones. Darn it.
Then, a sharp sound from the fight; they, and they saw the handle had either been snapped or shorn in half, leaving a rough cut as the Shumhaq grappled with the Toskar, one pincer on his helmet and the other on his wrist.

Clearly, they needed to hurry, and so they did. Scurrying towards the one with the teacher-esque voice, they found that one’s body was mostly spared, catching just the head and shoulders. Obviously not nearly enough to survive, but enough to hope for something as they turned the corpse around… And found it was their lucky day: A repeater rifle, strapped to the back, with only the tip anywhere near affected by the heat! Truly fortunate, especially when it was perfectly possible for the ammunition inside, or anywhere else on this unlucky casualty’s clothes, might’ve cooked off just from being too close by. They took it right off, and started checking if it was loaded, pausing only to check on the tactical situation: The tracker couldn’t quite clamp on the badger’s helmet, trying again and again to grasp it, but could try and crush his wrist, undeterred as he stabbed her with the broken shaft again, and again, and again. Even breaking past the chitin and digging it in as deep as he could wasn’t stopping her…

Focus. A quick inspection into the chamber, and they found there was indeed one round. But was it the only round in there? A quick check of the magazine, as fast as they could manage, showed there was at least one other, but before they could even turn it around to look deeper, they heard a scream. Their hands busied themselves with putting the magazine back in and working the whole mess back together, as they watched the Shumhaq finally gain some purchase on his helm – and his head – and start squeezing. He let go of his half of the iron handle, immediately trying to yank that pincer off his head, failing to do so, while his other hand was busy getting its wrist crunched, little by little, held away from it all. And even as the quills on the back of his head started emitting little sparks of light, and she saw tiny puffs of smoke rise from the tracker, she was undeterred. She’d crack his skull open, right in front of his wounded partner. Just needed to get through the helmet first…

So Qarretzu did not allow it. They threw themselves back against the nearest boulder with an agonized grunt, bracing their back to it and hefting the rifle into position, just as they had before it all went to hell. Just as they had well before they even signed up for what would become perdition – if they missed this shot. One hand on the grip, another on the trigger, flicking the safety off, cocking their head on their side to set their gaze upon the sights, and the round, compound target right behind them, tilt the thing a little to compensate for the scorched barrel-tip…

BLAM

The first thing they noticed is that the thing had one hell of a kick, even more than its size would suggest. It cut right through the adrenaline to make those fractures hurt all over again, to the point it was hard for Qarretzu to keep their eyes open… And yet, they did, to notice a second thing: Their shot was right on the mark. The tracker’s vice grip was broken, and both pincers were busy trying to hold in the sudden, searing pain of having an entire “eye” blown right off her face, ichor leaking down her forearms. The Toskar backed away immediately, and started pulling off his helmet almost desperately, staining his own hands with blood in the process…

Then she turned her head back towards the Troxi that just shot her, glaring as best as one compound eye could. “YOU…”, she began, rumbling like an incoming avalanche as she swiveled on the spot, showing her scorched, cleaved and gouged front. “They said they wanted you alive, but they won’t need *any of your limbs.*” Then, she ducked low to the ground, one claw in front of her face and the other held high. A massive target, but an armored one, and as far as they knew they might only have one shot to take down this plated behemoth with no clear weak spo-

And as she lunged one more time, the Troxi realized there was a clear weak spot. Under the pressure of actual battle, and their adrenaline spiking, all they could do was rely on their reflexes, lower their aim, and fire at it.

BLAM

The bullet shot across the creek in a cloud of smoke and fire, towards its chitinous target, this oversized tank of a Shumhaq. One bullet would not be enough to stop her, not if it was forced to crack her plating; there wouldn’t be enough left in it to give her pause… Unless, of course, it found an opening in it. And of course, the Toskar had been so kind as to carve one out himself with the remains of his axe.

And so, it went right in there, plunging right into the flesh beneath in a splatter of ichor. The tracker seized, tripping and falling as her legs failed her momentarily, and held one pincer to the wound, and another to the middle of her chest. She started scraping it, inner pincers jabbing into her exoskeleton as if they could find the bullet that had gone so deep in and refused to come out, not even through the other side. And, after a gurgle and a spatter of blue through her mandibles, the Shumhaq just crumbled, limp as an unstrung puppet.

Then, silence. Nothing but quiet, groaning breathing and the whispers of the creek that flowed in their midst. But they were alive… as far as they knew, they were alive.

The Ifchi was the first to break the silence, her voice pained, yet utterly sardonic: “Those of you who yet live, please raise your hands. Or what’s left of them.” And to go with it, she raised one hand herself… One bloodied, utterly mangled hand with only a thumb and an index left to it, though one that was at least not bleeding anymore. The Toskar followed, raising a far more intact claw – though a glance at the pincered wrist it was on made Qarretzu wince. Still, live they did, and so they finally raised their own hand – showing their own bloody injury, an abrasion on their elbow taken during the fall. They were lucky the damn thing didn’t snap backwards.

She raised her brow at the sights before her. “Mm. Better than I expected for how that was going. Definitely nothing permanent”.
The Troxi finally found some words, now that they’d settled with their injuries and heard something that they couldn’t let pass. “P-permanent…? But your hands…!”
She turned to face them, unfazed. “This?”, she asked, raising them both before her, showing the other hand was in an even worse state. “I’m Ifchi. This’ll grow back”, she said, before smirking and pointing with the index she had left at the scorched scatter of five, just to add: “That won’t.”
“I didn’t know-” was as far as Qarretzu got before coughing up and groaning in pain. No bloodstain on their hands, thankfully.
The Toskar held his head in both hands, wiping traces of blood from his temples. “Ush, just because you can grow those back doesn’t mean you should just shrug it off. We ought to get back to camp now. We got Vi and Zee this time, but we gotta see ‘em.”
“Ush” looked at her mangled digits once more, and sighed. She’d had it worst and still she seemed far less bothered than him… Or them, for that matter. “Suppose we should, this was only meant to be a water run after all. They had to hear that. She’ll be… less than happy about it all.”
“Eh, maybe not. We made it through, we got the water, and we got a surprise.” Wait, surprise? What did he mean by that? Were they the surprise!?
The Ifchi turned to look at them, catching that startled look, and smirking slightly. “Mm~. I’d say you and us haven’t agreed to a thing, but everything this husk here said sounded so typical. This was Askalim’s idea”.

Their big, slitted eyes drifted back to the water again, unfocusing. This was a jump off the frying pan, but had they landed on the fire, or not? Who were these two, anyhow? The other five got toasted without a thought while they got saved, so they weren’t gathering Troxi in particular, and they didn’t try to round everyone up, or run away, or hand them back over, so it couldn’t be… terrible. Not compared to prison, at the very least. And where would they even crawl if they were just left here? Lost, too close to the law for comfort, and without any food, not that they needed much…

Our of curiosity, they tried to get up, only to find themselves faceplanting on their looted rifle, groaning in a brief spike of agony. Their legs were still weak, and refused to keep them up. From this beaten position, they looked up almost pitifully, and mumbled: “...f-fine, b-but… what do you all even do…?”

“Askalim” was the one to go forwards, picking the skink up effortlessly – and a little painfully – and hefting them into his arms, while putting the rifle away on his pack. Seems that was theirs now, hopefully they could get the barrel fixed somehow… Nevertheless, he answered: “Little bit of everything by now. It started at just a little border-jumping, sneaking goods around where the law wouldn’t see them, but then Vi joined in and we stretched a bit towards bounties, and then things went from there.”
“Ush” joined up with him in turn as they started to walk downstream, keeping her tail above the ground. “Not so much, it’s still almost wholly smuggling, we simply range further than most. In both work and territory.”
“D-did you say territory…?” Qarretzu piped up, suppressing a cough. Smuggling… that was manageable, suppose they already were an outlaw just by existing, but did these people get to wander far? Did they get to see the lands, like the Troxi once intended…?
The Toskar smirked. He motioned with one claw, as if outstretching a map, as he replied. “Been all over the caverns. Never thought I’d see the Hollow-Lands, yet soon as I started there I was.”
The Ifchi leaned in, adjusting her glasses with the one finger she could use for it. “In fact, I believe Ziv wanted to take us Southwest after this. And we just came out of the Gyre, we didn’t have to spend long in there this time. Thankfully.”

All over the caverns… the words rang in their head. This would be a tough living, alright, but they’d barely need to see a city again. Or rather, not the same city all the time, every time. And if they wandered from nation to nation, place to place, cavern to cavern? If they could see it all in time, and all they had to do was play their part, and maybe actually take a shot every once in a while?

“...s-sold. I’m sold. That shot was a good resume, right?” They could only hope so, it did at least cut down on their injuries, if not save them outright.
“You mean both shots”, the Ifchi replied with a raised brow and a smirk. “Close as I am with Ziv, I dare say in her behalf, it was well above expectations.”
The Toskar nodded, and spoke, though in a far more serious tone. “They were gonna squander you, little fella, just like I got squandered. I know what you were getting thrown into, I’ve been there.”
“...d-don’t have to s-sell me further on it.” They allowed themselves a smile, the first one in a long while… and decided, after this all, they may as well. “...since we’re in this… my name’s Qarretzu. N-nice to meet you two… a-and thank you. T-thank you so much”.
“Might do well to rest your voice for a while, Qarretzu, you may have struck a rib. But the pleasure is mine. Call me Usherrimi.” The olm offered a smile of her own, warmer and less barbed than the last few.
“Askalim’s mine. Welcome aboard, feel comfortable saying that. Just try not to move much on the way, we’ll get ourselves fixed up”. The Toskar was powering through his own wounds fairly well, though perhaps they were not quite as terrible. Then again, maybe these two were just used to this.

Nevertheless, they stilled on his advice, moving only their head as the now-trio made their way towards the camp, letting this Askalim wade through this creek that had saved their life. With water glistening in the light, meandering across the limestone and pooling here and there…

Out of curiosity, lowered their gaze towards one of the stilled pools at the side of the creek, illuminated by the meager lamps they had… It was just a quick glimpse in an imperfect mirror, but all the colors they knew were still there; dark green for the back, the dulled cyan for the neck, chin and underbelly, that bright, feathered crest, with its bright turquoise no amount of dust and grime could cut through, and those big, slitted blue eyes, just as the day they set off… and just as the day they last looked in a mirror, right before all of this. Still them, all in all. In spite of being a criminal now, from the looks of it… Still the same bright-eyed Troxi that wanted to see the caverns, and get away from the hurly-burly of the Republics and their crawling, overburdened cities. And in spite of everything, they might still get to do it after all.

…maybe all had only gone a little bit wrong.

Tracker Rhyvadush returned 39 hours after search parties were dispatched (due to failure to show up at appointed rendezvous). Immediate medical attention required and provided, still ongoing due to gravity of her injuries. Squad accompanying tracker confirmed lost from unexpected enemy action. The full transcript is in progress, but enough has been provided to begin immediate identification efforts, in order to find the target, the culprits and any links they may have to known organizations. Suggesting focus on the Ifchi pyromancer, as this combination is rare enough to significantly narrow possibilities.

Rhyvadush has sworn to collaborate in any and all future efforts to find this particular target, as well as the culprits and associates.

yutzen: Histiotus Macrotus bat looking more amused than a bat should look (Default)

"There you are! You’re going to give me a conniption running off like that!
Are you alright? I smelled smoke, and I got very worried. Smoke in the lakes is usually terrible news!
Oh, thank goodness… I know it’s very little smoke, but you have to understand, any smoke here, where things so seldom burn, it could mean-
What?
...Usherrimi, you didn’t grab any matches from the house, did you? Because if you did-
Usherrimi? Ushi, please, slow down and tell me what you did, okay? It’s fine, it’s fine. Nothing bad happened, so long as you’re okay, it’s all okay…
Oh! Oh… I’m sorry, Ushi, it just slipped out of my mind. I know you wouldn’t do that! I had a student who did once, is all, and I panicked at the thought…
...pardon?
Nonono, it’s not dangerous, it’s a fine little fire, and with the crystal here it won’t spread, but… you said you made it? By yourself? Without matches, or tinders, or anything else...?
Ushi, it’s not that, you don’t know what it means to-
Usherrimi, no. Something that you can do is never a bad thing. You didn’t burn anything down, you didn’t hurt anyone, including yourself, this is fine. Okay?
Good. Because what I wanted to say is… This is actually pretty rare! We’re not especially close to fire, not even here, but at your age, and enough to start this one here, that’s… It’s remarkable! Very remarkable!
Actually… Can you show me? Just a little spark if you can, okay? If you can’t, that’s fine, these things can be tiring-
OH GOODNESS…!
Ahahah, this is fire! They’re like little candles on your gills! And- Ow! Oh, it does burn! Wait, you haven’t burned yourself have you!?
Okay, good, good…! Just making sure, these are tricky energies to manage, but you’re doing it so well… It’s amazing! I knew it!
Oh? I meant, I knew you were a talented young lady, I could see it from the start.
Ahaha, no. Talent is talent, no matter where it lies. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, okay?"

“Something up, Sherry?”

Usherrimi – the “Sherry” in question – felt a long-fingered claw lay on her shoulder right as that question snapped her out of some old, old thoughts. The Ifchi’s gills twitched in surprise, but she took her time to actually turn around and face the one who asked… Yep, there she was. Ziv-Ziri was there, her gleaming yellow eyes looking down with great concern. “Usually you’re first up for getting the campfire going, but I found you, well… here.”

Here. Right. When Ziv told her she’d be getting the whole gang together, she didn’t think much of the place she’d pick for such a widespread group. She thought it’d be nice, in fact. She’d never been to the Stonelit Meadow before, and since it was close enough to the Lakes, she expected a little nostalgia. The sodden ferns waving in the warm breeze and the faded lichens that crunched under her steps were familiar enough, but they were thick here, not quite what she remembered…

But when she climbed the last hill and found herself standing before a great quartz monolith, glowing with an inner light just like the ones she knew, and with many more dotting the distance, as a tiny stream of tepid water ran right under her bare feet, just like the ones back-

Sherry! There’s not something with this crystal, right? Not… burning or anything? You’d know those more than I do, so…”

Of course she would. These luminous crystals, warmed and grown by the streams far beneath, were just like those in the Lakes. Shining down on her with the same light that lit her lessons with her tutors as she perfected her gifts, the same light that let her read her books beneath the surface and get lost in others’ worlds with no one to bother her. Stones like these were the first – and once, only – witnesses to her own light, to the flames she could bring forth… And it was right under a monolith like this one, so much like this one, that she lit the first flames she’d actually share. Her tutor Neshuri had been so proud that day…

“I…”, she began, but the words that’d follow just wouldn’t come out. The Ifchi’s gaze fell to the ground, almost wishing she could close her eyes. ‘I thought I could handle it’, Sherry thought, clenching both her fists, ‘I thought walking away from Ishiss, wandering the caves would do it, would cut those strings that pulled from waters I left behind, and yet here, here…’ Did those strings just never snap, and she’d just managed to ignore their pull, or was taking a glance at just… this, a simple glowing rock, knit them back together? It brought back some old things, the oldest of all, she was a child back then! Right by the weakest spot, yet somehow the most vivid, it had grabbed her and dragged her into all the rest, right down to the last day before she left towards Ishiss. And there she was, the wayward mage, left feeling like it had pulled her heart all the way back to the Lakes.

“How do you do it, Ziv?”, the axolotl muttered under her breath, staring at the shimmering ceiling of the cavern, and finding it, too, brought unwanted reminders.

“Do what, Sherry?”

Sherry swiveled towards Ziv-Ziri, almost startled. Damn it, she forgot she was a bat and had the hearing to match! There had to be an out of that little conversation… Or, at least, a way to breach it gently. She knew Ziv’s parting had been outright acrimonious, so while she may understand, it had to be a far bigger hole in her heart. It only made sense…

First, dismissing the question she shouldn’t have asked. “Nothing, nothing, just… stray thoughts is all. Just taking in the sights, mm?” Sights… That’s one route. She did like this place – that was, in fact, the problem – and it was only right to let her know. The little smile that came next was more genuine than the olm expected. “You sure know how to pick a scenic route, Ziv. Or meeting spot, rather. You have a talent for that one.”

With a grin and a flick of her ears, Ziv-Ziri let out a little giggle. “I know, right? I’ve been here once or twice, I can’t linger around too much ‘cause they’ll find me, but it’s nice for a stop when you don’t have anything to hide. Can’t say I’ve seen any border guard, or even bounty hunters, either! Uh, not counting Vel, I mean.” After that digression, she stepped closer, and leaned in with all her height, her grin turning sly. “And besides, I knew of a certain someone from the Lakes that would appreciate a few sights like these~”

And with that, Usherrimi’s smile faltered, barely even staying on – which in turn, made the bat’s own turn to a slightly baffled frown. “And you were right on the money, Ziv”, she said, before noticing said frown and feeling she’d been caught. Time to salvage this, she hoped: “Look, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the sights. It’s just… You really did hit close to home, it’s just… Too close? Does that make sense? Please tell me that makes sense.” That last one almost came out unprompted, blurted with unbecoming nerves, and if anything it made Ziv look concerned

“It would make sense to me, Sherry”, answered a different, far deeper voice. The two found a pair of black, beady eyes when they turned, as a familiar Ferigozi crested the hill to join them. “Too great a reminder, I bet. Made you think deep enough about ‘home’ to bring back all of those reasons you left.” The old mole offered a tired, bitter smile as he closed the distance with the other two.

The axolotl answered before the bat could intervene. “First, I was asking Ziv, but, late for that. Second, that’s not what I meant at all, Vel, this isn’t about why I left.”

But Velardi, as usual, was undeterred by that, still with that small smile on his snout. “Was it, though? You said it yourself, a closer reminder of old comfort… Followed, right after, by the thought ‘why am I not there?’, wasn’t it?” He set the indistinct lump of steel he called a weapon against the earth, elongating it until he could use it as a walking stick, and leaned upon it with that sagely smirk of his – with no seeming notice of Usherrimi’s souring expression. “Well, Sherry, in business like ours, home is often the place we can least return to, and honestly, we should hardly want to. Very easy to remind yourself of why you’d never go back.” Then, those tiny eyes narrowed as the mole almost hissed: “Remembering why it stopped being ‘home’.”

With raised brow and narrowed eyes, Sherry didn’t hide how unimpressed she was… But after a deep breath, she softened her expression. “I’m gonna be honest, old man… The reasons are the least of it. Becoming persona-non-grata… You could say it was my fault.” With a flare of her gills, however, her next words filled with hatred: “But I don’t regret even a moment. They knew what they said, they knew what they were doing, they knew what they made up about ME, and thought they’d get away with it ‘cause they were staff. Fuck them, and fuck their academy.”
When the fire died down, all she could add to it – after a heavy sigh – was: “I’ll give you one thing: The part where something in Ishiss, the city, all the way North, is what cost me my spot in the Lakes… That part hurts. Even if it means you get to be wrong about it.”

The Ferigozi was given pause by said outburst, raising his brow even if his placid expression remained. “Ah. Mm, a little more different than I thought… But not quite as different as you would think, Sherry.” He approached the glowing monolith as he rambled, tracing the stone with one claw. “It’s all Ishiss, I’m afraid. The price on your head, or what I assume is one, it’s not the only thing that stretches from border to border… So are the failings and flaws that made sure there was one. Think about it long enough, and you’ll remember all the little red flags, all the indications it wouldn’t be so different, given half the chance… Another easy mistake to make, forgetting that. Why, even I made that one, once.” He looked into the quartz, lost in his words, almost as if he expected to find something in there…

Yet before Usherrimi could pounce on the chance to reply, before she could voice her affronts at the idea her home was anything like the capital, Ziv-Ziri quelled her with a hand on her shoulders, and stepped forwards to answer instead, disapproval all over her face. “Vel, come on. You’re making it sound like she should hate the place, what the hell!? Can’t someone just miss the place, the things they liked about it? The reasons they didn’t leave until they had to? ‘cause I know I do mine.” Then, with eyes narrowed to glowing slits, she leaned all the way down, face-to-face with the mole, before her expression softened, just a little, as she spoke with actual concern. “I know there’s something like that for you too, Vel. There had to be. You’re gonna tell me there isn’t anything you miss from the Kingdom?”

He looked into her eyes, before his gaze turned distant. And with that, Vel’s smirk turned wistful, before falling to a seldom-seen frown… And then, an even-rarer scowl, his claws scraping along the monolith as they balled into a fist, lips pulling back to show needle-like teeth that rarely saw the light. For once – as far as Sherry knew – Velardi of An-Vescaria was caught out with nothing to say, as he looked back up towards the two, turning from one to the other as the gears ground in his head, treading old ground. And in the end, all the mole could offer were four words, almost spat out rather than spoken: “Like I said: Once.”

Silence would’ve followed, broken only by the droplets falling from above and the gentle whisper of water through the lichens… Were it not for the heavy, ironclad steps that sounded up the hill, as the biggest of Ziv’s entourage made it up the hill, casually resting his huge, webbed paws upon Velardi’s shoulders as soon as he made it there. He tried to whisper, yet all could hear the words that brought a quiet sigh from the mole: “Vi, you’re doing it again.”

Sherry could feel the tension drain off the conversation, even if the interaction before her left her a little perplexed. Vel was never touchy as far as she knew – a hard thing to avoid when Ziv’s around – and yet there he was, leaning back into the mountain of bristles that was Askalim. But then again she’d never seen the mole get like that before. With a convo she started, with this moment of weakness of hers. Time to plot out an apology, she thought. “...ssssorry, didn’t know there had been… an incident, there. Or that it was that bad. Sorry.”

Velardi smiled once more, yet it didn’t reach his eyes at all. “I should apologize, Sherry, for losing my temper. I’ve had more time than any of us to get over such a thing, to think of my old place in the Kingdom without flaring up, and yet here I am…”

He didn’t see the shift in the Toskar’s expression when he said that, but he sure felt the squeeze to his shoulders. “Vi?”
“Yes…?”
“You remember what I told you, back in the Empire, with the captain and everything after him, didn’t I?” He leaned down, just to make sure the mole was facing him.
“In detail, yes… So-called soldiers like him, I met far more than I’d like, but you-”
Askalim stopped him with a single finger against his snout. “No, not the point. What I’m getting at is… Knowing that much, and knowing me, if you heard anyone tell me I should just ‘suck it up and get over it’, you’d pluck their ribs out, wouldn’t you?”
It caught Vel by surprise, but he found his answer quickly this time. “It would be tempting, I’ll admit. Very tempting, if they had the details. And if they called you what we know, I’d happily add their heart to it.”

“Right. And now, with that in mind”, the Toskar said, one digit propping up the mole’s snout to look up, “think a little about what you just said about yourself.”

Sherry and Ziv shared a glance, with plenty to say to each other yet fully aware this was a bad moment for it. Looking back to the mole and badger, they could see Velardi struggle with his words again. “Noted”, he began, lingering on the word, before adding a half-hearted “much as your case is different…”

For that, the badger immediately rounded him to speak face-to-face – you could almost see him resisting the urge to lean down to speak at his level, but it didn’t stop him from once again propping Vel’s snout up to look him in the eye. “Let’s retread: You did what they asked, you stood head and shoulders above the rest, you went above and beyond for all a Ferigozi’s supposed to be, only to get fucked over for it. Doesn’t sound all that different, does it?”

And now Askalim leaned in, softening his almost martial tone before Velardi could reply. “Look, I caught a bit of your convo, Zee didn’t make it hard at all.” He glanced at the bat just to catch her embarrassed grin, then continued. “I get why you’d take things like you do… It’s a stab in the back, after doing everything right. But it wasn’t the Kingdom that held the knife, was it? Just as it wasn’t the Empire that buried one into my back. It was captain Valkut – Worm take his ass – and everyone that believed him. Just as in your case…” He stopped, once again glancing at the others present. “…up to you if you tell them, but I won’t.”

Then, a smirk from the badger. “But it didn’t really stop you from being exemplar, did it?”, he began, and the word seemed to freeze the mole in place. “Ha. That one always gets you, doesn’t it, Vi? But I mean it. Way I see it, you took the right lessons, everything your home would’ve looked up to, and took it with you… Like I’m trying to do with mine. Because… Yes, I can’t go back. I am still an outlaw… But I know what a Voskan ought to be. Even one in this business.” He finished with a jab of one finger against Vel’s chest: “Just as you know what a Ferigozi ought to be… And hell, somehow, in this, you’re making it work.”

And, little by little, that sagely little smile was back on the mole’s face, making Usherrimi realize she was actually kind of missing it. “...heh. I did always say you were a sergeant at heart, Askal, that much has never left you.” Then, Vel turned back to the other two – demoted to a mute audience as they’d been – and his smile got sly in turn. “Why, you even perform well with an audience. Well, Sherry, I suppose that might’ve brought you more answers than I could?”

But Askalim just blinked in confusion at that, and interrupted before the olm could reply. “Wait, this was about her?”, he began, before actually addressing her. “Didn’t take you for someone with homesickness, honestly.”
Finally given the chance to speak, Usherrimi began… With a long and bitter sigh. “Neither did I, Askalim, neither did I right until I suddenly was. Fuck, I thought I was over it…”
Ziv pounced on her chance as well. “Yyyyeah, no one ever is, Sherry.” She laid a hand on the olm’s slimy shoulder…

Before clenching it as she was startled – along with everyone else – by a shrill, chirping voice: “SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, BOSS!”

Ziv-Ziri barely had the time to step aside before a runaway Cheli practically crash-landed onto the spot right next to her, claws gouging the lichen layer on arrival. And yet, she had her usual grin to greet her. “Chi! Didn’t hear you arrive! I mean, I rarely do, but this time especially…!”
With a couple flaps and a few sweeps of her claws, Chitwy’s feathers were tucked neatly back in place,“That’s ‘cause I was quiet, quieter even, didn’t want to miss a thing here. Soon as I saw Embers over there with that look on her face I knew I’d want to hear this.”
Violet eyes rolled in their lidless sockets, as an unimpressed Ifchi cut in. “Glad to hear someone is having fun with this little moment.”
AH-AH-AH.” Sherry found the swallow right in front of her quite suddenly with a clawtip pressed against her snout. Her gills sparking flames at their ends as a reflex. Not that the bird cared, despite her dry, mossy wear. “This isn’t about ‘fun’, Embers, this is about you and this heartache of yours. Better to bring this up here before it becomes a problem on the job.”
A low, throaty chuckle coming from behind Chi turned both their heads to find a smirking mole. “Didn’t know you cared this much, miss Krivru, I’d heard quite the opposite before”, he teased…

To that, the Cheli started numbering on one free claw. “One, fuck whoever said that. Two, believe it or not I like it here. And three, professionalism. You should know, Whiskers, especially if Quills there with you did tell you about his blowout back in the Snowdrifts.” Askalim’s brow furrowed at the comment, but before Vel himself could raise an eyebrow she interrupted herself: “I don’t mean the part where he killed the guy, if anything we need more of that. Cleanses the soul. I mean the part where it froze him in there and locked him in when we had six other guys or so surrounding us! Yeah, sounds like a problem to me.” Then, she swieveled back to Usherrimi, who didn’t bother hiding her judging stare. “Also four: This was about you, he’s just the example. And while I can’t guess how things could go wrong in your case, let’s make sure it doesn’t. And besides, think Whiskers’s covered already.”

The olm glared. ‘What would you know about this, you’ve never been kicked out. You never lost it. You can return any time, with someone waiting for you, knowing there’s a point to it. You can fucking fly home, right now, and no one would stop you. What would you know about missing anything.’… All this ran through her head, but she did not say it. She just sighed, looking down, holding back these aches and letting reason prevail when it told her, perhaps this little hunter had something to help. Perhaps she didn’t know the whole story, and it would aid her to know. When she fixed her gaze back on Chitwy, it had softened somewhat, and she could speak in a calmer tone. “Fine then… I heard these two already, and much as I’d like Ziv’s take, you jumped the line, so tell me: How do you do it?”

Again, a claw raised to her snout, though at least the swallow had the decency not to touch her this time. “Ah-ah, not the right question, since this isn’t just a me thing. When you roam the caverns far and wide, when you’re a hunter like me, you work with many that’ve been just like you, or him, or that one” – pointing at Sherry, Askalim and Velardi in succession – “who’ve been thrown into the outskirts and worse because wherever the law treads is off limits to them. And I’m not gonna lie to you: At the campfire, and with a drink or two, they always drifted back there. Back to whatever house they had, even if they would’ve hated it months ago. I get it: It hurts.”

Sherry raised her brow, letting out a held breath. “So it’s not uncommon then. Helps to know… Much as I didn’t even need to be drunk to feel it. Or get to the campfire.” Right, that was usually her job, even if it was little more than being a showoff it felt good to have those honors… And right now, she had to wonder just how much of that feeling was ruled by those days she had been rudely reminded of. “Still, you said it yourself, better to bring it up here. Let me rephrase then: How did they do it?”

Yet again, a claw raised to her snout, almost poking her with one sharp talon. “Did you miss the ‘not just me’ bit? Pah, no sidetracking! Here’s the outline.” With one quick inhale, and raising her wings in the air as if stretching out paper for display, Chitwy began. “Home isn’t a place. No, it’s not one place. Like I almost want to say it’s more of a when than a where, but that wouldn’t be right.” The olm raised one doubtful brow, but didn’t interrupt yet. “When you get down to it, ‘home’ is more of a feeling than a place – feel right at home, and all, that’s what I’m going off here. You have to find that for yourself, out there, that’s what smothers those aches you’re having.”

“So far, so utterly vague.” Sherry pushed her glasses back against her eyes with a faint scowl.

The bird lunged at her for that, actively jabbing her clawed finger against her snout – and narrowly pulling it away before she could grab it in one sparking hand. “I WASN’T DONE, EMBERS.”, she screeched out, before another quick, sharp inhale, and a long sigh. “But fine, I’ll skip to that, since you’ll get it that way. Lemme… what’s the word? Condense.” Chitwy backed off, wings clasped in front of her beak as she paced, ignoring the Ifchi’s indignant glare…

Before she swiveled in place, and turned back to face said glare. “A personal example, you look like you need it. I know, the Pact won’t kill me on sight or anything, but the thing is: Home? It’s not always a roof, a garden you made all by yourself and a bed with someone waiting on it. It can be that, it has things you yearn for, that you want and get. But sometimes… Often, even. To me, ‘Home’ is often just…” Those big, sharp eyes closed slowly, and a rare smile graced her face right behind her beak. “…the wind against my feathers, heavy with whatever the breezes stir in the cave. The echoes of untamed wilderness, with no bustle to drown it out. Pristine sights, untouched by road and country… The feeling of finding something, sometimes someone, that no one else was supposed to find. Of tracking it and hunting it down…” She opened her eyes, glancing at the group, one by one. “…knowing whoever’s at my side knows what they’re doing. That they see it all just like I do. That they get it. And that whether it all goes right or wrong, they will have your back.”

After letting it linger for a few seconds, with no one to interrupt, Chitwy turned back to Usherrimi properly, and resumed, calmer than the olm had ever known her. “That’s where I feel at home. And of those sorts that kept drifting back to what they’d lost during those long nights by the campfire… By morning, they remembered what they had out there. What they sought and found in those faraway places. The reason why they stayed out there, on hunts of their own… Even if they didn’t always know what it was.” One last time, the bird pointed at the olm, finally keeping a polite distance. “You don’t know what it is right now, but you have it, you’re still with the Boss and everyone else here. Start from there.”

From there, just a moment of silence, and Usherrimi found herself looking down, and back at the monolith, starting to wonder… What had kept her in this track, rather than trying to hide away in the nation’s outskirts, in some dark river somewhere? What made her stay away with her head held proud, rather than trying to bow to the city, begging for forgiveness? …Other than the fact that was pathetic, of course, she had to leave aside matters of self-respect. She had to be enjoying some of this, she knew she was. They’d caught her smiling before, and some enjoyed making a fuss about it. She just needed to put her finger on it, right…?

Much as her actual fingers were back on this glowing monolith before her. Its light was still soothing, even with all its reminders. Again she was lost in thought, and by the time she realized she forgot to actually answer, Ziv had already done so for her, with a “Wow! Chi, you’re actually a pretty good speaker!”… Debatable, Sherry thought, but it didn’t address the point either way, didn’t it. The bat then stepped right between her and the rest, with one hand on her shoulder – a hand she didn’t recoil from, this time, despite feeling just as sharp sometimes. That was something to think about, wasn’t it… Maybe that was the avenue of thought she ought to pursue, once she had some time to herself, and she didn’t have Ziv prattling on about how much of a pleasant surprise it was to see this admittedly feral Cheli being so insightful, as she was now…
…though when that shoulder-squeeze tightened, and she picked up the slightest hint of a giggle in the bat’s voice – she knew that one well after all this time – she turned around, just in case, deciding those thoughts could wait…

And she did so just in time to see a wiry figure in a rainproofed coat right behind Chitwy and her smug little scoff, with a pair of striking green eyes beneath the drooping brim of his hat. Just in time to hear him utter, with a lisping voice that was just a tinge too loud, “Don’t think y’got th’ whole tale there, lil’ hunter.”

Right, that accent of his. This “Liyon Pinweave” was one of the newest in this little… enterprise, as Ziv liked to call it, but he was already damn unmistakeable, especially for one of the Bannerbound. Recognizable enough that even Chitwy managed to remember who he was before she tried to rake his face, but after she sprung in flight, startled into a shriek that sent her twenty feet into the air. It got the tiniest smirk out of Sherry… But she couldn’t help but widen it as soon as the Vez with her started outright cackling at that. Oh, she was in on it, wasn’t she? She would’ve heard Pins coming, but didn’t say a thing. Maybe even distracted her. “Heh. Hah! Oh, Ziv, you’re evil sometimes, you know that?”

Turnabout is fair play, greeheeheeee~!”, she practically wheezed out in response, as her own laughter made Askalim belt out one loud “HA!”, and even made the mole crack a wider smile he felt the need to hide behind a claw. And once the Cheli landed right in front of her to glare at her, and perhaps yell at her own boss for that little scare… The scowl on the bird’s face just made her cackle even harder, to Chitwy’s resigned displeasure. “Fuck’s sake boss. I guess I earned that, I know I was loud about it too but STILL.”

Pins joined the group proper once his “victim” had landed again, and the moment died down. “I’ll be apologizin’ fer that one”, he said, “that bit of braggin’ had me mighty tempted. But it ain’t th’ reason I wanted t’pipe up about it all. ‘cause I was hearin’ all of ya on this-”
Sherry outright hissed her interruption: “Yes, again, without warning. Is everyone in this enterprise of ours going to just eavesdrop on this? Ziv, have you hired anyone recently, so that I may know before they just show up having heard this little convo?”
“Uh, no, that should be it. I swear I didn’t plan on this, I didn’t know…” Ziv lowered her head, just a little. “I really didn’t know, actually. Sorry.”
“Th’both of ye can hash that out later, yeh? I ain’t about to start mockin’ or anythin’, but I did have a bit to add.” Already he was striding closer to Sherry herself…
“Of course you do”, she bitterly replied. “Everyone in here just seems to be bursting with advice today, just for the occasion…”

Again, a clawed grip on her shoulder – both her shoulders this time – and the friendly voice of Ziv-Ziri. “Sherry… We’ve all been through one measure or another of this. And no one wants to see you like this… Not here at least. And those who would, I think you’ve toasted most of them, hee…!” After a little chuckle at her own joke, she sighed, and rounded to face the olm properly. “Sometimes it just comes out all at once, when you get a reminder, right? Like just now. It had to be bottled for a while…” Then came the sharp-toothed smile. “I did have something to say too, even if you don’t wanna hear it anymore, but I don’t think I’m that good a… consoler, I guess? Not the sharpest tool in my skillset? So I was leaving me for last, but if this is too much…”

No, no, it’s not…!” Sherry blurted, almost in a slight panic, but swallowed, cleared her throat, and continued with more composure. “It’s not too much, just… Needed a moment to pace myself. Hard to remember to expect help out there. And in here, in fact. But… No, I’ll hear it out.” And from there, the lightest of whispers, not even coming closer to Ziv to say it, but knowing full well ears like hers could catch it, and no one else’s. “I think yours is the one I’d need the most. I don’t care if you think it’s terrible, Ziv.”

And taking a moment to smile warmly – and then a little smugly when she saw Ziv practically melt into one of her widest grins – Sherry turned around, and faced the Bannerbound. “Very, Mr. Pinweave. What did you have to offer?”

“Pins is fine, y’know”, he said, making Sherry’s smile a little smugger still, “but I’ll give what I got. ‘cause y’see, ‘s a bigger thing than any one fella, bigger ‘n you or me. Can get big like a whole damn country, ‘n I know it ‘cause it did. To us.”

“You mean the Clans…”, Sherry replied before the others, though there were mutters she couldn’t pick up among the other three. Right, the Seven were more attached than usual to their ancestry, to their time before the caverns and the land outside their Exit. Far more attached, at that. But the comparison seemed unfair, to compare a whole nation to just her. Could an entire country miss something, was it enough of an entity to feel such a thing…?

“Yeh, th’ Clans.” Out came his gloved hands, starting to enumerate as he listed out what he’d expect of those gathered. “I know V’lardi’d knows Zau, ‘n maybe Sofize.”
“They do good business with a mole like me, much as Sofize likes to obfuscate the way they do things, and Zau’s little… Proselytizing problem.” Seems Vel sure did.
“Ashk’lim’d fer sure know Norrish-”
Yes, yes I would, and the fact they kept showing up baffles me.” Why and how a Clan kept sending raids across that patch of caverns would baffle more than a few, Sherry would admit.
“‘n our hunter’d been t’ Vesh, knowin’ ‘em ‘n what they’ve got down there.”
The little bird grinned at that. “Oh they are fun, some of the best tours of my life~.”
“Anyone’s ever touched th’ Consortium’d know Vesnor, but I know our bossh’s been wheelin’ goods t’Zau ‘n Heese.”
“And also Vesnor, in fact!” Ziv grinned, proudly. “The silk bans were their idea but they sure kept buying!”
“‘n as someone from th’ lakes, I know ye’d hear some less ‘n fond words ‘bout Issouf.”
“...I will give you that one. Mother had some choice words about the Rishim Aquifer.” Sherry could remember those rants very clearly, and the less of Father and his words on the incident, the better.

“Mill-Iron Aquifer if y’ask ‘em. But ye know ‘em all between th’ lot. Good, makes it easy. ’cause it lets me get t’the gist.” With a motion within that coat, Pins cracked his shoulders and neck very audibly. “Y’see, I’m a Sofize hob, ‘n even as a hob I don’t always get th’ other six. ‘n you don’t always get th’ ones y’see. Might not get ‘em at all even. But if y’gotta get one thing ‘bout th’ Seven, it’s th’ common thread. Th’ Urul Peaks. Th’ frozen land on th’ other side. What we all lost, ‘bout as lost as it can get. Turns out y’can miss somethin’ y’never even knew. ’n so, the Seven work with that lil’ weight on ‘em. Whole damn history with a home that’s dead ‘n buried, pretty damn literally. ‘s one of th’ first things we all learn…”

“Followed by how y’deal with it.” With that, he raised the brim of his hat, and one could tell there was a smile beneath that scarf… Much as it would be a crooked smile with a sharp tongue, as some there would know. “Y’see it in all Seven, th’ common thread of it. Home ain’t quite one place, Chitwy got th’ gist of that one. ‘s somethin’ you bring with yerself. ‘cause it ain’t just vistas ‘n buildin’s ‘n landscapes, there’s plenty of non-material there. Th’ ways folks were with each other, th’ things ye praised ‘bout it, th’ stories ‘n lives of th’ place, that’s th’ real heart of it, th’ parts that aren’t luggage ‘n land. Ye pack it all up… ‘n then set off with it in yer pack, knowin’ they can’t get it off ya. ‘n when you set roots again, wherever it is, however long y’have in there… y’get to unpack it. Get to be it. Show it, praise it, let ‘em all know that’s what made ya. ‘n by layin’ it down, by puttin’ it out there, by bein’ it all… Even a windy, sand-choked hellhole will be a little more like home, every day. ‘n even a campfire with folks y’ picked to be surrounded by, ‘cause they’d be right at home with ya, can be like th’ place ye lost, in th’ ways that matter.”

…huh. Once again, Usherrimi caught herself looking down at the lichens beneath her feet, eyes unfocused, with no real answer to that. Pins didn’t exactly have a way with words, but there was enough to parse, there. Enough to pick through, and get the base ideas. At the very least… She now knew more or less why the Bannerbound were the way they are. It was hard to understand missing something you never had, and so, she – whose only thought on the lands the Ifchi lived in before the caverns was that it was a monument to her species’ mistakes – had never thought of how doing so would shape a nation. But down to the individual, and realizing she was now stranded from something both beloved and impossible…

“Wow! You’re actually a pretty good speaker- Hee! Not pulling that one twice! But I mean it, though!”
“Might’ve been cheatin’ seein’ this is somethin’ most hobs get, but ‘s what I got. Hope it helps, yeh?”

Maybe it wasn’t so impossible. If she brought along the parts that weren’t old slate rooms, glowing monoliths and steamy water between her fingers. It was a place where talents were seen and recognized, maybe she’d have to do that more for others, as they were doing for her. A place away from cold judgment, away from disappointed eyes of those who saw her through a skewed lens… A place where she was free, too, wasn’t she? Where light and flame were welcome, where she could actually roam, and see a little more beyond walls of black and sodden stone…

“You’re missing the whole POINT of being in a new place! You can’t just impose yourself like that, where’s the thrills!? The discovery of things you’ve never seen, all the things you haven’t even TOUCHED!”
“Burnin’ ‘n buildin’s a whole ‘nother business that-”
“Okay that’s kinda true in ways, but in others, none of that means tearing everything apart, and besides, you need a place to settle even if it’s just to sleep once, right?”

Roaming, right… She’d seen far more of the caverns, of the Subterraneum as a whole, than she’d ever dreamed about. And she had always wanted to see more… Granted, some places had been a little disappointing, but even the Great Dust Gyre of all lands had a charm of their own. And she hadn’t regretted it one bit. One of the pleasures she never got… There was something to that, about the road. But it didn’t mean she couldn’t bring a bit of her home along in every path…

“Some things must unfortunately be changed, miss Krivru, if only because they will be the end of you if you don’t. Though that is true even of a land you live in all your life, isn’t it?”
“That’s the thing, Vi, not changing it means letting it fester, it’s something you need to work on. Even when it’s your very own home you need to work on it, and some of it’ll be ugly. But when it’s done, when you leave it all better than you arrived…”
“Hey, just one person can only do so much there, but then again, I’ve found after a little bit it’s never really one person, right, Sherry?”

…not just a bit of home, a bit of her, in fact. Because throughout it all, she was still Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var. The same that refused to be pulled off her own talents just to beat her head against disciplines she hated. Who strode into the academies of Ishiss ready to rock their foundations, thanks to one tutor that actually knew how to teach. A teacher who actually knew what to do with her… She was the one who refused to bow to anyone, especially those who taught her such in the first place. Who refused to bow her head even if it meant being nothing more than a drop-out, a criminal, in the eyes of those who’d demanded it. Even if it meant striking back at the ones that thought tormenting her and ripping into all she held to her heart just for the sake of some “experiment”… Even if it meant making examples of them, and never seeing the ones that made her who she is, ever again, for good or ill… No matter what, she’d been her, that much was true, no matter what anyone else thought. Even if it meant having to leave them, leave those that welcomed her, once, twice-

“Sherry? SHERRY!”

She made a startled yelp, suddenly finding Ziv-Ziri was practically in her face, a mere inch away, and with her voice rattling her ears. “...sorry, Ziv, just needed to process for a moment, is all… Where were we?”

Ziv looked just a little concerned. Less than at the start of… This, but still. But then, a little smile crawled onto her lips, and she turned to the others. “Guys, and the one gal, you mind setting up the camp? Right over there, the dry spot next to that little stream down there! We’ll get there when it’s time to light the actual fire, okay? Just need a little moment is all!”

“Yeh, sure”, said Pinweave, his very voice a shrug, before turning around and walking away without a word.
“About time, boss! I’ll get to that right away!”, followed Chitwy, immediately taking flight to beat the others to the spot.
“As you say, Zee, I’m gonna grab our stuff, we left it all the way down.” Off went Askalim, in a fairly different direction, his stride unperturbed.
“I’m sure you two’ve got plenty to ruminate on, after this all, don’t you? Why, I know I have my share.” Unhurried, Velardi followed the badger, with a strange smile on his face.

And as soon as they were alone, without a word, Ziv laid one clawed hand across Sherry’s back and urged her back, to walk just a little further away, behind the glowing monolith that had started this whole… Affair. The olm was just a little weirded out by it, but walked forwards, looking at her in confusion. Once in its (nonexistent) shadow, she finally turned to face her… And sighed, looking around. Was she unsure where to begin…?

“Feeling better, Sherry?” was the first thing Ziv said, at last, once she found the words.
It’d be the polite thing to say yes, but here, with just her, she could be a bit more truthful. “…A little, Ziv. Just a little. I think I still need to process that whole… Affair. It’s a lot. And honestly… Honestly, I think this is the first time I realized this was an actual problem. Does that make sense?”
“Oh, it does, Sherry, it really, really does. And I kinda wish I had seen it earlier.” All of a sudden, the bat looked slightly uncomfortable, conflicted even. “Sorry, I really didn’t know it stung so much…”
“Neither did I, Ziv, I said that already. It just… Hit me. All at once, and I didn’t even know it was waiting there.” Once again the olm’s gaze drifted down…
“Still feels like I should’ve seen it coming, you know? We’ve been in this longer than any of the others…” More conflicted still… Right before she looked back into her eyes. “But better late than never, right? Right…? Now we both know…! And… Oh, lords, what I wanna say is gonna sound so selfish, I’m sorry, Sherry…”
That didn’t seem right. And she wasn’t afraid to say it, along with some other thoughts along the way. “That doesn’t sound like you at all, Ziv. I want to be the judge of that. Say it, you’ve been quiet long enough and it doesn’t seem fair to me.”

“Okay okay, so, how do I put this…” Ziv-Ziri started pacing, fretting with fingers interlocked, trying to keep her eyes on Sherry’s throughout. “When I got thrown out of the Consortium, I was… Terrified. Even by the time you met me. I just kind of stapled a smile over my face and kept going while I could, for several reasons, but one of the big ones was… Well, after everything, getting split away from the friends I did have back there, and family, one of the things stuck in my mind was… “I’m never gonna meet anyone that understands me ever again”. ‘cause every other place is so different, and sure, I’m pretty good at reading others, I could adapt and I did, but…” Her pacing quickened, and her voice rose in volume and pitch. “Sometimes you just want someone to understand you, right? That can see a bit more than just a saleswoman, or a smuggler now I guess. Nothing but business associates from here on out, Ziv-Ziri, have fun dealing with yourself all by yourself! No one out there has what you need anymore!”

Usherrimi could almost feel Ziv’s voice quivering now, she hid it well at first, but now it seems either she couldn’t, or she wasn’t even bothering anymore… But on the bat went: “And at first, I kinda… Kept thinking that, for a while. Though you helped a lot there, because we were on pretty similar boats, but with others… I thought Vel just had enough time to get over everything, but I guess he’s just scarred so thick you can’t reach him – or at least I can’t. I misread him a little there, but even then! And then, Chi just doesn’t have the same trouble, nowhere NEAR, even if she knows those who do, she still has a partner somewhere in the Pact and everything! And then Pins is… Pins. I guess he had a lot more to say on the general level, if not on the personal one, that surprised me, but they all surprised me, and that helped… More than I thought it would, right now, but I’m getting sidetracked.” From there, a sigh, as those big yellow eyes looked down, and closed. “And Kal… He was hardened, and even just learning the name of the guy who screwed him over was hard. He was closer, we could relate a little, but his case was just… Different, he had a face to give his woes, and I think that kept him going. And when he just stumbled into a reckoning in that castle, after that, he’s been… Calmer. It’s helped him. And that’s something I don’t think I can get, or ever will…”

The Vez turned around to face her again, but couldn’t quite look her in the eye yet. Sherry didn’t remember seeing her like this, ever. Not this deep. And it concerned her, outright worried her. Ziv needed to speak this piece, didn’t she? “And… Sherry, I am so, so sorry, but you asked for the truth, and you’ll get it. At first, I saw you so… Not stoic, but… Solid. Steadfast! That’s the word. You were handling all this so well, I thought. Our starts into this whole… Life, they were so much alike, but I… Sorry, I thought you were handling it so much better, way better than me! You were like an anchor sometimes, keeping me grounded on things, and I asked myself, more than once, ‘how does she do it?’” Those words, those exact words, made Usherrimi’s thoughts stumble. She asked that about her? She felt a pang very, very deep in her chest with that, losing her breath for just a second. “But I kept hiding it and never asked, and I never knew. I guess I was getting comfortable, getting used to it, and with the things folks did understand, it was enough, it felt nice, but the depths still stung a little, I thought I just needed time! So I never asked…”

At last, Ziv looked at her straight in the eye, with a hopeful, almost trembling smile and eyes that could barely focus. “But you get it, right? I’m sorry I never realized, but… You get it, right…?”

Usherrimi wanted to say ‘Yes, I get it’. And she attempted it. But what came out was less than coherent. She tried again, with better focus, but what she said was barely passable as a ‘Yes’, before a sharp inhale- was that a sob? Her eyes were almost burning, so it checked out- Was she crying!? Right in front of Ziv, right now!? After she called her an anchor to her own pains!? Pains like hers at that!? No, she couldn’t, she had to stay strong, she had to stay strong for her, she knew how this hurt now and if Ziv had been hiding it all this time, while she, the fool, had been too deluded to realize it hurt, she didn’t have the right, she owed it to stay strong! She couldn’t cry, she couldn’t cry-

No can do. There she was, the mighty and steadfast Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var, brought low by a sobbing fit like she’d never experienced, one that made it hard to even stand. All she could do was try not to fall to her knees, lean on her pressed-down tail for balance, and cover her face with her hands so Ziv didn’t see her like this. She didn’t need to. Hearing her sniffle and struggle with words, and seeing just the teardrops that made it off her face, was beyond enough. But few could hid a fit like this, and an Ifchi least of all, with how those tears streamed. Lords damn it all, she couldn’t do it. And in the midst of this all, she couldn’t see how Ziv took this. Maybe she’d blame herself, or maybe she’d just broken the pedestal she’d been put onto, but either way, she’d disappointed her. That was the worst part, she’d been an anchor and the one time she’d found out how deep it went she blew it, and it only made her sob even harder-

“Sherry? Sherry, it’s fine- actually, come here.”

Familiar words said by the one usually receiving them. And when she opened her eyes, she saw Ziv with her arms outstretched in the exact same manner, too, even through the blur of tears. The Ifchi would appreciate the irony later, but right now, all she could think to do was to lunge towards the bat, and wrap her slimy arms around her cloak, sobbing openly into her chest and immediately staining the whole thing with her tears and slime. Almost bowled the bat over with her mass, but she couldn’t hold back right now. She needed someone who understood, and she was needed as someone who understood… The clawed hands pressed against her back, pulling her in so she could be embraced properly, only confirmed it.

Minutes passed, and neither of them let go. Sherry could barely hear Ziv’s little sniffles over her own breakdown, no matter how much she tried to muffle it against the fabric, and the soft fur she could almost feel beneath it. All the while, the bat laid her own head between Sherry’s frills, where she could definitely feel the fur getting slimed up, but she didn’t care one iota… Lords below, she felt like she was messing everything up just being there right now, and yet… Much as she wished she’d known it sooner, that behind that smile was a common wound, or that she herself had said wound, they knew it now, and selfish as it sounded, knowing someone hurt the exact same helped a little-
...that’s what she meant, wasn’t it. Selfish, in a way, but if Ziv-Ziri felt any better from it herself, in any way, it was worth it. Maybe she really did get it, after all…

And so, the sobbing died down to mutual sniffles, then to silence, broken only by soft breathing and the distant dripping of the caverns, with chatter from what’d be their camp once this was done. Everything that had been bottled up, coming out at once… They weren’t empty, but it was manageable, now, pouring out even in this growing quiet.

“Feelin’ any better, Sherry…?” Ziv was the first to break the silence that had settled.
“Think so”, she answered, before having to swallow just to continue. “S-sorry about that Ziv, so sorry…”
“Sorry about what, you did nothing wrong…!”, the bat answered, almost a little startled by the insinuation. She lifted and pulled her head back just so she could look her in the eye.
And the olm almost wilted under it, despite the kindness in that gaze. “Y’called me an anchor, y’said I was helping you, and here I’m just… Jus’ findin’ out you hurt like me and I’m the one breakin’ down-”
Shh.” One clawed finger over her snout muted Sherry. “You needed that. More than I did. You held strong way longer, and I…” She sniffled again. “…it means something that you opened up like this, y’know?”
“’cause you get it! You always got it! Fuck!”. Unable to make herself let go, she just shamefully rubbed her face against the cloth to wipe some of her tears. “And I didn’t know… And here you are, opening up to me. Just this… Spoiled drop-out way in over her head who couldn’t read others for shit as far as you knew, j-just some newt with barely anything, who almost dragged you down, a-and you took me in, and you helped me, a-and you j-just- you just let me shine…!” It took effort not to hiccup right then and there.

Something about that made Ziv pause, almost as it if confused her… And then, she put both her long-fingered hands on either side of the olm’s snout, and leaned in closer, where she could see the little streaks of tear-stained fur under those big, glowing golden eyes of hers, gleaming like beacons to her… “Sherry, why wouldn’t I? I meant… Honestly, because you prefer that, honestly at first you paid your dues, so I had to, but then I saw what you could do… A-and then I saw who you were!” Something about the tone she said that in got to Sherry, who leaned back to look into her eyes properly, and her face as a whole, listening quietly. “You dealt with everything in stride, you’re good at what you do, too, and… It’s a spectacle, watching you work! It’s like everything some blowhards in Ishiss claim to be, but you don’t brag, you show! And it’s so… Pretty, too! I honestly kinda like how you look with your gills lit up, you know…?”

And that got to the olm even more. She’d love to have a sly little boast to offer, but right now, all she could do was listen, unable to see her own starstruck gaze – it’s not like Ziv’s eyes could reflect it – getting a little lost in her words.

“A-AND I MEAN- You’ve been pretty clever too, and so honest, and it’s so rare to see either, let alone both, and I can just be straightforwards with you with everything in our business, and I should’ve known it applied outside it too, but still…!”
The bat was getting warmer, Sherry could feel it. Part of it may have been panic from realizing what she just said, and trying to slide into something else, something more… Publicly acceptable, maybe? But part of it had to be something else. Could she relate to that, too…?

“A-and you have an eye for places, too, you really do have a traveler’s heart, I’ve liked that from the start, you know…? Though you’re pretty knowledgeable in general, I don’t think I ever told you that, but I should, because it’s like… Like those stories I hear here and there, of those roaming sages and wizards even, wiser than any of the ones from towers, a-and I always liked that thought, even if it was through my filter, of traveling artificers and traders of secret wonders, you know…?”
Usherrimi found herself leaning closer, ever closer, almost standing on her toes just to look deeper into her eyes even as they looked about as she tried to ramble away from a truth she wasn’t sure she should’ve said, burying it under her honest thoughts that only made it stand out moreLords, those eyes. And that smile she had, when she meant it, when she let her teeth show without a care for tweaking how it looked. And that soft fur of hers, that felt like it shined even in the muddiest, bleakest holes in these caves. Closer still, and with wider eyes and mouth slightly agape, as she thought back, upon all those outings, all those times whether alone or with the others… Ziv had a light of her own, she shined as well, as herself, unashamed and bright, in a way that…
In a way that… Oh Lords

“A-and I guess I just like how you’re you, if that means anything…? Like you’ve made all of this so much easier even when everything goes smoothly, you know? A-and, I mean, it’s just- Sherry? What- mmh!

One last inch up, and their snouts met. Then their lips. In a moment, a single, fiery impulse, Usherrimi just went and planted a kiss, right on the lips of what until moments ago had been her boss and friend. With closed eyes, she couldn’t see her reaction, all she could do was feel the warmth, the rising warmth, and hear the silence that set in as their breathing stopped… No, it wasn’t quite silence, she simply stopped hearing anything that wasn’t each other, and she could swear she could hear the bat’s rising heartbeat-

Usherrimi pulled away, as reason came screaming back into her mind. What had she done, what the fuck had she done!? “Shit shit SHIT Ziv I’m so sorry I AM SO SORRY I DIDN’T- PLEASE DON’T-”
But she stopped, almost biting her tongue, as she saw the bat’s expression. There was no anger, no disgust, there were just a mouth agape in surprise, and those eyes, those great, glowing, tender eyes… Wide as could be, and… Starstruck? Pupils wide, and with just the slightest hint of new tears at their edges-

A rush of movement, pushing Sherry back on her feet. A lunge from above. And she felt Ziv-Ziri’s lips pressed on hers by her own volition, and reason, sated, stepped back to let everything else take over. To let their embrace tighten once more, and feel each other’s heartbeats and warmth, with everything else, even the monolith that shone a spotlight upon their encounter, fading into the background. With closed and teary eyes, and their ears focused on naught but their breaths and hearts, they let their other senses take over, melting into each other, slime and fur meeting with little more than joy in it. Feeling one another, with fingers that trailed along their backs, grasping each other in search of more. Tasting one another, as the bat started to give in, slipping the tip of her tongue into the axolotl’s mouth, pushing against her thick tongue, feeling each and every one of those tiny, sharp little snaggleteeth that she loved to see whenever Sherry truly smiled

And in the end, they parted, with Usherrimi’s gills stretching wide as she gasped for air, and Ziv-Ziri simply smiling as she took in a deep, longing breath, smiling at the olm… Who, at last, smiled back, with glistening eyes. And with still-flared gills, that refused to stay put, her breathing heavy and heated…

“Sherry… I really wish we weren’t being waited on, because I would’ve liked to keep going.”
“…Same, Ziv. I could’ve gone for hours there, that felt… This is…”
“Shh, I think you’ve told me all I needed to know… You need a minute to calm down a little~?”
“...actually? Yes. You can always claim the stains were water, but I can’t face them this… Flushed.”
“Hee~! Nah, if you won’t hide it I won’t! Still, they can wait a minute longer!”
“…Actually… I have an idea to pass that minute. Want to help me with a cairn, here?”
“O-oh, you’re gonna mark the occasion? Like, to the whole Subterraneum like that? I-”
“I feel it’s right, you know? And besides… This quartz right here, lighting up the dark… I was fond of them then, and what can I say, after this, I’m fond of them now. It feels right to mark it, don’t you think?”
“...yeah, yeah I do. Look, that one could make the base, wanna help me with it?”
“Like I always have… Like I always will~.”

yutzen: Histiotus Macrotus bat looking more amused than a bat should look (Default)

(Another from the archive, another prompt (by Make Up A Wizard back on Cohost), another main line story, another little something for Ziv and Sherry alike.)

Wizard who believes all guards are bastards


"Oh, no, I met Sherry pretty early on actually, just a bit after getting thrown out! In a way, she was a customer, 'cause she needed a way outta the Spires - you looked SO lost back then! - and I thought 'hey, having a hitchhiker helps a bit, right? No one hiding stuff picks up hitchhikers, they'll probably think I'm gullible!' So after hiding what she paid, she hopped on, and... well, sometimes bad luck and bad decisions work out pretty nice! Say, Sherry, why don't you tell 'em?"


"Yeah, go right ahead sir, have a look!"

Along a wide road of smoothed stone, flanked on all sides by pillars of black, geometric basalt, a roofed iron wagon had been stopped in its trek. The sparking bulbs at its corners and the luminous rods held by those surrounding it were just about the only lighting in the cavern, aside from very distant specks of a tower-laden city left far behind - though distant rock formations seemed silhouetted by the faintest of red, as if the very earth had a glimmer of its own.

The driver, a mostly chiropteran figure stood tall in front of her belongings, showing only her yellow eyes and a big, fanged grin; nearly all the rest was covered in a long, dusty cowl that almost reached her ankles. She motioned almost theatrically towards the back of her vehicle, now that it had its back compartment open. "Oh, right", she said in her high-pitched voice, "I did bring some white-welt in those jars over there, got a brother that loves that tea. That's not a problem, right?" She asked with a lilting, cheery tone, knowing full well that wasn't a problem - that laid elsewhere, entirely out of sight, in places where she hoped the armored fellows she was talking to wouldn't imagine existed.

The driver then briefly turned her ear towards her restless traveling companion, wearing a similar cloak - though visibly oversized for her stature - that showed even less under all the fabric, no matter how tightly it stuck to her heavy form. The only thing visible under the cowl were the shape of a wet, rounded snout and the pin-prick reflections of every light before her, glinting off rounded goggles somewhere in the dark. 'Lords below', she wanted to say, 'I really hope you know what you're doing', but even the tiniest whisper might be heard by the three Vezarym that had stopped their ride for inspection. All Usherrimi could do was trust this smuggler, this "Ziv-Ziri", and be ready to act if it didn't work out... And once the Vez herself had made sure she was staying put, she stepped aside and let them pass.

The silvery helms of the three guards, pointed and featureless, betrayed no emotion, not even a glance at each other. The one in the fanciest armor - a thoroughly articulated getup that even had scales worn over the ridge of his wings, and had protection all the way to the ankles - chirped an order in their language to a subordinate, who immediately stepped towards the back of the carriage. The two persons of interest stood back, watching the guard's thin breastplate shimmer in the lights as he made it past the others, and started to rummage through their belongings, between sharp clicks of his tongue.

Another chirp from the (presumed captain, and the other guard spoke up. "Where are you heading, ma'am?", she asked Ziv-Ziri, without a glance or an ear turned towards her company.
"Straight to Tov-Riki! Gonna be staying there for a while!" Ziv-Ziri's smile was sharp and sure as ever as she fed them part of the truth; she'd stay there 'a while', and then keep going well past the Hollow-Lands, with her (and her real cargo's) true destination deep in the sands of the Gyre.
The guard spoke up again, as the captain took notes. "Do you have a residence within Tov-Riki?" It sounded intrusive, but in the Consortium, such questions were expected.
And so, the bat already had an answer: "Not mine, but my brother Lemniz lives there! Gonna be staying with him for a bit of a family vacation!" Made sense - aside from the part where Lemniz was neither her brother nor an actual person - that little town was one of the few places in the Consortium with a river you could swim in without being swept away.

But then came the elephant in the room: "Who's the individual traveling with you, ma'am?"

To her credit, her answer neither wavered nor skipped a beat, but it painted an unflattering picture. "I picked her up along the road! She was walking straight towards the Hollow-Lands, and I thought, 'hey, she could use a lift!' This place is bad enough with help, you know?" And again she turned her ear towards the Ifchi, before everyone's gazes followed, including the one previously looking in the trunk... and, as accorded, Usherrimi said a quick, low-voiced greeting in Ishiss' language - though she added a touch of Riverside accent of her own accord. Just in case. Wouldn't do to sound like she's from too far away.

"I can translate if you need", Ziv offered. That one also felt like an improvisation.

"That won't be necessary, ma'am". That guard's tone was was less than promising, but a scolding was getting off easy. "Picking up strangers on the road is dangerous business, traveling alone as you are. You could've been in serious danger."

This smuggler had a reply for that too at least: "I mean... yeah, I know, but she was also alone, in the middle of this place, and I mean... look at her!" Straight for pointing at her near-penniless, ragged, frowning self, huh. Usherrimi didn't even try to hid the dour look on her face from that one, maybe it'd even help move things along quickly. The smears of ash on her slimy face - even her skin being black as coal couldn't hide those - sure drove the point across, too. 'Trust the professional', she repeated in her head, drowning out the rest.

The armored Vez tried, and failed, to hide a snort. "I get what you mean, ma'am, believe me, but I'm serious. Appearances are deceiving..." She paused, and leaned in for a few words she thought the olm wouldn't understand, "...though I'll give you one thing: Looking like that, stranded around here, don't think this one's even got a spark in her." Now Usherrimi had to hide her expression, looking down and trying not to flare her gills in offense.

Ziv-Ziri could only plaster a smile on her face until she could move on; they all might as well just play along. So far so good, even the one sifting through the wagon seemed just distracted enough to miss things, and that meant they'd probably be off and away from this soon enough... But there was a look in the captain's face that wasn't amusement, or stoicism. Ziv hadn't noticed it yet, too focused on the "friendly" one, but behind that helmet, Usherrimi could see the gears in his head were turning. Was he catching on? No, his ears were fixed on the Ifchi, like he thought she wouldn't notice just because his eyes were elsewhere. She knew how bats worked, and the clicking of his tongue gave him away...

"Don't be so sure, sergeant", he said at last, yet again in the Consortium's tongue, "spark's got nothing to do with it. Prowling around the Spires, pretending to be lost, right before giving some tourist doe eyes to hitch that ride to the Hollow-lands? Right through the Deltas?" The captain shook his head, huffing in what sounded like disdainful amusement. His next words were proud, almost smug, as he placed his hand on his subordinate's shoulder: "What you have here, sergeant Tikriz, is a spy. Eyeing claims, spotting mines, and sifting through the silt to let everyone know just where Consortium digs are, and just what they've found. I'd bet you fifty Crowns I could find a chip of gold in some pocket of hers, one that belongs to us." The other two looked at him with inscrutable eyes behind their helmets, as he leaned back on spread wings, humming. "Ah, the miners won't hear a thing, but the Dredger's Guilds... they'll want to know about this."

Usherrimi tensed, clenching her fists under her cloak. Just like that, everything had gone to shit in less than a minute, and over... this, something worse than she could've even imagined. And the worst part, the part she couldn't get out of her head, and made her blood boil, was... Had she been wandering odd places? Sure. Was she making deals with a smuggler? Unfortunate but true. Was she a wanted criminal? ...criminal, maybe, wanted, yes, if you counted Ishiss. But was she a spy? Some prowling rat out for others' lowly, material secrets, crawling in the mud for others' gold of all lords-damned things!? All for someone that already had plenty of it already, and would scarcely give her any!? This slanderous fabrication is what she was going to fucking prison for!?

To accuse Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var of something that venal needed an answer, whether this shiny son of a whore meant it or had some other motive, as these enforcers always did. And yet... she couldn't give it, could she? All three had turned to her, rounding in, already surrounding her, and this smuggler would just-

"Oh come on." Said smuggler derailed her train of thought right then and there, cutting in with a sharp voice. "No luggage, nowhere to drop her off, no knapsack, no anything, and hitching a ride in this thing with me? And you think she's some kinda spy?" She approached the captain, that smile of hers shinier than ever in the light, before turning towards the other two for sympathy, for an audience to convince. "Come on, doesn't that seem a little... silly, maybe?"

Alright, so this smuggler wouldn't just throw her into the fire, despite having everything to lose from it. At least someone had her back, even if she was a damn near stranger... But no good deed went unpunished, going by the captain's reaction: He immediately loomed before her, uncomfortably close, with one claw at his side already reaching for his weapon. "Oh?", he said, trying to hide his affront under a thick layer of sarcasm, "is there something wrong with my assessment, ma'am? A problem with the judgement of someone that's patrolled these Spires for a decade, mm?" He glared right into her eyes, and only pulled away once she shrank back from it. His next words had that certain smugness again, pointing with his thumb at the luminous city far behind them for emphasis: "How about we officially find out, then? You two and your wagon will be coming with us back to Tak-Fizun, this will need an investigation proper, wouldn't you agree?"

The Ifchi didn't need to be in this kind of thing for a decade to know panic when she saw it, brief as it was. The smuggler, chatty as she was, had brought up this would probably be the last time she'd be around the city. Was she wanted in there already? Maybe even one of those exiles she'd heard about - not a punishment where she came from, but the Consortium supposedly did that - and if she was found in here she'd be condemned? She'd have to be either bold or stupid to still do business nearby, but that did mean she might be in even worse straits than Usherrimi was. And all for trying to help her! Could've thrown her under, and she didn't, and this is what she gets! Oh, this was a disaster...

On the plus side, and the thought made her smile, this was perhaps the one scenario that let her go ahead and do what she did best.

The three were focused on the smuggler, what with the crack in her facade being impossible to ignore. Two of them were together in one spot, looming over vulnerable quarry as "enforcers" liked to do... She'd have to trust the smuggler with the third. Conveniently, perhaps, she was already backing away in fear, towards her own wagon. Perfect. The olm set her open hands besides her hips, the little sparks in them and on her gills hidden by her cowl...

"Actually", she said - in their language with the poshest accent she could muster - and waited for the two to turn around in shock...

And Usherrimi thrust her hands forwards, enveloped in a blinding flash. From her once-unassuming form, a ruinous wave of heat and force barreled forwards, cracking the stone beneath and before her, and turning her cloak to ashes in an instant - leaving a wine-red tunic, lustrous and shining in the light. The blast's targets weren't so lucky: The fire and fury crashed into them so fast they barely had the time to feel it, sending them- no, shotgunning what was left of them across the road and its pillars. By the time anyone present could be deafened by the blast, only a scatter of bone and molten metal spread through the Spires remained of sergeant Tikriz and his captain.

Falling to her knees, and still smoldering, Usherrimi grinned, raised her eyes towards the detritus of her art, and screamed into the dark: "HOW'S THAT FOR A FUCKING SPARK!?"

With that, she turned to the two Vezarym that remained. Ziv-Ziri looked shocked, horrified even, and from that slight convulsion, maybe oughtright nauseous. Not unexpected. Hearing the clicks and slides of something metallic, she turned to the other-

Usherrimi threw herself back reflexively, thrusting her white tail in front of herself before the extended spear that plunged right through it, and into two of her ribs, could reach something far more important.

She grabbed the spear as tightly as she could, but the thing was slipping between her slimy fingers as the remaining guard flapped his wings in an attempt to force it further in. Locked in a struggle, she couldn't even try to muster further flames right now: A blast like that took a lot out of her, she needed a moment, and even if it hadn't, concentrating was far harder with a telescoping spear digging into your chest. All she could do was keep sliding back and struggling, watching her tail bleed, seeing the hate in the glowing eyes behind the mask-

Before they went much wider and fearful... and then, blank. The olm saw a spatter of blood that wasn't hers, and glanced to see a sharp, metallic tip, far shinier than the armor of anyone present, emerging right beneath the helmet's jaw guard.

Ziv-Ziri's gloved hand shoved the third guard aside, sliding her knife out of his neck, and reached in to yank the evoker back to her feet with a single, panicked pull. "We gotta run, we gotta get going fast, they had to see that all they way up there, hurryhurryHURRY!" As she got back to her feet, Usherrimi couldn't help but notice she was trying really hard not to look at the body, or her own knife, stashed between her now-bloodstained robes so haphazardly it was worrying. No time for that though. Nothing left to do but slam the trunk shut, get back in the wagon, and get going. The engine thankfully roared back to life pretty quick, and after shutting the lights to make them harder to follow, off they went... But not after Ziv had to brace herself after making the mistake of looking back at the mess they made.

"What a mess... how did that happen!?" Ziv-Ziri broke the silence after a few minutes, once they had veered off the beaten path. "I was doing so well, and then that guy just... where did he get that idea!? Are you a spy? I mean I'm not judging but-"
"No", Usherrimi answered, almost curtly. Her next words were much softer. "No, probably just an assumption. Or an excuse, and a deal with this... dredging guild. He got it in his mind that we had to go. Or I had to go and you had the impertinence of questioning him. We were damned either way."
"...yeah. And we're damned now." It took actual effort for the smuggler to not slam her head into the steering in frustration. "I'm twice as screwed if I ever get caught here, and now you're screwed too 'cause they had to see that."
"Twice, you say... you already were. And I already was, otherwise I wouldn't be here." The olm couldn't help but shake her head with brows held high. "This just seals that deal, doesn't it? Still sounds like something of a change of plans for us both." She then reclined in her seat... allowing herself a small smile. "On the plus side, we're neither dead nor in prison."

And there was Ziv's smile again, now with some actual sincerity to it. "Yeah, we are... Thanks for saving my ass back there, with the... sorry I screwed up and it had to come to... that, but... thanks."
"Look, I think we can both agree those two had to go. Though..." The olm mused, and turned to face the Vez. "Thank you, in fact. It would've been easier for you to just let them take me, but you went and spoke up even if it meant pissing them off." She saw Ziv's interruption coming, and cut in: "I don't care if it didn't work, you did."
That one gave the smuggler some pause. "I mean... what kind of Vez would I be to just leave you out to dry, right? It's now how I do things in my enterprise! Even if I'm the only one in it, hee..."
Usherrimi raised a brow, mock-unimpressed and with a sly smile. "Oh is that how you're going to play it, Ziv? Transactionally? Makes me wonder why they hate you... But I guess it indebts me to you for the attempt. And for the help with that last one."
"It's more of a mutual debt-", the bat began, before narrowing her eyes with a muted grin. "Oh, you're playing me, aren't you? Well, you got me!" Turning back to the road, she sighed... and then, glanced back at Usherrimi. "Though if you wanna put it like that, I could use more like... what you just did, if we're both screwed."
"Looking to turn it into an enterprise of two then?" The olm snorted, but didn't actually drop her own smile. She did need a living, and more importantly, smugglers went places - roaming these caverns for secrets would be so much easier... and she'd have a boss that had her back this time. "Mm... I warn you, subtlety's not my finest suit. But if you don't mind that, and have a spot that needs some of my Art..."

And to drive the point home with that theatrical flare Usherrimi seemed to love, she stretched out her gills and lit their tips with violet flame to match her eyes, as if she were a chandelier...

"...then, in your terms, you got a deal, mm?"

 

yutzen: Histiotus Macrotus bat looking more amused than a bat should look (Default)

(Another from the archives, back to two of the earliest members, having a quiet moment adrift. Prompt by Impressions of Detail back on Cohost)

Candles in paper boats, set adrift on the blackness of an undergroud sea.


 

"Come right onboard, Ziv. More than big enough for the both of us. Yes, right over there, to keep it balanced- no, right over there, you're not that heavy and you know it. Don't start. Mind the candles, the idea's to light them deeper in."

"Surprised? ...Yes, I've never been much of a traditionalist, haven't I? There's reasons for that. But this... this I can respect. Long story."

"...you sure about that, then? You're asking for the full story, you get the full story, you know I got Vel beat at rambling with the right topic."

"Lending an ear like yours, you sure spoil me, Ziv. Alright, where do I start... One thing about history, usually when you look into how a thing got started, how a given custom or group was founded... it hacks at the mystique of it. You get these beginnings that are stupidly mundane at best. And at worst? You find origins you should be ashamed of. Feats of heroism that inspired entire holidays, you look into it and you find exaggeration and fabrication. Entire people invented from whole cloth, and those who did exist were barely worth noting, if not outright cowards, or even thugs with cleansed names. You look at families that brag of their lineage, and you ever so rarely find anyone close to decent, with the biggest braggarts having their ancestors slathered in lies. And that is disheartening enough, mm?"

"Less than the Western kingdoms, but it still happens, yes. I get the feeling they're trying to make up for how little they have to brag about in themselves when they do that. Now, me, I don't have that problem... don't look at me like that, the Consortium isn't a kingdom and I barely even know who your mom is, let alone any of your ancestors. Do Vezarym just not look back...?"

"Anyhow, back on track. Lineages, events, holidays, and all the fabrication to go with them, that's problem enough. But those are just pieces of the whole matter. After that, you look at the whole. You look at your own country, the nation you're told you should be proud of... and you find that it began with a cataclysmic fuckup that all present should've seen coming. You find ancestors that were either so idiotic, or so awful, that they invited a horror to ruin everything they had. You find their mistake is haunting you and everyone you know to this day. You look over the horizon - that exact horizon right over there in fact - and see the consequences, looming right over you and everyone you know. And you think... did they even deserve to make it this far? To found a nation all around fleeing their own self-inflicted ruin? And asking that when you're nominally a part of said nation, and definitely one of their people... it takes the wind out of your sails, you know?"

"You don't need to- ...alright, fine, come here. Only because no one's seen us here. Just mind the balance. I'm fine, I've made my peace with it so far. It's why I'm doing what I'm doing... is this just an excuse to squish me? Don't-"

"Okay, good. I was getting to that, in fact. This encroaching, toxic darkness the East is infamous for, you know that one, yes? It's right over there... And, in fact, we could row to it right now if we wanted to. No, we do not want to, because we have better things to be doing than smashing every source of light we see, don't we? The thing is, said darkness wasn't always here in these caverns. It followed us here, after my ancestors tried to run from it. After calling it to begin with, mind you... And that last part is important, because it meant they also knew what they were dealing with."

"Mm~. It has everything to do with it, Ziv. You all keep forgetting that regular old darkness is just a lack of light, while whatever is spilling out the Exit to our old lands is something beyond that. Something that actively fights the light, even as it's fended off. Get deep enough and you can see it smother it out like someone pinching a candle's wick... which is a really appropriate metaphor now that I said it. Except that this darkness can't chose not to try and put the light out, because it's a force in itself, and like just about every tutor in Ishiss will tell you, forces will always mindlessly do what they do... that sounds better in my language, by the way."

"Good, you're catching on. The thing is, it's not steady: sometimes it pushes forwards, and it's good to be forewarned when that happens. So this all started, long ago, with some sentries that wanted to see it coming and have time to retreat and sound the alarm. So all around the edges of our territory, the border sentries would space out slow-burn torches, one after the other, and see when they flickered and died to know when it was time to raise the alarm. Hence the saying, Ushir-Ruq, "flame in the dark", when you've got something that's meant to fall first and act only as a warning..."

"...you've heard that one before?"

"Ziv, you have a talent in adding people to my shitlist, you know that?"

"Let's just leave the thoughts about toasting to me, mm? And leave them for later, I meant this as a wind-down. So, where was I... flames in the dark, right. So, the thing with Ishiss, it's got water borders too, and this particular lake is enormous. And the sentries couldn't just plop a torch in the middle of the lake for obvious reasons, and so, they instead resorted to setting candles afloat. Back then they were propped with cheap, light fungiwood, because they didn't need that many, just a few that'd stay put in this place..."

"Yes, the paper came later, right with those that weren't sentries themselves, it was cheaper for them after all. Some of the fishers and moss-farmers that lived by the lake saw these displays, these lights in the water, and for one reason or another started to add their own. Maybe they wanted their own warnings... or maybe they thought it was a pretty sight, watching these flickers of flame drifting in the still waters. Can't blame them if that's what did it... but soon enough, everyone who set out into the waters pitched in their own little paper boat with a candle of its own. And since we're Ifchi after all, everyone sets out into the water at some point or another, and so found these lights, and added their own..."

"It's a big lake, but I guess it did get crowded around the shore, because the border guard put some limits on it all, from what I could track - they got lifted ages ago, but still, it stuck. One candle per name, it was... and since this was paper, they kept track by simply writing said names on the boats. And then those that still wanted to keep the dark at bay or just look at a horizon full of candles, they started laying some for those that weren't there. Maybe it was an excuse at first, "you can't prove they didn't come and laid theirs down" while turning around and telling their pals, "all those lights are mine". But maybe it did start out laying a candle for someone who couldn't take to the water that day, and someone had the idea of laying one out for an old friend that couldn't take to the water, because they were too far away... for one reason or another. Maybe they aren't Ifchi, maybe they've moved to the other end of these caverns... or maybe they passed on to whatever comes next, if anything. Whatever the reason, you lit a candle in their name, and set it to sail in the dark. Because you hadn't forgotten them. Because you knew they'd be there with you if they could."

"Hand me a few, we're right in the spot for it. They're prettier up close, mm?"

"I don't go into Ishiss a lot anymore, you know exactly why. But the lake's big enough to get lost in, and what attention is just another boat gonna draw? Another one adding to the layer of lights that keeps the dark at bay, or at least under watch? No, it's peaceful here. No one's ever given me trouble out here, boat or not. It's... quiet, here. I've spent hours just looking at the ceiling, watching the quartz crawlers passing by, shining down on me... And honestly, adding a candle of my own, it's something. A little help to everyone down here, and a spit in the face of this darkness that tries to threaten us. Someone's gotta tell it to go fuck itself. And one for everyone else, mm? It's... well, more insults in the face of this stygian nightmare, sure, but it's... nice, to set out a pretty reminder. A light for memories' sake. A little acknowledgement for those that aren't here..."

"'Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var'... And that's mine. Yes, that's the whole thing, before you ask, you know how we are, but I feel if there's any place to use the whole name it's here... Now, I've been adding one for you for a few years already, care to do the honors this ti- GHOUF"

"TOO TIGHT-"

"Gah! Lords below where the fuck did you get a grip like that!?"

"Right, right. Look, I just... knew it's something you'd want to do if you weren't running all over the underground all the time, mm? It's the least I could do, like a bare minimum. It was about time you joined in on it, don't you think? Plus, I was never sure if Ziv-Ziri was the whole thing or not. And besides... I know you have a far more names to set afloat than I ever would. "

"Yes, that is in fact why I brought this many. I wasn't sure, so I overdid it just in case. Set as many as you can think of, it'll answer a few questions of mine. Here, a pencil... And a light~"

"You know me, Ziv, I wasn't about to not show off. And besides, looking into the water like this, with my gills like their own candles while the lake's still as a mirror like this... it's a treat of its own, mm? Still, take as long as you need, I can do this for hours if I want to..."

"...don't think I've ever told you this but I really like your handwriting. That might've been another reason, looking back."

 

yutzen: Histiotus Macrotus bat looking more amused than a bat should look (Default)

(Another from the archives, and another with the crew, this time introducing our favorite scorching axolotl. Inspired by a prompt provided by Make Up A Criminal on Cohost)

 

Smuggler who is losing track of all their secret stashes


 

"It was somewhere in here, I swear!"

Amidst a haze of spores thicker than the morning fog, a tall, cowled figure practically crawled across knots of hyphae and slippery stalks that crunched under her paws, the packets in her cloak weighing them down. A chiropteran figure, almost but not quite a proper bat. The thick scarf she wore around her snout hid her nose, but it couldn't hide the yellow glimmer of her eyes - giving away just how weepy they were. "Right around the big ivory cap, the one with the notch", she said with a sniffle, pointing towards an off-white mushroom cap nearly a hundred feet tall, "go fifty feet to the North exactly! And then just find the little red murch I myself cut an X into! Well, myself, where the hell is it!?"

Her companion followed behind on steadier, calmer steps, with her gloved hands behind her back. An axolotl - for the most part - whose slimy skin was pitch black, save for a dragging tail so white it was near-transluscent. She wore a long, wine-red tunic bulging with loot, woven from a lustrous, near-resinous material the mud just couldn't cling to, though she walked barefoot otherwise without a care. Thick, round glasses covered her eyes, reflecting her luminous scarlet gills as she watched the cowled chiropteran scrounge through the forest. "Ziv, you don't expect a simple cut into the fungus to last, yes? I've told you before, this forest is quite lively."

"I KNOW HOW LIVELY IT IS, SHERRY! I learned my lesson the last time! Two weeks shouldn't be enough for it to be gone, right? Right!?". Ziv-Ziri was outright clawing her way through the mushy underbrush looking for anything that looked red, growling where she would once be humming as fungal remnants clung to her ears and horns. "Got my clothes proofed that time, too. And I buried it in a metal box this time, 'cause I learned that lesson too! 'cause there's nothing like having to dig through the mud for worms to drive a lesson all the way in."

Usherrimi, or rather 'Sherry', tilted her head in liew of a raised eyebrow. She pushed her glasses up into place, a measure of expression for violet eyes that had no lids to narrow. "Care to tell me what you buried your vitals in last time?" the Ifchi asked, brushing a slurry of spores and slime off her nose.

"Leather", Ziv answered, not even bothering to hide the shame in her voice. "It usually works for shorter stays, but you said it: This place is lively, and that includes the part where its fungus eats things, including leather and the stuff inside it! "

"So you forgot leather usually comes from something that used to be alive, yes? Common mistake." Sherry turned her head as she looked around, keeping one branch of glowing frills helpfully aimed at her boss. "But it shouldn't be common with the deals you've made with Pact fellows."

"It isn't now. Even with how much they pay for what little stuff they actually ban, I didn't work with the Pact of Krawgry until pretty damn recently. For reasons that should be pretty damn obvious!". As her voice rose, so did her arms, motioning towards the thick fungal rainforest and everything that came with it. "I feel like I'm packing half my weight in spores and mud right ab- aah, AAAHCHOO!". Sneezes were meant to unclog, but with a scarf in the way, all this one achieved was making things even worse for her.

Sherry slipped a thick (and slimy) scarf of her own from her many pockets, handing it over before she spoke. "The mud isn't so bad, honestly, though I will give you the spores, albeit for... different reasons. So you've switched to metal, then, to avoid that kind of incident?" Her voice was calm throughout, dropping to an almost insidious neutrality for the next question as her tiny, snaggled teeth betrayed her intent: "And then you lost it anyhow?"

"I did not lose it!" Ziv shrieked, digging her nails into a stalk. "Not for that long anyways, I found what was left! It would've been fine if I got there in less than a month, but whoops! Turns out some of the mushrooms here can sprout, peak and die in less than a month! I had to buy a mycology manual in Pact territory, from a Korve that just laughed at this, to know what to mark!" She groaned, rubbing her reddened eyes - only to groan even louder as the spore-laced mud on her gloves made things worse. "By the time I got there again, I found out even flarewood rots in here, and you wouldn't think so with how much resinous crap is in it. And I got to go hungry because of it."

"Flarewood", the Ifchi repeated, just a little incredulous. "You'd think something grown by the light of molten earth would last a little longer. An actual shame, that." She ran her fingers down her frills in thought, expecting and finding no spores on them. "Must've been a feast for whatever actually ate it."

"Someone sure ate well!" The bat's voice was as sarcastic as she could manage. "No snacks, no water, no bolts, not even bullets! There were just scraps in there!" She didn't even notice her companion's head-tilt as she went on. "That one's happened every time! With the leather, with the flarewood, with the glass too! Every time it's opened something just ransacks it even if it doesn't eat the rest!"

"Glass", Sherry asked again, just as incredulous yet ever so slightly familiar. "You mean that spot with shards where we stopped earlier-"
"Yes, that was me, and I found it just this time." Ziv tried to flash an utterly unhappy grin, but her new scarf got in the way. "Because last time a witherhorn just went and dropped dead on it! Every last ton of it! 'Stand right under the blunt stalactite and then walk three minutes South, and dig under the rock with an X in it that I also carved myself, right next to the vile and smelly mushroom that will bury it and break it and ruin it', PAH." She lowered the scarf just enough to spit at the ground, learning that lesson at least. "Now I learned, though. Heavy as it may be, murder as it may be on my back and my pockets, metal's gonna be the only thing that works." She trailed off, looking around at the underbrush she'd so fruitlessly searched. "Or so I told myself this time..."

The axolotl(?) could only shake her head, rubbing her own forehead in disbelief. "Suppose a red murch would survive something like that too. And nothing I know would feast on metal just like that..." With one hand, she covered her eyes while the others took the glasses, rubbing them against the tunic to clean off the residues. "Everything you've learned about this place, you've learned the hard way, haven't you, Ziv? You're practically a scholar of Mycon's Valley by now with that many mistakes to learn from." She allowed herself a lopsided smirk with the smallest hint of pointed teeth, once she put her glasses back on. "Wonder what we're gonna learn this time?"

Her boss - and friend - turned to her, and all she only offer was not a sardonic grin or a furious snarl, but a pout and a very audible whine. Even with the scarf on, she could see it, and those eyes hid nothing either no matter how much she'd blame on the spores... To that, Sherry only sighed deeply, and opened her arms wide. "...fine, fine. Come here. Only because no one's seen us."

Ziv often pounced violently on the chance for a hug from an associate, and this time was no exception, even with the slog of mud in the path there. The embrace was tight and messy, as it always was in Mycon's Valley, and as it always was when an Ifchi was involved. "How a ruptured pipeline of emotions like you managed to become a blockade runner is an actual mystery to me, Ziv, but somehow you make it work." Before the blockade runner in question could say anything about having good associates, Sherry cut in again. "And do not say anything about paying me extra for this. This one's on the house."

"Too late for that..." were the words from a fanged mouth that was smiling once more beneath its scarf. "It wasn't just terrain and danger, I also hired you because you're like an anchor in moments like these and I kinda expected this to happen by now. Patterns are a bitch."

The Ifchi sputtered, ending the hug to hold Ziv-Ziri by the shoulders with a baffled look. She tried to berate her, but couldn't find the words, and dropped the issue with a sigh. "You really are a Vezarym, exiled or not."

"Come on, you know I'm more of a Vez than anyone in the Consortium by now, the f-" Her reply was cut short by a squeeze on her shoulders, and a sudden, lunging movement from Sherry towards something in the mud: A cherry-red splinter of fungal "wood", much like the murch they had been looking for. And once Ziv saw it too, she could only expect the worst.

Once their search narrowed to the ground, and they knew what to look for instead, a clear trail was found across the mud. First, splinters. Then, five-clawed footsteps and a dragging tail between them, with a few more splinters all around. They both followed quietly, their steps light and kept away from the sucking mud. And once past a thin curtain of filaments hanging from the caps above, in a clearing of smashed stalks, they found...

A beast. A sturdy, shining shell on four thick and scaly legs. A tortoise, big as a horse and three times heavier at the very least, with what looked like shimmering iron lining the rims and patterns of its shell. Its beaked head had a pointed metal horn like a rhino's, one that reflected Sherry's light as the thing turned to face them with hostile eyes... showing the remains of a metal casing stuck in its mouth, which was brought back inside it with a slurp and audibly chewed on and swallowed. Scattered ration wrappings and torn-up cartridges laid all over the ground, yet with much fewer pellets and bullets than one'd expect from such a scatter. And right besides a splintered red stump that had been cleaved in half by tremendous force, there was a stack of crossbow bolts... all their heads bitten neatly off.

So that's what they would learn this time, thought Sherry as she turned to Ziv, gauging for her reaction... and she saw eyes flaring with actual fury, hearing the sound of teeth grinding together and an unnerving hum from her ridged throat, as the Vez reached into her cloak and pulled out a long, thin knife of silvery-looking metal, long as her forearm yet thin as a finger. "Alright then. Fine. Okay. Plan B: We kill and eat that thing."

At long last, Sherry allowed herself a grin, with pinprick snaggle-teeth on full display. She opened her arms, with hands stretched wide, as her frills started glowing brighter and brighter, hovering as if weightless; at the tip of each branch, a small flame like a candle's own came to life, lighting the Ifchi up like a dangerous chandelier. Betraying some actual joy for once, she chuckled to herself, and replied: "I thought you'd never ask~"

 


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