BOOM BOOM BOOM
Seren was always a heavy sleeper. Even as the door to her modest town home shook in fear at the beating it took. Raids and Tinkers be damned. She worked hard and sleep was a luxury she was so rarely afforded. Eye lids wretching open, she grimaced toward the doorway as her carved door fell from its' hinges and clattered onto the floor of the entrance way.
"You better not be yucking my yum and destroying my house, you vaporal shits..."
A guard stood at attention in the doorway. The early morning sun shone off his copper armor and then through both it and his body as he paused to look at Seren half reclined in her reading nook.
"That door was a relic from the Hibernia era. Who's paying for it?"
"You've been summoned to the new causeway leading out to Gaul." Cold and precise, the guard's voice sat ill in Seren's mind.
"And on the eve of high moon who would have figured." she scoffed and the boots at her feet complicated her morning further. Shuffling down the steps, Ni came wielding a fresh cup of rose tea. Seren's apprentice in all but name, Ni had a knack for knowing what she needed before even she knew.
"You say that like you actually look forward to the monthly festivities, Seren." His long silver hair mirrored the dew of the morning in the light and Seren couldn't help but rake her fingers through her unruly curly black hair.
"Not all of us can enjoy a fat and happy moon while fucking our way to prosperity can we?"
Ni chuckled as he handed her the cup. "Of all the F words you could've chosen, fornication was first on your list? Why not frauding or fabricating?"
His grey eyes cut to the guard and then down to the door. "Or maybe fighting the fucker that felled this fancy work?" A smirk remained as Seren downed the cup and tossed it back to Ni.
"You know better than to try and pick on them Ni. They can't feel anything until the Full Moon anyway." She moved to pushed past the guard but stumbled through and into the damaged doorframe. Ni moved after her, pushing past the guard as he rematerialized.
His voice was low. "it doesn't make what they do anybetter."
"It's all we have anymore, Ni. At least until the world is sucked dry."
Seiren trailed behind the guards as they set off down the path into the city, leaving Ni behind to fix the mess.
The walk into the city grew more and more crowded. People lined the streets, flyers and posters lined the walls and buildings lined the river that snaked in tandem to the buildings. The air was abuzz but it couldn't ever be told if it was good or bad anymore. Seren walked at her own pace as the guards circled around her, corraling her to their destination. While the smell of sweet meat wafted through the market stomach twisting in protest. Seren patted her midsection before side stepping a group of women squabbling over a bundle of Stargazer lilies. Women crowded the fabric and flower stalls in a rush to find only the best for the nights ceremonies.
"I need this tonight for My Decan!"
"Arali keep you! Rajiv said he'd love one from me!"
"They're both Vaporal! You don't even know how they feel!"
This was all too common. Women fell for the good looks of the Annunaki that were sent to guard over humans and they waited till the light of the Full Moon. It was on that night each month that only then could the Annunaki be fully one with their Earthly bodies. It was only then they could feel and mate with whom they wanted. But how long could a wolf love sheep before it eats them?
A cry rang from the crowd. A slumping and stinking old woman stalks those out shopping for the night.
"BEWARE THE STAR PEOPLE! THEY COME TO MINE OUR CONCIOUSNESS UNDER THE GUISE OF GOLD AND USE US AS SLAVES FOR THEIR WORLDS! THEY TAKE US AND HARVEST US FOR THEIR PLEASURE! FOR THEIR SUSTAINANCE-"
The ragged woman sweeps up a child passing by with his mother and paws at his young face.
"YOU YOUNG BOY, YES YOU! THEY TAKE YOUR EYES FOR YOU VISION AND BLIND YOU TILL YOUR THIRD EYE AWAKENS AND THEN THEY FEED ON YOUR DREAMS AND YOUR SOUL THREADS-
"My eyes!?!" the young boy screams before his mother snatches him back and pushes the women toward the guards in the city square. The guards turn at the wailing child and the old woman passes through them, face smacking into the dirty cobblestones. Rising from the dirt with blood pouring from her nose, she screams louder than before. A crowd had formed, if not to listen than to see what the stoic guards would do.
"THESE CREATURES WILL FEAST ON OUR SOULS TO LIVE! THEY TAKE OUR BABES BY THE FATES BEFORE THE ENTER OUR WOMBS AND-"
Without a backward glance, a copper sword pierced the woman through the center of her body. Spine cracking at the contact of cold, foreign metal and her breath leaving in a forced gasp
"Slander will not be tolerated."
The guard continued as if it was just a fly come to bother him in the sun and people in the market could do nothing but comply. Seren walked along, listening to the wailing child grow quieter as they inched their way to the edge of the city down to the start of new growth and construction.