Half of my brain continues to order my legs to keep on walking on the fairly loose soil, while the other half carries the judgment of my decision. I simply left. And I feel a strong sense of guilt about it. It's clear that the Front Soldier suit wasn't enough to repay that stranger — not to mention, damaged — even though it came from him that he didn't want anything but answers to what he pulled from the river. I don't even know the precise answer to that. But that is why I'm going home to find answers. Once I get back to Otima as soon as possible, then I can get Kyla's help. A transport heading to my home or any deportation on the run that would get me as close as possible will already be a big help. Only now, I have to worry about finding my way to get there.
I have no sense of direction. I've been, at least, relying on my eyes and ears for over an hour now, hopefully, to hear the rushing sigh or make out the distant view of the river where I was found. From there, I can trail it all the way, yet I only get nothing but nocturnal coos and silent chirps from my surroundings. The familiar stars in the cloudless night sky aren't much of a help with direction either. Only if I were a cartographer. All I'm surrounded with are thick-logged trees of many kinds brushing along with the breezing and twining wind, the thin pillars of the almost full moon's light streak down through their sprawling greeneries, and the vague, utter dim darkness obscuring the horizons. And that's all.
One of my hands involuntarily finds its way feeling the bandage around my abdomen through my top clothing, bringing me to the thought of how I'm still in one piece after that brutal attack. Two Ordinals, and a hundred other soldiers, under Ordinal Three's command. I outlived the impossible and even destroyed a supposedly indestructible Immortal Armament with my bare hands. The irony behind that bothers me more than it being funny.
The trees give signage that the winds have suddenly strengthened, and then the delayed blowing reaches my tactile senses in mere seconds. It triggers a thawing chill to bestrew over my shoulders and neck, suggesting how deep the night has gone. But considering the time I've spent being unconscious in a stranger's bed, aside from this existential crisis I'm having, I feel that I'll be restless for a while unless I find a remote place or get to the city sooner rather than later.
I happen to come upon rail tracks stretching miles far beyond horizons. This suggests an idea where I can follow where it leads to. The catch is, which way? Does either way even lead to Otima? I can't waste another second deciding on an assumption, so I begin walking ahead. Besides, if a train ever comes by, I can simply sneak in. Only that I have to keep my head low doing so.
Minutes went by, and the distant honking of what I'd been expecting came to my auditory, its shuffling wheels heavily rolling upon its tracks growing closer. I turn to see my steam locomotive ride, trailing its burnt fuel from its three protruding vent pipes. As I let it pass by up its tail until my speeding pace keeps up with its rampant speed. I count, one… two… three, and I'm able to grab onto the very rear staircase and hop on, almost slipping.
The door is easily unsealed to enter and I'm greeted with nothing but stacks of sealed-tight barrels, each marked for whichever supplies they have in them. My interest isn't hooked to any of it, though. At least, I now know this train is to pass near Otima. I'm in luck's favor after being taken on by a hundred soldiers.
A door lies just straight ahead, and I'm certain that soldiers who work are in there. But I rather make my rump comfortable on the steel floor in the remote spaces available rather than bother them. Remember, this is a supply train. I have to keep my head low until the ride reaches close enough to my desired destination.
Again, I know it's impractical of me to even go back just to find a friend who could help me. But that's the easiest and fastest way to get home faster. And where else can I get answers? The Ordinals want me dead, and that means I have no one else to get answers from. High General Canmore could be an option but I believe there's so much more to learn when I hear it from my mother, especially the things I need to know about my father, who I barely knew.
I put a hand into view remembering how that purple energy surged out of it. It may have saved me twice now, but it also almost cost me my life. Now, I'm on the run.
The rest of the evening was silent — except for my thoughts — and seemed unmoving and tireless with the moon barely leaving its position in the sky. And so does my energy. Perhaps three days on a stranger's bed indeed overfilled my batteries. I admit it was stubborn of me to not give him answers. But I deem it crucial to not share anything when my life is on the line. I cannot trust anyone.
I look through the barely blocked windows and I'm able to make out my nearing destination. There's the dazzling white citadel of the Ordinals in the center of its city in the distance, seeming to have all the light to itself with the sprawling tall landscape formations around it, and the sea drowning the horizons on its east. My heart starts to sink and my mind starts to cloud with fear. It may sound like a suicidal act to go back, but it's the only solution I can come up with to get home fast and find answers. I need to find answers.
"Hey!" Abrupts a soldier, accompanied by two others from the door ahead, armed with weapons.
Instead of facing them, I bolt my way through the door whence I came through earlier. Great. Now, I have to jump, as if I even have any other choices. The speed is overwhelming my anxiety. But so are the sharp objects that they might impale me with. Like my entry, I count one, two, three! My immediate landing over the gravel-layered soil doesn't falter me to immediately skedaddle towards the nearby shrubs. I breathe deep, face twisted with the scratches and possible bruises I sustained from that chaotic fall. It'll only be there for a while, but I have to move.
After a long walk for minutes in this sparse greenery to the City's direction, my auditory receives vague distressed noises. Cries in call of aid. Tracing the sound through the hissing wind I quickly find its origin and I waste no time running in its direction. As I sense myself getting closer, the noises become less distinct, and I hear the agony of a girl's voice and the sadistic cackle of men.
"Stop!" I hear another long cry. "Please!"
Soon enough, my gaze captures the immediate vicinity of familiar fires burning from torches in the midst of the long trees and sprawling shrubs. Soon reaching close enough, I obscure myself behind the taller shrubs with enough patches to look through and see what is happening. I make out six men in muddy dirted clothing. One holding upon those two single-horned Rhineighs, two beating a young male soldier with his hands tied on a rope holding him two feet up the ground over a tree branch, his pained noises muffled with a piece of fabric around his mouth. Over the other side is one hovering his own frame upon the figure of an unconscious girl, her limp limbs restrained together, whilst the remaining man seems to be having a hard time with another girl. Her distressed screams are already pushing me off the edge.
"No! Let me go!" The same voice screams again.
Now how do I even deal with this? It's one against half a dozen. I have no weapon in hand but my own limbs while most of them have picks and swords and the soldiers' other weapons. I can't simply abandon them either.
The internal debate stops lasting when my eyes suddenly have flashes of my survival of an attack against a hundred soldiers and three, minus one, Ordinals. Maybe most of it was luck, but I doubt I would be needing any of it in this situation. Besides, what else could compare to that?
With not much time left to consume, I stealthily rush my way where I can sneak behind the man who's ahold of the herbivores. Right before I make my move, I see a dagger posited in his leather belt, and that pretty much adds a better success to my next action. A better opportunity comes as he begins to move away from the Rhineighs, their leashes tied to a tree branch. That's when I leap out of the thicket of shrubs, grabbing his arm first as soon as I close the gap between us and landing a good punch on his left ribs to have him crying breathlessly on the dirt. It should keep him unstable for a while. I then snatch the small weapon from his pocket and dart it flying to my opposing direction where it obtains a deserving pained yelp from another as it lands on his thigh, and he joins the first guy on the dirt. Following him is another, armed with a sword, obviously one of the soldiers. He makes close contact without any second thoughts slashing forward which I evade, but then I feel arms lock around me. However, when the armed man is again about to slash, it urges me to leverage my legs off the ground as an instinctive response to have both of my boots' heels smash his face. The remaining momentum I have causes the man restricting me from behind to stumble back and his back harshly hit a solid tree bark. Once I'm free, I finish the job by landing a fist over his face and knocking him out. My eyes quickly make contact with another dagger tucked on his side and I waste no time grabbing it before I jump back to my feet, only to meet the rest of the men.
One holding a wooden club, the other with another sword, and one confident in his stance with nothing in his grasp. Three left…
"Seriously, you soldiers really need to be taught extra manners," The unarmed man says and I assume that he knows I'm a soldier too. I guess the pants should've been disposed of too.
"Oh, shut the hell up," I say back before charging toward them.
At first, I seem to have the upper hand as I try to land cuts on them and even evade their weapons without breaking a sweat, not until I'm caught in with a good strike on my right leg and I'm finally down on one knee, the only weapon I have slipping off my grip.
Out of the blue, my senses seem to go into a sudden frenzy and everything else slows down. My field of sight turns everything into shades of purple and my auditory ignores all forms of noise but the steady rhythm of my own heartbeat and the unusual feeling of the blood being pumped through the corners of my body. I then sense the coming objects, mere inches before contact behind that are about to make serious implications.
In a matter of a split second, everything reverts and my body has already reacted before I even realized it. My arms are stretched out, hands ahold of the tips of their only weapons; the numb feeling of the sharp edge of the sword on my right, and the buffy pole of the club on my left, and the next thing is I twist where my hands replace my feet on the ground with my legs springing outward in the air. I feel the heels of my leather boots, again, meet the armed men's faces. The following seconds skip in a mere blink of an eye and now I find myself behind the last one standing and putting him on his knees. He blurts a phrase that is about to end in an unnecessary word, yet I don't let him finish so I make him join the others with one last fist over the side of his head.
I remain on hold of his unconscious figure as my eyes lay on the barely moving girl, unconscious and being aided by the other girl who exhausted her voice out of the distress and fear attained. My lips press together and my jaw clenches in anger, but it's over now. I turn my attention to the other male soldier, still tied and hanging over a tree with a thick rope. Its other tip remains firmly knotted to another branch and I quickly rush to it. It's easy to untie it, thus making it quicker to free him.
I walk straight toward the remaining conscious man with whom I have thrown the dagger. He merely begins crawling away as I approach, the fear that I want to see is prominently plastered over his middle-aged physiognomy. However that does not level the agony he and his fellow outcasts inflicted on these kids. The dagger is seen still impaled all the way to the guard on his leg and is constantly drawing red-tinted blood. The tip of the blade must've reached his bone, and removing it will only be a big mistake for him. But not for me. Once I'm in close contact I unhesitantly snatch the knife off his bleeding limb and I receive a yelp. I turn my heel to the male soldier to set his restrained hands free and he rushes to his allies. I see how much they all look a few years younger than I am. My gaze weighs upon his full attire, similar to what Kyla wears.
With the cut rope still in my grip, I approach back to the wounded man, seeing he has settled himself seated with his back rested upon a tree, clinging onto his wound and carefully trying to stop the continuous bleeding, yet it's only useless causing him to tremble more as he already is. I simply drop the rope before his dirt-smeared bare feet with the assumption that he knows what to do with it. If I was cruel enough, I would instead hang it around his neck. With one last look at his grey gaze, I turn my heel to the Rhineighs.
I stand mere inches upfront the herbivore creatures ahold of their leashes, and I carefully guide them back to their companions. Their senses can be sensitive at times as they're half-blind, but their six soles carry more awareness of the vibrations around them instead. And so benefit from the speed they can attain when running.
"How is she?" I ask, referring to the still unconscious girl as I see they've removed her restraints.
"Concussion, but not too fatal," The male soldier says and from here, I see the red swelling temple of the girl and it tells much he's correct. "She had a panic attack, and got hit for it." I managed to hold onto my stable temper after hearing what he said.
"We need to get back." I hear the other girl soldier suggest, her fawn ears flattening in eager worry. "Our commander might be deciding on expelling our papers by now."
"Then, you soldiers better head on—" I'm cut off when I turn my head and see the spot of the man who held the Rhineighs empty. "Go, now," I say, and their boots brush along the ground in a full-on rush. "We can't stay longer here." I quickly take over the male soldier from carrying the still unconscious girl and soon make our way out of the Outcasts' vicinity.
The furred Rhineighs are quick on their six, stony soles, but effortlessly pass by the obstacles we encounter. Hop here, dodge there. And in five minutes of rushing through the forestry, which surely has us outdistanced those Outcasts that are certainly hunting for us with more of them, we slow down, the Rhineighs ambling through this open field of plain grass and shrubs. My ears obtain simultaneous snorts of exhaustion from their leather-layered, horned muzzles.
Right now, I choose not to ponder the more building questions persisting in my head after what happened long moments ago. That was new and ominous. My mind seemed to have amplified my senses and read my surroundings in a split second, then my reaction before those weapons even made contact with my skin. My mind hasn't even wrapped around the fact that I'm what Ordinal Three calls, a so-called hellion-blooded being.
We reach the edge of this greenery and I halt. "Let's treat your friend here," I say as I unmount the beast and settle the unconscious girl on the grass. I move her dim-sunset tinted feathers grown within her dirty-blonde locks out of the way to give myself a better view of her forehead which is marked with a darkened bump. Those Outcasts didn't really hold themselves over kids. Parsing my surroundings I find a viable herb that should give it the first aid treatment. But then the fawn girl has already retrieved some before I even find one, already reaching it to me. Of course, they know what to use. I crush it into my hands and roll it to squeeze its fluids before gently applying it to the girl's head. The young man then provides a piece of clothing to keep it together.
"Hell of first few days for you guys, huh?" I speak again in an attempt to lighten up the mood for them, despite the still young, unconscious girl in my arms.
"Yeah," The young man answers, to which I suddenly feel guilty for asking. "We've only been in the military camp for days, and honestly, the training has been really rough for us, but we're managing though. We're soldiers anyway." The last sentence came out with a tint of depression.
"A few more months and we'll finally be sent to the Barrier," The fawn girl adds. "We want to be Front Soldiers."
"Just us two, actually," The boy corrects, then gestures to his elven friend. "Jane wants to be a smith. Wants to craft her own weapon someday." I gaze back down at the girl.
I simply nod.
"I thought joining the army would be something phenomenal," The boy says. "Now I can say it's quite an eye-opener after that."
Trauma… for the better word. "That won't be the last, trust me," I say as if I have experienced enough like a Front Soldier, even though I only felt being one for less than a day before becoming a threat to the Ordinals.
"No doubt," He says, with a chuckling remark. "And I know it'll be tougher once I face an actual hellion." His face then becomes neutral, but his tone maintains the same verve. "I want to follow in my father's footsteps. He was a soldier, too."
"Mine, too," I say, yet my tone carries no emotion. That's what, at least, my mother told me.
"What kind of soldier was he?" The young woman asks.
I shake my head. "I don't know." Even though I was told he was a Front Soldier, I'm not sure of it anymore. "I didn't get to meet him."
"I can tell he was just like you," She says. That meant so many things in numerous ways, but I'm conflicted if I should even be proud at this point.
"What are you young soldiers doing out here, anyway?" I ask, trying to change the subject and dismiss my thoughts threatening to attack again. At the same time, I finished treating the girl.
"We snuck out during the day since the city is under lockdown. Took advantage of how occupied the militaries are with the Citadel after what happened there three days ago," The girl answers. These kids managed to get through security in a sophisticated city. "Just wanted to have some leisure, but we ended up straying too far and came upon those felons instead."
I almost sweat after hearing her mention the Citadel. I do remember what happened—at least, the last moments prior to my fall into the river. But I'm curious to know the details. "The Citadel? What exactly happened?"
"There was an explosion. The whole city witnessed it. Hundreds of Citadel Vanguards really took a toll." The boy says. "The Ordinals said a human intruder snuck in and tried to steal an Immortal Armament."
It's obvious that the intruder they're talking about is me. Yet Ordinal Three was generous enough to not fully disclose who it actually was. But, steal? I didn't steal or even attempt to. They're making a lie in replace of the fact that I'm what they call a hellion-blooded being they've been looking for. At least, they didn't lie on the part where the said felon was a human.
"The thief didn't succeed, but escaped, nonetheless," The girl adds. "Some Ordinals are already on the hunt."
Only makes sense when the assumption they have is a thief trying to steal an armament. But that also justifies my assumption that they know I'm alive and are after me. And they won't stop until they find me again.
"Gotta say, that human's a champ for getting that close to the vault. They're the first-ever and they'll be in history for that." That's nice to hear. But I'm not buying it. As I said, I didn't try to steal anything.
"I wouldn't consider that human when they managed to cause that kind of explosion," The girl counters, and I feel my underarms sweating already.
I'm about to ask if the Ordinals also mentioned how exactly the explosion was caused. I'm unsure of what really happened. But it'd only make me look like I know something, and I cannot risk that.
"Yeah," I only say. "Me, too." And a few seconds of silence goes on.
"How about you?" The younger male then asks and my skin crawls with nervousness. "Which army are you from?"
I feel hesitant to answer, but there's no escaping now. "I'm from the Barrier."
The boy coos. "You're a front soldier, right? No wonder you moved like that when knocked those outcasts out." He concluded that really fast. Yet, again, I've only been a Front Soldier for less than a day.
"But what's a soldier like you doing out here, then? Is it your leave?"
"I've come to visit a friend," I say, only to receive blank countenances as if they're unconvinced. "She's from your camp. I just need some help."
"With what?"
Maybe I shouldn't have said the last sentence. "It's complicated," I respond. "But I really need to see her."
"How will you get in, then?" The boy halts the herbivore's soles as he asks. "Even if you're a soldier, you'll still need a pass to get through the city vanguards with the current restrictions."
I did not think about that. Now, I'm much in a tighter situation getting in contact with Kyla. "I'll find a way," I say.
"Well, we can try to sneak you in," The female fawn offers and the human boy doesn't even react to contradict. "The city is crawling with more vanguards everywhere. Not to mention, Ordinals, as well."
"That's dangerous," I reason.
"Consider it as a return for saving our lives, please," The insistence is sincere. I admit that this opportunity is generous. Yet, I don't know what happens if they get involved further. "Plus, there's no other easier way for you to get in. Unless you have an idea."
Now I'm given the chance to choose between what is more rational and what is easy — the former is to keep my distance to avoid risking them and the latter is to save time and get to Kyla sooner. Only that I have to be responsible if anything goes wrong. Nonetheless, both are difficult and conflicting. I have to decide now.
"Okay," I finally made up my mind, even though I hated it. "Let's do it your way."