"Squadron Torquise!"
"Yes sir!"
"Have three of your men go down to Meadowbrooks and grab additional personnel for the route! The remainder will scout out the cave!
"Yes sir!"
Small squishing steps walked off in the night leaving Jackson to huddle up,
"You know the rules.",
Jackson took out a bag of seeds and pour it out on his hands.
"Why the hell do we do this can't we volunteer?"
"Can you figure out what seeds are which, Lawson?",
"That's so mundane though!",
"We would volunteer if the off chance of finding goodies in that cave wasn't up to anyone who quote unquote volunteers.", replied another.
"I don't even want to explore the cave I want to go back home and grab a good snack! Think about that!" Said Lawson.
"Hey, the most to eat back home is just more Goats and vermin, we need to bring up our finances then maybe our food would sound nice to walk three whole days!"
"And walk back!"
"We got horses."
"Yeah! For the cargo! We're defending them!"
"Settle down, ready? Draw."
Each man picked a seed and began inspecting them,
"Day bloom," said one.
"Waterleaf," said another.
"Day bloom." Said another.
"Ugh, Got damn it! They look the bloody same! Um, Day bloom, no, blink root!" Said Lawson.
"Sunflower." Said Jackson, now inspecting everyone's draw.
"Dre, you're wrong. It's Blink root. Lawson, you're correct it's blink root, Haymar, you're wrong it's blink root, and damn it, all of y'all's were blink root!"
"Ah what!", Said the three.
"Haha! Wait, what the hell!", Said Lawson.
"I have a sunflower seed. And that was on purpose because this test is so damn simple it just shows how much y'all value me as a leader that inspecting seeds is hard for y'all, except you Lawson.",
"I ain't proud of it, I just got accustomed to feeding only blink root to wildebeest.",
"So, you three make the march home and write any anomalies you notice, every tick!
Since considering y'all don't even pay attention to seed details, knowing this you'll probably be on the damn look out for every detail and write it down like you're taking portraits, you better be.",
The men set off, and the morning came "Lawson, I'll take the first half inspecting the cavern, you stay up here until I request for you. If I don't, your night shift, got it?",
"Yes sir.",
And so, Jackson set into the caverns,
"You boys doing alright?", Said Jackson passing by the miners up to the entrance floor, and he began to dive deeper into the cavern,
"Hmph finding goodies down here, please.
I just didn't want to walk all the way back.",
Abode Jackson's step came echoes down the slippery slopes of rugged rocks down the cavernous expanse, Click, click, clack, clack. Vibrations sent chiseled pebbles sprinkling into the ground reverberating against stone walls.
Now lower into the rocky chasm,
Where the drips bounced off the walls falling from the spikey rooftops, his light was but a speck in the black canvas,
I'm not gonna lie this is a large cave,
And woah! He took steps closer to purple rays reflecting from his torch,
"This part right here is mine."
He crouched to mark an X onto a piece of rock with dark violet stones emitting from it as he shuns his light.
Then from the darkness!
"Hello!?" He jumped up and swung his torch drawing its breath of flames with a swooshing roar from his lit fire.
There's a Soft crying haunting my ears—an almost whimper.
He pulled his rifle out from his back and rose it with one hand where wails sounded from, he couldn't stop sweeping the area.
There, behind a partially exposed expanse of stone. It's a…
—a girl, huddled within herself, her head ducked into her knees, mud-stained frail limbs covered with torn luxurious clothing of silk linen, those are only found in Wallayue, she must be from there, could she be kidnapped? Her long hair is obscuring over her legs, her hair seems light blue.
Jackson lowering his rifle stood absolutely still, then he shook!
She looked up at me, and her eyes, they.
They glimmered.
She continued to weep, her lips dry and cracked loss of rosy tint, her wails are as a baby kitten from her voice. Light brown skin, perhaps a Babylonian child, maybe
Gifted with those clothes? Babylonians often raided Wallayue, so maybe they're stolen clothes.
Jackson then turned and ran back up top,
"Guys! Over here!", Jackson called out in a trembling voice in the upper levels of the cavern
"Go get the captain!", He cried.
After a short while, many miners came down to witness the child.
"Yo what the hell?", Said a miner, "I didn't bring my kid, did you?",
"Shut the hell up.",
"No I'm serious what kind of person brings their kids to a Warzone?",
Comrades rushed to their side and pushed them away saying, Unable to tear their gaze away from the child,
"Get away from the kid that's not our problem, let the captains deal with this!", said the men,
"Yeah, I don't want to be the one who takes her home. I got enough of them already." , Said another soldier, their torches illuminating her being as she continued to cry,
"Look! Down here!" , Their collectives' marches were drowned out by her cries, a call clawing from the cavern's maws, it left pitches in everyone's ears and everyone's face looked as if their hearts dropped, begrudging their faces away.
Now in front of her, Jackson lead Captain Davis who cautiously approached with Reynolds who pushed through, his eyes narrowing like a hawk as he studied the lost child.
"Get back, get back you dogs!", Reynolds ordered, his hand resting on the butt of his sidearm.
The girl's gaze shifted to Captain Reynolds as he cautiously inched closer. She flinched and inches backward, "Did the Babylonians bring their children to work or something?", said one of the miners.
"Even I think that's a stupid allegation.", said.
Reynolds as stood right in front of her his shadow flapping like a flag from the flickering lights.
"She could've ran down here being startled by the fight.", Questioned another.
"That's ridiculous, why would she run deeper into the mines?", said Reynolds,
Davis replied, "A child caught in a fire won't want to stay in the same place until they're lost.
She must be starving and thirsty.", he claimed.
"What's your name?", demanded Reynolds though unease gnawed at the edges of his resolve.
She did not respond with words, but her weeping grew louder and tore their ears.
It was as if her sorrow was brought upon by days of silence with no responding aid coming to nurture, just a constant stream of strains in her voice shrieking like a falling guillotine!
Filling the men with a growing dread.
"She won't understand you Reynolds what do you even get from interrogating her?", Said Davis
"What's one child doing here, Davis?", Questioned Reynolds.
Reynolds turned to look at Jackson, he couldn't believe he had said.
"Shoot her, Private.", Reynolds addressed to Jackson,
"We can't risk our mission, our time, our safety for a Babylonian, they abandoned her by bringing her in the first place. At the very least for her, we'll report this encounter when we get back. Let's move out.",
As Captain Reynolds uttered the chilling order to shoot this child, a hushed gasp swept through my ranks of the peers. They were looking at one another their eyes sour, their lips winced uneasy glances, unable to comprehend the cold-heartedness of his command.
I turned towards the girl and lifted my barrel on towards her head, the sight blocking her body rattled slightly up, then down, left, then right, I couldn't keep it still, I felt all my peers peering at me,
"He's going to do it?"
"No way!"
"Come on man don't!" said my peers.
Then, to calm my nerves, I closed my eyes and turned away feeling the pressure of my trigger squeeze, my finger curling, I could feel its pressure pushing back at its very chokepoint just before the hammer of my rifle's rear full sends into its piston.
That was when,
"Captain, with all due respect, He will not follow that order,
"Captain Davis broke the silence stepping forward, he placed his hand on my rifle lowering it down, his eyes aimed at Reynolds, harmonious lantern glints from his eyes rebuked Captain Reynolds's order. "We're soldiers, we can't abandon a child in need like this, no matter who, is in need like this. We don't know what's happened to her, she could even be a victim of Babylonian trade!",
Davis declared firmly; his voice loudly plastered the cavern wall with a sense of conviction.
"However, the situation, she's clearly in distress, it doesn't matter where's she's from, she's innocent of all of this!",
His words resonated with some of the other scouts, and murmurs of agreement rippled through their ranks. Captain Reynolds, his face a mask of frustration and conflict, looking around him and seeing all the men's faces of disapproval and disappointment, eventually nodded in reluctant understanding.
"Fine," Reynolds conceded, his voice heavy with tension.
"Captain Davis, take her back up with your men. The rest of us, let's make up time. Report back as soon as you can Davis." Captain Davis then knelt beside the girl covering her with a blanket.
With that, the group split into two.