Watchmen

“Waking someone from their amber by removal from resting site, direct action on the scene or accident caused by direct action is expressly forbidden.”

Habralven Penal code R-865kd

Snoring and a playful kick to the shoulder woke Tzera the next morning. Her sleep-crusted eyes opened and met the spry, curvy davran clearing the camp, confusing her to think she was still dreaming, though it was the first sane morning in four days. That is, from her perspective of time. Rest wore off slowly. It had been the most satisfying nap she could remember, bringing dreams that were clean and requiring no lucid nudges to keep nightmares at bay. The kind of rest brought on by hard-won victories with all the plans and schemes for the next day’s survival transforming into hopes and fantasies for the future.  She stretched her arms out of the cozy sleeping bag, warming the darker charcoal scales coating the softer green against the heating morning sun, popping some of the stress out of her joints. The sounds of snoring persisted even as she rubbed her eyes awake and crawled out of the knapsack, emanating from the rusting, ruby-eyed robot still bonded to her face. Her new friend had the bedroll cleaned of the pink leaves and folded before she could stand up.

“What’s next?” she tiredly asked, sounding more like “whrftne?” with the closed droid snoozing on her mouth.

“I think the first order of business once we get back to Habralven is to get that thing off your face. But do you think you can keep it quiet?” the purple feline responded.

Tzera flicked P.A.R.E.A a few times and the droid fell silent. But then, as she tried to answer she suddenly realized she couldn’t. Her voice had been pilfered and even raising it allowed no more than whispers to seep out from the mask. None of his manual switches worked, some seemed to either disappear or had moved to other spots on his surface sometime during the night. Luckily the air pump was working. Odors of flowers and grass still made their way through the filters, much to her relief. For should the air cut off… P.A.R.E.A was certainly acting strange, but he hadn’t yet tried to kill her. He probably had saved her life with the IV tube, but he also hadn’t exactly been…sane. Comedy seemed lost on Yishel this morning as the ruin guard watched the muzzled lendari attempt to confirm. The scaled one’s voice reduced to muffled cries and choosing to signal by flapping her hands wildly about trying to find some gesture for Ok.

“Well, that will do just fine.” 

With the nearby Kimpra quickly loaded, Yishel handed the green-scaled girl a few pieces of the dried meat and fruit, instructing her to eat as they go and hoping she could use them if she needed to. Tzera covered her head in the white veil once more and the group headed out over the hillcrest into the tall, lush pasture. 

The Jovian had set sometime around midnight, and the comet was racing around for its first pass of the new day with the tail always curving to the north like a lighthouse beacon. Its brilliant nighttime pure white light was already cloaked in the painted pink and orange morning, further fading with the approaching blue of midday. Rise and fall went as far as the eye can see, with heavy waves of tall grass only thinning and breaking near the rare stray foliage seeming to sprout from nowhere. Lone trees dragged the earth up with them in their quest for more sunlight, pimpling the face of the field with vermillion. Speckles of gold from an even more variety of trees and shrubbery grew where the hills rose higher, and they were finally able to spring taller with the deeper soil. Rambling somewhat nervously, the davran brought her charge up to speed as best she could while they walked. Listening closely, Tzera always hung next to Yishel, remaining quiet with the rusting robot gag.

“I think it’s time I try to explain the situation to you. It took me a while to see exactly where we were, but after I got a good look around last night, I realized the both of us had slipped just southeast of the Habralven main city border into Huruhai territory.” Yishel explained, lifting her arm and pointing towards more dark-blue grass ocean extending to the southeast. “A few days ago, my Kimpra and I were patrolling in that area, and we got caught in a collapse that threw us both into an underground river, sweeping us downstream closer to where you lay into some sort of.. oasis. We had been searching for a way out for around two days when we came across you. “she continued, her hand following the horizon down to the hills behind them.

“Unfortunately, the area I found you in was out of my jurisdiction.” She stated, stopping for a moment as her hand pointed back towards their camping spot. Toward the rising star, in the direction opposite of the one they were headed.

“Normally if a ruin guard found you here, they would have to take you to a governing regional outpost, the nearest for this side is around a two-day walk over dangerous terrain in that direction. Geographically speaking it is closer, just a lot harder to get to than the ones up here on the shelf. And this state has a law dictating you are to join the military for three cycle minimum to obtain citizenship immediately after processing. That would happen no matter where I took you from here. It's old and outdated but still on the books. Not to mention I have no idea what lengths they would go to get that silver talking stone off you, any working ancient technology is instantly seized by the government. Though I suspect they’ll let you keep the clothes on your back. Those you can find.”

Concern grew more rampant for Tzera as the situation was spelled out by the ranting davran, still narrating as the two continued northeastward. Towing the burdened kimpra along with a leash, with the banging cookware keeping a rhythm with the screaming summer insects.

“You don’t really look like grunt material, and I’ll be honest I do have my own reasons for breaking protocol by not taking you there; besides not wanting to make the hike. As I told you before you aren’t supposed to be awake, and I could get in a lot of trouble if the wrong people accuse me of rousing you. I’m sorry to say we both find ourselves in a little bit of a bind here.”

“So, let me tell you what I intend to do.” she declared, motioning her head forward toward their direction of travel.

“Just a few ridges over that way is a checkpoint, we will be there by a little after high sun. There will be others like me there and I’m already overdue for a check-in, so there is no way around it. But instead of handing you over, we will use that spare outfit you’re wearing as a disguise and try to sneak you through it. Once we are clear we can ride back to the city and blend in with the crowd without much of a hassle. I have a safe place to keep you for a while, after which we can position you somewhere with people who can integrate you more into the city. Give you a few more options than dying in some far-off land fighting for a country and cause you know nothing of.”

Briefly, Yishel gazed back at the anxious, quiet lendari looking over her camouflage, dumbfounded by the new dangers she now faced. A thought that Yishel might be lying crossed Tzera’s mind momentarily but a quick tally of the events up to that point gave no indication she should be untrustworthy. Though the explanation made it seem as if her own fate was much worse should they be discovered. Could someone I just met be looking out for me? What would motivate her to take such a risk? The sage-scaled lass mused.

Noticing her companion's hesitation, Yishel slid her sidearm and belt free from her snowy outfit. Presenting it to her concerned follower with care.

“I won’t force you into anything, but the only real other option is I turn you into the checkpoint and we both take our licks. If we do that, I can’t help you anymore.”

Struck still by the power of the weapon presented to her, the amber-eyed lizard paused for several moments. In her time the only ones who carried weapons were truancy officers and they would never surrender their arms to another. There were no guns in her world and any ranged weapons were rare and usually slow in velocity. Anything massive, explosive, or ballistic was too risky. One false shot, and millions of people could be put in danger by a stray hole to an empty atmosphere. Instead, the truancy force employed bladed swords and spears, many of which had a stun default that would blunt the edge and electrify it, feeding them with enough energy to subdue rather than wound or kill. Tzera had seen several fights with the officers in the past. She had never been on the receiving end of a butt whipping, but still, she was uncertain about how more or less destructive force this strange firearm possessed than its larger brother, whom she had seen Yishel fire only once. Though the weapon was alien, to her it was a whole new level of trust.

With some hesitation, the green girl took the belt, throwing it around her matching outfit. Affixing the primitive, manual buckle proved too complicated for her first time and Yishel assisted, snapping it in the front and resting the silver rail-revolver on her hip. Making extra sure the safety pin remained in place over the trigger so it didn’t go off.

“I don’t need you to fight, you don’t even have to take it out, it's just to complete the outfit. All I need you to do is stay quiet and bow like this if someone addresses you.” the plum lady instructed, throwing her two hands directly in front of her face, bald palms together, eyes closed, head arching downward.

“Do you think you can do that?”  

Tzera mimicked her almost perfectly in agreement.

“Good.”

Signs of civilization snuck in just after a few slopes in the form of smoke rising from a densely overgrown area, pooling like a delta with rivers of red and yellow leaves winding between more rolling hills beyond. The pair slipped in silently as the brush cleared into a larger camp around an enormous estate cottage. Masses of soft stone slabs stacked atop each other formed the main structure, affixed to three branching egg-shaped buildings beset with blue glass windows, wood coverings, and exposed supports. A small, well-weathered wall surrounded the property, fabricated from smooth river rock and mortar. Overgrown with blood red, veiny vines and crumbling from many long years in the elements. Its design seemed not to be intended for the purpose of barracks that it now served. giving off more the air of a long-forgotten passion project, abandoned when patience, funding or vigor wore off. A luxurious cairn already old enough to deteriorate and then again be reclaimed for the living.

Several dozen people were bustling through the area in a tense mix of stout and skinny, tall and short, fur and scales. Tending kimpras, resting under white linin tents, and cooking in large cast-iron pots over open fires, with two or three passing the time playing some game involving the use of artfully printed paper cards. All of them more or less armed and clothed in the matching white, bead-laden uniforms.

The odors of embers, soot, and animals grew even more potent as the two crept out from the bramble.

“TASTARU’S MERCY YISHEL. WHERE IN THE DIVINES NAME HAVE YOU BEEN?” A round, black-furred davran man shouted in a tone more thankfully concerned than angry. Swiftly bolting toward the pair and their startled mount at a surprisingly agile pace for a man of his size and followed closely by two additional, more decorated guards.

Their Lendari forms were as familiar to Tzera as any other of her kind. One was female with scaled the tan orange of a midday desert rock, two nostrils without a nose with large bronze offset horns, aside a taller blue male with a short, shaved appearance on the horns sprouting from his head, flaring them like fins. Yellow, chalky paint was striped under their eyes and across his chapped, scaley lips and both of the lizards were clasp in silver plate chest armor strapped over the white uniform. They were the first of her brethren she had seen since waking up yet neither of them seemed all that pleased to see her. Perhaps it had something to do with their thinner, fully articulated, monkey-like tails.

 “We’ve had a search party out combing your patrol route the last two days.” The heavy black davran huffed, stopping just in front of the girls. Slightly out of breath.

“Haldit, glad to see someone missed me.” Yishel greeted, handing the kimpra’s reins over to her follower and meeting her fellow davran in a handshake at the wrist. His green, glassy eyes looking her over in relief.

“What happened? Best a Rokuntai did we?” The larger indigo lizard asked in a far less friendly tone, bringing the reunion to a swift halt with the ridicule. Yishel returned a backhanded greeting then explained to them about the pitfall she fell into and the underground river as she did to Tzera before.

Then she began to embellish the story when Tzera’s part came into play.

“We wandered around down there lost until our Huruhai sister over here stumbled upon us and guided us out,” Yishel clarified, directing her hand towards the veiled green girl struggling with the heavy animal.

“It seems they have a new Vestridian Tiriidas-Monk in their ranks.”

Both of the armored officers directed their suspicious gaze toward the sage-skinned fair cloaked in their garb. Haldit also glared at her, his nervous emerald eyes widening in the same manner as Yishel’s. Anxiously, Tzera held the kimpra's reins with the spotlight upon her, then she swallowed the lump in her throat and bowed as they had practiced. Convinced, though genuinely unconcerned, the two armored guards quickly returned their interest toward Yishel, making it seem as if the ruse had worked perfectly and they were home free. But Haldit’s eyes remained fixed on the disguised girl.

“Send word to the search party and call them back.” The larger lendari ordered the smaller, sand-scaled female and she left the company with the instructions. Then he turned authoritatively back towards the others. Annoyance in his stance and stare.

“Haldit stamp their papers and get them on their way. I believe Yishel was to be rotating out yesterday, I’ll put off disciplining you for your absence till the next time you grace this post.” He said to the two davran with Yishel swallowing a scoff.

Then adding as he left, “And get the holy woman back to her church.” Directing a not-so-subtle hint of animosity in Tzera’s direction.

Silently the three of them waited there as the small gathering of onlookers began to dissipate. Once more private they unpacked the equipment aboard the animal’s back leaving only the long rifle and a skin saddle rest upon the ornamental rug, then Haldit led them to his tent.

It was a more elegant shelter than a lot of the others populating the camp. Large enough to fit a small group inside and filled with scrolls and books rest on shelves placed along the octagonal sides. A large desk sat near the entrance, strewn with gold coins, maps, notes, the occasional weapon and two of the iron torches Yishel had used to lead them out of the ruins were perched upon some wire stands on either side. Humming, bleeding light and steaming in the humid riverside air.

“So, are you going to tell me what really happened down there? A pitfall is one thing, Felkfir knows we have all been there. But do you expect me to think you got lost? Tak and Shinarn may be gullible enough to believe that, but they don’t know you as well as I do.” The dark davran asked, nestling himself into a backless chair that had been sheltered underneath the desk, constructed from little more than a cross-section of wood with a small sheet of thick, red canvas stretched between the two peaks.

Because she half expected this, Yishel’s expression remained staunch, but Tzera could barely obscure her concern under the veil, suddenly dreading they had been detected.  Nervously, the purple davran reached into her chest pockets with both hands pulling out a small, black, bound book and a shard of the amber she had gathered in the shambles of her new friend’s chamber. Tiny puffs of vapor rose and vanished swiftly in the mist and the pebble began to bubble like butter on a hot skillet as she set the stone down atop her book, sliding it over to Haldit in the shade. Cautiously the short-haired man took it in his ash-colored hands, hiding it quickly between his cradled claws and looking over it clandestinely for a few moments. Then he turned his attention towards Tzera, mirroring the vice from the blue lendari earlier.

“It seems my friend lost her papers fishing me out,” Yishel told him with an uneasy smile on her face. Hands beginning to quake just enough to notice, that singsong accent of hers almost lost in the gulp. She was not as sure of this plan as she had been earlier.

“I would like to take her to the capital to get new ones issued quickly.”

“This is almost a deal-breaker, Yishel,” Haldit argued, ignoring the woman’s code speak and brandishing a foul mood. Angry, jade eyes returning towards the purple lady.

“We go way back, and I’m grateful with what you have done for me, even happy to help sweep your occasional treasure hunting under the rug but...” he paused for a second, looked around then whispered,

“But waking someone up? That’s a career-ender.”

“I didn’t wake her; she was already up when I found her.” Yishel hissed back harshly in rebuttal, her expression swiftly changing to one of desperation.

Haldit studied the pale green stranger with his electric eyes for a few moments more. Somewhat irritated that Yishel would disguise her as not only a fellow ruin guard, but a Tiriidas- Monk as well. Essentially Tzera was impersonating a priest. That part wasn’t illegal, not here at least but it wasn’t exactly moral either.

 “You can understand me. How?” he interrogated, having noticed her reaction before. Slowly, the sage scale lifted her veil revealing the red-eyed P.A.R.E.A unit attached to her face underneath and Haldit’s temper grew fouler with the sight of the working, ancient machine. Angrily he called out Yishel’s name in disappointment.

“Castus can get it off and I promise I’ll get her and it to Bavid just...after the solstice.” The purple cat begged in a last-ditch effort to sway him to assist. “We can keep her at the office till then. My next tour is in Kazdama, and I can rig up some papers from there...that way you get to keep next year’s bonus as well.” She included more convincingly. Anxiously adding in the promise of a payday whilst scraping two of her fingers around her thumb.

The black cat grumbled, rubbing his pink and ash-colored paw through his short hair and over his rounder ears in a nervous tick while he thought about it. Then, with a decision made, he stuffed the amber into a satchel at his feet. Sighing heavily.

 “I don’t believe you can do that with Kazdama, your tongue is not as slippery as you think. I’ll do this as a favor to Castus, the guild would probably call him to remove it anyway if I were to take you in here. So, I will help you to keep him out of this mess. Just make sure it doesn’t come back to me, I don’t really care how.” He told them, grabbing a stamp, and slamming the blue ink insignia on an open page of Yishel’s book. Handing it back to her but clutching the other end as Yishel grabbed hold to add in a friendly warning.

“If this leads to any trouble, I’m going straight to Bassan with it. For both our sakes.”

“And our church ward friend?” Yishel replied, gingerly asking with her orange, fire-like eyes drowned in her black pupils. Lilac hands tensely stuffing the black book back into her chest piece.

“You are lucky no one has pointed out her boots. So... first thing is first.” He answered, pulling out a pair of leather footwear and pushing it across the table. These were different than the ones that had been blistering Tzera’s feet the last two days. These were more the proper shape for her anatomy, wide around the toe for the larger, binary pair and with a thicker sole to support the elevated heel. Yishel took them and handed them to Tzera as Haldit schemed, drawing their attention towards two blank pieces of letterhead on the desk.  “I’m eating soon and the person who brings my meal here will conveniently knock over a torch, incinerating this record of her arrival and departure. If anyone pushes too much that you moved onward with your friend without papers, I can simply state it included a letter of visit from her to the sect in Habralven and I ordered you to take her back with you on the way out. With the missing name and church's protection, they shouldn’t pursue it much.”

This was a much better plan and Yishel agreed. Thanking him, her expression quickly relieved and Haldit swallowed his distaste. Both changing back into the spirited, fuzzy faces they had when they first greeted each other as Tzera changed into a more comfortable pair of boots. He was right, she had put him in a most perilous position but the two held a long friendship and a confidence with each other they did not share among the rest of the guard. Yishel trusted that he would keep his end of the bargain. Luckily for both of them, Haldit was actually sly.

As the two reached an accord, Tzera stood aside with her thoughts. Though now she was now more comfortable in her feet she still distressed over exactly what deal had been made. But even through her somersaulting assumptions, Yishel’s smile continued to calm and the sight of lendari working alongside davran around the camp comforted her further. Perhaps this time, I might find that reason to stay awake. She thought, her old mantra crossing her mind once more.

I have to. It seems returning to sleep is not an option anymore.