You don’t believe that shite, do you? [part 2]

“Heads low, be ready…” I said, though I was the only one of us that really needed to be ready since Eleanor didn’t have an actual gun.

The light drew closer and closer, and the sound of clopping hooves became louder and louder, until the carriage seemed to slow down some seven or eight metres back. As it drew to a stop, I could hear muttering, before a lone lantern separated itself from the rest and came towards us. One of the crew members had left the carriage to come look at the obstruction.

We waited, breath held, until he was close enough for us to make out the shape of his head. Then, knocking on the wooden cart twice to give Eleanor the signal, I stood up in the cart and aimed my gun at him, with her following immediately behind.

“Stop! We’re a raiding party, order your guards to show themselves and give us your goods!” I called out to the man, who damn near dropped his lantern in surprise.

“Gods be good!” He called, stepping back quickly and almost tumbling to the floor. He panicked for a moment, bumping into his own horse and almost dropping the lantern, but seeing the two guns pointed at him seemed to snap him back to reality. “M-merseneries! Come aut!” He called, and there was a rustling from the carriage, followed by the emergence of four figures cloaked in shadows, just barely illuminated by the lantern light.

“Raders, ey? And two alone? Ye must be eiþer very brave or very daft to rade an Edelweiss transport wiþ such a smoll party,” said the man at the front of the four.

“Me partner and I 'as eight shots each. And there's only four of ya’s. I’d say our chances are pretty solid,” I replied, which was unsurprisingly met with laughter.

“Ye fight wiþ hand cannons alone? þink ye þat ye canst lode so many raunds wyle being cut to pieces? Wat a fool ye art,” said the same man again as his companions continued to chuckle.

“…old boy with the lantern, 'old it up close to me so everyone can see what I’m about to do, yeah?” I said, turning my attention to the man who first approached us. Still seemingly scared shitless, he shuffled closer to me and did as I asked. “Alright, you might wanna cover your ear with your other ‘and, too. Might be a bit of a loud one.”

I raised my left hand above my head, covering my ear with my right, and fired my first shot into the air. I quickly pulled back the hammer with my gun and fired the second quickly after, with the previous laughter being replaced by a momentary sound of gunfire and then deafening silence.

“‘Tis… not possible… none haþ loded multiple raunds at wunse befor… wat sorsery be’þ þis?” Asked the apparent leader from before, his previously mocking tone now wracked with shock.

“Game’s changed, lad. Y’aint lookin’ at some slow firin’ flintlock, but the worlds first multi-firin' 'and cannon. And, well, that numbers advantage of yours ain’t lookin’ too great either, is it?” I put my right hand to my mouth and whistled, and a moment later three figures emerged on the other side of the guards. Alice, Elis and Alces. “Looks like you’s surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned. So let’s not make this any ‘arder than it ‘as to be, yeah? Put the weapons down, and stand aside until our jobs done. We don’t gots to ‘urt ya’s or anythin’, so just surrender and this’ll all be done in a jiffy."

The men cloaked in shadows looked between each other for a little while, before seemingly coming to an agreement with a nod from the one at the front. Slowly, they all bent down to the ground and laid down their weapons. From the lantern light, it looked like two muskets and two swords. If they had freaked out when I fired the revolver, one of those muskets could have had me dead immediately. I got lucky.

“Aye, go ahedd, take youre pryze…” said the leader in a bitter tone.

“Good, you made the right call. Three, five, snag the cargo. Four, make sure they don’t move.” At my order, two of the barely visible figures at the back stepped away to secure whatever was in the carriage, while one remained. I had given everyone a number beforehand so we could communicate without exposing our identities.

Of course, that ended up completely in vain due to the next thing said by the leader of the guard mercs.

“Kweer speech and new teknology… ye art an oþer-worlder, art ye not?” He asked, and my stomach dropped immediately.

“I’m… just a foreigner…” I said, though I was audibly shaken up.

“Ha! No forrenner carrieþ a repeating gun, ‘twould be a disaster for Igris. Nay, I’ve no doutt. ‘Tis not þis land, but þis werld þat ye be forren ta, I’m sertan of þat nau.”

Shit. I didn’t cover up my dialect, and ended up giving something huge away. If other-worlders are really that rare that I might be the only one on the island, I had really screwed myself over.

“You’re wafflin’ about shite all, I’m from this world, born and bred,” I tried to deflect, though I knew he wouldn’t buy it.

“þat þe þe truþ, ys it? þen tell me þis, ser forrenner. What’s þis werld called?”

“It-“ I froze for a moment. Alice had told me this before. I knew it. But I hesitated. “It-it’s called Terra. Us people are called Terrans.”

It was the correct answer. But it was answered wrong.

“Nau, wat sort of man hesitateþ when asked þe name of his werld? Surely ‘tis someþing ye hast noen since ye wert a babe?”

I had no rebuttal. He had me. Even though I knew the answer, I immediately thought Earth, and that was enough to throw me off.

“Milord will sertanly be astonished to hear þat an oþer-worlder haþ taken to cryme agenst his property. What a rare opporchunity ye hast presented to us.”

But once again I didn’t respond. Instead, my finger hovered over the trigger of my revolver. Six shots left. Everyone here had heard his declaration, so there were five witnesses. I had enough ammunition to do it. I just had to pull the trigger five times.

“One? Ys someþing þe matter?” Came a quiet voice from below me. It was Alice, loading the cart with the stolen goods. I had stared at the man with my finger on the trigger for so long she had carried it here and watched me.

“N-no… nothings the matter…” I lied, dragging myself away from my bloody solution. I had screwed up and exposed myself, it was impossible to justify the execution of five men simply because I messed up.

I’d have to let them go, even if it meant making my existence know to the one man I least wanted to know of me.

“þis be’þ þe last of þe goods from wiþin þe carrej, we shouldst be fyne to leave at wunse,” she said. “Shall I call back þree and four?”

“Y-yeah… bring ‘em over…” I said, trying to snap out of my thoughts. I had royally screwed up, but for now that was a problem with no solution. Spacing out like that during a fight could get my loved ones killed. I couldn’t let that happen again.

Not long after, the five of us had returned to the cart with the goods securely between us. But as we rolled away from the men before us, I couldn’t help but feel like I had lost that interaction.