The serpent and the tiger

The serpent and the tiger

“I call the bear.”

Atif relayed to Haiden and Autumn as the group transitioned through the door to the cargo bay. The sound of the giant ship’s engine hummed to a start, its pistons slowly coming to life. Haiden looked around, taking notice and realized that the ship was beginning its preparations to disembark.

“Pick whatever one you want, just make it quick. We could have soldiers down here any moment now.”

Haiden urged Atif as she looked on while her and Autumn started taming a good majority of the beasts, they had access to. Her job was simple; she was tasked with releasing the women and children.

“Alright just because we unlocked your cells doesn’t mean you can go around wreaking havoc just yet, ok.”

She explained to the villagers a childish grin on her face. She wasn’t making light of the situation solely to ease her own tense nerves, but also to help keep the children calm and easy to manage.

“We are glad that you are ok Haiden, we feared the worse when we got word that your caravan got ambushed, did anyone else make it?”

“They captured the rebels alive, but in the initial skirmish Anthony got killed by one of their mechs. Everything happened so fast we didn’t stand a chance against those numbers. Once I get the opportunity, I’m going to look for Lazard and the others, we can’t let New Aurora get their dirty hands on them.”

She struggled to find the right words, feeling she came off a little harsh. But there was nothing she could say to soften the hard facts. While Haiden held up her end of the bargain and organized and informed the other prisoners of the plan. Autumn and Atif were like two kids in a candy shop. Looking over the wide variety of exotic beasts, they had to choose from. Atif wasted no time, going after the heavy hitters and bonding with a giant bear and lion. Autumn found herself bonding and befriending a bison along with a colorful bird. Atif took note of the beasts that Autumn was taming and was thrown off by the size and number of beasts she was taming.

“How can that bird be of any use Auttie? Why not tame Something a little bigger?”

She questioned, taming another beast this time a Sand Dragon. The EV modified version of a once simple desert reptile. Highly sought after by the elitists of New Aurora for the elegance of their scales and their place in high fashion. But Atif didn’t care too much about the cosmetics. No, she was drawn in by her knowledge of the beast’s fighting prowess and relentless nature.

“I’m trying, really, but I can’t channel my essence.”

“Another one of your dry spells? In a time like…”

Atif was interrupted by the sound of something heavy being moved and banged around from just beyond the door leading out of the cargo bay.

“Quick everybody take cover somewhere something is coming.”

Haiden exclaimed, closing the cell door behind her and hiding with the rest of the villagers. The two Sisters slipped between the spacing in the bars of the bears’ cage and hid behind its giant frame. Atif peeked out from behind the warm and soft cover of the bear and witnessed as two soldiers pushing giant containers entered the cargo bay from the main corridor.

“Since when was New Aurora been in the business of hording beasts? “Ki questioned casually pushing his container through the rows of cages. Keen to notice how calm some of the beasts were while the others seemed to be going wild and trashing about.

“Looks like that isn’t the only thing that they are hording.”

Locke pointed out taking a good look at the people being held captive behind iron bars.

“Alright we can park these things here I guess.”

He said maneuvering the cargo one last time before releasing the hydraulics and lowering the load to the ground.

“So, you think this is a good place or did you see something that you liked better along the way?”

Autumn and Atif looked at each other with a look of confusion as they eavesdropped on the conversation. Before the conversation could progress the thunderous sound of the ship’s anchor being retracted caught the attention of everyone involved.

Ki looked around at the variety of Beasts being held captive and that’s when he took a good look at his brother Locke. Who in the present moment had a stern look on his face as he stared blankly at the holding cells containing women and children. He changed his stance to get a good look at what had Locke in such a state of disbelief. He didn’t utter a word and simply released the handle of his pallet jack, the sound of the jack slamming into the neutral position echoed through the cargo hold for a moment.
“There is nothing we can do for them Locke; you know that right.”

“Yeah, I know, but why are they taken women and children? I understand the beasts, but why the humans.”

Locke questioned, the sound of the ship’s horn sounding off throughout the vessel. Close behind the ship’s intercom came to life with the voice of the captain echoing through the large cargo hold.

“Attention crew, we are disembarking from Coastal Garden and making our way back to Busaya. It’s been a long four months out at sea, but your effort and dedication don’t go unnoticed. Maintain your positions and seek out your commanding officers for final preparations. Thank you that is all.”

“Autumn, I don’t think these guys are soldiers they seem as clueless as us to what is going on.”

Atif whispered to her sister, who was focused, watching the two men as they looked over the people being held in Haiden’s cell. Autumn watched closely as the two brothers continued their discussion about possibly why New Aurora was taking humans captive.

“We have to let them pass, it’s too early to execute the plan we don’t have enough distance between us and wherever we are now.”

“Come on Locke, we dropped the crates now let’s get a move on we can’t stall here too long the actual crew could show up any minute.”

Locke and Ki slowly walked off and out of the cargo bay heading back out to the main corridor to find a suitable place to ride out the trip to Busaya. Autumn and the others let out a sigh of relief once the two soldiers left the cargo bay. Haiden freely walking out of her cell wondered over toward the cage containing the bear and the others.

“Don’t be afraid Haiden, he is under my taming he won’t hurt you.”

Atif reassured her new companion, noticing the slight look of fear on her face. Haiden, like the two sisters before her, slipped between the bars and joined them behind the cover of the giant bear’s body.

“So far so good wouldn’t you say guys?”

Atif looked around at her fellow companions, Haiden nodded and Autumn smiled gently patting the bears back.

“Now we just have to play the waiting game it seems.”

“That is fine it will give me some time to rest and maybe my essence blockage will cure itself.”

Autumn explained to Atif while Haiden herself remained silent and mentally prepared for the plan’s execution.

***

A currant of heavy wind rustled through the trees dotting the main road. As pieces of ice started to slowly descend from the darkened sky above. Sounds of ice crashing against the building’s brickwork and the steel frames of the cars littering the road echoed throughout the entertainment district. The assortment of noises played like a smoothing melody to anyone who happened to hear it.

The peaceful atmosphere was disrupted when Keyon flew through the window of a storefront and crashed into a truck parked just outside. He found himself on the defensive, stabbing his sword into the concrete sidewalk. Using it for leverage, he quickly staggered to his feet. With little time to recover Keyon was forced to dip to the left. Right behind him, Salamance darted through the broken window Bo staff first. The door of the truck dented inward under the force from Salamance’s attack as Keyon barely dodged it. He wasted no movements and arched his arm back and twisted his frame. Swinging his blade at Salamance as he attempted to reposition himself to face Keyon.

Blocking his initial attack with his staff he was forced to absorb a firm kick to his mid-section. That put Salamance on his back foot as he matched Keyon’s flurry of blade strikes. With swift perries from his staff, Salamance stood his ground, neither man’s focus wavering an inch. Even when accumulation of hail started to grow, battering the two warriors as they engaged in combat. The two circled each other, neither making a move. When Keyon noticed a slight twitch in Salamance’s eye as he swiftly looked off to the right. This subtle movement alerted Keyon, Giving the wanted man enough time to react to Solis’ sneak attack. Thinking Keyon was preoccupied with Salamance, his attempt was fruitless, as Keyon deflected his attack leaving him open for Keyon to plant a haymaker to Solis’ mid-section. Solis crumbled after having the wind knocked out of him. However, Keyon wouldn’t have the time to follow up his attack on Solis. When the tip of Salamance’s staff was thrusted into his side forcing him to turn around and face the real threat.

“ Get up Solis, stand firm.”

Salamance was stern with Solis as he helped him to his feet, pulling his ally up by his bicep. Taking deep breaths and collecting himself, Solis resumed his fighting stance as he stood side by side with Salamance, now drawing his dagger, holding it downward.

“Is that meant to make me take you seriously Solis?”

Keyon laughed, a demeaning smile on his face as he slowly stepped back from his two pursuers. He looked over his shoulder with the slightest movement of his eyes at the shopping plaza in the distance. A perfect place to seek cover from the worsening hailstorm and an opportunity to elude Solis and Salamance. All that stood between him and the plaza, a long stretch of parking lot. Keyon sheathed the longer of his two swords and started to slowly draw the smaller of the two. Never once taking his eyes off the enemies before him.

Salamance took a step back, reinforcing his stance, the grip on his staff tightening. Solis’ eyes shifted watching Salamance’s every movement taken notice of the faint sign of hesitation in his stance. But it wasn’t without its merit, having grown up with Keyon, Salamance and Solis were aware of Keyon’s fighting style. The longer of the two blades was used in melee situations or situations where killing wasn’t an option. Due to the simple fact that its blade was never sharpened. As well the two were aware that the shorter of the two allowed him to nearly cut through anything. They knew now that any attempts from here on out relied on perfect execution. There could be no blocking or taking sacrificial blows, there could be no missteps.

Jumping over the counter and sliding into cover by the storefront’s now destroyed front window. Roland and Seth, unable to go any further due to the increasing lethality of the hailstorm, were forced to look on from the safety of the coffee shop.

“What the hell is going on here? We got lunatics in bed sheets coming out of nowhere. How the hell are they standing out there in that shit like that?”

Roland had a lot of questions but not too many answers. He was at a loss for words at what he was even witnessing, having to turn away periodically as stray pieces of hail shattered into a mist of smaller ice shards.

“I don’t know Roland everything is happening so fast!”

Seth couldn’t finish his sentence as another stray chunk of hail rain down on his position sending shards shooting past his face cutting parts of his ear and cheek.

“Goddamn, you alright Seth? You said that the storm wouldn’t been this bad or last that long.”

Roland looked over at Seth as he collected himself from the misting of ice shards, hand on his cheek.

“What do you expect Roland, I’m working with outdated tech here it’s not going to be perfectly accurate all the time.”

Seth answered, resting his back against the wall, this time a little further away from the window’s opening.

“You have any idea what happened to Shima and Lorenzo?”

He questioned Roland, drawing his pistol and cocking the hammer back.

“I was barely able to haul ass out of that smoke cloud and out of the hail to pay attention. All I know is that Shima was quick to grab Lorenzo and make a move even before the smokescreen was deployed. Which is a little suspicious if you ask me.”

He said out loud but in his paranoid mind he was fabricating ideas of betrayal further fueled by the feats he was witnessing from Keyon. A single shard of ice smashed against the ground between Keyon and Salamance and before the shard could splinter into smaller fragments Keyon darted off. Toward the safety of the shopping plaza, Salamance and Solis hot on his heels. Vaulting over wrecked vehicles of all sorts and cutting down light poles with ease. Keyon advanced forward doing whatever it took to place obstacles in front of his pursuers to create spacing between them and himself. Flipping onto the roof of a car Keyon narrowly avoided being struck by a shopping cart Solis had launched like a projectile across the icy parking lot surface. Salamance, using his forward motion, jumped on a patch of ice that was starting to form all over the parking lot.

With perfect balance he began shooting forward gliding across the newly formed ice. Lowering his center of gravity Salamance picked up speed closing the distance between him and Keyon. Readying his staff Salamance attempted to trip Keyon up, but just as he was about to go for the sweep Keyon simply swiped at the staff with his short sword cutting off a large chunk of the staff in the process. With nothing else to absorb the inertia of their strikes, and the slippery nature of the parking lot, the two combatants lost their footing. Tumbling to the cold, hard concrete, their forward momentum sending the pair crashing through the glass of double doors to the shopping plaza. Sliding across the laminate floor Keyon came to a halting stop colliding with and shattering the glass of the plaza’s directory.

Raising from the age-old dirt and ceramic shards of the lobby’s potted plants Salamance, the man on a mission rose to his feet. Staff clutched firmly in his grasp. By now Solis was entering the plaza crushing the shattered glass under the weight of his sandals. Salamance simply brushed the dust off his robes, his eyes focused firmly on Keyon, watching him slowly rise to his feet a sick smile of excitement on his smug face.