A small adventure part 2

The walls of the warrant office were lined with papers, each stack nailed to the wall and stained with rusty iron.
Gab leafed through on the stacks of paper, flipping through page after page, each written in a different alien language.

“Oh.” Awa wagged excitedly, holding one of the sheets of paper. “Language of the tribes.”

“You can read it?” Gab asked.

“Bodyguard… journey…” Awa squinted in concentration at the paper before shaking her head in defeat. “Awa not learn much read.”

Ahead of them Faus plucked a paper from the wall, nodding happily as the Yama maid read it aloud to him.

“It’s perfect.”

Faus waved Gab and Awa over to the reception, slamming the paper down on the counter.

“We’ll take it.”
“Hmm.” The receptionist glanced down at the paper, barely paying them any attention as she picked at her nails.

“Just the three of you then.”

She leaned down, sliding open a shelf and flicking through the papers inside before leaving three identical copies on the table before them.

“Signed in triplicate please.” She said, sliding a little knife and well across the counter towards them.

Faus immediately cut a finger, dripping blood into the ink well and dipping a pen inside before scrawling his name across each of the papers.

“You next Gab.”

Gab pricked his finger with the knife, and as he signed each of the papers he felt a tickle along his consciousness, some unseen force pressing against his mind before withdrawing.

“Have to?”

Awa was looking up at him with teary eyes, eyes glancing back and forth to the knife.

“Gab do it.”
She said, holding out her thumb and closing her eyes, one lip pulled over the other as it wavered.

“All done. Not so bad right?” Gab said, as Awa pressed her thumb against each of the papers before sticking it in her mouth and glowering at Faus.

“Bad.” Awa declared.

The receptionist yawned, gathering up the three papers and examining them closely.

“All three are bound.”

She put one back in the drawer.

“When you have completed the task. We shall know, and payment will be arranged.”

She passed another of the contracts to a woman behind her, who carried it away.

“The contract will be voided and reissued should it detect any abnormality.”

She slid the final contract across the counter to them.

“Or should it detect your death.”

Gab picked up the contract, looking down at the incomprehensible glyphs as he followed the Yama maids back outside.

“What does it say?” He asked one of the maids as they waited outside for Faus.

“A village plagued by monsters. You are Tasked with Extermination.” The Yama maid looked over the contract before handing it back. “An honourable task.”

Faus emerged from the warrant office a moment later, beaming excitedly as he pulled Gab to the back of the office.

“Come, the office arranged transport.”

The kid was fearless, or perhaps delusional.

“Young master.”

A soft voice, followed by a vague sense of unease.

The demon woman from the ship bowed to the boy, standing beside a squat, many legged creature tethered to a cart, polished carapace glinting in the red moon’s light.
“Guh.”

Awa leapt behind Gab, trembling as she buried her face against his armor.

“I thought I warned you against this young master.” The demon woman reprimanded him as Faus stepped into the cart, patting the beast pulling it on its massive neck.

“To risk one’s life for the good of all, or perhaps even give it. There remains no higher nobility.”

Faus smiled down at the demon woman as he beckoned Gab up behind him.

“That's what the lady told me, right?”

“Yes I suppose she did.” The demon said reluctantly. “Though in your case, I do not believe this is her intent.”

Awa jumped onto the cart, hiding behind Gab as she eyed the demon warily.

“I just… want to do something good, like the lady.” Faus said.

The demon woman sighed, bowing her head once more.

“Very well, then as always, I shall assist you.”

…

Gab’s hand rested on the spear beside him as the cart rocked back and forth, his eyes scanning over the barren horizon of the ash wastes.

“We’ve done a ton of warrants…”

Faus leaned back on the cart as the demon held the reins, chatting happily with Gab and Awa.

He was treating this like a day trip. Or a game.

“... And basically there are three ways to find red, the old world mines like the one you were at in the third, from monsters and…”

“Young master.” The demon hissed warningly, her hands clutching the reins as she interrupted him, sending Awa shrinking back behind Gab.

A secret way to get Red?

“Sorry.” Winced Faus. “Anyway, it's the monsters we’re after today.”

Monsters…

Gab ran his finger along the metal speartip, his finger recoiling as the slightest touch opened up the skin of his finger.

As horrific as the ones on the boat?

“Young master, it appears we must stop for the day.” The demon declared, her hands pulling on the reins to pull the many legs of the squat beast to a halt.

“Already but..”

The demon woman patted the back of the creature before her.

“Our Lobh must rest, its strength wanes under the red moon.”

“I see.” Faus agreed. “Very well then.”

The demon pulled the cart over by a near lifeless tree, pressing her hand to the ground to bring forth a bubbling pool of water from deep beneath the ground.

Faus detached the cart from the rivets drilled into the beat’s shell, tethering the Lobh to the tree as Gab wandered off to a nearby gully, pulling forth the radio and pressing a button.

“Can you hear me?”

The radio hummed with static, devoid of the comfort and security the other side had come to represent.

Should they try and escape?

He looked around at the barren landscape, twisting trees and rocky gullies that offered no hope for life.

But where would they even go?

“What am I supposed to do?” Gab whispered down to the silent radio.

“Magic box not want to talk?” Awa asked, looking disappointed.
Gab shook his head, putting finger to his mouth as he glanced back at the boy.

Awa nodded seriously, lowering her voice as she followed his gaze.

“Not trust?”

He seemed like a good kid but…

“I’m not sure Gab whispered, at least I don't want him to know about the other side, he’s too close to the demons.”

Awa nodded approvingly.

“Sellout.” She declared.

“But Smell like master. Not evil.”

Awa frowned, watching the boy talk happily with the demon as they set up camp.

“Awa thinks boy is missing marbles.”

…

Dewy condensation dripped from the metal of Gab’s chitinous armour as Awa pulled herself off him, ears twitching as she sniffed at the predawn air.

His body ached.

Then she howled, an alerting sound that pulled Gab from any vestiges of sleep as he reached for the spear beside him.

“What…” Faus looked blearily around, the demon resting beside him flickering open her eyes and staring out over the road.

A Tah staggered down the ashen road towards them, body bloody and broken as he collapsed on the roadside before them.

The Tah lay there as Gab cautiously approached, his chest rising and falling as he struggled to breathe.

Beneath his skin something pulsated revoltingly, a multitude of living creatures stretching at the skin as they moved beneath it.

“Bok Mite. Egged.” Awa said sadly, shaking her head at the Tah as he clawed weakly at his stomach. “Die.”

The demon woman stepped up beside them, eyes cold as she looked down at the body and raised her hand flat to the ground.

“A waste.” She whispered, lowering her hand and crushing the Tah into a bloody paste, a putrid smelling gas and sickly yellow liquid oozing from the remains as whatever had lived inside him was crushed.

It felt like a mercy.

‘Something wrong?” Faus yelled from the cart as he started to rise, bleary eyed and yawning.

“No young master.”

The demon turned around, heading back to the cart.

“Nothing with which you must concern yourself. However…”

She bowed to Faus.

“I believe things may be worse than reported, should we continue onwards or return to the city, we should hurry.”