Uneasy Stroll

N.B: Hi, reader. If you're here, then that means you wanted to check out my story. Please take into consideration that this is a FIRST DRAFT/WORK IN PROGRESS. Hopefully, I will post every Thursday. With that out of the way, enjoy.

Dragged across the dirt was the medley of three travellers. Three nights of near nonstop steps paired with bounces placed a great toll on their bodies as they followed the winding rose-lined footpath.

"Durin... Are we there yet?" Teinova asked impatiently.

His elongated, blue eye stalks slouched—a contrast to his upright, tubular frame. "No, we have to travel some more. Remember what that haggler from the town before told us."

"But that was three days ago, damn it." She retorted.

"You don't have to get flustered. It makes a good-looking organism like you less attractive."

"You must expect me to be flustered after all we have been through on this planet!" The orange highlights in her black hair looked vibrant from frustration and illuminated the night around.

"We may not have had the best experience, but we're surviving." Soothing the lady being proved fruitless. When she was pissed, she was absolutely pissed.

"Just barely, because you ate the last of the food." She had hit hard him with the past.

"It's not my fault you stole a small amount."

"Well, if you weren't crying from hunger, we would have stolen more."

"Let's stop arguing, Teinova." Her stings were getting too hot to handle. To preserve what face he had as the leader, he had to end it for his sake. "We're using up what little energy we have."

"You can't expect me to stop!" As the two bickerers rapidly escalated, a realisation stumbled into Teinova's mind and fell into her mouth: “Wait, where's Zazavin?!"

"That's strange. Where is he?"

Their concern quickly abated as snores enveloped the landscape. A nude, spherical form laid comfortably behind them on the support of roses. From root to petal, they gave him the comfort of a mattress.

"What are we going to do with him?" Durin wondered about their loud and resting compatriot of Veil—the name of their battlemonger group.

"Just leave him there. I could care less right now."

Above them, grey clouds could not mask the darkened heavens. Marvellous gems peered through, with a large, grey rock the most prominent of all. Durin raised his eye stalks to witness the sight. "Well, at least he's sleeping under a beautiful night sky."

"True."

They progressed until they met a decent-sized hill. What little energy remained had withered. Positioned at the top, they saw faint blotches of light in the distance nestled at the base of a neighbouring hill.

The winding footpath straightened for the rest of their walk and dissected the village ahead in perfect halves. The proximity of organised civilization looked to embolden them forward.

"Looks like we found shelter for the night."

"Yeah, it looks so," Teinova replied with little zeal, the bags under her eyes noticeable.

"High five?" Durin made a gentle turn towards her.

"Yeah sure." She matched his movements.

At that moment, both collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Their bodies rolled, caught by gravity and gradient, who continued to play with them back and forth, less and less, until boredom ensued. They were then left at peace on the main road.

* * *

A gentle breeze ran briskly over Durin and Teinova as they slept, which enabled odours to hitch a ride to disturb villagers both awake and asleep. The community, mainly bipedal in structure, congregated at the village square. With their origins unknown, chatter and confusion followed.

Zaae, one of two mechanics, brought a long metal rod to awaken them through pokes.

"Dawg, who these lifeforms spread all over the ground, boi?" Yazo talked in the planet's colourful, bubbly accent to Zaae, his best friend. From the neck up were filtration fields generated from respiration collars the residents kept and used in the event of chemical or biological warfare.

"I don't know but they smell real stink," Zaae replied while he poked Durin's blue form. "Like I not getting through with the being. He not waking up."

"Try the exotic girl." Yazo's stubby finger pointed at them.

"I was going to, dawg."

"Let me take that from you, Zaae." Moele, Zaae's other best friend, did what he does best; he intervened. The wide white frame of the Chessadee, the majority of this village, gave confidence in his own strength.

"What wrong with you boi? Gimme back my thing."

"Nah dawg, you moving too lamey-lamey. I'll show you how it's done." He positioned his arms to make a gentle prod against the one area no woman of Teinova’s species sought to be touched. Unfortunately, he did not have time to revel in his perverse act. A blur came towards him; the swift devastation her knuckles brought lent not a nickel of time to startle him.

His ignorance cost him a bleeding nose and external damage to a home at the side of the main road. For the cocky Moele, this was the consequence of one too many proddings.

What an idiot. I should've caved his body in. Teinova got up and dusted her punk denim jacket and pants with a jersey underneath. "Where's Zazavin? He must be still sleeping."

"Hold it there missy!" Modue exclaimed as flare firearms were brought into existence—his was the shape of a rhombus. Other firearms of all shapes and sizes were in the crowd's possession, surrounding Durin and Teinova. "Just surrender and all will be fine!"

The commotion woke Durin from his slumber, prompting the words, "What's going on?"

Lines crisscrossed Modue's white, oblong face—another feature of the Chesadee. The nearer his index finger inched toward the contact trigger area, the more anxious he became. It was a clear space on the weapon that either changed to green or red, and it was on the colour of danger and harm. He turned off the safety with a flick of the controls. All he had to do now was make contact, and they'd be gone. Modue had done it before and he had no problem doing it again. "Just raise your hands and don't make no rash movement, youths."

Durin gathered himself and adjusted in haste to the situation with crude oil at his fingertips.

"So just do the opposite of what you said." Teinova's small eyes analysed him somewhat.

"You a dunce girl or some..." His words were halted by a glob of crude oil that splattered over his face. This ruined his pyjama hat as it was knocked from the snug spot atop his head. The hostilities were ignited further.

A raspy voice at the rear made a stern command, nullifying the notion of battle. “Move!”

The crowd parted for Village Elder Tantie Mennin. Her short legs shuffled in quick succession against the dusty earth, and the ends of her blue, flowing robe followed. Standing at a respectful distance in front of them, she asked, staring deeply into their eyes, "Have you come to make peace or war?"

"Peace, of course," Teinova answered as Tantie circled them, her eyes wide and observant while the crowd kept themselves on edge.

"What planet you're from?" She asked as her shuffling increased around the two with an inquisitive look.

"Daaja. And she's from Otomi Premier," Durin answered for both.

"Never hear those places before." Tantie drilled into new depths with her persistence. "What do you do for a living?"

"Well... we had a cargo ship, but it got stolen when we first landed a week ago. We're trying to get it back."

"It was the Defence Force ain't it?" Tantie's triangular green ears became pronounced. "You should give up when you can. You have no chance to take back your ship."

"But..." Durin hushed as Tantie cut him off.

"You have a standing army? An aerial fleet? A comprehensive strategy?"

"We have Battle Potential." Teinova substituted for Durin.

"Oh, that don't make any difference. Many hands make the burden light. And yours is too great."

"Who cares?!" Teinova unleashed her ire. "All I know is that we have to fight. We've always fought and we'll continue to do so."

"Fine. Do what you want. When you're dead, don't come back to call me."

"Sorry that I hanged up on your rancid baby-face, you h..." Durin bottled her anger with one of his fingers. He did not want her to spit on the hand that could feed them.

"NAH. You can't be talking to Tantie so. I'll shoot you up real dread." Modue lined up his weapon, eager to fire. Other villagers uttered similar sentiments.

Eoli, the village shopkeeper who was analysing the situation in the background, came up to Modue to say,"Come nah, give them a pass."

"How I giving them a pass?"

"Look at their condition. They're overtaken with stress, they're hungry and they're tired. When times was best, the village used to house travellers from all over, people in good and bad condition, just like them."

"True... but those times are gone. We have to keep our guard up. We can't move with no kind of slackness."

"Well, I'll ask Tantie then. I know she'll say yes."

"Go ask she. She's not going take you on."

"Boy, you forget who I be or what?"

She then had a brief discussion with Tantie. At the end, she handed a peculiar object to one of Eoli’s thick, flat, zig-zag hairs where it naturally remained stuck. Tantie regressed to her abode while Eoli’s stick-like legs and sock-like feet returned her to her previous spot. "You all could stay for the night, but once morning come, you have to leave."

"Do you agree, Teinova? That's a great deal."

She was reluctant; folded arms and eyes turned away were signs of this. But she came to terms that it was an okay deal. For her to be so accepting, especially after what she said to the village head and what she was going to say, was shocking and commendable. And knowing her, it was some really, really horrible things, if not traumatic things. Teinova would surrender for the benefit of Veil.

She shook her head in agreement, and Durin uncovered her mouth right after.

Eoli turned to Modue, the owner of the biggest guest house in the village, and requested he should give the visitors a bath and a place to stay at his guest house at the behest of Tantie.

He shoved her face close to hers for Eoli to take in the black stain across his nose, forehead, and cheeks as he protested this decision.

"Boy, listen to me. You see me talk to Tantie and she said to give them a place to stay for the night and to let them clean up."

"I don't have to."

"Listen to what she say nah. I have the voice recorder here."

Shit.

Shaped like a flying saucer, she pressed the big button at the top of the recorder for a pale blue horizontal line to form. You all see I gave Eoli the voice recorder. That means whatever she say goes, okay? The line shifted as the words came. This is all I going to say. You know my throat does hurt me when I talk too much.

Her word was final. That was it. He had to obey. Accepting his shame, he said, "Okay. I'll accommodate you."

Yoskoe, the head chef, and Brashlo, the head mechanic, were returning to their homes when Eoli shouted that they have to respectively provide food and transport for the outsiders.

"You can't be serious." Yoskoe gave her a crazy-esque look.

"Dawg, you forget Tantie don't like disrespectful youths. Remember the last time we gave her rudeness, she gave us spankings."

They recollected the horrors of Tantie's rod of discipline on their backsides, and because of this, they agreed without hesitation. Their cores trembled from the trauma.

"Look like I have your problems sort out."

Zazavin hoppity-strolled into the village ill-informed of the situation. "Hey, Durin and Teinova. What's going on?"

The crowd diverted their weaponry towards him to fire at a moment's notice.

"He's with us." Teinova's hands signalled to stop.

The uneasy crowd retired their firearms, understanding the fallacy of the threat.

"You sure that is all your concerns?"

"I think that's it," said Zazavin.

"Don't tell me no think-think story. I want you all to be sure. Is so much time I can save you from a flare in your behinds."

"I HUNDRED PUHCENT POSITIFLY sure we hah no problem."

"You mocking we talking?"

"Nah youths." He had the look of a buffoon.

"Whatever, I don't care." She sighed.

Teinova inquired if there was any way to also get portable communicators.

“Can’t help you there. All the ones we have are in use.”

She sought to go to her next question regarding anyone who could repair any broken ones strewn about.

Eoli said no. All that was left from her was this:

“Welcome to Tallas. I hope you do enjoy your stay.”

How was it? Was it good or bad? Please vote, comment, share and follow me and this story.