"Uh, Toth? If'n I may make a point here?" Skout asked of her leader. The pair had been chasing the Nomad once more across the vast lands of Nowhere, lead of various different crazy encounters. After the... incident regarding the Nowhere Storm and the Electric Rhinogosaurus, the Y'dala and her partner weren't on speaking terms for a while. Toth said it was her way of trying to not fail Don Paragon, and by extension El Ray, in her hunt for the dreaded Nomad by letting her feelings get in the way.
"What is it Skout?" Clearly, they had moved past that. She clocked on very quickly that not communicating with her was a path to disaster, so slowly and gradually she tried to ease back into communicating with the young woman. Skout didn't do gradually though; she was given an inch, so she took a mile and returned to their normal way of conversation within that day.
Toth's response to that was a roll of her eyes and a subtle smile she hid from the plucky redhead.
"I know that you're in charge and all that, and so I can understand if you don't like my ideas or nothin', which I'm okay with if I'm totally honest with ya, 'cause I clearly don't know half'a what you do when it come to this sorta thing, an'-"
"Skout..." the amber eyed warrior warned, "you are rambling again. Slow down, and tell me what was on your mind."
"What? I'm..." the moment the bushy haired woman realised what she was doing, her cheeks heated up with a slight pink tinge and her gaze dropped to stare intently at the back of the neck of the horse she was travelling on. "... oh. Sorry. I can't control myself sometimes, I know that."
"I will admit that is true Skout, but I do not mind too much." That comment definitely grabbed the downcast caddie's attention. "I won't be the first, nor will I be the last, to tell you this, but you are 'book smart'. You know a lot about a great deal of things in theory from the various different volumes of texts you bring around with us. You lack any sort of experience in the real world however, and as such you have gotten us into plenty of avoidable trouble over the past months."
"Hey! If I wanted to be treated like a child, I woulda stayed back with them Dandy Lions." Toth mentally chastised herself at the way that comment came out and how Skout took it - it was meant to be a segue into something more positive, but clearly her tone made the southern girl believe otherwise.
"Equally," she continued in an effort to claw something back from Skout's shattered trust her, "the fact you have no experience has also aided us in our efforts." The warrior let a soft smile grace her tanned features, something Skout clocked on to immediately. "Not leaning on any sort of preconditioned thoughts and training, and seeing things from a truly outsider's perspective has given a lot of puzzles we've had to overcome a new light that I never would have thought of with a more tactical and battle orientated mind like mine. And for that, I thank you dearly."
"You... mean that Toth?"
"I do. In fact, I would go as far to say that I'd trust you with my life." Green eyes sparkled in wonderment at the positive statement given to her by a woman she had idolised ever since they had started their quest to capture and return the Nomad, and even before that time as well.
"Oh, that reminds me of what I was s'posed to tell ya." The backpack wielder eased up of the reigns of her horse, prompting her friend to do the same. "Well, y'know how we're s'posed to be out all lookin' to capture that Nomad and bring him back to Don Paragon?"
"Mm hm."
"Well, it seems that ev'rytime we go lookin' for him, we find him, but some random hijinks happens an' we end up losing him in all the confusion, an' the cycle just keeps on repeatin' over and over again."
"I had noticed, yes."
"Well, what I wanna know is: why don't we stop tryin' to capture him?" The previous soft smile Toth had on disappeared like the snap of fingers, leaving only a state of confusion in its wake.
"Skout..."
'Aw, crudbuckets,' the redhead thought to herself. She was well aware how this went: whenever Toth began a sentence directed towards her by saying her name in that tone, it was never a good sign.
"... I know I just praised you for your ability to think about things from an outsider perspective, but this needs a focussed mind. Don Paragon is relying on us to get that Nomad back to him, so we need to capture him. I'm sorry, but while most of your ideas are noteworthy, this one sadly is not." Skout took some solace in knowing Toth felt at least slightly guilty for saying that, what with how her voice behaved when she said that.
"No, no it's alright. It was just a thought, nothin' major. We'll just... keep on goin' until we find that elusive, no good… vermin."
"Skout!" She flinched at the sudden shout from her superior. "Tell me what's wrong."
"What? Ain't nothing wrong Toth. I'm right as rain."
"Quit lying to me Skout." The warrior sighed. "I know you see good in the Nomad, and it's against who you are to call him 'vermin' of all things. So please, just tell me."
Downcast, the bushfire bookworm relented and said what she was thinking. "But promise you ain't gonna go interrupting me." Toth nodded silently. Skout felt a small smile grace her face before she began. "So, what I was saying' about tryin' to capture the Nomad still stays true. Why don't we instead try and reason with him? See what he wants, and what he's doing, then try and find a way of coming with us on his own terms rather than ours." Toth raised an eyebrow at that, but Skout kept on going. "I mean, he's the only person known who can still use magic, which itself is a wonder, but in all the times I seen him use it, it ain't be harmful or nothin'. Even in the Bramble Forest when I first saw him, all he did was make a couple'a rocks come to life. And with the wildlife in there, he treated it with as much respect as it did him. He ain't no more 'Dreaded' than you are."
"What is that supposed to mean Skout?"
Skout didn't really hear Toth's remark, she just continued to go on with what was in her mind. "I mean, he was lonely when I saw him and, honestly, it looked like he was just lookin' for companionship. Like, you an' me got somethin' special, y'know? We're there for one another, we care 'bout the other's safety, we'd do anythin' for them at all if we had our way." Distracted by her own ramblings, she failed to notice the warm tint to Toth's cheeks at the comment. "I think he's after that too. Being all cooped away without nobody to talk to oughta get pretty lonely, don't cha think? …Toth?"
"Huh? What?" Now Skout's cheeks grew red, even more than before, at seeing Toth's blush. The pair kept their gaze away from one another, but by happenstance burning amber met glistening emerald.
For a brief moment, both women didn't mind that they were staring into each other's eyes.
It felt right. Felt whole. Even as their blushes grew in intensity, smiles grew as well, and they admitted to themselves they'd quite happily remain like this for as long as time would let them.
Sadly, the horses of Nowhere are notoriously bad for breaking up tender moments, as Toth's horse whinnied and reared up at the sight in front of them. It was far enough in the distance to not be a glaring thing they missed, but equally it was close enough to distinguish. She grinned at the sight of their target, carrying something across the desert to an outpost nearby.
"The Nomad."
Nowhere was big.
He knew that, even at birth.
But even then, traversing the vastness that was basically this never ending desert landscape was tedious. He had to admit, he didn't know what he was planning on doing, or why he was doing it.
Okay, tell a lie, he did know why he was doing it - those soldiers back in his forest razed the entirety of his cabin down to the ground, along with a large portion of said forest.
They knew where he was now, and he knew why they were there. He'd recognise that poster anywhere…
So, his safest bet was to continue travelling, keeping on the move and not giving them any chance to catch him by him hunkering down for long periods of time.
That did, however, put him in the way of many strangers. Next to none of whom were friendly, and almost all of were after his magic.
That wasn't what he wanted.
He took a breather at a small outpost he stumbled across. Despite being a magical being with no need for hydration, nor eating, nor even breathing, he still felt pain. And pain didn't exclusively come in the form of punches, kicks and metal arms, it could also come in the less spectacular form of sore feet.
The outpost itself appeared abandoned. The doors to the shack were strewn about around the shack itself rather than on the hinges, and there were three singular panes of glass that weren't broken. Making his way inside, he maneuvered over the sand that had built up around the entrances and exits due to lack of doors/windows and a high Nowhere Storm risk in these areas to find a room near the middle of the little shack. It seemed rather well kept, considering the state of the rest of the place, but fortunately he spotted the dust and dirt on everything that told him there was no one waiting around here to sneak up and surprise him with a spade to the face.
Why did it always feel like it was a spade to the face, even when it wasn't?
Regardless, he was alone. Which was equal parts exactly what and the complete opposite of what he wanted to be right now.
The last room had a few errand stones inside, likely from passing travellers deciding to knock out a few windows, and a broom that appeared just as dusty and forgotten as the rest of the place. Seeing everything as it was was just proof that nothing exciting - or even nothing at all - had happened here in years.
It was time to fix that.
{clap} {clap}
A flash of light on a few objects, and suddenly three stones and the broom became sentient, innocent round eyes growing on them from nothing. The broom shook all the cobwebs off itself almost as if it were a dog before hopping its way over with the stones to greet their friend.
The Nomad, despite not having the ability to speak nor ever wishing to reveal his mouth, smiled under his scarf, his eyes telling what he could not. He was happy to have others there with him.
The four Critters all looked at him expectantly. He was unsure what to do if he was completely honest, but eventually he had an idea. Indicating to the room around him, then pointing to himself and finally the Critters, his message was clearly understood; let's do some cleaning.
It always helped that the Critters - at least, the smaller ones - were on a very similar wavelength as him and so knew what he wanted to do without much fuss. The broom waited around for a second or two for clarification, but eventually it cottoned on and joined it smaller counterparts in cleaning.
There wasn't a great deal that could be done, and he knew that before he started out. Doors were still going to be strewn about Nowhere, and the glass down broken into such small shards that it might as well have been turned back into the sand it originally came from. But he and the Critters persisted.
Hours later, the Nomad and the Critters had cleared the outpost as best they could. There were no more cobwebs around, no more dust and errant sand covering surfaces, and they tried as best they could to fix the doors and salvage the windows. It wasn't a lot, and he knew that. But to make somewhere feel even the slightest bit homely, especially after so many years of being alone, made a place like this more favourable.
At least there wasn't anyone to catch up to him for a while.
"Got you!" Toth said as she barged through the door, aiming her weapon straight at the Nomad's back. Both the man of magic and the creatures he created with such jumped at the sudden intrusion, the smaller ones running to a corner to hide whilst he ran for the nearest window. "Skout, left!"
As the Nomad jumped for the window, a large bag blocked his exit. He was magic by nature, but he couldn't stop himself mid jump, and he crashed into the sack and fell to the ground.
"Sorry, mista Nomad," Skout said from the other side of the bag as the man pushed himself off the ground, "but we bin meanin' to talk to you for a while, an' this was the best way to do it." He looked up and around at the door, seeing the dark skinned woman approaching him. Her presence was intimidating to say the least, and that was without the death stare she was giving him or the fact she held a very sturdy and sharp axe in her hands.
She was a Y'dala; he could tell by the complexion and eye colour. He remembered hearing of the Y'dala, how they were fierce in battle and gifted with an extended lifespan. The woman standing before him was so intimidating that he completely forgot that he was magic, and that clapping his hands was probably the best way of animating something to defend himself.
"Sorry 'bout that," the other voice puffed as it came into view - it was the woman he tried befriending back at home in the Bramble Forest, "I ain't much of a runner, so pullin' off the plan like that real worked up a sweat."
"Skout…"
"Sorry Toth, I can't help myself sometimes. You should know that by now."
The Y'dala woman sighed. "Indeed." Her focus shifted once more. "But now, what we came for." The Nomad flinched, expecting the axe she was carrying to come down on his head and end his life. When that moment didn't come, and he saw both women sitting at the table he'd recently cleared in front of him, axe off to one side, he was confused beyond comprehension. "We wish to speak with you. Nothing more, just talking."
The Nomad shrugged, then pointed to his scarf. Amber eyes stared at him, still expecting some sort of response.
"I think he's tryin' to say he can't Toth. I ain't heard him utter a peep in all the time we's bin chasin' him." A bobbing head confirmed this as he joined them at the table.
"Fair enough. So how do we talk with someone who can't even speak?"
All three sat in silence pondering that answer - a norm for at least one of them in there. Even one of the Critters, the middle sized pebble, took up a stance with its cartoonish hand resting under its metaphorical chin.
"I got it!" the caddie cried, her eyes widening in realisation as she ran to the window and pushed her giant bag out of the way, followed quickly by her jumping out of the window. The Nomad looked at the other woman in bewilderment at what just took place.
"She has a habit of leaping first, looking later, especially when she has an idea." The Nomad slowly nodded once, simply accepting this new crazy. "It's normally the other way around for her. She'll spend so much time analysing something, reading up on it and trying to think up of a plan for it, she misses the action and thrill of improvisation in peril and… wait, why am I telling you this?" He just shrugged.
"Sorry 'bout that, spur of the moment." She dusted herself off as she approached, handing the Nomad a book. He eyed it up cautiously. "I ain't harmful, silly. 'S just a book." Still erring on the side of caution, he eased backwards slightly. These were still the people who had tried to hunt him down and kill him for the past months. Skout groaned. "Look, there's nothin' in here that's gonna harm ya. Just some words. Look." She opened the book at a random page for him to read and prove it.
Skout's Log - 14 9 163AER
Don't know why I still keep calling it that, it's essentially a diary now.
Anyway, I've finally been assigned. And I can't believe it, I've been assigned to Toth! I've been looking at her all throughout my training, seeing her working, watching how she acts and all that.
I am so lucky!
Toth seems strict, but equally kind when she needs to be. I wish I could just hold her and- {SLAM}
"That ain't meant for your eyes!" Skout cried out, voice cracking as she hugged the book back to her chest after reading the start of the page upside down and subsequently realising what that page said.
"Why did you do that Skout?"
"Doesn't matter Toth. That book ain't no good anyway." Toth eyed the Nomad suspiciously, who simply winked at her. Toth wasn't aware until that very moment that someone could have their cheeks flush from embarrassment as their face paled from mortification. Yet here we were, watching Skout as that very thing happened. Even as a proud warrior of her people, she couldn't help but smirk at the playfulness of the mysterious Nomad and the genuine reaction he brought forth from her caddie, who had relinquished all motor control in her neck and let gravity pull it down to smack the table, hard. The pained and defeated "ow…" that came from her only made things worse for the redhead.
"So, with that idea gone, how else are we supposed to communicate?" Scratching his head for an idea, but nothing came for the Nomad.
"Just ask him 'yes/no' questions," Skout offered as she lifted her head slightly.
"Yes, that seems to be the best option. Thank you Skout." The green eyed woman groaned in acknowledgement before letting gravity take hold once more and made head greet table with a wooden thunk. "And stop doing that, you'll mess up your head. We need that for these amazing plans of yours."
"You… think they're amazing?"
"Yes Skout," she said softly, laying a hand on the slumped woman's shoulder, "they are amazing ideas. You need to stop being so negative about yourself, it will stunt your progress. You are more than capable, you just need to believe." The pep talk worked wonders; Skout sat up straight once again and, with a new sense of purpose, stared right into the Nomad's eyes. Her voice was menacing all of a sudden, most unbecoming of the person they both knew.
"Alright, mista Nomad. We can do this all day, so we're gonna make these questions nice and simple like. So, you're gonna tell us what we need to know in simple-"
"Skout, you're embarrassing yourself," her superior interrupted. "Just because you believe in yourself, doesn't mean you can suddenly go acting like that. Focus on what you can do, be confident in that, then we can move onto working on areas you're less comfortable."
"Oh, okay. Sorry Toth."
"That's fine, just stop apologising."
"Sorry. Arg, dang it." Another smirk, much more noticeable this time, formed on Toth's lips before her attention swapped from her friend to her target.
"Now I know that there's a bounty on your head. You know this too I'm guessing." He nodded. "Then you need to understand that if we do see you as a threat in any way, shape or form as we're having this discussion, I will not hesitate to personally throw you in a cage and send you to Don Paragon, who in turn will send you to El Ray." The name seemed to strike fear into the Nomad, his eyes somehow dilating. Not his pupils, his entire eye. It weirded both women out, but the reaction was clear.
"I don't think he's too happy 'bout that."
"Are you… scared of El Ray?" He recoiled even more, nodding in fear. "Not so tough now, are you?"
"Toth!" the caddie chastised, swatting at her arm. "Can it for a minute, will ya? We're trying to be pleasant here. You're not helpin'." She turned to the Nomad once more, missing Toth's look of surprise and pride at the fact the redhead had scolded her the way she did. "You ain't mean, are ya?" He shook his head hard, trying his best to convey how evil he wasn't with the action. "See?"
"Fair enough Skout. But if that's just a ruse and he does attack us, I will not hesitate to say 'I told you so'."
"And if he don't, you're buyin' the next lotta cotton candy we come across." A brown gloved hand extended out confidently. As it lingered though, the confidence drooped. "I… remember you saying' how much you liked it," she added, her face bright red with a blush.
"Alright," she agreed, her own cheeks red as they shook hands.
Sure, he was a being of magic that aimed to only do good, but that doesn't mean that the Nomad couldn't get up to some trickery having seen what he had.
Potential trickery; overstepping the line meant a cell and ultimately death at the hands of the Maddened King.
"So, you can do magic, yes?" He nodded. "Can you show us a few examples?" Not as quick of a response on that one. "That wasn't a reque- ow!"
"Stop threat'nin' him," she reprimanded again. "Please? Toth ain't really seen what you can do." He nodded, rising from his seat and heading out to the rest of the house to find something small to bring to life. There was nothing inside, he and the Critters did a fine job of cleaning up, so he moved outside to look.
"He's going to think about running," Toth commented, grabbing the handle of her battle axe.
"Just trust him Toth."
Finding a rock outside, the magic man picked it up and went to head back inside, but the horizon caught his attention before the outpost and the company inside did. In his mind, he thought about running. He had a head start, he could potentially make it halfway to the horizon before they'd even realised, by which point it would be too late for them to do anything. The whinnying of the horses the two rode in on behind him reminded him that they had horses, whereas he did not. They could catch up far easier than he could escape. And even if he tried to take one of them, they would most likely cause a ruckus and the women would know. His best bet was to just head back inside.
"See, told ya he'd come back," the bushy haired woman stated proudly as the Nomad returned to the room, two rocks in hand and setting them down on the table.
"Alright Nomad, let's see what you can do." Both women watched as he placed the rocks on the table in front of him; one watched in anticipation, knowing what was about to happen; the other watched in equal parts curiosity and apprehension, for she did not know what he was capable of.
{clap} {clap}
With a glow and a soft hum as before, the two rocks awoke staring into the eyes of the onlookers. They rose to their feet (which also had magically materialised) and waddled over to them as best as sentient rocks could. Skout took the one that came to her in her hand immediately, having beared witness to this before, but Toth remained a little shocked at the sight of a rock becoming a living thing in front of her eyes.
"It's pretty darn impressive, eh Toth?"
"It's…" she studied the Critter, who in turn was studying her back. "Can you do anything else?" The Nomad simply shrugged. "You don't know?"
"Bearin' in mind Toth he has bin livin' alone for the last hundred years. That's prob'ly why these here Critters were litterin' the space around his… home…" Realisation hit her like a charging Arctic Velocibison - aka, very very hard - as she stared at the hat wearing man in front of her. "You… you're lonely, ain't cha?" He nodded.
"Skout?"
"That's it Toth," she realised, "that's all it's bin about. He's scared of El Ray 'cause he wants the Nomad's magic, so he hid himself away where ain't nobody gonna find him for a while, but he's bin lonely 'cause of it. Friendship. Right?" The Nomad nodded a lot, his eyes smiling where a mouth could not.
"You're lonely?" Toth clarified, to which he nodded again. "And these creatures you've magiced to life, they've been the only sort of interaction you've had in all those years?" Once more he nodded. "…Skout, can we talk outside for a minute?" The two women walked out into the desert that was Nowhere, walls halting their conversation from travelling into the ears of the Nomad.
"What's wrong Toth?"
"I… don't know what to do," she mentioned. "All this time, we've been chasing him on the grounds that he's a villain, and going of the assumption that his magic is crafty and twisted. Seeing it myself, it really is anything but."
"I tried tellin' y'all that back with Don Paragon, but you dunderheads wouldn't listen to me!" The Y'dala warrior averted her eyes guiltily.
"Alright, yes. You did tell me that, and I didn't listen, and for that I'm sorry." Skout began smiling as Toth continued. "But now I just don't know what to do."
"What d'ya mean by that?"
"If we leave the Nomad to continue on and return empty handed, Don Paragon won't be best pleased and we'll end up no better than we were to start with. My people will be living without supplies and it'll keep getting worse. But if we bring the Nomad in, we are set. Food, shelter, water for everyone. But at the price of an innocent person's life."
The caddie lay her gloved hand on her superior's shoulder sympathetically, a playful grin plastered over it. "Havin' a moral compass kicks ya right in the keister, don't it?"
"How do you do it?"
"Huh?"
"You follow a path all the time, always aiming to please everyone. How do you manage to do that, even in a place and time like this?"
"Well…" the wild haired bookworm muttered, her hand raising to scratch the back of her head, "tell ya the truth, I haven't put much thought into it. But, I guess it all came from back at home. Back when my Ma an' Pa were still alive, me and my younger brother were taught to treat everyone 'sif we're all on a level plane. Do that, then nobody's gonna be more or less your time - they earn that."
"But you befriended the Nomad back in the Bramble Forest like it was nothing. Did it not frighten you that you'd come face to face with the most dangerous man in Nowhere?"
"Oh, that? I didn't even realise it was him 'til you pointed it out. I was expectin' someone with fiery eyes and an evil feel 'bout him, but the Nomad I saw weren't none of that. He was kind, and he cared about my safety. Even when you started burnin' the whole place to the ground, he tried savin' everyone. Most of us are alive 'cause of him. I'm just the same - everyone else first."
"But how can I justify this?" Toth groaned, leaning against the wall of the outpost shack and sliding down until her rear landed on sand. "How can I put everyone else first, but still be kind?"
"I never said it was a cakewalk," she admitted, "an' it ain't easy either. Like, back at the oil well. I wanted to do the best I could, give 'em the best chance I could. But with the well dryin' up, I did everything. It still weren't enough though. Plus, we took so much more than we gave. Just seemed unfair to me."
"Rules are rules, Skout."
"Well, I ain't a big fan of them rules."
"You think I am?" Toth sighed heavily and clenched a fist as she talked. "It always gets me that we can offer so little for so much. It favours us massively, but puts those that aren't fortunate in despair. Y'dala are born with the idea that you can live off very little and still seem fulfilled in yourself, and I brought that mentality with me when I went to train to become a warrior at Don Paragon's side. But the more I went on, the more I realised that what I wanted to do and what I needed to do were growing further and further apart each day. Eventually, I got to a point where me questioning what I should and shouldn't do became a distant memory, and I just followed orders. That was, until you were assigned to be my caddie."
"What? Me?" The scarred woman nodded, prompting the emerald eyed girl to join her friend on the sandy floor. "What did I do?"
"Everything, Skout. You've done so much. You made me see that there was a way to do things without having to completely throw morality out of the window. That even having the slightest hint of compassion in certain situations can do so much down the line. You made me realise that focussing solely on my goal is the only way I can guarantee that I will end this life lonely and miserable."
"You ain't lonely Toth!" Skout protested.
"I'm not, no." In a shock move, Toth reached across the sand and took ahold of Skout's gloved digits. "I've got you. You keep me sane, and keep me straight. For that, I can't thank you enough."
"Oh, pfft, I, eh, I, um, well…"
"Skout," she chuckled, "you're not helping yourself here. Just be quiet and enjoy the moment." The spluttering girl ceased, calming and focusing herself to the scene before her.
Wait…
She glanced down again, checking that she wasn't imagining things. Nope, it was real.
Toth squeezed her hand reassuringly.
It was real!
'Oh my gosh, Toth is holdin' my hand. And she held my hand first! And she ain't lettin' go! Okay Skout, stay calm. You've had a crush on her for eight months now, you can reel it in for just a couple'a minutes.' Another glance stolen, and catching Toth looking back at her made both girls blush. 'But she's so dosh garn cute when she's like this.'
The Nomad wandered outside looking for them, wanting to know where they'd gone to. He wasn't expecting to come out and see the pair of them holding each other's hands and smiling goofy smiles at one another.
Toth noticed him before Skout did, retracting her hand instantly almost in shame at his intrusion.
"I… uh… we were just discussing some details about… what we would do with you…" The Nomad didn't look convinced.
"Forgive her, mista Nomad; she ain't too good on the whole 'friendly social interaction' thing."
"Skout, I'm right here," the warrior woman reminded her as she rose from her position, "please do not try and tell others what I am and am not good at."
"Pssh, you're just saying' that 'cause you know I'm right."
"Anyway," she coughed, "we are honestly at a dilemma here. How much of our conversation did you hear?" The Nomad raised a single hand, pinching his thumb and forefinger close together. "Right. So, I was telling Skout that we face a problem. Letting you get away means we risk others getting to you, and they will take you to Don Paragon and subsequently El Ray immediately. But if we bring you in, I feel like we've sent an innocent to their death."
The Nomad pondered this along with the conflicted couple, but all the while they sat around thinking nothing was being done.
That was when the Nomad had an idea.
"Me?" Skout questioned as the Nomad raised a finger to her. "What is it friend?" He mimed a couple of things, easily understandable to anyone. "Sure thing, jus' gimme a second." She rushed off to grab what he asked for, then returned to him with the scroll of paper and a pencil in hand. "Here y'are. I took it from the book 'case you wanted to go snoopin' again."
With a court nod, he lay the scroll down and placed the pencil in the sand behind them all.
{clap} {clap}
The graphite stick sprung to life, the suddenness of it all still shocking Toth, with Skout being just that little more used to it by now. Giving instructions without words, the Nomad silently made the pencil get to work. It complied with a salute.
"Wait, why are you getting the pencil to do the work for you?" Toth asked as it started scribbling down at a speedy rate. He mimed 'writing', then shrugged and shook his head. "'Can't write', makes sense." Once the pencil was finished, the Nomad picked both the pencil and the paper up, and handed the latter of them to Skout for her to read.
Take me to El Ray
"WHAT?!" she cried. "NO! You can't jus' up an' hand yourself in!"
"I'm with Skout. You presented us with such a compelling reason to keep you out of El Ray's hands, why would you want us to take you there, most likely to your death?"
Once more the pencil wrote.
I have lived long enough, and I found friendship in you
"Aww." Skout and Toth looked at one another, and with a silent nod and tears in the caddie's eyes, they both walked up and embraced the mysterious man.
A warm yellow glow of his own imminated from his chest, and all three felt warm and fuzzy inside. But when he back away, he grabbed the ladies' hands and pushed them together, the pair naturally yet unintentionally linking their fingers together.
Toth sighed, not too unpleasantly though, at the action on the magic man's part. "Why must you do that?" One last time, the Nomad let the pencil scribble on the paper.
Dying man's request. Be together
"You… want us to be together?" Nodding was the answer to that. "Why?"
Rather than relying on the pencil and paper, he decided to mime his answer.
You. Together. Happy.
Well, he wasn't wrong. The pair let their strong blushes come to the surface, but they kept their hands together.
"For you, mista Nomad, I think we can do that." He smiled underneath his scarf, then wandered back to the house to grab Toth's axe. As he did, Skout turned to Toth and took her free hand in her own. "What d'ya say to that, Toth? Think we could try this out?"
"I…" For once, it was the warrior who was left without words as her caddie spoke freely. "We could not stay at Don Paragon's side," she reasoned, her grip not breaking even though her mind came up with reasons why it should. "He does not really approve of people in relationships around him. If we go there, it would only be worse, especially for you."
"What did I do wrong this time?"
"Nothing, Skout. Nothing, except chose the profession you did."
"Great, so now you're criticisin' my job choice too?"
"Not me, Skout. Don Paragon might have overlooked it were you and I both soldiers and we worked as a strong unit side by side. However, you are my caddie. He may interpret our relationship as you trying to find a way to earn more water or supplies than you need."
"What? I wouldn't do that."
"I know that Skout," Toth affirmed with a light squeeze of her hands, "but he doesn't. If we want to do this, I need to retire from duty."
The news shocked the emerald eye fire head. "That can't it yer only option Toth. Th-there's gotta be another way!"
"Skout, please stop."
It was too late for her to stop - tears were streaming down her face like waterfalls. "There's gotta be something! Anything, Toth!"
"Skout-"
"I don't wanna lose you!" she cried, weeping now into her partner's chest. Toth was honestly taken aback by the remark as she cradled the smaller woman's head in her arms.
"I don't understand Skout, what do yo-"
"Don't be saying' that!" she shouted with a thump of her fist against the Y'dala's chest. "I like you. Heck, I'd go as far t' say I love you! Why can't I just be happy with you?"
"What about your rule? Putting other people first?"
"I don't want that right now, Toth. Dang it, I want to be selfish for once, an' it's already bin yanked outta my reach. I've liked you for a long time now Toth, but I always put what we've bin doin' below all else. Well, now it's gettin' top billing!"
Seeing how hysterical she was becoming, Toth decided that confronting her friend was the only way to really get through to her. "You said about 'not wanting to lose me', lose me to what?"
"Your job."
"How could a job win out over you?"
"Don't you go playin' dumb Toth. You've shown time an' again that doin' this is so important to you, an' I know from experience that I take second fiddle every time. So I'll jus' reside myself to pining over someone else from now on."
"Just like that?" Toth shot back. "After all the effort I put in."
"For what, Toth. The Y'dala need their food an' water, you get the glory, what would I get, huh? Nothin'. 'Cause I'm just the lowly caddie trudgin' alongside you. Maybe a pat on the back if the Don sees fit, but nothin' more than that!"
"You think I'd drop you like you were nothing?" The Y'dala sighed. "Skout, do you remember the Rhinogosaurus in the storm?"
"Course I do! We tried beatin' the blasted thing, it knocked me eight ways from Sunday, next thing I know I'm all casted up and you ain't talkin' to me no more 'cause your 'feelin's were getting in the way'."
"What feelings Skout?" she prompted.
"Compassion? I dunno, somethin' simple I assume."
"You're wrong. It was far more complicated than just simple compassion. It was eating at me the moment I saw you bleeding out on the Nowhere sands. I didn't want to be without you Skout. You make everything I do so much brighter, even when I'm not sure I should be doing it. You remind me that there are things worth fighting for. And you're it for me Skout."
"Don't get all soppy on me, if you're playin' with my feelings I will find anything hard or sharp an' keep hitting an' stabbin' you until you realise how stupid you were for doin' that."
A small smirk formed on the scarred woman's face. "What would convince you that I was telling the truth."
"Honest?"
"Honest."
"So I know I ain't dreamin', a kiss'll do just fine."
Skout said that as a way of truly testing her superior. If she meant more than the mission, then the deceptively simple task of locking lips with her should be a doddle.
'Wait, I didn't actually say where to kiss me. I oughta be more specific.' Toth-" The fiery haired bookworm was silenced when Toth's lips met her own. It didn't last overly long, but it was long enough for the point to be made. The taste lingered even as the rest of stopped working and stared at the woman. It was soft to the touch and tasted sweet, almost like… "Cotton candy…" she uttered.
"Convinced?"
"Uh huh."
The whinnying of their horses brought their attention back from their tunnel vision of the last few minutes, and both amber and emerald eyes widened as the white eyes of the Nomad looked back at them.
"AAHH!" Skout screamed, grabbing onto Toth on impulse, only to realise who it was. "Jeez mista Nomad, you're gonna gimme a heart attack one day with your sneakin' around."
"How much of that did you see and hear?" Unlike last time, he widened his arms as far as they could go. But before the pair could get embarrassed, he ushered them to the side of the building. What they saw, etched in the sand by the Nomad with the help of his far more literate than he pencil Critter, were the words:
SKOUT X TOTH
All surrounded, in a big heart.
"Y'know, you're just a real big softie, ain't ya?" Both women felt like the Nomad would have been blushing now had he not got his face covered by his scarf.
"Come on, let's get to Don Paragon's place. Any stops you want to make on the way there Nomad? It may be the last ones you'll get." He shook his head, content with the hand he had been dealt, and hopped up onto one of the two horses.
"Uh, that one's mine."
"Come on you dunderhead-"
"Hey, that's my thing!"
"-think about it. He wants us to be together, so let's be." Skout let the "Eep!" escape her as she was lifted onto the horse by Toth, with the larger and stronger Y'dala woman joining her soon after. She made sure Skout was safe, then turned and nodded to the Nomad, who took the reins of the horse and led on towards his fate.
- MUCH LATER -
Toth stretched as she eased herself out of bed and took a slow yet purposeful walk outside. It had been a while since she'd had a sleep like that, but she was not going to complain.
There was already some life around her, but not too much to cause any headaches, especially at this hour. The Nowhere sun had risen some hours ago, and judging by the dial in the front yard, it was gone past the eleventh hour when she woke. Just standing here, staring out onto the land around them, made everything that had happened before seem worthwhile in the end.
"C'mon Sibi," a 'whisper' came from behind, breaking the tranquility, "let's see if we can take her today."
"'Kay!" Toth rolled her eyes at the "quiet" interaction behind her. For everything that Sibi inherited, her Momma's favouring of not being silent in situations like this was one. Like most days, she could counter their attempt on her life and escape to fight another day. Or, like today where she wasn't quite feeling it, she could succumb to her fate and let them both win.
"On 'go', we do our surprise attack. Three, GO!" The last part was shouted, which did legitimately surprise Toth as her weight was shifted and she fell to the ground on her back, pinned by her wife and daughter.
"We gotcha this time Mother!" Sibi cheered. The ecstatic six year old did a little dance as she remained on top of her Mother. The daughter of Skout and Toth had Y'dala genes running through her, her skin a deep tan colour and her eyes a burning amber just like her Mother's. But there were still a few physical traits she inherited from her Momma, such as her head of wild bushy hair that, despite being predominantly dark, had a few odd streaks of copper in there.
"Yeah we did!" Skout affirmed.
"Yes, you did. But will Mother stay down? Or will she fight back?" Rhetorical question; she was going to fight back. Toth pushed off the floor with her shoulders and grabbed her daughter by the belly, tickling her for everything she could. The laughter that spilled from the little girl's lips was infectious, and soon both parents were laughing too.
It had been a few years since Toth officially retired from the life by Don Paragon's side, and whilst the Don wasn't best pleased initially he learned to accept her decision and appointed someone else to take her spot. She, along with her then-caddie, now-girlfriend Skout, were each rewarded for the capture of the Nomad, Toth significantly more so than Skout for being the person to 'actually capture the Nomad rather than be the one to carry everything around for her' - Don Paragon's words, not Toth's.
Once they had their reward of gold, land and water, they took it all and went back to Toth's people, the Y'dala, to settle down along with all their supplies. The reward gave them so much water that they shared it equally and fairly among the people, and the Y'dala grew and prospered from them. Toth was even offered the position of Chief of the Y'dala for returning them to their prime once more, but she declined.
She had a much more pressing matter to attend to.
Namingly, Skout's miraculous and unexplainable pregnancy.
"Alright, that's enough o' that, Toth. Lil Sibi's still got some readin' to do, an' we are gonna finish that book we're on by the time the sun goes down." Skout hoisted her daughter up into her arms, a feat that wasn't so easy anymore given her age and Skout's lack of height and strength compared to her partner in Toth, and went to take her back inside to keep reading.
"But I wanna hear a story."
"Sibi, storytime is at bedtime, not in the middle of the day," Toth reminded her daughter as she stood up from the floor.
The child pouted, asking again, "but why? I didn't want one from a book, so why can't I?"
"You don't want one from a book?" Skout clarified. The shake of her head was enough confirmation for the ex-caddie. "Well, what do ya want?"
"Skout, we shouldn't encourage her."
"I know Toth, but it ain't a storybook story, so I don't see no harm." She turned to their daughter to make a point clear. "But don't you go askin' for more and more stories that ain't from books; we only got so many to tell. This is a one off thing for now." The little girl nodded. "So, what d'ya wanna hear?"
"How did I get here?" Both parents' faces grew red from embarrassment at the question posed.
"Um…"
"I know it ain't normal, having two Moms, so I was curious. And so, I'm askin'."
"Well," Toth said, wrapping an arm around her wife's shoulder and leading them all down the path to an outdoor swinging chair they owned, "that all depends on one question. What do you know of the fabled 'Nomad of Nowhere'?"
Sibi gasped. "He was a meany. He was evil and spread evil across the land."
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but the Nomad was anything but that."
"You knew him?"
"We did. And we think that answers your question too."
"Yer Mother's right. After we got over the surprise of it all, we was wonderin' how it could happen. You're right, it ain't normal for us to have a kid - ain't nothin' wrong with having two Ma's, but it ain't normal - and so we got to thinkin'. We exhausted every option, 'til we thought back to the last day we spent with the Nomad."
"You were there?"
"Don't you remember Sibi?" Toth asked of her daughter, "we were the ones who brought the Nomad to Don Paragon."
"Oh yeah…"
"So we was goin' along with the Nomad, 'til the line into Don Paragon's Oasis came to view…"
~"C'mon mista Nomad, sure you don't want to do anything else before we take you here?" Skout asked almost desperately as she eyed the line of people standing at the gates of the Oasis, pieces of gold, jewellery and precious resources in hand as bargaining tools for entry. "You don't have to go now."
"He has made his choice Skout," her girlfriend reasoned, "we can do no more than to honour his requests now."
The Nomad nodded, thankful that the warrior understood his thoughts and ideas at present. This was to be his last moments as a free man - even if the century just gone had been filled with nothing but bounty hunters and lowlives and ragtag groups of friends all wanting to capture him, and thus made it anything but freeing. But stepping into that palace and giving himself up was like signing his own death warrant.
He felt like he had done nothing of note, had given nothing of value in all the time he had been walking through Nowhere. Spinning to see Toth and Skout on the other horse, the freckled young woman snaking her arms lovingly around her partner's abdomen for stability and protection, he felt like the only thing he gave them was a sense of purpose and someone to fight for.
And that's when his chest glowed, a weird phenomenon he had no idea even to this day of the cause, and he got an idea.
As far as he could remember, the only magic he could perform was clapping his hands and bringing inanimate objects to life. But he knew that wasn't everything. It couldn't be. So he focussed all his efforts into his hands, screwing his eyes up tight and pushed every ounce of magic he could into them.
At that moment, he felt something he hadn't in so long. A new magic that still felt old and familiar.
He beckoned the women over as his hands still glowed, a request of which they complied. With Skout's hand in his left and Toth's in his right, he let everything go so that he could feel what his instincts were telling him. There was a hard pull to his left from the unknown magical source, so he let go of Skout's hand and poured what energy he could into Toth instead. Her whole body glowed constantly, and even for a stoic warrior she couldn't help but let a low "wow" escape her lips. But the Nomad wasn't done with her. He asked - through charades, of course - if she could imagine the energy as a large flame around her. Then to bring that flame into itself, condensing it into a single ball of energy in her core. Even though her belief in magic was somewhat scarred, she tried and managed to succeed fairly easily.
Finally, he asked her to push that energy through her core and into her palms, then out of them and into Skout.
"Why would I want to do that?" came the obvious question. The magic man just silently pleaded for her to do it. "Okay…" Drawing the energy to her palms was easy enough, but getting it to go to Skout was far more difficult. That was, until she actually made contact with Skout. The younger woman recoiled at the contact. And not 'backing away a little' recoil. More 'flying backwards from the spot she started at' recoil, shocking all three parties.
"Urgh, I don't feel too good," she mentioned as the other pair hoisted her back up to her feet. "What was that gonna do?" The Nomad simply shrugged, playing ignorant to the results. It was true, he probably didn't know what was going to happen. But not only did he not want them to know, but he figured it'd be a nice memory for them to have of him, even if it was a fleeting one.~
"Wow… so I'm magic?"
"We think so, yeah," her Momma replied, smile on her face. "Ain't no other way of explainin' it."
"So, the Nomad really wasn't a bad guy, was he?"
"No, my feather, he was not." Toth hugged them both close as they looked back onto their house. It was decently sized, but not too massive to call itself grand. There were far larger houses around, and far smaller too. But each little home was enough for its occupants, just as this was enough for the family of three. "There are a few things I thank the Nomad for everyday. The Nomad gave me motivation when I was training to know that the threat I was going up against was big and scary, and that I'd need to keep pushing to win. He gave me motivation once I was a warrior to find him and bring peace to my people-"
"Which you did!" Sibi finished. Her parents chuckled, the redhead ruffling her daughters hair.
"Yes she did."
"-He gave me the confidence to confess to your mother. And he gave me you." Leaning in, she kissed her daughter's forehead with a big bright smile on her face. "And I would think that whoever did that for me was the biggest good guy in all of Nowhere."
"But what about th-"
Skout interrupted her daughter with a finger on her lips. "Ah ah ah, what'd I say 'bout the stories? We're only gettin' one 'cause we've got a book to finish." There was a minute grumble from Sibi, but she complied with her hopping off her Mother's lap and heading back inside. "You gonna be okay today?"
"Of course. The family a few streets away are expanding, I was going to help them. I'll only be five minutes from here if you need me."
"I can live with that." She leaned up and planted a quick yet loving kiss on her wife's lips. "Don't overwork yourself, alright?" With that, Skout headed back inside with her daughter. Toth let out a low chuckle as she turned to the rest of the Y'dala village. To think that in a few years she could have had everything she had been doing completely flipped to become this was mind boggling. But it was also humbling in equal measure.
All thanks to a little Nomad hidden out in the wilderness.
Huh...
Well, that happened.
This one started out as a little project to write something for this newly flowering web series (emphasis on 'little') and suddenly it had grown to over 9,400 words. It's unreal to think, but that's what happens sometimes.
I hope more is written for this show. It's amazing, and to have the main character be mute opens up so many different avenues to explore how he communicates in writing
As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated
Until next time,
FeugoFox42 :)