Proof of Bravery
The Soldato Guardia yawned and shook his crest, fighting to stay awake. Frontier guard posts were the most boring positions in which he had ever served and he would not be relieved until the end of the day when the Pendulum swung to its farthest point in the west. It was halfway through its journey now, swallowed up in the light of the Great Sun.
"You gonna make it?" his partner chuckled.
"Don't catch me when I fall."
"Wasn't going to. I told you to get more sleep."
"But there was a wrestling match down in the crater outside the barracks. A Valtashir versus an Asfaran." He yawned again.
"Who won?"
"The Asfaran, you'll be happy to know."
His partner smiled, his yellow crest rising slightly in pride. "Don't mess with my Line."
The Soldato rolled his eyes. Everyone knew that his own Line, the Azhurakan, were faster and could always lick an Asfaran in a match. He said nothing though, since there was still half a day to go until their relief and he wasn't in the mood for a Line pissing contest. Besides, Asfaran was the parent Line of the Azhurakan so really he'd just be insulting himself in a weird roundabout way.
It wouldn't be so bad out here if there was something to look at. He'd had frontier guard posts outside Asfaran territory before, high up in the obsidian hills, and the view had been spectacular. Here, so far out with the closest territory belonging to the Valtashir, it was just endless, flat, baking rock. Not even nice rock, that shimmered in the endless sunlight, just boring rock.
He glanced at his partner again. "I may have to kill you just to have something to do."
It was the other Soldato's turn to roll his eyes. "Stop whining, it's not like we do this every day."
The Azhurakan hmphed in his throat and fell silent, leaning against the outcropping of rock they'd chosen as their post and listening to the distant cry of a flat wyrm. The Pendulum swung slowly.
Soldato Asfaran reached over and tapped his shoulder guards. "Hey," he whispered, "we got a ket sneaking up on us from behind."
"Really?" He brought up the rear view of the HUD in his helmet. Sure enough, crawling across the ground on his belly, a child drew nearer.
"He's been at it for a while, I'd say. Moving slow enough he barely tripped my sensors."
"Didn't set mine off at all." His vision zoomed in on the ket: a grey and yellow crest (Azhurakan, like himself) lowered as much as he could manage. In one hand he gripped a crude obsidian dagger, presumably carved himself. The ket inched closer, unaware he was being watched and ready to attack.
Soldato Azhurakan smiled. "Aw, how cute!" he turned to his partner, "Act surprised when he gets you."
Both Soldats proceeded to act what they assumed was casual, Soldato Asfaran humming to cover the sound of the ket as he finally reached the rock outcropping and climbed it, silent save the clicking of his needle-like talons. Knife ready, he crouched down, his crest raised for attack, and lunged.
The yelp of surprise Soldato Azhurakan gave was genuine, he'd expected the ket to go after Soldato Asfaran, but he let himself fall, reining in his training that demanded a counterattack to defend himself. He hit the ground hard, mostly for effect, and held still as the ket wound his slender arm through his armor and pressed the obsidian knife against his throat. The ket hissed in his ear until Soldato Asfaran's psi-blade was held at his shoulder.
"Well done, ketling, but in this position I could easily kill you," the Asfaran said.
The ket blinked up at him and brought his knife closer to the captured Soldato's throat, almost drawing blood. "Yes, but I would take him with me and then you'd be alone out here, and I might have friends."
Between the ket's serious face and his clumsy use of the High tongue, Soldato Asfaran tried very hard not to laugh, but finally his mouth twisted so that he could not fight it and he chuckled. "Alright, alright," he said and retracted his blade.
The ket smiled and did not fight when the Soldato lifted him from under his arms off of his patient partner. He was just playing, afterall.
Freed, Azhurakan stood and dusted off his armor. "Next time, little cousin, take down the Soldato not of your Line. You determined to be a kinslayer?"
The ket shrugged. "You looked like the greater threat."
It was Azhurakan's turn to try not to laugh while his partner sulked. This close, he could finally get a good look at the child. He was still young, fluffy down growing out of his shoulders and back, but old enough that the feathers had all fallen out and the primary scales beginning to show. He had small bumps on his back that would quickly develop into spines. Soon enough the ket would have to start wearing clothes in preparation of civilized life.
Asfaran gazed out into the distance at the seemingly endless nothing. "Did you come out here alone, ket?"
"Yes." He hardly looked concerned.
"There are things to hunt closer to home."
The ket puffed out his small chest proudly and declared, "But none so dangerous as a Soldato!"
Azhurakan covered his mouth and turned away before the child could see him laugh. By the Pyre, this ket was the most adorable thing!
Crest raised in incredulousness, Asfaran said, "You came all the way out here just to attack us?"
Now the ket's eyes glanced to the ground, his crest dropping as reality was acknowledged. "There are soldato everywhere at home. I could not take them all."
Well, at least the child could accept some form of limitation. Azhurakan cleared his throat and stood tall. "Have you been stalking us?"
"Since the Pendulum was in the east. You would have been most aware at the beginning of your shift and at the end when your relief arrived, so my parent says. I waited out of helmet sensor range."
"And who is your parent?" Asfaran asked.
"Soldato Comandante Azhurakan Kaius Ara."
Asfaran glanced at Azhurakan, looking for acknowledgment of the name. The Azhurakan were a relatively new Line and not large in size. Most knew each other by name, and Azhurakan indeed knew that one. He nodded.
"Do you intend to follow your Skein into the life of a Soldato?"
Again the ket stood proudly, no hesitation in his small voice. "I will choose to serve the Line!"
"These days even beyond it," Asfaran muttered, stepping aside and letting Azhurakan deal with his kin.
"Well I think you are on your way, little cousin," Azhurakan said, running his gloved fingers through the ket's crest. The child beamed in pleasure. "Now go home, it isn't safe for young ones so far from the city on their own."
The ket bowed respectfully and darted between Azhurakan's legs. He felt Asfaran's hand on his arm, a light squeeze in reminder. Was he forgetting something? What would he have wanted at that age?
"Ketling!" he called, and the young Keshkali stopped in his tracks, head tilted in question.
Azhurakan reached to the old-fashioned dagger he kept strapped to his thigh under the faulds of his armor and snapped off the pommel. He tossed it to the ket.
"To show your parent when you return. Proof of your bravery this day, young Soldato."
Crest raised in happiness and smiling, the ket waved, pommel in hand, and ran into the desert, crouched low so not to attract the attention of an ihrre bird.
"Well now," Asfaran mused, "that was something different."
"Hm, they usually don't come out so far, the young ones."
"You say that like it means something. Know something I don't?"
"Azhurakan Kaius Ara already has offspring, he went Tecnico. That ket is second born."
"Truly?" Asfaran's sensor fins on his helmet rotated to follow the child's progress a little longer until he was out of range, "I never thought I'd see one in my lifetime."
Azhurakan nodded and turned his attention back to the desert. Keshkaliim bore one child in their lifetimes; to bear again was rare and such a child was born to serve a purpose in the universe, so they said.
He had never held much stock in old religious beliefs. If one simply happened to live long enough their biology would reset and a second child was inevitable. There was no more greater purpose to it. Still, if it were true, what would that mean for the future of the Red Planet that such a child was needed?
Soldato Azhurakan leaned against the outcropping of rock and watched the Pendulum swing