Well here I sit cold and alone at nearly two in the morning, waxing lyrical about heavy things. This has been bouncing around in my head for a while now and I'm glad that its finally up here for all you beautiful people. Granted I should have been writing my other fics and too anyone waiting on updates for them I am sorry for the delay, my laptop broke but now I've managed to get it going again so updates will be soon in coming.
On with the story, rated for swearing and personally I think it's a bit dark for little kiddies but that's just me.
Please do enjoy.
Well here I sit cold and alone at nearly two in the morning, waxing lyrical about heavy things. This has been bouncing around in my head for a while now and I'm glad that its finally up here for all you beautiful people. Granted I should have been writing my other fics and too anyone waiting on updates for them I am sorry for the delay, my laptop broke but now I've managed to get it going again so updates will be soon in coming.
On with the story, rated for swearing and personally I think it's a bit dark for little kiddies but that's just me.
Please do enjoy.
They watched the mail coach pull away in silence and tying to stamp some life back into her feet Polly examined the signpost, it had three arrows; one was pointing back the way they had come, one the way the mail coach had gone and the one the pointed down a small track and said 'Lonz, 20 miles'. There looked to be three clear feet of snow on the track and it didn't look like it had been used all winter.
This was not destined to be a fun walk, still it was not like she was expecting a fun trip anyway.
As they set off Mal said "You, know this would be quicker if I flew us"
"I already bloody said no" Polly snapped, breathing into her hands to try and gets some warmth into them, then in response to the hurt look on Mals face added in a kinder tone "Look people out in places like this don't see much of the rest of the world. There's a good chance that they won't have ever seen a vampire before, let alone know about the League. All they are going to know is the stories that their grandparents used to scare them. The last thing we need is for you to come swooping out of the sky like every nightmare they ever had"
After a pause Mal said a little defensively "I do not swoop"
Polly raised her eyebrows as she windmilled her arms to keep the blood flowing.
"OK! But it was just one time!" Mal said even more defensively.
Polly gave her another lookbut said nothing as she buried her face to the nose in her scrim scarf.
"I don't swoop!" Mal said forcefully.
"Did I say anything?" Polly asked grinning behind her scarf.
"Oh don't smirk at me like you never laughed at a good swoop" Mal said.
Polly raised her hands defensively but returned them to the warmth of her armpits quickly as she said, still grinning "What makes you think I'm smirking back here?"
"Your eyes, they look different when you smile" Mal retorted.
They was a long moment of silence in which Polly raised her fingers to the corners of her eyes.
"Different how?" She asked.
Mal shrugged "Just different, they sort of crinkle"
Polly shivered and tried to rub some warmth into her hands again. Mal looked up at the sun, it was low in the sky and night fell fast at this time of year. By her reckoning they had as best an hour and a half of daylight left; when the sun went down the temperature was going to plummet and you could hardly call it toasty at the moment. She sighed as Polly tried to roll though thick gloves with numb shaking fingers. Mal held out a hand with out a word and with equal silence Polly handed over the unmade cigarette. Well, Mal thought as she rolled, being sort of dead did have it's advantages. Once she had rolled it she pulled out her not real silver but just as shiny zippo lighter and after lighting it passed the rollup to Polly who gave a grunt of thanks.
Mal sighed and said "Look, we are not going to make it before dark and your going to freeze out here at night"
Polly didn't say anything but blew a smoke ring, more out of habit then anything else.
Mal went on doggedly "Why don't we stop here? We can get a fire going and have a brew up and once it's dark I can fly us to the town and no one will see"
Polly opened her mouth to reply but Mal cut her off with a grin "And I promise no swooping"
Polly considered this for awhile but the prospect of hot sweet tea was far to good be ignored. Sighed and said "Fine"
They made there way to the edge of the track and as Mal disappeared to find some firewood Polly set about putting up a bivi, sorely grateful to who ever design them for having to fore sight to plan for numb fingers. After spreading both her and Mals roll mats as well as a blanket on the ground sheet she sat herself down and began to dig in her pack for her mess tins.
She was still looking when Mal came back with an armful of wood. She built built the fire quickly and took over the mess tins hunt without a word.
Polly watched her work with a blanket pulled tight around her deep in thought. Recent events played unstoppably across her minds. To her it could have been a minuet or it could have been hours before she closed eyes and gave her head a small shake as if that small act could dislodge the image that would be burned into the back of her eyelids for the rest of her life.
Mal clicked her fingers under Pollys nose saying "Hey, hey earth to Polly!"
She blinked in surprise and said "eh?"
"Tea's up" Mal said handing her a steaming mug.
Polly clutched the mug in both hands and stared down into the murky brown liquid as if the answer of all of life's problems could be found in there. She closed her eyes again, Mal slid an arm around her shoulders and after glancing over her shoulder for no more reason then tradition said "If sex with three people is a threesome, and six with two people twosome why is handsome a compliment?"
She grinned as Polly raised her eyebrows.
"OK how about this, woman says to her fella 'could you stop thinking about sex for five minuets?' he replies 'It's hard love'
Polly rolled her eyes but a smile was fighting it's way on to her face.
Mall pressed her advantage "The girl who wen't to the party dressed as a spoon ended the night getting forked"
Polly couldn't help but laugh as Mal's jokes got progressively dirty but had to stop her when she started the one about the Omnian, the nurse and the banker because even soldiers have their limits.
As the last of the suns rays drained from the sky Polly sighed, she was not keen to leave the nest of blankets that had built up around her. Mal stood up reluctantly and started to pack up. Polly stared into the dying fire, her mind firmly back on darker things; she blinked in surprise when Mal kicked snow over the it and offered her a hand. She took the hand and it was with much reluctance that she handed over the blankets from her shoulders for Mal to pack away. She shoulder her pack and took Mals proffered hand with some apprehension. Flying always made her feel an odd combination of elation and nausea.
The journey was quick and unpleasant; the wind bit and it stung to breath but Polly supposed it was better then freezing on the road.
They touch down five minuets from town so as not gather a mob and walked to the Inn in companionable silence. There was the heavy weight of dread to it but the was also the warmth and comfort for knowing the dread would not be faced alone.
The Inn was fairly busy but they booked a room easily enough and after dumping their packs they found a quiet booth to drink in.
The other punters kept shooting them looks but Polly supposed visitors were a rarity in place like this even in the middle of summer when the roads were open but once winter had got it's teeth in they were unheard of.
The name of the barman was Jacob and he was not from Lonz himself; he had spent most of his working life Drok. It was because of this that he knew from the moment that the two soldiers walked that tonight was going to be a late one.
Sure enough as the evening wore into the night and the bar had all but empted the two were still sat in quiet conversation. At about half eleven the Vampire made her excuses and departed to their room but the Sargent stayed where she was. She stared into the depths of her drink, her hand occasionally clutching the table with a white knuckle grip.
She knocked back the last of her drink and made her way to the now quiet bar. Jacob was impressed to see she was as steady as a rock despite having sunk more alcohol then probably the rest of the bar put together.
She sat down and said quietly "Double shot of your strongest please mate"
He pored the drink with out a word. He sore to his other customers but made sure the Sergeants cup was never empty for long. He had seen that look before and he wasn't going to be the one to keep her waiting.
At half past twelve he sore out the last of his regulars with the Sargent slowly making her way though if drink to kill man. As he cleaned down the rest of the bar he noticed for the first time how her hand shook ever so slightly on her drink.
He wiped the rest of the bar down and when there was nothing left to do but lock up and go to bed himself. He sighed and stood behind the bar and wiped a glass because there was a way of doing these things.
The Sergeant sighed and Jacob braced himself; this was never fun but it was something that came with the job.
"It should have happened" she said quietly, her eyes never left her drink and she went one "I told them, I said only experienced man for this and what do I get? A bunch of wet behind the ears recruits"
Jacob sighed and shook his head and said sympathetically "Terrible"
She cursed and went on "It was all we could do get that many of them out in one piece" she cursed again "We were behind enemy lines and me and the lad were out scouting a perimeter when the bastards got the drop on us"
He refiled her drink with out a word; he knew how this story went, how many times had he heard it back in Drok? There was no rushing it, all he could do was try not imagine how scared this boy must have been.
"I got three of them myself but one of them had a crossbow and damn well pinned me to a bloody tree. I managed to shoot the bastard down but I'll never know how. Trapper tried to fight but they gutted him like fish"
Something tightened in Jacob's gut as he though 'oh no'
Trapper was not such an uncommon name, was it? There was no reason to suspect it was Tom, was there? All right he had been gone for a while but he was only fifteen so they would have let him join would they? But then, a little voice at the back of his mined whispered, why have they come all this way in winter?
"He was holding his guts in his hands" the Sargent said in a small voice "And there was no way I could have got him back"
I don't want to hear this Jacob thought as the Sargent's hand shook worse then ever.
"I did what I had to, there wasn't any choice" she whispered to her glass "I could just leave him to bleed to death cold and alone"
Jacob eyes fixed on the glass in his hand the words 'It can't be Tom' reverberating though his head again and again.
"I had to do it" She said. Her hands were clenched into fists and he noticed for the first time all the white scars on her hands. He looked up from his glass for the first time in what felt like a long time and sore a face twisted with guilt and pain.
"Of course you did" He said forcefully.
She blinked in surprise, seeming to have forgotten he was there.
"I knew the boy" Jacob said with the same force "And I can't bare the thought of him dyeing alone out there, so thank you. There aren't many who could have made that call and I'm glad he was with someone who could."
She lowered her head to hands and sighed saying "I just did what I had to"
After what felt like a long time his wife appeared at the door to the bar with a worried look and Jacob realised for the first time how late it must be.
She beckoned him over and said quietly "What's going on? You look terrible"
He sighed and rubbing his face wearily said "I'll tell you later, can you stay here while I get her friend? I ain't going to be the one to leave her alone"
She looked in to her husbands tired face and felt the first pangs of worry but she only nodded.
When Jacob knocked on the door to their room he was not surprised to find the occupant still awake.
She was wearing an old night shirt and breeches, she tilted her head to one side saying "Still in the bar, eh?"
Vampire usually looked flawlessly stylish no matter the occasion but this one, to Jacobs eyes at least, just looked tired and a bit dishevelled. Like she had tried and failed to sleep then spent a long time running her fingers though her hair.
"Look, you could... I don't, just..." He sighed and shrugged helplessly.
She gave him joyless smile and said "Say no more"
She lead the way and on the stairs he said "Thank you"
"Eh? I can hardly let her pass out down here now can I?"
"Not for that, for coming all this way in winter, I know it's not an easy trip"
She shrugged and said "It's our duty, nothing more to it"
They reached the bar room and turning to him said quietly "look, we live in an inn when we're on leave, why don't you and your wife just let me finish up down here?"
He gave the offer some thought but it was late, he was tired and to top it all off he still had to give his wife the news.
"What inn?" He asked, his mind practically made up already.
"The Duchess in Munz"
His eyebrows raised a fraction in surprise, it was a famously good place but something clicked at the back of his mind and he said "Hang on a minuet does that make her The Sargent Perks?"
The vampire sighed and said "I suppose so but she would be the first to tell most of those stories and over exaggerated nonsense"
Every one knew the stories, even out in a backwater like this. Her and the Vampire Corporal were legends; they said that they once fought they way out of a fort past over three hundred men, that they had smuggled a band of refugees through over fifty miles of hostile territory and that they had crawled though a sewage pipe to escape from an enemy prison.
They said a lot of things but even at this dark moment he needed to know "Is the one about the pipe true?"
She sighed again and said "To my deep regretI can say yes, that did happen and that will never have not happened"
He pulled a face of fascinated horror and said "Was it really ten miles?"
Mal shook her head and how these rumours grew "No, only about a mile and a half"
He shuddered and asked "What was it like?"
Mal considered this for a moment "Hot"
Clearly deciding that he had enough information he departed with his wife and Mal was impressed to see that he didn't even seem to consider listening at the door. She followed the sound of his footsteps all the way up the stares but let it zone out once his door clicked shut. Being a Vampire really did have some big advantages.
She turned to Polly and felt a wrench in her guts. She had seen Polly brought low before but if she had ever seen anyone further down she really couldn't remember when.
Mal might not have been with them when it happened but she had been close enough to hear it.
When things had gone tits up she managed to get the lads fairly clear and as she was heading back to find them the sound of Hunter screaming and crying 'It hurts Sarge' had spurred her into a run.
The sound of Pollys groan of pain a she got herself of the tree and crawled to the boy, her shushing him the same way she shushed Jack, the quiet little noise that a knife makes when it goes deep into flesh and his heartbeat, already fluttering, winking out was something that she was not going to be able to forget in a hurry.
Mal wiped the last bit of the bar down and put the glass in the kitchen. She slid an arm around Pollys waist practically lifted her off the stool.
The trees had been too thick to fly and when she had came into hearing distance she had ran like devil to get to them. Oh how she had run but a vampires hearing distance was a long and sometimes its just too far, your just not quick enough and luck just isn't on your side. It was part of life she supposed.
Mal half lead half carried Polly up to their room without a word. What could she say? What could any one have said? Some things were too big for words, some hurts went too deep for comfort, some injuries were too raw for sympathetic gestures and to offer such thingswas to cheapen them. At times like this all you could do was be with the ones you love and hope the scar ends up small.
Sometime later, when she was on the edge of sleep in Mals arms Polly said quietly "Do you remember Tonker and Lofty?"
"Yes" Mal said with out opening her eyes.
"Do you remember the way they held hands when ever they thought no one was around?"
"Yes, like they were afraid that if they let go they would lose each other" Mal said, she was getting a feeling where this might be going.
"Well I think I might understand how they felt an-"
Mal cut her off saying "Polly, listen to me" she leaned back so she could look her in the face "I swear to you that I will never let you go. Do you understand me?"
Polly looked into her eyes and nodded "I know I don't say it enough Mal but I do love you"
Mal pulled her back into a close embrace and closing her eyes again said "I know, I love you too"