It takes its course

POV – Vaas

Only as he was out of the sight of the cages, he slightly changed his posture. His steps returned to normal, or rather even sped up a little. "Yo, where did my fucking mobile radio go?"
Shorty after, the pirate stood in one of the shacks, leaned against a table behind him.
"Pagan Min. Yes.. Yeah, that's the guy's name. Sure... With us, in one of the cells. Kyrat? ... Yeah.. Yes, all right. See ya..."
Loud static noise, followed by a dull 'flop', as Vaas let the mobile radio plop on the wooden table. Hoyt took a great interest. The pirate's jaw was pressed together tensely, while his eyes vacantly stared into space. Vaas didn't know by any stretch of the imagination, what he should think of the twist of events. Hoyt wanted to see the hostage in person. To harm him all too much wasn't allowed either. Regarding this, Hoyt made himself very clear.
A silent growl escaped from Vaas, who pushed himself energetically off the table and rushed to leave the shack. Determined, he headed for the camp fire, but stopped the first of his men that ran into him: "EY! Go! Bring some water to the hostages! Make sure they drink enough. Also, check their fucking wounds again. Go!"

King of Kyrat. A fallen ruler, as it seemed. Only rarely, Vaas had witnessed Hoyt Volker being speechless. Tonight was one of those rare moments. Apparently they had a way bigger fish on the hook than they assumed thus far.
A lot of people would have paid an amount of money which was off the roof. According to Hoyt there was place near Nepal, where a lot of stuff was going on, as it seemed. A civil war, and this guy over there wasn't only involved – he rather seemed to be its cause. Vaas lit up a cigarette by briefly holding it to the flames of the big camp fire. Meanwhile he stood in front of it, straddle-legged and the eyes focused on the terrific flames. Fire. Destructive and uncontrollable, if one unleashed it. Regarding this, it wasn't even so far-fetched that sometimes Hoyt compared the pirate lord's nature to the characteristics of fire in an almost appreciative way. Nevertheless, during the short exchange of words they had today, he told the pyromaniac in no uncertain terms that he had to hold back. At least with this one hostage he should keep his temper. Keep his temper!
Displeased, Vaas spit into the flickering flames. He just couldn't be fucking serious! But damn! Vaas was sure he hadn't lost his mind, neither hallucinated. Thus, Hoyt had INDEED taken those words in his mouth. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, he could clearly hear the blood rush in his ears. A head-shaking. He was unable to grasp it. Did that just really happen?! He had done his fucking job and didn't even only get an rebuke, no, even worse. A completely harebrained fucking... stupid-ass order was given to him. Keep his temper! And Hoyt was going to arrive the next day to talk with the hostage.
Vaas couldn't get away from the fact, that he absolutely did not like any of all that. If anything, it made him fucking furious. He just wanted to sell this moronic Chinese for a shit ton of money, after he had ripped this fucked up smile off his face. Where was the fun in it otherwise?

POV – Pagan

Now, in the absence of Vaas, he gave despising words to Kamran: "Goodness, Jesus Christ, boy! Don't be so pathetic!"

A clear demand – it almost was embarrassing how his rebel presented himself. And the ruler had more guts than other hostages. Others would probably whine in collective and try to comfort each other – but the ex-dictator only gave harsh instructions. Authority – that what signified Pagan Min. Even tied up and captured, on a foreign spot of land, with a maltreated body and the clothing plucked like a chicken.
But he was tired... so incredibly tired. The adrenaline waned again and the pain in his limbs started to throb. His head droned. And still – even if he was watched by this team of terrorists... he stared at Zhōng. Kicked him with his shod foot against his calf: "HEY! Zhōng! Wake up, damn it!"
With the last three words, he kicked a little rougher – but the pilot stirred himself, equally moaning like Kamran did before: "Ngggghhh..."
"Quit moaning, for fuck's sake...", the blonde man snarled angered, "At first you bring me into this plight and then you also moan? What wonderful subordinates do I have..."
The former king of Kyrat could imagine very well, that the pilot probably didn't get anything of what he said. And in all this fuss and rage which built up, he at first didn't notice how the fresh and deep wound on his cheekbone opened and started to bleed. Strained, he moved his heavy head to look around. Vaas was definitely out of reach and these men, which probably should resemble something like his crew, were at any rate a poor imitation of a gang. Pagan wasn't impressed by it. He rather perceived it as pathetic.
The wound and the blood sparkled in the flickering fiery glow and the Chinese shivered. Why? It was cold, the wind was cold... he was weak and tired... His hands got numb. Probably because the fetters were too tight... For the moment he didn't even notice that the blood already trickled down his cheek. His heart was beating fast enough to repeatedly push some blood out of the wound on the burst cheekbone, which dripped down onto his suit. As if he wasn't defaced enough already...
As much as he wanted it – staying awake – he couldn't do it... Eventually there was this tunnel vision... Pagan Min's posture eased just a tiny bit and he exhaled audibly. He was getting too old for this shit. Barely just chased away from Kyrat, he now had to mentally and verbally thrash with a guy. On the low level of a baboon, only to show who had the redder ass... The tunnel vision grew stronger and it blazed white in front of his eyes. Nobody had to be set on him right now. His body was still too weak, too maltreated... And now his organism gave in. He put his head back, that his bleached and blonde shock of hair was hanging through the bars. One of the wooden rods lay horizontally against his nape, two others stood vertically against his head, fixed it. Pagan gasped: "Kh... Shhhhhit..."
Again the blood loss became noticeable – not only his hands but also his arms started to get numb. And his throat, his mouth were so bone-dry... Min closed his eyes and smiled bitterly: That... just doesn't seem to be my FUCKING-WEEK!
And again everything got heavier... Pagan fell asleep – Though probably not for long...

POV – General

"Vaas? The condition of the hostages is... critical. I think the stay in the cage... isn't ideal in this situation. Especially as the night is pretty co-"
"What..tsk, why are you going on my nerves with this crap now!? Why are you telling me this shit!? Am I your fucking babysitter? I said: Take care of the hostages. Didn't I say... take care of the hostages? ... So take care of the FUCKING hostages!", angered, Vaas pushed the pirate, who had assured himself of the desolated condition of the hostages only a few moments ago, in the direction of the wooden cages. The sudden force let the pirate tumble backwards, legs tangled up and clumsy, with a painful sounding crash, he landed on all four legs. At this sight, at least for a split second, an amusing glint flashed over the leader's eyes. However, the dark-haired's annoyed mood predominated.
Then he should just resettle them for tonight. Responsibility could be really exhausting. Right now, Vaas had absolutely no desire to grapple with the hostages any longer. At least not after Volker's short announcement. The glimpse of the leader grimly flashed back into the flames. Okay. Play along. In- and exhale.
"Go ahead."
Vaas ignored the pirate, who struggled to get back on his feet, and reluctantly headed for the cages. Pagan slept – maybe he also only had swooned. He didn't know for how long he was out of it. He had no clock, no sense of time. But he felt anything but rested. Therefore the rest HAD to be short.
"So, little princess! Subordinate servants of our cute highness Ming-Ming. Feel honored, you're allowed to stay the night in one of our luxurious mansions! No mosquito bites for the delicate skin."
Vaas unlocked the cage and pushed it open with a languidly movement of his foot. Then he stepped aside, the arms crossed behind his head, the cigarette boredly clamped between his lips.

Admittedly, Pagan had not noticed the small turmoil which Vaas had made with his men at the big camp fire, however it was clear enough, as this Vaas talked again. The voice almost 'startled' him already - Just out of pure caution, to not be inattentive whenever he was near. This boy may have been a uncivilized monkey, nevertheless really as incalculable as fire. And in his condition he couldn't stem it. Maybe in other circumstances. He already had tamed so many lions with flaming hearts. On one more didn't matter anymore... Pagan opened his eyes as soon as he heard the word 'princess'. And his underlings should come with him as well? Was that some kind of special treatment? It was. Definitely... but why? The Chinese got distrustful. Very distrustful – one could also see it in his pained expression, as he was lifted up to his feet in an ungentle way. Montenegro had discreetly backed off indeed and left it to the crew members to untie the hostages and roughly set them on their feet to eventually head for one of the shacks. He observed, stayed in the background and kept giving orders to the pirates. An uncommon feeling because he usually preferred to sully his own hands. Pagan's gaze didn't deviate from Vaas. At first he seemed to want to do everything to remove his eyes with a knife and now he was holding back like that? Such a discrepancy may not had been noticed by others – but Pagan studied his counterpart always so close, that he noticed the slightest differences. But... no, maybe it only was a coincidence? He couldn't rate the terrorists that accurately to actually call it a misconduct. Also if he really held back completely, against every of Min's expectations.
"Into the second shack. Mount a guard. And could you PLEASE send the doc. And bring some water to the Chinese... looks dehydrated.", it wasn't like Vaas was only just notified about this situation before from someone else.

Very... interesting boy – not exactly the sharpest tool in the box, or the fastest thinker... but interesting, he thought and turned his head after him, as he was pulled past him – to the second shack, as demanded by Vaas. All right – let's reconsider the situation, the overthrown king tried to think logical... but the headache didn't make it any easier. And the thought flew away all of a sudden, as he got fresh water. For a moment his face showed relief: "Oh, goddamned, thank you!"

His thanks was honest! He had decency after all – well, that and also he really was thankful for finally having some cool water to wet his dry throat. In such moments he wouldn't even had prefered seltzer. Zhōng and Kamran were supplied with water as well.


A/N

So here is the fourth Chapter : Damien has a lot of fun, translating it.
Hope you guys have fun, reading it!
I'd love to read some reviews, I would like to get to know you guys
Btw: Thanks to Naina24 for the very first review!

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