5

Chapter Eleven: The Watchmen

Months had passed, and G'Kar had not stopped running since he had committed his heinous crime. He had kept to the wild areas, and he had survived only by the hunting and gathering skills that G'Quarn had taught to him. The Centauri officers had been searching for him mainly in the villages and towns, so he had managed to evade them thus far.

As he paused to rest behind a thicket, he finally took the time to consider his recent actions. He felt empty inside. There had been no great feeling of victory as he thought there would be in the killing of his first Centauri. Andon Rino had not been his intended target, and so he had failed miserably in his Chon Kar. Not only had he killed his friend's servant, but he had failed to kill the monster who deserved it most.

"I am a stupid, stupid fool," he chastised himself, "How could I have left the gun behind? I just dropped it there for them to examine the fingerprints which will implicate me in the murder. Some warrior I am!"

He hung his head and let out a few muffled sobs before willing himself to stop crying and start thinking like a warrior. He could no longer afford to be childish! As the first rays of sunlight emerged over the horizon, G'Kar once again studied the now-tattered map that Ni'Bar had left him. It had been a long journey to the caves just outside of G'kamazad, and he needed to find the one that his Uncle was staying in. Hundreds of bedraggled nomads lived in these caves, and so he could find the correct one only by following the directions on the map.

He managed to find a few insects to eat before continuing along his way. Here he was with no family, no food, no extra clothing—nothing but his new name. As he hiked onwards, however, he began to feel almost exhilarated. He was in the most dangerous situation that he had ever been in, and yet he was free. He decided to exercise his freedom and climb the most rugged mountain path that he could find so that he could lead any Centauri soldiers who might be pursuing him on a merry chase. He hid in holes and crevices whenever he heard the sound of footsteps and voices, and he let them pass. He no longer feared death, but was fully prepared to face it when the time came. Until then—he would continue to run and hide, run and hide, all the way to Uncle G'Sten's hideout.

"And when I get there," he said to himself, "I will help him to storm G'kamazad and drive the Centauris out of it!"

He knew that he was being silly when he made such an arrogant boast to himself, but it was his arrogance which kept him moving at the moment. If he thought about Lukkon Charisa, and how he had betrayed his friend in the most ruthless of ways, he would not be able to function well enough to go anywhere or do anything. He reminded himself also that it was Lukkon's father who had ordered the slow execution of G'Quarn—G'Kar blamed all of the Charisas for that, because they did nothing to stop it. Lukkon deserved to feel at least a bit of the pain that the Narn family had suffered when their patriarch was so mercilessly killed.

"G'Kar," a voice inside his mind said, "Lukkon was in prison when G'Quarn was killed. Had he known what was happening, he would have intervened..."

"No!" He screamed at himself, "No, he would have been too cowardly to intervene—just like the rest of them!"

He slapped himself across the face to stop his conflicting thoughts and emotions, but they continued to harangue him well into the next night. He tried to sleep in a dark rock crevice, but he could not rest and so he kept going. He was not sure how many hours he had been traveling when he saw flashing lights. He hid behind a boulder, terrified. There were five shadowy figures coming his way! He crouched low against the boulder, frozen with fear. The soldiers would see him here, because there was not enough room to slide under the boulder, nor was there a crevice in which to hide.

The footsteps sounded louder and louder as they drew near to him. Just as they passed the boulder, one of them said in Narn, "Look, there!"

The flashing light was pointed in his direction.

"It's just a boy," one of the Narns called out, "What's your name, my son?"

"G'Kar," he stammered, feeling far too weak and foolish for such a grand name as the one he had recently given himself.

"G'Kar," the Narn responded, "We are The Watchmen. We look for soldiers, and if we find them we kill them."

"You mean...you kill the Centauris?" he asked, realizing that his question must sound ludicrous to them.

"That's right," the Watchman said, "and whose side are you on, young G'Kar? Are you a Loyalist, or a Freedom Fighter?"

"I'm a Freedom Fighter!" G'Kar burst out, relieved to have found the group of people that he was looking for, "and I am seeking my Uncle G'Sten. He said that I could join him in the raid on G'kamazad."

"The raid on New Lanoli has already taken place," the Leader of The Watchmen told him, "But G'Sten is the one who led it, and he has secured a partial victory for us. Soon, the Centauris will leave, and the city will again be called G'kamazad. Uprisings are happening all over the countryside, and we are planning another assault on the Government Legislature. Will you join us?"

"Yes!" cried G'Kar, feigning confidence, "I have already killed one Centauri at the Charisa Spoo Ranch."

The five Narn males laughed at his youthful pride.

"The Spoo Ranch, eh?" the Leader said, putting his arm around G'Kar, "So you are an escaped slave-worker? Well, we definitely have a place for you in our army, O nephew of the great War-Leader, G'Sten!"

G'Kar was not sure if they were mocking G'Sten when they said that, but he supposed it did not matter. He had successfully stumbled upon the G'kamazad Freedom Fighters!

"Can you bring me to G'Sten?" he asked them urgently, "I need to see him—I have sad news from his family."

"Of course," the Leader obliged him, "He will be there when we storm the Legislature...and this time we will be successful. Once we have won that victory, the Centauris' hold on the capital city will be destroyed. Young people like you will grow up under Narn rule—although we will be fighting them for a long time. The Centauris are too prideful to admit that they are being beaten, and so they will attempt to re-assert themselves over and over again. And we will be there to push them back...over, and over. I, G'Sol, pledge this to you, Pouchling G'Kar!"

"Thank you, Leader G'Sol," G'Kar responded politely. He had never heard of a Narn Leader before—every Narn that he had ever known had either been under the thumb of the Centauris or was an outlaw, like G'Sten had become. G'Sol had called his uncle a "War-Leader", however, so it was possible that his stature had grown in the short time that he had been leading raids on the city.

"G'Sol!" one of the men cried, "I hear the sound of footsteps...and I smell the blood of our people on them. It is the Centauri soldiers!"

G'Sol directed them all to hide behind whatever boulders or bushes they could find, and to crouch low. Someone handed G'Kar a crude weapon which looked like an arrow-shooter, together with a few arrows. He supposed that it was better than nothing.

As the soldiers marched up over the hills, G'Sol motioned them to stay back until he gave the order. He waited until they were nearly upon them, and then he shouted, "Blood!"

The Narns poked their heads over their hiding spots and aimed their guns. The Centauri soldiers immediately began firing, but not before the Narns shot down several of them. G'Kar aimed his arrow shooter at one of the younger soldiers, who was fumbling with his gun. The arrow struck one of his hearts and he fell. He did not pause to gloat to himself, but quickly re-loaded and fired again and again until he was out of arrows. The surviving soldiers kept up a steady stream of firing, and their guns were unfortunately more powerful than the weapons the Narns were using. Before long, three of the five Narns that G'Kar had encountered were lying on the ground either injured or dead. He snuck over to one of the bodies and snatched its gun. It still had a bit more fire power left in it, and so he quickly shot at the Leader of the Centauri soldiers. The man sustained a shot to his back, and he fell; but not before one of the other soldiers fired at G'Kar and hit him on the arm. He felt himself falling to the ground with a gaping wound. He heard shots in the distance, firing all around him, until finally the darkness of the early morning shadows led him into oblivion.