Amala's eyes snapped open when the sounds of quiet movement near her registered to her brain. The others were beginning to stir. Saren and Nihlus had placed their bedrolls across the room, just so, almost, but not quite, touching. Garrus had set his roll closer to her, trying to give the other two a little more space. Corinthus had meant it when he said his quarters were theirs, as he had disappeared soon after they had begun to settle for the night.
Outside their little area, turians bustled about. Some checked weapons; others seemed to be organizing individuals into groups. By the time they were ready to start out, a large party had been selected to go with them. There was a contingency of guards and a retinue of older children and others not as skilled with weapons that were tasked to carry the supplies back. Amala sat and watched the children as they waited for the signal to go. It became evident that they were proud to have been selected for this mission and they stood patiently, displaying none of the energy and antics she would have expected.
Garrus leaned against a wall next to her while he waited for the order to move.
"They look so young," she said softly to him.
"They are anywhere from ten to twelve. The longer the war goes on, the younger they get when they first are sent out into the field. Military service starts for us, well, it used to, at fifteen. Now, I guess it's whenever you can shoot a gun with any skill whatsoever."
"That's why you and Nihlus were so good at the outset: you had some training."
"Yes, I just needed to learn the nuances of these new weapons."
"It makes me sad to see these kids not allowed to be, well, kids because of the actions of others."
Garrus nodded. "We will be changing that soon."
Most of the turians had steered clear of where she had settled until she spotted one individual weaving his way through the others until he stood in front of where she and Garrus waited. His mandibles flickered with some emotion that Amala couldn't name, something she hadn't seen before.
Garrus's mandibles flared in a grin and he moved forward to clap the newcomer on the shoulder. His plates were a similar grey as Garrus, but he had lovely green eyes instead of the blue of Garrus's.
"Decian! I can't believe it's you."
"Garrus! I had heard them say that a Vakarian came in with Arterius, but trying to get close enough to find out who it was has been nearly impossible. I wasn't sure who I would find. How did you escape? What about your family?" he asked with a sense of urgency even Amala could pick up.
"Sol was sold," Garrus told him, his voice soft. "But Amala promised to help me get her back." Garrus gestured with one hand over to where Amala sat against the side of a rock.
He emitted a low keen; a matching sound came from Garrus as the two males pressed their foreheads together. Their cry ended just as abruptly as it started and the one called Decian moved to stand in front of Amala.
"If I am alive when you go to find Solana, I beg you, take me with you. I'm a good shot. I'll do whatever it takes to get her back."
At her quizzical look, Garrus moved to stand beside the other turian.
"This is Decian Chellick; we were in the same unit together. Decian was seeing my sister. They hadn't formalized anything, but they were serious. He was still with the unit while I was on leave at my home when the attack came."
"Are you okay working with aliens? Because I have contacts in species you haven't even seen yet," Amala asked, pushing up to stand near them.
"Garrus believes in you, and that's good enough for me. I will follow your orders."
Amala's eyebrows shot up in surprise. More must have been said than what she could hear.
"Alright, you're in. You might want to see if you can get porter duty so you are with us when we win this."
Now it was Decian's turn to look surprised, his mandibles fluttering. Garrus chuckled at his friend's expression.
"We will win this," he vowed.
Decian's mandibles flared in a grin and he headed off to find Corinthus. Not long after he had left, the whole procession began to move. Amala stayed near the middle once more, but this time she had her weapons. Garrus fell in behind her still on translator duty, not that he minded. At first, the children walked a little faster or a little slower than she did. She tried to not let that bother her, even though she couldn't really blame them. Then she overheard the whispered dare and one of them, she thought it was a girl based on Garrus's explanations from the previous night, braced her shoulders and moved to keep pace beside her.
Garrus laughed a little. "I hope you won something good."
She cocked her head back to look at him before her mandibles flared wide. "Torler has to do my laundry duty for a week!"
"Well done," Amala said. "You are very brave."
The girl's steps stuttered for a moment before she caught herself.
"They say you look like an asari, but not blue," the girl said, her mandibles twitching.
"Something like that," Amala said with a little laugh. "See that turian beside General Arterius? The brown one? My skin is a little lighter than that color, but my species comes in various shades, some lighter and some darker. We also have hair, not tentacles, and that comes in lots more colors."
The girl gasped. "You must be very colorful."
Amala laughed. "Not me, I'm just an average brown skinned, black haired female."
"Don't listen to her. She's not that plain," Garrus whispered to the girl.
"Are you her friend?"
"Amala, am I your friend?" Garrus asked with a grin.
Shaking her head while she chuckled she replied, "Yes, I consider you a friend."
"My dad told me that there aren't any aliens who are our friends."
Amala winced at that comment. "I can understand why he would say that. But I hope to change his mind and yours about that."
"He's dead," she said sharply.
Amala sucked in her breath. "Mine too. Hell, my whole family was killed by aliens. Batarians, those four-eyed bastards currently causing problems on this world, were the ones who killed mine," Amala said gruffly.
That seemed to appease the girl and some of the others as they drifted closer to Amala and Garrus. One of the boys walked beside Garrus, his eyes drifting up to gaze at his marks every now and then when he thought Garrus wasn't looking.
"Yes, I came from one of the prison camps. My parents are still there, well, I hope at least. My sister, though, she was taken away," he said softly.
"How did you escape?"
"I didn't. I was rescued by Amala. She had already found Arterius and Kryik when they came across me."
At some signal from one of the adults, all of the children stopped talking and the group continued in relative silence. It was a relief though when they called a break and Amala could find a piece of shade and take off her helmet, at least for a moment and take a drink. Even the turians had found spots to take shelter from their sun.
The majority of the children had congregated together but their eyes were still on Amala, especially since her face was now revealed. The girl who had walked next to her was poked and prodded and finally she moved towards where Amala and Garrus sat.
"You're quite the novelty," Garrus said, leaning down so his mouth was near her ear.
"Not sure why," Amala grumbled, to which Garrus chuckled.
The little girl came to stand in font of Amala. Her mandibles twitched nervously before she spoke.
"My name is Loriva. My friends think that your skin is tougher than an asari's. Is it?"
Amala laughed softly. "Why would they think that?"
"Because your skin is the color of the earth and not the sky," she said, as if that was a clear reason.
"Those with plates the color of the earth are considered the best looking, partly because it is rare, and well, because of some of our old stories," Garrus told her.
"No, my skin is actually softer than an asari's. You can touch it and see for yourself."
Loriva's talon trembled slightly as she reached out and with the pad of that finger grazed Amala's cheek. Her mandibles flared in a grin.
"Your skin is so soft. How do you survive?"
"My people have always been adaptable, and well, our sun is far gentler than yours."
Loriva nodded at that reasoning and made her way back to the others. Amala looked over at Garrus.
"Well, if brown is good looking, what does that make you?"
"Average," he said with a laugh. "Look around and you will see that gray is the common color scheme for us. My blue eyes used to be my best feature, but blue, sadly, has gone out of favor for obvious reasons."
"I like your eyes. When I was young, I wished I had blue eyes. So if you're average, what does that make Saren? I've never seen anyone who looks remotely like him."
"He is, uh, more striking than anything. Between still being more silvery at his age and his rare long cheek crest, he is unusual. Now, it's Nihlus who is considered a very attractive individual; not only is he a lovely shade of brown, but he has the rarer green eyes as well."
"Good to know I'm better looking for having skin the color of the earth."
Garrus shook his head. "Not just any earth. Not the brown of sand, that soil tends to be poor for growing things. Your color is that of soil that is rich with life; that is what makes it beautiful to us."
Amala's mouth opened and closed for a moment. That had to have been the nicest damn thing anyone had ever said to her in a very long time. At least not while referencing her body count.
"Thank you," she said, ducking her head.
Nihlus uncapped his water container and handed it to Saren. Saren took it with an amused shake of his head.
"You don't have to play personal assistant to me, Nihlus. You can go join the ranks of the soldiers."
Nihlus gave him an amused little flick of his mandibles. "No, much safer to be here. I'm tired of fielding all the flirtations and invitations."
"I bet you're glad to be back among our people."
Nihlus snorted. "Not for that reason. I thought I made it perfectly clear where my interest lies."
"I'm sure you could do much better than an old general," Saren said gruffly.
"Not just any general; the only one to ever return from being taken off world by the asari and without a mark."
"True, but you and Garrus are the first ever to escape a prison camp. I'm sure that ratcheted up your attractiveness quite a bit."
"Yes, well, I wasn't expecting them to like my markings quite so much," he said, embarrassment tingeing his sub-tones.
"They do accent your plates, not that you need me to tell you that," Saren muttered, a hint of amusement creeping into his voice.
"And after we win this and you are hailed the savior of Palaven, who will be the most popular turian on Palaven? Why yes, I think it will be you. And I'll be judged as that hanger on that won't let the poor general be," Nihlus said with a laugh.
Saren let out a huff of air. "Spirits save me from being popular. We still have to win this war first."
"Garrus firmly believes Shepard and her people will pull it off."
"The boy is-," Saren began.
"He's not a boy. He's just younger than us; me only by a few years. He's seen the darker side of the galaxy."
"And still thinks he can fight it head on."
"That's not such a bad thing, is it?"
"Maybe not, but Shepard can deal with all his energy and ideals. I have enough to do as is."
Nihlus gazed down the column and spotted the human resting in a bit of shade and as he watched, one of the children approached her. His mandibles flared in a grin and he let out a small laugh.
"Looks like Vakarian isn't the only one she has won over."
Saren glanced back to look at what Nihlus was referring to.
"Good, because if we ever hope to hold our own in this galaxy we have to be able to move past this."
Nihlus turned to look at Saren, his brow plates raised. Saren gave him a bland stare.
"I'm amazed you aren't a proponent of isolation."
"You and I both have seen what's out there. Staying apart will only make us targets. No, we need to forge alliances until we are a force to be reckoned with on our own."
~Thanks again to Mordinette for all her help! And thank you to the readers for your continued support.
And for those of you curious, Chellick's first name is from ME2. If you mod the game on the pc such that you talk to the council without going through c-sec, when you do go through c-sec you learn that Decian Chellick is the new executor.~