Luce hunched over, as he flipped over to a blank page in his notebook. This was going to be great material to record. It was late into the night and a brawl was breaking out; he watched the fight with a modicum of intrigue. What seemed to have played out was a trio of boys were being disrespectful to people who were trying to sleep and one of them decided to put them in their place. The fat, blond guy was surprisingly competent in a skirmish, he was blocking the three's punches and kicks as well as throwing some back to them. It only took a handful of hits for them to throw their hands up to surrender. So, they were all bark and no bite? Pathetic. I left the clinic for this? His mind wandered back to the moment he heard of the scouting mission to this isolated wilderness.
He had signed up to broaden his horizons, improve his skills, but above all, to leave the medical ward. He was sick of all the patients who blamed him for their failure to take medicine properly. On the same level were those who would avoid taking their drugs, only to have them forced down on them by doctors who would physically restrain them. Then those who would tell him how to do his job when they didn't know their armoranth from their sodium hydroxide.
However, they were the penultimate sinners when compared to those who would come in and argue over the validity of the medical sciences, telling him that he was wasting his valuable time because of some superstitious reason. Thus draining away precious minutes that could have been spent researching or helping someone who actually needed it. This wasn't an occasional occurrence there, it was almost everyday. All these groups turned something he held as almost sacred, and pissed all over it.
He would think about all these when he tried justifying leaving to himself. Every time though, Ashia would creep into his mind. Even though he promised her that he would stay safe and write to her, he still felt like he abandoned her. Although in many ways she was capable of protecting herself, in other ways she was still vulnerable. When Luce would ask why she would task herself to do domestic chores, she would say because she wanted a position in the King's court she had to earn his trust first. Whenever he pointed out that the council members were mainly demons who valued strength and would only see her as a fragile girl who they could easily bend and break, she was unfazed. She responded that though she may have the body of a frail young woman, she had the heart of a lynel. She had to get her start at some point; she wasn't meant for house work, she had so much to offer in the realm of politics. Besides, it would be easy to gain the upper hand mentally over a demon who only recognized strength in the court. "The court operates under a different set of rules than an arena," he remembered her explaining to him.
What if she gets stuck in a situation and she needs me to help her get out of it? He turned his head, facing away from the crowd beneath him. I'll worry about that when that happens. Besides, she's going to have to rely on herself to get out of trouble - I can't always be there for her.
The crowd below him was dissipating, everyone was getting back to whatever it was they were doing before. Luce rolled his eyes and shook his head. He wondered, how much longer was it going to take until they pieced together they are in a different world from the one they originated from?
"Do you think that maybe we should try and head back home? Maybe the devils are gone and we'll find some people there."
Dilan looked back towards his little sister with droopy eyes. "No, it's too big of a risk," he said in a voice as heavy as lead as he bent down to help his sister up the boulder.
"I'm siding with your brother on this one," Keat piped in as he tapped the large rock with his walking stick. He was barely able to see after the gas attack, he could only see blobs of color.
"Hand over the stick, I'll help you up," said Dilan.
It had been days since the massacre at their village, they'd been wandering in the forest by themselves searching for other survivors. Lady Luck had not been kind to them as they couldn't find a single soul and they almost ran into a pack of hungry wolves. Now it was the dead of night, they had to stop for the night and make camp.
Dilan surveyed the immediate area; it seemed like a good place to rest. "Ok. We'll stop here for the night. You still have the flint?"
Imi patted her apron pocket, "It's safe 'n sound."
Dilan unslung the bundle of sticks from his back. "Great. I'll build the pyramid and you strike it." Within minutes, they had a fire going and they were all sitting against a rotting tree trunk. Keat poked at the fire with his stick to keep it going for longer. As they sat, something caught Dilan's attention. He squinted; it looked like a flame in the distance.
"Hey, Imi." He had to bump her shoulder several times to wake her up.
"Mhm, what is it?
"Look, there's a fire over yonder. Maybe they're the other villagers!"
Imi was quiet for a second, then she rubbed her eyes. "You sure?"
Dilan felt like he was between a rock and hard place. If they didn't check it out, they could be alone in the rugged forest for who knew how much longer. If they checked it out and it wasn't the other survivors, they could be in hot water. But still…
They couldn't just sit around and wait for them to be found; it would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. They all agreed to check from the outskirts of the mysterious campsite. Keat told them that he'd stay behind since he was blind and to come back and get him if it was safe. They both crouched behind a huckleberry bush and spied on the camp. There was a gigantic bonfire in the center with people guarding it. There was a section of the encampment filled with people sleeping on what appeared to be makeshift beds. Most unusually there was a tube-like thing with what looked like wings, similar to a bird or dragonfly, laying crushed at the other edge of the base.
Imi turned her attention towards her brother. "These don't look like our people, what should we do?" She asked in a wavering, apprehensive whisper.
With barely a moment of hesitation, Dilan responded with, "We need to approach them; Maybe they can help us, definitely better than being stuck in the wild by ourselves."
"But shouldn't we wait till everyone's awake, that way we can see what kind of people they are? Like, what if they're really mean? Also, how do we approach them? Do we just walk up to them and say: hi, we're lost, can you help us? Or: hi, we've almost died a lot. Can you take us in?"
"It doesn't matter what we say as long as we get the point across," Dilan responded bluntly. "Timing wise, we can wait here till morning break. Or approach them now."
The entire camp was astounded at the two children standing by the bonfire. The boy looked about 17 and the girl maybe around 13 years old. They were both covered in cuts and bruises. Their clothing appeared to go from a stable hodge podge of various fabrics to tatters caked with mud. The girl's appearance was especially bewildering because of her elven ears.
Mariah was trying to sleep when she heard noises coming from behind a bush. They were two unfamiliar voices, one being significantly more high pitched than the other - and it sounded like they were arguing with each other. Thing was, she couldn't place her finger on what language they were speaking in. Mariah slipped her hand into her little metal treasure chest and fished out her flashlight. Electricity was limited these days so she hoped that this little excursion was worth it.
What, or rather who, she found left her jaw dropped. There were two teenagers staring back at her like deer in headlights. She tried to motion them to follow her, but they seemed to either not understand or be too shocked to go with her. So she called out to anyone who could hear her, "Hey! Come on over here, I found two kids!"
The girl turned to the boy and said something like, "Od oyu knith seh's nogig to phel su?"
He responded, "Ti meses leik ti, ew ened ot teg Keat."
Now the kids were being offered some of the camp's rations and blankets. And all the adults surrounding them were trying to figure out what to do with them.
"Do you think we should let them stay with us?"
"Of course -"
"No, we can barely provide for ourselves…"
"How can you say that?!"
"Well, first we should try talking to them. See if they speak English."
A tall man from the crowd walked up to them and knelt down to look at them eye level. "Can you understand me?" Both teens were silent, gazing back with uncertainty in their eyes.
The man frowned, "I don't think we're going to get anywhere like this, someone's going to have to teach them English."
At this, Mariah interjected, "But how do you go about teaching someone a language they have absolutely no exposure to? Do we point at objects and name them? Because that's not going to go far."
"I believe I can help with that," Annie confidently added. "I've tutored ESL kids in the past and I'm studying linguistics in school. Perhaps I can get them started in English."
"Are you sure you're up to it? It's going to be a challenge and you've been dealing with a lot lately," Mariah asked, her voice heavy with concern. Annie already had her hands full with translating for people in camp and dealing with her ex.
"Someone's got to at least try. Otherwise, communication will be impossible," Antoinette simply responded.
