Green Comet

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage meets her first city people.

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rjb

Chapter Fourteen – The Welcoming Party

There were two of them. The closer one stepped back, his hands up in a placating gesture. “Whoa!” he said. “Take it easy, girl.”

Sage raised her spear point, resting the butt of its shaft on the ground. On the street, she reminded herself. She was willing to believe that there wasn’t any mortal danger here, but she wasn’t ready to abandon all caution. She also didn’t like the way he used the diminutive, “girl,” any more than she did when the big trader used it. She put away her knife, keeping her hand close, and said, “What do you want?”

He looked hurt, or at least he tried to. His expression was plainly false. “Hey now,” he said, patting the air with his hands and edging toward her. “There’s no need for the attitude. We’re just here to welcome you to the city, you being a newcomer and all.” He stopped moving when he saw the spear tip come down a little. The other one behind him just stood, watching.

“Thank you,” she said. She could see his insincerity. It was on him as clearly as the scales on a day runner. But she was also uncertain. This was the city, which she had been brought up to believe was an evil place full of evil people. What if these two were the best she would find? Would she be better off befriending these two and at least having some allies, however dubious? She let the spear come back up and tried to look less threatening. She briefly wondered if she should have removed her necklace. The rattling talons might create the wrong impression. She tried a smile, but it felt so strange that she let it drop. She said, “Do you welcome all newcomers this way?”

He grinned and his friend snickered, then they quickly tried to turn them into friendly smiles. The spokesman said, “Not all of them. Only the ones we catch.” Seeing her expression, he added, “I mean, not all of them come into the city this way, so we don’t get to meet them all.” His attempted smile was ghastly.

She didn’t trust these two, but she didn’t fear them either. She decided to play along and see if she could learn anything. When the one in front subtly moved to her right, and the other one sidled to her left, she just as subtly backed up to the side of the building. She saw the looks they shared and smiled to herself. They want to get one of them behind me, she thought. Maybe they were predators after all. “So, what happens next?” she said. “Is there anything more to this welcome?” She looked from one to the other while their faces betrayed their mental efforts. “When people visited my village, we would feed them and give them a place to sleep.”

Looking sly, the talker said, “Are you hungry? Are you tired? We’ve got food and a place you can sleep.” He indicated the darkening street. “You should get somewhere safe. These streets can be dangerous at night. Especially for a girl like you.”

“Well, if you think so,” said Sage.

“Sure,” he said. He pointed back the way she’d come. “It’s this way. Come on.”

“I am quite tired,” she said. “And my feet hurt.”

He looked sympathetic. Or tried to. “Here,” he said, stepping forward. “Let me carry your load for you.”

She backed up, bumping into the building behind her. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I can carry it myself.”

“Come on,” he said, his patience already spent. “Let me have it.” He reached toward the glider on her right pannier.

Her spear flashed and he jumped back, looking down at the gash on his shoulder. It wasn’t deep enough to bleed freely, but it was seeping. He looked at her, anger replacing any pretense of friendliness. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “We tried to be nice. Now we’re just going to have to take it from you.” They both had knives in their hands now. Not as good as hers, but dangerous enough. They moved, angling for the best position.

She didn’t waste time on that. She jabbed with her spear, plunging it into the knife arm of the silent one. He dropped his knife. He picked it up with his other hand, but now he was less dangerous. The talkative one took advantage of the opportunity, but too slowly. He’d made the mistake of underestimating her. By the time he was ready to make his move, he had to jump back from her slashing spear point.

Now they were wary. They moved slowly, looking for an opening, eyes on her spear point. They weren’t underestimating her now. Judging from their faces, it looked more as if they were beginning to fear her. The silent one kept glancing at his partner, as if maybe they should just leave. But that one wasn’t ready to leave. Sage had injured what little pride he had, and he was going to make her pay.

The standoff looked as if it could last a long time. As it was, they had the advantage of numbers. If they rushed her she could only stab one of them with that spear, and then the other one could get in close with his knife. Neither of them wanted to be the one getting stabbed, though, and from the way she handled that knife, maybe they didn’t want to get in close, either.

For Sage’s part, she felt like it was just a matter of time before they wore her down. And what if they had friends? Things could only get worse. Stalling for time wasn’t going to improve her situation. She needed to get this over with and get out of here. The trouble was she couldn’t think of how to do that without severely injuring, or possibly killing, at least one of them. She had killed plenty of day runners, and that big flier, but she couldn’t imagine killing a person. In frustration, she rattled her spear at them.

That caused them to flinch back, and embarrassment made their faces set into a deadly blankness as they moved toward her. This looked like it, and Sage began planning which one she would take out first. Probably the one on her left, the silent one, because she had her knife on the right. She was about to plunge her spear into the poor fellow’s neck when she heard hooves to the right. Her side eye saw another person come out of the next side street and turn toward them. She adjusted her stance to manage three adversaries.

She expected her two attackers to become more bold now, but instead they appeared to become more nervous. They also turned to confront the new arrival, who calmly walked up and stopped a few meters away.

The talkative one, the one closest to this interloper, said, “What are you doing here? Get out of here. This is none of your business.”

“Hello Rat,” said the other. “Snake,” he said, nodding at the silent one. “What’s the trouble here?”

“Trouble? There’s no trouble,” said Rat, with no trace of sincerity. “We were just trying to welcome this one to the city, to show her the ropes, you know, when she pulled her weapons on us.” Trying to look dignified, he said, “You know these Runners. No manners.”

“So naturally you pulled your knives.”

“We had to defend ourselves. You know these people.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked at her and asked, “Do you agree with his assessment?”

Sage didn’t answer right away, watching them all, trying to think. Finally she said, “I think they were trying to steal my stuff.”

“That’s not true,” shouted Rat. “She attacked us.” He showed his cut and Snake showed his wound. “She could have killed someone.”

“That’s true,” said the stranger. “I watched from the corner there. She could have killed someone. Probably both of you, if it came to that.” He looked at Sage. “She didn’t want to, but she could have.”

The thugs tried to look tough. “I’d like to see her try,” said Rat.

“No you wouldn’t,” said the other. “Trust me. You wouldn’t want to see that. Why don’t you run along now, and call it a day before anyone gets hurt?” He made gentle shooing motions and moved a little closer to Sage. Now it looked like two on two.

Rat and Snake didn’t like those odds, but they had to make a show of it as they left. As they strutted away, Rat called over his shoulder, “You haven’t seen the last of us.”

From her side, the newcomer answered, “You’d better hope she has, Rat. You’d just better hope she has.” As they clomped away and around the corner, he smiled at Sage and said, “Welcome to the city.”

Announcement

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Everything changes now for Sage. Please let me know in the comments whether you’re enjoying this. And subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

rjb

Chapter Thirteen – The City

Street was right. It was most of a day to the city.

Sage spent the night in the shelter, where she had her first good sleep in a month. The shelter was secure. It was solidly built and would keep out the most persistent night stalkers. It was backed against the bank, with a good view of the broad valley. The roof was snug and the interior was protected from the elements, even the coastal rains. It was a relief to sleep lying down for a change, and she even closed her side eyes that night.

She had the place to herself, her only company being insects and some small insectivores. She told the little animals, “Don’t worry. If you don’t bother me, I won’t bother you.” Then she turned and removed her panniers, standing them on a low shelf that was obviously built for that purpose. It was long enough to hold all the panniers of a whole trading party, like the one she’d just met. There was also a rope strung up for hanging blankets, which she used.

In a back corner, below a set of cupboards, was a water trough with a pump standing over it. She walked over and had a good drink, finding the water cool and clean. There was a basin next to the trough, which could be plugged and filled for ablutions. She used it immediately, washing her face and her ears and other parts that hadn’t had a good cleaning in far too long. The floor there was gravel and the water she splashed on it sank in and disappeared. As she was toweling dry, she walked over to the window in the front of the shelter, raised the shutters and looked down. There she saw her water trickling down and away.

She left the shutters open and went back to see what was in the cupboards. She found a small stock of non-perishable foods. Some grain in sealed canisters. Smoked and salted meat wrapped in fabric and hanging on hooks. Dried fruit and vegetables. Even some hard crackers. She was tempted, after so long on a limited and sometimes disgusting diet, to gorge herself. She didn’t, though. She had her own food and she didn’t need to eat any of this stuff. It was obviously left here by the traders for themselves. It might even serve as emergency provisions for someone in need. She felt it would be wrong to take this food, especially since she had nothing that was good enough to replace it.

When it was time to eat, Sage choked down the last of her day runner haunch, then followed it with some left over fish to try to cover the taste. It didn’t completely work. She had some roots and some shriveled berries, and followed it with some savory leaves and stalks that she liked to have to finish her meal. She noticed that she was still alert and wary while she ate, even though she was safe inside this shelter. She didn’t stop, though. It wouldn’t do to let down her guard too soon. “You’re not there yet,” she told herself. Then she went to the cupboard and helped herself to some of the dried fruit. “Just a taste,” she said.

After eating she stood by the window and watched the daylight fade and the night settle in. She looked at the stars for a while, then closed the shutters and prepared for sleep. She didn’t bother lighting her torch, or any of the ones there, but just let the darkness fill the hut. Her last thoughts before drifting off were of the city. Tomorrow she would be there, and this was her last night out on the land. In a way, that made her more nervous than the prospect of being alone, even against the many dangers out here.

When she left in the morning, Sage left behind her torch and the coil of fuel she’d made from the dead flier. She didn’t have any food good enough to leave them, but maybe the torch and fuel would be adequate payment for her use of their shelter. She didn’t think she’d be needing the torch anyway. Surely they would have plenty of torches in the city.

Her walk that day was uneventful. She followed the road, which was packed earth at first, but some kind of stony substance for the last few kilometers. She saw no day runners, and there were no day fliers, but that didn’t mean she relaxed her vigilance, nor did she put her spear in its sheath. She wasn’t going to come all this way only to be killed this close to her goal.

When the Sun was low in the western sky, Sage stood looking at the tall buildings on the other side of the river channel in front of her. Between the bridge and the big towers was a large, ramshackle cluster of smaller buildings. Now she could identify the source of the smell that had been growing stronger for the last two hours.

She sheathed her spear and walked slowly across the bridge, looking at the warren of shacks on the other side. Most of them had smoke coming out of them, either from a makeshift chimney, or simply from a hole in the roof. She guessed they were probably cooking their evening meal. This smoky, stinking scene stretched away to both her left and right, crowded in between the river and the big buildings about half a kilometer away. Looking down over the side of the bridge at the fouled water of the river, she could tell that these people were using it for sewage and garbage disposal.

That was confirmed when she stepped off the other end of the bridge and saw an open sewer running beside the road and emptying directly into the water. She stopped walking. With her eyes roving over the squalor, she asked herself if she wanted to go in there. If this is what the city was like, then maybe everybody was right to say it was evil. Maybe she would be better off staying out on the land, taking her chances with all its dangers. Maybe she’d die, but at least it would be a clean death. Not wallowing in this filth among people who didn’t know how to live.

She looked up at the tall buildings again. Might it be better in there? She shook her head. Probably just more people, she thought, making more filth. She stood there for a long time, thinking. She looked over her shoulder, back along the road through the broad valley. In the distance the land rose and she knew the plains were up there, with grass and sentinel trees. She could do it. She could find a place to live, maybe on the river. The water was clean up there. She could build a shelter so she didn’t have to sleep with her eyes open. She wouldn’t be spending all day walking, so she wouldn’t have to worry about the fliers. There would be fish. She would have plenty to eat. She could do it.

She turned back and looked at the city. She knew she didn’t want to live in the foul mess right in front of her, but she realized that she didn’t know anything about the part beyond. She nodded her head and started her feet moving. She’d check it out. If she didn’t like it, she could always leave. But if she left without finding out, after coming all this way, she knew she would always wonder about it.

As she was walking on the hard road through the slum, Sage realized that her feet hurt. She’d walked a thousand kilometers across the plain without any pain, but after a few hours on this stony surface they were starting to hurt. She snorted and kept going. If she decided to stay, then she’d have to get used to it. If she decided to leave, then she would soon be back in the shortgrass prairie again, where her feet wouldn’t hurt.

She tried not to look as she passed between the shacks. She didn’t want to embarrass these people by staring, but she couldn’t stop her prey eyes from seeing. There were a few people out in the late afternoon light, walking somewhere in one of the small, haphazard lanes. Roads, she reminded herself. No, streets. Street said roads in the city were streets. So, a few people in the narrow, crooked streets, going somewhere or just standing there. Those who noticed her just glanced and looked away, uninterested. Except the children. If they saw her, they stopped whatever they were doing and stared at her, their dirty faces open with curiosity, until she passed from their sight.

In the time it took her to get from the bridge to the first of the big buildings, the Sun set. As she stepped between the walls on either side of the street, it seemed to suddenly become twilight. Slower now, more cautiously, she moved up the street, deeper into what felt like its gloom. Her eyes adjusted and she could soon see properly again, but the feeling didn’t go away. Her right hand came down to rest on the hilt of her knife, and her left hand flexed, anticipating the shaft of her spear.

She went a hundred meters without seeing anyone. The street continued straight. She’d passed two cross streets that led away left and right, and was just approaching another when she heard a stealthy sound behind her.

She spun, her knife in her hand and her spear coming out of its sheath, and saw two people. She let out her breath and relaxed a little. It wasn’t a predator.