Chapter 10
What appeared in front of me was not quite was hoping for. Give me a nice military base, or maybe a race of warlike aliens. That’s all cool, (Until they start attacking you), but honestly, I don’t get the feeling that a village is going to be able to supply us with troops. Lilly seemed to have the same concern.
“How are we going to get troops from an overgrown ranch? I doubt that these guys could give us more than a herd of cattle!” Lilly complained.
I chuckled. “I don’t know, I bet we could stampede them towards the enemy. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to face ten thousand angry cows.”
Lilly rolled her eyes.
“They probably have more like one hundred cows, but that’s not the point! We need each location we stop at to be able to give us soldiers, otherwise we’ll be overrun by the Unknown Enemy!”
I sighed. I didn’t like it, but that was the sad truth. If this place didn’t have any way to give us troops, we were in trouble. With some luck, they had a hidden military force somewhere. With some more, they wouldn’t use it to attack the two strangers who go to them asking for it.
We headed towards the village, and entered through two large wooden pillars with a sign above them labeled ‘Leron’. As soon as we entered, a woman rushed out to meet us. She had rosy cheeks and sported a flour covered apron.
“Oh, visitors! Welcome to Leron! What brings you here, travelers? Oh, I have forgotten my manners again! My name is Cathy, and I’m Leron’s baker! Follow me, and I will get some food in you two.”
Before either of us could argue, she grabbed our hands and hauled us over to a nearby building. She sat us down at a table inside, and looked around hastily, brushing the flour off her apron.
“I’ll get you two some bread and soup, so just sit here, ok?” She rushed off into the kitchen, leaving Lilly and I stunned at the table.
“Well, they’re certainly friendly,” I muttered.
Lilly glared at me. “We need warriors, not pansies! These people would be baking bread for the enemy before they fight them!”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure what’s wrong with that. It’s nice to be able to avoid conflict every once and a while. We should be fine if we miss one stop of soldiers, shouldn’t we?”
“Of course we won’t! We now know the Unknown Enemy has the ability to use Leaping just like you do! That means we have to get as many soldiers as possible, because knowing you, you have half the Leaps the Unknown Enemy does! If he uses them all, his army will be so big that we will need every single soldier we can get!”
“Why can’t we just leave some people in peace? It’s not like this is their fight. I mean, look at Cathy! She isn’t cut out for war. This place seems nice and peaceful; why do we have to always shove our problems onto others?” I asked.
“Don’t you care about the survival of the Pisces Empire?”
“Don’t you care about anything other than the Pisces Empire? Aren’t you even curious why the Unknown Enemy is even attacking the Pisces Empire? Haven’t you wondered if maybe they killed his family while he watched, or forced him to fight in a war he wanted no part of? Maybe he was forced to make other people go through the same thing he did!” I yelled.
Lilly’s eyes grew cold. “Are you siding with the enemy?”
Cathy burst from the kitchen, and set two bowls of soup before us along with a large piece of white bread. Lilly gave me a look saying that our conversation would continue later, and began greedily devouring her meal.
I followed her example, and we both finished the food in record time. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. I made a mental note to bring some food to the Void, and stood up.
“Cathy, do you have a village leader here?” I asked.
She beamed.
“Oh, yes! He is the most wonderful person I have ever met! When his father retired, he took over the village and made it what it is today! He never stops working either. I think he’s in the laundry house right now. Follow me; I’ll bring you to him.”
The laundry house was a nicely built cabin. A waft of smoke wafted out from the chimney, making me feel right at home. Cathy opened the door and peered inside.
“Adam? Some people are here to see you. Why don’t you a take a break from that and talk with them?” she called.
“I suppose I can. It shouldn’t take me too long to finish the rest, so I can do it after I talk to my visitors. Please, send them in!” a rough voice called back.
I found myself already beginning to take a liking to the man. Lilly and I walked into the cabin, and were confronted with the amusing sight of an enormous man carefully folding up a small shirt and placing it gingerly on a tray near the fire.
“Hello, what brings you here to Leron?” he asked with a grin on his face.
Lilly stepped forward. “Our land is under attack, and we need help. We were hoping you could donate some soldiers to us for the duration of the conflict. We will gladly return any remaining soldiers after the decisive battle is over.”
Adam looked appalled.
“You’re asking me to send my people into a war? Over my dead body! I would be glad to shelter your people, as long as they can help out around the town.”
Lilly growled. “We don’t need a place to stay, we need an army strong enough to beat our enemy. Don’t tell me you have no fighting force?”
“Of course we don’t! We are a peaceful people. Besides, why should we ever make war when we could simply feed those who wish to fight with us? There is no reason to fight. After all, I love helping people. The look on their faces when they get a fresh meal after a long day’s work is priceless!”
I found myself agreeing with the man. He did have a point, after all. Why did we fight, anyways? If we could just all be like he was, everything would be so much nicer. Lilly however, didn’t agree with him at all.
“You’re a fool then! You waste resources feeding and helping those who would attack and kill you? Why not just destroy them, and live without having to help your enemies?”
Adam shook his head.
“Never! I don’t want to hurt other people. Peace is always the best course of action. I apologize for being unable to help you further, but I will gladly house your people, if they are willing to be peaceful. Until then, feel free to stay here and rest. You are always welcome!”
Lilly stormed out of the laundry room, dragging me with her. Frankly, I was totally on the man’s side, but with Lilly around, I didn’t have much of a choice.
Lilly stormed out of the village, ignoring calls from Cathy and a few other people.
“You were right. This place will never give us a fighting force. I bet these idiots can’t even tell one end of a gun from the other. I have half a mind to go in there myself and blast them all to pieces.”
I narrowed my eyes, and she waved her hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry, I won’t do it. It would be a waste of energy. I suppose we could try looking around for some smarter people…”
I shrugged.
“We could try, but I doubt that we would find anyone. It would probably take us somewhere around a day to get to the nearest village, and we don’t have any food. Besides, all the towns in this area probably agree with Adam, so I doubt any of them would volunteer for a war.”
Lilly shook her head in disgust, and poked me in the chest.
“Let’s get out of this stupid place. We have no time to waste here.”
I nodded, and activated the Grid. We were walking towards the circle when I heard something roar from the direction of the town. I turned around, and saw a mob of armored warriors descending on the village like a plague. I cursed and started running towards it.
Lilly followed close behind, but she had different reasons for doing so.
“I bet those guys wouldn’t mind joining up with us! This is perfect!” she yelled as we ran.
I ignored her, and focused on getting to the town in time. I stumbled into town just in time to see
a sword appear in Cathy’s chest. I stared in horror as her mouth opened vainly, and she toppled to the ground.
I pulled the pistol grip from my belt, and squeezed it. It was time to see if this thing worked as well on humans as it did on robots. A black beam lanced out of the weapon and pierced the raider behind Cathy.
A ripple of darkness blasted from his mouth in a wordless scream, and he slumped over the beam, dead. I levitated him into the air with the beam, and hurled him from the village with all my might.
Lilly raised her eyebrows. “Nice weapon. These guys are primitive, we don’t need them. We can go now.”
I picked up one of her bad habits, and spat on the ground. “Like hell we will. We’re going to go kill these raiders.”
“Huh, that’s strange. Weren’t you prattling on about how you didn’t like fighting? What happened to peace is always better, huh? Make up your mind.”
“I’ll do what is necessary. Now move your butt, or are you too scared to fight them?”
Lilly bared her teeth.
“As if. They’re the ones that should be scared!”
I smirked. Lilly was easier to play than a little kid. The smile fell off my face when a scream echoed through the village, and I rushed towards it.
About a hundred or so raiders stood in a ring around Adam and the remaining villagers. I sprinted towards them, pointing my weapon at the nearest raider, but I was too late.
“Kill them all!” one barked.
“Wait! Please, we can talk! There is no reason to fight. We can just sit down with some food and…”
A gunshot ripped through the air, and Adam swayed, crimson beginning to spread across his chest like a flower. He stood straight one last time, and for a moment, his eyes locked with mine. An unseen pledge passed between us, and he fell face first into the ground, dead.
The other raiders all let out loud whoops, and gunshots filled the air again. The little crowd of villagers all collapsed against each other. I roared in anger, and ripped my necklace off my neck.
My right arm erupted in raging flames, and the gun shuddered with power.
“This runs on body heat, right? Let’s see what this does then,” I rasped.
I pulled the trigger, and a massive beam launched from the weapon. All the raiders caught in its path screamed in agony as the dark energy pierced through everything in its way.
I flung the raiders I had caught in my deadly grasp into the air, and blasted them again.
“I’d tell you I was going to send you to Hell, but nothing will be left of you when I’m done here!” I screamed, tears streaming down my cheeks. I knew it was irrational to be so angry at the loss of people I barely even knew, but this little town reminded me of life back before my planet had been conquered by the Pisces Empire. And I hated that. I wanted to do nothing more than forget about my past life and skip the
The remaining raiders started running as fast as they could, screaming something about a god of war and not making enough sacrifices.
I blasted them too, and hurled them into the sky. I don’t remember how long I stood there, ripping the raiders to pieces with dark energy, but I do remember one thing. One of those raiders escaped. Out of the hundred or so, one managed to evade my vengeful rage. The one who had shot Adam. I learned something important on that day. To hesitate in war means death. If Adam hadn’t tried to reason with his foe, he might have lived. If I had acted faster, maybe I could have avenged him. But neither of us did, and we paid the price.
When Lilly found me, I was standing in a field peppered with smoking holes the size of boulders. Of the raiders, nothing remained but a single warped pistol, glowing white and smoking with heat.