As Your Captain

Borel had a big chin. 

It was wide. More than wide, it was just big. And meaty. And he held it up high, so that even though we were the same height, he still looked down his nose at me.

Tobi from Kylen's unit came to see me, along with one of the guys from the Wolf-clan captain's unit. He didn't wear any ink, but his bow had etchings from Bear's Song. "Borel's looking for you."

They led me to a small shed beside the mill. Around the corner, I heard sounds like slapping flesh. He'd had that same lithe young woman who'd sat on his lap bent over a wooden railing as he fucked her quite vigorously from behind. When he saw us, he pulled away from her and laughed. "Oh, shit!"

She looked up into his face and scolded, "why stop?"

Borel chuckled and kissed her lips. "Business, love. Gods, you're a nice one!" And he slapped her bum as she walked off. 

She pointed a finger at him, "finish later!" and disappeared. 

Borel turned to me, "gods, I love this place!"

I laughed lightly at that. "I can see that!"

He popped his eyebrows and elbowed up close to me. "Heard you was in the spire the other night."

I blushed. "I've heard those rumors."

"Right," he chewed his meaty chin and ran his fingers through the braids of his hair down to the ends where some of the braids had begun to come loose. "About that."

Borel glanced between Tobi and the Bear clan guy, then continued. "As your captain, I need to make sure all of my men are on the up-and-up."

That gave me pause. "Not sure what you…"

"Your girlfriend used to be an enemy scout. Recently, I'm told. Apparently she switched right before we got here."

Tobi added, "she used to hunt the road down from the pass. It got so bad, we nearly lost everything. Ahmi had to deal with her personally."

I shrugged. "And now she's on our side."

Borel bent over to a nearby trough and shoved a goat out of the way. He dipped his hands in the water and splashed it on his face, wiping himself clean. "And you just accept that without question."

"Ahmi told me…"

He leaned in and grinned, "I think we all know why you trust her."

Tobi edged a word in. "Today, she took us out and led us over to a ledge on top of a waterfall, tells us to wait there. She goes off and has some hour-long conversation with an enemy scout. Like what the hell was that about?"

I shrugged. "They all know each other. Maybe they were talking smack, maybe they were trading cheese recipes. Did you ask her?"

Tobi reeled from that, then the Bear guy added, "Yumi said she used to be a true believer. Despised our kind. She didn't come to Carthia out of some love for the place."

"Yeah," I nodded. "Anywhere else they'd have killed her and her people. She literally had no choice."

"You know," Borel slapped his fingers around my arm like a vice, "you're only confirming my suspicions."

I pulled my arm away. "I think grass growing would confirm your suspicions."

He huffed.

"Wait," I said. "You're still upset about being called a fly on shit, aren't you? Is that what this is about?"

Borel chewed his chin for a moment. "I've been called much worse by far prettier girls. 

Then he poked a finger into my chest hard. "I'm keeping an eye on your girl."

"She's a woman."

With that, I turned to leave. 

In the morning, Borel drew south patrol, meaning we'd be looking after the road leading to Carthia, in that area. Two new guys were transferred to our unit, twins from the Owl clan, each with their own eupin longbows, named Trey and Filau. They were in the large group of men Ahmi had escorted over and were as untrained and inexperienced as the rest of us. 

Marya sat atop Ace next to the elder quartermaster talking about something before making her way over to us. Yumi went with Kylen's group, and Miyani went with the heavy-set Na'uhui guy with the crescent moon tattoo. Three units of the new men crowded around some native guy I didn't know.

Marya came up to us and looked around, nodding at those of us who carried longbows as if counting in her mind—myself, Geraln, Jame, Malchuk, and the two new guys. Her dark green eyes stopped on the twins. "Welcome to Praying Mantis, I am Marya…"

Borel raised his chin to them. "She's going to be our scout. She'll show us where the bad guys are." He turned to her, "alright. Go on, love."

Marya stood perfectly still and stared at him. Ace likewise turned his head and fixed one eye on the man. Boots tromped across the wooden drawbridge from across the courtyard as men filed out. Far beyond the open field, the jungle awaited them, and Marya with her lizard creature stood staring at our captain.

Borel didn't seem to notice. "Let's go."

We'd got about fifty yards down the black slate road when Ales pointed out, "she's not coming."

We all turned to look. Ace and Marya stood like a statue in the courtyard looking back at us. Jame turned to Borel, "why isn't she coming?"

Borel looked around at each of us, and we all looked around at one another as if the answer lied with someone. After standing around like a bunch of idiots for over a minute, Borel nodded his big chin at one of the new guys, "go find out what's going on."

The man ran back through the gate and spoke to her some. She said something to him, then he stood beside her and looked at the rest of us as well. Far off to the left, an alligator splashed into the water and disappeared, and the loud caw of some kind of bird filled the trees behind us.

Borel sneered, "bloody hell!" then started back towards her. We all crossed the drawbridge and stood around her in an arc. There, Borel crossed his arms. "What's…"

Ace thrust his head out and bared his jagged, serrated teeth at him with a sharp hiss. Marya leaned closer to him and sneered, "do NOT interrupt me when I speak!"

With that, Ace muscled his way through us, jetted off across the field, and they disappeared into the jungle, leaving Borel to stand there staring. He sniffled, then shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go."

Rock bumped into Northstar as we made our way across the drawbridge, "she will be good for bed-fun, yes?"

Half the unit giggled at that, but it was Jame who answered, "you know she's married with two kids, yeah?"

Northstar nodded and reminded us all of his deep baritone, "lucky the husband."

The road brought us through the thick groves of mango trees, avocado trees, and trees of some other kind of red spikey fruit along with raised beds with clay planters hosting herbs of a peppery spice I could smell on the wind. Marya stood upon the road before us with her finger pointed off to our left. "Go through there."

Borel crossed his arms. "What's through there?"

"More farms. Stay on the path through fire trees. When you come to the rock ledge, wait there."

He cocked his head to the side, "how long are you gonna be?"

She glared at him. "Wait there," and she rode off in the opposite direction.

Borel started out in the lead, then looked around and directed Northstar to walk in front. We passed by several long wooden planters with some grassy thing growing amid tufts of thin vines and other thickets such that I wouldn't be able to tell what was a weed and what wasn't—or if anything wasn't. In my mind I tried to gauge whether the planters were tall enough to hide an ambush party waiting for us to pass by. I supposed, if they lay down, they were. And we were out in the open, basically, which I didn't like. To the left was a thin line of trees that offered a glimpse of the tower beyond, but to the right the open area ended some sixty yards out, which was just within range of the bows the enemy used.

We entered through groves thick with those berry trees, the ones with the red stems, and had to push branches out of the way to pass by. That gave way to a relatively sparse under-canopy of broken sticks and fronds that littered the ground all around us. Above us as far as I could see, dark leaves gobbled every scrap of sky, and croaks and whistles filled the space with such noise that I wouldn't have heard a man shouting from fifty yards away. All around us was dense with so many heavy tree trunks that several units could have hid behind them and we wouldn't know until it was too late.

We kept on until we found a ledge of rock, the bottom of which several broken boulders had strewn through the forest, with gnarled roots all about. Beyond that but still within a bowshot, the foliage was too dense to see anything that might have hid beneath us.

Overhead, I heard nothing. No siren bird calling out vita'o, and I also didn't hear it calling for humans.

Jame stood beside the ledge, looking out. "I don't like this spot. Those bushes down there are too close."

Borel looked left and right, then nodded towards the right. "Let's look for a better one. Come on."

Ales protested, "she told us to wait here."

Borel countered, "do you want to get ambushed?" He looked around, nodding his big chin in every direction. "This is a great spot to get killed, is what I'm saying. This way."

With that, we followed him as he stepped through a thick bush like a burst of grassy hair as high as our hip that gave off a citrusy scent. The way got even more difficult as we found ourselves weaving through fallen trees, broken branches, and vines so thick we had to hack our way through. In time we no longer saw the ledge or the rocks that made it up. Instead, the ground sloped downward and led us to a narrow gulley with a murmuring rush of water hidden behind thick branches filled with green-and-white variegated leaves the size of my hand crowding one another out.

Ales turned to Borel. "Now what?"

"Uh…" he looked around.

Directly behind us was Marya, scarcely ten feet away. My heart shot a jolt throughout my body. Rock exhaled through pursed lips, and Gino jumped, "gods!"

She passed her dark green eyes among us. Ace gurgled and clicked, then cut off with an upwards caw. She smirked and laughed lightly to herself. "He says that a human could follow your scent. You make a trail so obvious, an enemy must surely believe it is a decoy."

Borel stepped up and crossed his arms. "Is that supposed to…"

"We are setting a trap for the enemy. You will be the bait." She glanced around the whole group as she spoke, everyone except Borel."

Borel shook his head. "I don't like…"

"Follow this creek downstream," she pointed. "The chasm will widen enough for you to walk through. Keep along that route until you get to the waterfall, then wait there. Stay in the chasm."

Borel crossed his arms. "OK, but what if…"

"Stay in the chasm." And she left.

The man breathed in audibly and clenched his jaw, staring at the spot where she'd disappeared into the forest. Then he looked around at the rest of us and smirked. "Alright, you heard the lady. This way."

Some ways down, clinging to an embankment was a plant with large, flat leaves about the size of three whole hands each and long stalks atop which sat a flower of astounding beauty. The flower head had to be at least a foot across with petals marbled in purple and white, and a crown of bright orange around the rim. Several of those surrounded a cone of sorts like a shimmering cluster that seemed to change color depending on how the light hit it.

Talys would have loved it.

Marya had been right about the chasm widening enough to walk through. At first it was thick mud interspersed with mossy rocks and boulders, but that soon gave way to a deep trench that rose a good ten feet above us on both sides, while the banks of the creek held sand riddled with creeping grasses and small wildflowers. We followed this for a good half hour until we came to a narrow, beaten path like a ramp leading up and out of the chasm.

While Northstar continued along the creek bed, Borel tapped his shoulder, "nah. Let's go up this way."

"Hmm?" Northstar furrowed his brow.

Ales spoke up. "Marya told us to stay in the chasm."

Borel pursed his lips and shook his head. "I don't like it down here. We could get ambushed by anyone on the high ground up there, and there's nothing we can do about it. Come on."

I added my voice to Ales. "I'm pretty sure she knows the area better than any of us, man. There's a reason she told us to stay in the chasm."

Borel didn't miss a step. "Yeah, well I say we go up this way."

Jame, Jezi, and the twins started to follow Borel up the path leading out of the chasm, along with Rock and Northstar.

I called out, "what are you doing, man?"

Borel turned to face me, then looked around the others who also hesitated. "I'm the captain of this unit, and I say we go this way."

Malchuk furrowed his brow and waited for Geraln to translate.

Borel then explained in Goloagi, "that's an order!"

Malchuk then stood beside me and looked up at our captain, already halfway up the ledge. "With respect, sir, she knows the territory, and she knows the enemy…"

"I didn't ask. Let's go."

Malchuk popped his eyebrows and faced me. Then he shook his head with a deep breath, and the rest of us followed.

Far above the murmuring creek, the ground rose amid countless low bushes and shrubs that seemed like the perfect spot for an enemy waiting to ambush us, and the hill kept going beyond where we could see. There was a narrow footpath with low roots on both sides creping with bright green vines covered in thorns that clung to our trousers such that we had to rip our way through, dragging several feet of vine each of us as we went. We kept along that path even after it disappeared, and we found ourselves forging our own route through foliage that left everything below our knees invisible.

"GODS!" Faren shrieked. Barely visible beneath the leaves, a thick brown snake vanished in the blink of an eye. Faren stood with his hand over his heart, trying to steady his breath.

Borel laughed at him and kept moving.

We came to a massive wall of rock covered in ferns that blocked us from going any further. The chasm continued below us, cut right through the rock like a tunnel, but there was no getting around that way.

So, Borel led us up the hill along the wall of rock. Ales was the first to ask, "do you even know where you're going, man?"

Borel ignored him, and we followed our fearless leader up the hill until the wall of rock could no longer be seen, but the trees all seemed to blend into one on all sides. Something stirred in a nearby bush, sending a jolt through my nerves. We kept walking. At some point, we reached the top of the hill, but there was no visibility. We could barely make out anything on the hill we'd come up for the thick trees all around. Borel looked around and tried to look like he was in charge of something, but the cracks in his facade were apparent.

Up above, I heard that bird make the call I'd heard once before when Ahmi showed me that cat. In a high branch, a giant spotted-yellow beast stretched out its paws and licked its lips as it stared down at us. I pointed up at the creature. "Stay together."

One of the twins drew his bow, but by the time he'd pointed his arrow up, the cat was gone.

Faren shrugged. "You think maybe we should go back to the chasm we were supposed to stay in?"

Jame shot him a glare, "hush, man."

Borel shrugged. "I'm trying to find a better vantage point. Just give me a minute."

Geraln raised a hand to speak, but Borel held up his own as if to block his words. "Wait… listen."

Rock moved to speak, but Jezi raised a finger to his lips, and we all listened. Above the rustling of leaves, chirps, whistles, and clicks down below, up above, to the left, to the right, all around us, all at once. Borel pointed at the twins, but spoke to all of us. "She said there's a waterfall."

We all tuned in hoping for the sound of water crashing into a pool below, but I couldn't discern anything over the cacophony of the jungle. Malchuk lifted a finger and pointed down the hill in a different direction from the route we'd come up. "Maybe this way? I'm not sure."

Rock shrugged. "We will checking the it out."

In a far tree, a huge big giant massive snake with a diamond pattern on its back flitted it's tongue, then slithered down to the ground towards us, then disappeared beneath a thick bush.

We set off down the slope using every tree and branch we could find as the decline grew steep, each of us on the lookout for anything like a bright yellow vine or an enemy war party waiting in ambush or a tribe of wild vita'o salivating over the chance to feast upon a group of men who had no idea where we were or where we were going. We kept at it until the hill grew too steep, but dropped off as though the ground had been cut to a sharp drop some twenty feet before the thick canopy of trees below cut off all further visibility. Trying to ascend the hill back was impossible, as we'd collapsed packs of mud behind us and broken more than our share of wet, rotted branches.

We ended up trying to climb back up a different way. We managed to go back up some until the thicket grew so forbidding as to deny us leverage to hack our way through. Once again our captain pointed off to one side and led us in a different direction, only to nearly walk into a black, hairy spider the size of his head suspended in midair.

We managed to reach an open grove atop a ridge of sorts with trees so dense in all directions that we couldn't quite be sure if the ground sloped up or down. Twenty feet of visibility would have been nice. Ales crossed his arms and frowned at our dear captain. "We're lost."

"No we're not," I assured him. "Look. That way is west. We've been going mostly southwest. The tower is that way, Carthia is down that way. If we go through here, we should be able to trace our way back to the chasm…"

Geraln shrugged and started moving; Gino went with him. "Alright, then."

But Borel didn't move. Instead he looked around as if the thick trees offered some sense of direction. "No. Wait. We went up along that rock wall, then we went down, then came back up through here. We go this way."

Jame and the twins started to follow him.

I spoke up. "We go that way, we'll end up in mewi'ishi territory."

Borel turned around and crossed his arms. "You from here, man?"

"No…"

"You been in this part of the woods?"

"No…"

"You pissed on this tree when you were ten?"

Half the men giggled at that remark. Borel shook his head with a smile, then turned and made to keep walking. Northstar, Rock, and Jezi filed behind him, when I spoke again. "You're completely lost, and you're going to get us all killed."

Geraln stepped close to me, "listen, man. I've known this kid my whole life, and he's never gotten lost. Never once. Places deep in the mountains we've never been before, he always knows the way home. If he says it's this way, it's this way."

With that, Ales and Faren came to stand beside me, but Jezi spoke up from beside Borel. "This isn't the mountains you are used to."

Borel shook his head. "You don't know shit. Let's go."

"It's this way," I insisted. 

At that, Borel turned back and stepped up with his hands at his side, lifting his meaty chin at each of us as he looked around. "As your captain, I order you all to come this way!"

Ales answered him. "We followed your orders out of the chasm, and you got us lost."

Faren echoed him, "if we'd listened to our scout, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Ales finished, "and now you're too much of a bloody chickenshit to admit you're lost."

Borel stepped up to him, looked down, and sneered. "The fuck did you call me?"

I stepped up close and stood right beside Ales. "He called you a chickenshit, and I second that."

At that, Jame stepped up beside Borel while the others waited behind them. Faren, Geraln, and Gino stood behind me and Ales, and Malchuk stuck his hand between us. "Quiet, all of you! This bickering is going to get us all killed! We have to make a decision…"

Borel smirked. "I already made my decision. Let's go."

With that, he turned and walked off along the ridge. The rest of the men filed behind him. Malchuk looked at me and pursed his lips. "Right or wrong, it'll be safer if we stick together."

A weird screech like a whistle hissed at us from a tree branch about twenty yards out. I looked, and a small furry animal with eyes as blue as the sky in Heralia bared sharp fangs at us, digging claws into the wood. We hadn't made it ten feet, and it jumped to the next tree and screeched at us again. 

Several branches rustled above us, and a few more appeared, screaming at us with that same high, irritating sound that grated against my skull. Each of them yawned their jaws open, saliva dripped from their fangs, and yet more appeared. Borel covered his ears with his hands and looked around at us with an irritated look. I couldn't help but try and cover my ears as well, but that proved futile. 

And then, we were surrounded. Hundreds of the creatures on all sides, above us, low in the trees, each no larger than a small pig, and all of them giving off that horrible screech in unison.

Borel looked around, but they were everywhere. He shouted, "Jezi, what the hell are those?"

Jezi shrugged, himself trying to look in all directions at once and shouted back, "I don't know."

Whatever they were, they inched their way closer and closer on all sides. Malchuk squinted through the horrid noise and raised his bow, but wherever he pointed his arrow, all of them in that area scattered and hid behind the trees while the rest closed in further, all the while screeching as one massive chorus of fanged creatures. Together they made a dome of sound that irritated my brain, and I could scarcely tell up from down. I drew back my bow as well, but everywhere I turned they shied away.

"Gods!" Ales cried, swiping his cutlass at a nearby bush. One of the creatures had reached out its claws at him, only to slink away out of reach of his weapon and scream at him. Faren trained his arrow at the beast, and it melted into the trees. Meanwhile, several of them had climbed the high canopy and perched directly above us, shifting their feet back and forth as if gauging the drop as they brandished their fangs.

Borel's eyes were wide. He swung his bow around in all directions, but the creatures grew less and less afraid of him, inching closer to us, little by little. That high-pitched screech continued to blast my ears. Northstar pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to shake it off.

Suddenly, the all disappeared and the forest fell quiet. One of them dropped to the ground with an arrow in its side. 

By the time I could shake my mind free, Marya was before us with her bow down, reaching behind her for a second arrow. The creature on the ground twitched lightly. Ace leaned his head down, picked it up, and handed it to her. She then ripped the arrow out and tossed the creature to the side. Right away, that same giant, yellow-spotted cat leaped down from a tree branch and snatched it up.

Rock stuck his hand out to the beast. "Psswswst."

Geraln slapped his hand, "are you mad?"

The giant cat ignored him and disappeared into the forest with the creature in its massive jaws. Borel lifted his big chin to our scout. "What were those things?"

"Mokeso." She then looked around at each of us, including myself, and scowled. "Today was a test. You failed."