Chapter 7

"How many coins do we have?" Gabriel asked.

Both were walking down the street heading toward the city's entrance sign. Gabriel was excited about the idea of wearing common clothes, so he picked the most outrageous ones: a neon green shirt, tight orange neon knee-length shorts with wide calves resembling a dress hem, and a pair of beige sneakers. He was the most colorful person on the street, perhaps in the entire city. Naomi walked alongside him, counting the coins in her leather pouch. She was more modest in her clothing choice, perhaps to balance out her partner's look: a faded red t-shirt, a pale blue jacket, and dark blue sneakers.

"Seventy-four," she replied after checking a second time.

"That should last us for a good while."

Gabriel made a point of swinging his legs as he walked to make his pants flap dramatically. By the look on his face, he was really enjoying it.

"Naomi!" Gabriel exclaimed excitedly. "This outfit with a trench coat would be one of the best things in the world!"

"No. No, it wouldn't."

"You don't know anything about fashion," Gabriel said, making sure to swing his legs even more as he walked. He turned to his partner. "I guarantee the Ancients would agree with me. They understood these things; after all, they created the trench coat."

"They almost wiped themselves out and destroyed the planet in a nuclear war over petty reasons," Naomi shot back.

"Okay, they understood some things."

Naomi exhaled with amusement. Gabriel's strange obsession with trench coats was always funny, even though he'd never worn one. The two walked side by side with their backpacks. Naomi carried a rolled-up sleeping mat tied with string on her back, where she hid her katana and combat knives. Gabriel, on the other hand, carried just a regular bag; the good thing about using a standard Raven's arsenal was its practicality.

Walking through the streets without drawing attention was a completely new experience for Naomi. Of course, not entirely, due to Gabriel's extreme clothing choices, but still, not receiving intense or fearful stares was a relief.

"Jonas said we were going with the same caravan as last time, right?" Gabriel asked, just to clarify. When Naomi nodded in agreement, he continued. "It must be Nasor!"

"I hope they're not still angry with you."

Gabriel gave a nervous, strained smile, recalling how he had startled everyone by shooting some rounds into the air. At the time, he had tried to explain that he did it only to scare off a few bandits, but that didn't change the way he was treated for the rest of the journey.

"No!" Gabriel said optimistically. "I doubt they've held a grudge. I hope."

The rest of the journey passed without incident, except for the fact that now people didn't try to distance themselves from them because they were Ravens, which cost them an extra fifteen minutes compared to the usual ten. Then, they arrived.

The city's entrance gate was lit up, and in neon lights, it read: Pit 34. A crowd of people gathered around the area, waiting for the start of the caravan's pilgrimage to the next city. Naomi counted fifteen ox-drawn carts; she remembered there being more. The carts were already lined up in a single file, with two bulls in front of each. You could see the muscles tense in the animals as if they were eager to start the journey. People shouted to each other over the vehicles, and some children ran between the animals, checking to make sure they were properly secured.

Gabriel scanned the caravan for Nasor and found him on the first cart, talking to a female Raven. As he got closer, he could distinguish Strazza and two others he didn't recognize; they must have arrived during his absence. Seeing Strazza was a surprise, and it made Gabriel feel a little odd. Strazza was responsible for maintaining the Nests' vehicles, so if she herself was leaving, it meant she needed something that she couldn't trust a layperson to bring.

Two children suddenly started arguing near one of the animals, the younger one, a boy, claiming the knot wasn't tied properly, while the older girl swore up and down that nothing was wrong. It took the intervention of an adult to prevent them from fighting, which earned laughs from everyone around them.

The Ravens moved a little away from Nasor to check how the preparations were going, stopping for a moment at the newly arrived duo, then focusing back on the inspection. Gabriel, just like the other two, knew well the reason they shouldn't acknowledge them. Perhaps they, or even he, didn't really know who they were, but it was impossible that Naomi wasn't known. This appearance of ignorance came from the training days, when a Raven wearing something other than their uniform meant they were on a mission that required discretion.

Strazza passed within two steps of the disguised duo without showing the slightest interest, disappearing at the end of the caravan.

"So, you made it!" said a warm voice.

Nasor approached them, giving hearty pats on Naomi's shoulders, then stopped for long seconds to analyze Gabriel's style. The old caravan leader hadn't aged a day in the past year—saying he was the same would be a lie, though, as the man had lost quite a bit of weight.

"It's been a while!" Gabriel responded enthusiastically. "Were you waiting for us?"

"Well..." Nasor replied, stepping closer to whisper the rest. "A request from the leader of a Nest is hard to refuse."

Seeing the duo startled by the mention of being Ravens, the man just laughed, patting both of their shoulders. He then added:

"Don't worry, I won't say a thing. Like I just said, it was a request from your leader, so it's better he owes me than I owe him."

"Still meticulous as ever," Gabriel said with a sly smile. "Well, since your guests of honor have arrived, the caravan can depart."

"And you're still as witty as ever," Nasor replied, with the same smile as Gabriel. "Just try not to shoot into the air this time; that wasn't very smart last time."

"I'll do my best!" Gabriel said, feeling a little embarrassed as he recalled the incident.