Momo

“Momo!”

Momo groans and swats at the hand shaking her shoulder. The roots of the tree made a lousy pillow to nap on, and it took hours to nod off only to be woken what feels like an hour later.

“Momo, they are almost here, what do you want us to do?”

Nervousness winds through Allard’s words even though he sounds like he is trying to be confident. Momo lays still for another minute before sitting up and resting her back against the trunk with another groan. “Have they done anything aggressive? Are they moving differently?”

Allard scratches the fine stubble on his jaw. “Differently how?”

“Speeding up, raising weapons, dancing? Maybe slowing down and suddenly faltering, like a wolf faking an injury to get you to come closer?”

“No, nothing like that. They look exhausted. I woke up a bit ago when Norag got here and followed him up. Been watching with him as they get closer. There looks to be between forty and fifty, I can’t tell if some of the gaps are empty spaces or if there are smaller forms in there. They are traveling pretty closely together. I recognize seven guards besides the head guard around the edges of the group, plus one of the mages that used to clean the water tucked at the very center.”

He checks to make sure she hasn’t fallen asleep, but she waves him on with her eyes still closed. “The guards don’t have weapons out, but that could be because they are worried about hurting themselves if they are half as tired as I was when I made it here. I can’t say with certainty, but they look like a group of people fleeing, not attacking.”

“That’s good information,” Momo replies, opening her eyes. “I don’t think we need to be too defensive, but I’m not going to let them all inside the walls. If they ask nicely to come in, they can stay in the quarantine area and I’ll close them in. I cut an entry way through the outer wall before closing off this side of the enclosure. It won't be even without digging up the pats below the cut, I'll have to grow the new section just in front of the old.”

“I don't think that's something to worry about." Allard says with a smile. "The wall not being completely straight isn't really an issue."

"Farrel will probably want to come inside to talk. He’s harmless, but you should still be armed.”

Momo chuckles as Allard visibly starts. She feels a little guilty for not letting him know that Vae was sitting propped up on the side of the trunk closest to the enclosure. There was a chance he knew since he woke up earlier than she did, but it seems like he still has a way to go with his observation skills. I shouldn’t be too harsh, she thinks wryly. I only knew Vae was there because he recently oiled his leather armor and I can smell it.

“We’ll have you right there to stab him if needed,” she chirps at the older elf, channeling her deeply buried inner perkiness. “Isn’t that right, Allard?”

He sighs in response and hands her a thick branch. “Here. It’s not your board, but this fell out of the canopy while I was up there. I think the Sprites might have gotten the tree to let it go. It seems nice and sturdy.”

Vae reaches past her and takes it from him. Momo can see the glint of metal in the moonlight before she hears scraping coming from the leafy branch. She ignores him and pushes herself upright. “Well, let’s go stand near the front wall and see what these people want, shall we?”

image [https://i.imgur.com/js4cqrN.png]

What they want is sanctuary, which surprises nobody present. Tired and weary voices thank her profusely when she closes the outer wall, and through the gaps, Momo can see the majority of the group collapsing onto the ground wherever there is a space. Minutes tick by before anyone attempts to speak to them, and with each second Momo can see Allard winding tighter and tighter. He’s getting better but that boy does not like waiting for things to happen. She scrunches her nose, looking thoughtfully at the younger man. Boy? Man? Geriatric Individual? Now I really do want to know how old he is. Grandpa Allard, heh.

When a weary male voice finally calls to them through the living wall, Allard nearly jumps into the air. “Could I please come in to speak to whoever is in charge?”

“That’s the head guard, Farrel,” Allard whispers into her ear, already getting his nerves back under control.

“You’re the boss here, remember,” she responds with a good-humored eye roll. “Why don’t you tell him it’s fine? Might as well get this going.”

Vae shifts to Momo’s other side, placing her in between them, but she shakes her head slightly and leans toward Allard. The warrior rearranges himself with a scowl while Allard replies to the request in the affirmative. A green sprite lands on his shoulder and looks to Momo for permission before calling to one of their brethren to unwind some of the vines. A space is swiftly created that the man can squeeze through. This is why we need a proper gate, I can’t remove any of this wall without chopping it down. Funny how the sprites seem to be able to manipulate it, though.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The man who staggers out in front of them reminds Momo of how Allard looked when he first arrived. Clothes are carefully tended to but worn through in areas and emitting the cloying odor of sweat and skin that hadn’t seen a bath in far too long. Skin hangs loosely across prominent joints, and his hair looks both oily and so damaged that she wonders if hair can be both greasy and brittle at the same time. This man, though, has been living in that town for longer. Someone has been getting a few extra scraps of food a day, she thinks.

“You look familiar,” the man says as he studies Allard. Exhaustion leaks from every word, but his eyes are alert. “Wait, you are that man that left to go look for supplies a few months back. You were the first person permitted to do so. I should have known the road things were beginning to go down when you were allowed to leave.”

“I was surprised that I was allowed to go too, after all that talk of keeping the gates closed for safety. I figured that the mayor was just desperate to get ahold of any supplies he could but didn’t want to risk his guards. But now here you are, the head guard sent out despite the danger.” Allard looks composed, so Momo concentrates fully on the human guard.

“Sent out, yes, but not on a mission. Can we sit? I feel like my legs are going to give out and I think I’ll need any energy I can build up soon.”

Allard quickly agrees and everyone but Vae sits down, the guard all but falling before landing in the sparsely grassed dirt.

“Why did you come here?” Allard asks.

Farrel looks at him steadily, searching for something, or so it seems to Momo. Whatever it is he must find it, because he starts talking. “Things got worse after you left. Without trade caravans moving through to supplement the farms, which were no longer growing anything, food was almost non-existent. The citizens were gnawing on expired jerky and whatever they had left of their end-of-harvest rations from Spring. People were sick all the time, and the weakest couldn’t take it and started dying off.”

He pauses, his eyes dropping down to his hands. “Then the mayor put out an order to the guard to help non-residents get out of the gates without being attacked. All the refugees flooding the town were putting too much of a strain on resources, and they would have an easier time outside than they would inside the walls.”

“They kicked out sick, dying people?” Allard asks angrily.

Momo watches the guard carefully. Nothing he has said thus far has been a surprise. The villagers that returned recently said similar things, but they didn’t have the motives behind the decisions. Perhaps some have been questioning it since getting food in their bellies, but they weren’t speaking their thoughts aloud.

“Everyone was sick and dying. Almost everyone. And the Mayor was so torn up about it as he explained it to everyone. There was nothing we could do but obey.” He clears his throat. “After the last group left, out the North Gate to head toward Greenston, things didn’t get better. There were less than a hundred people left, but we still had the same amount of water and food. Those who had the energy to do so started talking, and the talk started to get angry. My guard and I did the best we could, but some of them were starting to ask questions as well.”

“You were kicked out, weren’t you?” Momo asks as gently as she can. It is hard to be sympathetic to the person who enforced unjust orders. But I wasn’t there.

“Yes.” He answers simply.

“Did you riot?” This from Vae, standing to the side with his arms crossed.

“Nobody had the energy to riot,” Farrel responds with a shrug. “But I don’t think the Mayor felt confident in that knowledge. Half the town gathered in the central square and refused to leave after water rations were handed out. They started chanting, asking for answers. And then the Mayor showed up. Only the mages and his bodyguards had seen him for a month. He was dirty, but it was obviously staged. You could see the smears of dirt on his cheeks. Cheeks that weren’t half as hollowed as the people he was supposed to be taking care of.”

He is growing angry, his hands shaking visibly as he clenches them on his lap. Or maybe his blood sugar is so tanked that he can’t control the shaking. Momo isn’t sure, but she can see that he is genuinely distraught. “We can wait to-”

She is interrupted by a frightened yell from inside the enclosure. She shoots to her feet and runs to look through the gap between two vines, but she can’t see anything beyond the bodies pressing against the sides. The single frightened voice is joined by others, crying and screaming in terror.

“What’s happening in there?” Farrel calls out from farther along the wall, but nobody answers.

“Momo! Momo!” A tinny voice calls out next to her ear. “There is a person in there trying to bite people!”

“Shit,” Momo swears, backing away from the wall. “Can you give me an opening? We need to get people out of there.”

“We can’t bend the tall hard plant-”

“That’s fine!” She interrupts quickly. “Move the vines and we’ll cut the bamboo down!”

A large patch as wide as Momo can stretch her arms begins to unravel, revealing the rigid bamboo beneath. Vae steps forward without being asked and raises his broadsword.

“Wait, Vae! There are people on the other side!” She rushes forward to stop him from chopping straight through. “Use your short sword, one notch and the rest of us will yank them down.”

They work quickly, and soon there is a space large enough for a body to pass. The mage and three of the remaining guards immediately lurch through. The mage turns back, pointing at the opening. “Too many of them were bitten, close it back up!”

Momo ignores him, calling instead to the people just inside. “Come through quickly, no pushing, watch your step. Everything will be alright. Quickly now!”

She supports each person, looking them over as she hands them off to Allard to lead out of the way. One with a dark spot on their sleeve she passes to Vae, who checks to make sure they haven’t been bitten before passing them to the rest of the group. When the trickle stops, Vae pushes through with a whispered “They already know I can fight.”

Momo blinks, then nods to his back as he heads toward the four bloody figures on the ground and the two feasting biters. He raises the short sword still in his hand and cleaves through the two biters' skulls in one horizontal swipe. Then he stabs down quickly through the heads of the four partially eaten. She wonders if it is an act of mercy for the almost dead, or preventative for a future biter.

As soon as she can see he is safe, she turns back to face the group. Their neat little quarantine is ruined, but only six people have been lost. This whole thing stinks, she thinks as she frowns at the three guards and the mage standing apart from the rest of the newest refugees. What happened in there?