After I was done with my duties for the day, I spent the entire night laying in bed staring at the bottom of the bunk above me. I couldn’t sleep, no medication could help me as my mind raced through the possibilities of what I’d see down there. I was kept awake with a feeling of despair and an admittedly morbid excitement. Questions like: ‘Isn’t it impossible for a large demographic of mages to increase in such a small amount of time?’,’ What classified the planet as too violent to the point we had to leave if they were so primitive?’ rattled through my mind. I was stuck in a trance with my thoughts, I was pulled out of bed by two infantrymen at 0320 and dragged to the hangar. It was empty, most of the ships that would have been here must have been sent on missions. Near the launch pod deployment depot was Karian and several other officers stood there to meet me with a plastic folding table in front of them holding swords, knives, some sort of leather-like armor, and a long-range radio.
The Lieutenant colonel at the table scowled at me for my delay before going over our equipment: “First and foremost, if you look at the magazines to your sidearms you’ll notice that the rounds have a shell casing instead of a solid propellant. This was done to allow you to hand load your rounds after expending them on the planet surface, however, you will most likely only have access to black powder which will foul up the rifling. Cleaning supplies were given with your rations, both of which are already on the pod itself. Though the most important is the padded armor that was made for this mission. It’s made out of flax and kevlar, it can protect you against slashing and stabbing attacks, as well as ballistics, but don’t rely on it too heavily. I strongly recommend getting your hands on chainmail or plate armor when you reach whatever passes for civilization down there. You also have your swords and knives, its spring steel with rune hardened obsidian. A lot of strings were pulled to get these made, Do, Not, Lose, These, they’re one of a kind and are probably one of the most effective swords on that planet. Otherwise you’ll be paying for it for the next 20 years. You have a radio to use between the two of you, and the drop pod has two travel packs in it. Before your departure, Colonel Jacobs will show you a handful of techniques to defend yourself with your swords, watch his footwork, and put it to memory.”
A half-elf took his place, his yellowed eyes focused on a hastily carted training dummy. He swung the sword as he took a wide stance, walking forward with an overhead strike, and several other guards and strikes, all of which were very fluid and quick. We barely were able to copy his stances and strikes before the ships returned to the hangar, signaling our departure. We loaded ourselves onto the drop pod and I looked at Karian, the look in her eyes when the door sealed shut behind us was of a prisoner on death row. I grabbed the travel pack and loaded the radio into it. I was going to ask her how she felt about the mission now that we’re in the pod. The deafening sound of the pod being loaded into a launch capsule cut me off. We braced ourselves against the wall of the pod, and after what felt like an eternity the temperature of the pod began to rise. Reentry was rocky, to say the least, lightning hit the side of the pod several times causing it to shake violently. The nav computer went out several times on the way down, before hitting the ground like a meteor. I opened the door, and Karian ran outside of the pod and began to dry heave. I looked around making sure no locals or predators were around, my pistol in hand. The air outside of the pod was cold and humid, I could faintly hear the sound of a guitar being played somewhere below our position. I grabbed a digestive tablet from our rations and gave it to Karian with some water.
We landed on the mountains as expected, I motioned for Karian to scrap the pod while I would go scout out the area. Surprisingly the landing wasn’t as damaging as I thought it’d be, there were plenty of cracks but nothing fell off. The area we landed in was rather flat and wide, I found a path that leads downhill, and after Karian grabbed the battery and nav computer she joined me near the path.
I asked her “Do you have a name ready?”
She responded with “I was thinking of using my actual last name. There’s no reason not to use our names, though yours is a bit of a mouthful.”
“It's not that big of a mouthful.”
She sounded out the syllables “Ae-Mi-li-us Qu-in-to-nus, 8 syllables all together it needs to be shortened.”
“ Lius and Quin are one syllable each, it's 6 altogether.”
We started to walk down the path, weapons drawn. “My last name is only 2 syllables by that logic, Kar-ian, even then your first and last name is still 3 syllables each, you need a shorter name.”
“You can pronounce my name easily, Aemilius.”
“Doesn’t mean they could pronounce it, our guide has a 2 syllable name, and we’re on a feudal planet. Literacy isn’t common on feudal worlds, therefore you need to shorten it.”
“I’ll come up with one later, we’re getting closer to the guitar.”
I peered around a corner and found the source of the music. It was a man that looked like our guide, however, his skin was a bit bluer than the picture I was shown. As he quickly strummed on his guitar I looked at the camp he set up. A campfire that oddly didn’t emit any smoke, cooking some sort of meat on a spit above it. The man seems to be playing for a crowd of one: a cobalt blue fox pup. Karian started to climb the rocks around this area to get a better angle on our ‘guide’. She signaled to me after getting to a better vantage point, whether or not he noticed her I couldn’t tell. She signaled for me to move and I walked around the circumference of his camp and made myself known by clearing my throat. The man dropped the guitar, and his skin turned back to the ‘normal’ olive color.
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He looked unintimidated as he sat there with his hands in the air as he asked me in a local tongue “You’re the tourist?”
I asked him “Before I answer that, who and what are you?”
He only chuckled “I am Titus, and what I am is the guide that was assigned to you by ‘High command’. Though I’m called ‘Emissary-born’ by most of the locals.” He only seemed to relax more after saying that.
“If you’ll stop pointing that weapon at me, we can get started on your mission, and more importantly; breakfast.”
I gave him a look of disbelief before I spoke, while not letting my new found hunger betray me.
“Make 3 plates of that roast, any sudden moves, or any spell I will shoot.”
“I have no doubt you will, and I suppose you want me to eat first?”
I nodded and he only laughed as he cut 4 pieces of meat from the roast, the extra went to the blue fox pup. I gestured for Karian to come over and she made her way over cautiously with her pistol drawn. She sat down away from us as ‘Titus’ took the first bite, and after swallowing fell backward breathing heavily and made a choking sound, before falling silent. The fox pup stopped and spit out the meat in its mouth before biting at his hand. Karian and I silently panicked. Karian checked his pulse and tried to perform CPR while I went to estimate how long it’d take to reach the bottom of the mountain.
I called to Karian “we could probably reach the bottom by the end of the day. How is he?”
She responded, “He still has a pulse, but he’s not breathing.”
After saying that Titus sprung back to life laughing, he stopped when he saw the tired and annoyed look on our faces.
“I’m sorry about that, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
I translated for Karian and she rolled her eyes resisting the urge to chew him out for it.
I grabbed one of the rations in my pack and shared it with Karian while Titus and the pup ate the meat.
I asked him “First off, why is that fox blue, I thought they were supposed to be orange, black, white, or grey.”
He held it up and it spat water in our general direction before saying “It's magic.”
“Uh-huh. Second, ‘Emissary-born’, Emissaries are a myth. How do you procreate with a myth?”
“I assure you sir, they’re not a myth, one even acts as an advisor to the tsar to the northwest.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’ll prove it to you when we get to the north, it's about a month’s journey from here.”
I looked at him skeptically “You have a month then.”
“Do you two want to make a wager?”
“What’re the terms?”
He smiled “500 gold, if I can’t prove it you two get 250 gold each. If I win both of you pay me 250 gold. By the time we get to the north you should have the money to pay up.”
I translated for Karian and I could see a greedy look in her eyes. She grabbed a book from her pack and flipped to a page before saying “Deal.”.
“Are you sure?”
She only showed me the page on the conversion rate between Scentific Soldi and gold by the ounce.
“Of course you’d write that down.”
“Are you going to say no to 6000 Soldi?”
“...No.”
“Then tell the man we accept.”
With a sigh I told Titus “My superior officer, and I accept this wager.”.
He nodded and wrote down the terms in a book he had with him.
He started to pack up all of his stuff “First things first before meeting the locals,you need magic or money. When we get to the bottom of the mountain, start hunting for wolves, and try to stay silent.”
I gave him a look of disbelief “Seriously?”
“Yes. Seriously, wolves will try to knock out a human rather than killing it. Their pelts go for good money, and they’re a general pest. Just watch out for any traps when hunting them.”
“Traps?”
“Yes, the wolves and to an extent foxes have a tendency to dig a hole, then cover it with leaves and branches, and lie in wait for a deer or another creature to fall in. Before you ask me ‘why?’ it's a way to make money dependably, and it allows you to blend in with the locals.”
He finished packing the camp and held the fox pup in his hand.
“How does that help me attain magic?”
He began to walk down the path “You’ll see, now let us get a move on, you don’t want to be up here when the sun goes down.”
I quickly translated for Karian and she had me ask Titus, “What’s up here after dark?” while we followed him.
He responded “A number of things; namely dragons and over-militaristic cat-men.”
Karian asked and I translated. “What makes bipedal cats any more dangerous than anyone else on this planet?”
His next words made my heart drop to my stomach. “They’re industrialized, and are about as technologically advanced as your order was before leaving this planet. As long as you don’t break curfew, or try to raid one of their caravans, you don’t need to worry about them. Speaking of which we should probably pick up the pace.”
And with that we all double timed it down the mountain.