Chapter 4
image [https://i.imgur.com/VNZ6G6C.png]
April 5th, 1964
Alpine Mountains
0545
“Hey, uh… I’m going to come back.”
It was a strange thing to say given the situation. He could see ahead, but he could not move no matter how hard he wanted to as the fog covered everything around him and he couldn’t even see his mother’s face as she nodded slowly.
Then, in a raspy whisper, she said “Do some good wherever they send you, alright?”
It was a strange thing to say as he couldn’t see her clearly and she seemed to not mind the thick fog at all, nor did she comment on the terrible sound of metal and artillery clanging away nearby.
“Ma?” he tried, though he heard himself and he did not sound nearly as concerned about the surroundings as the fog began to rapidly be blown away, his mother strangely being taken away with it as she spoke.
“Try to do some good, wherever they send you. That’s what I ask of you.”
It was a strange thing to ask as he was surrounded by mangled corpses of men he’d helped kill.
At the echo of his mother’s final words to him, Dennis Orville felt his eyes shoot open and he successfully contained the scream as it rose out of his throat. Above him were still various stars in the early morning light of the sky above, all so familiar to the skies back home. He ignored the natural beauty and rapidly brought his arm up to glance at his watch. Noting the early hour pointed to by the tritium hands, and that he was woken up by distant echoes in the mountains that reminded him of the familiar artillery now more than distant thunderstorms. Still, they were different enough to warrant an increase in alertness.
He sat up, seeing that Captain Rhodes was already listening in on the radio next to Matthew Alexander, his expression stern as he wrote in their notebook while eyeing the peaks to the horizon. Dennis only saw the slight strobe-light flash of the artillery rounds’ impact a while before he heard the distant explosion.
It had been a small outpost with various dragons and their riders still inside. They’d observed it for a few days now, counting how many dragons came and went. It seemed as though the number had become enough for a fire mission while he slept.
Sean was up as well, his scoped M1903 aimed at the distant peaks as he lay on the ground as still as the various mossy rocks around them.
The others were also groggily beginning to stir in their sleep, some sitting up like him, others remained laid back, though he sensed them reaching for their rifles, removing their helmets from their faces, staring around. Alert. Awake.
Dennis saw his captain grimace, then shut the notebook with a huff after sharply drawing a line across the page.
At his inquisitive glance, Rhodes only moved his free hand to his ear. Dennis heard a second echo of distant eruptions, not even bothering to look for their impact site as his captain gave a few brief signals.
What the hell?
Then Rhodes stood up and motioned for those awake to do the same.
We’re heading back?
At the third round of explosions in the distance, Dennis swallowed.
Road into the Alpine Mountains
0600
To the credit of the “Lupus”, Isaac could see they were experienced scouts.
The pair of wolf-human-hybrid guides had been quiet. Quieter than the Marines they were giving directions to as they moved up the narrow mountain paths. Not that anyone was being particularly loud, of course. The most he’d heard on their way up had been the occasional shifting of rocks and pebbles above them as the local fauna scurried away, or the movement in the brush as chirping birds that flew just out of sight landed or took off from them, and the occasional wind singing as it passed through the peaks. Even the distant artillery was now silent, and the fact they were at war and in enemy territory felt almost like a distant memory.
Isaac always made sure to remind himself this wasn’t a school outing by glancing at the M14 battle rifle slung on his back.
Instead of sticking to the southern course the majority of scouts had been taking a week prior, this apparently eastern course was much less traveled. “Apparently" eastern due to the questions about the stars in their similarity to Earth’s constellations, but he kept that in the back of his mind. He could see the various plants and undisturbed stones as they marched up the rocky “road”. He’d snapped a picture or two of the marching Marines, M14s on slings and M60s over their shoulders like a cartoon of an ape carrying a log of wood.
It’d been a week, and finally, he saw the wolf girl Luna wave at them excitedly.
The clearing wasn’t immediately apparent, but as he followed others and stepped over a ledge, the girl named Luna had given them a toothy grin and motioned with her hand like some showman.
He was up along the others, going prone over the top of the ledge, watching the curious path below them. It was as if a massive worm had dug its way through the mountain, creating a tube-like path through the mountain as it headed downwards, flanked on both sides by walls and the trees that clung to them. It was no more than ten feet down at an incline that was close to 90 degrees before it curved, then maybe twenty feet to the opposite wall.
The girl had whispered with an air of quiet satisfaction “Haud facilem hanc viam invenias, si eam sis ignarus!”
Frank whispered something to Cooper who gave a signal for the Marines to get to work. Isaac sighed as she was right next to him, but he couldn’t understand a word of her fast-spoken Latin. Milo didn’t seem to care at all, eyeing her a bit much, so he distracted himself by photographing the path below. Then he snapped a photo of the Marines that were carefully setting up some rope to climb down. Then, as fast as he could, he snapped one of Luna and Alan as the two wolf demi-humans hopped down to the road, sliding down the side with ease.
They’d been there for a short while when the silence was broken by one of their guides.
“Cito move! Prope sunt!” Alan suddenly said while Luna suddenly raised her ears and crouched down.
“Frank, what’d he say?” Cooper called as he checked one of the ropes.
“He said there’s someone near, sir. Coming up the path.”
Luna yelled back “In fortuna sumus! Multas plaustra audio!”
Frank said “Check that. Multiple people coming up the path. She says she hears a lot of them coming, sir. Horses and carriages.”
That had gotten everyone moving a little faster as Cooper shouted a new order.
“Get those trees cut down!”
***
She never did find the travel aspect enjoyable. In theory, it should have been the easiest part of a journey on a chariot with healthy horses. All she had to do was sit in place, let the driver do his job, and hope he didn’t lead the cart off a cliff. In theory.
The uncomfortable chains were impossible to get used to, the warmth of her sisters waned as the mountains felt ever colder and the road ever more unsteady as they went up the mountain. A constant rocking from side to side with almost violent jumps as the cart went over a particularly large rock caused her body to ache. It would have made her nauseous had she not had the bare minimum to eat.
Their fellow brothers in chains sat across from them on the small cart, their multiple tails tied down were an odd curiosity compared to her and her sisters’ singular tails that needed no tying down. Other than that, the three men appeared much like them. But they still couldn’t quite understand each other’s language. No opportunity to gain their knowledge just yet.
“Ah, Talia? Pyeon-?” one of them, the blonde one, asked politely.
She only nodded as Sasio shook her head, and Aurelia snuggled closer to her.
The other fox men chortled.
What she heard, however, faint as it may have been, did spike some curiosity.
“Scouts came back, sir. There are some trees on the road.”
“Cut?”
“Not sure, sir. Seems like they may have fallen. They wish to know what to do next.”
The man moved out of earshot on his horse, but the fact they did not stop told her of the decision. Then another thought occurred.
Is someone after us?
***
Lieutenant John Cooper had placed a dried stick on the crude dirt drawing of the area they occupied.
He had said “Alright, here’s how we handle this, we already know they’ve got some slave carts coming down this road. Soon. Our wolf friends will help us out with the talking. Once their leader is out in the open, we hit ‘em from the sides and front. Frank, make sure they don’t misunderstand. It’ll be a basic L-shaped ambush. Aranov, your M60s over on the short leg, by the brush up ahead.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Rest of us, long leg from up here on the ridge. We want the civilians alive, understood? Watch your fire.”
“Yes, sir.” the rest replied as Aranov moved down the ridge, M60 on his back, and Frank began to explain something to the wolf girl, arms moving somewhat excitedly as Luna and Alan nodded along.
“Combat cams, keep your distance but I want ya’ll nearby.”
“Aye, sir.” Isaac and Milo both punctuated with a nod. US Marines liberating slaves would make for some great press, and maybe Sheena would see him on the papers. Assuming they got them out alive.
Isaac frowned at the thought that his parents might find out about his whereabouts through that, yet he pushed the thought aside. He’d be the one taking the photo, after all. All he had to do was keep his distance.
Frank finished his translation to Luna and Alan, and the pair nodded.
Milo grumbled an irritated “Think we can steal his language book, Hil?”
“Man, you want to flirt with the wolf girl?”
“Look at her, man, look at her!”
He already had. Perhaps more than most. But he was a devoted man, damn it! It would take a lot more than a pretty girl with a nice figure to get him to forget about Sheena. Though Milo seemed even more enticed by the girl’s sword skill, which he could partly understand as memories of a certain someone briefly came to the forefront.
Still, Isaac nodded and whispered, “Okay, okay, she’s easy on the eyes, but be real. She don’t want you, and she’d probably stick with her kind.”
“I don’t wanna hear that talk from you, mister yellow fev-”
Isaac replied by swatting Milo’s side.
“Get into position!” Cooper hissed.
Milo moved behind a group of piled-up rocks, several other guys moving next to him, everyone guessing it was good enough cover against arrow fire. He first checked his camera for roll, then his M14 for a chambered round, right where they could see down into the path. They only covered one side of the road, but as the L-shaped ambush dictated, that was really all that was necessary, especially with two M60 machine guns covering the front, and well over two dozen M14 battle rifles on the flanks.
Luna and Alan stood in the middle of them atop the ridge overlooking the mountain path, hands on their sheathed blades, and a look of confidence in their eyes as they took a moment to check the small wooden shields attached to their arms. They oozed confidence and in a way, even he could see it, excitement.
Nothing like the pounding on his chest as he kept his eyes on the scouts that were approaching ahead of the convoy again.
Hilaire felt his heartrate accelerate further as he could hear distant clopping and shifting stones and barking orders in an all too familiar tone. His adrenaline shot up suddenly, and he kept one hand on his Kodak and the other on his M14.
***
Tughrik felt it was supposed to be an easy job.
But the more he heard from his fellow tribesmen, the more he knew this was arguably more dangerous than any other of his missions. The Seljuk Tribe was not meant to be so directly involved. At least not usually. Yet here he was. The third one to inspect the special slaves in a line of fellow tribe members and ensure their safe travel through the Alpines.
He glanced behind him at the slaves.
Three curious fox girls from the Far East. The far, Far East. Their ability was unique and unmatched even among those in the Seljuk tribe, albeit completely lacking in the ability to communicate through the mind alone. He had heard legends, but these three were the sole examples he could say without a shadow of a doubt existed and whose abilities did not betray the legends.
And then there were the three fox-men. They had been the only other far-eastern slaves he could have acquired that were also fox-eared demi-humans. It would do them well if they could breed the ability further, useful as it was. Perhaps more useful than even the legends of ancient Gorgons and their ability to supposedly steal knowledge from their victims as they killed them.
He glanced at the middle girl who appeared the most developed of the three. Oh, the eldest certainly spoke for them and made the decisions where needed, but it was this “Talia” girl who was the most interesting. Her body alone would have fetched a high price, yet it was her curious ability that made her and her sisters all the more valuable.
And all the more dangerous.
He glanced once at the cart’s driver, then up at the peaks that surrounded the secret road they took. As far as he knew, the invaders were not here yet, but keeping an eye on their progress after they had taken the two connected valleys in the Alpine peaks was difficult. As the cart shook from left to right and the stones made the passage even more discomforting, he wondered just how far the men had gone.
They had not reached Vicenzo, that much he knew, but the fact that they had small parties moving around, too many for their limited number to track was a concern in it of itself. The areas around them, unknown to most, were only safe because of their secrecy. If someone pointed them out...
Tughrik shook the thought aside, as it was pointless to dwell on it now. If the enemy knew, they knew and there was little to do about it except warn the others and kill the beasts behind him.
He felt the scratching at his skull and trained his feline ears slightly as his mind welcomed the message from afar.
How are the slaves?
His mind carefully considered his response, then trained his ears again as it was sent out.
All alive, entering the gorges of our secret road. No trouble so far.
He glanced at the slaves again.
The girls were huddled closer together now. “Sisters”, supposedly, not that he cared or that they could prove it entirely. But if they got sick now...
He was in the middle of considering whether to get them some blankets or not when the carts ahead stopped and caused every cart in the convoy to pause in a similar fashion. It had been a brief startled wave of emotions that struck his mind. Then he heard them properly. It was too much to ignore, and far too sudden to simply freeze up.
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He stood up without a word and hopped ahead. The cart’s driver didn’t even know he was there so the man did not react, but could sense the guarded concern of soldiers as he moved to the front. Hiding from one person was child’s play. But from various prying eyes? No. Still, it wasn’t long before he saw the cause for concern ahead of the scouts and legate.
“Thank you! Your cooperation is greatly appreciated!” the wolf woman shouted, almost mocking them as she stood on the ridge, holding her shield defensively which betrayed the air of confidence she was trying to emulate.
The man in charge of the convoy, Legate Anthony, remained on his horse whilst his scouts formed a defensive line ahead of him. Shields raised, horses tense. Angrily, the older Legate shouted at her with the fury of a man in charge who knew there was something else going on.
Tughrik tried scanning for more enemies, but as he did, his heart only sank.
Legate Anthony shouted before he could say anything, “Dog! Are you behind this treachery?!”
“How about you put your weapons down? It will make this very easy.” the woman said mockingly. A fierce grin on her face.
Tughrik knew immediately they were in danger and moved quickly to Anthony. He did his best to ignore how he could feel many eyes on him despite the men around him being less interested in his presence.
“Legate, this is a dangerous situation!” he whispered in his mind, though the legate did not hear it as such.
“I can see that, spy.” the man growled quietly. Tughrik saw that the man was aware of the risk given where they had been stopped. They couldn’t turn around, nor could they flee to the flanks around them as there was nothing but steady peaks to their right and left. Tall peaks. Even a teenager could plan an ambush here.
“Hey! No whispering to each other! Eyes on us!” the taller wolf demi-human barked. He stood taller than the girl, and exhumed confidence as he called.
A confidence that needed to be put down in the mind of Legate Anthony.
“You are speaking to Imperial Soldiers of Iberia, sir! Show some respect!” Anthony barked back, though clearly more guarded now as his hand moved to his blade.
“Our allegiance is not to your empire. You will be shown what respect you give.” the demi-human replied.
At those dangerous words, men inside the carts began to shift in place, crossbows were loaded, he could tell. And he knew the demi-humans not too far away could also tell as they shifted into a more defensive stance. But it wasn’t the two members of the Lupus tribe that bothered him.
Tughrik quickly sent his message, “Tell your men to put their weapons down, Legate.”
“No.”
“Legate!” he hissed.
“You have your orders. I have mine.”
“Listen, no one has to get hurt!” the wolf man called then.
“Correct. Drop your arms and surrender to us. Help us get these trees out of the way and perhaps you will be allowed to live!” Legate Anthony bellowed.
“I was thinking we could take those slaves off your hands and send you on your way.”
“Not possible!”
“Legate!” Tughrik hissed.
He was ignored.
The wolf girl scoffed, then muttered so only he heard her, “I suppose you’re the man in charge then.”
Sensing the bloodlust, and knowing his mission, Tughrik sighed and ran back to the carts. He gripped the blade under his cloak tightly before thinking of a single message while his mind scrambled for a plan to escape. The surrounding walls were too much to climb out of and if the slaves remained alive...
Trouble...
***
He felt his heart threatening to punch its way out of his chest.
Isaac could see the men hopping out of the carts professionally, crossbows on hand, the tall Roman in charge shouted something he couldn’t quite understand, but he knew the man was trying to exert some power over the pair of demi-humans.
“El-tee...” someone hissed.
Cooper raised a hand, his eyes wide and unblinking as he eyed the scene below.
The girl, Luna stepped back so she was closer to the fallen trees, then nodded to Frank.
Frank turned to Cooper and nodded once more.
They had their chance. Like the previous attempt at talks, the Iberians chose the sword. Like the previous attempts at talk, they would be met with firearms.
“Alright, don’t say we didn’t try. Light ‘em up!” Cooper hissed, then shouted “Engage! Engage!”
At once, the entire Platoon made its presence known, standing up from cover where needed. Hilaire snapped a picture without looking, then quickly lifted his rifle alongside Milo and the others as rifles cracked and machine guns barked. Luna and Alan raised their small shields and winced as the Marines engaged the Iberian soldiers without another word. Their ears lowered at the thunderous cracks of rifles, but they slowly pulled back.
The first to die, as per NATO doctrine, was the commanding officer. The men below froze, watching that they were, if not outnumbered, certainly caught off guard as bullets cut down their Legate. No one moved for a breath as their men dropped in that opening volley. Then those not yet dead began to shoot their crossbows from behind the carts.
He heard the arrow hit wood. Luna shifted back slightly, an arrow caught in her wooden shield.
The Romans screamed something and more emerged from the carts, armed not with swords but with crossbows and short spears. Luna and Alan ducked down as the gunfire increased to suppress the Romans who didn’t seem to care about the hot lead heading at them at high velocity and lobbed arrows and spears at them in spite of the guns cutting them down.
“Watch your fire! Watch your fire, God damn it!” Cooper shouted as the M60 roared a long burst into the convoy, ripping apart wood, flesh, and bone alike.
The United States Marine Corps trained for scenarios like this. A basic ambush. They held the high ground and blocked the enemy’s route. They could sweep their targets from above, their M14s on semi-automatic, their marksman training kicking in. Like snapping fingers, the rifles cracked, and men fell dead an instant after. The M60 continued to roar in long bursts, not quite to kill, more to suppress what few tried to take cover behind the carts and stones, but there was nowhere to run. Stones shattered, wooden beams exploded, and those behind them not hit by the rounds themselves were maimed by the resulting shrapnel that the bullet impacts caused on the rare occasions they didn’t penetrate beyond it.
A few arrows shot upwards, but it was almost sad how useless it was. The gear they wore blended them alongside the brush and stones, and their position above them, with the sun still rising, made it all but impossible for the imperial crossbowmen to get a good reading on where they were shooting from, worse still as smoke from the firing M14s began to accumulate, and the bodies mount.
Isaac didn’t fire just yet, and instead kept an eye on the demihumans as they covered their ears tightly now with one arm, the other still holding the shield up to defend the machine gunners.
“Alright, on me! Let’s go! Go! Go!” Cooper yelled as he got up and began to slide down into the road once there seemed to be nothing left alive below.
As Isaac followed, he was quick to notice the lack of slaves.
***
Talia had frozen up the same way the cart had suddenly stopped. Something didn't feel right, but she could not place what it was.
Aurelia kept twisting and turning, listening around in confusion, whereas Sasio eyed the slightly opened tab of their cart. The other men were quiet, seemingly calm even now. She heard words being whispered again, the voice familiar.
“What is...?” Aurelia whispered, but Talia quickly quieted her down.
There was no need to bother those overseeing their transportation. No need at all. But as she heard words being argued in the distance, she could only feel her heart rate grow as unease probed at her nerves.
The blonde fox-eared man mumbled something and smiled. Even if she couldn’t quite understand it, it was as if he were trying to comfort them, but it had no effect as she could tell there were several people arguing in the distance.
Then the thunder started.
It was methodical, yet inhuman. Almost mechanical. She had seen trinkets in her time that moved with a certain rhythm that these thunderclaps mimicked too well.
Aurelia gripped onto her as any child would, and Sasio awkwardly stood slightly, her mouth open as she was about to call out, to ask what was happening. It was then that the cart’s sheet was thrown off entirely. She saw an unfamiliar member of the Seljuk tribe eyeing Sasio, then her, then Aurelia.
Sasio made a sound, about to ask a question when the Seljuk member lunged at her with a blade.
***
Isaac kept his M14 steady as he moved along the convoy. He heard a few occasional shots, mercy kills he presumed. No one was attacking them with spears or bows anymore. He saw one of the cart drivers simply raise his hands to a pair of his guys while he kept up with the others. He tried not to think about what sounded like begging as another shot rang out.
Up ahead, he heard something new.
It was an odd mix of screaming and hissing, both in English, the odd Latin mix, and something else.
“Put the knife down!” he suddenly heard Cooper screaming.
“Hey!!!” Frank this time. Incomprehensible screaming was intermixed with barking commands, and as Isaac and several others pushed up, they saw it.
A balding man with cat-like ears instead of human ones was screaming as other Marines surrounded him. He saw him dragging her away a girl with black hair and-
A fox?!
Hilaire froze up, seeing the man was holding a knife to the girl’s neck, the tip already partly inserted and breaking the skin. There were five others, chained together on the cart, a small girl screaming as an older girl held her back. There were three men, all frozen in place. All fox-eared.
Isaac forced himself to ignore their looks and lifted his rifle. The cat man noticed and screamed directly at him. It was an animalistic growl, angry and terrified as sharp teeth were exposed. But most shockingly it was the language the man spoke when he shouted directly at him.
English.
Throw your weapon away or she will die!!!
He winced, feeling the scratching at his skull and suddenly registering that the words did not match the demi-human's lip movements. As if something had punched its way inside him so he could hear not the spoken words but something else.
Internally, he strengthened his grip on the rifle.
While Frank continued trying to get through to the man in the local tongue, Cooper shouted “If anyone has a shot, take it now, damn it!”
The cat man had quick reflexes, however, twisting around along with the girl when a Marine got close.
Luna snuck ahead quickly, though. She moved between the Marines silently and swiftly, to the point that in less than a second her hand was already reaching for the other girls on the cart as she tried speaking. The cat screamed at her suddenly, as though he hadn’t seen her sneak up on the cart. It was a longer growl, riddled with a rage Hilaire recognized all too well from angry teachers to furious sergeants. A mix of indignation and anger as someone did not do as they’d been told.
But in doing so, he gave the opening needed.
There was no thinking involved. Isaac simply squeezed the trigger once and felt the recoil push against his shoulder as the M14 fired a lone 7.62x51mm NATO round. It trailed obediently into the man’s side, the slightest puff of red mist punched out the other end as the demi-human tightly gripped the girl once, turned to him, and dropped the knife before falling onto the floor of the cart in a heap.
Isaac winced.
Just like that. There wasn’t a deathly scream or dramatic pause as the demi-human had died. The humanoid being simply fell. Dead. The smallest girl in the cart screamed, while the hostage shakily gripped her wounded neck as she fell shakily to one knee.
Oh my God...
He swallowed once as he lowered the rifle. Cooper didn’t even congratulate him, running up to the civilians and injured girl.
“Corpsman!”
Isaac remained frozen in place, Milo rushing over.
“Man, you took the shot?”
Isaac nodded shakily.
“Good job! Come on!”
Isaac remained in place, waiting as the platoon’s corpsman already there finished inspecting her, saying “It’s not very deep, tell her she’ll be alright!”
The other girls had a look of anguish until Luna repeated the words in their language a lot slower, perhaps repeating it or adding some more soothing words. Then they both relaxed. The orange-haired girl clutching the smaller one eyed him then.
She gave him a lone smile.
1834
Hilaire kept his eyes on the strange people they’d rescued as they sat by the fire.
He ignored the flames and did his best to ignore the smoke.
Focus on them, Hilaire…
It was an odd thing. The kill had been to save innocent people, after all. But he felt his stomach churning even now. As the other guys were chatting like nothing happened, there was a ringing in his ears, an itch on the back of his neck, the feeling that something was very, very wrong. Yet it really wasn’t. Somehow, the fact that everything had gone right felt worse as the memory of the crumpled-up demi-human he’d killed flashed briefly in his mind. He couldn’t have gotten a more justified first kill.
So then why…
He forced the thoughts away yet again and focused on the Iberian prisoners. All two of them were tied and under guard not too far away and were about as cooperative as he expected. So, not at all. The civilians on the other hand were more of a mixed bag. They weren’t quite as cooperative as the Lupus had been, remaining relatively quiet, answering basic questions with affirmative nods or occasional shakes of the head. He thought that once their chains had been released and they’d been allowed to move around and stretch they’d be open books, but they were much more reserved.
Still, what he found fascinating was their complexion. The animal ears and tails were closer to foxes, but the men had multiple tails as opposed to the women, and the women… He had to think back to the occasional library readings with Sheena, where he’d heard of ancient fox spirits in Japanese mythology. A part of Japanese folklore, Yōkai, but primarily...
“Kitsune…” he mumbled aloud as he watched the girls sitting around their fire.
“Again with that?” Milo asked as he chewed on his dinner.
“I think that’s what they are is all.”
“They’re not ghosts or whatever.”
“No, but what if there’s some kind of correlation between old Japanese myths and them? Like maybe our worlds aren’t colliding for the first time.”
“If that were the case we’d be seeing a lot more of them around. Look at them, Hil. Look at them! You think the old Japs wouldn’t have had a dozen kids with the few that showed up, assuming you’re right?”
Ears and tails aside, the two older girls still looked like they could be supermodels. The dark-haired girl named Sasio certainly had the body of one, pronounced in spite of the warmer sheets they’d provided them, and the one with almost orange hair…
Well, to say she reminded him of his high school sweetheart wouldn’t be very far off.
“Fact they’re so pretty also means they’re probably really important. Or worth a lot or something.” Milo concluded.
As he watched the wolf girl Luna speak to them from a distance, and the weight of his camera reminding him further of being back home, he decided that perhaps now was a good time for him to try something new. At the very least it would distract from the memory of that first kill.
The crumpled-up corpse of the man was still fresh in his mind and refused to stay gone for too long.
***
The wolf girl named Luna was polite, soft-spoken, and patient. Though her toothy grin and broken shield intimidated the smaller Megu- no, Aurelia. Talia forced herself to use their new names, though there was no hiding they were from the far, far East.
The wolf girl’s grin lessened slightly as the smaller girl clung to Sasio’s side a little tighter.
“I apologize if I scare her, but you truly need not fear. These men have been quite helpful.”
Sasio, through her bandaged neck, asked “But what would they want with us? We’re just slaves.”
Luna said, “Well, as I said, they’re good men.”
“Rubbish. We didn’t see, but our ears are no lesser than your kind’s. They killed men in cold blood to get to us. Why?”
“Sister…”
“What?”
Talia held in her tongue for but a second as she managed to formulate her thoughts into words “They did save you.”
“Yes, indeed, but why? You can’t tell me it’s all out of the goodness of their hearts the same way our previous owner did not treat us kindly out of the goodness of his heart.”
Luna said, “Well, there is a reasoning behind it all, but it would be difficult to explain.”
Sasio said, “Try.”
“Well, they are at war with the Iberian Empire. This is a secret road taken sometimes by Imperials who wish to avoid being spotted through the main highways, so taking it and whoever treads on it would likely help the effort.”
“So then what? Do they plan to get rid of-?”
“Foe-Toe?”
They all turned to the dark-skinned American who had approached alongside the paler American who spoke the Iberian language.
Luna raised an eyebrow, but Frank was quick to say “If it is alright, would you mind a portrait?”
“What?” Sasio asked.
Luna quickly perked up and said “Oh! They have this machine that can make portraits of whatever they point it at. It takes some time to finish it, but you only need to point the device at whatever you wish a portrait of and do not need to spend hours trying to paint it yourself!”
“Even at night?”
“The machine can make a bright flash of light at these hours. Show them!” she said, then stood with her arms crossed, her shield covering her chest as she smiled.
The Marine nodded to the one with the machine and the young man pointed it at her. There was a brief flash that lit up the area for an instant, then the sound of odd winding as the young man fiddled with the device in a way Talia didn’t understand.
Luna said “See? No problem! Would you like one?”
Sasio appeared suspicious, but recognizing the young man, Talia said “Sounds wonderful, right Sasio, Aurelia?”
Her sisters nodded slowly, and while the fox-men failed to understand much of anything they still all appeared at least somewhat cooperative as they turned to look at the young man. Talia made a mental note of the word used as he pointed the machine at them.
“Cheese!”
The flash blinded her for an instant, but she didn’t care as she felt a very different atmosphere now. Her chains were gone, the sheets they’d given them were warm and dry, and the food was good, but more importantly, they weren’t treating them as cargo anymore.
The men kept their distance but did not glare at them, did not leer at them, or if they did, they hid it well.
Talia switched to the language from her home and spoke to Sasio quietly.
“I believe these men are better for us, yes?”
Sasio looked at the more relaxed Aurelia and muttered “Perhaps. We shall see.”
Talia winced as she glanced at the peaks above them. For a half second, she thought she saw a figure suddenly hide away in the darkness. As if something in the night sky above shifted among the stars for a brief instant before vanishing up the peaks. A coldness came over her as she recalled that the demi-human who tried to use Sasio as a hostage was only one among several they'd met once they had entered the region.
She hoped it was her imagination, and gave the young man who'd taken their portrait a wry smile.
He smiled back.
Alpine Mountains
0028
Peak 060
The night was not the best time for the launch, but given the chartered flight path of this new beast of American innovation, perhaps it was for the best.
The wolves had done their part in drawing them more of a map and cleared some of their questions. The Army and Marines had cleared enough of the mountainous roads that would allow the United States Air Force to field test the so-called “lightning bug”. They had been a concept for a while now and would have originally been used to spy over Castro’s airfields, hoping to detect their Soviet missiles back in 1962, had one Curtis LeMay not intervened and shut that planned operation down.
They should have been tested in Cuba, he thought.
In spite of their size, they had such a small radar cross-section they would have been undetectable. But there was also plenty of risk, he supposed. Lockheed's U-2 had been believed at first to also be beyond the range of Soviet fighters and missiles. Until it wasn't. And the "Dragon Lady" was a reconnaissance plane. The "lightning bug" was very new technology, and if the Cubans caught it and handed it to the Soviets or the Chinese there would have been hell to pay. But here there were no surface-to-air missile emplacements that weren't friendly, and as far as they had seen, the Wyverns did not fly fast enough to catch up to them once they took off.
All the better to test them here, then.
As General Abrams lifted up his binoculars, the pair of Ryan Model 147s were shot from their catapults before their single engines switched on and they accelerated towards the sky together. Where they couldn’t get U-2s just yet, these new “remotely piloted vehicles” would have to do. The Air Force Colonel next to him sighed as the two unmanned aircraft vanished over the mountains like shooting stars over the horizon. Their controllers sat quietly on their stations as the radar monitored their flight. All seemed to be going as planned.
Now we just have to wait.