Arascus looked at his finished articles. Malam could come up with something better no doubt, but he was quite happy with them himself, quite proud in fact: “Kirinyaa has a (Military) Problem”, “Yes, We Won, Now What?” and “Let’s Talk about the Boys with Guns.” Frankly, Kassandora would have it easy.
Kavaa didn’t know why she had come. She didn’t ask Kassandora, but Iliyal had requested thirty of Clerics to be brought into Epa. She really did not need to go but then again, the position of Chief Logistician had little to do in the aftermath of a war. The biggest change to Central Requisitions was that it was being renamed to in the native Kirinyaan to Mti Ushindi wa Kwanza. That was hard to say though, so CR it was. The Clerics would be arriving later, in another transport, Raptor One was carrying the main package.
Iliyal Tremali, Fer, and Kavaa. Fer, in was excitedly tapping her foot as Iliyal sat there, straight backed and merely thinking. He was worse than Kassandora, at least she pretended to care. The elf had more in common with machines than with men. Is that what Kassandora’s blessing turned people into? Too many notes of War’s Orchestra and suddenly all they could think about was the job itself and nothing else. It wasn’t that she even minded the man, he wasn’t annoying, he was simply… there was something wrong with him. And it wasn’t an illness her healing could fix either.
“You really did not have to come.” Iliyal finally opened his mouth as the steel cabin of Raptor One started to turn. This had changed too, the rear cabin had given up half its size for the ammunition rooms. That was it though, the seats were still uncomfortable pieces of steel and if they had brought on more people then someone would have to stand and hold on to the steel poles that shot from the floor to the ceiling. Even the lights had not been changed, still the faint blinking reds that signified the engine was turned on.
“It will be good to give them a sparring partner on their level for the first few days.” Kavaa said. The war had taught her how to deal with Kassandora’s soldiers. She had segregated them into two groups, the grunts would follow whatever order she said because she was part of the hierarchy. The officers technically ranked with her, so they needed a reason. Argumentation: calls to respect her Divinity, moralising or hoping for empathy all slid off them like droplets of water. But one reason and they’d see sense. Iliyal crossed his arms and sighed. Kavaa smiled in satisfaction to herself, there it was. One reason and he saw sense.
“I’m going to be busy then.” Iliyal said. “I’ll stay the first day, but if you’re here, you handle the training.”
“What are you going to be doing?”
“I have a grandson to visit.” Iliyal said and Kavaa stared at the elf’s cold green eyes. In his uniform, parachute strapped to him and with that glare, it was impossible to get a read on him. She supposed he would miss Iliyal, but she also doubted the elf had even an inkling of the sentimentality needed to go visit a family member for the simple sake of family.
“I won’t stop you.” Kavaa said. The elf nodded, readjusted his posture from straight to straighter, and closed his eyes.
“I want to meet these new girls.” Fer said excitedly. She had to lower her head to not brush her tall ears every time the captain made an adjustment.
“They’re nothing impressive.” Iliyal said. Oh! Great! So he spoke to Fer? He turned to Kavaa as if reading her thoughts. “I assume you could take on all five at once.” Kavaa raised an eyebrow and felt her lips quirk into a smile. If there was one thing people rarely complemented, it was her fighting skill. She was useful in battle, but that was through the merit of her Blessing of Health. She herself though? She merely knew how to swing a sword around.
“Don’t put them down so badly.” Kavaa said.
“You’ll know what I mean when you meet them.” Iliyal said, he took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and smiled. “Actually, it’s good that you came.”
“Oh so now you want me here?” Kavaa said.
“You’re not bad at all.” Fer added from the side.
“We can push them further with your healing.” Iliyal said with a sigh. “I don’t like teaching combat.”
“I don’t buy that.” Fer said.
“Isn’t Fer for that?” Kavaa asked. Fer proudly sat up, bumped her head, then lowered her posture again. “And you’re for tactics and leadership.”
“Even worse.” Iliyal said.
“Old.” Fer said. Iliyal merely smiled, eyes still closed and arms crossed over his chest.
“Too old.” He agreed and Fer rolled her eyes.
“And miserable.”
“Just content.”
“And boring.”
“Already had my fill of excitement.”
“Alcoholic.”
“I don’t drink too much.”
“Annoying.”
“Can’t argue with that.” Iliyal said and Fer sighed.
“And horribly, horribly calm.” She said.
“The new girls will be more than enough excitement for you.” Iliyal replied calmly and Fer dropped her head. She let out a huge sigh, and swung it from side to side. She looked up and spoke, the tail popping out from under her skirt settled on the ground as she took a breath.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Kassie is a factory that can take anyone and term them into that Kavaa.” She shook her head as Iliyal smiled proudly. “Don’t ever let her.” Kavaa only smiled. She wasn’t as extreme as Iliyal, but his existence wasn’t as offensive to her as it was to Fer. The plane swerved again, sharper this time. The three passengers held onto the steels posts arranged through the passenger bay and the radio speaker crackled with static.
“This is Captain Douglas speaking. We’re over the Erdely mountains now.” He said. “Opening doors, thank you for flying Doug-Air.” The crackling cut off, then cut back on. “Fer, I still have the Misfortune picture.” The Goddess of Beasthood burst out in laughter and gave him a few claps. Douglas’ laughter echoed hers through the speaker. “Pleasure to have you on board. Call if you need pickup.”
“What’s Misfortune?” Kavaa asked the two. Iliyal opened his eyes, looked at Fer, then answered the question.
“The Leona plan.” He said flatly.
“Oh.” Kavaa replied, she… she didn’t know what to say about that. She liked Leona, but everyone liked Leona. There was, or had been, nothing unpleasant about the woman. She wondered how differently the Pantheon Peacekeeping operation would have turned out if Leona was alive. They would still… would they have won? Was it possible to battle against omniscient and omnipotent luck? It must be, Neneria had killed her after all. There was no time to start a complex line of logic. Pistons hissed, valves turned and the rear door started to slide open.
Kavaa turned to look as Fer and Iliyal both stood up. The Erdely region, south of Lubska. Even now, it was practically an autonomous zone within its host nation of Dakia. During the Great War, it was practically owned by Fer’s war-herds, no other army had the skill, the endurance, the will or the talent to cross these ancient forests. Fer’s war-herds and Anassa’s sorcerous. Kassandora had managed to add two decades to the war simply because of the sheer impassibility of this region. After, Maisara had planned to settle it. Dakia didn’t have the population at, then Allasaria had instituted the Pantheon Decrees, and Maisara’s plan had shattered.
And so, Kavaa looked out onto the great Erdely woodlands. Pristine and untouched, west of Karaina, it was the last true wild woodlands left in Epa. Mountains stretched all along the western horizon and other than that, it was a sea of dark coniferous green. As far as the eyes could see, the trees stretched on for hundreds of miles, they crawled into valleys and the scaled mountains until there was no dirt left to grab hold of. Untouched, with streams and rivers, and with stars above, although those were quickly retreating in the coming dawn.
Fer went first, she patted Kavaa on the shoulder, stepped to the edge and turned. After spending so much time with Fer lately, Kavaa had grown almost accustomed to the woman’s antics. The cute smiles, the sweet faces, the kitten eyes. And it was moments like this that reminded her who Fer really was. She stood there, red eyes glowing as she downed a vial of Kavaa’s blood. Her eyes started to grow a vicious yellow, her skin shed hair, then regrew it, her perfect teeth turned to fangs and she stood here, wind whipping about in the wind. She turned, gave it another, her ears bounced, she gave them a large smile, a thumbs up, and she stepped backwards out of the plane.
And Iliyal ran past Kavaa, he didn’t even say anything, he simply ran off the edge. Kavaa took a deep breath, took a step to the edge. There was a first time for everything after all. She let herself fall.
The first thing was the view. The rising Sun over the western mountain, the ocean of pine trees, the dark sky retreating against the day’s vivid blue. The second was Iliyal opening his parachute. Far below her, he had put his arms close to his body and shot down like an arrow. The third was Fer. A Divine meteorite falling down, Kavaa would have assumed bestial rage, a scream of joyous excitement, her arms flailing around. There was none of that. She was diving feet first as if she had done this a thousand times already. Fer spanned into a tree, a cloud of dust and pines went up. The fourth was a small trail in the distance, rising from the trees, an obvious campfire. That’s where Olonia and her friends would be.
And Kavaa opened her parachute, she felt her body lurch back, her legs swing, her silver-grey settled down, still carried by the wind but no longer whipping about her head. She looked around, she sighed, she smiled, she enjoyed the breath-taking view.
And as Kavaa fell, she realised an issue. Iliyal had explained the basics to her, although it was as basic as it got. Which strap to pull to release the parachute, which strap to pull in case the first one failed. Then he had merely sighed. ‘At the end of the day Kavaa, you’re a Divine. Of Health, will a little even kill you?’ Well now she was looking at those approaching trees, she kicked her legs, she didn’t know what Iliyal did, he must have had some stupid trick prepared for this.
When Kavaa hit the branches, the only feeling she could call upon was a cavalry charge upon lowered pikes. Branches cut and caught her, if wasn’t wearing her armour, she would caught a branch through her chest. A rope from the parachute caught her arm. Why was she even holding onto the other? That strap tightened around her wrist as Kavaa’s vision was consumed by leaves.
Leaves, leaves, branches, leaves and then the forest floor. A fox ran away from her. And then she stopped falling, her legs off the ground. She kicked them, swung forwards, swung backwards, hit a tree, and decided not to kick anymore. She looked up, tested the ropes. Fer would break them, Fer didn’t need them in the first place, would Kassie? Kassie had her armour, she could just summon to cut through it. She tested her strength. She had seen this straps lift Binturongs out of mud and when tightened like this, what could she do? Alone, she would tear her hands off and heal them back on the ground. But that was an all or nothing situation. Now though? She sighed and supposed she could wait for Fer.
Fer never came. It was Iliyal Tremali instead, marching in straight backed as if he was on parade, one hand on his blade, the other swinging about with each step. A light cape flowing off his back, the man’s trousers had one tiny cut on the calf. That was it. “HOW THE FUCK DID YOU LAND?!” Kavaa shouted. Iliyal looked up at her with a content smile. He actually shrugged at her! Who did this mortal think he was?
“You learn how to do it when you have to.” He said. Then looked around, then at her. “Are you stuck?”
“Do I look stuck?” Iliyal smiled and turned around.
“I guess not.”
“YOU FUCK! I AM STUCK!” Kavaa shouted and Iliyal chuckled. He sighed.
“I know logistics is bad.” He said as he pulled out his pistol. “But you’ve grown a real doctor’s tongue.”
“I AM A DOCTOR!” Kavaa shouted. Iliyal rolled his eyes as he aimed the gun above her and pulled the trigger. Even more annoying than getting stuck was that the man managed to cut the strap on the first shot. One arm freed, Kavaa grit her teeth as she felt her other hand take the weight. She calmed herself down though, it wasn’t bad for a first attempt. Helenna or Iniri had never skydived before anyway, and she doubted they’d be brave enough to do it into a forest. “And the other?” She said, Iliyal looked up at her and patted his sword. Kavaa looked down at her sheathed blade and then back at him. Could she free herself? Of course! Would she? “Iliyal, just shot it.” He sighed and shook his head.
“This is a wasting of ammunition.” He said.
“Do I care?”
“Well neither do I.” Iliyal pulled the trigger. The other band snapped and Kavaa fell to the ground.
“Thanks.” She said as her healing worked the skin and torn muscles, it hurt, but it wasn’t an open wound. These generally were easy to fix.
“Don’t worry about it.” Iliyal replied. He took a step and he sighed immediately.
Fer appeared from behind a tree, a brown bear next to her. She patted the animal on its head. “He doesn’t bite.” She said. “So don’t worry about it.”
“Why?” Iliyal asked and Fer quirked a smile. It revealed her teeth.
“I thought it’d be a funny joke.”