We all snuck around the outskirts of the city, in the tree line close to the alley we had come from. A few soldiers were walking by, but that was it. Most of them must be over at the mine, though they did seem to be slowly increasing in numbers. Once they got far enough away, we'd cross back into the alleyway across from us. A few minutes passed as we watched them round the corner to the next block.
I motioned everyone to follow, and we ran across into the alley. Past my bike and back to Oro's door. I knocked on it, there was a small shuffle and a bunch of muttering I couldn't make out.
The door opened, "Alright what do you wa- oh it's you again," said Oro with surprise. "I see you have a few guests," he said, poking his head out the door and looking around.
"Yeah, I need a favor," I said.
"What kind of favor?"
"I need you to keep an eye on them until we get back." I said.
His eyes widened. "All of them? I… I don't think I have enough space for that many people," he said, looking into his room and quickly looking back.
"We don't exactly have anywhere else to take them right now," said Tessara.
"Um, right. Give me one sec." He closed the door. I heard some shuffling and a door close. Then he popped it head back out.
"Ok, quickly now. There's not a lot of space, so it might be a little cramped."
"Oh thank you so much!" said one of the girls, hugging him.
"Yes, thank you," said another, as they walked into the room.
"Alright, alright. I said alright! You can stop, I get it." The rest then quickly shuffled past him inside.
"I'm not gonna ask where you found them, because I don't want to know — but why do you need ME to watch them?"
"We have some business to attend to before we can get them to a safe place, so for now we need somewhere nice for them to stay," said Tessara
"I see, what business? Did you get some new information?" he asked.
"A 'friend' in the mansions up there told us where the mine we've been looking for is, so we're going to go check it out," She said.
"The mine?" said Yuma, "You're going there?"
"Yeah," I said
"Take me with you!" she blurted out. "I know I might not be all that strong or much good in a fight, but my dad, he got taken there, and I know some magic, so please take me!"
"Sure, you can come, we'd love to have you!" She looked around. "Anyone else?"
They all just stared at her and backed away from the door.
"Their fathers, brothers and friends are also probably stuck there, but many of them have been in that basement longer than me, so I don't think they want to get taken again."
"That's ok, it's why we brought them here so they can be safe," said Tessara
"Hold on, Tessara," I said, pulling her aside. "Do you really want to take this girl with no combat experience into a mine full of armed soldiers?"
"She knows magic, she'll be fine. Especially with us there — we can protect her!"
"This is an infiltration with an unknown number of soldiers, armored and equipped with military grade weapons."
"Nothing we haven't dealt with before. We've gone against organized gangs, just as armored."
"Whatever. I'm not arguing with you anymore. If she comes she's your responsibility."
"So she can come?" she asked, expectantly.
"I don't care, but like I said she's your responsibility."
"Yesss!" she said in almost a whisper. Then ran back, grabbed Yuma's hand, and pulled her towards me as I started walking back towards my bike.
I swear Tessara acts like a little kid sometimes, but whatever. She gets the job done, so that's good enough for me. Now it's time to get out of the city and find the mine. If Yuma's dad got taken there, he can't be the only one. They must've been stealing the people of this city and enslaving them in the mines for their operation. This needed to end as soon as possible.
"We'll be back soon, so don't you worry!" said Tessara, waving and smiling as Oro began to close the door.
"Please don't take too long. There's not a lot of room and I'm claustrophobic," he said. "HEY! Don't touch that! Stop!"
He slammed the door.
"So what's the plan?" asked Tessara.
"I'm thinking we get out of here as fast as possible. It might draw a lot of attention, but we still have some element of surprise, so we won't be easy to catch up to."
"Sounds good," Said Tessara, giving me a thumbs up.
"You — you want to just rush out of here on a motorcycle? But they'll just shoot us," said Yuma.
"Maybe, but we have a better chance of getting out of here with the bike."
"Don't worry, Yuma. We'll keep you safe." Yumi smiled once she said that, and nodded.
"Do you want some actual clothes?" I asked Yuma.
"Yes, that would be great. These are pretty dirty," she said, pulling at them. I opened a side storage compartment on my bike and tossed her a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
"Here, I happen to keep extra clothes on my bike just in case."
I then handed Tessara her clothes and grabbed mine. I changed back into my combat gear and turned to Tessara and Yuma. Tessara was all dressed, and Yuma was taking off her dirty clothes and putting on the clothes I gave her. The t-shirt was a little big on me, but was really big on her. She was way skinnier than I thought.
"Um, I think it's a little too big," said Yuma. She sounded a little embarrassed.
"That's okay! Come here, I'll fix it," Tessara said, pulling out some hair ties. She walked over then twisted and pulled her shirt back. She then kept it in place with a hair tie.
"There you go, now Vera's fat clothes should fit you." Tessara said, stepping back.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" I said, getting annoyed.
She ignored me. "Alright, let's go!"
She walked towards the bike and Yuma followed happily behind her. For someone in the situation she was in, she seems pretty happy. It's nice to see her spirit wasn't broken. She's strong, maybe not physically, but emotionally. That's something I can respect. She reminds me of my younger sister from way back.
I walked ahead of them and hopped on the bike. Yuma sat behind me and Tessara behind her. All three of us barely fit on the seat.
I walked the bike out to the main street and fired it up. It began to hum and purple lights raced up the side. I immediately floored it. I put on my mask and pulled back on the throttle. The tires squealed and we flew off down the road, Yuma squeezed me so tight it was getting hard to breathe. I guess she's a little stronger than I thought.
We flew past several groups of soldiers, but we were going so fast they couldn't even react. Seconds later bullets started whizzing past our heads. It didn't faze me though, I continued my same course out of the city. Yuma's face was buried in my back and her nose on my spine started to get very uncomfortable. I continued to drive, when suddenly a group of soldiers stood in the road in front of us blocking the exit to the city.
"Your trip ends here!!!" yelled a tall muscly man standing in front of the line of soldiers.
I got closer. I knew exactly who it was — it was the high-ranking man from the photos.
Let's have some fun.
"Yuma, hold on to me. Tessara, jump when I tell you."
"Okkkayy," Yuma yelled into my back.
"Wait why!?" asked Tessara, in a concerned voice.
"Just do it!"
Now the line of soldiers was less than twenty feet away. I slammed on the brakes.
"We're gonna crash!" Tessara yelled out.
I wasn't worried. I didn't plan on stopping.
"Tessara, jump now!" I said as I hopped off the bike with Yuma on my back. I was still holding onto the left handle bar. I ran with the bike for a second, and then the soldiers were right in front of us along with the general.
They all fired on us and I used the momentum of my bike. With all of my strength, I pulled up and to the left. The bike lifted off the ground, then swiped the big guy and all of the soldiers directly in front of me. There was a lot of metal pinging as the bullets hit the bike. A few had also pinged off my mask and chestplate.
You could hear their bones snap over the roaring of the engine.
They flew to the ground as the bike spun. As it was coming back around, I jumped back on it and continued down the road. I turned back to catch Tessara's hand just in time to pull her back onto the bike. She ran on the pavement for a second, but managed to hop back on..
"You guys alright?" I asked, peeking back.
Yuma was still gripping on to me with all her might and Tessara's eyes were as wide as ever.
"What's wrong, Tessara?"
"Nothing, just when you said to jump I never thought you would try to pull something like that. Don't get me wrong it was insane, like I don't even know how you did that! You were like 'jump!' and I was like 'woooo!' and flew through the air, and then you went 'rarrggghh!' and the bike went swoosh! The soldiers all got hit and yelled like ahhhh! Then you drove off and dragged me back onto the bike and then it was, like, just crazy!!" She said all that extremely fast and full of energy, with full hand interpretation.
"Yeah, I know. It was a little reckless, but I didn't know what else to do. If I tried to drive through them there's a good chance they wouldn't have moved, and I wasn't risking getting something stuck in my wheel well causing us to flip or get shot, so that was my best option," I said, deactivating my mask.
"It was definitely the right one, because it was so cool! But also terrifying. Please never do it again, for my sake."
"Alright, let's focus. We still have a mine to find and people to rescue," I said, looking back at the road.
We drove down the road and a strange mountain slowly came into view. It was smaller than the ones surrounding Nazul, but it was still pretty tall. We drove down the road, as close to the mountain as possible. I then stopped and walked my bike into the forest surrounding it. I hid it in a pair of bushes, checked the defense system once again, and activated the tracker so I would know where I left it.
"It's pretty late and I think we've done enough for one day."
"Yeah, I sure had a lot of fun today. Getting slammed to the floor, landing on your ugly face, fighting a giant demon orc thing, rescui—" she said, continuing down the list of today's events.
I turned to Yuma. "Here," I said, handing her my sleeping bag from a compartment in my bike, "The dirt isn't exactly warm."
"Thanks," she said, carefully unrolling it.
"Then I flew off your motorcycle, and then. OWW!" She yelled the last part as I threw her sleeping bag at her.
"Go to sleep. I don't need your crazy, skewed recap of today."
"What? Sorryyy I like to stay organized and keep track of what I do," she said in a sassy voice as she stood up to open her sleeping bag.
I looked away from Tessara annoyingly and back to Yuma. "Before I go on watch, I have a few questions for you," I said.
"Ok…" she said, hesitantly
"Do you know why they were taking the people, why they were taking and keeping you?"
She looked away for a moment and then responded, "They said it was our magic — that it was evil and they were going to work or kill it out of us."
"Your magic? Interesting."
"What about you and the other girls, why were you in the basement instead of taken away like the rest?"
"We were too weak for the mine, they were going to send us somewhere else."
"Where?"
She shrugged.
"You said you know magic right?"
"Yeah."
"What kind?"
"I can do illusion magic."
"Illusion magic? That could be useful for distractions. Hmmm, alright, I'm not gonna question you any further. Time for sleep."
"Yeah, I definitely think I'm ready," she said, starting to lay down.
"Oh and one more thing, how old are you?"
"Seventeen."
"You're not much younger than me. Just keep a low profile. I don't like the idea of bringing some we don't know along. Especially a kid."
"I'm not a kid," she said, laying back down.
"I'm not arguing with you."
"I can't be a kid anymore. My mom — they killed her when they came. Now I'm the woman of the house, those responsibilities fall on me."
"I'm sorry, I know how hard it is to lose someone like that."
"It's ok," she said, looking away.
"Well I bet she was one amazing mom if she fought to protect you. I'd be proud."
She smiled. "I am."
"Now get some rest. Tomorrow, we bust everyone out."
"I'll do my best," she said, closing her eyes.
I slowly walked away. I know how she must feel. If I were in her shoes I'd do anything to save the family I had left. Except I don't have any left. I guess it is nice to have her, I can help her in a way I failed to do before.
Not to mention, having her chill attitude combating Tessara's crazed energy was actually nice.
I don't want her to be like me — with no one left to turn to.
I felt a stabbing pain in my chest and pushed the thought away. I put on my mask, climbed a nearby tree and sat surveying the area. A few hours of uneventfulness passed and it was Tessara's turn. I climbed down and walked over to wake her up, but stopped right next to her. Even while sleeping she still looked exhausted. I'd let her be, but no one wants to see me overtired. It's not a pretty sight, even I can admit it.
"Hey, Tessara." I said, shaking her.
"Huh...no lions can't fly, only crocodiles can…" She mumbled, moving a little bit.
"Tessara, wake up," I said, shaking her a little harder.
"Uuhhhh, hmm…" she said, slowly opening her eyes.
"It's your turn to take watch."
"It's my turn to snake catch?" she said, barely awake
"No, you idiot. Wake up," I said, flicking her forehead.
"Oww, hey what are you — wait, where are— oh yeah, it's my turn to watch."
"Yeah, so get up," I said, exhausted.
"Right, you should definitely go to sleep. Don't need you trying to strangle something like my toaster again."
"I did not do that," I said, annoyed.
"You yelled at it for dinging too loud and then proceeded to rip it out of the wall and smash it on the counter."
"No I d—"
She shot me an amused look.
"Just go keep watch," I said.
"Ok, good night crab head," she said in a mocking tone. I just ignored her and crawled into her sleeping bag. I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately. Sort of, it was a long night of falling asleep for about five minutes and waking up again just to fall asleep for only about another five to ten minutes. After several hours later, the sun was just starting to rise. Today was going to be an even longer day. I can't wait.