The Four Territories

by Stevie Collier

  With only about fifteen targets left, Xep and Barda leapt off the branch onto two terrified soldiers. Barda let his prey take the full force of his fall. His boots landed onto the male’s shoulders and he grabbed onto his head for stability. He heard the soldier’s spine crack and used his capability power to crush the male’s skull just enough to compress and kill the brain.

  Drodroh hit another soldier with his arrow and the body fell directly on top of Barda.

  “Watch your back!” Drodroh yelled form above, already fitting another arrow.

  Barda saw that the weight of Xep’s boot on the soldier’s head had killed him instantly, most likely breaking his neck.

  Xep killed two more soldiers with his daggers and Barda punched one male’s throat and broke another one’s face with an upward palm fist.

  It wasn’t long before the agents were standing around forty-six bloodied bodies. There was no cheering or any other form of celebration. They began to dig graves for the fallen soldiers. The Order believed all whom they killed for the greater good had been deceived by the king and his wretchedness and they counted themselves lucky that their minds had been forced open by the talented recruiters of the Order.

  Barda walked up to Xep and Drodroh and started digging a grave beside them. “Good work, team,” he said, his mind already plotting his next plan of action.

  “You’re one crazy bastard,” Drodroh said with a smirk. “I don’t think I would have had the guts to do what you did. Don’t you think the Order is gonna be upset with you?”

  “Nah,” Barda said, waving it off. “If they want to get mad at me then they have to get mad at the other thirty agents who agreed to it as well.”

  “Wait, are you saying I was the only one who didn’t know that this wasn’t an approved motion?”

  “You were the only one who didn’t ask,” Xep said without a smile.

  They had a pretty good system, half the agents dug while the other half drug the bodies to the hole. They even had a specific agent to read the dead their rights to pass on to whatever deity they believed in.

  Barda, sweating and his lower back aching, went off behind a tree to relieve himself. He had just finished his piss when he sensed something small heading directly for his face. His hand zoomed out in front and caught whatever bug that had been charging him, a slight sting shot up his arm.

  He opened his hand and his eyes widened. This wasn’t a bug! It was a poisoned dart! He tried to call out for help but his throat felt like it had collapsed and the trees began to spin around his head. His body went straight into full paralysis and he fell backwards only to be caught by a pair of hands.

  “We got him,” said a voice in Vivreonish.

  “Good, let’s get going. Quick, before he suffocates,” said another.

  He was hoisted up with ease, which shocked Barda for he must have weighed with the suit at least three or four humanoids worth. His throat began to close faster and his breath turned into wheezes and the wheezes turned into sharp breathless gasps. He was dying.

  Two minutes passed and they sat him down softly. Barda couldn’t make out the figures standing over him because his eyes refused to adjust. One of them stuck a sharpened tube like stick straight into his throat and air was immediately allowed access. He heaved as fresh air soared into his lungs. He wanted to sit up but his body was still not responding.

  The two figures laid out some sort of net and rolled him over on top of it. They then lifted each side of the rope and began to carry him as if he were freshly hunted meat ready to be cooked.

  Barda, having trained for instances such as this, began to work a tooth out of its socket. Luckily, his jaw could move just enough for him to jiggle one of his canine teeth. Many agents took it upon themselves to have a few teeth pulled for situations such as these, replacing the real tooth with an alchemical counterfeit one. Lucky for Barda, he had decided to do this long ago. It would have been impossible otherwise to pull out a regular rooted tooth. Still, it was agonizing work, but if he wanted to survive this is what had to be done.

  The tooth finally gave way and he let it trickle out the side of his mouth with a wad of blood and spit. As he was carried through the forest he let bits of his blood fall onto large leaves. His captors, whoever they were, were obviously either not paying attention or were oblivious as to how the assassins of the Order worked.

  Barda took a guess that they had been carrying him for at least an hour. The blood in his mouth had ceased and he was dreading on having to pull another tooth out. He began to work on his other canine tooth before his captors came to a halt and placed him down. His throat was no longer closed up and his vision had cleared up as well and yet he still could not move. He took this time to observe his surrounding and found that both of his captors were wearing large Green tunics that covered their faces completely, all but their Green eyes shown through.

  One bent over him and removed the tube in his neck, quickly replacing it with some kind of sticky gel in which he attached some sort of leaf to stop the bleeding. Barda tried to talk but was still unable. He began to feel very strange, and not in a good way. He could feel his body break out in a chilled sweat and a huge migraine began to take hold.

  “Did anyone follow you?” asked a soothing voice behind a tree. A female walked from around the base of the trunk, her arms crossed. She also wore a tunic that matched the forest around her. The wind pushed the tunic to her body and revealed her physical form. She removed the tunic from her face and Barda would have gasped if it had been physically possible. She was a goddess! Dark Green hair fell below her shoulders, the jade coloring of her eyes was sharpened from the contrast of her pale skin. The elvish pointed ears that were prominent for the forest humanoids stuck straight up through her hair.

  Barda bit his tongue to bring him back to reality. His feelings for her were strictly primitive he knew and his sexual intonations could blind him and could cost him his life. However, seeing her did take his mind off how awful he was feeling. She was that beautiful.

  “No ma’am,” said the two captors, bowing their heads.

  “Good,” she said, walking up to Barda and placing the back of her hand on his forehead. It was soft and he could smell her delicious scent. “You idiots!” she hissed, “He is covered with sticky perspiration! Where did you stick him? Hurry!”

  “He caught the barb with his hand, ma’am,” one of them said stupidly.

  She hoisted up his arm and opened his palm which had turned black and each of his veins pulsed a deep blue.

  “How much of the paralysis urine did you apply to the barb?” she asked, placing the palm of his hand to her mouth. She began to suck and Barda couldn’t help but smile. She slapped him with her other free hand.

  “Well… um… we sorta just… um…… soaked the whole barb with it.”

  The female rolled her eyes and kept sucking, taking breaks to spit out a black liquid which had stained her teeth. As she bent over, Barda could see the pale flesh of her breast and he felt as though he would lose his mind with envy. Here he was, on the edge of death and all he could think about was caressing this female’s body.

  She spat out one last wad of poison and took a swig of liquid from a low hanging leaf. She swished the liquid around her mouth and spit that out as well.

  She felt his forehead again and nodded to herself. “Do you know why I have had you brought to me?”

  He just stared up at her, his body was in pain but his mind was in bliss. His mix of emotions was confusing and for the first time in a long time he had no idea what to do.

  “Your humanoids are killing my humanoids for no reason,” she said, the kindness leaving her face and a vengeful visage taking its place. “Have you ever been tortured before?”

  Barda hated himself for actually liking the way she was talking to him, but he had to try and remain level headed. The pain was slowly trickling away and he found that he could move his head. He nodded at her.

  “Look, I’d hate
to mess with such a handsome face,” she said, stroking his shadowed facial hair, “but I won’t have to if you give me what I want.”

  Barda’s skin turned to goosebumps and he prayed she wouldn’t notice. If he could only tell her that they were on the same side, if only he could speak one word. But would he even be able to talk? His brain was already mush with her intoxicating aroma that flushed over him. The way her smooth lips moved would have made his toes curl if that had been possible.

  There was a ruffling in the foliage far behind them. At first, Barda figured it must have been either Xep or Drodroh, but then he realized that neither of them would have made a single sound. It must have been something else.

  “Did someone follow you two?” the female asked, turning furiously towards the captors. Both shrugged their shoulders and stared at where the sound was coming from.

  The female didn’t waste any time. She wrapped Barda’s feet with some sort of cord putting the other end of the line over her shoulder. “Run.”

  Barda was dragged across the forest ground behind the female’s astonishing strength. Dirt and bugs flung into his face and hair. His body was being scraped over large roots and sharp rocks.

  “Found some, sir!” yelled an army scout.

  “Kill ‘em!” answered another.

  The forest erupted with arrows, barely missing them. However, his two captors weren’t as lucky. One was struck right through the head which nailed his body to a tree. Three arrows zoomed right through the other captor’s gut spilling his insides out and spraying blood all over the Green ground. The female didn’t slow down for either of them, she was either cold hearted or very smart. Maybe both.

  Once they were a good way ahead of the squadron of soldiers the female stopped behind a tree and pulled off her tunic. With a few slashes of a dagger she had ripped the tunic into two parts placing one over Barda and the other over herself. Barda could feel her weight on top of his enviro-suit and his heart began to beat fast once again.

  “Your humanoids are ruthless,” she breathed into his ears.

  “I… know…” he managed to cough out. Her eyes widened and he could tell she wanted to ask him what he meant but the loud crushing footsteps of the soldiers were close now. She put a finger to her lips and rested her head on his chest.

  The soldiers broke through the forest in an unorganized fashion trying to sweep as much ground as possible.

  “Regroup!” the commander of the squadron called out. “Circle up!”

  Barda could hear the grunts double back. The female on top of him swore under her breath and he could see sweat begin to trickle down her face.

  “Our scouts tell us that there is a Vivreonish civilization around two kilometers from this very position. The Vivreonish female running away is no doubt proof of this.”

  The female’s hand began to squeeze Barda’s shoulder pauldron so tight that he thought she would actually crush the metal underneath her fingers.

  “Our scouts also have reason to believe that this medium sized village is home to a large terrorist threat group. Our orders are to burn it down! We will take the southern part of the village and begin offensive maneuvers when we see the black smoke. Understood?”

  “Yes sir!” responded the others.

  “On me!”

  The commander took them off in another direction, their footsteps began to fade but Barda could still hear the destruction of the forest as they made their way to the village, the same village he had come here to protect. Now, his new mission was to save himself, to live to fight another sun-cycle.

  The female jumped off of him and leaped to the nearest tree, her fingers digging into the bark as she began to climb.

  “Wait!” Barda tried to cry, but he was only able to make an embarrassing squeak, but the female did hear him.

  She jumped down and pulled a dagger from the side of her leg and brought it to his throat. “Who are you?” she demanded.

  Barda could only look up into her beautiful Green eyes. He wanted to tell her that he was on her side but he knew he would never be able to make the words happen.

  The female bit her bottom lip and looked in the direction the soldiers were heading and she made her decision. She pressed the dagger to his throat and he could feel it begin to break the skin.

  “Shhhh, shhh, this won’t hurt a bit,” she said pulling the dagger across his throat. She had made the choice Barda would have made, the humanoids of Reah could not be trusted.

  With a blur of motion, the female was side kicked directly to the head. The kicker turned around and Barda had never been so happy to see Xep in his life. Drodroh was already over him, untying the cord that bound him.

  “Lose something?” Xep asked, holding out a bloody white tooth. Barda smiled a gory toothless smile.

  Drodroh lifted Barda up as Xep went through the unconscious female’s clothing. “I think I found the antidote,” Xep said, opening the cork of some small vile. He smelt the contents, nodded his head and threw the vile over his shoulder. Drodroh caught it, opened it and poured the juice in Barda’s mouth. Drodroh then closed the jaw and massaged Barda’s cut throat until all the liquid had passed to his stomach.

  The effects were almost instantaneous, as if he had never been paralyzed in the first place.

  “Welcome back, Captain,” Xep said in his quiet serpent like speech. “What should we do with… her?” He was already pulling out his dagger before Barda put his hand up to stop him.

  “She was just doing her duty,” he said, bending over her and slapping her face. Her eyes squinted open and looked directly into Barda’s. She touched his face with her finger tips and brushed his face in her stupor. It wasn’t long before she realized what she was doing and evaded from underneath him with a backwards somersault.

  She reached for her weapons but they weren’t there. Xep whistled to her and dangled her daggers in front of him before clipping them to his belt.

  “What now?” Drodroh asked, walking up to Barda’s side.

  “The village is about to be sieged by other platoons, platoons we were unaware of,” Barda replied.

  “There was more than one?”

  “Correct.”

  “We have to contact the Order!” Drohdroh said, pulling an arrow back and facing it towards the female. Her hands shot up as she scanned each of their faces. She was obviously looking for her chance to escape.

  “No, there isn’t time. You and I both know this village will be flattened before any reinforcements arrive.”

  “Orders, sir?” Xep said, his arms crossed in front of him as he leaned on a tree.

  “We evacuate as many humanoids as possible before the soldiers start their burning.”

  The female walked towards Drodroh making him flinch and take a few steps back. “Who are you humanoids?” she demanded. The way she moved made her look as if she were a trapped animal and Barda guessed it was because the humanoids of Vivreon were very in tune with the animals that surrounded them. After all, they were the humanoids of nature. He could also understand her fear, for in front of her were three humanoid males of Reah, and humanoid males of Reah were much larger than Vivreonish males.

  “I would have explained to you earlier but unfortunately, as you know, my face wasn’t working properly,” Barda responded with a smile. “We are with the Order. Long story short, we fight against the raids that the army of Reah sends out. We are against the king and despise his tyrannical ways…” He shrugged his shoulders. “And that’s about it.”

  Her face showed nothing so Barda didn’t know if she believed him or not. Xep walked over and placed some sort of medicine on his neck which stung for an instant and then dissipated.

  “What are we going to do with her, Captain?” Drodroh asked.

  “Well we aren’t going to kill her, that would be defeating the purpose.”

  “I understand that, but shouldn’t we tie her up or something?”

  “Let’s ask her,�
� Barda said, walking up to the female. He extended a hand, “Hi, I’m Barda and your village is in terrible danger.”

  14 - An Odd Team

  The Vivreonish female eyed the large Reahlic man with suspicion. “I’m Chesna,” she said, extending her hand cautiously.

  “Chesna… Beautiful name! I have a question for you Chesna. What do you think we should do with you?”

  This broke Chesna’s deadpan expression and she looked half confused and half surprised. He was letting her choose her own fate, something she didn’t think was possible from a male of Reah. The question took her off guard and it was a while before her brain was able to process. Finally, she said, “What do you three plan to do?”

  “Save the village, of course,” answered Xep without looking at her.

  “Do we really look like those army fools? I honestly thought our armor was way fancier looking,” Drodroh said with a smirk. One of his eyes was still closed as he focused his arrow on her chest.

  She was now even more confused and she began to feel disappointed with herself. Growing up she had always pictured all the humanoids of Reah as primitive beings who only cared about killing and mating. Now, in front of three of the red haired, red eyed humanoids, she knew now that she had been just as racist as the army that now marched towards her village.

  She dropped to her knees, both fists on the ground and she stared at all three of them, “Forgive me. I almost killed your captain out of cold blood and now I see my mistakes. Please, help me save my village.”

  Barda put his hand on Drodroh’s bow and he lowered it. He then grabbed Chesna’s hand and lifted her to her feet. “Please, lead the way.”

  She turned without hesitation and jumped onto the same tree she had climbed before sticking a dagger to Barda’s throat. This time she didn’t look back and neither did the three agents of the Order. Each of their suits had claw like blades that attached to the forearm piece and flung out with a flick of the wrist. These claw blades were good for two things: climbing trees and cutting down enemies.