traitor. The blade punctures the officer's lung and he falls to the floor. Little clouds of dust blow out from around his body as it falls lifeless, merely dead weight.
Fat Pint stirs from his stupor only to realize there's a dead Imperial officer lying on the floor of the Cactus's Prick. His mind races with the horrors that they might suffer for this transgression against the Empire. The toughs ease up on the beaten soldiers, and the soldiers know to stay down. Moonshine begins cleaning up the shattered pitcher, not knowing what other action to take given the present circumstances. Sabaku stands still and stoic over his fallen opponent. As if returning from some distant place in his mind, Sabaku looks to Fat Pint and continues his earlier appeal, “I think now is the time to leave Runner's Rest.”
The sky has grown much darker now, making unaided vision strained. They bind the six beaten soldiers and the unconscious page, then pile them into an old cart that Fat Pint has rigged to one of the soldier's horses. The page's standard is wedged between a mass of arms and legs so that it stands upright. The royal blue banner with the squawking golden albatross, proclaiming the glory of Shoukyoku's empire for all on the road to see. Sabaku slaps the horse and makes a clicking noise, and the horse begins to trot along the trail to make its way back to the Shoukyoku border, the old cart's wheels creaking as the horse climbs the path up the canyon's cliff.
Runner's Rest is no longer safe for these poor souls, and so they are forced to pack up whatever valuables they can carry only to venture out into the desert in search of somewhere safe to lodge. Since the soldiers won't be riding back to Shoukyoku, their horses are a welcome resource for this impromptu exodus. Moonshine is busy packing distillation equipment, vats, and tubing onto another cart, one already loaded down with some chickens in a small pen, clothes and blankets stuffed into every gap and crevice. She is lost in fancies, wondering what adventure she might find outside the stone walls of the canyon. The toughs scour the other shacks of Runner's Rest, salvaging anything of value to trade in the next village. Fat Pint ties his old nanny goat to the cart so she can walk alongside it as they travel. He looks at the Cactus's Prick with sadness in his heart; it has been his home and livelihood for many years. Sabaku apologizes to the hospitable barkeep for bringing such bad fortune upon him and his fair daughter, but Fat Pint retorts soberly that he should not have been so blind to the Emperor's greed looming so closely on the horizon.
Sabaku sets out on foot, leaving another horse for Fat Pint and Moonshine to help trek their wares to another town. He plans to head further west through the desert wilderness to Redemption. He knows the town as a refuge for the more hardened outlaws and criminals who find their way to Tynet. He is not taken in by the hopeful name of this den of thieves, but he must go there if he wants to remain out of Shoukyoku's reach for long.
As Sabaku steps off the beaten trail and ventures forth into the cool desert night, elsewhere a horse hauls a cart of broken soldiers past a sea of blue and gold banners. The horse-driven cart moves slowly closer to the eastern treeline, and a crew of beleaguered slaves look upon the sight in the flickering torchlight. Some of them laugh.
THE END
...perhaps not.
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Sabaku, the Deserter Vol. 0: "Showdown at the Cactus's Prick" Page 3
