Fire Fury Freedom

by Amanda Rose

  “So Adamu…” Vince began to say as he was sitting down, “how are we supposed to get past these ‘watchdogs’ on the coastline when we get there?” Vince sipped his tea. “I’m no strategist, we’ll have to circle the island and look for a place where we won’t be seen I guess,” Adamu shrugged. Jenko placed down his charcoal and grabbed his tea, “We’ll have to see what it’s like when we get there, Vince. A lot can change over the course of a few years. The only thing Mack and I both agreed on is that we have to be discreet, no one can know we’re there. Third class citizens from across the ocean wouldn’t be appreciated there, we’d find ourselves in the bottom of a cell with a leaky pipe in no time flat,” Jenko told him. Vince nodded in agreement.

  “If everything is the same as it was?” Vince curiously poked. “We’ll do just as Adamu thought; circle the continent until we find a remote area to dock,” Jenko replied. “I see… When do you think we’ll see the Green Eastern Continent again?” Vince asked with remembrance in his eyes. Jenko paused before he answered, “When we have a way to save it. That’s when.”

  A few weeks later, during the night, the ocean had become treacherous, and no one could sleep through the storm. Adamu spent his night desperately trying to control the ship as the sea tossed them about, like the wind does to an autumn leaf. They held on as best they could to the furniture, in order to keep from being thrown about within the ship, while the wind howled all around them violently. Several times the hatch above the cabin was ripped opened, and snow mixed and sea water poured in, drenching them with an icy touch.

  Yu-Lee was morbidly dreadful, spending the entire night in the bathroom vomiting. Jenko stayed with her the entire night through, and everyone else was in between the mess hall and the cabin. “Will it ever end? I’m… argh! Tired of sliding around,” Mei complained as the vessel rocked, and she yet again lost her footing. “This has gotta end soon!” Vince said exasperated. “We better not flip over or imma’ be pissed,” Kato said with a death grip on the pipe above him, “Shi’! Get the door… it’s flooding again!” Kato yelled over the howling wind. “Got it!” Mei said, soaked. “Whew…” Kato sighed.

  Kairu had held on all night with little more then a peep, simply looking about the room with weary eyes from time to time. Everyone was burnt out from lack of sleep and small rations; another week left on this ship was not a prospect that they were pleased about. The door to the cabin flung open and Seresuto perched herself in the doorway. “Hold on back there! We’re coming up to a big one!” she yelled. Vince caught eye of what she meant through the door, past Seresuto, out the front window; they were playing chicken with a massing wave. It was rearing up like a horse that would come back down with a deadly thump. He saw Suako beside him loosing her hold on the bar she’d been holding onto, and he grabbed her and attempted to shield her with his body. The grumble of the sea was echoing off the walls, all that was left was the hit; and it came.

  Mercilessly the ocean craft was rendered helpless by the gigantic wave. It plunged down right on top of them with a force so strong that the pressure was crushing the structure. The water crashing above them cause the metal of the ceiling to screech as dented slightly inward. The fury of the briny deep showed them it’s power on trespassers, and the ship was swept away. Darkness was all that was left…

  The heat, it’s burning so strong. Sands stretching on and on, nothing but the sand ahead, nothing but the sand behind. It was vast, all the eye could see in every direction. The light brown ground was glistening under the midday sun, but the calm day didn’t stir the malleable grounds of the desert. Only cactuses to break up the baron place; the sand was stretching on into eternity. It hurt the soles of bare treading feet under the fierce sweltering sun; skin felt tight over muscle and bone as it shrivelled in the earthly inferno.

  All life roasted under the intense light. Cloudless skies provided no protection for the life that foolishly crept below, and the boiling dry temperatures left a false sense of movement in the distance. Just heat waves in the far off, swaying back and forth, like rippling waves in a pond disturbed by a random skipping stone.

  Blazing heat, like fire, prickled on sensitive skin, and it felt as though flesh may as well be melting off of skeletal remains of men and women who dared across the desert. Beading sweat dripped down overheated foreheads, stinging eyes that squinted out the blaring white sun. Exhaustion, so much wretched fatigue, crippled otherwise capable bodies. On and on like machines that wouldn’t stop, one painful step after another.

  So tired. Sleep… I just want to sleep. Why go on? How long have we been walking? Why keep walking. Maybe if my legs fall off I won’t have to go any further… No, then you’d crawl. Still too attached to life... You’re such a pussy! You suck! Yeah, I know. But I’m not ready to die, not yet. I will not quit... You won’t make it anyway!... Shut up! I’ll make it, even if it kills me!... Oh, aren’t you the witty one!

  “Kato! Kato, hurry! I see it… We’re almost there!” A tall woman called down to him from atop a sand dune. Her voice was weary, but it was enough to knock Kato free of the two-sided conversation in his mind. The several other excursionists behind Kato somehow found their second wind at the news, and hastened their speed. Wiping the perspiration off his brow, he looked up to see her, “Tha ‘s great, Nayu.” He panted as he tackled the hill, it seemed almost futile to climb, each step displaced the sand. It took three times as long to hike up these dastardly sand dunes then some regular firm ground. Press! Sink… Press! Sink… Aggravation continued to accumulate.

  Press! Sink… Press! Sink… again and again. The scalding granules wedged in, and ploughed threw his toes. Each grain inflicting pain upon raw blistering skin. Press! Sink… Almost to the top. Almost there… just a little bit more. Kato’s trembling legs were on the brink of collapsing. Can’t give in. Not now, not yet… He made a deal with himself. As soon as he reached the top of the hill he could fall over and just lay there and rest. Press! Sink… Press! Sink… There! Success! He claimed victory over the defeating climb, but stayed standing upright. Somehow the motivational promise to collapse had lost its touch when he saw his hometown at the bottom of the dune.

  Nayu threw her arms around Kato’s wavering body and cheered. Her chocolate brown skin glistened as her sweaty body sparkled in the sunlight. Kato raised his arm and patted hers affectionately with his swelling fingers. Looking down at the small village he longed to get there as soon as possible. He could see the sand building with their cookie cutter square windows and the colourful canopies that stretched out from them. Clothing lines stretched from one house to another, with wet garments hanging from them, left out to sun dry.

  The well in the centre of town looked inviting, and Kato would’ve like nothing better than the cool refreshing water it contained. The stale water in their canteens, hot from the baking sun, had been making him nauseous every time he sloshed it around in around his mouth. Surrounding the well he could just make out the bustling city people as they ran to-and-fro between vendors in the town square. They’d finally arrived back home with their goods.

  The rest of the commuting people behind them began to stumble to the top of the mound. They managed to drag up their wooden cart without letting it fall once, as the struggled upward. Celebratory hollers sounded all around. Somehow, they summoned the strength and energy to dash down the steep slope to the gates of the sand built city. It would have been so easy, too easy, to have just tripped and rolled down to the entrance to Sheikarah, but they managed to stay upright for the run.

  Shade, glorious shade! Free me from the sweltering beating of this hellish heat! Kato’s legs nearly tumbled like cogwheels. Nayu ran just ahead of him, and the other merchants found themselves running now just to keep ahead of the cart. Kato and Nayu heard their screams as they dashed, and it had been so funny they could help but to stop running in order to laugh. Their muscles went limp as the diversion impeded them. A mix of the cackling and being burnt out sent them to the ground, their convulsive how
ling subsided eventually when there was no more energy left to laugh.

  Back in town many friendly faces welcomed them home and swarmed their cart for the goods they had brought to town. Money soared high in hands, and bidding wars began before the even reached the market. Nayu and Kato said farewell to the merchant men they’d travelled with, and let them handle the greedy grabbing hands, and tilling the abundant money. They trailed from the crowd to the well, which was now vacant of swarming people.

  Gulp! Gulp! The revitalising elixir of life replenished lost strength. The dry patch at the back of Kato’s throat started to disappear. Kato offered the pail to Nayu, and she drank the rest. As she lowered the pail, after drinking heartily, water trickled down her chin. Kato smiled her and caught the droplets before they fell. “Common,” he tilted his head, “Let’s go ge’ our cut.”

  The ventured down a shady ally, and the relief was like stepping out of an oven. His wakizashi blade bounced in its sheath against his desert camouflage pants. Nayu and Kato’s matched attire signalled their alliance to the locals. They were well known in Sheikarah as being the best transports through the perilous land of thievery. Praise ran high at their presence.

  “…He better not try to cheap out again. I swear if he does…” Nayu angrily shook her fist. Her eye was always on the mark; her pay. She hated being gypped. Kato agreed, they had done an enormous load of work; no way were they taking a suckers share. “Dun worry Nayu. I be makin’ sure that he’s gonna pay up,” Kato assured her. “Good,” she said as she lifted the falling strap of her neutral tank top.

  Emerging out on the other side of the ally it was stepping back into the inferno of the oven. Straight-ahead was a fortress of a place, flower ground paints of red and yellow had been used to decorate the building with triangles encased the building. Two sentries, covered in light linen robes, stood post to the sides of the wooden door wedged between the hardened sand structures rectangular doorframe. Like statues they did not flinch. Their threatening curving swords reflected the sun, blinding anyone looking at it, were at easy access from their hip holsters. The men were prepared to deal with intruders.

  Kato and Nayu approached them, and the guards respectfully bowed to them. They were frequent visitors. The man to the right opened the door for them, and into the atrium the entered. The other guard went in and fetched the house-master for them to conduct their business with.

  As they waited Kato noticed that the pool in the middle of the room had run dry. Nayu reclined on the red upholstered couch, then, noticing a fruit bowl on the side table, she grabbed a handful of grapes. She began popping them into her mouth. Nayu was not shy by any means, she would make herself at home without needing any invitation to do so.

  Nayu had always been that way. Ever since they were little she fended for herself, she learned how to survive. Now in her late teens she was a scavenger. She would make ends meet one way or another, but she always did it in an honest manner. But she had an attitude, refusing to take lip from anyone.

  Kato had been orphaned at a young age, when a group of bandits robbed his parents, and left them for dead in the middle of the open desert. “They took their cart and horses… didn’t even leave them food or water,” Kato remembered the voices of his neighbours, family friends, conversing as he was in their care. They spoke as if he weren’t there, “…They died of dehydration.” Kato didn’t understand what they were saying. He was too young to comprehend what they meant. “…Kato they’re not coming back. We’re sorry,” they told him. So many apologies came to him. Why? ‘Dehydration’? What was that? ‘Died’? “I wan’ ma’ momma… Where’s daddy?” No one answered the child, only sympathetic gazes came his way. It had been his fourth birthday and his parents had been returning with gifts for him.

  Kato was put into an orphanage in Sheikarah, where he met Nayu. She’d had the same problem; her parents were killed by bandits. They became close quickly, watching out for each other’s back, and as time passed they grew they became closer and closer. Nayu started to learn how to care for herself, not having anyone but Kato to look out for her. Kato was the only person rather than herself that she placed any trust in, and he knew that.

  They self taught themselves how to fight, determined to never be at the mercy of others ever again. When Nayu was fourteen, and Kato fifteen, they left the orphanage. The overcrowding made it easy for them to decide that they were better to set out on their own. So, they left, taking what little money, their parents had left to their credit. They decided to try and open a fruit stand in the market to make ends meet, and they had arranged for transports bring them exotic fruits from across the dessert. Unfortunately, it did not work out as they had originally planned, and the two found that they were losing money, because their cargo often didn’t make it to them. The pillaging outlaws struck any travellers they found and took their goods. In the end the had to close their stand, and were getting so short on cash that they could barely pay for shelter and food.

  The annoyance of the bandit attacks sparked an idea between the two of them. It was a cognitive thought: If the bandits hassle everyone so much, why don’t we do something about them? And just like that they started they own escort service. They accompanied travelling caravans, families, private officials, and anyone else in need, as their acting bodyguards.

  After several close calls they managed to ward off the raiding gangsters. With each successful crossing their popularity grew, and word spread fast. In no time at all they found more people than they could possibly accommodate trying to hire them. At that point, for Nayu, it came down to whoever the highest bidder was.

  And that’s how it was. The last three years they had spent constantly going from one place to another. Their journeys were always harsh, but the rewards had become phenomenal, not to mention the treatment from their renown. People revered them everywhere they went, especially in Sheikarah they were highly regarded, and well respected. They were treated so well, Kato supposed, because they ensured the livelihood and safety of the people; a security that for so long did not exist.

  “…Care for a grape?” Nayu swayed the stem of juicy warm fruit in front of Kato. The purple skin was transparent in the daylight. He shook his head, then crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. The cool surface conducted through his epidermis, and the relief was heavenly. He crossed his right foot over the left and just enjoyed the drastic change to the feel of his skin. His body tingled from the cold. Nayu was always moving, either tapping her foot, or looking around. In a hyperactive way she was always on the look out, as if always waiting for the ball to drop, and something horrendous to occur, though she’d never admit to it.

  Kato yawned and rested his eyes; he’d personally had rather headed straight home to bathe and sleep before attending to business. Unfortunately, Nayu lost her edge when she wasn’t with Kato, and she couldn’t rest until she had her cut. Her uneasiness extended to a whole new level, she wanted to get her payment as soon as possible. Against his own desires he usually folded to her will; they watched out for each other, and that wasn’t about to stop now.

  Kato rubbed his eyes to refresh himself, and moments later, they were finally beckoned forth. They went through the left corridor, past two rooms, and entered the third. It was an office, sand shelves, of the same concoction that formed the walls, extended from the walls of the study and held many books and a few miniature trinkets. On the desk ahead, made of the rare island red-wood, some more trinkets lay, and a special one caught Kato’s eye, it was a carving of the extinct animal Kato remembered to have been told was an elephant, made from some sort of animal bone. A man sat behind the desk scribing in a bound book of parchment.

  As they approached, and their feet stepped off the carpet and clicked against the hard floor, they got the man’s attention. He book-marked his page and then placed his work aside, removed his spectacles, and a grand smile stretched across his face. “I see you’ve made it back, a day early too, my thanks,” he turned his head and nodded to
his guard. A chest was presented before them, “Here is your fee.” Nayu wasn’t shy to open it and count it.

  “I trust you had good passage?” he made small talk. “Yeah. Wasn’ too bad Gakushi,” Kato replied. Gakushi was a prosperous salesman; wealthy, but a weasel with a tight wallet. The man’s smile was sly. Kato glimpsed at the chest and soon realised why, there was at least an extra ten-percent in there. Something was off, Gakushi was never overly generous; In fact, it occurred to Kato, that it was rare if they even got their just deserved amount.

  So, what’s the catch? Kato’s eyes glared at Gakushi as he leaned forward on the desk. The man laughed and stood up. “I see you noticed your bonus! I have a special job for you. My daughter is to go inland to Torusan to further her education at a higher-level school, funded by the C.D.F.P. Company. I want you to escort her across on the boat, and every step of the way to her destination. If you do that, I’ll triple your usual bounty. What do you say?” He put forth the job. That was the first Kato had ever heard about Torusan, or the C.D.F.P.

  Without hesitation Nayu accepted, “Great, when do we leave?” she asked, her eyes always on the loot. Kato turned to look at her in shock for not even asking him his opinion. “Excellent, in three days come back here, and be prepared, it’s a long journey,” Gakushi said. No questions at all, it was done; the deal had been made. At the time Kato’s only qualms had been that he wanted some time off, and to have been consulted first.

  They finalised the arrangements with Gakushi, and then left with the chest. They got home, back out of the sun, and Kato’s full sense of fatigue set in. Nayu had been ecstatic with the job they were about to take, but even she was beginning to feel the extent of how run down her body was. It was time to rest, but first they hide their gold away.

  Down to naked skin, they stripped off all their layers of sand and sweat stained clothes. They then entered the carved pool in the floor, under where the ceiling opened to the sky above. The rain naturally kept the pool filled with fresh clean water for bathing. Light blue sky with wispy clouds passed on by overhead. The water was cool, and washed off the sweat. Nayu squeezed a sponge free of its retained water, and the droplets trickled down from the top of Kato’s head. Drip, drip, drip…