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Ash
Chapter 5
They stepped out onto the patio. The smell of spring around them. The man ‘Jason’ stepping out after them, but he stopped right after his foot hit the patio, loss and sadness glinting in his eyes.
After a few seconds of him staring Lylli spoke up
“Hey. Jason, you good?”
“Yep. All good.” he said almost shaking off the feelings, inhaling deeply.
“Got to love springtime” he said as he strode forward and off the patio, taking a seat on one of the chairs which collapsed under him, hitting the ground with a hard thump.
“Jeez dude!” Lylli said rushing forward helping him up “Any broken bones?” Lylli asked almost mocking him as she helped him up.
“Yep. I should be good. The chairs were old anyway,” He said, the sadness sneaking back into his eyes “let's head back inside, shall we?” He asked, waving the girls back into the house.
Lylli started to head inside but stopped dead in her tracks, making me bump into her.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” I say walking into her at full force, surprised at how we both are still standing.
“Shut up and look,” she said pointing at the sky “isn’t that the acrobat girls' bird? Do you think they sent us a letter bird? “
“Improbable. But not impossible.” I said, already calling the bird over and reaching out my hand for the raven to land on. And there was a golden, engraved hoop around the bird's leg with the Rhonian words that meant ‘military bird. Handler name: Luna Axessar from the third battalion’ Luna huh. The acrobat's name. She shows great potential. I slid the letter free from the letter holder connected to the ring. “Corporal Lylliana. We are waiting for you in the abandoned loft building just off the third street. The safest entrance is in the fifteenth alleyway from the north on the same street.
-With greetings and safe travels, Luna of the third battalion”
I finished reading the letter out loud and handed it to Lylli
“Guess we will need to get going. Jason,” she said commanding attention to herself “would you please lead us to the address?”
“Sure thing.” He said, smiling at Lylli. A moment after he answered Lylli turned and strode into the house; I followed behind shortly walking up the stairs after her.
***
After a few minutes Lylli exited the room in a military style jacket and two swords forming a cross on her back. I took one of my pistols, and strapped knives to my leg, my arm and two knives across my back. Just in case. We walked downstairs where Jason was already waiting for us. When he spotted Lyllis swords he asked:
“so it’s that type of reunion, huh? I guess I’ll get my weapons as well then?” He said, unlocking the door underneath the stairs that opened into a room full of weapons, pulling out a belt from which hung two rifles with light brown handles and silver barrels. He whipped the belt around his hips, closed the door to the weapon room and turned around asking: “Shall we?” with a grin on his face.
***
When we arrived to the right street the surroundings had changed from a street full of houses that are falling apart and lined with drunks and beggars to houses made out of white stone and marble, the sides of streets full of peaceful street vendors selling all sorts of crystals, breads and flowers, the windows wide open and flowers of all colors blooming out of them.
The people were different as well. Not just by looks but also how they walked and carried themselves. They held their heads high and backs straight. And even by looks they were as if a whole other species: they wore light coats that were purple, yellow and ivory, the women wore long gloves and small hats that must have been pinned to their heads. The men wore long coats, made of light fabrics that were brown, dark blue and black, under the coats they wore waistcoats or sweater wests, looking like scholars. Behind most ladies or couples were carrier boys usually shorter and typically not that handsome, but at the same time not particularly ugly either. Guess the husbands don’t want their wives to cheat on them with their servants.
“Ash. We’re here.” Lylli whispered into my ear, startling me.
We turned into the thirteenth ally and on their right was a building with high windows and two large sliding doors with two guards leaning against the wall. Both of them were smoking cigarettes.
“HEY! I told you guys not to smoke! It’ll kill your damn lungs! Did neither of you listen while I was talking before the mission?!” Lylli said, almost making the two guards jump stomping forward startling one of the guards making him pull a gun out and pointing it at Lylli, wavering slightly between her, me and Jason.
One of the sliding doors opened, a short, built girl stepping out saying “Corporal Lylli. Nice to see you again.” She stuck out her hand. “I am Neil. Please excuse these dimwits, they don’t know what’s going on.” She shot the guys a cold and reprimanding look, that seemingly commanding the boy to but the gun down and hand it over to the boy behind the young girl. What was his name? Oscar? Yeah. It is “Shall we head inside? I could bet on the fact that the others are going to be ecstatic to see you again. At the end of the day, you are the face of our revolution.” Said the girl, Neil, as she guided them inside.
Inside the building, there were a lot of people. Twice as many as they had brought here from Rhonia. Did they recruit more people or what? There was a wooden crate by the wall that was toward the street set up like a little stage, about twenty bedrolls set up in a corner and in the corner opposite to it was the make-shift mess hall. The right-hand-man, Oscar, had fallen into line next to me. Does he think I’m Lyllis right hand? I’m not. Right? I glanced at the boy that stood next to me. He had ten colors in his dark brown hair which meant ten years. Each symbolizing one year. He had transferred to their base about two years ago as a part of a program for military kids whose parents had died. He had gray eyes, one of which was covered by an eyepatch.
“Hey. If I may ask, what happened to your eye?” I asked cautiously
“It got picked out by a gorgon.” He said. Shit. Will he kill me or what? All of a sudden, he grinned like an idiot, put his hand on my shoulder and said almost laughing “No, no! I’m sorry. It was just a fight,” he lifted the patch “it’s a method for hiding a black eye. See otherwise people would stare with fear, scared that I might hurt them. But now they just think that I’m blind in this eye, which also makes me seem weaker and less scary.” He stuck his hand out “I’m Oscar. What’s your name?”
“I'm Ash.” I said shaking his hand.
“I take it by your demeanor, and the way you speak to Lylli you aren’t her right hand, are you?” he said as we continued to follow Neil and Lylli
“Damn, what a great way to get my suspicions confirmed. And yes. I'm just her friend and companion in betraying our parents’ trust.”
I heard Lyllis voice as worried and anxious as ever
“ASH!!?? WHERE ARE YOU??!!”
I turned and told Oscar who was desperately trying not to laugh
“That's my cue to leave. The unstable ‘face of our revolution’ needs my help. See you ‘round" I said walking away and into the crowd to find Lylli.
I found Lylli sitting around other familiar faces. One I recognized as Luna. Hey, I’m not good with putting names and faces together; she just had the raven on her shoulder. One of them was a brunette, with two blond streaks in the front of her hair. Luna turned out to be a small girl that was perched on a stack of grates, wearing a military uniform for outside missions, that were made especially so you wouldn’t be spotted that easily. She was wearing little accessories here and there that had stars and birds on them. The brunette was the first to notice me. She coughed lightly, most likely to draw attention to me.
“Here you are. You wandered off.” Said Lylli standing up and hugging me.
“Hey, you were the one who ran away, Ly.”
“Oh,” She said turning to the girls sitting around waiting for Lylli to introduce me “this is Ash. My partner in crime and revolution. You’ve met Neil,” she said pointing to the purple haired girl “that is Luna, the bird girl,” she introduced the acrobat girl, shooting her an apologetic look “and that is Halley. She has proved to be quite important in this rebellion.”
As if right on cue Jason stumbled through the crowd with two people almost hauling him over. The change on Lyllis face was instant. The happiness was instantly replaced by anger.
“Miss, we found this guy outside. Where should we take him?” one of the guys asked, staring right at Neil.
“And what did he say when you asked him what he was doing here?” Neli asked
“That he was escorting Lylli and her friend.”
“And did you ask the outside guards if it was true?”
“No…” the guy muttered back in response.
All this happened while Lylli was deeply engaged in a conversation with the other girls.
Suddenly someone came running through the crowd. He gave a little bow to Neil, Lylli and, weirdest of all, me. I mean. Lylli and Neil, I can understand someone bowing to, but me? Then I had the opportunity to look the guy in the face. It was Michael. Michael, the guy that had spent ten years in this system, was bowing to me.
I got sidetracked. Anyways.
“Please forgive me. I tried to stop them but they didn’t listen.” Michael said. He looked defeated. Like someone had doused him in water.
Lylli, who had sat herself down on the table hopped down and walked up to Michael, putting her hand onto his shoulder flashing a wide grin.
“Don’t worry about that. It isn’t your job to check up on them and make sure that they are doing their jobs, right?” She said turning her head at Neil, her smile disappearing from her face, tilting her head as if questioning her but not giving her enough time before turning to the two guys still holding Jason by the shoulders, grinning again “so, gents. What are you waiting for? Haven’t you heard the stories of the dead guards and me being at fault? How do you know that it isn’t true?” she said with big eyes making her look innocent then narrowing her eyes and saying quietly “Run. Don’t let me catch you.”
The boys turned and ran through the crowd as Lylli turned to Jason asking: “You good big man? “
“Yup. They didn't do anything that bad. Just pulled a gun on me. That's it. “
Neil finally spoke up saying: “I'm so sorry Lylli. I promise it won't happen again.”
“Why apologize to me? I'm not the one that got threatened with a gun.”
She turned to Jason: “I'm so incredibly sorry about that. It won't happen again.” She looked like it pained her to say it.
***
I was told to stand by the stage that Lylli was going to give a speech on. I had been handed an assault rifle and a military jacket from the inventory of extra clothing we had for some reason. I looked to the other side of the stage and to no one's surprise, there stood Oscar. He was staring forward with a look that could pierce a diamond. He was armed with the same assault rifle as me and some knives. Eight to be exact.
Lylli walked out from the back of the stage. She shot me a glance of pure confusion and then continued onto the stage. Oscar tapped his gun against the ground once and I followed. Some of the younger kids didn't stop talking but some older ones shot them nasty looks so that effectively shut them up.
Lylli began the speech with “Dear ladies, gents, children and everything in between” I zoned out for the rest of the speech.
The people in the crowd were split into groups: about five smaller children standing in front of an older soldier. I spotted Luna walking in the ceiling, a girl that I recognize as Halley was doing her best not to fall to her death, finally finding a spot to sit down and focus on Lyllis speech. I should probably focus on what Ly is saying.
“And if some of you don't want to do it any more you can go home. And for any of those who want to stay please, despite how much you hate your parents, do make sure that you have someone to tell your parents what happened to you. If your dead, in jail, please don't tell them that your kidnapped, even that you found a lover and now are living your life out on an island. You don't have to stay or go back home. You can go anywhere. The only border is your imagination. Thank you for listening to me. Now. On this side of the room, everyone that wants to stay. This one all that don't want to.”
I watched everyone flock to the side of the room that was for the people that wanted to leave. I saw the light of happiness leave Lyllis eyes as she turned to face me. I gave her a little nod, almost asking her if she wanted to stay. She returned it. I stepped onto the stage grabbed her hand and dragged her to the other side of the room and shouted up at Luna and Halley
“Which side.” They looked at each other and Luna pointed to the side that we were standing on. The side of staying. The side of revolution.
***
We found a Rhonia bound ship and easily bribed the crew to get the rest of the children back home.
When we got back we found Jason sitting on the ground with dozens of children surrounding him most of them slumped against each other sleeping. It turned out that he was telling them stories from his prior adventures.
We found some of the older people and gave them the rundown.
“We leave at sunrise. We’ll take you to the ship and tell the crew what to tell the guards at the military harbor. It should all go on without a hitch.”
They all nodded in agreement and went to pack their bags and put their kids to bed.
“Come to sleep soon ok.” Lylli told me as she put a kid to bed
“I will. Good night.” I answered and turned away.
I went to look for Jason. I thought he might be hang9ing out with some of the other kids.
I found him sitting around on the roof laughing with the two guys that had dragged him in earlier, Oscar, Luna, Halley, and some others.
“Ah, Ash, there you are! I was just asking about you.”
“Jason, can we talk?”
“Sure kid. What about?”
“Under four eyes please.”
He stood up and we walked off
“What did ‘ya want to talk about kid?”
“First, don’t call me that. Second, could we maybe stay with you after we send the others away?”
“First, Sorry. I didn’t know. Second, how many rooms would you need? I’d be happy to have a whole revolution under my roof.”
“We aren’t a revolution. But thanks.”
He stretched his arms out as if waiting for a hug. I shook my head.
“Not there yet?” he asked putting his arms down
“Not even close”
He let out a chuckle and pet my head.