Keeping With Destiny

by Stephan Knox

  Stew crawled back until he was squatting beside her. His hand took her arm and pulled her gently, farther away from the cage. The slight brush of his fingers felt soft against her skin and she quickly jerked her arm from him, but it was too late. She felt the soft warmth ripple through her body, wanting that soft touch back. She forced an impatient huff towards him to conceal the true effect on her. The last thing she needed to happen now was get aroused, or yes— it was definitely going to be an awfully long road trip.

  Stew pushed the shades up to rest on his head, his eyes shifted towards the door. “You go ahead and get a stretch and freshen up in the creek. I’ll take care of our prisoner.” His eyes following her out, setting off a chill under the intensity of his blue eyes. She paused outside the scamper, glancing in at him. Seeing his eyes for the first time now that he didn’t have the sun shades on. How strange that he too had the same blue eyes as Tannin. Blue was a rare gene and to come across them twice in a matter of days was beyond chance.

  Aari hovered just outside the scamper, still watching Stew as he turned to release the shackles on the prisoner’s wrists, but paused, a slight glance her way without fully looking at her.

  “Go on, Aari. I can’t pull him out until you’re clear.”

  Aari shot him a disgruntled look, even if he wasn’t looking. She turned, but then snapped back glancing inside the truck, “Hey, wait. How did you know there was a creek here?” She eyes him ostentatiously.

  He paused, glancing over his shoulder then back to unlocking the prisoner, “Been this way before, remember? Now go.”

  Aari marched off for the creek. Bad enough having a behemoth riding with her, but at every turn he had taken the gull to already telling her what to do. Even took her guns away. It was her transport.

  Still, if Tannin was going to make a run for it and kill his captors in the process, she really didn’t want to be anywhere close by.

  After a good extended stop to just be able to stretch and move about, they were back on the road. Aari was looking her shotgun driver over again. This time with more scrutiny. For some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. At least what she could see which wasn’t much now that he had gone back to wearing the shemagh in full wrap, even covering the lower half of his face most of the time. And he’d never taken the eyeshades off until today. Just those blue eyes. There was something about his eyes. “Do you ever take the sand rags off?”

  “Only if I’m going to have sex,” he answered nonchalantly.

  Aari rolled her eyes, she was certain there was a wicked smile under his mask, but she wasn’t about to give him the benefit of one. Exhausted and ready for some sleep, she climbed in the back where she was finally able to stretch out.

  “Is that your way of saying—” he sounded surprised.

  “Sleep, you mongrel. I need sleep.”

  “Aari, I told you once already to sleep up front.” His surprise gone, and other non-sensible commands were barked her way.

  “Fucking bite me!” she snapped back.

  “Is that your open invitation?”

  “In your dreams, keep your rag on. If I even see it slipping, I’ll shoot you first then ask about your intentions.”

  Tannin laughed at her. He had to give her credit for her saucy attitude, just like the little mouse that was crawling around in the air ducts over his head. But nothing else was what he’d imagined. Her face was awash with innocence, yet her eyes were dulled with isolation and loneliness. Neither of which had he planned to correct in her life. He was here for her gift; in return he would provide her protection, but nothing else beyond that. Regardless of the physical desire he felt for her which he attributed to nothing more than his drive towards his destiny and the predatory senses he possessed that scented her breeding pheromones. Love and endless sex were not on the agenda, and he willingly accepted that he would have a chance to enjoy neither with another woman in his life again— once Aari agreed to their union— since, once done, was irreversible.

  He glanced in the mirror at the hostage in the holding cage, still gagged and bagged. At least she didn’t fight him on that, but it irked him at the same time, that she so freely tolerated the treatment of the prisoner. After she’d crawled through the air ducts at the risk of treason to see him, now she allowed the prisoner to remain bound in such a way. But perhaps she was just that good at maintaining a muted existence in front of the others. If she felt anything for the prisoner— for him— she hid it all too well. Not even her scent betrayed her on this one.

  TRUTHS SLIPPING

  It was day four, they’d finally left the barren waste lands behind. Now lush green valleys nestled at the foothills of the mountain range became their scenery and Tannin occasionally cracked the window open to let the smell of the mountain forest in.

  He relaxed back with his legs stretched out as best as the scamper allowed, while Aari took over the wheel for the remaining daylight. She was keeping to less favorable roads to avoid other transients known for the area, which bothered him none. The farther away from the Skaddary and anyone else, the better, before she realized she’d been duped. He even opted to always sleep up front to the detriment of his long legs, just to keep close to her. Spending much of the trip drawing in her scent, as well as trying to decide where he could take her, so they could perform the union in safety. Then where to hide her away to be safe afterwards. It was too late to catch up with his tribe on their way to the southern winter fields, unless perhaps the titans, the radio man spoke of, had been some of his brethren. But even they should have long since passed through this region. So where to? And how to keep Aari and him supplied with gear and food? The farther north they traveled, the colder the coming winter would be. Questions he had yet to plan out, and the ongoing debate exhausted him such that he soon gave up on the acted-out snoring he made, dredging up a badger like sensory within him and the animal’s snuffling traits made for a good annoying snore to fool anyone. True sleep came as easily through the jolts of the scamper, as if being rocked with a lullaby— when he wasn’t faking it. Not so much the movement that put him at ease, but it was the light scent of feminine honey and spring fresh air sitting next to him. It made him the calmest he’d ever been. Even the dream he’d had so many times for as long as he could remember didn’t disturb him. Now when he slept, instead of visions of being in the middle of the nightmare of Terra’s past, he was only a viewer of it, and how it would shape his future—

  ~~ Tannin saw himself drifting over burning landscapes as Terra’s surface still shuddered violently. The broken surface of the ground jutting up like mountains, thrust towards the sky, sending dust, fire, and ash into the atmosphere. In other areas, water rushed in, dousing the flames, cooling the rage, and washing away the evidence. Everywhere in between, people cried out in fear and in pain.

  The earth’s violent upheaval settled after a day. Only now, the days moved backwards.

  He heard the whispering words of the elders telling how Terra’s crust had flipped her polar points up and over. He heard them explain while he saw the military forces making attempts to bring civilians back to order, grouping survivors together into colonies. Like a montage that played out before him, one scene fading into the other, he watched as survivors did what they could to put cities back together. Some abandoned the machines that didn’t work; moving on, they learned to live without.

  He saw the generals from the old government military, meant to protect and maintain, stand up and declared Martial Law in the chaos. They turned rogue warlords and proclaimed themselves rulers, forcing the survivors to serve them by controlling the engineers that were able to restore the power systems of the old-world. But without steady technology, trying to control masses of people, over vast kilometers of broken land, proved nearly impossible. Despite that, the crimson trail of blood stains they left behind would forever bear them the names as the Blood Made Lords. Then just the Blood Lords.

  The dream shifted, Tannin saw a band of
people leaving all that was behind and wandered off into no man’s land. Tannin’s dream followed them as they grew in numbers, drifting across the land like nomadic elk, merging with another that came from across the great sea. Together calling themselves the Destiny’s Bedouin Tribes. They kept recluse for generations, venturing close to the restored cities only to trade and gather news.

  A babe’s cry echoed in his head and drew him down to a dark, clammy room in the cellar of a fortress. A midwife held up a child still wet from its mother’s womb and all spindly legs and arms. The older woman announced to a man standing nearby he had a son, then wrapped the newborn in swaddling cloth, and handed him over to the waiting, resting mother.

  The room fell silent, almost stilled when a blind old hag was guided into the room and she laid a gnarled and wrinkled hand on the newborn’s head. “He is the one we’ve been waiting for. Your service here must end. Take the boy with you and prepare him. For one day, the Blood Lords will die at his hand.” ~~

  Tannin jolted awake at the sudden stench of residual fuel burn and the exhaust from what could be none other than one of the newly restored Scion MV4 fly-a-bouts. It nearly choked him, and he bolted up in the seat, “Stop the scamper now!”

  “What?” Aari’s foot already slammed on the brakes before getting the reason why.

  “Get out now!” There wasn’t time to explain. Tannin crawled over the center console, grabbing up gear packs, opened the side door and tossed them out just as the scamper skidded to a complete stop.

  Aari was suddenly there, climbing back to release the prisoner.

  “Leave him.”

  “What? Are you crazy? What’s going on?”

  Tannin snatched her arm, dragging her out of the scamper with him, while gathering the straps on the gear bags, and hoisting them up on his shoulder.

  Aari jerked like a wild cat in his hand. “What are you doing? I gotta get him outta there!”

  Tannin was almost touched that she might have cared for the prisoner, but he didn’t have time to explain just yet. The stench of fuel was fresh and if the fly-a-bout was still in range, it could easily pick up their vehicle’s heat signature on their monitors, and they definitely didn’t want to be around when the MV4 came back.

  But before he took another step, something cut into the skin on his hand, causing a sharp pain, enough that he let go of her. The little hellion broke free and disappeared back into the scamper. He examined the small cut just about a nail long, just a tad more threatening than a scratch on the back heel of his thumb. Whatever it was she’d used, it was small and sharp as any blade. A moment later, she was hopping back out with the bound prisoner on a leash. If it weren’t for the urgency, it would have been worth a laugh.

  Tannin snatched the chain around the man’s neck and tugged hard, “Let’s go!” He was grateful that Aari followed without further persuasion, her gun out and poised ready to fire. Not that it would do her any good against an MV4. But there was no sense in pointing that out right now.

  “What’s going on, Stew?”

  “Scion MV4.”

  “How do you know?”

  “The after burn and fuel. Don’t you smell it?”

  Aari sent her nose into the air, obviously coming up empty, expressed with a shake of her head. “No.”

  “Well, trust me, it’s there.” He hurried her forward towards nearby trees.

  “And what does that mean anyways? Sky-on M whatever?”

  “It means a whole lot of fire power is too close for our comfort and your scamper is nothing more than a beacon to our location. Now run!”

  They ran in silence for a good distance until they’d made their way through thick sections of woods, stopping for a break only when they came upon a small lake at the edge of the woods that gave them just enough clear sky to see if anyone was coming.

  Tannin dropped the bags to the ground and walked over to the water, scooping some up in the cup of his hand, and splashed his face several times. Giving his nostrils a wash as well to clear the scent of fuel that seemed to cling there. If the Scion made a return pass, he wanted to pick up on a fresh smell.

  He stood and readjusted the tuareg before walking back to rejoin Aari. He found her bent over, standing against a tree, trying to regain her breath. Their prisoner flopped on the ground at the next tree over, doing much of the same behind the bag over his head.

  “How do you know they’re not following us?” Aari managed to pant the question out in between heaving breaths.

  “Did you see anything flying over our heads?”

  Her face squinted up in a scowl. “No, of course not.”

  “Then they’re not following us.”

  “That’s absurd!” She shot up. “There hasn’t been anything in the air for a fifty or more solar cycles.”

  “You’re wrong. They’ve figured out a way to get them back up again.”

  “You know this for certain?”

  “Yes.” Tannin kept his attention more on the sky but answered her questions. He had a good feeling she wasn’t the type to let up until she had them.

  “Then why hasn’t anyone at base been notified of this? How is it you— a lowly laborer, knows about this, and not the rest of Skaddary? Don’t you think everyone there should be informed that the lords have flying machines again?”

  Tannin fell silent, forgetting he was still parading as Stew, and of course, it hadn’t occurred to him that they didn’t know about the Scions or possibly the other flying short-range darts now in operation. “I don’t know why the base hasn’t been told.” He turned away. Not wanting to get into any long drawn out false explanation. Smelling the lie on his own tongue was far worse than smelling one from someone else.

  Wait. How would he have known at all? He was just a laborer, one who had never been off base. She glanced over at him as he watched the sky then started to look through the packs he had brought. Yet he had told her just yesterday he had been through here before. That that was how he knew about the creek. She narrowed her eyes as the realizations came to her and she felt the disturbance in her back. Blue eyes. Stew wasn’t who her commanders thought he was. A spy perhaps? Or an AWOL from one of the Blood Lords?

  Regardless, he was in her way.

  Aari paused, her eyes shifting to Tannin still seated against a tree, trying fiercely to breathe. She only needed a few minutes. Once he was loose, he could make a run for it. Perhaps this mv-whatever it was, was enough of a threat that it would deter Stew from laying pursuit. It was worth a try, because she knew of no other way right now. When she saw Stew watching her, she changed her focus, making her own catalogue of the gear tossed on the ground before her. Her bag wasn’t with them or her secret stolen prize. “My pack! You didn’t take my pack.”

  Stew stepped up and glanced down at the bags on the ground, then at her. His shades were gone, most likely lost in the woods and the look in his eyes showed he suspected she was up to something. “Are you certain? I’m pretty sure I got them all.”

  Aari dropped to her knees and rolled several of the gear packs over then threw her hands up. “No. It’s not here.” And in truth, it wasn’t. While little in it was of any real value, her hypo of brown dye was in it, and that was one thing she wasn’t going to risk being without.

  “We have enough gear with us, we should be fine.”

  “No, by drenn.” She kept her eyes diverted, “I need my pack. My emergency survival gear is all in it. And—” she hesitated, not sure how to bring it up, “—and there’s something else. Under the floor boards in the back. I’m not leaving it.”

  Tannin’s nose twitched, she reeked of subterfuge, and he hated it. But there was also a trembling sense of panic. He could hear it in her voice. As if she was hiding something other than her present lies. There had to be a reason. She didn’t know he had switched places with the prisoner. Or perhaps she did and that’s why she went back for the prisoner. But then he would have sniffed out the lie long before
now. “I’ll circle back to see if I can get to it without being spotted. Alright?”

  Aari let out a heavy sigh. It gave away her genuine relief and it only spurred him to be further unsettled about what she was up to.

  “Just stay put. And stay away from him.” Tannin pointed at the prisoner as he headed off back into the thick woods.

  He lingered out of sight, but only momentarily, watching her through a break in the trees, but she remained where she was, rummaging through the packs then settled down against one with a canteen. So long as she stayed put, he would go back for her pack. Not only to unearth what game she was playing, but perhaps it would also buy him favor when he revealed himself.

  Aari watched as Stew disappeared. She leaned back against one of the packs and drained almost half the canteen, just waiting him out. She’d caught wise to him over the last several days. The way he watched her untrustingly. So, she waited. She even got up and walked about. Circling close to the bound prisoner several times, expecting Stew to call her away from him. When the woods gave only silence, she decided he’d truly gone, and she hurried— for she wouldn’t have much time, it was now or never. She rushed to the prisoner. “Get up if you want to get out of here,” she growled, pulling on Tannin’s arms to steady his balance as he pulled his feet underneath him and pushed up. Aari steered him out towards the lake then towards a stand of trees farther down the bank, away from the gear, but still out of sight of anything that might fly overhead. “He won’t be long, so once I have your shackles off, you gotta run, and don’t come back this time.”

  The man muffled something behind his gag.

  “I’m only doing this because They want you free.”