With the writ of favour gained by good service to the clan under his arm, Zeno made a point to travel slowly back towards the front. Not that his services were not needed with his Legion, but his instincts told him there was something important near the front of the Jingshen war of extermination. For that purpose, he sought the smaller towns.
Where he made his stop wasn't even a Waycastle. It was one of the thousands of trade towns that boomed only for a century between the lull of trials. Meagre water reserves and dune jumping dune worms made for poor company after all and the vassal kingdom of Shen always appreciated some more trade, no matter where it came from. Nonetheless there was always some aspiring merchant who thought they could invent the next Scorpionroad just 1000 li away.
Once he found a quiet corner under the protection of thick mortal grade sandstone walls, he started to meditate and truly let the last few years sink in. He learned many things in the decades of service for his clan. One of these things was the proper procedure to help the dearly departed find rest. To make sure the soul did not linger in this world. Each time the basic strings of qi were woven into the world, everything around him shimmered and the bond towards reality seemed to loosen. He always compared the effect to his phantasmal sight in his mind. The technique of proper funeral rites made way for a gas to spill and fill this small part of the world, while the phantasmal sight cut through the world using the liminal as its medium. Different dimensions were targeted, but the basic concept remained the same. At some point worlds were bridged.
With that last thought of bridging dimension lingering in his meditative mind, Zeno suddenly noticed a frail hand pulling on his brown travel tunic.
He slowly opened his eyes, just now noticing his surroundings. Before Zeno could even start contemplating how he found himself in his estates tree school even if he could have sworn, he started meditating very far away, the small girl in front of him stole his concentration. The girl looks for all Zeno knows to be less than a decade old. But her strange white dress put down any notion of a normal girl to its grave. Thoughts of worry wandered in his mind. Where does a mortal girl even get such an intricately woven white dress with white lace? Where could anyone obtain such strange pink coloured jacket? And what purpose do these red bands on her shoulders even serve? There is no qi stored in anything.
"Ah good uncle you are finally awake?" The child with a clear voice grins at him.
Zeno smiles back as the evening sun shines from the canopy on his face. A breath alter he answers. "Ah, hello. So, you are my niece, are you? How could I forget that?!"
"Not quite, but you are older than me. And mama says humans can be cate-categorized into three parts. Evil humans, humans you leave alone and family that you must help. You seem to belong to the last one, Uncle!"
Her so called uncle takes a moment to clear his thoughts. One string of thoughts notes her appearance resembling a mortal child no older than seven and her stuffed animal resembling a dog clasped by her frail-looking hand. His instincts and experience tell him another story. He helped thousands of ghosts to their rest after their battle was done, but not even the smallest of children confused him for their family. Ghosts just knew the difference and they didn't appear in his own dreams.
'What an unusual traveller.'
With a jovial tone he protests her accusation. "I am not that old, you know? 120 summers is nothing compared to my superiors I assure you."
"So, you are ancient~." and a giggle is her response.
Zeno snorts. "I suppose that is true for mortals… where might your family be young miss?"
"Oh, I am not alone. But that is completely okay. Look, I am a big girl and need nobody to look after me. Not like you!"
Zenos face loses his joviality for a moment, long having learned the signs of danger as he dreams. "Warning…from what…und for who young miss?"
Hima'er'er looks at him with a sad expression: "If I tell you, you will leave. No, I don't want that. Let's play something instead! If you win, I'll answer a question."
Zeno looks around, still sensing only the capabilities of a small mortal child before him. At the back of his mind, he couldn't help but feel something to be amiss. Whether it was the danger the girl warned about or her own combat abilities, he can't tell. "Very well. What game do you wish to play, child?"
"You are really rude Uncle, do you not want to introduce yourself? I am Hima and this is Noriko. But, back to the game." She point to the dog at her side and sets the stuffed toy down. She promptly fishes out a pair of little bells in her bag. "You close your eyes and count till ten, I use the time and hide myself nearby. If you can take the bells from me, you get your answer. If not, then we will see each other soon! "
Knowing this is a dream and this young girl held potentially disastrous knowledge behind a chase. Zeno couldn't help, but be visibly annoyed at this situation he found himself in. In a dream of all things! Zeno consoled himself with the knowledge of her assured cooperation. Dream spirits
tended to hold their promises above all other things.
Getting his bearings again, he replies with a small smile on his lips. "Ah, you have a nice companion for the road. My name is Zeno Angelus and I serve the Golden Devil Clan as a leader of soldiers, a Centurion."
Hima'er tilts her head: "What's that? Sounds strange, more like something to eat." The toy back in her hands.
Zeno laughed at that statement. "No, no. A Centurion is someone who commands other people, not something to eat you silly girl. Bye the way, are there any rules I should follow in our game?"
"Hm, sounds lonely. Not like something you would talk about with your friends. Noriko I for example always decide together!" While she stands on her toes, Hima'ers' chest fills with pride at that statement. Her arms and lips stretching out to allow Zeno a better view of her best friend.
Done with her impromptu display she doesn't take long to respond. "No, No rules. No tears and only one round for today. "
Ignoring the potential this could still be a trap in disguise, he holds his right hand out for a handshake, exposing his scarred pointer finger from under his long sleeves. "We have a deal, Hima'er."
With the curiosity of every child, she takes his hand in her own and looks at the scar. "Oh, where did you get hurt? Looks like a big ouch. Wait, I can help." Before Zeno could react she kisses his scar with care. "So now it should be better!" The dress and red bands move with an unseen wind, while the clearing remains calm.
Smiling at her antics and ignoring the strange feeling in his hand, he starts standing up and stretching. "Give me a moment, please. I don't want to give anything less than my best."
"Oh, all good I can wait. I am waiting for so long already." she giggles again.
Not long after, Zeno straightens his back and starts counting with his eyes closed. The rushing of the wind between the treetops of his wife's tree school the only sound he can hear.
Ten seconds later he has finished his count and opened his eyes, his senses already searching for a girl he expected to find instantly. No such luck. His qi sense also didn't help. She was simply gone from one moment to another. Finishing his first scanning of his surroundings the first thought that came to Zeno's mind was 'How can I not find a mortal girl?! She can't have gone far, right?"
Starting his search, Zeno starts dancing his phantasmal dance while keeping to the ground. The girl surely couldn't have reached the higher treetops while he merely obscured his eyes. For long minutes he wanders across the gardens of his estate, searching high and low, all the while looking for clues. The qi enhanced puddles of his arts should have shown her location, but there was no girl. There was only
*thwap*
Before Zeno could regain his balance, his foot caught itself on a tree root and he saw black.
--
Startling awake, Zeno took some time to gather his bearings. Lying with eyes wide awake in the old bed, he watched the sun slowly crawling in between the flaps of the crooked windows. Only the reflection of sun rays off of his resting armour, gleaming with dew droplets from the cold night, roused the Centurion from the first good bed he laid in for weeks.
After a few good stretches and his morning ablutions done it was time to repair and maintain his armour. With a good cloth and some oil in hand, Zeno sat down with his right-hand gauntlet and started scrubbing.
Something felt wrong to him, not in the danger sense. More in the, that doesn't happen to bronze one's way. Taking another careful look at the offending appendage, the stone of wisdom finally fell in his sleep drunken state.
"Where is the scar on my hand?" A shiver runs down his back at the thought of similar things, possibly worse things, happening to his family through sleep of all things.
With that unsettling thought shaking his mind wide awake, the father of four quickly finished his ritual of maintenance and set forth on the road. The dreams only got stranger the nearer he came to the front, but always shared one connection, family.
--
"Psht, careful. They are nearly there.", whispered Hima'er as a greeting. No teasing, No uncle. Only the fear of danger can be seen in her eyes, as she placed a pointer finger on her lips. The silence allowing Zeno to notice they are once more inside a representation of his family's tree school.
Long ingrained discipline overtakes his fear promptly and Zeno merely nods at her statement, his previously lax qi control tightening in a heartbeat. With a stern look that demands answers the old Dreamwalker expresses his worry towards the girl.
"The hounds of the desert and their curse. Come on, you cannot live in a desert and not have heard of them! Mama told so many stories of them! T-They devour everything that crosses their path!" Her voice reverberates oddly, seemingly echoing among the treetops. Ideas of this being some imagined and isolated safe place for Hima'er cross the soldiers mind before his trained instincts take over.
Now noticing something eery in the distance of this dream, Zeno's' instincts as a father take over. Quickly tightening his grip around her exactly one-meter-long frame, he tightens her naturally expressive, and foreign feeling, qi. His other hand gesticulates to her a closed mouth and a need to be wary. With his metallic ash blonde hair scraping the side of the tree to hide in plain sight, the tree tops groan as malevolent qi scours through the tree school. With her trembling form in his grasp, that feeling of security changes to something isolated and insecure.
With his saber drawn and some hastily applied silencing formations applied to the nearby tree trunks, Zeno feels secure enough to at least continue their conversation, if at least with a heightened sense of wariness with every breath.
"Noriko.", whispered the girl with tears in her eyes. Her stuffed toy dog was missing. Almost concurrently the howling of jackals and an opposing dogs barking was heard in the distance.
Sheathing his saber, Zeno clasps both shoulders of the young girl and whispers in her ear. "Don't worry you are safe with me. Now hop on and tighten your grip. I'll get you out of danger." Without waiting for her reply, Zeno presses the young girl to his body and carries her with speed towards the estate and hopefully out of danger. The journey to the dream of the estate stretches on, the girl losing form and substance in his grasp. The lantern light of his estate swallows his senses soon after.
Finding himself sitting on the sole tree overlooking a village almost made him fall to the ground. Thanks to trained instincts and experience with awakenings of this kind of strange sort, Zeno managed to catch himself. He did not faceplant... for once.
Taking the unknown scenery in stride, he dusts of his armour and starts marching towards the small village hidden behind dunes and stone. The lone cloud of rising smoke and lack of obvious entrances imply this to be more than just off the beaten path. Not that it matters to Zeno. He doesn't even know where the Scorpion Road is at this point.
"Maybe the villagers can point me in the right direction?"
The march towards the village over the horizon is a tranquil one, eerily so. Not the tranquility of a besieged city, but more of the ambush kind. The kind where he knows a danger lurks over the horizon, but he can't place what or when.
Promptly a dog jumps out of the sand. His fur resembles a stuffed toy. The air is tense and no one moves. At first glance Zeno can tell his tiredness, maybe even disappointment in his eyes. The dog makes the first move and languidly lifts a doll out of the sand, ignoring the blade pointed at him. At first glance it resembles the girl in his visions, Hima'er. The puppet transforms, resembling his Optio Iohannis with every passing second.
"This is new. Wait..." As the Dreamwalker finally connects the dots, the dog begins to yowl.
Looking into the dogs' eyes, he sees a huge pack of hungry desert-jackals running towards an eerily familiar little village near some copper mines. The ground rumbling beneath Iohannis and his charges. Zeno knows the how and why is unimportant for now; time is of the essence.
An exchange of nods later and Zeno speeds along the dunes with speed no Qi Condensation junior could hope to match.
--
Thousands of beast corpses to their back and thousands soon-to-be before them. All of them rush towards the mines and force Iohannis and his comrades to stop their scheduled patrol on this stop.
"Hold!" Ignoring the blinding green light from their Optio, the bronze squad held.
Shields crash into each other and the Hoplite glows brightly behind us once more. The horde circling the gates before us, feinting an assault. The creaking of old wood beside us, the only sign of hope against these masses. Iohannis contemplates a retreat to the town square before quickly discarding it. He mumbles. "They'll just run right in and skewer our charges. Nothing to it then, we'll be holding this gate then."
"Optio Iohannis, the gate is standing again. What are your orders?" Max, a legionnaire since Thousand Song, asks the veteran among them.
"Create a concave along the width of the gate. We'll skewer them!"
With orders given, the hounds smell opportunity and start the chase. Unlucky Max stumbles over the runt of the pack, forcing another legionnaire to cover for both. The leader of this pack charges at them, seeking to crash through in the middle.
With others occupied, Iohannis meets this beast, its low Foundation level claws finding ample purchase on his shield arm. The blood from his arms dashes down his left forearm, joining the bloodslicken ground. With the force of the charge, both combatants are thrown back, throwing up dust and blood on their trail. A bronze spear lodged in its hide.
With discipline trained throughout decades of service, the squad closes the concave once more, making sure the battle between champions remains uncontested by the rest of the pack.
With the Packleader skewered and without quick means of attack, It thrashes and quickly throws itself off the bronze spear.
A quick kick sends the silber backed Leader in an arc against a house. Its pitiful noises sends its pack in a frenzy and they double their efforts to break through the concave. Their boost in morale is all for naught as they are skewered and stomped Into the sand for their trouble.
With a grunt and a thwack the Optios shieldedge is now decorated with his enemies remains.
Looking over the unnamed village, Iohannis could only scowl. His comrades meanwhile are starting the cleaning process. They can't clear all the blood before night fall, but at least the carcasses can be moved.
Giving each other a nod, Max starts his report. "Despite being outnumbered, our casualties are low and thanks to sudden assistance we have no deaths to report."
"Sudden assistance? And why have you not brought the stranger before me?"
Shuffling his papers, Max responds. "Well, the Captain isn't a stranger and Clara needs all the help she can get right now."
There was a long pause as Iohannis Just stared at his best friend.
"There is only one entrance into this mining village, right?"
"That is correct." His ever-dutiful friend answers.
The Optios left hand leave the shield in the dust.
"The Captain should still be traveling on the Scorpion Road, right?" The freed fingers find the bridge of his nose to be a good resting place.
"Well, yes. His presence is needed to properly divine the boltholes of the Jingshen."
With rumbling felt beneath their feet, their conversation halts. A giant dune worm slithers out of the ground, throwing up Clouds of smoke. Training takes over and a ragged looking hoplite is formed without Iohannis. Their Qi responding more slugishly than usual.
Dodging debris Iohannis shouts. "This possibly could not get any worse."
Heaven rumbled, turning blood red and mist of the same colour fell quickly. The mist clings to every creature and the hoplite falls apart as madness takes hold among their ranks. Spears are thrown in confusion and shields are bashed against heads. It only takes a moment, but regaining order takes minutes. A few words by Iohannis helps them regain their composure, while the beasts find their footing using their transformed bodies.
Stepping out of the small hovel, his Captain says. "So, you are the one Alex wants as a foreman on our goldmine project." Looking at his neck he continues. "Don't worry about the pendant, she will make you more."
Trying to grasp the treasure big sis Alex gave him as a reward for his first breakthrough turns out to be a futile gesture. Only the cord remains.
"Why, Captain? Why?"
With a shrug he responds. "My guess is on bonding."
The worm grows in moments, bathing in the mist. Both legionnaires look up at their new enemy.
"But we talk, like, all the time, Captain!" Iohannis tightens the grip on his spear. The anger in his visage amplified by the scowl on his lips.
"I think she meant-"
With a glare he commands loud and clear. "Combat, I know! Now listen up, I take the worm and you help the rest!"
A sloppy salute and a pleased grin is the only answer Iohannis gets before jumping right into the maw of his enemy. The blood coating him makes him an easy meal.
"Fuuu-!" and various other curses can be heard as the worm is stabbed to death from inside.
Iohannis leaves the blood-blessed-worm stronger and more tranquil than ever before.
__
AN: May I introduce to you, a not so average patrol interrupted by a not so average Centurion.
Words: 3341.
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