The next night Keshel dawned his cloak, pulled up the hood, and tucked that strip of cloth into his bag for the morning. He bade that lonely tower farewell and finally started down the long ladder. This time, Keshel aimed for speed rather than efficiency. This was when he would be the most visible to anyone below, and he couldn’t care less about how many rungs he snapped.

  He reached the bottom without incident—which had to somehow be divine intervention with how rickety that ladder was—and headed to a less visible spot. Upon reaching the area, his heart pounding in his ears, Keshel fell into a low crouch, examining the camp just up the road.

  The noisy Raiders milled about, some of them so careless that it made him wonder how the suiki hadn’t seen them long before they’d arrived. Larborak are odd like that, I’m half sure that they’re all swentvils in disguise with how sneaky they are when they have a reason. But just like swentvils, I’ve never met a people that can be louder on their own than the larborak. Well… perhaps humans are louder but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

  Keshel, still oblivious to my making fun of him, stopped as a group of raiders passed by. He moved closer to the camp once they were past, fumbling as his cloak fell away from his arms for a moment. Keshel pulled it back up and winced as he nearly tripped on a patch of tanglevines. Stupid stupid! Careless! He stopped moving and tried to get his bearings. He told himself that the problem was just nerves, he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  Keshel took a moment to hype himself up, which I find to be odd but apparently many people do this. Everyone was counting on him to get help, and somehow that bolstered him. The faint idea echoed out from the back of his mind that this was just a way to get himself out of the way so the raiders wouldn’t find him. A way to protect the burrow.

  Keshel was used to sacrificing himself for the burrow by now though. Which, ironically, was something the larborak would have greatly respected; they love a good story of sacrifice more than anything else. That one time I killed a monster for them was much less interesting to the lizards than the time I got eaten by that same monster.

  He took a step carefully and continued toward the camp, going through his mental list of steps. First, he needed to steal some food and this was the only camp that didn’t have guards across every tent and pathway. Keshel waited a nerve-wracking several minutes for the closest guard to stop ogling at a nearby girl and finally made his way into the area, still undetected. They’d see a shadowy cloaked figure, and hopefully just assume it was one of their own.

  The camp smelled of all the horrible things that he associated with the day. Sweat, waste, garbage, and other things that Keshel would prefer to never think about again lest he contaminate his brain by remembering their existence.

  He had no idea how the Raiders had made the smell accumulate so thickly in just a few short days, but he didn’t plan on sticking around to find out. It takes a lot of skill to be so smelly, and I’m pretty sure these larborak had a reason for it—considering most I’ve met in the past are rather conscientious of their scent—though what that reason might be is beyond my comprehension.

  It was much harder to stay in the shadows when everywhere Keshel looked, there lay a larborak raider going about his business or a gaggle of men boisterously laughing to one another. Keshel felt his heartbeat steadily increase with every one of them that he passed. Many were just standing there with weapons slung across their backs and angry gazes that seemed to pierce into the very shadows.

  He was significantly more terrified of those ones than the careless partiers.

  Then Keshel passed a large tent, carefully turned a corner, and ran straight into a female larborak. But more concerning was her graceful poise as she stumbled and zeroed in on Keshel. Her black eyes narrowed with confusion, her stark red hair glimmered in the torchlight in a way that seemed almost like magic—because that’s what it was.

  I’m doomed. Was his only thought as he met those eyes.

  Then she caught his gaze, and a moment later understanding dawned on her face. She cupped her slightly clawed hands around her mouth and shouted one word that his internal translation explained meant “suiki!!!”

  Keshel ran. He ran as he’d never run before, his cloak fell from his arms and streamed behind him like a cape as he tried to gain speed. But it was for naught. Even though the camp was under-guarded, it still had plenty to apprehend a stupid suiki who’d wandered inside.

  The woman from before cornered him, appearing out of nowhere and brandishing a long spear. Keshel could have sworn that the spot had been empty a moment before. One larborak guard knocked him upside the head while he was trying to figure out a way out of this, and Keshel felt a spike of terror lance through him as the world faded to black.

  --

  When Keshel woke, the air was stuffy as if he was still in the caves. It was almost a sad smell, but he drew comfort at its presence even as he peeked an eye open, already knowing there was far too much light in here from the way his antennae were screaming at him. Keshel winced and closed his eyes again by reflex—though that didn’t fix the antennae problem—and felt at his side. He was surprised to find that his pack was still there, and his cloak too. He pulled out that strip of cloth and tied it around his antennae just as Yumaar had explained before.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  His world faded into a slightly more comfortable darkness. The cloth was thin enough to let some light through, though, and it was still far too noticeable. Your senses will be dulled, Sure. Keshel felt with annoyance at his forehead and only then did he realize just how much his mind was hyper-focusing on the light.

  Keshel sighed and glanced around. The room he was in had cloth walls, which was the source of the light. He imagined that it would be worse outside the strange building, so Keshel was thankful for that at least. But he would certainly give anything for a cozy cave right then…

  He pulled his hood over his eyes so it could help shade himself from the sun and hunkered down. If his mind had been working properly, Keshel might have checked to see if he could escape, but that undeniable part of him that pleaded to hide from the sun would let him think of nothing else.

  Keshel was captured, and he doubted that they would let him go easily.

  -

  He tried to sleep, but the light was just so distracting that he couldn’t even manage a soft doze. His heightened senses and slowed thoughts only made him want to throttle his head. Keshel tried to plan, but without surprise on his side, he doubted that he could avoid all those guards…

  Keshel tried to rationalize his failure, but every part of him agreed that it hadn’t been his fault. That strange woman with the red hair hadn’t been there before. He was increasingly certain that she’d somehow teleported into place, or maybe she’d moved so quickly that the world had been undisturbed

  Hours passed.

  The light increased noticeably and his eyes wandered towards the difference, he moved his arms to help shade the still sensitive pieces of him. Keshel noticed a figure walking into the room. Moments later, the light normalized again and a masculine voice started talking. “You didn’t escape from the prisoner camp, and we have no reports of any of your kind coming out of the ground without provocation. Where in the squalls did you come from?”

  Keshel blinked, the strange feel of hearing alien words but understanding them nonetheless was novel, but not terribly surprising considering how the defect worked. “Why would I tell the enemy?” His own words came out in that language, even though he didn’t really know it. Translation abilities are odd, but in my experience, this one is the most straightforward.

  He seemed surprised that Keshel had responded, though, as he well should have been considering none of the other suiki had ever spoken to their captors, and not just because they didn’t have Keshel’s ‘defect.’ Regardless, the perfectly annoying and far too manipulative larborak sneered, his golden eyes malevolent in the dim tent—though Keshel couldn’t very well see that part. “I’m not trying to be your enemy.”

  “Then why are you here?” Keshel spat, turning away from the important looking stranger.

  The man shifted in place, gritting his teeth, “We can’t let the niortak get stronger, and we know that your people are the only thing that could make that happen.”

  Keshel shook his head, giving the larborak an annoyed look, “So you don’t want to be my enemy, but if we’re such a resource then why in the name of prosperity are you kidnapping us?”

  He sniffed, “I don’t expect a lowly cave dweller to understand.”

  And then he was gone.

  Keshel laid back down, putting his hands over his antennae and groaning at the light for no particular reason other than that he’d remembered—unfortunately—that it was there. After a moment he heard a different voice, this one feminine. He hadn’t noticed any change in light though, or heard the fabric room move. “I’m sorry,” She said, “This is my fault.”

  He sat up and squinted again. His first thought was that it was the red haired larborak from before, but when he peeked through one side of his fingers past the light, he thought he could make out an unfamiliar suiki sitting in front of him. “Who are you?” He finally managed.

  She laughed nervously, and Keshel squinted harder, were those antennae? That would explain why he hadn’t felt the command go through, but why would any neighboring village leave a defect intact? “That doesn’t matter, but I did accidentally remind the lizards that your people existed. And I am sorry for that.”

  “You… does the light not hurt you?”

  She didn’t answer, folding her arms and examining the area, the ground, and then the door. Looking anywhere but at him really. “I feel sorry for putting the idea in their minds. I want to bring some kind of balance back to this situation. What do you think I should do?”

  Keshel opened and closed his mouth several times, part of him knew that he should tell her to try and get help from Elesu, but if she was a traitor already then he shouldn’t tell her how to find them. “The only way to make the larborak leave is to find some niortak.” He eventually said, “I’d rather none of them knew where we were, but… well the larborak are here already.”

  She hummed slightly, “The niortak… the people of the sky. I’d need more than just two of them, right?”

  “Uhhh, yes?”

  “I never thought about that idea, and it is significantly cleaner than attempting to make them leave by myself, considering how our last conversation went…”

  Keshel blinked several times, trying to figure out why she thought she might have even been able to do that.

  But then she was gone, just as silently as she’d appeared. He was honestly getting tired of people appearing out of nowhere, perhaps he should file a complaint with the universe.