Basilisk's Gambit

Chapter 4: Coastal Contempt | Zaid Focus

(For context: the setting is the southern coast of Lejuan, in a poor dessert village known as Dehab)

"Ixtezuma sent word that Aponia will be crossing Dehabi shores today. We need to stake out and intercept them." Adil urges, trying to instill motivation in Andrius and I.

"Why should we?" Andrius says, stuffing his face with another round of dessert plums, a small sweet berry that grows on bushels native to coastline Lejuan, it's toxic in larger amounts to humans but Deshreti Mau have adapted to stomach harsher diets.

The Deshreti Mau are a feline humanoid species that originate within the vacant valleys and sandy hills of Lejuan, sprouting from and thriving in the harshest conditions of the desert. I'm proud to be Deshreti Mau.

My two brothers Andrius and Adil often go head to head on a lot of things. Adil certainly inherited the headstrong fearlessness that our tribe is characterized but Andrius prefers to take a more... Carefree approach to life. "The perks of being off the grid is not answering to anyone." He often reminds us, Adil reminds him it's moral obligation but I suppose Andrius doesn't believe in such things as a 'moral compass'.

As for me... I fall somewhere in the middle. Truthfully, I'm not the type to jump in between a fleet of Aponian warships but I'm always up to help someone in need. Our mother always calls me the balance between Adil's yin and Andrius' yang, an interesting philosophy she picked up from her time studying in Fenghuang. (a guyun peninsula region known for it's scholars)

She urges us to go educate ourselves, Sumeran also has a school of sorts but it's very exclusive, besides... My brothers and I have been prohibited from entering for many years now. Not that a silly rule stops us, but we've had a few close calls getting caught within the cities perimeter. Either way, I don't think the academic route is for us anyhow.

"I think we should at least take the chance to pummel some Aponian scum! Right Zaid?!" Adil says, looking to me for affirmation.

I wince slightly at the thought of taking on such a brawl, I don't think we could handle so many. "I heard someone in town say that there were like a hundred boats... Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Andrius let's out a deep sigh, "The queen will send her stupid army down here to take care of it, I don't feel like picking sand out of my fur all night again." He says, rolling his eyes at Adil's proposition.

"Well if you both want to be a couple of babies, Then I'll just go fight with the militia by myself!" Adil exclaims triumphantly and arrogantly, he's very pretentious when it comes to his eldest child syndrome, always thinking he has to be some alpha cat.

"The militia is gonna fight them?" Andrius says with a small chuckle, I won't lie, I also doubt the competence of the southern militias, most of them are a bunch of untrained vagrants.

"At least they're doing something." Adil retorts, puckering his lips into a pout.

"Yeah because Za'Karra will have their head on a stick otherwise, don't be naive." Andrius says, standing up to stretch.

Suddenly the fur on my arms stands up stiffly, something is wrong...

"What's up Zaid?"

My ears perk up a bit, turning in the direction of the strange sounds. "They're here."

"Lets go!" Adil cheers, boisterously hopping up and heading out of the tent with an especially overly confident pep in his step.

Andrius plants his face in his palm, sighing loudly. "Let's go keep that idiot from getting himself killed." He says, reaching into his bag and pulling out a slightly rusted scimitar with jewels encrusted in it's hilt, likely stolen from some street merchant in Cyril. (a trade city in northern Lejuan)