The Erstwhiles

Parade

A thick of trees surround a collapsed mound of rocks, a ruin of ages past and a temple to some few in the present. A red fluorescence decorates it drifting above like smoke. Amongst the great coral blemished stones hangs a person, her body decorates a slab of it haphazardly. A form appears from the thicket beckoned seemingly by the anomaly of red. Amber eyes stalk her listless shape, wary of her. A rhythm grows in the distance, "Footsteps... steel... men..." a waft of their scent breezes by "Horses, mead, meat..." slowly did the shape fade and in turn, A company of soldiers clad in steel emerged.

"Captain! There! someone atop the rocks aye!?" One of them points.

"That'd be someone, yes... Check the immediate area to see if there are any more!" Replied a briefly armored soldier. "Two of you will fetch her and bind her, use the spare horse and tie her to it." He added.

The men shook their heads with a prolonged inaudible sigh, worn by their journey hitherto. The Captain dismounted and slowly walked towards the ruins, his eyes traced the carvings and flourishes of the tattered walls and pillars. He stood out dressed in white leather garments adorned by blue stones and silver embroidery.

"Nabralians I tell you, lazy them lots..." whispered a soldier to another, A silent nod answered.

                           "If they joined the empire they should dress like we do, them folks shouldn't be allowed to parade in all that lookin' like a bleedin' cake...'' quipped a further reply, the two of them eyeing their captain in periphery, they slowly climbed the collapsed stones.

"Ah, caught me off guard this one, so rare to find them in this shade... I swear they don't make em' no more, if she bloody lives I'd personally see to that, you know like making lil' knee biters?" mused one, roused by a sense of cleverness.

                            "Shut it Gav! She lives and don't soil a proper lady all you fit for is a donkey from them shipyard brotlhlery!" answered the second, pontified by her morals.

"No one is touching her! She is of the other realm..." A stern voice resounds from below. "These ruins were once a gate to it, And whatever knowledge she knows of Earth is valuable to the empire," he adds.

The two soldiers caught off guard by their Captain meekly hoisted the girl down with ropes that coiled her as if a harness. hurriedly they tossed her over the horse.

"Captain Nadit! There appears to be no one else sir, as for the red essence we cannot contain it not even through stones," A scout arrived running rough to report handing over a stone golden in hue. The captain inspects it, his brows furrowed as his eyes roll in disappointment and hands the stone back.

                           "We cannot camp in these woods beasts of eld are said to still roam here, we march back to the ship repair the cycler and fly back to Yamensis, And Leta make sure the captive is tended to, she is an unwilling guest for the capital, I don't want her impregnated by idiots.'' The captain then beckoned the men to follow suit without regard to rest. Their goals half met.

"He has it easy that Nadit, he doesn't wear steel!" sneered Gav as their captain mounts three ears away from them. He was expecting an approval from Leta which she ignores, occupied with their tasks. Unbeknownst to them were a pair of eyes watching from the canopy above. "None of them may live...." it whispered.

The golden skies were littered with stars and shards of land remnants of a world once whole. Quickly doth the sun retreat at this time of day, Its amethyst taint is a sign of dawn quickening.

"Faster! we have twenty more niks before we lose the sun!" Shouted Nadit, annoyed at the pace they slogged and the resulting prospect of having to camp in the wilderness.