~Alliances and Animosities~ - {CyNari}

Reunion [Ch 8]

"General!" Bas hurried back into our office. "What is it? What happened? Ambush? Attack? ... Corruption?!" I looked up from the paper I was reading and stood up rapidly. "N-no. Nothing like that..." I sat back down and took a sip out of my mug. "Archons, don't scare me like that! What's the matter then?"

They pointed towards the door. "The-The scribe wants t-to..." In that moment the door opened and Alhaitham walked in. "I was so free to let myself in. I have an important thing to talk to you about, General." His eye twitched towards the young fox for a second but I understood immediately. "Bas, would you wait outside for us to finish?" They tried their best to not show their intimidation but it was pretty obvious. They were very scared of Alhaitham and I don't blame them for it. "Of course, Sir!" Bas shuffled towards the door and passed it quickly. It was firmly shut and I looked back at Alhaitham. It was unusual for him to seek me out at work. We usualy go different ways and only interact at our game nights at Lambads tavern.

"You gotta get rid of your stalker immediately."

"Wow, straight to the point, like expected. Wait- how do you know about it in the first place?"

I sighed. "Nari told you, didn't he?"

He crossed his arms. "Yes, I wanted to avoid getting involved but I saw some suspicious people scrambled around our house yesterday-"

"Wow, so it's 'our' house now?"

He glared at me. "Please don't interrupt me."

I chuckled a bit. "Sure, please continue..."

"Like I said. The 'you' problem now became a 'me' problem. So I want you to get rid of them as fast as possible. According to the the research I conducted last night, these people are all from a mercenary tribe residating a little south of Aaru Village. My informant told me that they're also pretty active in smuggling of illegal goods and drugs so you have a motive to arrest them." He placed a lot of papers and a map on my desk.

I looked at him in shock."And you researched all this last night?! Man, you scholars are something else..."

"Nothing notewhorthy. Kaveh kept cursing his new client while changing designs again the whole night so I couldn't keep my eyes shut anyway."

"Sure..." I looked at him knowingly. "Anyway, I will gather our things and we'll be on our way. Thank you, Alhaitham..."

"No need, make sure to get home as soon as possible. Even I noticed that he really misses you."

We both got up and left the room. Alhaitham went back into his own office and I walked over to Bas. "We will be handling a serious case of smugging in the desert. Departure is immediately." They nodded and we both got ready.

We traveled for about two days through the forest and a bit of sand. "According to the map the mercs should be in this cave over there... Bas, can you hear our follower?" They concentrated for a moment and their ears twitched a bit. "Negative, wait- they got in motion again, fast!"

Good...

"Remember, stay alert and don't get hurt. They're should be many of them so you will have to cover my back..." They nodded and we snook up on the mercenaries.

"You got the goods?"

"Of course. The customer will be at Caravan Rebat tomorrow, we should hurry. Any news from the birds?"

Birds? They must be talking about the ones following us.

"Yeah, Sahabi said that her people are on the way towards us so we really should keep moving!"

"Too late..."

"What...?"

"It's too late for that!" I walked up to them and got my polearm ready Bas following close behind with their sword ready.