TRENCH

The Hype

September 7th, 3000
No, I don't know which way I'm going.
But I can hear my way around.
No, I don't know which way I'm going.
But I can hear my way around.
I can hear my way around.

Josh cooked us both breakfast, eggs, wild boar, and wild mushrooms.
Josh threw a peice of his meat to the vultures, and they swarmed around it, fighting and screeching their heads off.
Josh caught me staring at them and smiled.
"You're just gonna have to get used to them." he said, placing an egg on the hot coals to fry.
"I already am" I lied, turning away from them.
I had never really thought about what mundane, everyday life would be like with the Banditos, but now that I was suddenly living in it, I was relaxed.
The people here lacked the grey, dullness in their eyes that the citizens of Dema had, they all felt real, like they all had their own dreams, hopes and fears, their own souls.
Their days were unstructured and carefree, and I spent the morning with Josh, picking mushrooms and enjoying the last of the years sun.
I had only known him for a few days, yet it somhow felt like I had known him for my entire life, the unease I had felt the previous day faded as the morning went on, and he became my anchor in this unfamiliar world.
I was comfortable, as we sat on a soft patch of grass near his tent.
I plucked it from the ground and rolled it around in my hands.
Josh found the joy I got from a simple blade of grass amusing.
But then he broke his soft and gentle demenour for the first time that morning.
"I think it's selfish of you to just come here, after we risked our lives to save you, and just hang around like some kinda normal old villager. I get that this a lot, trust me I do, but you're our only hope. We're dying out Clancy... Their aren't enough unique bloodlines for us to continue producing offspring, we'll be gone within the next two generations if we don't try and free the people or Dema, it's our people In there Clancy... They might be empty shells, but their still our people."
I didn't reply, or even look at him.
I felt far to guilty.
I watched two children chasing a sheep, giggling out innocent bells of laughter.
They didn't deserve to be the last of their kind, I knew how it felt to be alone.
Sharik interrupted our conversation.
"Morning boys" he greeted, approaching us as we got up.
He looked at me.
"I hope you slept well Clancy, I'm sorry about-about my behavior yesterday, I got carried away, when your chief, you can somtimes put the good of the people over the good of the individual."
"It's alright... I've thought about it more, and I want to help you...in whatever way I can"
Both Sharik and Josh looked slightly suprised, but greatful of my response.
"I think our Elder would be the best shot at getting answers to the questions you have about yourself." Sharik explained.
He headed off, Josh and I followed him.
He lead us to the far side of the camp, and across a bridge.
I looked down, a river ran underneath the old stone bridge, and then over the cliff, into a thundering waterfall.
I marvled at it for a few moments, the sound of gallons of water pouring over the edge of a cliff is somehow comferting, soothing.
Perhaps it's the steady-unchanging white noise the charging water creates, or it could have been my new-found fascination with large bodies of water.
We crossed the bridge, and followed an old dirt path, and at the end of it, was a stone hut of sorts, overgrown with ivy and other weeds.
Upon coming into veiw of the hut, Sharik stopped in his tracks.
"She doesn't appreciate the human form all too much." he explained, "so it's better if we morph."
We morphed, and approached the hut.
The door was open, inside the room was a circular shape, ivy growing in between the cold-stone slabs that were piled together to create the walls.
The room was larger on the inside then it looked from the outside, and the corners were shrouded in darkness.
That's probably why we didn't see the Elder until she was right in front of us.
She took the form of a huge, emposing, wolf, the size of a horse, with a pelt the colour of bone, and, milky white eyes.
She stared at us for a few moments, I was unsure as to weather she could see or not.
Her eyes looked blind, but she seemed to be looking right at me.
"It cannot be...? " she whispered in disbelief, and a tear escaped her right eye.
She looked to sharik.
"You brought a druid here?"
"I didn't know-"
She looked back at me.
"Do you know... what your are? Son"
I shook my head.
"The druids... They were the most ancient people who inhabited trench" she began, "they took the form of a fox, the smallest and most cunning of canines. They had the ability the control one of two different elements: fire, or water. When the bishops invaded, they wiped out the druids. They were just too difficult to brainwash, too difficult to control. They were belived to he extinct... But clearly... A few sruvied"
She walked closer to me, her white, cloudy eyes peering into my very soul.
"You may very well be the last of your kind" she whispered.
These words made my heart sink.
upon finding out what I was, I had also learned that I don't belong anywhere.
And never will.
My people were dead.
And it was all because of Nicolas Bourbaki.
I stood there, silent.
Sharik must have noticed how upset I was, because he walked over to the Elder, letting me hang back and stand with Josh.
Sharik turned to the Elder.
"Is he the one from the prophecy?"
She nodded.
Sharik looked solm.
"He's just a kid, that's a lot of weight to put on his shoulders"
The Elder shook her bone-white pelt.
"Nico, is in poession of an extremely old, and valuable compass, he's never been able to use it, because it will only work in the hands of a druid, because they made it. The compass head will always point East, follow it, and it will bring you to the only thing that can destroy the bishops"
Josh and Sharik both looked at me, their eyes pleading with me to go along with whatever they had in mind.
"I'll do it" I growled, "I'll do whatever it takes to avenge my people."

Later that day, Sharik called a meeting.
The militia, who I learned consisted of the fifteen Banditos who rescued me, all gathered around the wooden table.
Sharik explained the situation to them, and they all introduced themselves.
They were all really kind, and supportive.
Most of them were in their mid twenty's to early forties, but there was a girl, Josh's cousin Ruby, who was our age.
She had green eyes, a soft, round face with freckles, and brown hair like Josh, that she wore in a single braid.
She was kind and bubbley, and made me feel welcome.
Another person of note was Shariks wife, Skye, she was his second-in-command, and appeared like a female version of Sharik.
Unless Sharik was the male version of her.
Our meeting lasted for most of the day.
We set aside the problem of how exaclty we would get our hands on the compass, and focused on me, which made me a little anxious, going from having little to no social interaction from one end of the day to the other, to suddenly being the centerpiece of an important conversation concerning the future of the continent was jarring to say the least.
We decided that, in order to fully offer my services to the Banditos, I would have to become one.
They would teach me all they knew, and we'd give ourselves the best chance possible at taking that compass from Nico.
By the time the meeting was over, I already felt like I had found my new people.

That night I lay in bed, attempting to process everything that had happened that day.
I needed to test my fire power.
I needed to except the fact that the Banditos were the closest thing to family I was going to get.
Josh spoke, breaking my train of thought.
"Today must have been a lot for you... I know that, but we're really grateful for your help, none of us ever thought we'd actually meet a escapee in our lifetimes."
"Today was fine... I mean the food here is great! I'm just worried that I won't... Ya know like... Fit in or whatever, I don't think I have what it takes to become a Bandito.
"You will... You're not a different as you think you are."
"I hope so."
Josh didn't speak for a moment, considering carefully what he should say next.
"I don't have family either... So I think we're similar that way." he sounded like he was holding back tears, a deep sense of loss in his voice.
"How did they die?" I blurted out, before I relised that I probably shouldn't have asked.
"When I was nine, my mother died in childbirth, the baby didn't survive either. My father... He didn't take the loss well at all... I was ten years old when I walked in to find him hanging from the a rope attached the ceiling."
I cringed inside, his words were so blunt, jarring, and I struggled to accumulate a response.
"That must have traumatizing."
"Suicide is heavily frowned upon here, it's seen as an act of violism. it completely tarnished my ounce well-respected family name. Sharik and skye raised me from that point on, and I joined the malitia, swearing I'd gain back my family's honour."
"I don't know you that well Josh... But you've shown me more kindness in these past three days, then anyone else ever has in my entire lifetime."
"I'm glad." he replied, and I heared him drift into sleep.
I lay still for a few moments, before getting up and sneaking out of the tent.
I morphed, and I could see a vulture sizing me up from the corner of my eye.
I picked a dead branch up from the ground, holding it tight in my Jaws.
I sat down I closed my eyes.
I thought about how much I wanted this branch to burn.
I thought about the campfire we had at dinner, I let it fill my mind.
Smoldering heat emanating from the centre of the blaze, with crackling thongs of flame rising up to burn the skies, sparking ember's leaping off the sides.
The branch caught alight.
I dropped it immediately, afraid of being burned.
I watched it crackling in the dark, I hadn't thought about how I was going to put the fire out.
I put a paw on the branch, and it didn't burn.
I put my nose into the flames, and they didn't burn.
It felt hot, but it wasn't doing anything to my fur.
It was almost as if I was fire proof.
I picked up the branch and walked over to the well.
The vultures followed me.
I dropped the branch in, watching it plunge into the water below, before and snuck back into Josh's tent.
I'm going to use my fire to burn Nico.
He'll feel my rage.

Nice to know my kind will be on my side.
I don't believe the hype.
And you know you're a terrible sight.
But you'll be just fine.
Just don't believe the hype.