The Autumn Mage

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"We'll worry about that later!" Orpheus yelled back. He led them back to the opened gate and towards the barracks. Moans and growls were coming from all around in the shadows and their hearts raced as they tore through the complex. They finally arrived breathless to the wall he and Aki first scaled. He patted the bricks as he gasped for air and Pinga nodded. She pummeled the wall with half a dozen rapid punches. It finally cracked and split all the way to the top. A hissing shriek caught their attention and she gave it one final powerful blow, bringing her arm all the way back before her clawed wrist broke through, the rest of the section crumbling inwards.

They desperately stumbled through the dark tangled brush as they heard a heavy slithering closing in on them. Orpheus fired off a beam of Light but they were unsure if it connected or not. Aki began slowing down still feeling lightheaded. Orpheus forced his palm into his back and physically spurred him onward.

"Don't you dare stop! You stop and I will not go back for you!" Aki pushed on feeling nothing but a burning inside his lungs and legs. They heard a loud thwip followed by a loud crashing of trees. Pinga left her grappling hook behind as a tripwire and Echidna had stumbled full force into it. Pinga leapt out of the shadows and onto her back and drove both of her wrist blades into either side of her neck. Echidna gurgled blood as she gasped for breath and Pinga withdrew them and bounded back.

"What are you, like an assassin or something?" Aki barely sputtered out.

"Or something," she smiled. "Keep going!" The trees whipped and cut their faces breaking the skin. They nearly collapsed by the time they had finally made it outside of the overgrowth. A loud deep whistle made them jump but they were relieved to find that the coach driver had not left without them. They mustered their remaining strength and piled in, banging on the wall behind the driver. He whipped the leash and the horses sprinted forward, as eager as their passengers to leave once and for all.

The three sat in exhausted silence drained physically and emotionally. Eventually they felt safe enough to stop merely staring off into space and began to look at one another. As they studied each face they realized how much they did not know about each other. Aki was painfully aware of how long he was staring at Pinga and how she was trying her best to avoid his gaze.

"You'll have to excuse my friend here; he is woefully inept at interacting with women," Orpheus sneered with a grin. Aki punched him in the thigh as his face burned.

"It's fine; I'm used to people staring at me," Pinga casually said hiding her annoyance.

"I'm sorry, I just have never seen anyone that looks like you before," Aki said embarrassedly glancing down as his face continued to radiate. Pinga sighed.

"Yeah, I've heard that before."

"If you don't mind my asking," Orpheus cautiously approached with intrigue, "what exactly is your heritage?" Her head bounced back and forth as she answered the same question that she always faced in new company.

"My mother was Hume and my father was an Orc," she responded coolly.

"How...how does that..." Orpheus attempted, failing at finding a polite way to ask.

"How does that work?" she finished. "One day there was a small group of about five Orcs allegedly attacking some townsfolk near the woods outside of Moshu. Lots of bamboo, great hiding spots for bandits and other criminals. Anyways, the crown sends a Templar, my mother, to investigate since three local lawmen had already disappeared, along with two of the Empress's men. She tracks them down and a cat-and-mouse game begins, each of the Orcs taking her on one by one with my mother narrowly besting each of them.