A Mess of a World: the Etched Stone

2.1) Damen

"So Zak, I was thinking, what do you get when you pit a dog against a wolf?" Damen asked, scratching the back of his neck. He was drenched in sweat and the burning sun did no favors.

Zaki'a sighed, her eyelids dropped and lazy, the sun obviously taking its toll on her as well.

"A bloodbath?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Standing so close to her didn't help at all and it took an effort to remain on point. He nearly tripped and had to hold onto the railing to save himself. "No, I was thinking mooorrre along the lines of... trouble."

"Are you still thinking about our spat with Rejean Anne? I already told you as soon as we get back from Andren, we are going to deal with that hag." She said, rolling her vibrant blue eyes. They reminded him of glittering waves in sparkling seas, and he found himself staring into them before realizing so and directing his attention elsewhere.

He pried his eyes over to the Kaartan fields just below him and studied them instead. Stay on topic!

Damen cleared his throat. "Well considering that the hag is the king's favorite niece, I'm sooo looking forward to you giving her a piece of our mind in the coming weeks... but actually I was thinking of something else."

She feigned surprised with an overexaggerated gasp. "You were thinking? We must mark the occasion!"

It was Damen's turn to roll his eyes. "Har har. But you know that Swenton Mansion fire that we weren't able to really look into?"

"Aye."

"Was it just me, or were the Kaartan guards kind of... I don't know... evasive? With our questions?"

They had barely acknowledged their presence and had only provided short one-word answers to their questions.

Zaki'a chuckled and looked out over the battlements. Her short blond ponytail bounced wistfully in the wind. "They said they didn't know what started the fire and were looking into it."

Damen nodded for her to go on.

"And what? You think they weren't completely honest?"

He grinned. "You said it, not me."

"Damen, what were you expecting? We're South Rvennians and they're Kaartans. They wouldn't have even let us that close to the charred remains of the residence if we weren't Defenders of Light."

"Interns. If we were full-fledged Defenders then they would've had to!"

Zaki'a opened her mouth to reply, when the two heard a voice from below.

"GIANT! ATTACKING THE SUTHMOST TOWER! ALL MEN TO ARMS!"

"Defender or not, our work is never done. With luck, this batch will know which end to hold a sword by."

" 'Course they do, Zak, they're Kaartans." Damen laughed as he led the way down the steps out into the valley.

" 'The kingdom serving under War'." Zaki'a huffed, quoting the Kaartan phrase.

Damen reached back to unlatch his shield when he saw two figures trying to sneak away. Deserters? He wondered, tromping in his metal armor over to them. It would be uncommon, but not out of the question. And very much a military offense.

When he got closer, he saw that they were two girls, one 15-16-years-old looking, the other a child.

The older one had red hair flying about in the wind like a flag, while the other was brown-haired and kept her hair more in control.

"Oi! You two!" They froze. "What are you doing?"

They defeatedly turned around, visible panic played on their faces.

"What are you wearing?"

Some sort of makeshift attire that resembled minstrels or circus performers, though in less vibrant colors.

"Clothes? We're... walking." The red-head said sheepishly.

Her eyes were strikingly green, obviously a full-bred Kaartan, but Damen was certain he'd seen her sometime during his trip. His inspection of the guards' barracks came to mind, but surely she was too young to be one, and why would she be wearing that?