Into The Aether

Chapter Fifteen: Allies

"Put me down, meathead!" Kiana cried.

Her Scottish accent made her sound furious though her face proved otherwise.

"Scottish people are scary", Nikolai chucked as he took a sloppy swig from his vodka.

Takeo grunted in agreement.

"Don't be silly, she's not scary at all. Look, she's like a little chihuahua or somethin'. You know those little dogs that are cute but terrifying?" Dempsey chuckled, clearly proud of his comparison.

"I'm not a bloody dug!" She laughed, still up in the air.

The three men looked at each other in confusion. Kiana rolled her eyes,

"We call dogs 'dugs' in Scotland!" Everyone began to laugh again before Dempsey finally put her down.

Richtofen watched the whole spectacle with a look of bewilderment. How could someone so intelligent enjoy such infantile games? She was so much better than this, he thought. A smile crept along his mouth before he caught it and discarded it accordingly. Humans are so strange.

Richtofen turned to make his way to the door to leave. By now, everyone was quietly cleaning their weapons while Kiana watched Dempsey dismantle a pistol. The doctor emerged into the courtyard which caught everyone's attention. He sighed before walking over to the group. The gravel crunched under his boots with each stride before ceasing.

"Vell?" He finally said.

"Sorry, Richtofen. Still no hell pigs", Nikolai said - defeatedly.

Richtofen placed his hand under his chin; Nikolai's statement clearly started something in his mind. How could this be, Richtofen thought to himself. How very strange, he imagined the nightmare with Samantha was a bad omen. His nightmares tended to proceed an onslaught.

"Intereshting", he finally replied.

"Zhey vill be here soon zhough, I can feel it. Ve must shtill be on our guard", Richtofen commanded.

He then turned to look at Dempsey and Kiana.

"Do jou know how to use a gun?" Richtofen enquired, narrowing his eyes at Kiana.

"No", she quietly replied as if ashamed.

"To jour feet!" Richtofen snapped impatiently.

Dempsey began to become visibly annoyed.

"Look, doc--", he began.

"Shut up Dempshey! I am not shpeaking to jou!" Richtofen shouted.

Surprisingly, Dempsey did as he was told. Richtofen was set on whatever he had planned.

"To jour feet", Richtofen growled again.

He was looking down at Kiana now before watching her rise to her feet as she was told. Richtofen walked to stand in front of her before producing his Mauser C96 from the holster on his belt.

"Nikolai, round up jour empty bottles", Richtofen demanded as Nikolai got up to collect them.

"Place zhem over zhere", Richtofen ordered as he pointed to a wall a few metres away.

Nikolai walked over to begin placing the bottles in a row whilst Richtofen brought his attention back to Kiana - who was anxiously eyeing his next move.

"Jou vill have to learn to defend jourshelf. Ve cannot always protect jou, it shimply isn't possible", he said matter-of-fact.

"I know", Kiana sighed.