To Soneley

Reve pointed. “Soneley’s beyond the croplands.” Dried grain-crops spread out in all directions, until disappearing into the sun-kissed horizon.

“We’re not gonna make it before sundown,” Rex said.

It’d been only a day since leaving the healmaster. The pain had subsided since, but the bramphians insisted that he’d travel in the cart.

After some time, they slowed near a small hill. It rose out of the ground around standing height.

Kano stopped pulling cart and trotted beside the cart, peeking in. “Runners in Bramphia travel fast.”

Reve sniffed the air. “We’re by a raildrag.” He caught Rex’s confusion. “You’ll see. It’s how Bramphians are able to move goods around so easily. But you’ll have to walk afterwards.” He then picked up the cart and rolled him to the other side of the hill.

A wooden door slanted upwards from the ground. When they entered through, a light revealed a large room. Wooden posts held up a dirt ceiling and wooden carts lined the right wall. On the other side of the room, two long planks of wood lay, an arm-span’s distance away from each other. The planks had been whittled down in the center, making a concave slope that wheels could fit through. A short plank nailed to both rails kept them stable. The wooden railings led into a tunnel of darkness.

“Don’t tell me,” Rex mumbled.

“We’re not going to waste any carts,” Reve said.

Kano turned the cart so that the handles faced the door. Once he readied the cart before the wooden rails, something triggered the doors to close, blocking out the light.

A fur body burrowed beside Rex, then the cart jolted. A second body jumped on Rex’s legs.

“Kano misses raildrag dirt,” said Kano, burrowed beside Rex.

Rex’s voice rattled with the cart when he spoke. “How can you see?”

“Why do you need to see when you already know where you’re going?” the voice on his legs replied.

The cart picked up speed, plunging into the dark. Wind whipped against the cart—faster than a winter’s intensity. “Bara, please,” Rex muttered, trembling.

Kano padded his chest. “It’s alright. When Kano sees people die, it’s very fast. You won’t feel it on the raildrag.”

The bramphians’ bodies suffocated Rex. He picked up his head, gasping for air. Kano pushed it down.

“Keep head down, if you like it,” he whispered.

Rex shifted his legs, kicking Reve a few times.

“Kano!” Reve shouted. “Just be quiet!”

The authority in Reve’s voice calmed Rex.

“But, he’s right,” Reve said.

Rex squirmed again, kicking Reve again. This time Reve laughed.

“We’re here,” he said between a fit of laughter.

The cart swerved upwards. It slowed on the upward climb. A click and doors opened up on the other side of the room. The room was exactly like the last, but without carts lining the wall.

The bramphians jumped out of the cart, releasing Rex. He sprinted to the open-air, puking once he made it.

A bramphian waited outside, reeling back from the vomit.

Kano exited shortly after, pulling the cart behind him. He wagged his tail once he noticed the other bramphian. “Take this up. Take this up,” he chanted.

“Just one?” The bramphian responded, smiling back at Kano.

Reve walked out. “Just one.”

She nodded and took the cart away from Kano, then walked uphill.

“Where is she going?” Rex asked.

Reve responded with a question, as if it were common knowledge. “Where we came from…?”

“Oh. Right, of course,” Rex said.

The sun hadn’t moved. Small campfires littered the ground ahead of them, and farther beyond, the sea glimmered with the light. A constant warm and salty breeze drifted around them.

Massive ships waited beyond the coast, and small boats paddled between.

When Rex walked, the pain pinched his side—magnitudes less painful than before. “This is it,” he said. A couple hundred bramphians sharpened swords, fixed spearheads, and adjusted crossbows.

Reve nodded. “This is at least half of all of the Runners.”

“Half of them?”

“Yes. Some are likely coming in soon. We have a few days to prepare.”

Rex massaged his temple. “How many Shone soldiers are coming?”

“Based off reports, likely thousands. By sea and land.”

“Whose ships are those?” Rex asked, pointing to the distant ships.

“Ours.”

Hope flooded in, giving Rex a sigh of relief.

Reve watched his reaction. “Oh, those aren’t warships. They don’t have any weapons on them.”

Hope quickly leaked out.

Rex sighed. “What’re we going to do then?”

“We have a Steelbrite,” Reve said.

Surrounding bramphians twitched their ears, and the word Steelbrite bounced around as a whisper.

“I’ve only had one failed contract.”

“So?”

“I can’t— I can’t.” Rex paused. “What makes you think having me here gives you any chance of survival?”

“I’m not an idiot, Steelbrite. Kano found you dying, and we needed—”

“More dead bodies?” Rex interrupted.

“Hope.”

Around them, a few bramphians gathered. They pointed out Rex’s tattoo.

“It may be different in Neoreus. But outside, Steelbrites are legends.”

“They’re everywhere—” Rex thought about it for a second.

More bramphians gathered around them, forming a small crowd.

“Even then, if you were from Kington I would’ve let you die. From Durley, I might’ve finished you off. But you’re a Neoresian champion. Children are raised from surviving champions.” Reve opened up his arm to show the crowd. “We’re raised from dirt, and we’re thrown into mines. Before you, we were ready to meet Nostu. But now….”

Kano bowed before the growing crowd and pointed at himself. “Kano found him. Kano found him.”

Rex’s vision darkened. “I can’t—” He stammered, repeating the same half-sentence.

Before he knew it, the crowd dug in wooden poles, and stretched a canvas tarp between them. A large tent emerged with four corners and the center raised by the biggest pole.

A bramphian walked over to Reve. “Reve, is that true? A Steelbrite?”

“Yes. It’s true,” Reve leaned in and whispered for awhile into the bramphian’s ear. He nodded as information unfolded. Eventually, Reve placed his paw on Rex. “This is Gaer, I’m not sure how to explain his role in a human way, but he’s—”

“Like a mass counselor,” Gaer said. “We should talk.” He opened his paw up to the tent.

Rex waved his arms up to refuse. “I’m just a boy from Neoreus, I can’t win this war for you.”

Gaer nodded, still extending his arm. “I know. Please humor us.”

“Alright,” Rex said, walking into the tent. Reve and Kano followed behind.

A large wooden table sat on the middle of it and on it a map. Bramphians rushed in with small wood carvings and dropped them on the table.

“This, this feels like a war tent.” Rex swiveled his head around, amazed at how quickly they pitched and set the tent. “Seconds,” he muttered.

When his head snapped back to the table, Gaer patiently waited for him, setting the wooden pieces on the map.

“Rex,” Gaer said. “Look at this, we’re expecting about two thousand Shone troops coming from the path here.” He pointed at the northern road. “At least two or three warships coming here.” He placed two miniature warships a bit off the eastern coast. “We’re expected to have, max a thousand Runners here.”

Rex shook his head. “Look, Gaer, I’m barely a Steelbrite, and now you’re expecting me to be a general?”

Gaer put up his paw and gestured to calm down. “Again, humor me, I wasn’t done. We have dug hidden trenches here, here and here.” He traced three lines, they crossed over the road. “This will guide the foot soldiers into either the forest or the crops. Simple crossbow traps are set in the crops, not meant for mass casualty, meant for mass fear. Once they see the danger in the crops, they’ll head to the woods. Then, there we’ll be able to use our superior agility and out maneuver them in the woods. Now, the reason you’re here, is to play the other side. Bramphians can only think like bramphians. Just think like a human.”

Rex didn’t move. Even once he gathered his thoughts, he knew the weight behind each word. A single miscalculation, a single mistake, could mean hundreds of lives. Reve patted his back.

“There’s a name you would speak in your sleep, what was it again?” Reve asked.

Kano chanted, “Lishra, Lishra.”

“Lys—” He stopped before confessing her full name. “Lys. Why?”

“Maybe it’s easier to think of protecting her. Imagine if she were here, and a thousand soldiers were trying to kill her.”

Rex laughed. “The soldiers are the ones who would need protection.” The bramphians tilted their heads, confused. “She’s the first choice— nevermind, don’t worry about it.” Rex threw his hand out, gesturing to disregard the statement. “Although, if she were invading us, she would definitely go through the forest. Disregard the crop traps. I mean, she’s confident, right? The tighter the field, the closer she can be to the enemy. Also, it’s still ten to one odds in their favor, no matter where the battle starts. She’d find a way to make use of the trees to her favor. If you could quickly run around them, maybe she’d climb. Only one way up or down, right?”

Gaer scratched his chin. “I see.”

“Wait, wait. That’s not advice or anything,” Rex said.

“It’s something to consider, all the same. Thank you.” He nodded at a bramphian guarding the inside of the tent. “Go rest. We have a tent ready for you. Food as well. I might bother you again tomorrow, please humor me if I do.”

“Food for Kano? Food for Kano?” Kano wagged his tail.

“Yes of course. How could I forget? Without you Kano, we wouldn’t be here today.” Gaer responded in complete earnest.

Kano sniffed the air and shuffled out of the tent. Rex followed, and whispered back to Reve. “Everyone is so nice to Kano, I thought they just— you know the way you talk to kids, but… it’s different with him.”

“I already told you,” Reve said. “He’s a tunnel digger.”