*taps screen* No, didn't think anyone was out there...
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Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*
Two
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Although their journey had started off well enough, relations between the young pair had predictably soured. It had rained during the night, obscuring the sent trail, and Aura didn’t see why they couldn’t rest for an hour or two; Jan, however, was determined that they should keep going until nightfall, just in case anyone should be following.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*As a result, they weren’t speaking, at the moment, and Aura was travelling high in the branches above him, fuming silently to herself about how
unfair he was being… He was thinking much the same thing as he traipsed along below, pushing annoyedly through the tangled vegetation that kept catching round his ankles.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Gradually their paths began to drift apart; by the time Aura realised they’d strayed so far apart, they’d lost each other. She sighed, annoyed and a little concerned at the prospect of being alone again, and backtracked until she found Jan’s trail – a narrow line of broken vegetation winding through the base of the trees. She set off along it until she lost it, then dropped to the ground and followed him by scent, even though the ground wasn’t her favourite place to be – too dangerous down here when you couldn’t run.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*
Funny… she mused, scenting around.
There’s been soldiers this way… the scent had the odd chemical tang she recognised from the Industrials – it was like when the various Raider packs got back, they usually reeked of oil and pollution… it was the same scent, although stronger…
Wonder why they’re here? She knew there used to have been a lot of Industrial teams out here, during the height of the Uprising, and yet… she’d overheard her father and one of the councillors discussing how quiet they’d been of late…
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*She lifted her head to call out to Jan, but then thought against it – if she started yelling, it’d be like an audible beacon to whoever it was that was out here… she sighed, tautly, annoyed at her lack of speed, but carried doggedly on after him.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*As the scent trail got stronger – she must be getting closer – she found she could hear voices in the distance. One was obviously Jan’s voice, the others were thinner, sharper – slig voices, and the rather more nasal quality than usual meant they were likely wearing masks, which meant they were the Industrials she’d scented earlier. Her first thought was
damn, stupid mud, why couldn’t you have hidden?
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Her second thought was
damn, he’s got all our provisions, too…! With a silent curse at him, she scrambled up into the nearest tree and homed in on the sounds.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*The sounds led her to a broad clearing a little further ahead; a Prowler tank sat with its engine idling at the centre, a low scar of mud showing where it had ground up out of the stream-bed to one side. Jan was trying to be belligerent and unafraid, arms folded, but the squad of Industrials all looked combat-hardened and tough. Four of them had him encircled at one side of the clearing; the last one – likely the Alpha, judging by the dark-metal shoulder-guards and chest-plate he wore – stood by the Prowler, smoking.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Aura wrinkled her nose, angrily. She might not get on very well with Jan, but she’d been brought up the so-called native way, and there’d been a fierce loyalty instilled in her heart. She could just have gone on ahead and left him to the less-than tender mercies of this squad, but… no, she wasn’t going to do that… although she didn’t know
what she was going to do; not yet, anyway…
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Two of the males – the burly, muscular one, not quite a big brother but not much different, and the thin, nervous-looking one – were arguing. Jan’s mask had slipped and got lost in the grass at his feet – he looked openly scared, now. Aura sat on her branch above and debated – if she could perhaps make a distraction of some kind…
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*When they turned the argument on Jan, though, she found her judgement clouded by anger – it was this sort of unreasonable unpleasantness that brought the species into disrepute in the first place…! Not caring that she was likely going to merely add to that unwanted reputation, she dropped off her branch, landed squarely on the nearest one’s back and, before he had the chance to react, bit him in the shoulder.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*He gave a howl and twisted suddenly, dropping his shoulder. Used to merely squabbling with her younger cousins back home, she’d not had the foresight to lock her jaw, and when he threw her forward she lost her grip. She fell heavily, knocking the air out of her lungs, leaving a trail of brilliant grooves in his shoulder.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*“Well well, what have we here…” the heavyset one said, striding predatorily closer.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*She groaned and rolled herself upright.
I think I just landed us right
in it…