The Dusk of Dawn

Chapter Eight- Town Nile (1)

“So it’s like… An obituary sort of thing, basically?” Driya questioned. “I don't know the dude— but you guys said you do. My condolences to your friend, Jackson.” 

Driya’s rare occasion of calling Jackson by his proper name and their conversation still rang in her mind.

It was deep into the night. Kitty lay sleeping in the curve on the sail pole. She’d slept in a pile where their stupid ‘captain’ kept sticking his feet onto her face. In fact, that dumbhead had just given one of the most stupid ideas ever. He insisted that Zac was not dead and he was going to find him to prove it. 

But seriously! What’s so unbelievable about a person’s death? People die all the time and it's most likely that another one named Zac Ling is dead. She told herself.

No, it’s not! Her brain screamed at her. You didn’t believe it! You want to find him!

Oh, shut up.

Kitty sighed and turned over. There seemed to be this little annoying spirit or something that dwelled in her brain and argued with her all the time from the second she used the stone. And it always spoke against her.

She’d done years of research about each kingdom. It couldn’t just be a coincidence that Zac had the same surname as the name of Ling City.

The stars above twinkled weakly, she breathed into the night.

Ling formed all the way from the Great Raid. The gangsters’ reign had just flowed for seventy years. But between then and now, there were two hundred years more. At this period, no one knew who ruled the land. There were no resources she could find anywhere that led to the answer to that question, but it had to be related to why it was called the ‘Ling’ City.

That was why Kitty asked about Zac when she met Jackson, but all he knew was that Zac was an orphan, and he was Jeremy’s second in command.

She looked up at the dark horizon. Zac’s funeral would be held in Town Nile, so that’s why they were all heading that way at full speed.

She pulled her hood down and tried to doze off to slumber. The sound of the breeze and the swelling of the waves had never been so peaceful. She didn’t expect adventures like this when she was in the Flow Jungle. None of her friends judged her, or told her what she did was ‘wrong’. They always came up with ideas of their own and did not act like a pathetic teacher’s pet.

Although… Will they betray? Her mind flashed back to the girl, exposing Kitty’s deeds. Kitty later found out that she did it so she could be rewarded with a pat on the head. Kitty would’ve never wanted anyone’s hand on her head.

But sometimes betrayal meant new opportunities, she guessed. If it weren’t for that imprisonment, she would never have found that book. And without the book, she wouldn't have found the letter. Without the letter, she wouldn't have found the stone, and without the stone… She’d never be here.

She couldn’t say that the process was pleasant, she gained the patterns on her left shoulder after that. In order to conquer a stone, a person had to wipe their blood on it and overcome the test that the stone gave. Most of the time it meant pain. Kitty’s, in fact, was self-control.

During her test the stone made her long for pain and bloodshed, making her want to hurt herself. Now that she thought of it, it felt like swallowing drugs. The feeling was sick, but she did not care. She managed to stop when the stone’s power led her into a longing to chop off her hand; she'd taken control over her limbs and focused on escaping instead.

Out of her whole body, she treasured her hands the most, mainly because she played an old instrument called the piano and she had been playing it since the age of two. It would be very hurtful indeed to lose that ability now. She was happy about her new power, it seemed unlikely anything would be able to cut any part of her now, including her hand.

Moonlight shimmered through the empty night. She hoped the world could always be so quiet and peaceful, although it was nearly impossible. Her muscles hurt and were sore from pushing the boat all day. The next morning they’d be at Town Nile, and fight three-quarters of Jeremy’s army— hopefully not Jeremy himself.

The cold air against her skin gradually grew warmer… And rays of sunlight beat down to her eyelids. Kitty woke up with a yawn, she slid out of the curve and plopped down onto the deck, and stretched.

She strode across the wooden planks and opened the trap door that led down to the bottom of their boat. Inside, Fluffy sat at the left end with earphones suited and a million wires connecting to a router, his laptop, and some other things that Kitty did not recognize. He frowned in full concentration and typed something nimbly onto a set of green codes.

Jackson was doing his morning routine (handstand, punch something, etc, etc) and Driya was fixing her arrowheads.

“Morning!” She yelled, plopping down onto the wood beneath. “We’re going to arrive at the edge of the savannah in one hour and thirty-six minutes.”

“Oh, really?” Jackson asked, sitting up. “That’s fast. Zac’s funeral is going to be tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Kitty nodded. “His funeral.”

“I still think this is a bendan idea,” Driya said, unscrewing a bottle of acid-smelling liquid and wiping it onto her arrowhead. “All of Jeremy’s forces would be there! Do you know what we’re up against, Jackson?”

“And you’re all on bounty,” Fluffy said from the other end, setting down his earphones. “I’ve done all I can. I hacked into the Ling’s systems, their firewall is quite strong, I must admit. I’ll give you all a communications device with a microphone and speaker,” He said as he pulled out a box and unclicked it, revealing four pairs of earplugs— they only needed one each, the rest were spares. “So when you need something done, for example, turn off all the lights in the room, or something, just tell me and I can do it.”

“But will you know which room we’re in?” Driya asked. “There are probably millions of rooms there. Real comms though— wicked!”

“I’ve got a GPS chip inserted into the earplugs,” Fluffy replied with a shrug. “I’ll know where you are. But you’ll need something to cover your faces.”

“I can take care of that,” Kitty said, remembering the experiments she was trying out last night. “I can separate myself and wrap the water around your heads to form a completely new face.” Although I don’t like the idea of wrapping around Jackson’s oily head, she finished the rest of her sentence in her head.

“Cool,” Driya set her bottles back into a sack and collected the arrows back into her quiver. “I thought my cloak and mask would suffice, but then again that’s too conspicuous and… Suspicious. Bu hao, you haven’t answered my question yet.” She turned to him.

Kitty looked at Jackson, but he was looking heavy. He sighed and wrapped his cloak around himself, pulling the hood over.

“I know exactly what we’re going against,” he squinted and headed up the deck with worried steps. “But I’m not going to watch them burn Zac without knowing if he’s really dead. I would fight anyone for that.”

He paused, Driya tsked and went to try out her comm. Kitty thought Jackson said something from above, more faintly after Driya’s started testing the device with Fluffy.

“As I would have for any of you...” He trailed off.  

Kitty sighed and went to try out her earplug. It hurt a little when she clipped it on, but it soothed out after a few seconds. Fluffy signalled her and turned on his earpiece, then instantly there was a beeping sound from hers. Fluffy said something into his microphone. First, there was a faint buzzing emitting from her earplug, then a voice crackled over—

“Can you hear me?”

Kitty raised her brows. Hmm. He actually succeeded.

Quickly she breathed; “yes” back into her mic and Fluffy gave her a thumbs up, then he turned to show Driya possible escape routes on his laptop.

“Wait a second guys—” Driya interjected through Fluffy’s earpiece. “Since we’ll probably be fighting Jeremy’s army, will we have to kill? ‘Cause if so, I should PROBABLY lace my arrows— and MAYBE knives with curare or something— just like a sniper from that show did with his bullets.” She sighed over the speaker. 

“You and Jackson will, Fluffy and I are back up,” Kitty confirmed

“Hoho, YES!” She cheered. “Oh and remember peeps— make sure your microphones are off when you’re not speaking, especially when we’re close to each other. You know, ‘cause of the feedback and stuff?”

“Yes, that’s true.” Fluffy assented. 

Kitty climbed up to the deck. Jackson was busy walking around, adjusting the sails. He turned around as she walked up.

“Oh,” he said. “Just in time. Could you get us over to the port? I’m not too sure ‘how is this sail’ going to work.”

“Mm-hmm.” She muttered, looking around. The port was quite close. Ships were closing in, and people were walking across the wooden decks. She slipped into the water, liquefying herself, and flowed towards the end of the boat. The sea was turquoise, mixed with shades of blue at a distance. She glanced downwards— she could vaguely see rocks and seaweed down at the white sea bed. Not to mention, sometimes she found those scary, and even more so when she pushed the boat closer to the port and the sandy sea bed beneath turned into the black, moss-covered cement floor. She did not look down or imagine the millions of disgusting scary things or think about why a white corpse was floating away in the distance.

There was actually a great chance that someone had drowned here, considering the significant number of people that came every day. Although she found it more unsettling as she pushed the boat into its slot, and other boats all around casted shadows that made the water look darker, and the cement beneath her was still so deep, she gave one last push and looked around. The port’s cement wall dropped straight down from the bank, fading away into the dark waters beneath.

She gulped and quickly shot back onto the boat. By the time she arrived on the deck, Jackson also had an earplug suited to his ear and Driya stood beside him, looking fierce and menacing. Behind them was Fluffy, busy typing things and adjusting their earplugs for final check-ups.

“How are things going?” Kitty asked, walking closer to them.

“Smooth, for now,” Fluffy replied. He then handed Kitty her earphone. “This should work for you.”

“Thanks,” She said, putting it on. “So what’s the plan?”

“The funeral is tomorrow,” Jackson said, pulling his cloak tighter with nervous hands. “Before that, I guess we could stay at an inn. Fluffy will be coming with us, and you can disguise me and Driya. Tomorrow, early in the morning, Driya will escort Fluffy back to the boat where he’ll be prepared. And then we wait till 10:00 a.m. when the funeral starts.”

“Then what?” Kitty frowned.

“Then, according to this bendan,” Driya carried over. “We steal Zac’s coffin.”

“This somehow sounds highly impossible,” Kitty said coldly, eyeing Jackson.

“That isn’t what I said!” Jackson protested. “I said we should steal him!”

Driya rolled her eyes. “Nearly impossible,” she shrugged. “But if you insist. I uh… May or may not have extremely superior stealth and stealing skills— especially given the fact that I’m always surrounded by trees and stuff. But an urban environment is new for me…” 

Kitty slammed her palm onto her face and sighed. Then she liquefied herself, separating the puddle into two pieces, she wrapped them around Jackson and Driya’s heads.

She studied the workers at the port, then slowly formed similar shapes.

“This feels weird,” Jackson said. “It feels like wrapping plastic over my head.”

“I feel like a glass jug’s over it,” Driya said, rubbing her nose. “But I can still feel my face— weird.”

But then there was a burst of laughter that sounded rather like a bird squawking. They spun around sharply and saw Fluffy leaning on the boat, guffawing.

“What is it?” Jackson asked urgently. “How ugly do I look now?”

Fluffy didn’t reply, he just shook his hand and carried on giggling.

Kitty wasn’t sure how Jackson looked. She only did her best to imitate so hopefully it wouldn’t look too unbelievably ugly.

They stepped off the boat and headed for the port’s main gate, where a guard sat watching, clutching a whole bunch of bounties (including theirs) in his hand and checking it with everyone that passed by.

When they reached him, he let Fluffy pass first, and then Driya. But his face looked more scared than suspicious when he reached Jackson, and let him pass quickly. He then started whispering things about how pathetic he looked to another guard.

“How ugly have you made me?” Jackson hissed at Kitty. She had to keep the face locked on him, so she did her best to not shrug.

“I can’t see. But it got you past, didn’t it?”

“Barely,” He rolled his eyes and said nothing more.

They followed a clay-built route that snaked deeper into the savannah, where a cluster of buildings indicating Town Nile was visible.

There were no guards standing around the town as they got closer, which Kitty found dubious. People walked freely in and out, chatting and playing around. They didn’t even notice as they entered the town. There were no clear boundaries around it, small huts and travelling shops selling goods began to appear one by one, and then suddenly carriages, apartments, and busy restaurants lit with candles squeezed next to each other. Fancy-looking ones were lit with light bulbs instead of flame. The ground was lined with dusty red carpets and marble staircases that looked unfit for the poor environment that led up to the doors of shops.

People doing all kinds of things filled up the streets. Some just conversed, some fought over cloth prices, some advertised across the street about savannah beast skins, some smoked in clusters at the shadows of alleys, others were scattered across the building roofs, fixing and rebuilding holes. There was also a jazz band playing music in the distance.

“This place looks awesome and scary at the same time,” Fluffy said, edging closer to the others. “How is it possible?”

“Quite,” Jackson said. “I’ve never been here before. Have you?” He eyed Driya, who shook her head. 

“I’ve only read about this place,” Kitty said. “They say people from everywhere in the world gather around here. So it’s an international place.”

Suddenly, the deafening clangour of horns echoed behind them. The crowd gasped and backed away, bowing, leaving a clear path in the middle.

“What’s happening?” Fluffy asked, squeezing himself between Driya and Jackson.

“I don’t know,” Driya shrugged. “Someone important going past, I guess.”

As she spoke, a group of heavily armoured soldiers heaved through the path like a parade, the ones blowing horns rode on horses in front of them. Behind was a carriage pulled by ten or so reindeers decorated in silver silk, marching in unison steps.

“Heavies!” Driya breathed… Excitedly? Kitty (well, she couldn’t see but) Fluffy and Jackson just peered at her, perplexed. Apparently ‘heavies’ was the (plural) term for heavy infantry. Driya really did know an awful lot about this soldier-assassin stuff! 

Kitty squinted and gasped; the carriage felt uncomfortably cold. 

Like ice… 

It got better as it passed, and the crowd closed back in.

“That was weird,” Jackson commented. “Some royals? Oh— your mom?” He looked around at Driya.

“Are you that bendan?!” She snapped. “Since when do you see my mom riding reindeers in cold temperatures and not trying to show off how ‘beautiful’ she is?”

“That…” Kitty muttered slowly. “That mark on the reindeer silk is the Garavian Royal Family crest. Or in other words, the Garavia’s coat of arms.”