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I ran my fingers through the cold water before wading into the shallows. The night wind was cold but the water felt soothing after all that had happened. Compared to last night under the stars, the shack we had found in the forest behind us would be the perfect place to rest.
Eno was already waist-deep in the river and looking up at the stars. He hadn't said a word to me this morning after our spat the night before, but as the day had progressed, he'd opened up a little. Had he forgiven me already?
Tau, on the other hand, was still sulking by the riverside. Our eyes met and I smiled, but she looked away.
Eventually, she shook her head, groaned, stood and plodded into the water to join us. I tried not to react, focusing instead on the school of harmless silver mantakrill swimming past.
'Can I help?' she asked, following my gaze.
I gestured to the fish. 'You can shoo them in my direction?'
She nodded back and moved in a little more. The two of us squinted at the fish in silence for what felt like the longest time.
'I suppose that's two I owe you now,' she said.
It took a moment for me to realise she was referring to saving her. I smirked. 'Three if you count us lying for you in the desert.'
I trudged deeper and got a solid footing on the riverbed, then began concentrating. A small portal, large enough for a fish, opened underwater, with its destination on the shore, creating a miniature waterfall.
Tau saw a fish and splashed at it, but it stubbornly changed direction. She gave a frustrated grunt before looking up again. 'I'm sorry that things didn't work out with them.' She checked to see if Eno was paying attention, but he was happily swimming farther away. 'You two probably would have been safe there without me. And happier, too.'
Across the ripples of water, I could see the distorted reflection of the moon. It lit up the shallow water a pale white and the speckled stars lapped on the surface like glistening sand.
I swayed the underwater portal from side to side, trying to snare another fish. 'It was for the best.' The fish evaded my trap and swam away.
'Almost got it,' Tau said. 'I know they were ready to kill me but a part of me wishes that I could have just... like... hid there, and lived with you two. Then I could escape this war, not be a part of it. Never have to kill...'
I stopped moving my portals. 'I didn't want to kill last night, but I had no choice. I don't regret it at all.'
Tau smiled. 'I'm glad that you can feel that way.' She gestured over to Eno, still splashing in the water. 'I've been taught to hate them, but I don't see what the big deal is. I couldn't do it if I was ordered to. Pilgrim was friendly. Up until... you know.'
My portal finally snared a fish, and it was teleported to the shore. 'I got it! Quick!'
Tau waded back and rushed over to the flailing fish. She scooped it up with both hands, placed it onto some ripped fabric, then wrapped it up before it could wriggle free. She gestured to the three fish we had caught. 'Will these be enough?'
'Definitely, that's one each,' I said with a grin. 'Let's head back. We're going back to the shack, Eno.'
Eno stomped out of the river, launching the water as much as he could with every stride. Once the three of us were out, we picked up our clothes, my bag, and the fish. We made our way back through the trees to the front of the dilapidated shack.
I reached into my bag for my knife – miraculously, one of the only things I had been able to hold onto without it slipping through the hole.
'I'll prepare the food if you get a fire going,' Tau said, looking down at my knife.
'You've prepared mantakrill before, have you?' I asked.
'I have had some survival training, you know.'
I nodded before cautiously offering my knife to her.
She noticed my hesitation and rolled her eyes. 'You still don't trust me?'
I handed it to her and smiled. 'I'm sorry. I just don't trust anyone easily.'
Eno snatched one of the wrapped fish from Tau. 'That's how we nomads survive.' He brought the fish up his nose to smell, instantly regretted it, then passed it back.
Tau examined the knife more closely. 'It's not even sharp.'
'Grandpa made it out of a rock,' Eno said as he sat down by the campfire and started stamping his feet on the dirt. Tau sat on one of the logs surrounding the long-forgotten fire pit and began scaling the fish on the wood. I placed some of the firewood we gathered in the pit and stuffed some tinder underneath.
Eno ceased his playful stomping and shuffled closer to Tau. 'You said before that men started all this. Did you really mean that?'
I shook my head at him. 'Both sides have their own version of the story, blaming the other.'
'Or maybe one of them is true?' Tau shrugged, before focusing on Eno. 'The story goes that a very long time ago, men and women lived together. The world was beautiful back then, too, like this forest, everywhere you went.'
Eno's eyes widened in amazement. 'Woah.'
'But it wasn't a peaceful time.' Tau continued with the fish still in her hand. 'There were these political factions that riled everyone up. They grew and grew until the whole world was split by gender. They were led by the world's most powerful acolytes.'
She placed one hand on her chest. 'Our first queen was named Elysia, and she could heal any wound. Everyone loved her because she kept them healthy. She could even bring back the dead!'
Eno gasped, engrossed by her tale. I had heard all this before.
'When the violence started, the men killed Elysia and that's what started the war. Some of the fights between the acolytes were so big that it messed up the planet's weather and, over a really long time, now it's one big desert.'
Eno stared into the forest, perhaps trying to imagine what it was like back then.
Tau smiled, seeing how her story affected Eno. She sighed. 'I have a confession to make.' She paused and frowned. 'Something I should have told you already. We soldiers are instructed that if we ever get lost, that we would be swiftly rescued. At birth, some of us receive tracking devices surgically implanted into our bodies.'
Eno and I exchanged a nervous glance.
'When you captured me, I was so sure that help was on the way.' She gave a single bemused laugh. 'But they never came. So, I guess I wasn't one of the lucky ones. But now that you two have been so nice to me... I'm kind of... happy they never came.'
She stared into my eyes. 'I'm truly sorry.' She held out the scaled fish and awaited our judgement.
I bit my lip, lost for words. Eno and I were well aware of the possibility of surgical implants, and we had rescued her anyway. But that she had waited until now to say this still bothered me.
'I forgive you,' Eno said before I could react. 'You're one of us now. Right, Sas?'
I approached, swiped the fish from her and turned away. 'I'm going to search inside for some tools.' I trudged up to the shack and stopped at the door before looking back. I took a long, deep breath and tried to clear my head. 'I... forgive you, too.'
I pushed open the door with a loud creak. It was a single room. It must have once been a home for a hunter maybe, but it was now covered in dust and mould. Part of the ceiling had caved in, and the few pieces of furniture left were mostly broken.
I rifled through some nearby drawers as the door closed behind me.
I threw the bare skewer to the side and let out a loud burp. Eno laughed, but Tau wrinkled her nose.
'What?' I said.
'You burped; that's gross,' Tau said with a smile.
I raised an eyebrow. 'So what? It's normal out here, okay? Loosen up.'
Eno bent forward from his seat and strained, but no burp came out. 'Wait, wait.'
Tau rolled her eyes at us. 'Fine, then,' she said before standing up and swallowing her food. 'Boouuwweerrp!' She crossed her arms and smirked.
'Good, I guess,' I said with a laugh.
Eno ceased his efforts to force-burp himself and glanced between us. 'I think Tau has you beat.'
I nodded. 'And you, too, it seems. That was like a necrolisk roar. I thought we were under attack.' The others laughed. I cleared my throat. 'I have another question, how... umm... how do the Dominion have kids?'
'Ewww,' Eno said.
'I mean,' I continued, 'you don't... romance your captives, do you?'
Tau almost spat out her food in surprise. 'I think I'll agree with your brother on this one. No, we don't "romance" them. We assimilate a lot of people, and we also create children with science, in a lab – like I was.'
I pointed at her. 'So, you...?'
She averted her eyes. 'I don't know who my parents are. None of the sisters in my squad do.'
I frowned. 'So, no families.'
'Isn't everyone sad there?' Eno added.
She lowered her skewer and leant back on the seat. 'My sisters are my family. And we have our hormones modified, so we don't have the same nasty urges you desert-dwellers do. Whatever love with a male is like, I'm sure it's overrated,' Tau said, now locking her gaze with me. 'How about you? Do you have first-hand experience in... in that sort of thing?'
'No, nothing like that,' I replied, watching the fire. 'We've never stayed in a place long enough for me to even talk to the boys my age.'
Eno giggled. 'Because none of them want to talk to you.'
My eyes felt like they were going to pop out. I snatched up a nearby twig and pelted it at Eno.
'Oww! That hurt!'
'Go to bed, Eno.'
'What?' He shot up. 'But I'm still eating!'
I pointed at the shack. 'Take your food with you. I'll come along soon. Goodnight.'
'Goodnight, Eno,' Tau said.
He gritted his teeth. 'But I'm not a kid anymore!'
'Go!' I shouted.
'Hmph!' Eno bent down and picked up the last skewer, before storming off to the shack and slamming the door behind him.
'Huh,' Tau began. 'I guess you're like his parent out here.'
I folded my arms and looked away. 'Yeah.'
Tau noticed my irritation. 'Oh. I'm sorry. Is it okay if I ask about them? Your parents?'
I shrugged. 'It's fine. Our parents died when he was little. Eno was very adventurous. One day he wandered off and got stuck in a crevice. I was the one who found him, and a pack of necrolisks ambushed us. Our parents rescued us but... they didn't make it.'
'That's awful,' Tau said, reaching out to my wrist to comfort.
'My grandfather took us both away and taught us how to survive,' I continued.
'To lose your parents that way must have been–' Tau said.
'It's okay, I don't even remember their faces anymore.'
I stared down into the dirt.
'What is it?' she asked.
'Well, it's just that I've been thinking. I want you to stay with us. Permanently. Eno's really warmed up to you and you've said things that lead me to believe–'
'Yes,' Tau interrupted. 'Yes I'd – I'd like that.'
We both smiled and stared into the fire together.
Two figures obscured by mist stood in the distance. They were facing away towards a great, setting sun. I walked over the misty floors towards them, kicking puffs of cloud away with each step. My eyes strained from the brightness, and I shielded them, trying to get a glimpse of my parents.
'Mum! Dad!'
They didn't react. They were facing the sunset, motionless. My pace quickened as I tried to join them, but with every step, the distance expanded. The ground kept shifting backwards faster and faster.
The mist around my legs was clearing, morphing into endless sand dunes instead. I had been here before, running away from something, running for my life.
My parents were hand in hand, on top of the next dune. I wanted to be by their side again. They turned around to face me and I stopped short. Their faces were missing – no nose, no eyes and no mouth, nothing. I couldn't remember what they looked like. I screamed. I had lost them.
A blinding flash of light and everything went blank. Pure whiteness. The floating platform I was standing on faded into view. An endless flat plane of white stretched infinitely in all directions, as did a dark-green stormy sky. The clouds rippled and thunder cracked and boomed.
I wasn't alone. I was standing in a circle with six other dark silhouettes, all of us staring at a strange, floating sphere in the centre. The figures were a mix of men and women, but I couldn't make them out. The woman closest to me was facing away, but her bright, light-blue hair stood out. Who was that?
I shook myself awake from the dream and was drenched by a torrent of rain. I looked up, expecting to see the roof of the shack, but instead was blinded by the morning sky. Was I still dreaming?
I sat up next to Eno in the bed and realised that I was, in fact, awake. The walls and roof of the building had vanished. Three Female Dominion soldiers in silver armour stood where the front door once was, and one of them had her hands outstretched.
'Knock, knock.'
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