P2: Chapter Seventeen

TifTwo

The cart was the same, with its load of barrels and dull wood slats. The arrows that set his path were comfortable, familiar. The quiet was different. It wasn't silent, the cart groaned and squeaked, the wind moved the leaves and birds flitted and sang from the treetops. The true difference was the absence of the goblin.

This was his third circuit without the goblin, TifTwo was finding that he preferred the arrows way over the goblin. If he followed the arrows he was given the drink, no more whining, no more verbal abuse. The arrows set no speed, yet TifTwo found himself compelled to keep moving forward pushing the cart to reach the next arrow.

The sound of fighting slowed him. The fight came into view as TifTwo neared the river, bringing him to a complete stop. The stop was necessary as the mallee seemed to be of the possession of the bridge. The arrows that led him showed comprehension of the situation by disappearing, TifTwo appreciated the break, however, short it may be. It wasn’t that he was tired out by pushing the cart, he just liked not having anything to do. Absently watching the fight, TifTwo leaned against the cart and picked his nose.

While traveling his delivery route, TifTwo had noticed that in one place every principle wore all red while in another they all wore blue. At first, he thought that this was a battle between supporters of these two colors, a second and third look confirmed that this was not the case. The color facing the red principles was green, not blue.

This was sad.

TifTwo was not sure why this made him sad, but he was now sad. From deep in his memory, a face surfaced. A face he knew. The face had worn blue. Now watching the principles dressed in green and red fight it out, he knew there would be no blue, no face. He sighed deeply, he knew why he was sad. He missed the face.

The smell of mint.

A fight for a bridge played out before him. Defending the far bank of the river two principles dressed in green faced three assaulting principles in red. Almost immediately the number of red was reduced by one as a hidden sniper with a bow made itself known by picking off a small principle perched on the shoulder of another. This acted as the catalyst for the fight, a cloud of smoke moved over the battle, when it cleared all the principle wearing red were down and those in green were walking away. With the bridge clear the arrows reappeared leading TifTwo across the bridge.

Once on the far bank, the arrows led TifTwo to the door of the bigger of the two towers watching the river. Now two arrows pointed to two of the barrels in the cart, two others pointed to the ground next to the door indicating where to put the two barrels. As he placed the second one in its indicated space, a door opened and a principle stepped out.

“Hi, there! Wow, you make that look so easy.” The principle called out, clearly addressing TifTwo, who didn’t acknowledge the greeting instead getting back behind his cart. “Oh come on, take a break. Come in and join us for a cup.” If he was tempted TifTwo gave no indication, he put his back into a push to get the cart going. “Oh, okay maybe next time.” This final statement was offered up to TifTwo’s receding back.

TifTwo was tempted because as he pushed the cart forward he thought about the next cup waiting for him after one more delivery. Maybe this thought drove him forward faster or maybe having something to think about helped pass the time. Whatever the reason it felt like mere moments had passed before the wheels of the cart were on the next bridge.

Cresting the bridge TifTwo saw a principle emerging from a hut on the far bank. Thinking, or more accurately Hoping, that this principle might have the face that haunted his scattered memories. When he was close enough to see that it was, his hands slipped off the cart just as the gravity of the downward arch of the bridge took hold. By the time he had caught the runaway cart it had rumbled off the bridge and a short distance down the path. When he reached it he immediately began pushing it, chasing the purple arrows.            

He was intentionally not looking at the principle yet he could sense her, almost fell her keeping pace with him. She had to almost run to keep up. He slowed down so that she could walk.  She continued matching his pace, slowing down while breathing heavily, clearly winded.

“Thanks.” she said after catching her breath.

TifTwo didn’t reply, he wasn’t sure if he could if he tried. Out of curiosity, he tried, finding that he had been right. He was unable to make a sound. The walked like this for a little while, though he never looked directly at her, she burned like a beacon in his peripheral vision.

She broke the silence, “it is You, right?”

A question that had no answer. TifTwo didn’t know who he was. He was a gorilla now before he had been a gnome. Nothing before the gnome, No memories from before, except the face. He remembered the face. Those memories definitely came from a time before, before the gnome. That must be what she meant. He nodded.

She gasped and grabbed at his arm. “Phil! What are you doing here? Where are you? I have so many questions.”

But he had no answers, who was Phil. All he could do was shrug.

“You can’t speak, but you can nod yes or no, right?”

TifTwo thought for a bit, they walked in silence. The fear that if he acknowledged this, he would lose his memory again and would to lose everything. Though he was afraid, the small part of his mind from before the gnome told him the reward might outweigh the risk. He nodded

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. This won’t be the first conversation where I’ve done all the talking.I’m just joking. Oh, I’m terrible, I’m sorry sweetheart. Okay, I just have to ask the right questions, the right yes or no questions. I can do this, I have to do this. But before we do this I need you to hug me. No really stop your cart and huge me.”

A feeling was building up in TifTwo, he had no name for this feeling so he labeled it fear. He stopped the cart anyways. She was in his arms before he had stepped from the cart. He gently closed his arms around her. With her face pressed against his chest, things felt right. For the first time. Something shifted, moved, broke in his mind. Memories flooded him, memories about the face and the women, body, women behind the face. He remembered a life with the face.

The smell of mint.  

 

P2: Chapter Sixteen

1¢op

“You can enter, he will see you meow,” The principle, ThomKatze66, manning the doorway gestured 1¢op through. ThomKatze66 had a humanoid, slightly chubby, body topped with an oversized kitten head. It was the same height as 1¢op, with his ears maybe a few inches taller. As she moved past him she caught the slight scent of wet hair and catnip. The room they entered was dark with light coming from a desk lamp and a small window. The lamp illuminated a map unrolled on the desk. Behind the desk LeBlu stood up, smiling. “Penny! What a wonderful surprise!” Then addressing ThomKatze66, “Please bring the chair from the other room, then you’re dismissed.”

“But, sir,” ThomKatze66 whined.

“What?” LeBlu asked.

“How can I protect you if I’m not in the room?”  

“Katez you’re going to be in the next room, plus she’s one of my most trusted lieutenants, I think I’ll be fine.”

ThomKatze66 backed out of the door, glaring at 1¢op the whole way out. When the door shut LeBlu came around his desk and warmly shook 1¢op’s hand. “Penny! It is so good to see you. Though I must say I’m surprised. I thought you were off defending Gilman from the Red hordes.” He said.

“I’m here as a messenger.”

“And judging by your face it’s not good news.”

1¢op just shook her head no.

“I think I’ll sit down,” he said.

She nodded while he moved to his chair. Once he was seated she started, “Gilman’s lost. But it wasn’t taken by the Red Army. It was taken by the Green.”

“Huh?” LeBlu looked at his map thoughtfully. “Toadanaga and the centaur said they were attacked by the Green Army. But when AnrKEY and SHEgamI didn’t follow them I assumed they were successful in defending the base. What happened?”

“I don’t know, but they defected. AnrKEY said she just liked green better, I’m sorry.” She shrugged, not sure what else to say or what his reaction would be. She had been expecting some form of anger or frustration. But instead of throwing a fit, LeBlu merely leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “But you got to talk with them?” He asked.

“Yes, they were welcoming, almost friendly, SHEgamI vouched for me.”

“I see, well did you get any sense of their stance towards the Red Army?”

“Not really, they seemed hostile to both Red and Blue equally, if I had to guess.”

“Would they let the Red Army cross the river there?”

“Probably not, they seemed pretty committed to protecting that delta.  Again, this is just a guess, so don’t hold me to it.”

“Yeah, sure,” LeBlu said distractedly, looking intently at his map. “Well, if you’re right this might not be such a loss.”

“Not such a loss?!” 1¢op was shocked, there was no way, that she could see, that this could be anything other than a major defeat.

“Come look,” LeBlu gestured her to view the map from his side of the desk, Looking down she watched as he used his long fingers to zoom the map all the way out. “What do you see when you look at this?” He asked when she was standing next to him.

1¢op tried to take everything in knowing that he was looking for a correct answer. The problem was that with it zoomed out there wasn’t much to see. She tried to give it a positive spin, “you’ve discovered the top part of the map.”

“You’re right, and you’ve missed the whole point.” He said, not unfriendly, more like a teacher. “You are correct, we have discovered the top of the map. I see it from another perspective, I see that we have ONLY discovered the top of the map, I’d say about the top third, we haven’t discovered even half the map!

“My point is this. We know that the Red Army holds Norca. I couldn’t see a way to stop them from moving south, but with Gilman, I could stop them from advancing east. If you’re right, it’s still going to do that. I see nothing to be gained by investing the effort in recapturing it. However, I can use you in my effort to take over Sha.”

“Actually, that brings us to the other reason I’m here,” 1¢op said looking him straight in the eyes.

Before she said anything further, she watched as the realization dawned, LeBlu’s proud shoulders dropped, “You too?”

“Yeah. But I’m not defecting to another army or anything like that.”

“And you came all this way, why?  Why not leave like our two ex-compatriots in Gilman?”

“I felt I owed you an explanation.”

“So explain.”

“Here goes. I’m an undercover operative for a governmental agency. We are running an investigation in AntruA that seems to be connected with TZ. Up till this point I’ve been able to be both an agent and a soldier for the Blue Army, I received orders that no longer afford me that freedom.”

“If you didn’t want to tell, you could have just said that.”

“I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it’s the truth. There’s more; as someone who sells TZ you need to let your customers know that TZ is dangerous.”

“You mean about not drinking too much because it ejects you from AntruA.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t just eject you from AntruA. Overindulging results in the permanent death.

“We had a few, so we instituted a drink limit, in all Blue Army controlled social halls, I believe the Red Army will be doing the same. Is there anything else? No, you’re dismissed.”

1¢op let herself out, past the hissing bodyguard, down the stairs, then out onto the street before she could breath easy. She was hoping to find some place to sit and figure out her next step. Unfortunately, Orup was a single street of two-story buildings, each building was signed as some guild or another, the potion maker's guild or the swordsmith’s guild, for example.

1¢op, of course, had just left her guild, whose color was displayed on every building in Orup. She tried to gain entrance to a few, just to sit for a bit, but was turned away each time. She would have to join if she wanted to enter. Each of the door guards was friendly enough to point her to the public social hall The Blue Bottle. 1¢op found upon investigation, that it was full of Blue Soldiers. Though there had been no threat of violence at leaving the Blue Army, 1¢op didn’t trust that to remain the case if any of these peons recognized what she had done.

With no particular plan, 1¢op left Orup, heading back towards Gilman. She had no intention of joining the Green Army, Gilman was just the only place she could think of controlled by principles who wouldn’t kill her on sight, at least she didn’t think they would. At this time she had already started walking and had come too far to turn back. So she kept walking taking the time to do a little character upkeep.

The first thing was to delve into the menus that set her appearance. After joining the Blue Army she had added blue highlights to her outfit and her hair, even her skin had been given a blue tint. Now she removed any and all traces of blue. That done she took some time to review her current outfit. What she saw pleased her. She called the look urban ninja, black motorcycle pants, with built in protection at her knees, shins, and thighs. A similarly styled black jacket zipped to her throat completed the look and added extra protection on her back and chest. The only change that she could think to make was to add a pair of reflective aviator sunglasses.

Her look squared away 1¢op noticed she was almost at her destination. She still didn’t have any sort of an idea what to do now. As she drew closer to Gilman she hoped she would get lucky and arrive to the sight of the giant gorilla and its cart of TZ. It might not be a bad idea to stake out the fort and just wait for the TZ resupply. Maybe not a bad idea, but a very passive idea. A more active approach was to talk with the principles at Gilman, to try and find where the cart comes from, maybe it’s possible to backtrack information to it’s actual location.

She now came to the first river and the bridge which crossed it. Cautiously approaching the bridge she noticed a small hut near its base. This was new since the last time she had passed this way. Nearing the hut 1¢op found that she was more curious than afraid. As if summoned by her attention a head emerged from the hut. The head was quickly followed by the chest of a man which was followed by the hind parts of a horse. “AwholeROD!” she blurted on recognizing the cocky centaur.

“Penny.” he replied coldly.

Hearing the chill 1¢op felt a slight stab of fear remembering that they were no longer on the same side. “Hi Rod, what are you doing out here?” Trying to sound as friendly as possible.

“Exiled.” said in the same cold tone.

“You? No, why?”

“Because I lost a fight.”

“What, did LeBlu say that?”

“Well, no.”

“Well, what did he say?”

“He said he needed me to guard the bridge and even destroy it if I need too.”

“See, he needed it to be you. You are the only Principle in the whole Blue Army who can destroy the bridge with his fist.”

“Maybe you’re right. But what are you doing here? Did LeBlu send you here to keep an eye on me?”

“No nothing like that. No, in fact, I’m not even in the Blue Army anymore.”

“No way, you left the Blue Army? What are you doing now, did you join with another clan?”

“I’m going freelance, for now, I have an important mission, tracking down the origin of TZ.”

“Like a secret agent?”

“I like to think so, actually maybe you could help?”

“Me? Help? Sure! What can I do?”

“No effort, I just have a few questions. Do you know the TZ cart, pushed by the giant gorilla?”

“Sure, yeah it comes across the bridge every few days or so.”

“Really! That’s great. When did it come through last?”

“I don’t know? Maybe four or five days ago. They could show up any moment. I bet if you wait here they’ll show up soon.”

“You wouldn’t mind me waiting here? I’ll stay out of your hair, I promise.”

“Yeah sure, it’s no problem. Honestly, it gets pretty lonely out here.”

“I can only imagine.”