Holler

Shortly after the boys leave Helbender Commune, the sky opens its floodgates. A torrent of water falls as the wagon slowly crawls down the rocky mountain road. It’s practically a creek, being such an easy path for water to flow down. Now Kurri can see why all the rocks here are so rounded.

Twilight and Lightning flick their tongues about in the air. Their steps are uncertain, and they continually hesitate.

“I know y’all can’t smell nothing in this rain, you just gotta trust me!” Krev shouts to his drakes. They don’t seem to think much of the words, but they do obey his repeated guidance with the reins.

In the back, Kurri holds onto the rail for his life. His clothes are completely soaked through, nothing could have protected them. Luckily it’s a warm day, even with the rain. He just tries to accept that his life is wet from here on. His medic bag is thick treated leather, fairly water resistant, hopefully it holds out should he need some dry gauze. The one good thing, to Kurri, is that in the rain the cart doesn’t reek of katal leaves, and given the natural obfuscation, they did not bother with the strategy of burying themselves in the hay.

Across from him, Perra sits on the opposite rail. He takes the soaked bandana off his head and his black hair is already inundated. He takes his leather vest off and throws it onto the cart floor, and it strikes it like a stone, clearly it isn’t so waterproof. He leans back and lets the rain wash over his body, slender and hairless, with small breasts. Kurri truly can’t tell him apart from his sister, except that she is never so carefree.

“We really don’t get the opportunity to bathe enough!” Perra says.

“Just don’t fall off!” Kurri says.

Elliv sits on the front rail of the cart watching out behind them, his rifle in hand with its sword bayonet attached. He said it would basically be useless as a gun in this rain, but he’s ready to, in his words, cut a motherfucker down. Ketha sits next to him. They have a large knife on their belt and a pistol partially covered by their large grey tunic, but it isn’t enough to keep it dry.

Maris leans against the back rail, seeming undisturbed by the weather. Not having hair to get stuck to your skin and in your eyes must be convenient at times like this. He wears a bandolier across his black vest with a number of little clay and glass bottles hanging from loops in the belt. His large twin-barreled shotgun lays next to him in the cart, though he said in this condition it would be more useful as a club than a gun.

Sitting on the rail next to Maris is Lein Koronova, a tall pale-skinned man of Janikan descent, with his people’s distinctive dark blue eyes and silky black hair. Lein hasn’t said a word as long as Kurri has been here. Elliv once said he hadn’t in years. He doesn’t use signs either, but Elliv always seems to know what he means to say, and he never offers any correction.

They finally reach the bottom of the steep rocky road, where it joins a dirt road, now purely mud and even harder on the wagon wheels. They turn away from this road onto a barely visible path leading up into a recess in the mountain’s south face. Maris and Lein climb out as the cart stops. They pick up some large branches lying across this path, making it look long abandoned, and move them out of the way. Kurri recognizes the place now, they came here the other day to hide the stolen goods.

“This holler’s an important place for you to know, Kurri!” Perra says. “We have a safe house in there, if we ever get separated on a mission, this is where we meet up. But you can’t let anyone see you come in here, it’s our most vital secret place.”

“Yeah, Filla told me last time we came here!” Kurri says.

“Oh right! I forgot,” Perra says.

The cart rolls through and Kurri ducks under a long series of low hanging branches, coming out of it covered in wet leaves. Ahead of them is a large house, it must be a hundred years old, and not lived in for fifty. It has most of its roof, but few of its windows. Next to it is a stack of familiar barrels and crates for them to load up and bring to Korben.