Loadout

Kurri slept very well that night. He wakes up to the light of dawn, not in his tent but an older, badly weathered and many times sewn together one. And he is not alone. He fell asleep in Perra’s arms, he remembers. This may take some time for him to process. But it was a wonderful night. He reaches up and feels the soft skin of Perra’s hand laying over him. He feels warm inside.

As he stirs and tries to free himself from Perra’s embrace, his comrade stirs and opens their eyes, then gasps and recoils from him, sitting up and pulling the blanket from him to wrap around their body.

“Um, good morning, Kurri?” Filla says, in her subtly different pattern of speech.

“Oh! Filla, um, the thing is...”

“I always knew something like this would happen eventually,” she says. “I’ll have to make a note to him to arrange these things ahead of time in case I reappear.”

“I’m so sorry Filla. No wonder he said this kind of thing was complicated for you two.”

“Don’t feel bad, it’s more awkward for me than for you, believe me. And that’s for me to take up with him, not you, don’t worry.” Filla looks around the tent. “Did you at least have a good time?”

“Oh, um, yes,” Kurri says. “I mean, not that much of anything happened, I mean, we just--”

“I don’t need to know this. Look, when Perra’s here, it’s his body, and when I’m here, it’s mine, no harm done, really. Let’s focus on the mission and we can figure out other matters later when we’re not exploded.”

“Okay. Thanks, for understanding.” He finds his shirt and his jacket and awkwardly dresses himself, then crawls to the exit of the tent.

“Kurri,” she says.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know if I really feel those kinds of things like Perra does, but still, I’m glad it’s you. You’re a good friend. You’ll be good for him. Good...for us.”

“Thanks, Filla, um, I feel the same way. I’ll, um, see you at breakfast?”

“Just go! I need to find my shirt.”

Kurri laces up his boots and steps out into the light of dawn. Perra and Filla’s tent is away from the others, near the old tree and their garden. He walks back toward his own tent, through the katal field and across the clearing. When he reaches the moss covered campsite, only Zal is awake to greet him.

“Well,” Zal says. “Coming home from somewhere I see.”

“If you must tease me, yes,” Kurri says.

“I would never,” Zal says. “Filla?”

“No, Perra, actually.”

“How exciting,” Zal says.

“I’m sure you find it very interesting,” Kurri says.

“Congratulations, Kurri, you’re a deviant!”

“You told me if I didn’t have romantic or sexual feelings for people I was already a deviant,” Kurri says.

“That’s right, I did, didn’t I. To say otherwise would be so unfair, even to me. But still, now that you have not-romantic and not-sexual feelings for a boy, all of Kogaku will think you’re twice the deviant. Unfair, I know, but that’s kind of how we came to be at war and all,” Zal says.

“Thanks, Zal.”

“What I mean is, you’re one of us. You have a stake in this. Everything that happens, everything we do, it’s your fight too. Remember that in the field, okay?”

“Okay, I will.” Kurri walks by them toward his tent. It isn’t a selfless struggle for him anymore. Maybe it never was, maybe people just aren’t capable of giving their lives to something that doesn’t affect them. Maybe they are. These are questions for another day. Today he has a mission.

He enters his tent and straps his knife to the left side of his belt, and his gun to the right. He ties the grey bandana around his neck. It feels more right now than ever. He is Kurri Koronova, Helbender Collective, K.R.A., and today they will be victorious. He has an unusual surge of confidence, as if some of Perra’s personality has leaked into him. Maybe it is just adrenaline as he thinks about the coming mission.

He takes his medic bag, opening it and checking its contents. He will take a lot of extra trauma supplies today, more than he ever expects to need. He stands up outside, with black hemp pants and a grey jacket, with his grey bandana, armed and ready for war.

Across from him, Razha steps outside of her tent, with her long black hair in its braid, and pulls her black coat on over her black jacket. She fastens its buttons and throws her bandolier of alchemical powders across her torso. She fastens her battle belt over top, with her sword-bayonet in its sheath and her powder flask hanging from the other side. She ties her grey scarf around her neck. And finally she slings her black rifle Reverie over her back.

Nadia emerges from Razha’s tent next, dressed all in black except for her grey bandana, with her pistol and her long knives hanging from her belt. She has a short carbine rifle on her back. He hasn’t seen her so heavily armed. Zal finishes equipping themself. The grip of their pistol and the hilt of their knife protrude from compartments in their chaotic patchwork of clothing in mismatched shades of grey.

Kurri goes on to the kitchen, where Kalen already has their breakfast about ready--drake eggs and leftover drake meat, with fried rice and potatoes, a meal packed with protein and energy for a day where they would need all they could get. She is already prepared for battle, with her rifle on her back and her bandana around her neck beneath a black scarf over her hair.

Annia comes up to get its breakfast after Kurri, in its heavy dark grey mechanic’s jumpsuit--equally good for battle as the for the forge--with its battery pack equipped and its electric crossbow, and a rifle on its back next to it. Maris arrives, in his black leather vest and bandolier of many ceramic and glass grenades and mysterious paper bombs, a grey bandana tied over his shaved head, and with his huge double barreled shotgun over his back.

Elliv has his black field jacket with his long rifle and sword-bayonet and a pistol on his belt. He carries nothing extraneous with him into battle, he’s a warrior of simple methods. Next to him is Ketha, in black and grey, with their pistol by their side and their rifle on their back. Lein isn’t far behind, dressed in black with a long rifle and bayonet, a pistol at his side.

Krev pulls the cart up, with both his good riding drakes harnessed up and ready to go. He has a pistol at his side and a shotgun on his back. This time even Krev wears black and grey, with a grey bandana tied as a headband across his forehead under his wide brimmed hat of woven black vines. Filla arrives last, still looking slightly disoriented, but ready with her medic kit, dressed in grey under her brown leather vest.

The Helbender crew is assembled and ready. They eat their breakfast in relative silence. They fill up their canteens with clearwater. And one by one they board the back of the large cart. Razha Koronova sits at the front, looking back at the crew. Kurri and the others are looking to her, expectantly.

She looks confused at the attention, but she pulls her expression into one of resolve. As they pass under the shade of the wooded corridor toward the gate, the morning sun catches Razha’s moonstone necklace and highlights the white lines on the edge of her brown face. Her eyes look serious and focused.

She addresses the collective, “Let the chaos begin!”