No rest for the weary [DragonSong]

[Marjorie]

There was automatic fire all around. The sprayer was amazing - he was yelling for the others to get down, but it was unneeded they knew better than to get up. “Grendy!” he yelled, clinging to his friend, “You’re going to be fine,” he yelled at him, even though he was coughing up blood all over Raf’s face, “don’t you fucking die on me.” He was already gone though.

Raf woke with a start. He could hear his screams echoing off the empty cockpit. He was cold, his heart beating out of his chest, soaked in swat. For a moment he was terrified of wiping his borrow - afraid that it would come back slick with Grendy’s blood. He shook his head and then forced himself to wipe his face with the sleeve of his shirt. Nothing there. Just awkward. He could still smell the metallic tang of blood though taste the salt and dirt and metal in his mouth.

He looked at the clock. He’d k my dozed for fifteen minutes or so. He hadn’t had more than an hour of sleep at a time sense he decided to take this job.

Edanith.

Home.

He was going home.

Raf craves and longed for home nearly as much as he craved the bottle these days, but even just the thought of home made his nightmares worst. Every time he closed his eyes he could hear their screams, taste the smoke and the dirt, feel hot, sticky blood running threw his fingers.

His heart rate increased again and his breathing kicked up a notch. Oh gods and fucking space angels. The room was spinning. No. No. Breath. Relax. Breath. Hold your breath. Calm the fuck down Raf. It took him several minutes and he nearly had a full blown gods damned panic attack.

Just as the room stopped spinning the console in front of Raf chimed. Then an alert popped up on the screen to tell him the ship was on its final decent. Home. He was home. It was a bad place to visit, but a good place to die. He could feed the worms in the same dirt as the rest of his unit.

[DragonSong]

It had already been almost thirty-six hours.

The two marshals she'd spoken to within the first twenty-four had said once it hit the fourty-eight mark, her chances went from slim to none.

Ava took a breath, hands clenching where she gripped her own arms, so tight that her nails bit into the skin and she felt a trickle of blood begin to trace down her right forearm. She didn't care. Besides, it wasn't like there was anyone around to see--docking ports were rare out here in the "borderlands", as a few citizens of Reckless referred to the gaps between frontier towns, and this one was essentially abandoned.

Which was apparently why her contact had told her to meet the man she was hiring here.

Too late, a tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind, tightening her jaw so hard that her teeth creaked. It's too late, you'll never get her back now.

Ava swallowed a shouted curse and stamped the little voice out, firmly. She still had twelve hours. If they couldn't find Val by then...

No. It didn't matter. She would find her.

[Marjorie]

There were just a few people here... the ones who maintained the power and the one who walked up to his ship as soon as it had touched down. Had to be Ava... looked like the woman in the image he'd been sent along with the desperate plea of a mother. This kind of job... he'd do basically for free.

He just needed enough to refill his liquor cabinet, if he lived, anyway.

He'd sent credits to the dock master earlier... enough that there'd be no record of him being here and no inspection of his ship.

The hatch opened, and an aggravated voice rose up out of the ship traveling toward Ava. "Lis, set security protocols to maximum." A moment later he stepped out of the hatch, and a moment after that it was closing behind him. Raf was taller than Ava by about half a foot, and the stink of booze probably reached her before she could see him. He hadn't shaved in two days and he looked like he hadn't slept in a week. He had a side arm strapped to his leg and he was carrying a rifle slung over his back. His pants were outdated standard issue combat fatigues and he wore a stained white t-shirt under a beat up leather jacket.

"You Ava?" his voice was tired and irritable. "Tell me about who we're after, and what you remember from when she went missing." He walked right past her without stopping. There had to be a bar in this gods forsaken place, "I need a drink before we get... and don't worry about payment until we find her. If I wind up dead, there's no need to pay." If... gods he fucking hoped he ended up dead on this thing.

[DragonSong]

...This was it?

This was her last resort?

The desperate could hardly afford to be picky, but Ava still felt her stomach sink as the sickening stench of alcohol washed over her at her contact's approach. Her eyes narrowed and she gave him a quick, evaluating up-and-down sort of look.

"Yes, I'm Ava," she replied after a very quick mental weighing of the pros and cons--the cons being obvious, the pros being...well, he was really her only option.

So more a "cons and reality check" situation then.

"I'm not sure how much information you were given, the man I spoke to earlier said--where the hell are you going?" She tried to do as he said, beginning to explain what had happened--she'd had an unfortunate amount of practice in doing that succinctly over the last day and a half--but before she could get more than a sentence out he was blowing passed her, talking about a drink.

A drink?

Ava snapped.

"Over my gods-be-damned dead body," she snarled, whirling to grab the strange mercenary's arm as he tried to walk passed her. In any other situation, with anything else at stake, she probably could have kept her cool, could have convinced herself to play along until she could get what she needed from him.

But her daughter's life hung in the balance, and any logical argument she could have given herself just flew out the window.

Fingers digging into his arm, painfully tight, she glared up into his face and hissed, "I don't know who the fuck you think you're dealing with or what the hell Corbin told you, but my daughter is out there. You want a fucking drink?!" It took all her willpower to keep from screaming, and even still she noted vaguely that he voice had risen just a bit too much, risking attracting attention. But she couldn't stop herself.

"I don't give a shit if you die," she spat, not realizing until the words left her mouth that, in that moment, they were true, "but if something happens to Val because you can't shape the fuck up and act like the gods-damned professional Corbin told me you were, you're not getting paid then either--and Edani bandits will be the least of your problems."

Breathing heavily, she finally let go of his arm, taking a sharp step back and dropping her hand to her side, clenched in a fist. Her whole body was shaking with rage and panic, not to mention the lack of sleep finally seemed to be catching up with her.

[Marjorie]

Raf was listening, but you wouldn’t think it to look at him. At least until her hand connected with his arm. He reacted automatically to that like a threat. He grabbed her thumb and twisted her hand around painfully, to get her to release him, but lucky for her didn’t break the thumb. Before that movement was finished though his side arm was jabbing her in the chest. His hand shook a little and then he holstered the weapon. “Look sister you don’t know anything about me. If you’re smart you won’t touch me again though. I hate this fucking place,” it wasn’t exactly true, but he couldn’t stand it anymore, “it’s a gods damn grave yard. The only reason I came back is because this wild goose chase of yours is likely to end up getting me killed. Oh and, don’t forgot you asked me to come... I know you didn’t pick me, you were stuck with me, but why was that? Oh yeah, no one else was fucking stupid enough to volunteer to help, because they DON’T want to die.

“You ever seen a man detox? They have seizures and die. So, if you’d rather I not calm that shake in my hand... sure, but then I really won’t be any good to you at all. I know your fucking kids out there, an I’m real sorry about that... I like kids, but I’m not your fucking hero, I’m your gods damn last fucking resort.” He laughed, bitter and cold. “He told you I was a professional? Sweetheart that was a lifetime ago. I was a soldier and I am a mercenary. I can kill for you and I can track a man across these wastes, but don’t expect a whole not more than that from me.”

He took a deep breath. That hand shook a little again. He made a fist then stretched it out to get it to stop. “Now,” he said, “I need a drink and a shower and we’ll be out of here in fifteen minutes.” 

[DragonSong]

Ava was shaking now, properly shaking, not just the little twitches and shivers that she'd been doing her best to control up until that point. Arms wrapped tight around her middle, she glared at him all the while he spoke, clutching at her own arms so tight that nails threatened to break skin.

Finally, she nodded once, sharply. "Fifteen minutes," she repeated in a low hiss, and turned on her heel to head to the exit of the docking station.

"...If my daughter dies because of you, I'll kill you myself."

Her voice was low, almost gentle, soft, but with a core of steel that rang cold and absolutely true. She wasn't threatening him; she was promising.

A harsh, almost startled laugh suddenly tore out of her and she glanced back over her shoulder, eyes hard and smile cruel--something she'd learned from an old friend. "So I guess this is really a win-win for you, huh?"

Without another word, she turned and walked away.

If he didn't meet her in fifteen minutes, she'd... She honestly didn't know what she'd do. But she had a feeling she didn't entirely want to find out.

[Marjorie]

“Go right ahead sister,” Raf said, “no harm in putting down a dying dog.”

It was ten minutes later that Raf headed for the exit of the docking station. He’d cleaned up, showered, shaved. He smelled better but his clothes were in the same state as before. He also had a bottle in his hand. Drunk was his baseline though, so he was still walking strait. He didn’t start shaking or swerving until he started to sober up.

“Alright,” he said, “what’s your girl’s name and where did you last see her? Also, you got transportation, because if you intend to walk across the wastelands you may as well just shoot me now.”

[DragonSong]

Ava had to bite back another string of shouting; at least in those ten minutes she'd managed to get a better hold of herself. Hopefully she could manage to keep a level head for...whatever time they had to work together.

"Val," she replied shortly. "Her name is Val." She hesitated just a moment, then reached into the front of her blouse and pulled out a small, white gold locket, oval in shape with a twining vine design around the outer edge. She flicked the catch with a practiced movement of her thumb and the lid popped, setting off the holographic system and projecting an image of a little girl into the air just above the locket.

The holopic was a bit out of date--Val was six here, and her seventh birthday had been almost eight months ago--but it was still better than nothing. The image showed a smiling little girl with hair as wild and curly as her mother's, though the shade was a pale blonde, and silvery gray eyes. She was sitting on a pony, a chubby, fuzzy little paint with a placid expression as the girl clung onto his neck. Freckles scattered over her nose and cheeks--not quite so thick as Ava's--and she had a tiny scar nicked into the skin on her jaw just below her right ear.

The pic flickered, then started to shift to the next image in Ava's rotating lineup, and she clicked the locket closed, tucking it back under the collar of her shirt. "They took her from Reckless about a day and a half ago--it's fifteen miles that way." She pointed due east from where they stood. "They were heading northwest, out passed the borderlands." Again, she pointed.

"They--" Her throat threatened to close up and she took a breath, swallowed, then continued, "They had two caravan trucks but most were on horseback. The marshal said their hideout is probably up in the hill country, where a surefooted horse is better than a vehicle, but he wouldn't risk sending any of his men out there without knowing where they were going, or how long. It's... Even with supplies, if you don't know where you're going, it's a death sentence out there."

Which brought them to transportation. Rather than answer his question verbally, she jerked her head to indicate he should follow and strode out around the outer edge of the docking station until she reached where she'd left the horses.

Corbin had said they were her best bet, considering so many of the bandits had been riding. The trucks were probably just for transporting stolen goods to fences--the horses would be how they navigated the rough, rocky hills.

Ava wasn't exactly an accomplished horsewoman, but living in Reckless she'd had to learn to ride, and she was competent enough. Though no one from the town had been willing to risk their lives for what they considered a lost cause, the sheriff had at least been willing to "lend" her two of the surest, swiftest mounts he could find: mares both, one a sprightly tobino paint that Ava had ridden here, the other a slightly cooler headed chestnut.

She gestured to the horses as she turned to face Raf. "You can ride, right?"

[Marjorie]

"Val" Raf said, and for a split second, his voice was softer, more considerate... kids, man. Fucking kids. He was a right bastard by anyone's scale, and a fucking asshole to boot, but he'd never hurt a kid, and he hated those who trafficked them as much as anyone else aught to. He took in the images of the happy little girl and something hard settled over him, that softness vanishing.

He nodded at the information she gave him.

"I grew up on this shit hole," Raf said, "I can ride. We'll get supplies in Reckless, I'm sure you don't want us dead before we even get out there. Just point me in the right direction once we leave. It's been... how long now, sense they took her? There might not be any tracks left to follow, but we can head out to the hills and have a look around."

[DragonSong]

Ava glanced down at her watch as she swung herself up into the saddle. The tobino tossed her head, shifting her weight between her back hooves while Ava settled herself.

"...Thirty-seven hours." Ava's voice was tight, quiet. It was a ticking clock, and she could feel every single tick like ice down her spine. "But we don't need to stop in Reckless. I brought supplies with me."

She gestured to the saddlebags slung across each mare just in front of the saddle. Nodding in the direction the bandit's had ridden off with her daughter, she added, "It's just about eight miles to hill country from here, it's almost fourteen from Reckless. I figured we should leave from here once I met you."

The sun was rising. She cast a glance in the direction of the reddish glow and narrowed her eyes. "If we get moving now, we can cover some ground before the sun tries to bake us alive. Come on."

She gave her mount a firm squeeze with her thighs and wheeled the mare around, taking off at a steady canter over the dusty earth.

[Marjorie]

Raf hum'ed in the back of his throat. He didn't know anyting about kidnapping stats, that the 48 hour basically marked out the point of no return, but he knew about tracking in this shitty place across this fucking desert, and he knew the tracks were probably gone by now.

He slung his duffel bag across the back of the horse and used the handles to secure it. "How much water did you pack?" he asked, as he pulled himself up into the saddle with what looked like practiced ease. He stowed his bottle into one of the saddle bags and then pulled a flask from the pocked on his left pant leg. He took a small sip and put it back... best watch how he spent that too.

"You know anything about who took her, or why? Were they..." he didn't say it, she could fill in the blanks, "traffickers, do you think?" The best way to make money off of stolen kids was usually to sell them to perverts who liked kids. At least if that was the case, she'd probably still be alive at least for a few days... though what state they'd find her in was anyone's guess... if they could even find her, that is.

As he was speaking, he took off his rifle and settled it into his lap. Then took off his leather jacket and stowed it. Underweight he had, over his stained t-shirt, what looked like a scarf. It was cream colored and sweat stained, but when he unfurled it, it was large enough to wrap around his head and shoulders and half across his face. It was great for keeping the sun off and cooling a person, and also for keeping the sand and dust out of your face.

He slid a clip in his sling and it came apart to form a harness which he pulled around his back and slipped his arms threw before clipping it in the front, where it held his rifle comfortable in his lap and easy to grab.

"You ever shoot anyone before sister?" He reached into his waste band and came back with a gun in a holster that had been clipped there. "Point this end toward the bad guys and pull the trigger, simple as that. The safety's off, so don't shoot yourself - or me.

"It shoots energy bolts, so no need to reload." He handed her a second battery with it. "Battery clips on here," he pointed out how to change it, "but the one on it should be good for a couple days unless we get into a heavy fire fight."

Raf kept his head on a swivel as they headed out. "Our first problem is going to be that we stick out like a sore fucking thumb... traveling across the desert, two mounted horses. No one goes out into the fucking desert alone." Which was, frankly, why they were alone... no one else wanted to go out there.

"We'll camp just before noon and then wait out the heat of the day, I don't want to head into the hills until it's dark. We'll be a lot harder to spot then... and I've got a few toys to give us the advantage at night, anyway."

"How's the weather been sense they took her?" He doubted there'd been rain, though freak storms could occur out here, "windy?" He was hoping the tracks wouldn't be all blown away.

[DragonSong]

Ava's blood ran cold, fear a tight, sickening knot in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed passed it.

"Val is special," was all she said in reply to her knowing anything about why her daughter had been taken. She knew very well why--she supposed she could only hope that the wings were the only thing that had interested the bandits.

Gods, she couldn't even think about it.

No one in Reckless had known. Ava had been sure that Val knew in no uncertain terms that her wings were a secret, something she could never tell anybody about, never show except to her mother. But in the chaos and the panic as the bandits tore through town, the bindings under her daughter's shift had come undone and Val had panicked, trying to fly above the crowd to spot her mother...

And making a target of herself in the process.

Ava jerked herself away from those memories and tried to answer Raf's questions in order, as succinctly as she could. "I've got enough hydration packets for maybe three days for the two of us," she said first, pulling out one of the small pouches of liquid to show him before stowing it back in the saddlebag. They were a useful design, newer, if she wasn't mistaken; meant to be dissolved in the mouth to offer up to twelve hours of low-grade hydration. Of course, they'd be in the desert, so she figured each pouch would probably only give them five to six hours. It was less room and weight than a waterskin though.

She'd packed two of those as well, but only half-full, in case they came across a natural source of water that was actually drinkable and could refill. Again, she gestured with a hand, not slowing her horse's pace.

When he handed her the gun, she gave him a very droll look, then took it, sighted down the line, and blew a scrubby cactus out of the earth with a single, well-placed shot as they trotted passed.

"I know how to fire a gun," she told him simply, holstering the thing. Dr. Faern had made sure she knew how to defend herself, if nothing else. She wasn't a sharpshooter by any means, but she was no slouch either.

She decided not to answer his question about if she'd ever actually shot someone before.

"We haven't had a real wind storm in nearly a week, but there's been a few gusts." She twisted slightly in the saddle to frown at him. "We can't wait until dark before we head into the hills. How in hell are we supposed to track anything if we can't see?"

...Okay, she knew nothing about tracking. That was why she'd needed help. But that at least seemed like a pretty solid guess to her!

[Marjorie]

"Special?" That sounded really fucking suspicious to him. "Look sister, I'm not here to hurt your kid... if I was I wouldn't even have met you here. If you know why they took her, it could be useful. It would change what they'd do with her, and if they'd keep her around or sell her off quick as they could get rid of her or hold onto her looking for a special buyer. Thieves don't usually keep kids, they make noise and cause a lot of questions, unless..." he guessed someone had to fucking say it, "unless they're perverts." In which case he'd haply blow the guys balls off, but they'd have to find them first. 

He just nodded approving when she fired off her shot. "Just try not to hesitate on that trigger if there's someone shooting back at you." Being a good shot and having the grit to kill someone were different, and a long shot and fire fight were different too.

"We will wait until dark if you want me to go into that hell hole with you," he cut her off sharply, "you ever tried to sneak into an elevated, fortified position? Because if they're smart that's what they'll have.

"And like I said, I have some stuff to give us an advantage in the dark." He patted his bag. "We need to be smart. Sneaky. If they see us coming we'll be dead before we even figure out where they're keeping her." If they still had her, if she was still alive. It was more ifs than he liked, but that's why she was stuck with him and not some upstanding citizen.

[DragonSong]

Ava jerked her head around to glare at him. "You think I don't know that?" she hissed through clenched teeth, eyes suspiciously bright. "I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not an idiot. I know very well the kind of danger my daughter is in--and I trust you about as far as you could walk sober, so forgive me if I'm not willing to share more information than I must."

She'd done the math, and honestly she was comfortable with the minor risk that knowing why Val was taken would somehow help him track her down versus what was to her a much greater risk to her daughter's safety if she told the truth.

"I don't know you," She muttered, looking forward again. For all she knew, Mother could have gotten to him...hell, maybe the bandits were her work too. Maybe this was all some elaborate plan to get her test subject back.

"...Understood." she nodded once to acknowledge his reasoning for waiting until dark. She'd admit her ignorance in certain areas, she wasn't too proud for that; but so help her if this drunken spacer kept talking down to her she might very well just kill him herself.

[Marjorie]

"Look sister, you don't have to like me - I don't need you to, and you probably shouldn't trust me. But I know I'm a peace of shit, and I'm still here... so, I'm sure you'd rather have more savory types than you helping you out, but more savory types clearly don't give enough a shit about you or your kid to help.

"So, you don't want to tell me what's going on, fine. But knowing why is usually the first step to finding an abduction victim, this isn't my first time out in the bush, and it's not my first time dealing with kidnappers either.

"Besides, Corbin's definitely better people than me... he wouldn't steer your wrong though he does tend to overcharge."

[DragonSong]

"Ava," she snapped, giving her horse a light tap to urge her into a gentle lope. "My name is Ava, not sister."

That seemed to be all she was willing to say. She was fully aware that this man was her last option, and that was the only reason she was here--she didn't feel the need to say that out loud when they both knew it was true.

"...How'd it go last time? With kidnappers?"

[Marjorie]

He didn't use names because... people had to matter to have names. He couldn't risk loosing more people he cared about. She shouldn't want him to care about her anyway, everyone he cared about fucking died.

"Whatever you say, sister," he smirked... actually, she was starting to grow on him, despite himself.

"Kid's still alive, if that's what you mean," he said, "but I put his fucking parents in the ground. Turned out, they were in on it." He glance at her, "I don't like people who fuck with kids." He had grown up half way around hookers and Johns, and then half in and out of the system and on the streets. Most of the time, he'd have been safer on the streets. Everyone liked to take advantage of the weak. He'd learned that early. He knew what things people did to kids because he'd lived threw it.

[DragonSong]

Her eyes widened for a moment, then she looked away, another frown stealing over her face. "Sick bastards," she muttered.

How could someone do that to their own child?

"...Ava." She still wasn't looking at him, but by gods she was not going to give in on this one thing. If she could have just a little control, even just over this, maybe... Maybe she could convince herself that she could really get Val back. "It's three letters. Two syllables. It's not that hard."

[Marjorie]

Raf nodded in agreement. Easy. They were poor. Destitute. They thought they could get money out of the deal... sell the kid, make it look like a kidnapping, get the kid back. Only they didn't count on Raf caring about a kid when they hired him. They figured he was just a worthless peace of shit, which he was, but too bad for them he actually gave a fuck about kids.

"If that's all you think it is, then you have no idea what a name is," Raf said evasively, but still didn't acquiesce. He did continue along in silence for a while though.

"Woah..." Raf said gently, bringing his horse to a stop. He pulled the flask from his pants pocket again and took a sip before replacing it. Then he slipped from the saddle with ease and landed on the ground with a small puff of dusty sand.

Raf crouch down and pointed at some marks in the dusty sand. There was a layer of powder about two inches deep with hard packed clay underneath. It was a bitch to track threw. Everything left prints in the powder but it was easily blown away and tracks, and even roads, could be swallowed up by it.

"There was three..." he turned and nearly touched the sand in another spot, "maybe five or six?" He shook his head, "it's hard to tell... the winds blown some of the tracks away. There was maybe six, maybe more or less horses out here, headed that way," he pointed off in the distance. "Is that the right way?" He glanced at Ava. "They couldn't have come threw here more than yesterday... tracks would be gone if it was longer than that."   

 

[DragonSong]

"This isn't Old Earth, and I'm not a faerie," Ava scoffed in response to that.

She brought her horse to a halt when he did and slipped down, standing by the animals while he knelt to examine the earth; she didn't want to risk disturbing whatever tracks he found.

She looked in the direction he pointed, raising a hand to partially shield her eyes while her gaze narrowed. "I'm not...I mean, yes, this is the direction they left from Reckless, but I don't know how long they continued on."

Again she glanced down at him, and her eyes suddenly widened. In a quick, sharp burst of movement, she hurried forward and knelt a few feet away from him, scrabbling in the dirt. She sat back with a sharp exhale, whatever she'd seen clutched in her hand: a large feather, which must have been trampled so thoroughly into the dirt by the horses' hooves that it had somehow managed to stick in place. Beneath the thick layer of red dust, it was cream and tan, a pattern rather like a barn owl's primary.

"Val." Ava closed her eyes and clutched the feather to her chest, forcing herself to breathe, not to break down in sobs. After a moment, her expression went hard and cold again, distant.

"This was it. This is them, definitely. Val left this." She held the feather out toward him, eyes steely. "She's a smart kid; she left it so someone could follow her."