Chapter Text
The gate groaned shut behind them, the heavy thud of stone on stone echoing the finality of their departure. Sid looked up at the battlements, his gaze lingering on the spot where he and Rav had stood, declaring Fen's arrival to the city. Barely a week ago. He followed Shellshock and Browning out onto the wide dirt road leading away from the city.
The last minutes of the sun hung heavy in the air, casting long, distorted shadows that stretched from the city walls all the way to the distant treeline. The forest, a wild and untamed thing, had long ago been fought back from Sanctuary's perimeter, replaced by a sprawling patchwork of agricultural fields. Small cottages and farmhouses speckled the expanse, their smoking chimneys like tiny signals in the twilight. The division of the city was starkly mirrored even here. On one side of the road, the cottages were stout, functional dwellings of black stone, their low roofs hugging the earth. On the other side, airy wooden structures were perched high on stilts, with neatly tilled plots of strange, leafy plants growing in the shaded earth directly beneath them.
"You don't even know whose farm it is?" Browning said, her voice sharp. She was walking ahead of Sid, abreast with the turtle-man, her posture stiff with disapproval.
"It's probably a border farm," Shellshock replied, his tone reasonable. "We just need to keep our eyes open." He had changed into his uniform before they left the barracks, the polished metal of his helmet catching the last of the sun's golden light.
"And why did you ask him to come?" Browning pointed back with her thumb, not even bothering to look at Sid.
"Don't you feel better with Captain Sid around, Brown?" Shellshock asked, a genuine earnestness in his voice.
"At least one of us will survive," Browning said with a scowl.
"Oh, hush now," Shellshock chuckled, smiling back at Sid. "You were too young then, but even here in Sanctuary, we heard about him. The armor is much nicer than the stories mentioned," he added admiringly. "I thought it was you right away."
Sid subconsciously rubbed the worn plate armor over his chest, but before he could speak, Browning cut in.
"Well, if he can handle the battlemage," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "he can deal with some farmers for us."
"Well, we need to figure out what's going on before we deal with anything," Shellshock said. "I was heading to the well when that lady found me and told me what was going on. She was frantic. So let's just slow down and find out what's really happening."
"Whatever's happening, if I find out those skinny-legged birds are trying to steal our harvest..." Browning jumped and kicked the air, her powerful frog legs scything through the twilight. "...they'll regret it."
"Relax, Brown, no need to show off for Captain Sid," Shellshock grinned.
"I wasn't!" Browning snapped, before breathing in through her nose and composing herself. "You've already heard the harvest looks light, right?"
"There's another week or two," Shellshock said, his optimism unwavering. "And it's been warm. There's still a chance for more to grow."
"It's been too warm," the sergeant said, kicking at the dusty road. "It's not rained in nearly two months."
The trio were silent as they walked. Sid knew what no rain meant: bad harvest. And when the harvest was bad, tensions ran high. The lizards would ration food and hand it out according to need. Rav had not had much insight to tell him about how the birds dealt with bad harvests, and Fen... he had seemed confused as to why winter would be harder, other than the cold.
The plants on either side of the road just looked like plants to Sid. He was no farmer, and he had lived underground for most of his life. Most of his time outside the tunnels and caves of the kingdom was spent marching, camping, and fighting. Even after he had left the kingdom and joined Fen, he was still just marching and camping.
"See? What did I say?" Shellshock finally broke the silence, pointing towards a cluster of flickering lights down the road.
On either side of the road two small groups of beastpeople stood, reptiles and birds, farmers, torches in hand, yelling at each other. There was a fight happening in the road between a quail man and an anole man. The small, frantic quail fluttered and pecked, his wings beating against the anole's green scales. The anole hissed and snapped, his long, slender body surprisingly agile as he dodged and lunged. It was a messy, undignified scrap, fueled by simmering resentment and the day's oppressive heat.
Browning broke out into a run towards the fight, her long legs quickly accelerating her forward. "City Guard!" she shouted.
"Brown, wait!" Shellshock reached out for her, but it was too late.
She collided with the quail, who didn't see her coming, and quickly had him on his knees, holding his arms behind his back painfully.
"Thank you," the anole man said, still breathless and checking his ripped clothes. "That bird is crazy. He just started attacking me."
"What?" Browning said, twisting the quail's arm. "You're starting fights for no reason? That's a trip to the dungeon if I've ever heard one."
"Liar!" the quail squawked as the frog woman twisted his arm. "He attacked me!"
"Likely story." Browning pulled the fowl farmer to his feet.
"Filthy belly-scraper!" the quail wailed. "Always liars, all of you cold-bloods."
Browning twisted the man's arm again. "If you keep up that racket, I'll toss you in the reptile cells."
"What are you doing, Brown?" Shellshock had finally caught up and was panting a bit as he took in the scene. Sid had followed behind him, wondering why the turtle-man did not run faster to keep up with the sergeant.
"It's Browning," she replied with a scowl. "This one started a fight." She gave the quail man a rough shake.
"Lies!" the avian farmer squawked. "Not that you scale-faces would believe me anyway."
"So, what happened then?" Sid said from the back.
"Hey!" Browning growled. "This is official City Guard business. You're not even a recruit yet."
"Oh, stop it with that, Sargent," Shellshock said.
"No! He can't just show up here and act like one of us," Browning said.
"Well, I say he can," Shellshock said. "If you want to pull rank, then listen when I say let Captain Sid give us a lesson."
Sid felt a mix of emotions when he heard those words. He didn't deserve any praise or recognition for his actions. He had betrayed the kingdom by living.
"Let the man go, Sargent," Sid said, walking up to the quail.
"What? No!" Browning hissed at the iguana.
"Brown, let him go," Shellshock commanded.
Browning glared at the turtle before letting the quail go and storming off to talk with the anole who was watching from not far away, still in the road.
"So," Sid said, "you said I wouldn't believe your story. Let me hear it."
The quail looked between the smiling turtle and the tired-looking iguana. Were these two serious? He was just about to open his mouth and begin insulting these two moronic reptiles when it happened.
BANG.
Sid was the first to recover. The blinding flash had barely even registered to him. He had heard that sound and smelt the air itself burning countless times. When he was young, the very first time he saw lightning, it had scared him. The boom, the flash... Stories could never describe how it felt like the very earth shook when it happened nearby. However, now, it just annoyed him.
Another crack and a jagged path of energy crashed into the nearby field, sending dirt raining down. The farmers who had been fighting ran in all directions or cowered with their hands over their heads. Even Browning had run back, standing close to Shellshock, who had nearly withdrawn into his shell. It was chaos.
Rav was flying erratically and seemed to be firing off his spells in a rage, no aim, full power, and Sid could hear him yelling some nonsense about proving how great he was.
In the middle of all of this, Sid carefully squatted and examined the ground. He picked a hefty stone, nice and jagged. As he took aim at the black bird, he closed his eyes and waited until the next erratic spell went off. Once it did, he snapped open his eyes and threw the stone at the flapping raven with all his might.
He hoped it hurt. That raven was being a fool again.
Sid had traveled with the raven for a long time. Far too long. The pathetic bird was so overconfident in his power that he never even trained. The only time he used his magic was to show off, so in the times that they did need him to join the fray, he was more of a hindrance than a help.
He had been getting better by the time they summoned Tom, however. He had been able to pull back a bit, reduce the raw, unfiltered power that he had been encouraged to deploy his entire life, so if one of his spells jumped to Fen or Sid, they would not be killed.
In all this time together, Sid knew that the magic also had disadvantages. Rav himself was not immune to the power, and if one was able to close the distance, the fight would be over unless Rav wanted to shock himself, which, Sid found very unlikely. How many times had the bird complained about sleeping on the ground? It was like he had to remind both him and Fen, every night, for over a year, that he did not find the ground comfortable, like Sid cared if that obnoxious bird just flew off somewhere.
As Sid watched the stone connect with the black bird, he sighed and began walking.
The magic had another weakness: when it was dark, Rav couldn't aim well. He might get one shot off that was accurate, but the flash blinds him if he keeps his eyes open. If the bird didn't kill you in one shot, there were opportunities to fight back.
Sid winced a bit as he watched Rav hit the plants and dirt with a thud.
But, Sid thought, that's the same with everyone. You don't need to be a battlemage to kill someone without them being able to react.
…
Rav stirred. Who was the curr who had lobbed a rock at him? It really hurt. At least the tilled dirt was soft enough to fall onto. Wait, why can't I breathe?
Rav's eyes shot open, and he saw Sid's grinning face. It was like a bucket of ice had been poured over him, an out-of-body experience. He relived the moment where they first met and felt the static crackle and pop in the air around him. However, the stupid iguana's words distracted him.
"So, how's that ground egg taste, hotshot?"
Rav sputtered and coughed, ejecting a lumpy brown thing and a lot of dirt that had lodged itself in his beak from the fall. "Why are you here, belly-scraper?" he groaned.
"I could ask you the same thing," Sid snorted. "Did Tom send you to get better plants already?"
"As if someone could tell me what to do," Rav huffed and pushed himself up. "I left those weaklings behind." He began brushing the dirt off his robe.
"I thought you were the weakest of the bunch," Sid said, turning to head back to the road. "They were the ones protecting you."
"Ha," Rav laughed, brushing more dirt off his robe. "When did you learn to joke?"
"What the hell is wrong with you anyways," Sid asked. "Who were you even trying to kill?"
"I was aiming for you, but you're just so ugly I couldn't focus, and I missed."
"You're such a hatchling."
"Great Stormcaller, please," the words interrupted the beginning of Sid and Rav's bickering. It was the quail man.
"What do you want?" Rav asked impatiently.
"You see, the reptiles are trying to steal our plants," the quail rubbed his hands together. "Please, teach them a lesson."
"Of course," Rav puffed up his feathers.
"Can it," Sid said. "You just put a good number of craters in both of these fields."
"And your ugly face is polluting them too," Rav said. "What is the difference?"
"At least I just scare the plants," Sid said. "You kill them."
Rav waved a wing dismissively at Sid and turned back to the quail. "Let me see these plants that are stolen."
"Uh, right this way," the quail said, looking between the great battlemage and the reptile who spoke so casually to him.
Both Sid and Rav were a bit confused. There, the anole and quail farmers stood in the middle of the road, their eyes spitting venom at each other, and between them, growing in the dust and gravel, was a plant. It wasn't particularly large, but it was a plant, Sid was sure of that.
"You have summoned me for this measly plant?" Rav squawked as he kicked at the stubborn greenery. "It looks like it has been run over by a cart."
"I think they rolled over it while fighting," Sid said.
"My humblest apologies, Master Rav, but it is not just this one plant," the quail said, flapping his wings. "It is the principle of the matter."
"And what exactly do you mean?" Rav asked.
"They are dirty reptiles," the quail man said as if he had been asked if the sun was out. "They should just go back in their holes so we don't have to see them." To emphasize his point, he poked Sid's armor.
Sid's tail smacked the quail's shoulder, sending him flat on his back. "Whoops," he said, "I'm used to hitting Fen."
"Outrageous!" the quail yelled. "Did you see that, Master Rav? Blast him!"
"Ha ha," Rav threw his beak up and laughed. "That mutt is so thick."
"Captain Sidarth, sir," the anole called, "the plant should be ours."
"The plant is in the middle of the road," Sid said. "Why don't..." Sid sighed, looking at the quail who was still wailing on the ground, begging Rav to zap Sid. "Why don't you two..." The quail was being very descriptive where Rav should zap. "...split the harvest. One makes two portions, the other chooses which portion they want."
"Really?" the anole questioned, confused at the legendary captain's command.
"Yes, really," Sid said. "And if this..."
"Battlemage!" a voice honked from the dark sky, causing both Rav and Sid to look up. A swan woman was circling overhead. "I need your help! There's trouble at the keep!"