Squib Ep.8 - By Fate Or By Luck

(Start at the beginning here)

“Right from the start, you always made me feel the fool, Bandana!”

A line of men, agitated and armed to the teeth had taken up strategic positions around the outcropping of rock below them. Two Bandana Anna, Annie Getchurgun, and Twelve Gauge Jules watched cautiously from a broad, man sized portal at the top of a rocky climb. This was an ancient site, lost to living memory, no longer on the maps of the known world. It was no small wonder then, why the mysterious map that now spread across Bandana’s back had lead them to it.

“I count twelve,” Annie stated with a note of stress in her voice. “Not including the Captain. He looks pissed by the way,” She shot an angry look over her shoulder at Bandana, who was busying herself with a broad slab of wall.

“Are you ready?” Jules queried the eldest sister.

Getchurgun gave a firm nod.

Jules pivoted sideways, exposing herself in the thick stone entrance-way with both her long and short steels drawn. She closed her eyes, counting the seconds in the stillness of her mind, ‘One, two,’ then dropped and rolled away to cover. Bolts soared through the air, striking stone, and clattering throughout the chamber.

Annie rolled out on the heel of the volley, taking a knee while their opponents reloaded, lining up a single measured shot. The thwang of her crossbow saw her own bolt loosed into the world of possibility, narrowly missing the flinching Captain by hairs, and striking one of the soldiers standing unexpectedly behind. The man went down with a mottled scream.

“Dammit!” Annie cursed as she drew back to cover, a lay bolt sailing by. She beat the wall with her fist, a tiny measure of the punishment within, “Of all the shots.”

Jules offered a sympathetic look with the intention of encouragement.

“Anna, we need you up here,” Annie called back again.

“But the door,” Bandana replied, so invested she’d barely heard her sister to begin with.

“Screw the door, and screw your goddamn map! We should never have listened to you in the first place, but we did, now here we are. So you can bloody well be here too!”

“Bandana! Getchurgun! Jules! I’ll be willing to overlook that if you lay down your weapons and come out of there. Why not discuss terms? Clearly we’re both invested passionately.”

Jules and Annie exchanged a wordless look over the Captains words before Jules shrugged, “It’s an option.”

“Not one I bloody well favor. Bandana!” Annie called again.

Irritated, Bandana turned and joined her sisters at the portal. She hazarded a peek outside, and saw the captain making motions with his hands. The crotchety terrain below looked alive with the movement of men.

“Looks like you’re doing a good job, keep it up.” Bandana squeezed her sisters arm and turned to go back. Annie seized her.

“Enough! You’ve been at it for an hour, and now deaths come knocking. It’s time to answer!”

Bandana wasn't particularly fond of death, or his knocking, which was ironic given how often she seemed to invite him around. Annie was striking at a much deeper chord though, the one of the maternal sister calling her sweet youngling sibling to bare her responsibility.

They’d gone along with Bandana’s scheme for so long, and so far they’d gotten away with it. But the chips were down, Bandana was having next to no luck cracking the mystery of the door, and hells minions were come looking for blood.

Bandana couldn't help but assume a certain level of resentment from her sisters. Well, ‘sister’ at the least. Annie had always been the one to hold her account in contempt, while Jules had always lead the path of the softer side. Regardless, the fact was that the Captain, should he catch them, would have little use for those two, and every bit of interest in taking Bandana for his property. She was the one to crack the chest stolen from the treasury. It was her who’d taken the scroll from within, and dared to read its secret. It was no surprise then that she was the one landed with the curse of the mysterious magical map scrawled upon her back, or blessing- depending on what manner of mind you were to see it.

Bandana stopped to stare at her sister, gauging the level of intent in her eye, and considering what she might hope to get away with. Rarely was there ever room to wriggle but Bandana had her way. On this occasion however, Bandana might as well have been a worm, and Annie- solid rock.

“Ok, fine, we do it your way.” Bandana raised her arms in surrender and Annie released her death grip.

“Weapons and armor check.” Jules crossed the tiny room and the three began running their routine.

~

“Weapons and armor check.” Jules took the straps of Bandana’s bandolier and gave it a firm tug, checking buckles and ties, doing a once over in thorough preparedness. All three checked their weapons and treated each other with the same level of care, looking for faults where none were present but unwilling to ignore the process all the same.

Satisfied, the three concluded without ceremony.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Bandana had to ask. This wouldn't be the first time they’d mistaken a key detail and gone headlong down the wrong rabbit hole.

Annie gestured to the swamp around them. “Look around, it’s a swamp. Have you seen anything else within a league of here?”

Bandana hadn't, of course she hadn't, but nerves had her wanting to ask all the same.

“Times wasting. Patrolling is one thing, but we’re not much of a town guard if we’re not in town to guard it.” Annie stepped off the earthy path, crossbow at the ready, and cautiously made her way across a series of ruined stepping stones surrounded by murky water.

Jules put a comforting hand on Bandana’s shoulder. “Come on Anna, whether by Fates hand or the Lady’s luck, we’re here for a reason, right?” She gave a comforting smile, and followed on.

Bandana sighed before drawing an emboldening breath. By Fate or by Luck- it was no surprise to have her sister hearken back her own creed. Though she rarely spoke openly about such ideas, they slipped out from time to time, subtly in the course of conversation, or at the behest of an impassioned curse. She merely nodded in response and moved after.

(Continue to Ep.9)

(Episode Directory)

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