The Bird and The Dragon

The nocturna found Patrik before the fire did. “Looks like you are lost,” Esrau’s voice said from the darkness. Patrik stopped in his tracks and turned to face his fate. There was blood on nocturna’s sleeve, and he limped his left foot. “Hush. Don’t even imagine doing anything flashy. This place needs no additional encouragement to burst aflame.”

“Who are you?” Patrik asked.

“Lieutenant Esrau Frenk.”

“Strategej Patrik.” Patrik made a mocking bow. “How may I serve?”

“Just follow me,” the nocturna said and started to walk in the direction Patrik had been proceeding. Patrik saw him disappearing in the darkness and decided to follow. Esrau seemed to have a plan and maybe he even was familiar with the landscape. The mist was thick around them, formed from the raindrops evaporating before they reached the ground.

“What is holding the explosion?” Patrik asked.

“Rain cools the trunks. It has not enough energy, yet.” Esrau quickened his steps.

“Strategej, would you recognize electricity?”

“I’ve seen it around the ruins near the bridge,” Patrik said remembering his student patrols. He realized the slope behind them was formed by an ancient explosion. Among the stones were pieces of malformed metal and molten plastic.

“Look for it. It circulates a door I am searching for.”

Patrik nodded to Esrau’s back. He opened his sight, but it was full of mist and rushing water, and his weariness seemed to call memories that did not belong to him. They swam through his field of vision like specters, the trees were glowing with energy and Esrau was nowhere to be seen.

“Here, strategej.” The voice echoed, and when Patrik slipped closer, he noticed the man was standing under an arch. On closer look, he understood it was a giant pipe where accumulated soil had formed a floor.

They walked deeper into the pipe; being out of the rain was a relief. Patrik realized he was shaking in his wet clothes. All the light lacked from inside and the soil was uneven when Patrik followed Esrau. The nocturna stopped suddenly and Patrik collided with his back. There was something hard under the clothes, probably some armor.

Patrik heard how Esrau felt around, there was a rustle of wet fabric, a rasping sound, a creak, and a hollow knock. The big man pushed, and something was moving on its hinges. “It won’t open more,” Esrau said in a subdued voice and squeezed inside. The opening was wide enough for Patrik to step through without trouble.

Inside was dark and smelled of wet stone. Esrau took hold of the door and started pushing it shut. Patrik hit his hand onto something that felt and sounded like a metal shelf. There was a heavy cloth, and something on the shelf clinked. The other sounds told Esrau had managed to close the door. Patrik felt that maybe he would survive the forest fire against all the odds.

“There is a switch somewhere. A smooth piece embedded in the wall,” Esrau said. Patrik slid his fingers cautiously along the shelves until he found a corner. There he touched a cold, slippery piece, different from the coarse wall material. It moved and when Patrik pushed a faint light appeared in the bottom of the wall. It spread like the winter dawn on the sky. The light was weak and pale, spreading sluggishly along the corridor, skipping some parts and leaving them in the shadow.

In the darkness, even a faint light helped to see. It revealed a corridor lined by shelves and cupboards. An arhythmical rasping started. Patrik felt his neck hair standing up when he understood that this meant some ancient machinery was starting up. Esrau walked deeper into the corridor and took out his drenched coat. “We’ll sleep here.”

Patrik looked around. The previous visitors had left only a few items, but it all was made by and for the nocturna. No heat source was visible, but some clothing was on the shelves. Patrik decided to get himself dry. Soon the two men were sitting on the opposite sides of the corridor. Patrik was wearing a too-large shirt and both were eating cookies Esrau had taken from his backpack. There was fish paste to go with them.

Esrau’s metal crossbow was on the floor beside him. He had removed the trigger mechanism and stored it in his pocket. In addition to the crossbow and the sword, he was also carrying a rifle. Strategej didn’t have to ask why no one had used fire weapons in the forest.

“What is this place?” Patrik asked without expecting any reply. His voice sounded small and bare when it echoed from the walls.

“Before the war, this used to be a maintenance tunnel. It goes deeper, but the other end has collapsed and flooded.”

Patrik touched the wall. It was not natural but made of some artificial material in the past. It felt weird to sit among the remains of a destroyed world. The people who had built the tunnel were the same people who had tried to kill the dragons. He was sitting among the soulless, war-wrecked technology hoping it would shield him from the fiery, exploding inferno outside.

Patrik felt his head heavy; the firestorm raging outside was caused by the remnants of the same technology that had built the tunnel. And he was inside with Esrau, an heir and a descendant of the dragon killers.

Patrik observed the nocturna in the faint light. His people had been genetically engineered soldiers and Esrau was tall and strong. Hardly any white was visible in his eyes as they reflected the light like the eyes of an animal. The walk through the forest had made it obvious that the nocturna needed only a little light to see and it was rumored that their eyes and ears spotted stimuli outside the range of the ordinary human senses.

Except for his eyes, Esrau looked like a human. The physiological differences would become obvious when he moved and when it was about survival. The nocturna were very difficult to kill. They copied with remarkable ease to the extreme weather, illnesses, and injuries. Patrik could not estimate Esrau’s age: nocturna had long lifespans, but their numbers were few. Successful pregnancies were rare and maybe one of every four kids grew to adulthood. The nocturna were a creation of the past science and without technological support, their existence was slowly fading from Watergate’s surface.

A distant explosion echoed in the tunnel. Esrau observed the ainadu sitting opposite him. The man seemed to be just as fragile of a body as the humans did. The ainadu were part of the human race, they bred with the southern people with ease. The difference lived in their blood, and this mark of the slave was what Esrau was pondering.

“Strategej, what would happen if your blood lost all its power? Would it regenerate?”

“No,” Patrik answered honestly: “Because it should be consumed until the last drop and I would be dead by then.”

“But theoretically speaking you would cease to be…an ainadu?”

“Theoretically speaking I would be invisible to the dragons and they would be hidden from me. How about you, nocturna? Can one remove the microbial machines they say your kind carries in your blood?” Patrik changed the viewpoint. Discussing ainadu’s bloodline was too close to the mission in Haven.

“With the lost technology, it was possible. But don’t worry, the artificial intelligences controlling the nanos are long gone. The blooding is a ritual to ensure a newborn possesses functioning vital processes, nothing more. The artificials don’t watch over me, they don’t bless or curse my work.”

Patrik gave the man a severe stare. The artificial intelligences did not die. They lived in many bodies and possessed many forms and maybe that had been why the dragons had been hated so heatedly. There was another explosion, closer this time, and two more followed rapidly.

“How did it feel? When the machines started to crawl inside you?” Patrik said to speak about anything but the fiery death approaching them.

“I don’t remember my blooding. The first time I felt anything was when they closed a vein before I bled to death. I was fourteen and had lost a match.”

“You had quite a childhood.”

“It was part of the uprising and mistakes do happen.”

“Was shooting that bird also a mistake? It made Huran to notice your presence.”

“It had to be done. I needed information on the process that was initiated in the forest.”

“And a dead bird had that information?

“In a way yes. The bird was a signal.

Patrik just shook his head, but Esrau didn’t explain. There were more explosions and Patrik rested his chin on his knees. The door shook and hot air flowed in from somewhere, but the hinges held.

Patrik woke up. He was on the floor, covered by a ragged coat. Esrau was standing by the open door. Acrid air flew in, but the sky was clear. Patrik was cold and his throat felt sore as he walked to the door. He looked at the scorched landscape where blackened remains of trees were standing in ash-covered mud realizing that spending the night outside would have marked his death.

“Are there other places like this?” The strategej thought about the people they had left behind.

“A few, but they are not easy to find. Those who were outside are dead. Peace of the trees upon their souls.” Esrau said like reading Patrik’s thoughts. Patrik opened his mouth to answer but sneezed as the ash tickled his nose.

“Don’t breathe it. The ash may be poisonous.” Esrau said.

“Everything here is,” Patrik said.

“I wouldn’t say so. This world is still searching for the balance it lost at the end of the world. Every incident like this shakes that frail harmony.”

Patrik estimated if he could escape from Esrau. “When is it safe to leave?”

“The fire may stay alive under the ash for a long time, but the generated pressure has been released. It will not explode. The mud makes walking hard and the dust is full of harmful substances. However, the rain washed most of it down to the soil and your hood should filter the rest.”

“Then I will go.”

“You are alone and far from your home, strategej."

“I’ll find my way.”

“Why don’t you come with me? I’d like to discuss what happened. Call it…scientifical curiosity.”

“Would you accept the dragons in your blood?” The mockery in Patrik’s words drowned in the silence of the landscape.

“As much as you would take my nanos in your veins.”

”Then you cannot understand.”

”You do not change the laws of the existence or the structure of the world, ainadu. The outcome can be understood.”

“I wish you the best of luck with this forest.” Patrik was silent for a while and asked with a softer tone: “Will it grow back?”

“It will,” the nocturna answered with certainty. “If not this one, then another organism will take its place.”

The strategej shrugged and prepared to leave.

“There is a tap below the self. The water tastes horrible, but it is drinkable.” Esrau said without looking at Patrik. He was not lying, and Patrik filled a bottle and fixed his hood. He could already taste the ash in his mouth.

The strategej stopped by the door beside the nocturna. “Thanks.”

“Thanks for you. Without this Huran’s loyalties would have left uncovered.”

“I am sorry for the forest. The objective was to destroy only its production.”

“You didn’t know the consequences of your actions. No one considers the effects their agenda has on the planetary level…Walk under the peace of the forest, strategej. Try to do something good.”

“May the wings pass you without seeing you, if that is what you wish, lieutenant,” Patrik wished modifying an old blessing. He stepped out and started walking toward the south and Haven, his heart heavy from the presence of death and the growing suspicion. His steps draw a lone path in the fresh ash.