Outlanders

Chapter 9: Overseer

On the path from Textile Town to Kleinstadt, a lone woman walked. She knew where she was going, but she felt lost all the same.

The woman was of below-average height, with a stocky torso but thin limbs. Two large dun eyes peered sadly out from her tan face, shrouded by her long cascades of black hair. Her pursed mouth stood fixed in a despondent frown, and her eyebrows, straight as the shafts of arrows, angled sharply down at the outer corners.

From her collar all the way down to her ankles, the woman wore a long yellow dress made of one continuous piece of cloth, accented by a sash around her waist. A grid pattern adorned the dress, filled in with concentric squares or square-cornered spirals. On her back was a woven image of a squat warrior with flaring crest on its head. Orange and green accents coursed over her body, framing the warrior with a jagged stair-step border.

Her hands hung clasped in front of her, clutching a cut-out shred of newspaper with the drawing of the lupine. Looking at it for the hundredth time, she tried to make out what the unfamiliar lettering meant. By the words 'yesterday' and 'found,' she guessed that the first line of the article described the place of the lupine's crime. While she recognized the descriptors 'pointy ears' and 'white fur,' the words 'stature' and 'stride' were beyond her.

Her tough hide sandals crunched on fine gravel, echoing in the placid silence around her. Directly above the path, the tree canopy parted, revealing a thin swath of cloudless sky. Homesick, she gazed up at it, trying and failing to pick out familiar constellations.

There was a rustle behind her. She turned around and peered into the darkness, seeing nothing. She squinted into her surroundings, finding no strange shapes and no movement.

A rope tightened around her waist.

Choking back a scream, the woman looked up, seeing a lasso leading up to a thick branch overhead. A few people perched on the branch, reeling her in. She gathered her breath and focused.

"Huñuchiy Kallpa," she incanted. "Ch'uqay!"

A blinding shockwave surged from her body, and the branch above her snapped like a matchstick.

As she landed with rock-solid balance, and three others fell before her, flat on their backs.

"Who are you?" the traveler demanded, stepping back.

Just as she finished saying this, the woman felt the cold, tight pressure of a garrote wire tightening around her neck. Grabbing it instinctively, she tugged back at it, then twisted her neck, freeing her windpipe.

"Huñuchiy Kallpa," she said again. "Ch'uqay!"

The shockwave ripped away from her, and the garrote wire fell. Turning around, she saw a fourth brigand sprawled behind her, wearing a cloak made of huge leaves.

The five bandits crawled backward, then staggered to their feet. Four more leafy figures rose like specters from the foliage around her.

"What do you want?" cried the woman.

"Put your hands up," said one of them. "Give us all your gear- and that dress- and we'll let you live."

The woman thought for a moment, then whispered, "Soway yaku, Huñuchiy."

She crouched. All of the plants within a ten-foot radius turned brown and wilted as thick mist flowed from them, floating through the air and gathering in a swirling column before the woman.

"Yaku Kamay Kawsay," she said. "Makanaquy."

As the bandits watched, dumbfounded, the column of water gave a stiff shudder. It gathered itself, contracted and sprang on them.