Paladin 2: Chapter 1

Kira froze. If she moved even a muscle, she’d alert her prey, and that would be the end of this whole thing. She held herself perfectly still and just waited. A few more moments, that’s all she needed to hold out for. She tried to focus on being part of the rocks beside her.

The hot desert sun beat down, and she could feel her skin starting to redden and burn. That wasn’t anywhere on her list of worries. Her nanites would heal small injuries like that very quickly. It was bigger wounds, things like giant lizard bites, that she was more worried about.

The sand dragons were nasty critters. They weren’t that big, only standing as high as someone’s knee. At first glance they looked pretty harmless, more like eight foot long salamanders than anything else. Once they opened their mouths, you got to see why farmers on Percival had a bounty out on the creatures, though. They had scores of long, sharp teeth, like powerful needles running the entire span of their oversized jaws. In spite of their relatively small size, they had been known to swallow smaller humans whole, and they didn’t let go easily once they bit down, either.

This one wasn’t after a person, though. It was trying to eat a goat. Unfortunately for it, it was trying to eat one of the Haven family’s goats which had wandered off too far from the farm, and Kira wasn’t going to let it become dinner. She wished she had a gun with her, but the work knife she kept in her belt would have to do. That six inch blade was already in her hand, palmed and held close to her body so it wouldn’t reflect the bright sunlight and give away her position.

If she moved, the reptile would see her. At that point it would probably run off. As tough as the creatures were, they’d learned that humans were bad news, and generally ran rather than fighting. Fast as she was, these things could actually keep pace with her for a while, and Kira didn’t fancy a miles-long race through the desert. It would be way easier to simply kill the thing as soon as it started moving.

They were ambush predators. This one was half buried in the sand, almost invisible, and was waiting for the goat to get just a little bit closer. Soon as that happened it would lunge forward, leaping free from the sand around it and rushing to clamp its jaws around the goat. If it got its teeth sunk in that would be curtains for the goat, so Kira needed to stop it in mid-motion.

She held very still. The goat moved forward ever so slowly. There was a tiny tuft of something green not far from the sand dragon, and the goat finally noticed it, heading directly toward the predator’s mouth. If she hadn’t been holding herself perfectly still, Kira would have slapped her forehead. The goat was not especially bright.

With an explosion of movement the dragon boosted forward. It’s jaws opened, impossibly wide, showing those rows of shining teeth.

The goat must have realized at that point that it had seriously screwed up. It froze, not even bleating alarm.

But Kira was also moving, and while the sand dragons could keep up with her in a foot race, she was more than their match when it came to twitch responses. She was moving before she even thought about it, the knife out and in front of her as she rushed at the creature from its side.

It spotted her approach and tried to twist, pivoting its mouth to face toward her, but Kira had fought these critters enough times now to expect that. She slammed a foot down hard into the sand and pushed off, leaping over the dragon’s head and landing just on the other side of that gaping maw. Her knife sank into the skin just behind the skull, where its spinal cord had just a little gap. It died almost instantly, thrashing on the ground for only a handful of seconds before it became still.

The goat, of course, took that as its cue to finally start running. Predictably, the stupid animal didn’t run back toward home, but rather headed deeper into the desert. Sighing, Kira raced after it, catching up in just a few paces and looping a lariat around its head. The rope went tight, and the goat stopped cold, bowling itself over in the sand.

“Easy, Gilligan. I’m on your side,” Kira told it. “Remember me?”

The goat bleated defiance, sounding for all the world like it was ready to rend the flesh from her bones. Kira rolled her eyes and fished a few slices of dried apple from her pocket. The goat sniffed her hand, gobbled down the bits of apple, and then stood there like it was expecting more.

“No more. You want more, we have to go home, first.”

More bleating. But it didn’t fight her as she led it back. Kira planted a quick stake in the ground to keep the goat from wandering off again while she went back to the sand dragon. Each dragon had one small horn on its forehead. Bringing back the horns was how you proved you’d killed one for the bounty, and she could use all the money she could get. Life on Percival wasn’t easy, and the Havens had been very good putting her up at their home. Sure, she helped on the farm in exchange for her room and board, but anything she could contribute to the family helped them all out. She sawed the horn off with her knife and slipped it into a leather pouch.

That mission accomplished, she went and collected Gilligan, and together they set off back toward the farm.

It was heading toward dusk by the time she got back. Jace saw her walking in and waved her over. “You found him! Great work, Kira. Thanks for that.”

“He was almost dinner for a sand dragon,” Kira replied. She fished the horn out of her pouch to show him. “Nice littel score, though.”

“Oh, that will net you what, a hundred credits?” Jace asked.

“I think the bounty is still at one hundred, yeah. I’ll run it into town tomorrow and collect. You need any supplies while I’m there?”

“You’ll have to ask my dear wife. She’ll know the answer to that one for sure,” Jace replied. “Dinner is almost ready. Why don’t you get Gilligan back in his pen, then shower and join us? We’re pretty much done with work for the day.”

“Sounds like a terrific plan,” Kira said. “I feel like I have dust and sand literally ground into my pores.”

“Another day on Percival!”

He wasn’t wrong there. The desert planet wasn’t the place for a life of ease. Between the hostile fauna like the sand dragons and the temperatures, Percival was a place of constant struggle. A world far on the periphery of human settlement, it had attracted only the hardiest people, folks who weren’t afraid of work and welcomed a challenge.

Kira had only known them for a short while, but she’d already come to love them for all of that. She still didn’t know for certain where she’d come from before arriving on this world or how she’d gotten there. Most of her past was still clouded, her memories gone after whatever accident Jace rescued her from. He’d found her mostly dead, alone in the desert, then brought her back to his home and nursed her to health.

It was a debt she wasn’t sure she could ever repay. Then he’d offered to let her stay on with his family while she figured herself out. She could stay for as long as she wanted—forever, he’d said. That redoubled the debt and won her loyalty for life.

Kira dropped off Gilligan who bleated a few times for more apple bits, which she didn’t think he’d earned but handed over anyway. The darned animal had led her to a good kill and a bounty, after all. Then she headed over to the farmhouse. She kicked off her work boots in the entryway before coming through to the rest of the house. Mara Haven would kill her if she tracked heaps of sand through her immaculate home.

A quick shower, a change into fresh clothes, and she felt like a new woman. From there she went down toward the kitchen, because the smells of something delicious were already spreading throughout the house.

Kira peeked inside. Mara was there, working away at the stove. “Anything I can do to help?”

“You can set the table. The kids are still washing up. How did you fare with our idiot goat?”

“Found him,” Kira said, chuckling. “He was almost dragon food, but I got to him in time.”

“Thank goodness! He’s not that bright, but I still have hopes that he and Esmerelda will give us some baby goats at some point here.”

Kira started hauling plates and silverware out to the dining room table. In spite of the occasional bits of violence, this life she’d found for herself was mostly peaceful, and she liked it that way. Soon after she first woke, the town had come under raider attacks. Kira stood against the raiders, and she’d done an outstanding job of kicking their asses, too. Then she’d discovered that they were actually part of a mercenary team—and eventually ended up helping said mercenaries against a different, much nastier adversary.

But all of that was behind her now. Sure, she was good at fighting. She was fast, strong, and somehow knew more about weapons than anyone ought to. All of that was part of whatever was buried in her murky past. It had nothing to do with her life here on Percival. She was looking for peace. The relatively calm life on the Haven farm was doing her a ton of good, she figured.

“You ready for tomorrow?” Mara asked.

“Yeah, as much as I can be,” Kira replied.

“You don’t sound thrilled,” Mara replied, her voice amused. “Most people are happy to visit the city.”

“Been there, done that,” Kira replied. “I’m happier out here, if I’m being honest.”

“You don’t have to go, dear. Jace will be fine without an escort.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m happy to keep him company.”

“And ideally, out of trouble,” Mara replied. Her voice was light, but there was a trace of worry in her eyes.

Kira understood. It hadn’t been that long since raiders were attacking towns. Even though she knew those raiders were no longer a threat, that didn’t make Percival a safe place. Far from it. “I’ll keep him safe. You don’t need to worry about that at all.”

“I know you will, dear. Thank you.”

Kira sighed as she went back to setting places. Jace and a few other local farmers were being recognized for their years of leadership and work at a special banquet in Sunset City. The city—more like a large town, really—was as close as Percival came to having a planetary seat of government. Getting called in there for special recognition was a big deal, and Jace was thrilled. Kira figured she’d be bored to tears, but it was only a couple of days. She’d put up with a lot more than a few days of boredom for Jace Haven’s sake.