//?A Curious Sergal: Part 7.001
#7 of //?A Curious Sergal
Part 6:
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//? A Curious Sergal Part 7
Zyf awoke. Someone was standing in his market stall. He would have normally just stayed in his bed with his mate, Syn (especially after such a... momentous day), but he didn't want anyone to steal from his open market stall. After nuzzling his muzzle with her sleeping form for a moment, he got up as gently as possible, to prevent from waking her, and walked through the aperture connecting the bedroom with the storefront. He was immediately confronted by a tall but skinny black sergal who held his palm up to Zyf's face and blew. Zyf's vision blurred and his knees buckled as he fell asleep immediately.
Syn awoke from her nap. It was probably only 8pm, but she, along with her newly wedded mate, Zyf had been exhausted after consummating their love earlier in the afternoon. She rolled over, expecting to see a peacefully sleeping Zyf wrapped around her torso, but only found an empty bed space. She stood up, and walked out of the room, parting the thin, tattered linen cloth that acted as the door between their bedroom and the rest of their home... the single market stall that also acted as their living room. As she walked out, she was shocked at what she found. Zyf and a random female Sergal lying curled up on each other, both completely naked.
"WHAT!?"
***
Jax quite liked his new hood. He was tempted to not give it back to the male Sergal he had taken it from. Due to the fact that he, having Northern Sergal blood, was much larger than the female Southern Sergal he had found in the alley, and the male Southern Sergal he had found in the market stall, he had needed to take both their clothing to cover his full form. Wrapped in rags from both the male and female, Jax thought he looked quite awkward, but when he looked around him at the other Southern Sergals in his midst he soon realized he fit in spotlessly. The desert Sergals had covered themselves in whatever thin fabrics and linens they could find to shield themselves from the blazing sun that was sure to come out during the day, whether or not it properly fit around their form. Jax made a mental note to himself to use his ground-up topora leaves as a ranged weapon in the future, seeing as how effective it was against the male in the market stall.
As Jax made his way to the command tent, his curiosity got the better of him many times, and he sidetracked to various market stalls to see just what sort of trinkets and shinies they were selling. One in particular caught his eye. The stall had various trinkets and devices, each of which appeared quite complex in stark contrast to the linen/fabric and desert cactus(food) market stalls, each staffed by Southern Sergals with warm smiles, it was nestled in between. No, nestled was not the right word. More like awkwardly crouching. Just like the Nevrean male, looking so out of place with his beady black eyes and absent scowl who, Jax assumed, staffed the booth. The two locked eyes with each other as Jax passed, and not all of the thin rags and robes that clothed the Sergals of the Sailzain could have made him feel that his identity was safe from those beady black eyes. He pulled his eyes away from the Nevrean's gaze and proceeded towards his primary objective in the center of the town. He didn't make a note to himself to return to it the stall later; he knew he would be bound by his curiosity to do so regardless if he planned on it or not.
***
"Commander! We cannot waste our resources preparing for an invasion that will not happen!" The Lieutenant spoke. She stood in front of the Commander (who was also effectively the mayor in times of peace) in the antechamber of the main hall. Scouts and messengers were coming in and out at sporadic intervals after their shifts through the main doors. This argument had been going on for quite a while, and all who were involved in persuading the Commander had grown weary of it in the past few days. The guard patrols in the city were putting a strain on its fragile economy, and it could not keep its simple farmers in uniform for much longer.
"While it is true, the reports have yet to be verified, sir, I would implore you to keep up the patrols, should this 'Shigu' threat arise" Thyl, the Commander's loyal right hand man. Though he was not officially an officer, he had been with the Commander through thick and thin, and could usually smell trouble well before it approached (a skill that came in handy to the Commander, as it was always useful to keep one step ahead of the other small farming city-states in the Sailzane)..
"Yet to be verified!? The only witnesses we have of this so-called 'invasion' come from a handful of refugees that came out of the green-belt! The biggest clan in that area is less than a couple hundred strong! For all we know, these refugees were attacked by an army of a mere two hundred, and their fear and desperation make them spread these stories of armies so strong they were 'waves of grey, washing over the landscape'" The Lieutenant argued. She was by blood a soldier, and was getting tired of all the drafted Sergal farmers in her ranks.
The Commander mulled it around in his head for a while. As a Commander, leading his city in a time of peace was quite boring (so there was some incentive to keep up the guard), but he didn't want to abuse his power (too much). "Very well. The guards are on leave until further notice. Take down the bonfires throughout the city" "Sir, I implore you to reconsi-" Thyl piped up.
"No. I will not waste this city's resources on defending from an enemy that might not exist. We have real threats that we have to deal with, such as the harvest and the oasis famine" The Commander ordered, to convince himself just as much as to convince Thyl. A tall soldier walked past Thyl and the Lieutenant, and handed a message to the Commander. He swiftly exited as the Commander unraveled the folded and creased parchment. The Commander's face went from bewilderment, to an exclamation, to a grave seriousness. A commotion started at the door after the soldier had left, and a scout came in dragging the bodies of the two unconscious guards, one of them almost completely naked, that had so recently been stationed at the entrance of the main hall.
"Arm all the guards! Prepare for an invasion!" He barked out orders to all the officers in the room, before turning to the Lieutenant and Thyl "And find that soldier!"
***
Jax was quite surprised at the reaction he had caused; messengers were pouring out of the main hall and giving orders to all the soldiers they could find. Fortunately, he had the foresight to take off the guard's "borrowed" armor. While he had thrown the armor in an alley, he kept the helmet in his pack, as it had what Jax assumed was the emblem of the city he was in engraved on it, and might be able to use it later. All the commotion arose through the streets, Jax silently slipped into the crowd, acting completely unphased, when he saw the Nevrean male in his booth in the corner of his peripheral vision. He knew he should find a better place to hide than the open spaces of the market stall-crowded street, but his curiosity grew stronger, as if when he walked by he was gravitated towards the out of place bird. He began his approach.
***
Ava sighed; it was hard to have business when one was surrounded by such stupid furred behemoths. He glared to his right with his beady black eyes. The Southern Sergal manning the stall of fabrics gave him a bright and fuzzy smile that extended all over his face. Ava attempted to return it, creating a disappointed scowl-expression with his beak. He turned back to look at his wears. A broken lightbulb, a couple of dead batteries, some shiny beads. He knew just how useless they were, but that didn't mean his customers knew. The Agudner had left quite a few treasures from their past civilization, and Ava (along with many members of his species) had found the perfect way to exploit them, even the artifacts that the Agudner themselves would have considered trash. He noticed an increase in activity near the main hall in the center of the city. So they're taking down the watch finally? He thought to himself. Then he noticed that troops were assembling. Going to war? With who? He glanced down the street and scanned through the people in the street when he noticed that one of these Sergals was not like the others: one of these Sergals was different. Though he was covered by clothing in a similar manner than the others, the fact that he was jet black, and almost a head higher than those around him made him stick out like a sore thumb. By the looks of it, he was completely oblivious to the face, as he walked completely nonchalantly. Their eyes met, and Ava saw the emblem on the collar around the Sergals neck. His heart stopped. There, gleaming in the dead black of the Mk.II communication collar, floated an ethereal grey hexagon. Ava couldn't believe it. But they're gone! How can he- Without thinking, Ava instinctively inched his feathery fingers over the butt of the small pistol he kept hidden in his robes, one of the more useful tools left by the Agudner.