#lachin

Silence hung over the half-frozen tracks as three small figures made their way between the parked carriages that would leave in a few hours. As one of the search lights swept over the terrain, the trio quickly hid under one of the trains, narrowly avoiding being found out.

“Sweet Miraya, why is does the winter have to be so bloody cold here?” one of them half whispered, shivering and pulled his worn wintercoat tighter around his body.

“Shut up Lachin,” one of the others bit at him in the same half whisper tone. “If you keep yapping like that, they’re going to find us.”

“And I sure as hell don’t want to spend any time in Nishitan justice system,” the other of the trio added their two cents as they all kept scanning their environment. The conversation came to a halt as two guards approached, their lights lazily searching the ground, as the trio soundlessly hoisted themselves up into the wheelframes, keeping steady breaths as they strained their muscles, hanging from the thin bars that carried the wagon on top of it.

From their position, they could vaguely hear the guards chat, though neither of them understood the heavy dialect they spoke, and lights kept lazily sweeping by the carraiges. When the trio was certain they were out of earshot, Hiru slowly lowered herself onto the gravel and took a sweeping look over the nearby perimiter, keeping half an eye on both the searchlight and the guards.

“Move.”

Swiftly the three figures rolled from under the train and hurried to the next, only for Hiru to jump on the metal that was used to cover the gap between platforms and the tracks it stood on and start picking the lock. Within a minute, the lock gave a satisfying click and she worked the door open enough for her friends to wiggle themselves through before she followed them and locked the door again.

The inside of the wagon was dark, but Hiru’s eyes adjusted quickly and was able to distinguish towers and towers of crates.

“We’ll have to get out of here before we reach the Krisian border, they tightent their security,” Hiru spoke, her voice at a normal volume.

“Why?”

“Some punks thought it was a good idea to smuggle explosives with the royal food supplies.”

“Bloody hell.”

Naoi chuckled. “That it sure would have been if those bombs hadn’t been found. How many stops do we have for this one?”

“None, this a direct supply run as far as I know, so we’ll have to count our hours. The border is about ten hours away at regular speed, so that gives us a nine-hour ride.”

“You want to jump? Do you even know what the terrain there looks like?” Lachin protested but Hiru was quick to silence him.

“Listen, in the ideal situation I would get off in Obernhal but given the new boder ristrictions and the contents of this cart, we’ll have to. Besides, it is not like we’ll be jumping into a ravine. The last hour before we reach the border is all grass lands anyway, so we’ll land softly.”

“That is going to be a looong flight,” Naoi moaned as she got comfortable against one of the stacked crates, her backpack serving as her pillow. “Now, I am going to catch some sleep, so please keep it down if you want to keep talking.”

“How much budget do we have left?”

“Enough to get us a warm nest and good food for a few nights in Obernhal.”

“Good.”