Wandering Eternal: Brothers of War

Awakening

The sun rises and reaches its light across the German land, on a rooftop a man stands smoking a cigar, the air still and the city so silent you could hear a pin drop.

“Brother...” the man says in hesitation, “where have you wandered off to this time?” He steps off of the roof floating down to the balcony below alighting without making a sound. He turns toward the open stain glass doors leading into the 4th floor meeting room. He walks in as if floating across the floor making his way around the circular table full of papers and maps. He stops after making a full circle around the table looking at all of the men who were generals of their respective countries and branches, “Gentleman, it’s time to prepare.”

“For what, sir?” One of them says cautiously while his voice is quivering and his face pouring sweat.

“For a war that will end all wars and maybe if we are lucky...” he turns around facing the open doors to the balcony, “peace for the entire planet,” an evil grin draws across his face and the white of his teeth gleam. He walks back out of the room onto the balcony and turns facing the sun, “this time brother, you will not stand in my way, no one will...” he flicks his cigar watching it spin through the air as it falls down the street below, then he walks back into the room shutting the doors behind him.

“Hey! Are you alive?!” *SMACK!* The spritely young girl slaps the fairly large unconscious man in the face, “helloooooo?! Is anybody in there?!” *SMACK! SMACK!* She slaps him again twice as hard while and he coughs spitting up water. He opens his eyes slowly wincing at the sun in his eyes and notices the silhouette of a small girl sitting on his chest. She tries to slap him again but her hand comes within an inch of his face as he catches her hand squeezing it tightly. “Owww!!! Ouch ouch owww!! Stop it you big dummy! That hurts!!” She squeals trying to pull her hand away, so he releases his tight grip of her hand and she starts beating on his chest like an African war drum but he ignores her looking around them and back to her as his eyes finally adjust to the bright sunlight.

“Ezma?” He asks raising up causing the girl to fall over to the side.

“Hey! I was using your belly as a chair and your chest as a drum! Why would you go and raise up like that making me fall on my butt like that huh? How can you treat a lady like that?! Huh? Huh?!” She screams at him blushing and flustered. Suddenly his eyes roll back and his body goes limp falling back down with a big thud. “Hey mister, are you sure you’re okay?” Her tone changes from anger to compassion. She waits a few moments for a reply but he lies still, lifeless, and silent. She sits there next to him for a while poking and prodding him hoping for him to wake up. She checks all of his pockets for money, but only finds an old Blackwood pipe emblazoned with jade in the shape of a Phoenix and a pink silk covered leather pouch halfway filled with sweet tangy smelling tobacco with a Phoenix embroidered on the front flap and the back has the words, “from ashes comes life, from fire comes death” embroidered into it. She keeps searching him with no luck of finding money or valuables and gives up. She falls back sitting down on his belly then slumps forward resting her chin on her hand. “What am I supposed to do now? You’re no good laying there dead or dying and I don’t have any money to get food with...” she lays back onto his chest curling up into the fetal position as the sun set. She stares at his grizzly bearded face with a scar that runs from his left eyebrow down his cheek and jaw in the shape of a Z, or lightning bolt, according to how you look at it. “There’s a fishing cabin right up there that we can go to if you want, but I’m too tired to go anywhere right now. You’re pretty heavy you know, it took me a while to pull your big butt out of the river. How about we go there tomorrow and then try to see if we can come up with some food huh?” She waits anxiously hoping he would wake up and answer her but still there was nothing. “You’re no fun when you don’t talk you know, by the way, who is Ezma?” She continues talking to him as if he were awake telling him stories of her past. She eventually falls asleep laying on his chest.

The next day she wakes up rolling off of his chest and hits the ground head first. “Ow Ow Ow owwie!” She rubs her head with a smug look, “that was your fault! You shouldn’t have moved and made me fall off of you!” She screams at him and then notices he hadn’t moved at all. She sits up kneeling beside him her face dropping to somber, “I wish you would wake up mister, I could really use some help and you’re the first person that hasn’t told me to leave after seeing me.” She waits for an answer impatiently and finally stands up next to him flexing her tiny muscles, “alright fine! Have your way you big lazy sloth! I’m gonna drag your dead butt all the way to the cabin even if I have to do it myself!” She looks around with a confident look, “oh yeah...” her face returns to a grim slump. She grabs him up by his arms pulling as hard as she can dragging him slowly inch by inch towards the cabin. The sun starts to set as she reaches the cabin door panting and sweating profusely. She takes a deep breath wiping the sweat from her face and pulls him up into the cabin then picks him up as best as she can trying to get him onto the bed. She tries pushing, pulling, and lifting his dead weight and finally gets him on the bed and facing up. Out of breath and strength, she falls on the bed next to him, “that wasn’t so bad!” She says in heavy breaths, “it only took me like all day right?” Her stomach growls loudly echoing throughout the cabin, “wow I’m starving,” she looks around her immediate area and notices a barrel full of potatoes next to the table, “oh wow taters!!!” She runs over to the barrel and grabs a few out biting into one of them raw and while chewing it up she stops realizing the taste was bland, “Ohhh, not good. They need to be cooked first, they don’t taste so good like this,” she drops them and slowly stumbles back over to the bed groaning. When she gets to the bed and crawls on top of the man completely out of strength and before she is able to curl up she passes out.

The sun is high in the sky by the time she wakes up slowly still being completely exhausted, “Ugh, I don’t think I can move today,” She looks up and realizes her face is right next to his and her body reacts without hesitating jumping straight up sitting on top of him blushing bright red with her hands covering her face in embarrassment. “Ahah that’s just a little too close for me right now, I mean we just met! Please stop!” She looks down at his still lifeless body. “Oh, well if you’re not gonna help then I’m gonna have to do it myself!” She looks around the cabin for anything to help her when her eyes set on a fishing pole with some bait in a box hanging below it. She grabs the pole and bait then heads toward the door when she notices a beat up pot sitting on the wood burning stove. She grabs it with her other hand and stomps towards the door kicking it open, then she stands in the doorway proudly until the door swings back hitting her in the face and it knocks her backwards landing on her butt. She gets up, angry now, and pushes the door open again softly then steps out into clearing. She skips over to the river in high hopes, flips the pot over and sits on it, then she casts the bait out into the slow moving water and it sinks down while the cork stays floating, “I’m sure I saw the old men wait until the cork sinks before pulling it up with fish on it,” she waits impatiently thinking it would be easy to fish and catch a big one right away. Finally after almost an hour she feels a tug on the rod and looks up to see the cork had disappeared, “alright! finally! dinner!!” She jerks the rod really hard pulling the fish out of the water almost slinging it off behind her. She gathers her balance and holds the fish in front of her to see that it is smaller than her finger, “really?! All of this waiting for you?!” She takes the tiny fish off the hook and rears her arm back to throw it back in the river but stops after a thought pops in her head, “hmm, I could use this little guy as bait...” She hooks the little fish back on the hook and casts out again, but this time with even more anticipation, “I can feel it, the next fish is gonna be bigger than a house! Oh, wait, if it’s that big how will I pull it in? Oh! I know! The big guy will wake up and come help me! Then we can eat it together!” She feels a tug on the rod and she jerks it up revealing a fish as big as her leg on the hook. She squeals with excitement pulling it on shore trying to hold it down from flipping and flapping all over the place until she notices a big sharp rock next to her. She takes the rock and hits it in the head several times until it stops moving. She walks back over to her pot, fills it with water, then grabs the fish on her way back to the cabin. She puts them down in the doorway before running back to the river, grabbing the pole and tackle box, and returning to the cabin. She walks through the door with a big smile on her face, “hey big guy check this out! I caught dinner all by myself and it didn’t even take me very long. Plus I got water to boil them taters in too!” She puts wood into the stove and takes the matches from under the stove then tries to light it with failure. She goes outside to pick up dry sticks and some leaves then goes back to the stove to try again. She finally is able to light the stove, so she puts the pot of water on top, puts the potatoes in whole, and looks around to notice a frying pan hanging up above the barrel of potatoes. She climbs up on the barrel to reach the pan, and as soon as she unhooks it from the wall, she falls backwards landing on the mans chest. She looks down at him worried but loses her luster when she sees he is still lifeless. She puts the pan on the stove next to the pot and lays the fish over on it. She cooks for a while trying her best not to burn the cabin down and even finds some plates to set out for both her and the unconscious man, “alrighty big guy, it’s time to eat! Smells good huh?! I bet it’s gonna taste even better!” She looks over at him to see if the smell of food woke him up, but still nothing. She takes a huge bite of the fish, “you know you’re missing some really good foo.....” her face turns blue as her eyes fade to white, then she spits out the fish with disgust, “it’s not that bad, you can still have some if you want,” she lowers her voice, “but it really is disgusting I don’t think I could eat any more.” She pushes it to the side and starts eating away at her potatoes while staring at the man, “you know what? I don’t even know your name, how about I just call you Zee. Why you ask? Because you have this scar on your face that kind of looks like a Z so that’s your name from now on okay?” She nods in agreement to herself and finishes all of the boiled potatoes and throws the rest of the fish out of the window next to the table. She realizes it’s already dark outside and hurries to make sure the door is shut tight and the chain was latched. She takes the chair from the table and bars the door with it, then she walks over to the bed with her eyes barely able to stay open. “How long are you gonna lay there sleeping Zee? I can’t keep taking care of you like this, I gotta look out for myself you know?” She crawls on top of him and curls into a ball instantly falling asleep.

The next four days are about the same, she wakes up, takes the fishing rod and pot to the river, and comes back with a different sized fish each time. She fights with the stove and matches to get it lit so she can cook, and each time failing to cook the fish to taste any better. She goes back to the river to get water to drink and, of course, making trips to the edge of the forest to deal with nature calls. All the while she is tearing what rags she has as clothes to shreds.

On the seventh day she decides to sleep in feeling very warm and comfortable for some reason. She finally wakes up around midday as she smells something delicious cooking. She rises up off the bed stretching her arms yawning and looks around confused. She notices she is laying on the bed covered up with a shirt and the man was missing, but there is food cooking on the stove. She immediately jumps up and opens the door to see the man walking back from the river with a pot of water.

“Zee! You’re awake!” She screams running over to him tackling him with a hug, “I don’t know if you remember me when I was smacking you a few days ago but I tried to take care of you even though you were dead but you’re not! You weren’t playing dead just so you could be lazy were you?” She scowls even though she’s bursting with happiness, and he hugs her back.

“Good evening there little girl, did you call me Z? Is that my name? I don’t remember anything before waking up this morning and finding you laying on my chest. What’s your name?” He asks calmly and she lets go stepping back a little, so he starts walking up to the cabin door smiling as she is stunned that he has no memory at all.

“I really don’t know my name either and I already told you I’m gonna call you Zee because that scar on your face looks like the letter Z ya big oaf,” she looks down feeling sad, “the earliest thing I can remember is holding a baby crying outside of a burning house, then some lady coming to me saying it’s going to be alright and taking the baby from me, then she left me there in the middle of the street,” she admits with a glum expression.

He raises an eyebrow, “so no parents and you still look pretty young, how long ago was this do you remember?”

She shakes her head, “not really. I don’t really know how old I am. But I thought once I got old enough I would grow boobs but I can’t seem to grow any.” She lifts up her ripped shirt and the man closes his eyes really fast trying to look away.

“Put your shirt down I don’t need to see that!” He shouts while feeling around for the table to put the pot of water on, “and also you don’t have to have boobs to be a woman you become a woman when you mature and your thinking changes,” he finds the table opening his eyes to see her standing on a chair face to face with him. He looks curiously at her noticing her eyes are pure and innocent fuchsia colored with a black circle around the cornea, her hair is an odd shade of violet messy and unkempt but would fall to her shoulders when clean. He notices when she smiles she has dimples on her flushed cheeks and her teeth are oddly white and clean for a girl claiming to be a homeless orphan with rags for clothes and dirt everywhere. She stares back at him with curious eyes studying him now that he’s awake.

“You have weird eyes you know that? They’re almost white looking and you have a black circle like mine. And what’s with your hair? It’s so long and you have white hair but you don’t look old?” She reaches behind his head and pulls his hair around, “see it’s mostly black but you have white streaks that go all the way down.” He chuckles and pulls away from her.

“I don’t remember honestly. But the food smells like it’s done so why don’t we eat? And you don’t remember your name at all?” He turns around grabbing the fish and potatoes and puts them on two separate plates for them both. He looks up and notices her mouth is watering like she hadn’t eaten in days.

“You called me Ezma when you woke up the other day then you conked out again and I had to drag your big butt up to this cabin and take care of you, it was any wonder you didn’t drown in the river,” she informs him, and starts stuffing her face almost immediately after he sits the plate in front of her, but before he can sit his own plate down, he hears her starting to choke. He looks over and she was eating so fast she didn’t leave room to swallow, so he grabs a cup, dips her some water, and hands it to her. She gulps the whole cup down in a couple of swigs, “ugh! Whoa! This is delicious how did you learn to cook like that? Every time I tried, it tasted like dirt and crap!” She asks still stuffing her face as he looks around curiously, ignoring her question then proceeds to start eating, “hey can’t you hear me when I’m talking to you?!” She retorts with a mouthful of food.

“I can’t really understand you while your mouth is full, also it’s rude to talk while chewing. Eat your food and then we can talk when we go to the river,” he respectfully disciplines her as he eats his food slowly and calmly, then she finishes before he even gets to half of his plate.

“Wow! That was good! Are you going to eat all of yours?!” She asks looking at his plate with her mouth still watering. He just smiles, takes another bite, then slides his plate over to her, “thanks Zee! You’re the best, even if you’re a lazy sleeper,” she giggles as he chugs his water and stands up grabbing the dirty dishes wiping them with a cloth from the cabinet beside the table. He walks around the cabin curiously looking and browsing through the cabinets and drawers, “what you lookin for?” She asks with her mouth full, but he ignores her while still browsing around picking up rags, towels, and other things. She finishes eating and walks over to him looking at what he is collecting, “oh I see, you’re gonna take a bath huh, I don’t blame you, if I was dirty as you I would probably want a bath too ha!” She giggles while walking to the bed, “see there’s this trunk under the bed here that has some cool stuff in it, but it’s locked and I don’t know where the key is,” she informs him, and he looks over to her noticing the trunk under the bed and her trying to pull it out with all her strength. He walks over and grabs the lock on the front and pulls the trunk out with one solid pull, then he twists the lock breaking it. She reaches over to pull the latch off and Zee helps her open the lid to find some clothes, soap, books, a razor sharp skinning knife, and a couple of guns. He reaches down and realizes the trunk stops short of the bottom making him think there’s a false bottom or secret drawer. He takes everything out sitting it all on the bed in a neat and orderly fashion. The girl starts looking at the clothes putting them up to her body to see if anything would fit her. While she’s distracted, he feels around the trunk for a latch or lip to pull, but doesn’t find one, then as he is feeling around the outside of the trunk, he notices a slight lip on the bottom pulling it to reveal a secret drawer on the backside. He slides it open carefully, trying not to draw attention from her, and notices the entire drawer is full of gold coins. He instantly closes the drawer looking up at her making a mess of his organized handiwork. He sits there staring into the void lost in thought until finally he comes to a conclusion.

“You said I called you Ezma? Do you know who that is?” He asks trying to reorganize the items on the bed but she keeps messing it up.

“Nope sure don’t. Does the name mean anything to you? I kinda like it and I never thought of giving myself a name, although most people just call me dirty street rat or shrew, either way they think I’m a rodent,” she replies putting the clothes down looking over at him, “nothing in here will fit me, and I don’t think I’m a rodent, do you think I am?”

He shakes his head and cracks a smile, “I think we can get you some new clothes if we find a tailor in a nearby village. Some proper clothes at least, have you seen any village or town that would be close enough to walk to easily?” He inquires looking at the bed noticing an old Chinese dress coat and an old travelers pack bag that doesn’t look too used.

“There’s a village down the river from here, and it’s only a little ways away so we could make it there by nightfall.” She plays with her hair twisting her body back and forth playfully. He nods in agreement and starts packing everything into the bag as neatly as he can. He puts the two guns on each side of the bag securing them with a strap and opens the front pocket noticing a needle and some thread, so he takes them out placing them in a clean white button up shirt and wraps it up tight. He places the shirt, towels, soap, rags, and the knife in the front pocket, then he swings the bag around over his head around his shoulder.

“So I guess I should start calling you by a name, so that I’m not calling you little girl all the time. Also, Ezma is a pretty name and seems to fit you,” he proposes while walking to the door and turning around to notice her face is bright red, “well are you ready Ezma?” He asks, to which she nods in excitement and follows suit right behind him. They get to the river and Zee takes the bag off sitting it on top of a rock grabbing the towels, rags, soap, and knife out. He turns to look at Ezma who has a terrified look on her face, “I know it may seem like t*****e but I don’t want to go into a village looking so dirty that people think we are beggars. That being said, you can bathe yourself, or I will wash you and you don’t want that. You need to clean your whole body from head to toe making sure you get completely clean. Then I will wash your hair and you can wash mine,” he says making it seem like him having to wash her to be a playful threat to get her to do it herself, since he is still unsure what her age is, he doesn’t want to do anything that would be against his moral sense. He sits down on a rock taking his boots off and sets them aside, then he stands back up taking his shirt off and Ezma notices he has deep scars all throughout his body as well as a wide variety of tattoos. He starts to pull his pants down and Ezma freaks out covering her eyes with her hands. He folds his clothes up sitting them on the rock then turns back to Ezma seeing her hands cover her eyes, “what’s wrong? Never seen underpants before?” She peers through her fingers seeing that he’s not totally exposed, “if you want, you can go into the water to undress or I can turn around while you do it,” he offers with plain nobility as she looks at him with an innocent gaze speechless for a few moments.

“I guess earlier I was a little too much raising my shirt at you but I don’t really think it matters because I don’t have boobs anyways, ya know, because it’s the same as a boys chest, but you have boobs. Like big muscly man boobs,” she giggles as she begins to undress and before he can react and turn around she flings the rags she was wearing off throwing them at him, “you probably need a bath worse than I do but I don’t need anybody to wash me for me,” she scoffs and runs into the river jumping in with a small splash. She rises up taking a deep breath and flips her hair back, “come on in the water feels great and isn’t too cold!” She says shivering then she swims over towards the shallow sand bank and sits down with just her head poking out of the water.