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For quite a while, no one disturbed her. But eventually, there came the sound of muffled whispering from outside, accompanied by clumsily stealthy movement and a pair of shadows that skulked along the outside of the tent. It seemed that a couple of the bandits were growing curious about the newcomer, and weren't very good at being subtle.
Taran glanced up from her wiring and spotted the shadows moving outside of the tent. She rolled her eyes and set her work down, glancing at her old arm that sat on the cot that had been neatly made. She was wearing a tank top, and her remaining hand was wearing a glove, so that she didn't get burned, and countless scars litered the skin seen.
A thump and a muffled "ow" came from outside, followed quickly by frantic shushing from the other person. A moment later one of them whispered, clearly louder than they'd mean to, "No, I'm not gonna see what she's doin'! You do it! You're the one that wanted to meet her anyway!" The voice belonged to Shiv, the girl who'd been hanging out with Florida earlier.
When Taran heard the voices, she almost laughed out loud, before she covered her mouth to hide the noise. So they wanted to gawk at her, then. Predictable. They were probably trying to be quiet.
And failing.
Pretending she hadn't heard them, Taran turned back to her wiring, connecting two and activating the power source to see if she had done it right.
Sparks exploded from the two ends, and she cursed, turning it off hurriedly.
There was a yelp of surprise from one of the bandits, then shuffling as they tried to peer inside around the edge of the door. Finally, it seemed that Shiv couldn't take it anymore, and she tentatively called out. "Um….Kali? What're you doin' in there?"
So they finally decided to talk. Taran hid a smile and tried to sound bored. "Rewiring my arm. Simple things. How ya doing, Shiv, right?"
"Yeah." She came all the way into view sheepishly, rubbing one arm. "I'm good. Uh, this is my friend Ango–he wanted to meet you too."
Ango was a good head taller than Shiv, but just as gangly and scruffy-looking. He had blue eyes and shaggy blond hair, reminiscent of a cliché surfer-dude from somewhere on the coast, but without the smooth charm or picture-perfect muscles. He smiled shyly at Taran. "Hi. Wow, you really have a metal arm? That's so cool, is it super strong? Can it turn into a gun? I saw a guy in a comic book once that could do that."
Taran found herself liking the shy guy in front of her. He reminded her of a puppy. She laughed, shaking her head. "No, I can't, sadly. But with the new one I'm making, maybe I can see if I can add a gun. On my old one, I only had a few knives for cooking and a saw and a screwdriver. Not as useful as always having a gun," she told Ango.
("puppy" is exactly what Ango is, good eye XDD)
Ango nodded quickly, his eyes wide. "That's so cool! We don't have any guns that work around here. Or we do, but we don't have any bullets and most of us don't know how to use them anyway. If you had a gun, that would be so useful, I think! We could even fight the Dead-Eyes from next door!"
"They have plenty of guns," Shiv explained. "But we don't need to fight them 'cause they don't bother us, remember?."
"Right, I forgot." Ango stepped closer curiously. "How do you build a whole arm, anyway? Did you have to learn it from somebody?"
(Thanks XD)
(She will protect him at all costs, don't worry lol)
"The Dead-Eyes?" Taran tilted her head.
"I had to teach myself. When I was younger, I read my dad's machinery books a lot, when he would take me to work, becasue there was nothing to do. So, when I needed the arm, I made one myself. I didn't have to trust anyone to do it for me."
(excellent lol)
"Wow, so you're probably really smart. Only the doctor and the cheif and a couple others can even read in this tribe, so those machinery books you just mentioned wouldn't mean much to us." Ango sighed a bit. "And yeah, the Dead Eyes are the tribe east of us, they live in the abandoned city area below the mountains. Their leader's Bullet-Eater, he hates our leader but I think they have some kinda agreement not to fight each other. Sometimes we trade with them during the winter, they're pretty scary but they don't raid our turf because they already have most of what they need."
"Are they rich?" Taran asked, sounding faintly interested. "I mean, richer than you guys?" That was usually how things worked in a world like this. She was impressed that Boar-Back had managed to keep the other bandits from attacking.
"Probably," Shiv admitted. "They jus' tax the villagers around them instead of killing and looting 'em, I think. But mostly it's cause they have better weapons, and a safer place to live, and lots more people to take stuff from. The only reason we're stronger than them is cause there's more of us and we're more likely to fight if we get the chance."
"Well…" Taran mused, leaning forward, setting her chin in her hand. "What if a small party of yours were to sneak past their territory and destroy some of their weapons? Just a thought, of course."
Both Shiv and Ango looked a little nervous, but Shiv shrugged. "Uh….I mean, maybe that would work. Boar-back says we can always go to him if we get ideas like that. We just can't do anything without his permission, acourse. Maybe he'd like that plan…..although that might break the rules of his agreement with Bullet Eater."
"Well, if I ask him, and he lets me," Taran said, a wicked smirk growing on her face, "then would you two come with me? Or would you prefer to stay in the camp, in safety?" She purposefully made her voice challenging, to see how the two would react. After all, no one could back down from a dare, right?
Both bandits immediately backpedaled. "I-I'm the medic's assistant," Shiv stammered. "I'm not very good at fighting or anything like that."
"I'd like to go, maybe," Ango said glumly. "But I don't know how to fight either. Everyone says I'm too klutzy to ever leave our turf, especially if it's for a raid. If you want some really good help, you could ask Blue Tommy or maybe Spoons, they're both great at sneak-attacks."
"Suit yourself," she said, shrugging. It wasn't that she hadn't expected their answers, but she was a bit disappointed. "I might bring Florida, too. Think she'd like that?"
"She sure would, I bet," Shiv grumbled. "She loves pickin' fights with people. But remember, you still have to get permission from the chief before you do anything. He might have other plans for who we're gonna raid next."
"He might say yes, you never know." Taran rose to her feet in a single, fluid motion, pausing before the two of them. "Do you know where to find the Chief? And Florida?" She didn't intend to go ask just yet, as her arm wasn't finished at all. Still.
Shiv pointed down the hill, while Ango pointed up. "Cheif's in his cabin at the top of camp," Ango informed her, and Shiv added, "Florida's probably either in her tent or hangin' out with the other fighters somewhere."
"Other fighters?" She glanced down where Shiv had pointed, a gleam in her eye. "Well, how many of them do you guys have, if Boar-Back decided to recruit me?"
Shiv counted on her fingers silently. "We've got about fifteen fighters in camp. I mean, almost all of us can fight, but those fifteen are the ones that're really good at it and spend all their time on it. Plus you, that's sixteen–unless you count the chief too, he's a pretty good fighter–so that's seventeen–I guess you get the idea."
"So why me? If he already has good fighters?" Taran was only half paying attention now, her eyes glimmering with the thought of a challenge. Maybe she could try herself against these masters, test her limits, and theirs. It would be interesting, and it could help her train for the tournament.
"I mean, the more the better, I guess," Shiv replied. "We have to do a lot of raiding 'n defending our turf, and good fighters are hard to replace. You're the first skilled outsider we've run into for a long time."
"Except for other bandits, acourse," Ango added, "But they don' like us much so…it's not like they're really gonna join our tribe, you know? Hey by the way, Kali, how come your hair's all silver? It's really pretty."