Kanti 5 (Patreon)

Sadly this month is proving to be a whole lot less productive than last month. You can help me out by brainstorming what will happen next (or suggesting other things for me to write, in general)!

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Kanti growled in frustration as the sewer pipe ended in a metal lattice. For the fifth time today, dead ends, shallow passages, and blockages had forced them to stop, backtrack, and look for a different route.

“The gap between the bars is huge,” said Mila. “We can climb right between them.”

Kanti glanced up from the map for only a moment before returning to his studies. “So, we should disassemble the boat on this side and reassemble it on the other?” he asked. “Or do you want to swim the rest of the way?”

Mila frowned and returned to searching the passageway with his spotlight in silence.

Tikkatikkachitter peered over Kanti’s shoulder, and he looked up at her. Then he straightened the fingers on his left paw and laid it down across the map. “None of the pipes go beyond this line. I don’t understand. Why are they keeping us back? What’s over there that they’re trying to protect.”

When Kanti lifted his paw, the sourang ran her fingertip along where the line had been. “This is the ridgeline of a hill,” she explained.

Kanti put his fists on his hips and glared at her emotionless features. “And how, pray tell, can you possibly know where a ridgeline would be while we’re underground?”

“It is the simplest explanation, warrior-Kanti,” she said. “They are not trying to keep us from going that way, but water flows downhill. If this is a ridgeline, then the krakun would likely dig their sewer pipes so they go downhill on this side of the line and downhill on the opposite side. There would be additional expense to make the pipes meet up at the crest, but no value in it to the krakun, so they would not do it.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” he grumbled. “So, to make any additional progress underground, we’d have to go far enough downhill to find a place where the sewers drain into a common channel and then sail back upstream the proper fork. Though it’s kinda hard to guess which that would be without a map that shows the ground topology.”

“How far are we from the airfield now?” asked Mila.

Kanti studied the map some more. He used two fingers to gauge a known distance and counted how many of those they still needed to go. “Not sure,” he said. “Twenty-five? Maybe thirty kilometers?”

Mila lowered his ears. It would be a longer distance than he had ever hiked, so naturally it was difficult for him to gauge how far was “too far”. He sighed. “Can we walk that?”

“We could,” said Kanti, “but it would likely take us a night or two of travel.”

“That could be faster than trying pipe after pipe,” said Tikkatikkachitter. “The boat moves quicker than we can walk, but trial and error could keep us out here for months.”

“Or we can go back home and try to find a topo map to overlap on this street map you downloaded. Work smarter and all that,” Kanti suggested. He looked back and forth between the boat’s other occupants. “What do you guys think? Want to take a vote?”

“Going all the way back and returning would likely take as long as walking, and there would be no guarantee that we could find a faster route if we had better maps,” said the sourang. “I think we should try to make it the rest of the way on the surface.”

Kanti nodded and looked to Mila. “I think—” he started to say.

“You do not get a vote, slave,” his mistress said over him.

Mila frowned and lowered his eyes.

Kanti frowned too. He wanted to hear Mila’s opinion, but wasn’t willing to start a fight about it, so he said. “All right. Let’s see if we can find a way out of here.”

“Hole up there,” said Mila, shining his lantern. “We can tie up on the bars. Dunno about you guys, but I doubt I can climb it.”

“I can,” said the sourang without hesitation.

Kanti stared up at the hole. Cracks and seams led up it as far as he could see. Back on the ship, he’d been an accomplished climber, spending much of his free time exploring the forbidden portions of the ship’s engineering spaces. Even after moving to Krakuntec, he had continued to explore, but the starvation conditions in Lape’s colony had robbed him of some of his muscle mass and he doubted he’d ever fully recover it.

He hated being carried by sourang, but they didn’t seem to mind. “Sounds good, so long as you don’t mind,” said Kanti, putting a paw on his former mistress’s shoulder. “Though you should take me first. I know what the garr smell like. If there’s any trace of them in that hole, we’ll want to find another route.”

“The … garr?” ask Mila nervously.

Kanti opened his muzzle to explain but then shut it. There was no point in frightening the young geroo unnecessarily. “I’ll tell you about them while we hike.”

They moored the boat and Tikkatikkachitter wrapped her tail around Kanti’s chest. Then she latched onto the concrete with her claws and began climbing. She made it look almost effortless.

Kanti closed his eyes and tried not to think about falling. Instead, he focused on his sense of smell. His former teammates, Pa’uma and Sekara, both had more sensitive noses than he did. They could always detect the ammonia-urine stink of the garr before he, but Kanti hoped if the creatures were about, that he’d still be able to smell them soon enough to allow an escape. He didn’t want to fight anyone, especially not any of those monsters.

Soon, the pair emerged from a storm drain. The sourang climbed up a curb and deposited Kanti in the grass before leaving again to fetch her slave. The scruffy geroo laid in the grass and stared up at the summer twilight sky.

He loved being outdoors, especially down in the grass, in nature. After spending so much of his life inside an aluminum box, and then after the ship in a concrete box of the barracks, actually standing on dirt and grass was a wondrous thing. He wished there were a way to share the experience with Tish and the rest of the village.

Eventually, Tikkatikkachitter returned with Mila. They found Kanti sitting on a curb, studying his map. Mila turned about slowly in the grass, taking in the outside, but the sourang seemed less impressed. “Which direction do we go?” she asked.

“Well, we have two options. The longer path is that way,” Kanti said, gesturing down the road. “It doesn’t go directly the way we need, and we’ll be more exposed—there’ll be more risk of being spotted by a krakun or passing vehicle.”

He stood and dusted his palms off of his thighs, then turned away from the road and stared into a nearby copse of trees. “Alternately, we can go off-road. It’ll be shorter and less exposed, but it will also be easier to drift off-course without streets to keep us going the right direction.”

Mila and Tikkatikkachitter shared a quick glance.

“Also, more creatures may live in the woods. More garr? Something even nastier?” he asked. “I have no idea. I’m willing to try it if you guys are. I really don’t know if it’s a bigger risk than being spotted by krakun or smaller.”

Mila shrugged. “I’d risk it. Sounds like more fun than walking in the grass.”

Tikkatikkachitter, to Kanti’s surprise, let the young male speak without cutting him off this time. When he was finished, the sourang spent a few minutes looking around before returning her gaze to Kanti. “Very well,” she said at last. “I am willing to try the short-cut.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C_1c4nnE1oZzi8joULMgtfhJPIhlZyIxvzxWykmFTog/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts and suggestions?