“What the hell?”

  August walked in the seemingly abandoned building looking for at least a brief respite from the stant fighting and killing he had been doing for the previous three hours. He fouedly ing his sword to be tedious after being figuratively knee-deep in bodies. It didn’t help that it was definitely at least y-five degrees Fahre uhe sun outside. He checked the front door as he always had done before, the training and muscle memory easily taking the reins for thirty seds as he thhly examihe door and its frame for explosives, trip-wires, and the like. He entered expeg at least one person who saw his battle outside and harbored some sort of killer iowards him, like almost everyone else he met in this part of the try. What he didn’t expect was some pre-teen girl standing mere inches from his sword’s bde tip.

  “No ons in hand. Gender is Female, with her face mostly covered with a head . Skinny frame for a teen, likely ing well. Heart rag from fear response, source likely me. Seems to be on the young side from the height or just from malnutrition. Threat assessment: Low to none,” August thought as he examihe young girl with his eyes. He slowly moves his sword away from the girl’s face as she startles from the sudden movement. He sheaths his sword slowly as she then backs herself up against the wall in fear of him. The little girl then slides down the wall as she starts to lie ial position and audibly cries to herself. “Likely in despair…,” August thought, as he approached her slowly to nhten her more.

  August crouched beside her, the girl’s tear stri fad shuddering body. “She must’ve thought I came here to kill her like I did those men outside. Not an irrational thought, I suppose. Still…”

  “I’m sorry if I scared you.”, he spoke in Pashto. The girl stops shaking in fear as she hears his soft, androgynous voice. She looks up at August’s masked visage and simply stares.

  “You're not here to take me?”, she asks with a sore voice.

  “No. I’m not with those madmen.”, August replies, as he realizes she thought he was one of the men outside.

  “I…I thought you…”

  August rises from his croud moves to sit o her. She startles again from his movement, rexes when all he does is get fortable on the hard, stone ground by her. She picks herself up slowly and sits fag him. “Are…are you…I ’t see your face. Are you a woman?”, she asks ily.

  Though he would usually feel a the question, he uands the reason why she would ask that. “...No, I am not.”, August says softly, not letting his feelings get in the way of his current task of reassuring her.

  “O-oh, I’m very sorry, sir!”, she excims.

  “...You are feelier now?”

  “Um…yes. But, why is your face covered?

  “Why is your face covered?”

  “...My…M-mother told me because it made me safer.”

  “Well, …Mine is so people don’t know who I am.

  “Why?”

  “As annoying as it is to be called a woman at times, it does help me in staying…Is there even a word for ‘anonymous’ in Pashto? …Ah! No name. I think that’s the word.”

  “What’s your hen?”

  “My name is August. o meet you.” His name is said in English, fusing the girl with its pronunciation.

  “Agust?”

  “The first sylble is a short ‘aw’ sound.”

  “...Aw…August?”

  “You got it. Now what’s yours?”

  “...L-Lay.”

  August stands up as he says with an outstretched hand, “Well Lay, what do you say to leaving this pce?” Lay looks at his hand, then at his mask, then back to his hand again. She takes a few seds to decide and then grabs August’s hand. August pulls her to her feet and starts leading her outside the building.

  “Alright. First things first, let’s find you a-”, August cuts himself off as they are face to face with a group of armed men. “On sed thought, go baside. This will take a minute.”