'The baker said no.' A grey uniformed guard said, then took a drag on his cigarette, blowing out smoke that was as grey as his clothing into the evening air.

  His companion, equally grey in his appearance, with a rifle slung over his shoulder, raised an eyebrow. 'Oh? And what, prey tell, did you do?'

  'I told him that asking for his blessing was only a courtesy, I was going to marry his daughter anyway.'

  'Bold.' The second guard snickered. 'What did his daughter think when you told her that?'

  'I didn't have to tell her.' The guard dropped the butt end of his smoke to the floor and stamped it out. 'She was there with me. She agreed.'

  The guards laughed together. 'Cold. She must really want you two to inherit the business.'

  'What can I say? We all have to secure our future in this day and age. And with his son missing, that future belongs to me.'

  The first man picked up his rifle that lay against a low stone wall that flanked either side of the western trail into the village. Behind them were the various homes and businesses that were winding down for the day, the last of the daylight dimming in the sky above them. Chimney stacks puffed out wood smoke from their fires, staving off the coming chill that would descend over night. The church on the far side of the village sang with bells, calling the shepherds from the fields, ending the work day.

  The two soldiers stood guard on both sides of the trail, its hard packed surface turning to loose stone as it passed the perimeter wall and entered the village. They talked and joked for a time, but the church bells singing also signalled that a change of the guard was due. They waited in anticipation, knowing that hot food and warm beds awaited them.

  Their gaze fell from the forest trail in the west, instead looking east towards the buildings and their ever growing glow of golden lamp and candle light from windows. The local lamp lighter was also making his rounds, bringing street lamps to life one at a time, ensuring that darkness was kept at bay and the simple streets were safe. Then came the familiar one two step of a march from inside the village. Their replacements were on their way.

  Wanted to look the part, the two straightened up, grasped their rifles in the upright position, and then turned to watch the west. That was when they saw shades walking beneath the trees along the trail towards them. Their throats tightened.

  Now the war that once was - was long over, there were not many things that would cause a soldier any grief, as things were mostly peaceful. The land was settled, effectively occupied and subdued, but there were always stories about trouble, signs of unrest lingering from the not-too-distant past. If there was anything that would be cause for concern in this day and age, then it came in twos. They came in two.

  'Well would you look at that, Car, we made it before night time!' The smaller of the two shades said to the other. 'The sun isn't even behind the hills yet, and there's the town right in front of us! And you said that we'd, what: be best making camp and picking up the trail tomorrow?'

  'No need to gloat.' The larger of the two spoke in deep tones. 'This is a new land. I'm just being careful.'

  'There's always a need to gloat!' The smaller found a skip in his step, while the larger strode strong at his side. 'It even looks like they've sent out a greeting party for the weary travellers, just like we do back home.'

  'I wouldn't be so sure, Aodhan. How would they know we were coming?'

  Four soldiers now stood together at the entrance to the village, one with his rifle held low at his hip while the others debated what to do.

  'You two are losing the plot. What do you mean: “what do we do?”' The third soldier scowled. 'You do what you always do, you ask for their identification, and if they don't have it, then you know what to do.'

  'Actually...' Said the first guard. 'It's your shift now, so you ask for their I.D while we go for the night.'

  'What? No! There's two of them, you can't leave!'

  The fourth guard raised his weapon as the two shades approached. 'Everyone on guard. They're here.' The four uniformed men held their rifles up, aiming at the two figures approaching. 'Who goes there? Identify yourselves!'

  Any worry about dangerous individuals vanished when the first of the two stepped into the light of the setting sun. He wore long brown robes with a hood that he pulled back, revealing a head of wild red hair, as red as the clouds in the dimming sky. There was a broad smile on his face. 'We're just two tired travellers looking for a place to sleep for the night.'

  The guards looked the redhead up and down. When they turned their attention to the taller of the two, their worries returned. This one did not remove his hood. He stood much taller and broader than all of them, and they could not see the features of his face within the shadow of his covering.

  'You've come to the right place if you need a bed, there's a good inn for the likes of you.' The fourth guard spoke. 'But first we just need to see your papers.'

  'Paper?' The red head responded. 'The stuff your people use to make marks on?'

  'No, not paper. Papers. Identification papers.'

  'Car?' The shorter of the two turned to his companion.

  'We don't have papers.' The larger man spoke, his tone was one of finality. 'May we come into your town to rest?'

  'No papers? How do you travel without papers?' The fourth guard asked.

  'We walk.' The red head laughed while miming walking on the spot. He was at least twenty years old, but acted most immature in the eyes of the soldiers.

  'Stand still!' The guards commanded. The red head stopped in surprise and held his hands up submissively. 'It's illegal to travel without identification. You must know that? And you must know that for people travelling in twos, having no paperwork is especially dangerous?'

  'We didn't know that...' The smaller of the two admitted. 'We thought travelling with two of us was safe.'

  'What?' The fourth guard was stumped. 'I don't-'

  'Look at his hair. Look at their clothes.' One guard pointed out. 'These two are obviously foreigners. No wonder they don't understand.'

  'That's right!' The redhead nodded. 'We came from over the water, we're new here.'

  'Aodhan.' Car, the larger of the two, warned.

  'What, Car?'

  'You share too much.'

  'But it's the truth!'

  'Wait a minute. You two are foreign, from overseas, and you made it past the authorities on the coast without I.D?' The guards looked at each other.

  'We didn't see anyone on the coast, we just landed on a beach and started walking until we found a path.' Aodhan shared. Again.

  'Aodhan.' Car attempted to correct him again, but the situation had already transpired enough.

  'They're illegal aliens. Damn it.' The fourth guard lowered his rifle. 'And here's us thinking they're a Bridge. I almost wish they were, it'd be less paperwork to deal with.'

  'You people really do like your paper.' Red headed Aodhan said in amusement. 'Does this mean we can't have a bed for the night?'

  'Oh not at all, it's your lucky day!' The first guard explained as he lit a cigarette and took a drag. 'We have beds just for foreigners like you.'

  'Excellent!' Said Aodhan, before he and Car were led at gunpoint to the cells at the outpost, on the opposite side of the village.

  The cell clanged shut and shuddered before the key was turned. With an audible click, it was locked strong. The soldiers had not been lying, there were two beds to each cell in the place. Aodhan and Car sat on their assigned bunks and watched as a guard sat at a table outside the cell, combing over the belongs that had been confiscated from the two. The only light was from an oil lamp on the table, only just illuminating the cell in dim orange tones, casting blurred shadows of the steel bars over those inside. With their robes taken from them, the two prisoners were left with simple clothes of wool and leather.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  'Knives, some spare clothes, and what's this?' A guard that had been introduced as Sergeant Wegner, a wiry man with a neatly combed head of black hair, sniffed at some strips of dried... something.

  'That's fish. It's pretty good.' Aodhan gestured for the guard to try some.

  'What kind of fish?' The Sergeant sniffed again. 'Shit fish?' He then threw the food into a bin in the corner of the room. 'I'd rather clean the Captain's boots with my tongue.'

  Aodhan watched as the fish vanished into the container in the corner. His shoulders slumped. 'I'd have eaten that...'

  'Aodhan.' Car whispered from his bed, sitting with his elbows resting on his knees. 'It's time to learn silence and patience. These men may set us free when they learn that we mean no harm.'

  'Yeah yeah, I understand.' The younger of the two laid back on his bed, hands clasped behind his head. 'What do you think a Captain is, anyway?'

  'Not a what.' Said Wegner 'A who.'

  'Oh, then who?'

  'How to put it?' The guard rubbed his chin. 'He's like a chieftain, he leads our force here.'

  'Chieftain? Oh, like an elder?' Aodhan guessed.

  'I guess so, but not old.'

  'Will we get to meet him?'

  'Oh yeah, you will.' Sergeant Wegner stood from his seat, gathered the confiscated goods and began to place them into a wooden trunk. 'He's away right now, but when he returns in a week he'll take pleasure in seeing you two.' The guard gave a sympathetic smile. 'He's the one who deals with crime around here.'

  'Well, I hope he's nice!' Aodhan said before closing his eyes for the night.

  Car sat for an hour more until tiredness took him. He laid back on his bed and let his eyes wander to a small window above him on the back wall of the cell. It was barely big enough to fit his head, but he could see the crescent moon through it, looking down with a crooked smile on the two travellers from a distant land.

  'Psst, hey!'

  Car woke to the whispers. His eyes looked to outside the bars to his cell. The place was bathed in daylight from windows across from him, but there was no guard to be seen, only a large dog napping beneath the table. 'Is anyone in there?' The whisper asked.

  'Maybe they're in the next one over.' Another voice whispered.

  Car stood from his bed and wiped his eyes. He was tall enough to be of a height with the window, and when he looked out, he locked eyes with a child. The girl lost her footing and seemed to fall from whatever she was standing on, but managed to right herself and hold on to the window frame on the outside of the thin glass. 'Can I help you, girl?'

  'So it's true!' She gasped. 'We heard the soldiers say that two strangers came into the village last night.'

  'And did you hear anything else?'Asked Car, reaching for any information he could glean about their situation.

  The girl ignored the question. 'Are there really two of you?'

  'Yes, but-'

  'There's really two!' The girl looked away and down at her accomplice. 'It's true!'

  'Is it a real Bridge?' The other voice asked.

  The girl's words were leaving her mouth before she made eye contact again. 'Are you a Bridge? A real life Bridge Team?'

  'I don't know what that is, unless you mean a way to cross a river. Sorry, little girl.'

  'Aww, no.' Her eyes dropped.

  'May I ask you something, little girl?'

  'Well, we're not really supposed to talk to you.' She looked away.

  Car gave the subtlest of smiles. 'It's a little too late to be worried about that, wouldn't you say?'

  The girl saw the humour in it. 'Yes.'

  'So let me ask, I won't bite. I'm no wolf, look, I don't even have fur.' Car rubbed his bald head. The girl laughed. 'Where is this place? We expected to come to a place called a town, something I thought to be bigger than here.'

  'Oh no, this is just a little village. You're in Golperro. The nearest town is Golnaide.'

  Golnaide. Thought Car. Our next stop. 'Thank you, but it might be time for you to leave, I hear someone coming.' The girl's eyes widened, then she climbed her way down from the window, the sound of tumbling wooden crates and fast footsteps signalling the children's escape.

  Car sat himself on his bed just as a soldier appeared from a corridor leading into this section of the building. The dog lifted its head, recognising the footsteps. 'Awake are you?' The Soldier asked Car as he leant down to stroke the dog's neck.

  'Yes.'

  The Soldier stood and gazed at Car. This was one of the men that greeted them the previous day, he had freshly shaven and had a neatly pressed uniform. His hair was the colour of wheat and eyes a grey-blue. 'The Sergeant says to give you breakfast.' He said as he placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it with a match. 'Won't be long.' He left back through the corridor.

  Car listened, heard the sound of the man's boots disappear and then looked out of the window again. There were fields behind the cells, with white animals dotted around, all the way up to the hilly horizon.

  He went to the bars and pushed against them. The dog gave a suspicious growl, but when Car looked up and his eyes met its, it saw more there than a simple man, and backed off silently to the far side of the room.

  Aodhan woke up not long after with a stretch and a yawn. 'This bed's not terrible.' He said as he sat up to see Car.

  'That's good, because I'm sure they won't be letting us out any time soon.'

  'We could try to escape.'

  'No!' Car refused. 'Let's not cause more trouble than we need too. This Captain will be here within a week, we can talk our way out of this. We're strangers in a strange land, let's not do something that the locals wouldn't appreciate.'

  'If you say so.' The younger of the two shrugged. 'Just as long as they feed us.'

  When the food came, it was welcome. It was new and different from anything they had eaten before. Hot bread with herbs mixed into the dough, cheeses of different colours and flavours, and meat that had been dried and cured in a way that the two had never seen. They ate many a meal as the days went on, and each meal time was a new experience to be remembered,despite their predicament. On the fourth morning the little girl appeared at the window once more. Both Car and Aodhan were awake.

  'Psst.' She began with. When Car showed his face, she spoke. 'I've brought someone who wants to speak to you, will you talk to him?'

  'We're not doing anything else right now.' Said Aodhan, who couldn't see out of the window.

  'Who is it?' Car tried to get an angle to see. The girl vanished, then with some fussing came the face of an old man. His skin was tanned from the sun, weather worn and wrinkled. 'Can I help you, Elder?'

  The old man scowled. 'Are you two really not a Bridge?'

  Car sighed. 'I'm sorry old man, but no one's explained exactly what that is.'

  'Well if you don't know – you don't know.' The old man shook his head. 'Whatever, that's not important now. Its Will be your doom.' The old man made a sign with his hands, drawing a line with a finger from brow to chin. Some sort of ritual. 'I felt like you deserved to know the truth, so you can make peace with it.'

  'What truth?' Pressed Car.

  'I'm getting to that, but just know that it's not our doing, the people here. It's the Germanians.'

  'Germainians?'

  'The soldiers! The men with the grey uniforms and the weapons.'

  'Oh?'

  'Yes, yes. They're not our people, they're invaders. We never wanted them here, but that's in the past now. We put up with them, yes, but we don't always agree with them, and this is one of those times. They're going to kill you, you see. That's what they do out here, they make an example. You'll die, and then the news papers will tell everyone in the big towns and cities why, and people won't dare think to break the law in case it happens to them.'

  'I see.' Car turned away from the window, considering this new information.

  'I told you that we should have broken out!' Aodhan kicked the bars that solidly held him at bay.

  'Calm down.' Car said to his companion as he turned back to the old man. 'How will they do it?' He asked.

  'What do you mean?' The old man replied.

  'How will they kill us?'

  'The Captain will do it. He enjoys the heat.'

  'The heat?'

  The old man looked away from Car, unable to make eye contact as the truth spilled out. 'He's a veteran of the war, the one that won them control over our country, Gallia.' The old man could see that Car did not understand. 'They're invaders, young man, from a place called Germania. They made war and conquered our land. They won with their greatest weapons, the Bridges. Hundreds of teams of two. Partners. One a Battery, they have magic inside of them; the other a Projector, someone who can borrow and wield the magic. The Captain here uses that power to make fire. As punishment for breaking the law, he burns us... As for you? He'll burn you alive until you're dead.'

  Car looked at Aodhan. Aodhan looked at Car. Car looked back to the old man. 'Elder, we only wish to travel east, I think to a distant land from here. We mean no harm and don't want to linger. Won't this Captain let us pass peacefully?'

  'You don't seem to understand, young man. You'll be asking a lion to release its jaws from your throat when it needs your life to thrive. He's a hungry beast. So is his Battery. They're two peas in a rotten pod.' The old man looked away when the little girl signalled to leave. 'We have a saying here, strangers: Trouble comes in twos. You'll understand that by the end. I'm sorry, I have to leave now. I wished so hard that you were a Bridge, then maybe you could have ridden us of the monsters that are coming for you too.'

  The old man and the girl left. Aodhan sat on his bed, lifted a bare foot onto the opposite knee and began to pick dirt from between his toes. 'Looks like our little adventure's coming to a close.'

  'Looks like it.' Car clenched a fist. 'It looks like a terrible fate awaits us.'

  The two stared at each during a quiet moment of contemplation. Then Aodhan laughed.