“Hey Cozuah!” a short serpentine man shouts outside a small bar, with the name El Sue?o del Quetzal. “That’s the st of ‘em, we ready to ride out or what?” he yells as he sets a heavy crate in the trunk of a car. There is soon a long pause waiting for a response, then we see a man walk out of a nearby door.

  “He says we’re good to go! You know Nezzy, he’s gotta get all pretty for tonight,” Cozuah, a man of the same species, says as he quickly cleans up the counter near him before heading to the car.

  “Quit it with the name! It’s because of me you got a roof over your head, I can easily toss you out,” another serpentine man of a much taller stature says with checkered red and bck scales stepping out of a door dawned in a white buttoned up shirt, tan pants, tan jacket hiding revolver hostlers within, a trapdoor rifle slung over his back, a machete on his waist, and a rge Zapata sombrero hanging from his back. “Let’s head out, the guards should be gone for the night, probably drowning themselves in booze with all that golden jewelry the emperor bribed them with.”

  With this the four men packed themselves into the car and ride off towards an outer guard tower in the city of Bernalejo, the rgest and fastest growing city. Many structures like this have been built in a rapid rate these past few months. In a short drive they pull up to the nearest tower, it has an eerie silence to it as on this night it stands vacant.

  “We had a good pn together you know,” Nezahual says talking to the building in front of him. He soon opens a crate revealing a lining of bottles with cloth sticking out from the top. “Me, all you guys, and the other bands of misfits here, we could’ve made sure that no one lived like we did. We could have made a difference here. But no you had to suck up to the galnt ones,” he says while aiming a lit Molotov pass the building but towards a rge walled up pyramid far away in the center of the city, then slowly turning the bottle back to the top of the tower. “You just had to fall for the emperor!” He says in a breathy angry tone as he throws a cocktail into an open window of the tower and his party soon follow.

  “One down, fuck ton more to go,” Nezahual says as the reflection of the fires radiate in his eyes.

  “That was some speech, not a lot of damage but you got some rage out from this,” Cazuah says patting him on the shoulders. “Let’s head to Ana’s pce, we all should all celebrate.”

  “You know, it feels better, a lot better. You're right let’s give her a visit, it’s been a while,” Nezahual says.

  They all get back in the car and head over to an inner and more bustling part of the city, where there are still faint sights of embers dancing in the distance. They walk up to a night club with a blue and dazzling sign up above that reads Serenata de Noche. They quickly pass by the bouncer who didn’t seem to be too shocked of this action. Nezahual scans the room for a specific individual. He quickly walks up to a women sitting at the bar conversing with the bar tender. She is a Swamp Elf of bck skin, frizzy white short hair and dressed in a dazzling silver dress with dangling crescent moon earrings of bright blue stone.

  “Anacaona, still as glittery as ever,” Nezahual yells in an optimistic tone approaching the bar.

  “What brings y’all here tonight?” she responds swinging around the stool.

  “Just wanted a drink and a show, you know show some support for an old friend,” He responds with an elbow nudge.

  “Well you aren’t showing any support by running in without anything to offer, you ain’t weaseling your way to a free show,” Anacaona says in a cheeky tone motioning to the bartender. “We’re out of ingredients for some of the drinks, You probably have something on you that can help so get to it,” They all go off to make the trade when Anacaona stops Nezahual and whispers, “we gotta talk after this,” she then gives him a light shove towards the bar.

  With this Nezahual and his gang collectively digging through their satchels for any sort of dry goods or materials worthy of trading for the show that night. They made their way to the front seats where the band was set up and Anacaona got up on stage where the brassy instruments and smooth vocals bring serenity and joy to the audience, the booze also helps a great deal in adding to the dancing lights all around the club. Once the show ended they all got up ready to drunkenly fight over who was sober enough to drive back. Anacaona then grabbed Nezahual’s arm before he could add to the bickering.

  “That was your work wasn’t it?” she said quietly.

  “Wha-”

  “Y’all are the ones that burned the guard tower by the edge of the city, didn’t ya?” she said with a stern voice.

  “We did, wasn’t much but with our mission any little thing can help,” Nezahual said proudly.

  “And one screw up could also lead to you being shot and scraped off the road like you’re nothin’. We can’t do shit like that, if we hit them it has to be hard and precise. This ain’t a game and you know it, we got innocent lives on the line… and their all in our hands,” Anacaona said to him with a tone of frustration but also with a sense of care behind it.

  “I…” He thought back to what the old boss would say to him as he raised him, how acts like this is what got his parents killed, how he always wanted him to be better to be more assured as the life he was born into couldn’t accept mistakes. “You’re right, sometimes I lose crity but I get it,” he then turns around to the fumbling drunks he calls friends. “Hey, Cazuah, you're driving,” he says chugging the rest of his drink and heads out.

  With this they all pack into their vehicles and head out for the night dropping each other in their respective homes one by one. Leaving Nezahual to drive himself to the bar where he heads up the stairs to a small room, with just a bed, a nightstand, and various racks for his belongings He looks out the window before he lies down seeing his city being cut off by a rge gray structure that seems to blind him from the city he once knew.

  ***

  The next morning Nezahual wakes up and heads down, automatically pours himself a cy mug of cacao. He sits down at the bar by himself as the sun slowly rises and the light creeps through the window. He takes a deep breath and proceeds to head out into the streets to take a walk to a small restaurant, when he gets closer he sees two Orcs within, one older dy in an apron and a rger masculine women next to her also with an apron on. They were both cleaning and setting up the interior.

  “Abue!” Nezahual says as he flings open the door posing with his arms our wide.

  “Aye co?o,” the dy sighs as she sees him enter.

  “Nezzy!” the other women says running towards him giving him a tight embrace.

  “Apaza!” he says back clearly being restrained by her strength.

  “I don’t know what you see in that man,” Abue says with a scoff, walking into to the kitchen.

  “I love you too,” Nezahual says to her in a sarcastic voice.

  He then walks up to the counter where he sits down awaiting his morning meal.

  “So you leave your home that serves food only to head to a pce that does the same thing, now where’s the sense in that?” Abue asks Nezahual as she gets behind the counter setting down a pte of Silpancho, the pte had a base yer of wild rice, cubed potatoes, ground turkey, sliced tomato, and a fried egg atop.

  “I just feel custrophobic inside that pce, waking up and seeing the same wall every morning and every night. I like a change of scenery, plus a morning with familiar faces is always a pleasant sight,” Nezahual says as he begins to eat his meal.

  Apaza sets her apron on the counter and sits next to him.

  “So how was the big fight st night?” Nezahual asks her. “Sorry I couldn’t come see you, I was a bit busy st night.”

  “It was great!” Apaza says with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. “Of course you know I won, so you didn’t miss much, this guy thought he could overpower me but we both know that isn’t possible. She says with a chuckle. “What kept you busy?” Apaza asks calming down.

  “Uh, well me and the boys took down another guard tower, you probably heard about it,” Nezahual replies.

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that was you guys. Plus Anacaona told me about it afterwards,” Apaza says.

  “Gods, she treats me like some child,” Nezahual says with a sigh as he goes back to his meal.

  “You know why don’t we do something tonight, just the two of us,” Apaza says.

  “Yeah… yeah that’d be nice. What did you have in mind,” Nezahual replies.

  “Just you wait. Meet me by the hills out by the edge of the city tonight,” She says in excitement.

  “Alright, I’ll be there!” Nezahual says as they both kiss.

  “Hey, keep it to the bedroom,” Abue says as she smacks them both with a dish towel.

  ***

  Later that night they both find themselves on a cliff where they can see a brightly lit city to their right and to the left a never ending desert with a blinding moon hanging overhead.

  “So what did you have in mind exactly, you still haven’t told me what you wanted to do,” Nezahual asks..

  Apaza, now dawning a gold pollera skirt, a dark purple blouse and a gold bowler hat, then pulls out a bnket and ys it on the ground where she then sits and gestures Nezahual to do the same. Soon she pulls out a little wooden weaved basket with steam rising from the top. She then opens it revealing a fresh pile of Gorditas de Azucar.

  “Whoa I haven’t had these in… in forever really. Did you make these,” Nezahual asks.

  “I did, so a while ago Cozuah found a recipe in the back of the bar with a bunch of other old documents. He believed that it was from your parents,”Apaza expins.

  “Wow… you really didn’t have to do this but thank you, thank you so much!” Nezahual says as he leans over to embrace her.

  During this embrace this there is a long pause, as the only noise present in this moment is the sound of the desert winds and a sudden tear falling to the ground.