Dust Devils

Nothing but dust and bleached grass, and occasionally, a lizard. The stones had been a nice change. The scattered rubble between two hills had been Nico's first sign that she'd been exactly on the right way. The village behind it - maybe two dozen houses in various stages of collapsing - seemed as empty as expected, at the moment. The very first thing she did was checking if the community well still held some water, using her canteen on a length of thin rope when a pebble sounded at least not... dusty. It wouldn't do for a group of people, let alone animals, but it would work.

Shortly thereafter, she had made camp in a building near the edge of town that consisted now only of the ground floor - not the first to do so, judging from old soot on the ceiling, but no sign of anyone having been here recently. Then, minus dustcoat and most of her gear, but never without the hat, right on to marching through the ruins with a small lantern that, considering the bright sunlight, might seem redundant.

Oh, the things you do for things money can't buy.


It was at the well that the shadow saw Nico. She wasn't really much of a shadow in the daylight, but she stuck to shadows quite well. A deep red bandanna, an unbuttoned grey greatcoat flashed this way and that in the ruins, clutching a long item of some sort.

One look at the newcomer put a smile on the shadow's pale lips.

The shadow, she, wasn't in any hurry, to be honest, but finding places where she could see this other person took a bit of effort. Presently, the shadow had hoofed it up to the second floor of a building, where she sat with her back against a wall. It was a good spot. She only had to turn her head to the left or the right to get a glimpse of this newcomer.

She took the time to light a cigar and to glare at the sun disapprovingly. What were you looking at? Have you ever not seen a person let another do the work for them? Truth to be told, however, Helmine admitted, she was more worried about the treasure than this small person. She didn't know if this was reason to feel bad -- but it just happened to be that many of these ruins were fit to collapse. Helmine flicked some ash and mused. She suspected the other person could be a third lighter than she was, but if the ruins could take newcomer's weight, then... there was always a chance.

Helmine snorted, picked up her rifle and squinted a look over her shoulder. It was time to move again.


The last two houses were barely there: hip-height walls and a confusion of fallen bricks or stones. At least one had had a cellar that had only partly collapsed. Nico didn't enter those ruins directly, either, planning to decide if she'd take the treacherous ground first or last once she'd finished her first pass.

Beyond those two ruins, up the slope of a hill, was rubble from buildings, strewn about or in clusters or small heaps. Nico walked from side to side of the area, until in the end she'd covered every step, occasionally lowering the lantern close to a few bricks that still stuck together, or a depression in the ground.

By the time she made her way back to the village, she was drenched in sweat, wheezing, and very thirsty.


Helmine, on the other hand, felt mostly bored and not at all tired. She had even eaten a bit of her (bland) rations while watching from a distance through a spotting scope. Whatever the newcomer was doing with that... lantern, well, she didn't know yet. But she would. Maybe.

She wasn't sure if she liked the other's working methods, though. Too much care. If they had only been a bit more careless and hurried, but no, no. Perhaps it was asking too much, Helmine mused and snuck into cover again, curious to see what this newcomer would do next.


She took a break, a drink of water, and retreated to the house she'd picked for a camp to eat something. Bland rations, there was really no other option for this godsforsaken place. She was even reluctant to try and set traps for whatever small animals had burrowed here and there. What with nothing but grass to build a fire, she'd have to eat anything she caught raw.

Well, then. First take care of the worst-looking houses, to get the worrying parts over with, or the safer-looking ground, hoping to find the blasted thing before she'd get to the ones most close to collapsing? The latter. You didn't have to be stupid on purpose. This house here had no cellar - she'd checked the mostly dust-and-sand covered ground for hollow-sounding places suggesting a trapdoor - and the stairs leading up to the now-roof did not seem inviting.

With a sigh she got up, grabbed the steadily glowing lantern, and picked out a house with two intact floors to rummage around in. After a look at the state of the stairs, walls and ceiling, a cursory round through the accessible rooms - pro forma, anything valuable or just usable had been removed long ago -, paying attention to the light, then a slightly more careful circuit of the ground floor. It seemed to be just compacted dirt here, so probably no cellar, but there might be stone under the dirt, and... But, no, no sign here.

Neither in the next place, which at least had a cool cellar, or the next three. The sun had set a while ago, sending some insects chirping. Nico would have preferred to work through until morning and rest through the hottest parts of the day, and in hindsight should have rested after arriving rather than plunging into work. However, she was exhausted enough to fear mistakes, so she didn't.

The next day brought no change, other than a slight slowing in pace, to tread and watch out for cracks more carefully, and a tendency to hum simple mellodies absentmindedly. While drinking some water, close to noon, Nico considered taking a break, or which house to check next. She opted for taking care of one whose top floor wasn't accessible since the stairs had collapsed; It wasn't big, so it probably wouldn't take long.

Of course here, in a corner, the lantern's light changed slightly, as advertised. After stomping over every pace of ground and finding nothing helpful, Nico eyed the rubble leftover from the stairs. Of course, if it would have been just wood, it would have been burned or re-worked into tool handles or something long ago. It was that, or sweeping the ground. Gee, will I feel foolish if it's not there.

The lantern propped on a protruding brick, she set to clearing at least part of the ground. What eventually happened that a dry-rotted trapdoor with a layer of bricks on it gave under her weight, but luckily the stairs below were wide enough that she found purchase rather than tumbling down the rest of the way. A few moments later she had retrieved the lantern and went to investigate the cellar.

The room at the foot of the stairs was empty save for some shards of ceramics, and two bricks that had fallen out of the ceiling. Three walls were built from irregularly sized pieces of shale rather than brick. The brick-built back wall had an honest-to-earth wooden door. Well, she'd heard the area had had at least some more trees until about a generation ago, that'd explain that. It had warped, but a bit of force applied by shoulder unstuck it. The hinges had been leather rather than metal, and didn't hold anymore, so the door went over and hit the ground with a loud thump, Nico stumbling to hold her balance. The shock was a bit much for other present parties, namely first one, then a shower of bricks in the first room. Some earthquake safety training ingrained long ago came to the front and yanked Nico into the doorframe.

"I guess the stomping was a bad idea," she croaked to no particular address when things subsided. She could see trough the hole in the ceiling, but with a bit of care climbing over the heap of bricks should be no problem. A bit more nervoulsy she had a closer look at the second room, following the light.


Helmine was cranky. She had concluded her own investigations for quite some time and come up with nothing. She had woken up a bit later than Nico, done a fair bit of other things and tried to carry out even more investigations while the newcomer worked. And still nothing!

And then the newcomer went and got into a mess of some sort. She hadn't seen it, but the woman could put two and two together quite well, thank you. She sighed, tossed her cigar over her shoulder and doubletimed it to the noise, rifle in one hand. The running turned into sneaking when she got closer, eyes narrowed -- one peek past the corner revealed the trapdoor to her. And... the holes in the floor. Well. Wasn't that strange, she thought and flitted past, finding safe footing by some force of miracle.

It was good to be right, Helmine mused, although it was a bit shameful that she hadn't personally found this... oh well. There would be more time to think about this later. Now, she had other things to deal with. Helmine smiled and pulled a long dagger from under her coat, then made her way down... very carefully.


The second room did not much look like a treasure hoard, unfortunately. The most prominent item in it was a big, cast iron bathtub, with a high back. It lay overturned, with the opening pointing to one of the back corners of the room. It had chicken feet. Nico had no idea how or why it was brought or left there, and the absurdity made her grin.

A moment of thinking and for the last bit following her guiding light led her to the back wall, like the other outsides walls of this cellar shale, jagged. On the way she noticed occasional green circles on the ground, some forgotten copper coins, but money had not been what she was after. Lifting the lantern, yes, not the ground level she'd been checking all along. A longish stone only lay there, part of the wall, not properly fixed with mortar, the grooves around it not standing out at all from the rest of the wall. Nico pulled it out and dropped it, looking into the gap in puzzlement. Then she recognised the pattern properly. The wand she'd been sent to look for was silver, but now of course tarnished, until it had nearly blended with the groove at the back of the little hideout. She picked it out with a quick movement, having been assured by someone who'd studied its history that it would bore no danger, and getting a bit high-headed with the relative ease of this job. She took another moment to admire the simple and elegant shape before tucking it in the inside pocket of her waistcoat, chuckling. Then she turned to the door.


First, there was a sound at the door when she turned. That of someone armed bumping their shoulder against the doorway. Secondly, there was an angular-faced person with grey, unwashed hair and green eyes that reflected a little of the light. If the shape of the eyes, the lips, the cheekbones and the narrow nose seemed familiar, well, perhaps there was a reason for that. A breastplate stuck out from under the greatcoat -- but the long dagger and the other item (left and right hand, respectively) were more prominent. She -- well, it had to be a she -- raised an eyebrow.

"Good day. I suppose you can guess what this is about," she said matter-of-factly and with no malice, scanning this... woman? So it was a woman. Human?


"Aaaaah hi. If you want to have first go of the bath, that's no problem with me, though filling it up would take a while." Nico thought fast while letting her mouth say what it would. Human eyes didn't reflect light like that, and that gleam made putting out the light a bad idea. She had a knife in the back of her belt, but Miss outlaw there was definitely ahead of her. And a rifle? She didn't fancy being shot, and gun butts tended to be trouble even so. No holes in the roof in this room, either. She ended for now with a rather stupid-looking grin that winked out after a moment. Light on her feet, now, too late, alert, lantern loosely in her left hand, right in a bad attempt at relaxation at her side.


"Nothing that simple I am afraid," Helmine replied in the same no-nonsense tone, purely business. Aside from shouldering the rifle, gloved finger on the trigger, she didn't move or make any sort of threats. She looked irritated and impatient even without that, which of course conflicted with the calm of her voice.


Nico sighed and shrugged theatralically. "Well, yes, stories of forgotten loot, and so on. I see a hunk of iron and some greenspan." She looked down at the ground; behind the bathtub there was the densest cluster of former pennies, as if they had spilled out of it.


"I have been here for a moment," Helmine replied, tilting her head forward and squinting as if she were looking at a disobedient child. It didn't seem like such a long shot, considering the newcomer's size.


The runt looked confused for an instant, then smiled, her eyebrows twitching up with... something or other. "Oh, that, OK." She reached for an inside pocket - left side of the waistcoat, as before - and was very suddenly looking at the business end of the rifle. Her smile turned wry. "And here I thought I'd at least get a pencil out of this waste of time." Rather more slowly she pulled a dark grey stick out of her pocket. A pure graphite pencil.


Miss outlaw only glanced at the pencil. "Some pencil, under rubble, moisture and other things for who knows how long." Amusement? No, no way. She looked a bit more impatient. Exactly what kind of hellspawn was she dealing with here? Oh, sure, she could tell this woman was a little nervous (and she couldn't blame her), but this joviality was most suspicious. The rifle kept on pointing at her.


Her manner grew a bit more subdued. Her smile was almost gone. "Graphite pencil. No wood involved. It's like coal. I'd rather not point it at you, what with the trigger finger..." She rolled the pencil from between her figertips and ended by holding it between thumb and palm, then held it out to show the marks. "See?" It would have been clearer if she wasn't all grimy anyway, and she lifted the lantern a bit to light. Quite slowly.

She wasn't going to give up easily. She'd been after the payment for this job for ages.


"Perhaps we could see the rest of your pockets, then," Helmine suggested almost conversationally and smirked. All right. Perhaps it was a bit amusing.


Nico reached in the right outside pocket of the waistcoat and pulled out, and said, "Ball of string-"


"And the insides?"

"There's more sting inside," she answered flatly.

"No, the pockets."

"You don't like string?"

"Only if it is as short as my fuse. Very."


"Good that I left the matches with my gear upstairs then." She could not quite help it. Babbling was a sort of verbal nervous tick. At least the yarn wandered back in its pocket. The waistcoat had two inside pockets on each side, and she had made a habit of carrying some kind of writing implement in the front left one. The wand was in the narrower back pocket (note to self, get inside pocket INSIDE the inside pocket...) and she feared the diversion she needed to create for sleight of hand tricks would push Miss outlaw over the edge. Moving smoothly and slowly Nico put the lantern on the overturned bathtub, a bit to her right - the side of the high back was bent so it would stand more securely there than right in front, it was true - twitched her shoulders, opened the waistcoat with her left hand, and with the right pulled a small silver pillbox in shape of a scarab out. Looking at miss outlaw reproachfully, she said, "It was a present, and a family heirloom before that."

With a bit - all right, a LOT of luck, she wouldn't notice the second pocket, pulled behind the back and put in shadow.


"I have no interest in your personal belongings. I have a keen interest in this place's things. I think you know what I am talking about." Well, really... no. Helmine pursed her lips and took two, casual steps forward. The rifle didn't waver.


The tin slipped back in the pocket, "Well, I said," the lantern picked up in her right hand, "as far as I can see, of the money only green gunk remains, not even small change." She took a step backwards and made a sweeping "look at this" motion (not nearly as quickly as she felt like), at the ground, voice and manner somewhere between dejection and indignation. Definitely very nervous.


"Madame..." Helmine said, for the first time in a warning tone.


"What? I needed to go to ground for a while. and tossed a coin if I should go south for better hunt and scrounging, or north because of a vague rumour of money to be salvaged, and here I am, no nothing. What do you want?" Nico spread her arms, left palm pointing forward, and backed into a corner, as far as she could get from Helmine. At least having her not block the doorway anymore was a start.


This was pretty pitiful, Helmine had to admit. She resolved to do something, depending on the answer she was going to receive. "Did you or did you not find a wand?" she asked, purely business again.


Nico made a helpless gesture with both hands and gave her the best look of tortuned not-understanding she could muster, which was pretty good, if heavy on the "tortured" side. Whatever she did now, it would be stupid. Timing, kid. And hope those aren't cat's eyes. She said "Yes," nodding and closing her eyes, at the same time turning over the lantern and causing a flash of searing light, and ducking (hopefully) under the line of fire. The plan was two steps ahead, and jumping in her face.


What a clever little woman, Helmine managed to think. She tried to shield her eyes, rethought that strategy and instead backed away. Any distance she could put between herself and this woman was good: it would make her a harder target. Still, she let her rifle stay ahead of her diagonally to the side. There was a reason for that, too.

Another consequence was that Nico had a bit more run-up to gather momentum. She got close enough that being shot was no danger for the moment, ready to deflect Miss outlaw's left if neccessary.


This was no good. Really. She could see well enough by now, but this little hopper was going to be a... mouthful. Helmine didn't really know what else to do but to move the dagger forward and hope for the best; she had good footing. Balance was no problem.


Nico deflected that, a bit awkwardly since she was still holding on to the small lantern, and - don't forget the armour - aimed a left-hand blow at the head, naturally upwards.


Yes, this was going to be interesting, Helmine thought as she felt the fist make a cut in her left brow and, from there, knock her head against the doorway. Oh, very interesting, she thought -- and spat a curse just at the same time as she retaliated with a left kick full of misanthropy. At least her ear wasn't ringing, she mused.


Nico went down on one knee as her leg gave, automatically grabbing for purchase. instantly she moved her left hand again, and pulled the trigger - maybe there was only one shot in that thing.


The resulting sound wasn't quite a bang. It was a low clack -- following which the projectile struck the ceiling on the opposite wall, peppering the poor bathtub with shards of brick.

Then another shot. By that time Helmine was giving far more thought to using the dagger, pulling it behind as if she were going to stab with it.


Nico rolled to her left and front, under Helmine's gun arm and through the door, trying to get behind her opponent's back. She would have preferred running, but had an irrational fear of a shot in her back.


Oh no, that would not do -- Helmine was going to keep her distance now, attempting to do so by moving forward and to her left, likewise. This little runt was bad news all around, which wasn't all that bad... even if the now-smirking Helmine looked displeased, especially with the blood that was trying to seep into her eye.


Finally she could let go of the lantern, at least she wouldn't find a better place than the ground right at the door edge in a hurry. She took a deep breath and met Helmine's smirk with a smile and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to talk it over?" getting back up in a crouch.


"I happen to be quite positive about that," Helmine said and brought the rifle in a better line -- but left it pointing at the floor. Blood finally found her eye. "Remind me again which one of us actually attacked."


Nico gave a short laugh sounding like "Tch!", and gave her a partly amused look that turned into a sharp grin. "Didn't work as well as I'd hoped." She watched her opponent closely.


"Close enough," Ms All Business said in her trademark tone of voice, even though she looked fit to do something very unpleasant. "Could I just see it to begin with?"


"Contrary to first appearances, dear, I am not a complete idiot." Her voice changed from playful to dry and dropped an octave towards the end.


"Fair enough," Helmine said with a sharp, toothy grin. "I have no way of telling if it is what I happen to be looking for then, other than..." she gestured with her left hand.


"You could give me a verbal description," Nico answered brightly, realising she might be just enough of an idiot to show the thing if the description didn't match.


"I do not place much trust on strangers," Helmine replied in that same, strangely chiding manner. "Is it red?"


"No." Her grin was impish for a moment, then she turned moslty serious for a change. "That pencil actually was a quite close match, colour-wise. Silver, not polished for a long while."


Helmine didn't move for a moment. She just stared at Nico with one eye. The wound was starting to close up, at least.

Nico raised her eyebrows and tilted her head questioningly. She wondered what exactly was going on in the other woman's head.

"Great," Helmine said and gave a frustrated sigh. The dagger ended back in its holster (strapped to her left leg). "Wonderful."

"Seriously." Just a hint at a question in her voice, and no hint of amusement. Yet.

"Seriously," Helmine said and wiped at her eye. "How embarrassing."

Nico sighed likewise and fought a smile.

"Well, if you're certain you're not going to maim or kill me, we might as well call it a day." She hesitated a moment, and added, "I've got a bit of brandy saved for medical purposes, if you'd like some."

Helmine, now with her eye clean, coughed a chuckle at the woman. Then she was quiet for a beat. Oh, why the hell not? She was going to stab the little twerp if she tried anything funny, anyway... "I have something better for drinking. They make it out of goat milk," she announced and found a bent cigar to put between her lips.

"Kefir?" Nico picked up the lantern again - watching Miss outlaw out of the corner of her eye. She was not obviously nervous anymore, though, and also had lost the extreme chipperness.

"Yes, I believe so," Helmine said and kept her own watchful eye on the little runt. She flicked the rifle open somehow, shaking out some kind of dust. Even of that she did not seem to approve.

If she was sorry for the wasted ammunition, well, few people liked having deadly weapons pointed at them, and Nico wasn't going to offer anythong closer to an apology. At least the runt didn't hold grudges. She smiled and nodded, then turned to pick a way back to the stairs over the fresh heaps of bricks and debris.

"M'names Nico, by the way," she said, looking at the uncertain ground rather than back. "I suspect you know where I live."

"Helmine," she said and followed in a relaxed manner, shouldering the rifle the wrong way around -- she was, in essence, holding the barrel... if it was that. The weapon had a lot of angles. "I do know. My camp is in the three-storey building two houses away."

"The one with the fanning staircase on the ground floor? Would be decent seats while it's still baking outside." Nico was still limping slightly.

"It is," said the silver-haired specimen and lit the cigar. "Did I get your knee?"

"No, you aimed a bit too low." Nico clearly found that amusing.

"Usually I aim too high, but then, that's easier with men," Helmine said and felt her head, thinking she understood the source of amusement. Ow. Yes. Not just any little twerp, this Nico.

No, a twerp with a lot of experience, who, however, decided to brush off the topic with a chuckle.

"I'll get some of my stuff and come over to your digs, then."

Helmine gave half of a smile, with teeth. It happened to be the side of her mouth that clung onto the cigar.




They shared what drinks they had worth sharing. Nico, being not quite as relaxed as she seemed, tried to keep the conversation away from, ah, current topics, and when Helmine tried to find out what she had been after threw the question back.

"It shoots fire and lava. There's ways a girl could use that."

Nico's eyes lit up as she drew out a "yeah" for entirely too long, and let slip that the wand she was after, on behalf of some eccentric collector, had something to do with ice magic, because it seemed like an amusing twist.

"How ironic," Helmine commented and, after a moment, began chuckling.

What a trip.

Since Helmine did not show any further interest in the matter, Nico could relax some more.

They parted ways the next day without any further attempted felony.

Epilogue

Several days later, joints creaking, the bathtub crawled out of the cellar, and laborously navigated the partly destroyed floor. Outside the door, it stretched, then waddledd off to roam the dry, mostly empty plains.