It was quiet, of course it was quiet. Kuseka and older Tinker were sitting beside each other, with both of them refusing to look at each other. There was tension in the air, but Kuseka was probably in a state of confusion as she met two Tinkers, one younger and one her prisoner. I would also be confused if the same prisoner you have is the same person saving your life. The younger Tinker was sitting beside me, and, of course, without any surprise at all, burned potatoes was the meal served in a wooden bowl, making my life doomed to be low-budget level forever. Mejni was munching on the potatoes even though I could clearly see that he did not like them at all, damn bug eater.
"Eh…So! Mister, sorry for the inconvenience we cause by showing up like this unannounced." I told the grandpa in the kitchen, who lifted a wooden plate with what looked like several drinks.
He smirked at my comment and put the plate in the middle of the table, and said:
"Don't worry, child! My granddaughter said the three of you were in a squabble and she had to go between you so no accident would happen." He said and sat down by the table, close to the older Tinker.
Yeah, right! Why didn't the mini Tinker tell the truth about the two of them trying to kill each other?
"Ay Ay! Do any of you know anything about bombs and explosions?" Mini Tinker asked around the table.
"I think this young lady knows. I can see a fellow bomb builder by their hands. You are also a bomb builder, are you not?" The grandpa asked the older Tinker, and I gestured to Tinker to say no because we did not need the attention and needed to get out of here.
Of course, Tinker didn't listen and responded with a big smile.
"Yes! I do have experience with bombs."
Great, she is going to get exposed. The idiot doesn't think that her younger self won't notice.
"I have built my first bomb, can I show you, ay ay, can I?" Younger Tinker couldn't sit still and went up, grabbed older self, and dragged her down the stairs, close to the kitchen.
"Can I?" I asked when the grandpa nodded with a smile.
I hurried down the stairs, several torches lighting up the whole area, but it was the distance between their working area and the torches. They were playing and laughing together with a box painted white with a smiling face. The older one suddenly stopped, expression changed.
"Wait here!" She said and pressed a button on one of the pieces of equipment, then rushed up the stairs.
I looked at the younger one, grabbed Mejni from my shoulder, and gave him to her.
"Eh, can you wait here a moment. I need to go and talk to the blond, yeah…!" I rushed up the stairs, wondering what the distraught expression on her face was about, and nobody was at the table. Ran outside when a scream echoed all over when the grandpa, covered in blood, turned towards the entrance, with a big sword plunged through him as his life vanished in an instant. Tinker screamed as one of the black-dressed soldiers grabbed her hair. Kuseka was already down as I ran towards Tinker when the one holding her hair swung up the sword, aiming at her throat. I ran up close and grabbed both my arms beneath his shoulder around his neck and swung up my legs, making a hard kick on the soldier behind him and leaned with full force downwards in a wrestling move and bashed his head down on the ground. Noticed there were several soldiers around, and they were, for a moment, more or less shocked when I got up, and I was staring at their transportation… it was not a horse. A freaking big-sized chicken?
"GET HIM!" One of the soldiers yelled when little Tinker, who was crying, had two bands thrown over both her shoulders with a load of what looked like grenades, and she released the safety pin on two of them, staring at the soldiers who froze in an instant.
Got damn it! Why am I so unlucky, for fuck sake, I hope she isn't going to blow us up, who knows what kind of power the small grenades have in this world.
"Your grandfather resisted when we asked him where all the bombs were. He refused, so we needed to make an example out of him. Do not throw the bombs, little lady, you will kill all of us."
Fuck, I knew it. It is stronger than simple grenades that you can run from, probably filled with magic crap.
"Y-Y-You won't get far, the machine got activated. We will all die in a moment!"
"Wow! Little one, don't say that. I for once want to live, actually." I told little Tinker.
"Then…RUN!" She said and sprinted past me as I grabbed older Tinker, and we started to run away as the soldier ran in the other direction when an explosion went off behind me, with the little one pressing her foot down wrong, and she screamed out in pain while falling to the ground.
"KEEP GOING, THERE IS SHELTER DOWN THE ROAD. IT IS THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN TAKE COVER FROM THE EXPLOSION!" She screamed as Mejni jumped off my shoulder and climbed up on Kuseka's shoulder as all of us stopped for a second. I checked her sprained foot and nodded at the older one.
"Leave me, save yourselves!" Little, with a proud look on her face, and I grabbed her up on my shoulder while Mejni jumped down.
"Nobody gets left behind!" I said, trying to act cool for a moment, but in reality I just wanted to get the Hell out of here.
The soldiers were… riding on the chickens from a distance, and all of us started to run as fast as we could, and of course me and the little one were dead last, as the others didn't have any baggage on them.
"It is up ahead!" Little one yelled.
"EVERYONE, LOOK FOR THE SHELTER!" I screamed into the air, and the older one sprinted faster now. She has to know where it is.
The chickens closed up behind me when I heard the pins getting released on several grenades, and they fell on the ground, spreading out wide across the whole area behind us. As I noticed up front, the older one found the shelter on the ground, opening a hatch, with Kuseka hurrying down below, together with Mejni, and several explosions went off not far behind. Something fell in front of me, rolling on the ground, and I noticed it was a big chicken head. I rounded it smoothly when I looked back and saw a soldier in the air pointing the sword down at me, and I quickly turned and threw off the little one from my back as the soldier fell on me, plunging the blade through my blazer, missing my stomach, but grazing the side of my stomach.. In the same movement, I managed to roll him over me, and I got up fast to attack, but the soldier was faster. I checked the side of my stomach as it was bleeding more than I had expected. Did it go so deep?
My right knuckle caught a small black fire. Why in the for damn sake did it act now? Damn powers, no freaking way to control when it is time to protect myself.
I clenched my fist several times, hoping the black fire would be more intense, but it was puny, more like almost useless. The soldier moved around 180 degrees to position himself, trying to aim at the little one, but I stood in the way. Suddenly, something far away lit up from the ground, growing in size as it was moving toward us. I grabbed the little one and started running as the soldier behind did the same, because we both knew we were screwed if we didn't get shelter. When he came beside me, I gave him a gentle push, and he stumbled down to the ground. The Older Tinker was waving us in as I felt sudden warmth in the air, and I slid down, releasing a little, who fell down the stairs. As I entered the shelter, the older one closed it shut and pushed the lock shut. The ground shook the instant after she managed to lock it, and I was still on the stairs right beneath the older one, noticing that the portal was shining up the whole shelter. When I looked down for the little one, she was bleeding on her upper right forehead. So that is where the scar was from. It went completely silent around us as the shaking had stopped.
"Is this ours?" Kuseka asked a little bit in shock about the portal.
"It is covered in purple around the circle, so yeah! It is ours!" I responded.
"I will wait on the other side and tell my comrades to stand down so you do not get attacked," Kuseka told us before she entered the portal, while Mejni stood in front of it, waiting for me to go through.
Tinker tore a little fabric from her tank top, revealing her stomach. She should have torn apart the upper area instead; she would get more… fabric that way. She used the fabric as a bandage and tied a knot around the little one's head. Pfft, why didn't she ask me for some fabric? I could have torn the arm off my blazer.
"Listen to me, lie down and rest, you can not go up right now. You need to wait half a day before going up; the ground above is still burning. Do you understand?" Tinker told the little one, who nodded with sadness in her eyes, well, she lost her only family she had.
"Take care of yourself!" Tinker said, turned her back on the kid, and walked through the portal.
"Can I go with you?" The little one asked.
I looked down at the ground. That was not possible at all; one version of Tinker already exists on the train. The damn book didn't give us more information before Gandrael went into Berserker mode.
"I am sorry! It is too dangerous!"
She stared at the ground while I walked to the portal with Mejni, of course, climbing up on my shoulder as usual. I turned for a last time before entering the portal, and she kept crying, but there was nothing I could do. I walked into the portal and ended up in the aisle with the portal closing behind me. Kuseka sat with her comrades with a sad look on her face. I looked back and noticed Tinker seated on the other side of the cabin with her back against us.
I sat down on the seat opposite her as she was looking down at the floor, refusing to say anything or even face me.
Who is she really? An innocent woman or a mass murderer. She pushed the button on the machine. Did she do what the little one would have done…or did the bombs go off by themselves? I need to talk to her when we are alone and ask her what really happened. If she is a mass murderer, then we need to try distance ourselves from her. Who knows what she is capable of if it turns out she is a mass murderer?