Uncharted

[Caira Ayryn]

Part Five: From Bounty Hunter to Bandit, a Testimony of Fate

"So, you're a bounty hunter are you?" Merik inquired. "You work for the state?" His shifting eyes slanted, his mouth coiled to almost a disappointed and hostile frown.

"How did you..." She muttered, he signaled only with the tip of his index finger, touching to the side of his head and implying his power.

"I took a quick peek, hope you don't mind." His lips thinned into a bit of a threatening smile.

"What of it, I hunted a bounty. But I'm sure you saw what I did after." Caira replied, unashamed.

"Are you afraid to kill a man, or sentence him to his inevitable death? I wasn't sure why you freed that..." he struggled for the word, "Prime."

Caira raised her eyebrows, making him ask her, as it seemed he couldn't read everything on her mind. "Why did you?"

She paused, then she mused, "Ah, it is funny I suppose now that I think of it, two in a row, but honestly, I believe I'm still trying to figure that out. I think the answer will come with time, but I will have to wait to truly know."

"Wise words, girl." Merik muttered out of the side of his mouth. Still, Caira seemed to enjoy his presence, because it could have been much colder and more alone in the night, without his subtle company.

As their trek continued, it seemed that every human foe that could have pursued them, did. Shadowed creatures, usually reptilian but some not so, followed closely behind and haunted in the outsider’s footsteps, never taking the chance to strike but always leaving the two travelers on-edge.

Caira chased the darkness with the light of her sword while some creatures fled and others became more enchanted. With a few slashes, the pair were on the run, as a stampede of glowing snakes cascaded from the hollows of the mountains and rained down on them.

After they outran the sleek reptilian creatures and night turned into day, yet another band of outlaws enclosed on the out-of-station pair of Primes.

“Yer kind ain’t welcome here.” The bandit said.

“Let us pass and we will be on our way.” Merik warned.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Prime.” The tone was harsh, and laden with a threat.

Merik tweaked his face, obviously used to manipulating anyone he crossed paths with. It seemed he even had an easier time reading people's minds when they were secondaries. Caira also noticed that there were some conditions to this, but it didn't effect the use of such a pardonable skill. Apparently, the use of words would have lead them nowhere, as soon pistols were drawn and a blaze of bullets followed.

Caira battled with her sword, and explosions as the bandits fell one at a time and Merik covered Caira from behind a rock. A lull soon descended on the field and the bodies of secondaries littered the sand.

“What are you doing?” Merik shouted, aghast at Caira.

“Showing him mercy.” She answered the question pertaining to her own triage of action, without a second thought. Her sword had been inches from his neck, but she pulled it away upon the defeated's request.

“What? Don’t you understand?” He responded sharply, “These bandits are murderers. They exist out here, surviving outside of the law because what they are doing is against it. The same law you abide and serve in Camelot. The same law your own morals agree with," he was doing it. He was attempting to manipulate her and she was aware of it, though perhaps he had a reason. "They are killers and don’t deserve your precious mercy. Everyone out in these lands, especially those that attack you, have given up their right to your morals, as they have a different sort of morality that involves the very absence of it. And they've have plenty of resolve to die for their way of life. Because they certainly don’t care if you do.”

“But, if I asked to be spared, setting aside my honor, I would hope they would grant me the same respect” As they were talking, the wounded bandit began to inch his way away from the two and crawl toward his carbine rifle.

“How many people, and I mean actually innocent people do you think this one has killed alone? A few.. Hundreds? Not all good men, but many, in bloodied and insufferable conditions, heinous ambushes, and organized slaughter all for the sake of their own lustful greed.” His words were sharp and had consequence.

“I don’t...” Caira was beginning to find that the reality out in the desert, was harsher than the heat. Her voice faltered a bit.

“So many, for the sake of only themselves. That is the true evil of men. You have to be aware of it, if you are to choose to become a victim of it.” Merik answered, trying to get the naive girl to harden her perspective on the waste of a single bullet verses the waste of a life.

“What about you? I let you go when I knew you were guilty.” She pointed out plainly.

“I offered you incentive.” he riposted, a slaying expression fell on the brim of his eyes.

“True, but I didn’t have to accept.”

“Sure, sure, yet you had other things in mind at the time and I of course, had everything to gain. You had nothing to lose. And you yourself had more than one reason to free me.”

"That is where you are wrong. I lost something in the jail that I won't get back."

Merik read her mind, feeling the answer with his own, and nearly scoffed. "What of him?" His attention went to the man on the ground.

“He has the remnants of his life to gain from it and he might just show someone else mercy one day. That is where choice comes into play."

He waited while Caira explained, "You see Merik, I can’t always be everywhere at once, injustice can strike anywhere, but... If I try hard enough, my legacy might just live on in someone else’s thoughts, words, or actions. My example: An offering of peace which has a chance to change someone’s mind. Its all we can do sometimes in this world, and you of all people know something about that. And because they have had a chance -a chance at redemption or hope- the only source of true power in existence and it is through this, a choice of mine can mean more than a single life, even in my absence.”

Merik blinked for a moment, he had thought this trip was about her finding the treasure, more and more it seemed he was proven wrong as he vaguely realized that she was teaching him humanity. He was left wondering if that had been her point of freeing him all along.

Caira wasn’t sure what Merik, a Prime thought he had to lose from letting this one man go but perhaps there was some darkness within him that he saw that she didn't. She had fought for the life of the stranger, but a they both now took the time to look over at her gestural pointed index finger, only to find the subject of their heated exchange had vanished from their view.

“Darn, now look what you’ve done! He’s gotten away! And he will inform the others of our location and our abilities. There is more danger in taking a chance that someone will change, than there is in one man’s death. What do you have to say about that?” Merik spoke, his tone stating that facts were facts.

Caira offered a single word to him, “Evolution.” Merik, in response, curled an eyebrow, unsure of her meaning or allusion and pronounced his curiosity.

“Individuals in life must grow in order to live and progress. Survival of the fittest applies even in the most modern of times and failure will be taken care of by this specific form of fate. Why should I have to deal the final blow? It does not show strength, nor of capability. This is the most valid truth, if one doesn’t grow, they cannot survive. It is in this finality that the rest tends to... Take care of itself. Facts are facts. Someone else will kill him eventually but every chance I can take, to change a single man’s fate despite at the risk of my own, can mean the world and a better future. And it is a risk that I am willing to take because I want to teach as well as grow. And because I believe that what I choose to do is right.”