Chapter One: Red and Black

The clattering of metal and earthenware rouses me from my uncomfortable slumber. I awakened in a small room, my eyes opening to see a small lamp swaying softly in a cool breeze, illuminating the hastily-built roof above me stained carelessly with tar.

A moment after awakening, my shoulders began to radiate a vibrant discomfort, immediately reminding me that sleeping on the floor was probably not the best idea of a habit. Heaving a long, loud sigh, I made a scene out of pulling myself up into a sitting position, making sure to stretch my arms up and over my head to try and alleviate some of that soreness in my shoulders. A ragged blanket rolled off of me, piling about at my waist. Carelessly throwing aside the blanket, I was about to hop up and yawn for effect when I saw that the floor around me was covered in a mess of paper.

“Oh. Oh, come on. You're kidding me...” I started, looking horrified as I began trying to sweep all the paper together, somehow hoping they would organize themselves.

I began crawling about on hands and knees so I could reach into every corner of the room to collect the bits of paper, becoming more and more depressed as I saw that they had become quite disorganized over the course of the night. There must have been one hell of a gust last night. Still, that was no excuse to totally ruin so many hours' worth of effort. This wasn't much of a shop, but it certainly had its share of business, from the looks of it. It had taken me an eternity of excruciating boredom to order the ledger correctly, and now it was all for naught.

After a few moments of scrambling hopelessly, scrounging about on the floor, I just heaved another deep sigh, resigning myself to defeat as I sat back down. I looked up to the gap in the wall, a door that slid open to the front yard. Guh, it was definitely my fault now. I probably left it open, enjoying the last vestiges of a warm breeze earlier when I was still working on this forsaken project. It was still quite dark outside. I could barely discern the canopy of the forest from the endless depths of the sky above. It was only the brilliant glimmer of the starry field that set the heavens apart from that cursed jungle. The yard was a different story, though. Here and there, there was an assortment of shallow ceramic lamps, each balancing a brightly burning tongue of flame over its flat surface, hovering like ghostly lights as they hung suspended on arching arms of unseen steel. Each one would illuminate a small patch of vivid red flowers growing directly beneath them, each intangibly beautiful bloom like an explosion of brilliance in an otherwise black world.

“Hugo, I know you're awake in there!” A sudden shout came from behind, accompanied by a dramatic slam on the door behind me.

I jumped, completely taken off guard in the calm, elegant world that I was getting lost in. I was definitely still half-asleep, too, as it took me a moment or so to realize just who was yelling at me. Turning about where I sat, I crawled to the door. Just as I was to push it open, the flimsy panel door slid away from the wall with my hands barely grazing it. It opened only an inch, just enough for a single grumpy eye and the edge of a frown to be seen...for some reason at my own head level. She was sitting on the floor, too?

“Woah, hey...morning, Sasha.” I said, hiding my mild surprise behind a smile and a greeting.

She slid the door open a little further, revealing that she was, in-fact, sitting down. For some reason, she was also already in her work uniform. She sat with her legs folded, encased in her usual tough, gray denim overalls and solidly-built black boots. This was a bit of a surprise. Even though she was usually pretty conservative about herself, we always tended to slack a bit when the sun wasn't up. It was one of the few things we had in common, actually.

“...Why are you in those already? We aren't going anywhere, are we?” I followed up.

Apparently, that wasn't the correct thing to say. She immediately made that obvious by slamming the door and suddenly crawling forward to me, reaching out with a clawed hand as if she wanted to wring my neck. Oh jeez, that really scared the crap out of me. I'd never seen her so bothered before, and I almost fell back in my retreat, backing up just to make sure she really didn't tear me a new one. That didn't prevent her shrill bark in my ear, though.

“You!...you...God, dammit, Hugo...don't you realize what day it is?"

She started to unload on me, but she she started losing steam half-way through her threat. Yeah, I was pretty sure that it wasn't like her to get so jumped up about anything, actually, so it was no surprise seeing her calm down almost immediately. God, but still I wasn't looking forward to her explanation of...whatever I did wrong.

“Hugo...this is the most important job you...the most important job I've ever received. We gotta go, and I thought you said you'd be ready...” She sighed at me, moving back to lean against the frame of the sliding door. Her white arms, streaked in the grease stains of her work, folded against her chest, and she our eyes met again as she continued to speak. “You were the one so excited to go. You probably just want to get out of here...go home or wherever.” She said with a little shrug.

I regained my composure as she spoke, relieved that it was only about work. Still, I couldn't get used to her at all, and it's been a couple weeks already. I've never met anyone with such particular pet-peeves. You know how I mentioned her being conservative? Yeah, scratch that. It's more along the lines of completely erratic when you think about it.

It wasn't my decision to get stuck here, though. A month or so back, I had left home, quit school, and started heading north. I wanted to be an archaeologist working in the snow fields of the huge freezing desert in the northern hemisphere past this stupid demon forest. Guh, I had really underestimated this place though. I pushed myself to cross this jungle in only a few days, resting only whenever I was hitching a ride with one of the machine-knight patrol groups. Well, to tell a long story short, I ended up lost in the forest in the middle of the night, something I didn't realize was impossibly stupid. It was my luck to run into this girl, this Sasha, as she was refining a weak smelting solution from trees and dirt or something. She really pulled my ass out of the fire.

“Hugo...Hugo! It's rude to leave someone hanging. Especially a girl, man.” She whined to me, pushing me backwards roughly.

The feeling of falling over was a sudden shock, and I almost fell back trying to regain my balance. As I corrected myself, I already had a complaint to fire back, but when I let my eyes focus back onto her, she was already consumed with something doing something else.

“Whatever. We have to leave, at any rate, so just get your shit together and eat.” She said softly, pulling a heavily loaded toolkit backpack up from behind her back with one hand and slinging it to me. I caught it with a little difficulty, clutching it tightly while she continued. “I'm gonna get the lamps and clean them out. It'll only take a second or so, alright?” She ended, already standing to turn and walk away.

Letting the heavy pack fall to the side, I merely resigned myself to her command, unable to really think of anything further to say to her back. When she said it'll take only a second, she really meant, “Be ready when I get back.” She wouldn't get angry if I just slacked, but why should I bother stirring me up? I really did want to go with her on this one. We were going to a larger town, a place where I might catch another ride north.

Hearing the front door open and shut as she stomped loudly through it, I then moved out into the common room of this small house, which was decorated profusely with half-finished laundry, unwashed dishes, and welding torches being repaired. It was furnished in a similar fashion to the room in which I slept, with two small lamps spilling light over a minimal, rustic square of a living room. The only real light came from outside, even during such an early morning. Several of the wall panels, also similar to the one in my room, slid aside to reveal a way to the veranda and yard, letting in copious amounts of light from the sun by day and the multitude of lamps by night. These were always kept open, and offered vivid slice of exotic color contrasting against he droll innards of this boring, cluttered cabin.

As I strode to the ash-encrusted stove, poking the strange yellowish blob on a pan, I could see Sasha walking amongst the dazzling crimson blooms, gathering the various swinging lamps with one hand as she hauled them over her shoulder with the other. She was a such a weird girl, hardly acting like a girl at all. Always in her uniform, obsessed with mechanical knick-knacks, her long, amber hair, forever pulled into a tight tail, filthy with grime, she reminded me more of my colleagues at the imperial university destined to be engineers than any girl I've met. She had a pretty face, too, adding more to the mystery of her career choice. If it were anyone else, the pent-up tension between us for the past few weeks would have been incredibly dramatic. However, she had all the allure of a drum of high grade fuel gel: strictly involved with tanks and melting things. Oh well, at least we both couldn't cook to save our lives.

Suddenly, I noticed she was looking right at me, a smoldering expression easily discernible even across the distance between us. Even that caused me to jump. For some reason, I hadn't realized she would notice that I was drifting off into my thoughts, and sped back into action as soon as her gray glare met mine. Hastily, I picked up the little heap of...whatever it was, remembering to dump the pan into one of the buckets of water with the other piling kitchenware. Striding quickly back to my room, I shoved whatever strange entity she had prepared for me into my mouth in a single act of wild courage. It was an egg.

Finally out of her sight, standing amidst the mess of paper work I had so valiantly attempted to order, I began fishing through my small wardrobe, heaped ever-so-gracefully on the floor, in order to find something that would be appropriate for the occasion. This was one event I wasn't quite sure how to prepare for, though.

Sasha had briefed me earlier that day, telling me that we had been assigned to a village for a day, fixing tools and offering skilled labor in a pinch. There was some special ceremony planned for the coming evening, something about an exorcist's name. Now, I know a little bit about these people, but pretty much only what the school has taught. These are people, men like us, that have dedicated their lives to protecting the populace that choose to live in the jungle. This pretty much means they control demon activity as much as possible. Supposedly, they are ancient rivals, and do not use machines in their eternal struggle against each other. Even though we Imperials have the same enemy, we share no common goals beyond that, I'm certain. The empire warns us that they wield the same strengths as the demons, and that they shouldn't be trusted. Still, the general public just doesn't seem to care. This is pretty much because they don't attack us, and that is fine. Having to deal with various demonic skirmishers in the forest is difficult enough...let the exorcists have their secrecy as long as it doesn't involve us.

Without warning, a sharp pain exploded in my head as I was whittling away the time, thinking about this and that and fishing through my clothes. Sasha was standing beside me with a pair of pliers, forcing them shut viciously on an inattentive ear, showing her obvious displeasure at my day dreaming.

“Holy...God, let go! That hurts!” I announced to her, trying to pull away from her only to realize that made it hurt a lot more. “Good lord, why would you do that?!” I then shouted to her, wincing helplessly at her relentless grip.

She just grinned, her eyes bearing a little malice in them. “...I told you to hurry, man. It's your own fault.”

It was only then that she let go, allowing me to pull away. Shooting her an angry glare didn't really do much though, as she only continued to smile casually while sliding that little tool back into the toolkit clinging to her back with care. God, was she creepy, but she was already set to go, as well. Her long immaculate white coat draped over her thin shoulders, protecting her from the possibility of a toolkit leak, which would splash a wonderful load of extremely flammable smelting solution all over her and everything else in a two-meter radius. Her small hands, rough from the machines she slaved over, were fit into fire-proof gloves to protect her if she needed to use her torch, hitched to her super-versatile back pack. All that, and I hadn't even selected a shirt. She only sighed, holding her head as she spoke up.

“Hugo...I know the sun's not even out yet, but I really need you to hurry, alright?” She pleaded with me. “This is important, and I really wanted to make a good impression this time.”

Well, she was right, we did tend to goof off a little too much when it came to punctuality. That, or I was really weighing her pace down and she just didn't want to say anything. Guh, and now I was going to be conscious about that, a trickle of guilt seeping down my spine.

“I know...” I said, sounding defeated again, unable to think of anything to say as I scratched the back of my head.

“I knew you wouldn't be ready on time...” She sighed again, shaking her heard as she delivered a kick to the other toolkit seated on the ground by my feet. “Don't worry about packing too much. Just get changed. You can keep whatever you want to wear, that old crap don't fit me anymore anyway...and I already loaded your backpack. But don't take that as a cue to laze about. There's a transport swinging by an old checkpoint nearby. It's heading to Letha, too.” She said, speaking like this was some impromptu mission briefing...probably because it was. “It's a midnight run, but they're definitely not looking for trouble, so they'll just make a beeline for town. We can catch a speedy ride with them.”

While she was talking, I was going through the process of pulling a shirt over my head, having chosen just to go with something normal for this one. My pants were fine, I really only had one pair. Oh, and wearing a girl's clothes? Fuck you, I don't care. She's manlier than I was anyway. Finding a proper shirt and jabbing my arms through the long, off-white sleeves, I hung my own long, faded green coat on my shoulders casually. It was tremendously old, having seen it's own fair share of sudden, glorious ignitions, but I really liked this one. I got it when I first went to school, and has served me well ever since. I slung my toolkit, its volatile contents sloshing ominously, onto my back with confidence as Sasha continued.

“Hey, but don't feel too concerned about working your ass off, though. This ceremony is pretty much along the lines of a festival...so just take it easy and don't make me look bad. We're together on this, remember?” She said, punching my shoulder as I slipped my gloves on. “I'm gonna go wait by the gate. I cleared the gardens, so you put out all the lights inside.”

I nodded, definitely appreciating the thought of wandering around to play when I finished today's work. Oh, and a festival was it? That had to mean free food and drink everywhere, something I truly had not experienced for the past few months. I started to drift off into another round of blissful dreaming, and Sasha had probably just went on ahead without bothering me. The last few minutes were a a little harder to recall, but I was pretty sure I just did what she told me. There was very little illumination from within the house, only a handful of lamps distributed here and there, so it was a pretty easy task to gather them up. Only two in the living room and another in mine, it only took a few seconds to round them all up. Closing up before leaving had also become almost second nature to me, and as I strolled about this modest establishment, I leisurely closed the various panel doors along the walls as I passed.

It was only a minute or so later, as I haphazardly dumped the few lamps that I gathered into a bucket that wasn't already full of dishes or earthenware, when the house was dark. Buckets of oily water were stacked here and there, some filled dishes while others were filled with fuel-soaked lamps. It was hard to wash out lamps, so we just chucked them into something that probably wouldn't make them explode, as we usually weren't too keen on washing anything, obviously.

Finally, slamming the front door behind me as I trot into the front lawn, I left our derelict of a shop to waddle into the unbridled brilliance of the night sky, unblemished by city light. As I walked, I couldn't help but stare upwards into the infinitely vast, dark sea that spread in all directions. Punctuated by it's numerous glowering stars, it was like peering up into an ocean in the sky.

“...How in god's name did you become an imperial engineer? Were you always this freaking spacey? Does the empire just not care anymore?” The impatient tone of Sasha floated to me from up ahead.

Looking back down to the earth, my eyes focused on the further exasperated-looking girl waiting for me at the so-called gate of her yard, which was little more than a sign announcing it was a gate. Hands rooted to her hips in a manner that all but screamed impatience, her mouth turned into a rather unpleasant growl the more time I spent letting my mind wander. This was really an excellent example of our relationship as a whole. I would piddle about while she waited on me, just hoping my attention span would encapsulate a common goal with her long enough for me to wander to it.

“Alright...don't get pissed.” I said, a laugh in my tone as I jogged to her. Bounding to catch up, I started shoving my arms into my long coat to wear it properly while I moved. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Come on, let's just go then if you're so excited about this.” I added quickly, noticing the now vibrant irritation glowing in her eyes as I finally came to face her.

“Good...guh. You're absolutely infuriating...” She mentioned under her breath as she turned around, only eliciting another smile from me.

It was only then that I noticed that her eyes held a little more than mild discontent for my lack of motivation. Finally looking at her closely without any preoccupations, I saw the tremendous bags under her eyes, as if she had not slept over the course of the previous day. Before I could open my mouth to mention it, she had already began striding towards the pitch-black wall of the jungle, and moved at a pace that definitely seemed willing to leave me behind. I had to jump forward a few times to catch up, especially because she was significantly taller than me, anyway. Her long legs really lent a lot to her pace.

I moved quickly, wanting to walk beside Sasha as we left this small, confined clearing in which her house was settled as we began negotiating through the thick underbrush that abruptly began wherever the canopy started. Matching her speed now that I was at her side, I started my attempt to stoke the conversation, but she beat me to the punch, cutting me off right as I opened my mouth.

“I'll just say this now, Hugo...I'll probably forget to mention it later.” She started, addressing me while keeping her eyes forward, watching as we approached the opaque shadows of the forest, waiting for us like a black void. “It was fun bossing you around for a couple weeks...so don't do something stupid and take care of yourself, alright?”

That was about the last thing that I had ever expected her to say, especially right about now. It was like we were splitting up now. Sure, I was gonna leave and probably never find this god-forsaken smear on the earth again, but it was surprising to hear something so final and blatantly serious come out of her.

“...You totally didn't sleep, did you?” I responded simply, crossing my arms as I peered over to her, trying to catch her eyes.

“No, not really. You fucking sleep enough for the two of us.” Came her retort, the only other acknowledgment was her rolling tired eyes in my direction. “Today's job is serious business, too. I had to get two kits fully-fueled and ready, didn't I? Someone has to be prepared around here.” She finished, flashing a rather menacing glare back at me.

“Alright, alright, no complaints here.” I said quickly, gesturing with a hand as if to sweep aside my previous comment. “I'm happy enough finally getting out of this hell-hole,” I had to hop aside as she jabbed at me, but I continued. “I'm just saying, you could have slept a little and we'd have had left a little later or something.”

However, she just waved a testy finger in my face, shaking her head as she explained her position to me.

“Nope, we have to leave now. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and I definitely don't want to end up just working the entire time I'm there.” She said, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. “I'm not terribly down with the social scene, but I like a festival well enough. Besides, if we hitch, I can just sleep on the tank instead of walking.”

“Eh heh...being sociable isn't what one would call a scene.” I said, just sort of hanging my head and mild disbelief. “I'm just saying it is pretty damn early.”

She wouldn't have listened to me. Her point was a pretty strong one, too, but I wouldn't go so far as to acknowledge that she made sense. That would have been excessive bone-throwing, if you know what I mean.

“Lord, this must be one hell of a show if you want to wake up early for it.” I said finally as we finally strode into the thick brush beneath the black canopy of the demon jungle.