Colonel Berllian Sky winced as his hoof touched hot metal, his body sweating. He gritted his teeth as he forced the door open to quickly get inside, away from the blistering sun. Uncomfortable as he always was with such, Berllian tried to pull the cloth taut, letting his heat radiate out to the surroundings.
He knew it was no use, but he tried anyway.
The humvee was a humble vehicle, having been an foreign import for their battalion recently. But with the way he had to pull his pants to adjust the comfort his hind legs felt on the seats, he wished it hadn’t been.
“So, we’re doing this?” came the asking voice of a soldier next to him. Berllian’s eyes drifted over to him, a more modestly and traditionally dressed soldier. The garbs meshed with the sunlight, basking it with an olden yellow tinge. Despite that, one could still clearly see the stripes on his coat.
“Where did you come from, son?” Berllian asked as he leant back onto the hot seat of the car. He grimaced as the soldier clicked his tongue.
“Xiahe, mum came from Wirea,” the soldier remarked, his hooves resting on wheel of the humvee.
“Wirea?” Berllian chuckled, glancing over at him with a slightly softer look, “Funny, that’s where mine are. Do you ever wish to visit?”
“Of course lah,” the soldier said, patting the steering wheel. The engine began to hum and rev up, pushing the old hunk of technology forward. “Dad said they had the best places to fish.”
“Huh, mine never said anything about that. Just said the sun was less intense as here,” Berllian commented as he shifted in his seat once again, “And to answer your earlier question, did you have anyone left back in Tekiwi?”
Tekiwi. A name that many of the soldiers he commanded knew by heart. The country to the south of them now, where they once came from.
The soldier driving was silent as he drove the humvee forward, out past the sentries and the security posts demarcating the military base.
“I… well, supposedly we had a dad who couldn’t follow.” An audible gulp followed, prompting Berllian to shake his head.
“I’m sorry for bringing that up,” he said.
The soldier waved it off. “It’s been two decades. I’ve gotten over it.”
Berllian nodded, letting silence set in. Their humvee’s engine filled the void, accompanied by a louder, rumbling din of engines following behind them.
“That’s… well that’s why we’re returning,” Berllian’s lips felt dry, “We’re going to fix things.”
“Lady above, we are aren’t we?” the soldier said.
“We are,” he concurred. He knew how much his heart cried out when his home came up in international news.
On Tekiwi…. Those were not pleasant memories to reminisce on.
His lips remained zipped as the vehicle continued its advance. For most Tekiwi-Calavarians, they didn’t want to remember those scenes nor sounds from their homeland.
Yet they found themselves heading back home.
“5th Tashkent Battalion, This is Brigadier Tree Xian, you are ordered to return to your base immediately,” came the voice on the radio, the third time this past hour.
Berllian shook his head as he reached forward and clicked the radio off with his hoof. The humvee had at the very least gotten a little cooler compared to the now midday air.
“Desperate,” the driver remarked.
“Mhm, what’s your name by the way?” Berllian asked, glancing over the younger zebra.
“Corporal Zhu Lin, sir,” the driver nodded as the humvee took a bump on the road.
“I see.” He shook his head as Berllian spotted the long concrete wall in the distance, splitting the rainforest in two, “You ready for this?”
“Are you not, sir?” Zhu returned as they spotted some of the troops scrambling out of the small base by the crossing.
“Dutifully, I’m having doubts about this,” he admitted, as he picked up his cap, “What got you to join this… plan of ours?”
“Well… I… I just wanted to see how Tekiwi is. Never felt like I belonged back here after all,” Zhu admitted as he brought the humvee to a slow stop before the crossing’s checkpoint, “That and, well, we have a chance to change things right?”
Berllian looked over at Zhu, and nodded, “Yeah, we do.”
And with that, he opened the door and exposing himself to the boiling heat. Squinting, he directed his eyes towards the closest border guard, beads of perspiration forming on his face.
A squad greeted him. They adjusted the straps of their rifles, fidgeting a little as they directed their attention to him. As if on cue, the lead guard stepped towards him with a slight quiver in his hoofstep. Perhaps that could give Berllian some form of hope on what he was looking to do.
“Colonel Sky, Brigadier Tree has orders for your arrest.”
It was a statement, and Berllian knew it. He nodded, looking over the soldier.
“I think you understand why we’re heading south, comrade,” his tongue clicking against the top of his mouth. His ears swivelled back as he could hear some troops from his convoy disembarking.
“We know.” The border guard nodded, straightening himself up as he glanced at the contingent behind Berllian.
“Let us through, comrade.” Berllian gestured back at the convoy with a hoof, where a long line of trucks and military vehicles waited. “We’re doing the right thing and freeing our home.”
The border guard looked once more at the convoy and turned back to his own checkpoint. Barely a dozen ponies stood by behind him, their eyes betraying their inner insecurities.
“You’re betraying Calavaria, Colonel,” his eyes turned back at Berllian.
“We’re doing what we’ve been taught since children,” Berllian stated back, his hoof dropping as he relaxed his stance, “Are we not supposed to do what is right? And when wrongs are committed just a stone’s throw away from us?”
The lead guard’s eyes flicked up and down Berllian, judging him.
Berllian kept his stance, waiting as murmurs rose into the air by troops behind him.
The unease was plenty in the guard’s eyes. Flicking on him, the troops behind him, and back on him.
The minute stretched, and Berllian’s sweat grew more by the second. Someone had to fold with their deck of cards.
And the lead guard folded, turning back to the checkpoint.
Sighing, he raised his hoof and drew a circle in the air.
The barrier was raised.
And Berllian let out a sigh of relief.
“Make sure this is worth it, Colonel,” the border guard stated, looking back at him with a gulp.
Berllian nodded at him with a smile. “We will.”
He stepped back away from the sun, and hopped back into the humvee, nodding at Zhu who held on to the steering wheel.
There was only one order to give now, and Berllian’s lips didn’t feel dry this time.
“Forwards.”
Author's Note
As usual, constructive criticism in the comments please.
