Sightseeing

[Kain Owen]

“You know what, Kain? I do want to go to the space station,” Fay said.

They were both laying on their beds. It was hard to tell what hour it was while being inside an inn, inside a cave, inside a moon, but Kain had managed to finally sleep away his exhaustion. It’s been a few days since he was picked up by the dwemer folk, and it took that long to feel fully rested. Fay and Kain limited their chats to mundane stuff, with Fay having been a bit distant throughout that time. But at least he wasn’t hostile anymore.

“What?” Kain said through his pillow.

“I knew you were awake! I’ve been thinking about what we talked about the other day, about the space station, and I want to go there.”

“Ah…” Kain did remember vaguely having mentioned it at some point. “Didn’t we agree that was too dangerous?”

“So are these caves. And besides, if dad can do it, why can’t I?”

Kain wasn’t sure if Fay would be suited for a true stealth mission. He had the abilities to pull it off, but Kain felt the elf kid was too easily manipulated to act his way into an infiltration.

Fay sat up on his bed. “I always wanted to go there, in fact.”

Kain raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry to say it, but with how you react to strangers, I doubt being in ‘enemy territory’ will be a good idea.”

“Thats…! I don’t know… Everyone keeps telling me that the humans, the ilithid, the locust horde… they’re all dangerous and I should stay away from them. But I’ve never seen any of them! You’re the first human I ever talked to, and you’re not that bad.”

“‘That’ bad?”

“Yes.”

“Should I take that as an apology for pointing a knife at me?”

“It’s not a knife, it’s a dagger. And… Ugh, maybe?”

Kain sat up. “Alright. You know what? I’m getting tired of being here too. I want to see the space station.”

That was the first time Kain had seen Fay grin like that.

“But we need to be very sneaky!” Fay said.

“How do we even get there?”

“There’s a human mining operation not that far from here. I bet they have convoys of cargo ships coming and going all the time.”

“Are you sure?”

“... Not really. But we can check.”

“And how do we come back? How can we guarantee that the ship that takes us here leaves us close to this particular city?”

Fay fell deep in thought.

“We can…” Kain followed. “Hijack a ship”

“What do you mean?”

“Steal a ship and fly it by ourselves.”

“You know how to fly ships?”

“No, but I don’t need to.” Kain smirked.

“How?”

“I can pick up the ship with my powers and take it here.”

“Oh! So we find a ship, steal it, and fly it here. Wait… What if it has a tracking device?”

“We destroy the ship after landing.”

“With your powers as well?”

“Yes.”

Fay covered his mouth with both hands, but his grin was still visible. “That’s so stupid!”

“Of course it is.” Kain was also smiling. “Wait… What do we do with your parents?”

“We’ll be here all along.”

“That’s… Oh.”

“They don’t have to know. And we’re not gonna be there too long.”

Kain stretched his arms. “I still think this is the dumbest idea ever, but I do want to try it.”

“Indeed.”

“When do we depart?”

“Now. We don’t want to take too long to get to the miners, in order to be here before dinner. If they don’t have a ship going to the station in a reasonable amount of time, we come back.”

“Alright. Sounds like a plan.”

“Hehe…”

This was, indeed, really stupid. There were a bunch of people carrying guns who had no qualms on using them. Those same people didn’t care about leaving Kain stranded in an freezing alien moon. How could Kain or Fay guarantee their safety on such a risky endeavor? Kain wasn’t too scared of doing it though, as he trusted his powers would keep him alive even if he had to fly through outer space itself, but Fay? Fay was mostly a normal kid. Kain would have to be the one making sure he didn’t get killed.

On the other hand… Sneaking into a ship, and then stealing another? That sounded even crazier, yet Kain really wanted to try. The other humans were jerkasses. Kain didn’t care about their property or ruining their day.

Kain and Fay went downstairs to eat their breakfast. Their stay at the inn had everything covered, so they just had to order what they wanted. At least, around what was on the menu. All the foods to pick from were somehow made out of mushrooms. Many different kinds, but still, all mushrooms. He had tried a few ones, some he liked, others were disgusting. For breakfast, he let Fay pick for him the “fruity-ish salad”, as Kain called it. It was made of mushrooms that tasted sweet and fruity, covered in a sweet sauce.

At the table, Fay leaned towards Kain and asked, “Are we really doing this?”

“I thought you wanted to?”

“I do, but I didn’t think you would actually agree on it.”

“What makes you think that way?”

“I don’t know… I get the impression you think you’re smarter than me. And this is a really stupid idea.”

Kain almost choked with his salad. “Damn…”

“You’re not gonna disagree with me?”

“I guess not.”

“I knew it.”

Alright, Kain should give Fay some credit too. When put into words, it didn’t sound too nice, but he couldn’t bring himself to disagree. He genuinely thought that Fay wasn’t that smart.

“But still,” Kain added. “We should think this carefully. I don’t want to tell your parents you died in my arms.”

“I think dad would kill you on the spot.”

“Yes, maybe I would just… Run away and never come back.”

“But you’re sure we’re doing this?” Fay was leaning too close to Kain to be comfortable.

“It’s boring here, and I also want to see the station.”

“But it’s dangerous! What if we can’t find a ship to come back? What if we get caught?”

“Are you asking this now? After already agreeing to go?”

“Hey, I thought about it a lot these past days, but I didn’t think you would agree to do it.”

“I see. Well, I don’t want to be here.”

“You don’t?” Fay tilted his head in confusion.

“I mean, it’s a really pretty place, but there isn’t much for me to do here.”

“That’s why we’re going to the station against all our better judgment.”

Kain smiled. “Exactly.”

 

[Kain Owen]

We’re really doing this, huh?

It was stupid, it was dangerous, it was exciting. Being stuck at an inn with a guy who couldn’t agree if he hated Kain or not for the past days had been incredibly boring. At no point did Fay offer Kain to show him the rest of the city, and he wouldn’t ask him either, so nothing came out of being with him. But now, for the first time, Fay had asked him to do something, and it was the most bonkers idea Kain could never think of. Yes, going on a trip thousands of miles away in outer space from their city and coming back in secret had to be some sort of joke.

But at this point, Kain didn’t care. He wanted something to happen, and he would make it happen.

Yet, he needed to do something first.

Kain went to the bathroom in their room, and looked at himself in the mirror. His clothes were OK, but they could be so much better, and knowing he could magically change them had been in the back of his mind for a while now. He spent some time designing how he wanted to look, and he finally arrived at one.

By thinking about it, his outfit started to change, the fabric extending and contracting at the whim of his thoughts. His long sleeved t-shirt turned into a buttoned shirt, his cape into a bigger one, and his pants into dressing shorts. He didn’t like the exact texture of the pajamas, they were too mundane for him, so he changed those too from a cotton-like texture to something more elegant, yet still comfortable enough. His shoes were weird, so he turned them into red boots, a bit higher than his ankles. Then, he added a few hanging strings here and there as embellishments.

And then, he also needed something on his head. A hat. To go with the military-esque look, he added a matching hat, with the Space symbol showing, as he got rid of it from his new shirt. He liked the small galaxy, so there was no reason to not have it.

He looked like an actual prince now. A Prince of Space. Perfect!

Kain left the bathroom. Fay was sitting over his bed, reading a book. He finally gave Kain a glance.

“What are you wearing now?” Fay said.

“I wanted something fancier, that's all.”

“I see. And you made it with your magic clothes?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever. Should we depart now? It’s getting late.”

“Yes, let’s go.”

Fay left his book over the bed and jumped out of it, with a grin on his face. He picked up the blue dagger off the bedside table, tied it into his waist, and with that, both of them left the inn.

 

[Kain Owen]

The mining operation they had to infiltrate was further away than Kain had thought. For sure more distance than his first trip through the caves, but they flew through most of the way. Not as fast as Kain would’ve wanted – he was sure he could zoom through the caves at high speeds, yet his powers kept him at a leisurely pace. Luckily for them, the way to the mining operation wasn’t through the same tunnels they traveled to the first time, which meant they didn’t have to cross through the collapsed bat den nor the claustrophobic passage. The trip went fairly well, no monsters on their way either.

There were screams coming further ahead, from what should be the mining operation. Kain left Fay on the ground, and they walked the last leg towards the mine. A lot of people were hiding behind boxes or laying on the ground with their hands over their heads. At the center of the scene, a bunch of people with ramshackled clothes and guns on their hands were ordering the miners around. Their yells were high and loud, crossing through the deafening noise of a ship behind them.

Kain and Fay stood on a corner from a side entrance to the main cave. Kain wanted to step forward, but his better judgment kept him from interfering. He didn’t want to earn the ire of these bandits, but he didn’t care too much about the miners either. Did they deserve to be held at gunpoint? No, but did they also earn Kain’s kindness? Probably not, if they were anything like the other group of expeditioneers. They had similar clothes, tightly layered gray tunics held by belts, although these people also had bright yellow helmets.

One of the bandits stepped forward, inspecting the cave. He wasn’t human, he had green viscous skin and weird antennae not unlike a snail, with its mouth covered in a bandana. His gun never stopped pointing forward, with the occasional aim to the people laying down.

He grabbed one of the miners by their clothes. “Where are the goods?!”

“T-the b-boxes are filled with them!”

“Take them to the ship.” The snail man held his gun to the miner’s head.

Shaking, the miner went inside one of the forklifts, and slowly, the machine started picking up the wooden boxes with jerky and uncoordinated movements, taking them to the ship at the entrance.

“What do we do?” Fay asked Kain from their hiding place.

“I don’t know! I don’t want to step up.”

“Does that mean our plan is ruined?”

“Probably.”

The snail man made eye contact with Kain. Kain snapped and hid himself better, but he could feel the bandit coming closer.

“Stay behind me,” Kain said to Fay.

With his telekinesis, Kain broke one of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and kept it levitating beside him, aimed right at the place the bandit would show up. As soon as the snail man’s silhouette appeared, Kain threw the stalactite straight to his legs with all his strength. The ice rock shattered on contact, as a scream left the bandit’s mouth, dropping his gun and falling on his good knee. Kain picked up the gun from afar with his powers while the snail man was distracted, and threw it as far as he could deeper into the cave.

“You piece of…!” The bandit yelled. He tried to reach for his gun, but it was nowhere to be seen.

“Run!” Kain called.

Kain started to run, but Fay stood behind, his dagger on hand. When Kain realized the elf wasn’t following, he turned back. Fay was dashing towards the snail man, and in a swift, graceful cut, he slashed his foe’s entire torso leaving a diagonal wound. The snail man screamed.

“What the fuck are you doing, Fay?!” Kain snapped. “Let’s run!”

“I’m not letting this jerk catch us!” Fay took a step behind. His dagger was dripping green blood.

More bandits showed up, all armed to the teeth with guns.

“Don’t let them get away!” Another alien bandit yelled.

Kain and Fay started to run as the bandits opened fire. Kain expanded his powers throughout the ice cave, sneaking through all the cracks and pockets of air within it. The cave shook. If only I could collapse the tunnel…

But that stopped when a jolt of pain from his leg made Kain trip. He crashed into the ground. Fay kept running, although as soon as he noticed Kain wasn’t following, he turned around.

The bandits came closer. Kain picked up their guns with his telekinesis and moved them in sync all to the side to screw with their aim, avoiding another shootout. For sure he should’ve done that at first, but there was not much time to think through the situation.

One of the bandits threw his gun and walked to Kain’s prone figure. Kain wanted to stand up, but the wound from his leg sent shivers of pain throughout his entire body, preventing any more movements. The bandit grabbed the kid from his cape, lifting him slightly from the ground.

“You’re doing this, little lad?” The bandit pulled out a knife from his belt.

Kain didn’t allow him to take the knife close to him, keeping it stuck in the bandit’s hand with his powers. But in doing so, he lost his control of the guns from the group, which now was walking in unison towards Kain.

Fay ran deeper into the tunnels, eventually disappearing from sight.

“Should we follow the other kid?” Another bandit asked.

“Tear him apart!” The snail man said. His clothes were all covered in a green slime from his wound. He was standing on one leg, holding himself uptight with the help from another bandit.

The bandit holding Kain and the knife gestured with his head to the group to stop. “No. We’ll keep this one though.”

Kain pushed away the bandit holding him by taking his clothes with his telekinesis. Immediately, the others pointed all their guns at Kain.

“He looks like a rich kid,” one from the group said. “I bet we could ransom some sweet cash off him.”

Kain remained in his position, five or so guns aimed directly at his face. Again, he tried to mess up with their aim by taking all of their guns at the same time and throwing them to the side in a snapping move. Some of the bandits lost their grip on their gun, the weapon staying in the air levitating at Kain’s power. Kain started to stand up, the pain of his leg slowing him down, but the first bandit walked up to him again.

“I guess you can’t keep all of us in check at the same time, can you?”

“What is happening?!” one of the bandits struggling to keep his gun in place said.

Kain ignored them and kept struggling to stand up. Without looking at the bandit, he could feel his silhouette walking towards him from behind. The bandit grabbed him again by his cape, and took a weird tool out of his belt. Kain didn’t know what it was, but he was still concentrating on keeping the other bandits’ guns in check to pay attention to what the closer bandit was doing.

In another jolt of pain from the middle of his back, Kain’s entire body gave up. All he could remember was the zapping currents overwhelming his entire body at the same time, as his vision turned blurry, and eventually, black.