ANATU
Oh no.
The Babylonian stared at the disaster she had caused with muted horror. My life is ruined, she thought, panic beginning to set in as her heartbeat accelerated.
It had been a good morning before now. She had been too excited and nervous to sleep when her savior had brought her into the city and gave her a place in the strange and somewhat ugly building. Not that she would ever tell him it was ugly. The invisible walls that let her view across the city weren’t bad at least. So she had cautiously wandered around the estate, testing out the admittedly inviting benches made of fuzzy animal skin and marveling at the metal candles that could be lit and extinguished in an instant just by poking them in the right spot. While they lacked the majesty of the flame-lights from back home, she giggled with delight at the novelty.
Anatu then stumbled across a serene yet firm woman who was practicing with a sword. The woman gave her no mind, continuing her training while the teenager watched. She hadn’t seen many of the warriors from Uruk, and wasn’t able to recall their prowess to compare to the woman here.
She had quickly grown bored of just watching and wound up mimicking her elder’s motions, stepping and swinging an imaginary weapon. The lady took interest and demonstrated a few simple motions for Anatu to practice before leading her over to where an older man was preparing and serving food.
The man’s workplace was truly a wonder, and Anatu observed him cook with as much attention as her sleepy mind could muster. Save a few tiny blue flames, there was no resemblance between this and roasting a slaughtered animal over a fire. The meals being served looked nothing like those of home, and she wasn’t yet hungry enough to be willing to partake. Still, she was truly interested in what the chef was doing over in his little corner, and when the others had finished eating and the old man left, the Babylonian went and brought out everything that she had seen the old man use to satisfy her curiosity.
That led to where she was now. Anatu had no idea what she had done wrong. She had found the little black bar that made flames flicker out from the alien fire pit, she had poured the smelly olive green liquid into the flat metal bowl-thing, and the next thing she knew fire was leaping out at her. With a loud “Eeep!” she jumped back, the pan fell to the floor, still burning.
Oh gods oh gods I just set these people’s home on fire, she thought to herself over and over while continuing to uselessly stare at the flames.
MARK BURRIDGE
Damn. His mark had walked out of the more secluded alley before the foot traffic outside was thin enough for him to chance the grab. Now she was chatting it up with some fucking weirdo out in the open. The short man sighed in frustration and slid his hands into his pockets. This was going to take even longer now. Hopefully his opportunity would come soon, there were other things he had to prepare and he could only waste so much time here.
Standing off on the side of the sidewalk, Mark pulled out his Android phone and played with the screen a little, giving the impression of being absorbed in his phone while carefully listening to the blonde’s conversation.
