The rolling hills in front of Daneel stretched on and on, lifeless and bare, dotted with clumps of bushes clinging on to life despite the dusty nature of the land they had chosen to take root in.
Yet, if one lied down on the ground, they would forget everything about what was around them as the magnificence of what lay above was truly something to behold.
Wispy clouds were floating here and there, idly moving due to the wind that came and went in bursts, abrupt but welcome in the humid heat of the night. Millions of stars twinkled on the canopy of the heavens, looking down on those cursed with the ability to see, but never grow strong enough to reach them and discover their secrets. A yellow moon hung half-hidden behind the clouds, showing itself now and then and blanketing the landscape in its wan glow.
Lying on their stomachs on top of a hill that overlooked an empty spot in the dead land, Daneel breathed in slowly, afraid to make even the slightest of sound that might alert their prey. The ground beneath him felt rough, but he was used to meeting it with every part of his body during the training sessions that he was already coming to miss.
Obviously, it would have been foolish to go and put himself in a dangerous position even after what had happened in the mansion of the Lord. Even though there should have been no reason for them to suspect him, it was something he had just not been comfortable with doing, but had left him with an empty hole which was caused due to the fact that his growth in strength had been interrupted.
Yet, this feeling disappeared the instant he remembered what he had achieved in the dwarf city. After this business was done, he looked forward to obtaining all sorts of sources from which he could improve his power until he grew to be unrecognizable from what he was now. Just the thought of feeling all that energy surging through his body made him smile faintly, and spotting this in the moonlight, Reese asked, "Thinking of the future? So am I. Mainly… I'm thinking of greeting dad."
He spoke in a whisper, barely audible even though he was just a few feet away from Daneel. They had to be prudent, after all, as this was the place where the exchange would mostly take place, and it would not do to foolishly scare away the ones they were trying to catch by drawing attention to themselves.
Daneel nodded and replied in a voice that was just as soft.
"Yes… I can't wait to see a smile on that old face."
After beaming for a moment, Reese turned back to the empty spot. Mimicking him, Daneel went through his process of choosing this location, again, to make sure that he hadn't made any mistakes.
The message they had intercepted only had the details of the time, but not the place. Yet, placing himself in the Lord's shoes, it had seemed easy to identify the location where the least risk was present that any illegal activities might be spotted.
The dwarf king had supplied him with the details of the paths taken by enforcers tasked with the mission to patrol the surroundings of the town. On this particular day, there was a clear hole in the pattern, and although Daneel didn't know whether this was by design or coincidence, he was sure that it was what would be chosen by the Lord.
They continued their vigil silently, eyes trained on the empty spot almost as if they were afraid it would run away from them, occasionally looking around at the empty landscape to see if there were any signs of anyone arriving for the exchange.
There were three moons that appeared throughout the month in the town of Graiton. Tomorrow, the second one would give way to the third, so right now, it was blazing as brightly as possible in the sky, intent on making its presence known before it would have to leave for the next twenty days.
"You see that?"
He almost jumped as he heard Reese's hurried remark. Following the man's gaze, he turned his eyes to the east… and sure enough, he could vaguely make out a figure on the horizon that was slowly growing larger
"Yes. It's probably the one who will take the goods!"
Relief gushed through him as he saw that he had been right. This was the spot, and soon, the Lord would meet his fate.
The figure came closer and closer, materializing into a tall man dressed in a long, dark cloak with a strange hat on his head. It was circular, but it was in the shape of the business end of a nail jutting into the sky, its sharp end clearly visible despite the distance. It made him look oddly like the fang of a gigantic beast that had run away from its mouth and was now fleeing to safety, and Daneel had to shake his head to get rid of the image.
The closer it got, the more cautious the man acted. He would often take detours, climbing up hills out of his way to peer at the surroundings and only continue when he was satisfied that he was alone.
Ordinarily, Daneel would have been worried about being found out…but when the man reached within a hundred feet of them, he whispered, "Now."
Slowly, the two of them got up and looked back to confirm where the holes they had dug after coming here were present. Lowering their legs into them, they used their hands to move further and further back until only their heads were above the ground.
Pulling over two bushes nearby that they had already prepared, they arranged them carefully to cover this last shred of themselves visible to the world. When they were done, there was no chance of anyone being able to spot them even if they came within a few feet from where they were, so without any worry on his mind, Daneel turned to the target who would reach his destination in merely a few minutes.
'So far, nothing has gone wrong. Hopefully, nothing will, t—'
As if the gods had heard his thought, Reese suddenly spoke up in a tone filled with concern.
"To your right! Is that the hangman?"
Craning his neck, Daneel turned in the indicated direction to find the one who had almost granted him his death on his first day in this body. As if his bulging chest wasn't proof enough, the moon peeked out of the clouds just as he made his way up a hill on the way, clearly exposing the scar that ran down his cheek, bright and unmistakable on the cruel face whose only lover was death.
"He's probably here to make sure that the coast is clear! If he's nearby, we won't be able to send the signal! What do we do?"
The both of them were here because they had been assigned the important task of signaling the guards who would soon be swarming over these hills, searching for the stolen food stores of their master. If they arrived too late or too early, the whole plan would be ruined, so they needed to make sure that the timing would be perfect.
The plan was that one of them would run to call the guards over, but if the hangman was on the way, this would be impossible.
Right away, Daneel saw that it was a genuine problem that quickly needed to be taken care of. The cloaked man would soon arrive, and if he didn't make the decision now, the hangman would be too close to the spot, making it so that any confrontation would result in the culprit being alerted.
"I'll take care of him."
"You can't be serious! He's at least two ranks above you! He's one of the strongest individuals in the town… so are you sure it's not a deathwish?"
If he had been asked this question a day ago, he would definitely have faltered.
But now… checking the pocket of the trousers he had been given in the dwarf city that had been specially made for him, he clasped his hands around the crystals he had taken with the excuse that they were his lucky charm, and knew that what he was setting out on was difficult, but certainly not impossible.
Giving the answer in a confident tone, he got to his feet…and set off to take a little bit of the big pile of revenge that he needed to take from this town he had arrived in.
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