My bloodied fingers struggled to keep their grip on the prosthetic arm while Thomas started cutting the wires inside. Originally our plan was to tell the woman on our table that her arm was busted and needed to be replaced but to our dismay she insisted on us fixing it. Our busiest day since the fall of the barrier, yet we weren’t even past the midday mark. Prior to this customer, a man had his naturally organic arm broken by a dragon that clumsily walked on his arm. He was desperate for any release from the pain and had paid us everything he had to fix it. Out of desperation from our dwindling supply of anaesthetic gas and class-one painkillers we started resorting to a more archaic method to remove the limb.

Even now my ears rang as his muffled screams echoed in my head from the chaos I had witnessed. I firmly held his shredded and broken arm down steady while Thomas had severed it with a saw and began replacing it with our dwindling supply of limbs. Attempts to secure additional supplies had been a struggle as the only source of supplies for us to steal from other smaller clinics that had fared less than us. This worked at first but we were soon gaining very little supplies from these runs. We formulated plans to raid the medical warehouse in an industrial park on the other side of the city where dangerous gangs and non-humans frequently clashed. Thomas had attempted at negotiating safe passage through their criminal gang territory in order to salvage gear from the warehouse had proven to be futile. It came as no surprise to me that we had to start triaging customers and only work on those that needed immediate attention but even this will soon prove to have delayed the inevitable.

The petite woman lying down was going to have to be our last customer of the day and she, by far had the most extensive amount of body modifications done to her I have ever seen; her face was divided into small plates that perfectly matched the contours of her facial structure and her hair and irises were an unnaturally pink colour and in the shape of love hearts. When I asked her about her unusual choice of design, she admitted to being a gamer girl streamer who chose the façade to go along with her “Cute” personality. Her arm was in need of maintenance but Thomas had to rewire the servos inside and some of the exposed wires would cause the servomechanisms inside to seize up uncontrollably whenever they made contact with the inner casing.

Eventually Thomas had successfully soldered the last wire and the woman left our shop while the toxic smell of lead still clung in the air. I went outside the front door to confront the line of patients who were eagerly waiting to be served. I still felt bad seeing their disappointed faces every time I told them to come back tomorrow. Thomas leaned over the sink trying to wash the blood out of his hands, seeing his hands being clean finally reminded me how dirty mine was. My fingers grew sticky from the dried blood before I ran it under a stream of cold water and rubbed my hands together to get it out. The dirt and blood stuck under my fingernails while I heard my brother let out a soft sigh behind me. I turned to face him to see him covering his face in his still wet hands.

“We are going to run out soon.” He said softly. “We need to get to that medical warehouse if we are to keep doing business.” Thomas, still covering his face, sat down in the surgical chair behind him.

I sat on the chair next to him, I shared in his frustration at our situation. I elected to say nothing but instead watch him as he pondered out loud. “The Vengativos are occupying the region that takes us directly to that warehouse, they are already using it for a base of operations and we cannot go through the areas occupied by the beast men.”

I thought to myself for a moment before an idea came to mind. “What if we provoke them to fight each other?” I spoke.

Thomas shot a glance at me with an eyebrow raised. “How would that help us?”

I thought hard about my idea while gazing at the white tiled floor. I began thinking of strategies before verbally dismissing them.

“If we could somehow get that dick, Xareith, to come here, we could tell him that the gang are planning a war and he goes to attack them. Then when they start fighting, we would slip past them fighting each other and grab everything we need from the medical warehouse unseen. We can tell that pale fucker that they are going to attack from one area and when they fight, we could simply drive past and load up on supplies.”

“That… might actually work, but how do we get Xareith here, we send out a smoke signal?”

“I suppose we could go outside and find one of those creatures and tell them to pass on a message?”

“And then what?” Thomas had asked. “What happens after we tell him, he could just easily kill us with the flick of his wrist and he wouldn’t even burn a calorie and we are two headless corpses on the floor while our heads are probably collected and mounted as a trophy display.”

I looked at him, confused and befuddled. “What do you mean ‘and then what’?’. And then he sends his soldiers to attack the gangers and while the two sides are locked and are distracted by the conflict in the East side of the industrial area, we would be able to get a box truck past them and take as much as we can and hopefully not get injured.”

Thomas let out a deep breath as he stared at the tiles. He mumbled something to himself and then looked up to face me. “Alright,” he said. “We got some daylight left. I will try to find one of them in the mag-lev station. You will go down to Amaro park and find something and tell them to tell Xareith to meet us here.”

I nodded and got off the chair before rushing out of the clinic. Outside the dry air sucked the moisture out of my skin. I started getting flaky and itchy. Combined with the heat of the spring approaching summer I felt the need to rehydrate myself periodically.

Amaro park, once a beautiful garden in a concrete jungle was now ruined under the rubbish turned into makeshift homes for people who had lost their home. The once serene boardwalks had become a slum of paupers and homeless, I racked my brain to recall to see if these people were customers at one point or another. While on the streets I felt insignificant and small when I looked up to the towering skyscrapers surrounding me. I spotted what looked like a Naga who appeared to be the boss of several members of different species. I figured this serpent had to be in some kind of command. The street was filled with abandoned cars, some were burnt out. Many had their windows smashed and the doors left open. I zipped in-between the cars as I approached the Naga. I felt a chill on the nape of my neck, the light around me grew darker and the sound of wings beating against the could be heard. A loud crunch of plastic and steel mixed with the sound of glass shattering echoed behind me. A chill ran up my spine as I slowly turned around to see the sharp rows of teeth greet me behind a sinister smile on a scaly snout. It looked at me like I was its next meal, it made a rumbling sound deep in its chest before it craned its long neck down so its head was almost facing me at eye level.

“Well, what do we have here? I rarely spot humans willing to brave the open spaces when they know my kind is around.” it spoke in its deep baritone voice.

Ooooh fuck… I didn’t factor this. Please don’t eat me.

I could feel my heart pounding against my chest as the dragon’s voice rattled my rib cage in its deep bass tones. My breathing escalated and my flight or fight response kicked in telling me I should wet myself and run with the hopes the smell of piss might make me seem unsavoury. Instead, I swallowed my flight response down and carefully took a step toward the scaly snout of the great beast before me. “I-I come… w-with a message for Xareith?” I blurted out.

My own fear had paralysed me before the dragon as it jerked its head back and studied my words.

“Oh? And what is this message you have for me, little human?”

“T-tell that elf… the one in charge, Xareith… Tell him to meet the humans who gave him the implant… he will know what that means.”

“And why, dear human, would I do that instead of playing with you? You seem small enough to make me work for my meal, after all you are bite sized to me and I haven’t had anything to eat. Flying does take a lot of energy out of me.” It said menacingly.

I stood there frightened when the dragon made its suggestive threat. My mind raced attempting to come up with something, anything to get out of this situation. My perspiration started to show and the dragon responded with a hearty chuckle. “You know,” it said casually. “I can smell your fear, boy. It is absolutely funny to watch you fall apart on the spot like this.”

“Because if you eat me then Xareith won’t know about the attack!” I blurted out.

“The… what? An attack? Oh my, this is good. Now you have my attention, little human.”

“Uhh… yes, you need to go and tell Xareith to meet the humans who gave him the implant and that we, er, I have information about a possible attack!” I said rapidly.

The dragon cocked its head back before it tilted it to the left as it processed what It heard, its eyes narrowed themselves at me. I saw its inner eyelids show themselves and looked me up and down before letting out a huff of air which hit my nostrils hard with the scent of what smelled like roadkill. “Very well.” It spoke before extending its wings out which covered the entire street. “But if this message proves to be a ruse, then I shall take great pleasure in using you for my own personal amusement.”

One beat of its wings generated enough wind to force me against a car as it took off. I watched the dragon soar high above before it disappeared among the buildings yet the sound of its wings continued to be heard long after it was gone. Standing still had left me time to reflect from the experience of near death before I started walking back to the clinic, it gave me enough time to stop my hands from shaking and the perspiration had left me feeling chilly after my body had stopped trembling in fear. By the time I walked in the clinic, Thomas’ face was bright red from being out in the sun all day. I elected to not mention the horrifying encounter I just experienced other than the deed was done. He looked up at me from his desk “Good.” Was all he said before he stared back at the tablet on his desk.

I went back to my bed and read through my book on the Cauldron as I continued to formulate my plan of action. I studied the maps trying to determine where I was with where the Cauldron lied and it looked to be a fairly decent hike. A week through the forests beyond the barrier and past the mountain and into a desert that eventually led to The Cauldron. Even from a hand drawn map it looked like an arduous journey that could take weeks or even a month.

I plotted the journey in my head and began a mental checklist of what kind of supplies we were going to need for the journey:

Single person tents.

Lots of canned food.

Weapons and ammo.

This important book.

Compass.

Coming from the front doors were the sounds of fists banging on the side with a ferocity only a desperate person would use. I sat my book aside and I got up to open the door as Thomas came to investigate the noise. He nodded at me and I opened the door to let in a man who appeared to be in his sixties and even though his face and clothes were covered in dirt his suit remained pristine.

“Please, can you help me?” He asked. “I-I I don’t have much on me right now but I can give you all my money!”

Looking at his fancy attire and listening to him speak with an articulation only growing up in a privileged household could provide. I could easily picture this man sitting at a long table made out of genuine oak and have an entire team of caterers personally deliver his finely crafted meals while sipping on expensive wines. The man looked familiar, I squinted my eyes to focus intently and it clicked in my head.

“You’re Senator Clarke, aren’t you?” I said pointing a finger.

The man nodded, he looked at me intently before cocking his head and started to remember. “I think I remember you; you were here when I took my son to get his gear fixed.”

“Yeah, you remember me?” I asked.

“I do, but please. I need your help. One of my optics is glitching, I don’t know what’s wrong and I am scared.” He said as panic crept into his voice.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and gently guided Clarke to our couch, he let out a yelp of surprise as I saw the surface area over his cornea flare up, rapidly colouring his eyes. I cringed at the sight of it, I couldn’t imagine the things it was doing to his brain. I sat him down on the couch as the glitch stopped and Clarke attempted to slow his breathing.

“Just wait here and I’ll go and get my brother to see you.” I assured him.

I peeked into the surgery room to see if Thomas was in there. He was not. I checked in the manager’s office and I saw him with his head flat on the table with his hands behind his head.

“Tom?” I said softly.

He didn’t respond.

“Tom?” I said louder and more confidently.

He looked up from his desk with tired eyes. A note was stuck to the side of his face which he seemed to be oblivious to. His hair was unruly and had fallen to obstruct his eyes but still enabled him to see.

I entered the office and casually approached the desk while I spoke softly. “There’s a guy here. Senator Clarke. He wants us to debug his optics.”

At the mention of the Senator’s name Thomas’ posture corrected itself and he stood tall and stiff. I was befuddled at his reaction and barely had time to process it by the time Thomas had pushed his chair back and brushed past me and straight into the waiting room. Thomas opened his arms wide as if to expect a hug from the Senator.

“Mister Clarke, am I glad to see one of our more dignified customers come back.”

“Please,” Clarke said clasping his hands together, it looked like he almost begged Thomas for his service. I watched my older brother slowly approach the senator before putting his hand on Clarke’s back while carefully guiding him to the surgery room. Thomas made eye contact with me and cocked his head toward the surgery room. I nodded. Once inside I sat down next to the reclining chair and began booting up the computer and diagnostic equipment. I grabbed the jack and offered it to the senator for him to plug in. He struggled at first and manipulated the cord until it finally had slid into his neural port, information suddenly appeared on screen and Thomas pushed me aside as he worked on the customer.

“You don’t have to be here for this, Michael. This regrettably isn’t the first time this has happened to Mr. Clarke… benefits of being a politician, I guess. You got another hater out there or was this false file related?” He said to the man on the table.

“I think it might be a leftover from our last session.” He nodded.

I left the surgery room behind me as I heard Thomas work on the senior man. After what had felt like ten minutes of sitting on my back on the cream-coloured leather couch with nothing but my books to keep me occupied. I stared at the artwork on the pages. The pencil drawn art detailing every little shade of stone and varying colours of the many species that inhabited this world. I found myself oddly drawn to the artist’s depiction of Zigathurax overlooking the Cauldron. The Dragon Lord wore many scars along his face. His scaly snout showed many pink scars yet I could not look away from his compassionate expression. His long neck craned down to look at the representatives of other species and seemed to be almost peaceful. I heard the door to the surgery room open and I shot up from my resting position, setting my book down on the table. Senator Clarke walked out in a much better mood, Thomas had his hand on the senator’s shoulder as he spoke.

“Don’t worry about payment, Senator. As a long time customer I am happy to do this for free.” He then gave a firm pat on the shoulder.

“Heh, you better not let Senator’s Fabius and O’Reilly hear you say that. Next thing you know you’ll be up to your knees in their children asking for upgrades!”

Both men laughed heartily.

The senator looked over to me as he had noticed that I stood when he entered the room which he casually dismissed. “Don’t need to stand for me, son. I am not the President… Yet.” He let out a warm chuckle. His eyes glanced behind me and I turned to look at where his attention was. “What’re you reading there?” He asked.

“Oh, oh this is a book on the history of the Cauldron.” I said as I reached over and presented the book to him. I could see behind him that Thomas was waving his hands dismissively, probably referring to my plan.

“Studying history for our new overlords, right? I’ll give you credit for being one step ahead.”

“Actually...” I said, Thomas continued his silent spasm of silencing me. I saw his lips move but I didn’t fully understand the words he was trying to mimic. “I thought I might be able to end the invasion and get them to go away.”

I was distracted as Thomas threw his hands in the air in defeat. He seemed frustrated with me. I saw him mouth the words: Who cares? Senator Clarke raised an eyebrow as he watched me with intrigue. Nervously I put my back away as I looked down to avoid eye contact.

“Fascinating,” he said with a curious overtone. “And just how do you plan on doing that?”

I sensed genuine intrigue in his words. Maybe as a politician he was an expert liar. But to me it sounded like my plan had some merit.

“I thought If we went to the Dragon lord's lair and told him about the invasion then he would call all the species to leave us and demand reparations. You see, this all started when one of the leaders, some elven prick called Xareith came here and demanded implants and while high on the gas he said this invasion was his idea. This whole thing was done without the Dragon Lord’s knowledge. So, if we were to tell him that Xareith went over his head then we could save everyone and end this.”

The senator looked interested then his expression changed to thoughtfulness while stroking his chin.

“You know, kid. That plan doesn’t sound so half baked. It would almost certainly be crazy enough to actually work as cliché as that sounds. But for it to properly work you would need an elected official to converse with the Dragon Lord to organise this cessation of hostilities.” Clarke had said suggestively.

Thomas looked at the man in front of him. He ran around the Senator to face him head on with an arm extended. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Senator, are you volunteering yourself to go on this little… adventure” Thomas said struggling to find the words. He looked back and forth between me and the Senator while he spoke. “I mean there is no real guarantee that this could actually work.”

“I am volunteering myself to go and arrange for an end to this invasion. If there is even a slight chance, I can help end this then I must take it. That is if the trip planner will have me?” Clarke gestured to me.

“Yes, absolutely! I mean, certainly, Senator Clarke.” I said.

He smiled warmly.

Thomas looked down as he breathed out. Senator Clarke and I fixed eyes on Thomas before he perked his head up.

“Alright, I guess I’ll come with you. Mum would kill me if she knew I let you go on this trip and didn’t look out for you.” Thomas said flatly. Clarke positioned himself between us with his saccharine smile and placed both hands on our shoulders. “This will be the greatest undertaking of our species. I think we are in agreement that ending this invasion is our top priority but if we can make peace with them then that would be our best outcome.”

In my own mind I pondered on his choice of words. The weight of what he said cementing my own actions. I couldn’t decide if this was a pivotal moment of history, I am witnessing first hand or a fool’s errand that would irrevocably get us killed.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest undertaking of our species.” I said nervously. “I mean we have already mastered the atom; we have gone to the moons and we even have a colony established on Lua.” Anxiety crept its way into my mind, I couldn’t help but shrink where I stood when the Senator and my older brother looked at me. I couldn’t stop talking, I continued listing off our achievements ranging from modern medicine to our ability to build synthetic replacements for our internal organs. The glances from them told me I was ruining the mood and I ceased talking.

Clarke gave my brother and I a firm pat on the back before stepping out from behind us. I watched him turn on his heel to face us once more. “I’ll go and make preparations at my home. Throw me a line and what I will need to pack.”

We nodded in agreement.

Clarke walked towards the front door, my brother and I looked at each other as we breathed out in relief. Clarke was almost a metre away from the door frame when we heard a loud bang coming from the other side. Another series of knocks came and a familiar voice muffled by the doors still reached us. “Yoo-hoo, boys. It's your old friend and customer! Why don’t you open these doors and tell me what all this is about?”

“Shit, that was quick.” Thomas said to no one. He turned to face Senator Clarke and escorted him to the back of the clinic. “Michael, wait a few seconds then open the door.”

Thomas and Clarke disappeared beyond the surgery rooms while I waited near the front door. I heard the door in the back of the kitchen open and close which I took as my queue to open the door. Xareith walked in with an air of smugness that I found repulsive. I tried to hide my disdain for the grin he wore as he casually strode in the waiting room. His golden armour shimmered under the lights; I noticed this time he wore a green cloak with golden decorative patterns on it. Outside the front door I recognised the two guards he brought with him were the same that attended his surgery. I concluded that these guys must have been his bodyguards, a train of thought started as to the kinds of situations that would require bodyguards. He could easily dispatch anyone with unnatural reflexes which I had experienced firsthand. When I turned to greet his cold blue eyes, he looked down at me with his arms extended outward.

“Hello there little one, I was beginning to think you guys were going to leave me all alone out there.”

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. I had enough of his condescending tone. “Oh boo-hoo, you got like three guards escorting you” I told the elven commander. “Pizza delivery drivers wait outside longer than you, you aren’t that special!”

“Xareith, oh it's great you got our message.” Thomas said. He faked a sigh of relief and approached the elf with open arms. “When we heard the news, we thought: better get on the right side. And tell you about the attack we heard.”

“I applaud your attitude, master Thomas. If only the others could see things the way you did then this little ‘occupation’ as they like to put it would go so much smoother.” Xareith said. He casually stepped over to the couch next to where I had left my book. I began to panic, if he saw the book on the Cauldron then would he know about our plan. Would he even remember telling us about this invasion not being condoned by the mystical powers that be? After sitting down, Xareith kicked his feet up on the table knocking over a bowl that held decorative balls made from different materials. I couldn’t help myself as my eyes tracked several of the balls’ scattering across the carpeted floor.

“So do any of you want to elaborate on this attack you wish to inform me of?”

I turned to face Thomas and he looked at me. His eyes told me he was having doubts about doing this plan. Perhaps that it was not the best idea after all. He stuttered as he tried to find the words to fabricate the story. “W-well you see, Xareith, we heard from another of our customers, who j-just so happens to be a part of the local gang that seems to be causing you no end of grief.”

I averted my gaze and opted to look everywhere else as Thomas pretended to be kissing Xareith’s ass. It was painful to watch even if I knew it was fake. After he was done explaining, Xareith looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he stood up straight instantly and placed his hands on Thomas’ shoulders. I tensed my whole body briefly for I mistook the gesture for an attack.

“Thank you, master Thomas. I hope in the future others will look to you as an example.”

Xareith walked out taking his guards with him and I closed the doors behind them. I looked back at Thomas who looked exhausted before collapsing on the couch nearby. I couldn’t believe it worked as well as it did. Silence filled the room as we both remained motionless at that encounter.

“I-I cannot believe that actually worked.” I spoke with disbelief. “I seriously cannot believe that smug asshole actually bought that. And what was all that crap about you being master anyway?”

“Heh, I think it's an antiquated title given to young boys before they reach the legal age of majority. Kind of like ‘mister’ but for kids under the age of nineteen.” Thomas replied.

“What do we do now? Do we still get the supplies, I mean, what’s the plan?”

“Chances are he will assemble his troops, let’s say that takes two hours. I reckon he would make a counter attack immediately, trying to catch them off-guard. I reckon he would make it under the cover of night when he makes his move.”

“And what of our quest, the quest to end the invasion?”

“We will worry about that later.” Thomas said behind his hands.