Purple grass crunched beneath his feet as he took his first breath under an alien green sky. In fact that green sky was a hell of a lot brighter than he was expecting causing him to regret the fact that he was still wearing his new very warm outfit. He quickly undid the buttons and pulled out his arms from the sleeves allowing the trench coat to hang loose on his shoulders. The air smelt pure and fresh but there was a hint of salt. There was a lot of shrubbery around and he found himself about ankle deep in a compost carpet that fed various sprouts of different colours and shades.

“See anything?” Warden asked. Choir wouldn’t have sent them to the opposite side of the planet. No that would defeat the purpose. Choir wanted to either complete the mission or die. As long as he was holding the badge, he tapped his breast pocket in reassurance, he was still the Warden. Despite those confident thoughts there were still a few doubts in his mind. There were many things that Choir could have been lying about and the being could have easily betrayed him due to his lack of knowledge.

However he wasn’t an island and if he doubted everybody for every second of the day then he would never get anything done. Out of his element he would have to do his best and use the tools that were given to him trusting that they wouldn’t backfire on him again.

“I don’t see a thing, Sir,” Wendy stated looking over the horizon at the flat expanse of green. There were a few mountains in the distance as well as couple of trees that pushed out from the soil breaking the monotonous shrubbery.

“Look at the foliage,” Warden stated. “See any crushed branches or leaves. If we assume that we landed at the same place as the escapee then there should be some damage to the surrounding vegetation.” He took a step watching as he crushed down some of the purple grass as he scanned the surroundings.

“Found it, Sir,” Wendy stated and he turned to see her crouched over a small broken branch looking very intently at the ground before she sniffed. “They have a very strong smell. I think I might be able to follow them as well.”

“Really,” he walked over to the spot, noting that there was indeed damage before he bent down and smelled the spot himself. There seemed to a weird smell lingering around the area like a spicy vanilla.

“It’s actually quite pleasant, Sir,” Wendy said with a glazed look in her eyes.

“Are you okay?” Warden asked immediately causing her to shake her head in response and regain lucidity.

“I’m fine, Sir,” Wendy stated firmly. “Sorry that smell was a bit overwhelming but I can handle it if I just distance myself.”

“Okay…” and how will you distance yourself when we meet the target, was what he didn’t say. He would still just have to work with what he was given. “Let’s go,” he said projecting confidence as they set out following the path through the bushes. Honestly some of the breaks seemed recent despite Coldreach itself looking run-down which made him question certain things.

“Something’s burning up ahead,” Wendy stated and Morgan took that as a sign to hurry up his steps. After another few minutes they saw smoke start to rise leaving a sickly acrid smell.

“Wonder if that…” Warden started just for Wendy to step in front of him and make a grabbing motion above his shoulder. In her hand a nasty looking arrow made out of whitened bones was held. “Is a native village,” Warden finished as the ground rose up to reveal several almost gorilla shaped creatures with purple furry over a head that looked like a crocodiles. They had long arms that held bows with strings held by their mouths. They stood a bit less than four feet, except for one who stood head and shoulders above. The tallest one held nothing in his hands instead stretching out his palms and stepping forward.

“Strangers, you pick an inauspicious time to visit us,” the apparent leader stated in a growling voice. “Two of the clutches are dead by a fellow stranger’s hand just one turning of the sun ago and it is only the fact that you don’t resemble his kind that makes us refrain from attacking you on the spot. Tell us what reason do you have to trespass upon the Plains of Idee.”

“We might be hunting down that stranger,” Warden said. “That is depending on your description of course.”

“About this high,” the leader raised his right arm to the height of about seven feet. “They wore maroon armour and with two pairs of hands that clutched knives that took many lives. If it wasn’t for a warrior wandering outside of bed no doubt the funeral would be even greater.”

“That’s our man,” Warden said solemnly. “Two clutches though sounds like a massive crime. Are you going after him?” He had no idea what a clutch was but at the very least it meant more than two deaths.

“And lose more?” the leader asked shaking his head in a gesture that conveyed rueful resignation despite his anatomical differences. “We have to lick our wounds or the whole village will be in danger. The wet season is approaching and soon all these will lands will be underwater while we will all enter Torpor.”

“The skies still look clear though,” Warden refuted the point looking up at the green sky and emerald sun.

“Oh, you’re really not from here,” the leader stated knowingly. “In under two turnings of the sun, as the earth exhales the waters will rise from the ground plunging the world underwater. From the cracks in the earth hungry creatures will emerge devouring the fruits and meat of the land; including your fine selves if you stay too long. We let that stranger go because it is unlikely that he will survive more than those few turnings.”

“Well we were on our way to incarcerate him,” Warden stated regretfully. Choir really wasn’t going easy on him. It was telling of the being’s attitude that if he didn’t complete this in two days he would die.

“Is there really so much of a difference between incarceration and leaving him for dead,” the leader said. “Surely his crimes must have warranted his execution.”

“Part of my reasons is selfish,” Warden admitted. “I want to track him down and apprehend him to prove that I can do it. As for execution..?” he started then shrugged his shoulders. “I’m worried about resorting to executions immediately so early in my career. I might be tempted to resort to that a little too quickly in future.”

He was downplaying his words but there were at least some threads of truth in his sentence. While Exinaught probably deserved to die it would be very hard to unkill him if he chose to pick that option. Too his shame a small part of his reasons was both the money that it would gain for him as well as the fact that it would help put the prison back into running order.

“Very well,” the leader stated. “We shall offer you no succour but we shall also not obstruct your efforts,” he said and immediately the other beings around him started to clamour and stamp their feet making a bustle of noise.

“How can we..?” one began.

“We should..?” another one stated.

“I won’t all…” a third said aiming its bow towards him as Wendy tensed, ready to spring into action. She didn’t get the chance as the leader stepped forward and for the first time he noticed just what magnificent tails they had. It was a crocodilian shaped mass of purple fur with countless scars that showed muscles of green where fur didn’t grow and in less time than it took for him to finish his sentence the offending crocodilian was knocked flat off his feet.

“That’s enough,” he stated with a cold growl. “What do you hope to gain from this pointless conflict? Even if you were to win what do you gain; a few dead bodies when we have none to spare? Leave and let these travellers go on their way or I will make you.”

“Do you get many travellers?” Warden asked as the crocodilians slowly started to back down.

“For good or for ill I have seen many travellers over my life,” the leader said. “Now it may be best that you go.” There was a bit of irritation in his voice as well showing that while he was perfectly capable of being polite he was not happy with them being there. It was understandable and so Warden decided that this was the perfect time to part ways.

“Let’s continue on the trail,” Warden stated. “We don’t have much time.”

“When we last saw him he was escaping in that direction,” the leader threw out those last words as he and the remainder of the villages filed back in the direction of the smoke. Guess he wouldn’t get to see what an alien village would look like; or at least not yet.

“Hey Wendy, what language are we speaking?” he asked as the pair continued their march keeping an eye on the aliens until they had left their sight. “I hadn’t brought this up but everybody seems to be speaking German to me but it seems your lips don’t sync quite right for that to be the case.”

“Coldreach automatically translates every language,” Wendy said shrugging. “It might work out here as well, Sir. I’m afraid that I don’t know what it is."

“Interesting,” Warden stated as the two of them engaged in a forced march in the direction of the trail. In the direction they were heading to one of the larger mountains waited. Eventually the brush gave way to a yellow cracked plain bare of much life besides the occasional fleshy tree.

“Do you think we should just kill them, Sir,” Wendy stated after an inordinately long time of comfortable silence. “I mean if it wasn’t for the money of course.”

“Are you asking if their punishment warrants death?” Warden asked. “I don’t know them enough to judge.”

“But surely you already know that they have already murdered multiple,” Wendy stated vigorously. “Sir,” she added almost as an afterthought looking embarrassed at her outburst.

“Punishment is the least important role of a prison,” Warden stated firmly. “Rehabilitation and protection are far more important. I would even argue that the deterrent effect is more valuable despite how little it actually serves in some societies.”

“Do you think that somebody like that can even be rehabilitated?” Wendy asked.

“Well I think if they were eager for rehabilitation then their first move shouldn’t be additional murder,” Warden stated. “Whatever Coldreach did for them they didn’t make them any safer to be around. I still don’t know the limits of my authority as the Warden of Coldreach but I would be averse to releasing such prisoners without any proof of improvement.”

“Understood, Sir,” Wendy said as they fell into silence again as the world dimmed around them replacing the green sky with a black heavens filled with unfamiliar stars.

“That’s rather beautiful,” he said his breaths sounding a lot harsher than when he had started. Despite the now coolness of the day he knew that his face was red and there was a definitely thin sheen of sweat over him. Unfortunately a desk job wasn’t really conducive to maintaining exercise and he had spent his last few weeks stuck in a cell with a certain future. It was only his pride and determination that was keeping him still walking forward. Until a small piece of raised stone caught his foot and he found himself falling forward only to be caught by a pair of arms.

“Sir I’m going to carry you the rest of the way,” Wendy’s voice was as ever polite but uncharacteristically firm. “You can just rest and I will wake you up if we’re getting close.”

“Maybe we can both rest,” he said only for Wendy to pick him up in a frickin princess carry and continue onwards without even a moments pause or even slowing down a bit.

“The grass is starting to get wet,” she stated solemnly and he was at a loss how to reply for a bit stretching the silence between them.

“When we get back,” he said after a while. “I might seriously take the bird computer up on his augmentation suggestions. No offence to you but being carried like this is hurting my self-esteem.”

“None taken, Sir,” Wendy said. “When I get back I’m going to cook the spiciest risotto and just dig in.”

“Will it be spicier than the previous one?” Warden asked as he yawned. Her arms weren’t so uncomfortable and being held like that made him achingly aware of just how long he had been awake. He had barely slept the night before and he had been through his execution, his appointment as the warden, meeting Wendy, running from an alien pile of snakes, being saved by a robot, meeting Choir, landing on an alien planet and having a discussion with an alien crocodile. The amount of drama that he had been in over the past twenty four hours was wearing on his mind and body and he was fairly certain that his sleep schedule had ben messed up enough.

Finally without the adrenaline keeping him going he felt his eyelids grow heavy. The last thought that went through his mind was that this was only the second time in his entire life that he had fallen asleep in the arms of a woman.