Saving

We walked up steep narrow streets of an old city built on a hill.

Cairo stood out against the crowd. We all did really, it was a savage world with a great deal of poverty and most of the people were small in stature. The men were Indigo's height, even I must have looked intimidating. Cairo could see over their houses. They also knew we were star travelers, near mythical beings who wield the forbidden knowledge.

They were really nice people. Intensely devout, they relied on their God to provide for them. It did not provide well. Their God was the true God, with an Instance only a continent away. But with physics being what it is, no God reached down to answer their prayers.

We crested the hill and turned a corner.

Below us lay the rest of the city. A more gentle slope into a small river valley. Thousands of homes and small shops. Our destination was large complex which stood by the shore of the river to the south.

On the eastern edge of the city we saw a fire sending pillars of black smoke from several buildings. A short time after we crested the hill a man came running out of the crowd from the east. He was shouting over and over again "Please, I know they can."* He fell to the ground when he reached us, and crawled forward.

The man looked like a child pulling on Cairo's pants, begging.
"Please, giant wizard man. Please, save my sons. Please, I will die for you."

Cairo did that thing he does with his neck when he's getting ready to really move.

"Go" she said, and He went.


*Please in this language is a verb modifier.