Long Road to Nowhere [open]

[Mali]

She was going in circles, she had to be, it was the only possible answer as to why she hadn’t found anything but sand for the past couple of days. Mali had always been told that she needed to learn how to survive better than stealing food. If only she had taken some of that advice and learned to survive in the desert. She probably wouldn’t even be in this mess if she had been paying attention.

~~~~

It was so long ago that she last remembered staying with Niko and Arashi. She had met them after stealing fish in Ilirea. He had generously paid for her stolen goods, invited her into their house and offered her a place there. She had been offered a home after such a long time. It had been amazing. There was someone there when she woke up, who could keep her company and listen to everything she had to talk about. Most of the time, she didn’t even know if one of them were listening to her, but whenever she looked up, Niko would be smiling at her or even just looking at her to show that he was paying attention. They had been so kind to her and everything had been going so well until she let her guard down. Mali felt horrible for it too.

She had been out and about, walking around town like usual without the stealing aspect now. She had changed into her feline form, finding it much easier to walk around without everyone staring at her. Mali had found a cart with a huge pile of straw. At first, she had started to play with a few pieces that had fallen to the ground, taking her time to chew on the ends, clean out her teeth and entertain herself for a short while. As the day moved on, Mali decided to hop up and take a nap. Whoever owned the cart hadn’t come back for it yet so it was safe to assume that they were staying overnight and had to leave their cart of straw out in the alleyway. However, it wasn’t safe to assume such a thing and it took Mali away from Ilirea all the way through the Silent Plains and toward Teirm. She hadn’t realised how long she had been asleep, the gentle rolling feeling from the wheels had continued to lull her back to sleep. It hadn’t helped that she had received a rather large amount of milk that same day she’d found the straw cart. If she hadn’t felt so comfortable lounging in the soothing cart, she would have realised that she was being carted far off from Ilirea much sooner.

Her peaceful day and a half came to a stop at the sound of yelling. Apparently, she had been a passenger that the owner hadn’t been aware or happy about. Shooed out and away, it was then that Mali realised that she wasn’t in Ilirea anymore. Shifting forms in a dark alleyway, her hood up high, Mali tried to figure out what town she was in now. Of course, she still didn’t know how to read so the vast amounts of signs were of no help to her. If she had only learned how to read, Niko had even offered to try teaching her and she hadn’t bothered to accept.

It couldn’t be that hard though, to leave the city and find Ilirea again. She always carried a small amount of money with her since she’d met Niko, but she had no idea how far away she really was. It took her a few days to find out the name of the town she was in, but it still didn’t help her. She had no idea where anything was, she’d always just wandered around until she found a town and they had always been so close together. Maybe Ilirea was only a day’s walk away! She was optimistically hopeful.

Of course, her optimism didn’t help her either as she got lost in the city. Most of the time, in a large city such as this, the highest walls were usually the guard walls, but that wasn’t the case in Teirm. She had never been in a city like Teirm where the highest walls were in the centre of the city. It took her a few more days to try to figure out a way to the outer walls and out of the city. Thanks to her stealthy feline attributes, she had followed a pair to the outer walls and watched as they went through rigorous check points to get out. There was no way she would be allowed out, was there? It was at this time that Mali had changed back and tried to find a solution to getting out of the city.

The walls were too high and far too guarded for her to escape easily. She could always hide in a cart heading out of the city again but thought against it. She didn’t know what would have happened in the straw man had caught her. Sitting down on a crate in a back alley, Mali laid out the small amount of money she had and counted it. There wasn’t enough to pay for a decent piece of fish here let alone have someone to escort her out of the city. It was then that Mali’s world grew darker. Something funny had come up to her mouth. Choking on the scent coming from the fabric, Mali blacked out.

When she awoke, it had been to a half-drugged state. The sun was bright and hurt her eyes far more than usual. It was loud and she was constrained. The idea of being sold into slavery had never been explained to her before. She had been far too young for her mother to explain a thing like that to the kitten and yet she had never encountered something like this before. She fell back into a blackened, sleepless state until the water hit her face. She awoke with a start as the cold liquid hit her sunburnt skin. When did she get a sunburn? When had she been in the sun long enough to receive a sunburn? She shouldn’t have been thinking about something so trivial compared to what she had to deal with now.

With a sense of time at this new building, Mali estimated that she had been gone for a month at most. She had no way of being sure that it wasn’t longer, but it couldn’t have been. She had to be close to Ilirea, right? It was then that she met her supposed ‘owner’. She had never met someone like the person who claimed to own her. They were idiotic, which is what she had encountered before, but they were pampered and rich. She had never seen so much food before in her life. She was even allowed to sit at the same table as her ‘owner’ during the feast they referred to as dinner. This person had servants at their disposal, could do whatever they wanted, seemed like a nice person. Mali had no idea that the idiot was also spoiled. It came as a shock when she had broken an item in the house. His appearance of a rich, nice and caring man was wrong. Deciding it was time to leave and try to get back to Ilirea, Mali did the one thing she knew would get her out of her nightly collar. She shifted forms. At least the man was an idiot as to what she was. He’d never seen her change either, finding her humanoid ears and tail quite entertaining. She hadn’t minded that part, it felt nice to have someone scratch behind her ears. Maybe it was true that she was a little too domesticated.

However, Mali had been ignorant and hadn’t bothered to find out where she was before leaving the palace-esc building and wandering into the Hadarac desert. It had been days and she had yet to find anywhere that had food or water. She hadn’t even found shelter. She walked in her feline form during the day, her fur helping keep from getting sunburnt more, and she walked a few more hours into the night in her humanoid form before getting a few hours sleep.

~~~~

Her routine wasn’t good enough to survive the desert however and the lack of food and water was getting to her. Collapsing into the sand, Mali looked up, the sun still high in the sky. She had become delusional a few hours back and had decided that it would be best if she was in her humanoid form since the giant sky fish was going to come get her and take her back to the ocean palace. “Sky fish?” Mali whispered hoarsely. Okay, so it wasn’t happening, but that didn’t matter as she drifted off into a dehydrated state. Mali could have sworn that some kind of shadow had covered her face, but she was too far gone to try to find out if someone had found her or not.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Samar cracked an eye open. She had felt quite at peace since her return to Moumsabi – or the Hadarac, as the pale ones knew it. It was something quite different from what she had felt around Master, who sometimes made her heart flutter with terror and delight. She had been happy with Master, content to be his slave. At least, that had been the case while he was present. But when he had disappeared so suddenly some time ago without so much as a warning…well, she hadn’t known what to think. For the other slaves, it had apparently just been business as usual. But Samar had felt…betrayed, almost as if she had been abandoned a second time by someone she cared for. That had not set well with her – which was why she had left Master a note of explanation as well as instructions for the household to follow before she took her bow and arrows, a hunting knife, and a few water skins and hightailed it for Moumsabi. She sincerely hoped he would forgive her presumptiveness, but she had begun feeling the need to return to her homeland – to find some sort of closure, perhaps, for the horrifying end of her first life that she had experienced.

So here she was hidden from the terrible midday heat in a large abandoned sand burrow she had found some days ago – though burrow was perhaps the wrong word for it. It was really more of a cave, if she was honest with herself. But at the same time, it had felt far cozier than a cave – cozy like an animal’s burrow. But regardless of the relative nature of her hideout, there was still the matter of something outside her den. There had been a shift in the air that her body had instantly recognized even after so long away from Moumsabi. The shift was the sudden presence of something that had been absent when she had taken shelter.

Curious, Samar carefully stretched her long lithe form before rising. Picking up her osage flatbow and quiver of arrows – a gift from Master Clarus before his strange disappearance – Samar strung the bow and nocked an arrow. Holding the bow at a half-draw, she silently slunk outside. Her eyes flicked around the immediate area, but could detect nothing substantial in the vicinity. The sun was too high, too bright right now. Nothing with a lick of sense would be moving around at this early hour of the day. She closed her eyes and focused her attention on the sounds around her. For a moment, there was only stillness. And then she heard something very faintly off to her left. It sounded like something shuffling around in the sand.

She cautiously made her way around the dune that housed her den and headed towards the sound. It was a familiar one to her ears – the sound of someone lost in the sands. She paused beside a small dune as something collapsed into the sand on the other side. Well. Someone or something had clearly not brought enough water with them and there wasn’t an oasis for at least another mile to the north of Samar’s den. With all the care and stealth borne from years of such behavior, Samar crested the dune and froze as a hoarse whisper met her ears. “Sky fish?” Frowning, she crept further forward and came upon a rather strange sight. It was a little pale one with strange ears and a tail –like those belonging to the Cursed Son. She lowered her bow and frowned as she stood over the small thing, wondering at the bizarre features. This presented a rather perplexing problem to her – this creature was in obviously dire need, but no servant of the Cursed Son would be wandering around the Mother Wolf’s desert. She nudged the creature with her foot. “What are you?” she asked calmly, already slipping back into the Gia dialect now that she was back in Moumsabi.

[Mali]

It felt like eons had passed since there werecat had hit the hot sand. Maybe water would have been something to take from the palace she had been staying in. However, in Mali’s dehydrated state, it was hard for her to think clearly. What would she have put the water in anyways? She couldn’t hold it all by herself. Her hands weren’t big enough. In addition, she probably would’ve dropped all her water when she went to sleep. The thought of water burned the back of her throat as she continued to think in rambled circles. Mali would have changed back to her feline form if she had enough energy to do so. She wondered if she should have been in her feline form instead. Maybe that was why the sky fish hadn’t shown up yet.

However, it confused her. The sky fish hadn’t told her whether she had to be in one form or the other. In addition, if the sky fish expected her to be in a specific form, he should have told her. She could have hissed at that stupid, lying sky fish lying about picking her up, if only she had some energy. Hearing something faintly, her eyes feeling as if they were burning under her eyelids, she couldn’t make out what the sound was. Mali mumbled a bit, trying to think. Had the sky fish shown up after all? It was this thought that made her curse and apologise mentally about what she’d said as well as calling the sky fish a stupid liar. However, she wasn’t being picked up, which caused her brows to furrow slightly against the sand. She was lying on her stomach, so anything she may say would be jumbled if not because of her already delusional state.

Mali distinctly felt that she had heard a sound, even if it wasn’t the supposed sky fish. Something had made a sound, and that meant that something had found her, or something bad was happening. Like a volcano erupting, however, Mali didn’t remember any volcanoes in the area. Taking the rest of her energy and using it to possibly find out what and where the sound came from, Mali tried to mumble out something coherent. “who . . . you, are . . . sky fish?” Mali opened her eyes for a moment before wincing. She hadn’t seen anyone close enough to get a good mental image of what had addressed her. However, something was there and it made noise. There was hope for her yet.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

“Who . . . you, are . . . sky fish?”

Samar blinked. Whatever this creature was, it spoke the Common Tongue that Master Clarus had taught her. What on earth was a sky fish? Well…it was probably nothing to do with the Cursed Son or His minions. She made a conscious effort to switch over to the Common Tongue as she returned the arrow to its quiver, set the flatbow down and knelt beside the creature. She gently prodded it, checking to see if anything was broken or bruised. “No, I am not a…sky fish, as you call it,” she replied. She was pleased that her accent was not quite so thick anymore. She had worked tirelessly to improve her Common and the work was clearly showing. “But I will help you.” Satisfied there were no broken bones or injuries, she picked up the bow and slung it over her head – wincing at the memory of her mother’s screeching the last time Samar had pulled such a careless stunt with her weaponry. She scooped up the little creature, startled at how light and small it was. She rose carefully, scanned the horizon for any of the rare daytime predators before turning back the way she had come and returned to her den.

She gave a sigh of relief as she finally entered the cooler interior of the abandoned burrow. How did any of these pale ones manage to survive from day to day when they so clearly lacked any kind of self-preservation instinct? Samar shook her head as she gently placed the creature into the little hollow she had excavated in the burrow’s floor – the very same one she had been sleeping in not long ago. She then returned her bow and arrows to their place along the den wall before moving to where her water skins were buried. She dug them up and moved back over to the creature as she removed the plug from the skin’s mouth. Gently shifting so that the creature was sitting in her lap and leaning against her torso, Samar pressed the skin’s mouth against the creature’s until it finally wrapped its lips around it. She then tilted the skin so that water seeped slowly into the creature’s mouth.

[Mali]

Mali heard the creature speaking again, however this time she could understand her now. It sounded like a her at least. A slightly deeper sound to her voice, but Mali was sure she was a female who found her. It was then that she felt prodding. Why was this person poking her? She would have laughed as the woman got around her sides; however, she was even too weak to laugh.

Upon hearing the word ‘help’, Mali felt herself being picked up. She could tell by how her head seemed to move awkwardly back. She felt a little click at the back of her neck as she was picked up. “’kay” she mumbled out hoarsely.

The sudden feeling of hot air rushing past her face kind of felt nice. It felt cool before she felt the cold air hit her skin. Where were they that it felt so cold in here? Had there been a building literally within a few feet of where she had collapsed? Mali didn’t figure that there was, but she was delusional, so there could be.

Being placed down, Mali tried to open her eyes to look around but everything appeared doubled and moving in her vision. It was relatively dark in the building and Mali got the feeling like they were still outside for some reason. She didn’t quite understand where they could possibly be that they would still be outside, but inside at the same time.

She wasn’t down for long because she soon felt herself being moved again. This time, she felt something warm and sturdy behind her, supporting her up. She would have tried to say thank you when she felt something at her lips. What was this odd feeling device that was lifted to her li—that contained water! That was all that mattered as she felt the cool liquid coming from the container. This person had water and she was thankful.

Leaning forward a bit more, Mali tried to get some more of the water before pulling back, having had enough for now. She should probably continue drinking but she felt strangely full now; part of her dehydration. The bottle slipped from her lips and a bit fell into Mali’s lap and she turned her head fast enough that she saw everything spinning. She didn’t know if she would hit the person helping her or not when she turned her head, but she went to apologise. “Mm sorry,” Water had become so precious to her, mainly because she didn’t have any, but to have wasted even those few drops meant a lot to the werecat.

She felt it right to also thank this person for helping her out of the heat and into the cold. “S’ank you. I mmm Mali,” her words were still jumbled from the dehydration but at least she was speaking in relatively coherent sentences now.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

The creature drank eagerly from the water skin and Samar felt a small smile tugging at her lips. Water was life here in Moumsabi – resource fought over with great desperation by the few inhabitants of the desert. She was surprised at the creature’s restraint, though. Most people who were dehydrated would guzzle down water until they were sick unless someone else stopped them. Yet this creature pulled away from the skin fairly quickly, forcing Samar to quickly tilt the skin backwards to prevent all of the water from draining out. A few drops still fell out, but that was not so terrible as having the entire skin wasted.

“Mm sorry. S’ank you. I mmm Mali.”

Samar hummed slightly in acknowledgement of the creature – Mali’s – apology. She plugged the skin once more and set it beside them. “Do not concern yourself, Mali. It was only a little bit of water.” She gently stroked Mali’s hair, hoping to soothe the creature’s worries. Of course, the action did little to stem Samar’s new concerns. She now had two bodies to feed and water and very few resources with which to do so. She had the skill, of course. A lifetime of training, however short, does not fade so quickly and Master Clarus had been wise enough to continue where her tribe had left off. And while the trek to the nearest oasis was a bit too long for someone in Mali’s condition, it would be quick for Samar. The question was could she leave Mali unattended without running the risk of the creature being found and eaten – or worse, having her wander off into the sands again.

Well…she would have to formulate a plan for that later. For the moment, she was a bit hungry and she could imagine her guest was hungry as well. “I am Samar, by the way. And now that you’ve had some water, would you like something to eat as well? I have some dried venison and some fruit as well, if you’d like.”

[Mali]

Mali was leaning against the woman whose name she had yet to learn and felt the urge to sit up. She didn’t know if she would be able to support herself, but felt restless while resting against this woman. It was like her body had fallen asleep and she needed to move to get feeling back.

As she heard not to worry about the little amount of water, Mali felt odd for some reason. She felt something stroking her hair and suddenly was nuzzling into the hand; not able to purr due to her dehydration. She remembered being pet like this twice before other than when her mother did it. The brat would pet her like this, if not rubbing her ears as well, however, that wasn’t who she was thinking about.

It was then that Niko came to mind. He’d pet her like this once when she was staying with him. Sitting bolt upright, Mali murmured, “Niko” before feeling the world spin. She had sat up too quickly for her head to grasp and felt herself falling backward again. She landed her back to the woman’s chest with a small thud. That had been unproductive.

Mali looked up to Samar, her body feeling limp, the pinging from her legs actually falling asleep causing the werecat slight pain. Samar sounded like a nice name. At the mention of food, Mali couldn’t help licking her lips. She was hungry, although she felt strangely full at the same time. Was this a normal symptom of dehydration? Or was she actually full? Maybe the sky fish had come during the night and—yea right.

Mali didn’t know what this venison was that Samar mentioned but fruit sounded really nice right now. After licking her lips, Mali didn’t know if she had enough saliva in her mouth to be able to talk, but she wanted to ask what this venison was. She was tempted to attempt asking such a question but saved it for later. She needed to get something into her stomach to calm her rumbles. “Fruit, please,”

Mali tried to sit up again, this time more slowly. She was successful until she felt herself falling in the opposite direction of Samar.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Mali had suddenly jerked forward, away from Samar’s petting. The creature didn’t go far of course. In fact, she flopped backwards in dizziness almost immediately. Samar shook her head slightly in bemusement. She did not understand who or what Niko was, but apparently the petting reminded Mali of it. She would remember that for future reference and try to refrain from the action. It apparently agitated Mali and that was not good for the creature – not in its current state of dehydration.

But at least it liked the thought of food. And surprisingly, it wanted fruit instead of the venison Samar had offered. Perhaps it did not eat meat. Perhaps it did not realize what venison was. Either way, Samar felt relief wash through her. No servant of the Cursed Son would choose fruit over…well, anything really. So Samar nodded and prepared to get up when Mali slowly sat forward – only to lean forward and wrap her arms around the creature to prevent it from falling face-first into the sand. She tutted at it. “You should not be trying to move just yet. You are suffering from severe dehydration. It will take time for movement to return to you.”

Samar shifted so that she was now kneeling instead of sitting and then moved her arms so that she was now cradling Mali. With Mali secured in her arms, the young woman moved rose smoothly and moved closer to the den wall so that she could set Mali down and prop the creature up against the wall. “There. Now sit here for a moment and try not to move too much. Okay?” When she was certain Mali would stay put, she got up once more and went over to the corner opposite where her water skins had been buried. Digging through the sand over there, she eventually unearthed a small satchel she had found abandoned near the edge of the desert. It had still been perfectly usable, if a bit worn, so she had taken it and filled it with figs and the dried venison she had made from a deer she had slain. Now she was doubly glad for her foresight as she took the satchel back over by Mali and set some figs in the creature’s lap. She then took some out for herself and began munching on them slowly, gesturing for Mali to do the same.

[Mali]

It wasn’t that Mali didn’t enjoy being pet by Samar, it was that she had been reminded by her quest to return to Ilirea and Niko. She rather enjoyed being pet by Samar. Mali enjoyed being pet all the time. Mali was far too domesticated for werecat. That is, if werecats weren’t domesticated. She had no way of knowing whether they were or not. Being raised by humans certainly didn’t help.

As the cool air grew colder, flying past her face, Mali felt arms wrap around her to stop her from falling. Oh yea, she was falling forward, oops. Moving her head to look up to Samar, she ‘hmm’ed to prevent herself from nodding her head in agreement. If she tried to nod her head to show that she understood what had been said, she would only make herself dizzier.

Feeling herself being shifted in her arms, Mali had to wonder how strong Samar was. She wasn’t particularly heavy, but she wasn’t all that light in weight either. Feeling cold sandy mud against her back, Mali tried to get a better image of the room that they were in. She could see the sun outside and yet still felt cool inside. Were they in some kind of bunker?

As soon as her eyes started to clear a bit, allowing her to see better, she noticed Samar moving back into her line of sight with what looked like figs. Having the fruit placed in her lap, and as Samar started to eat her own, Mali looked down at the fruit. Slowly moving her hand to grasp at the items, her fingers moving like they were made of wood, Mali was able to hold onto the figs and raise them to her mouth, although it looked like a caveman was eating.

Taking a bite, Mali was enthralled with the amount of juice that came out of the fruit. It was like solid water. Wait, that didn’t make sense . . ., however that led Mali to other thoughts such as where were they and other things. But the first thing that popped into her mind was the first that she spouted out in between figs. “What’s venison? Oh, thank you, for the figs.” it was best to be polite.

Even if she didn’t say much other than that, Mali looked thoroughly amused with the fruit. It seemed as if every fig she bit into was like the first one. She didn’t seem to grasp the concept that if one fig had lots of juice, so did the others, which would only amuse someone watching the werecat. At least she was enjoying the fruit.

“Where are we?” she knew that they were in the desert, she could tell by how much sand she remembered being outside. However, she wondered if Samar knew where they were in the desert or how long it would take to get back to Ilirea.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Samar smiled gently as she watched Mali slowly and clumsily eat the figs. She had been very careful when harvesting the tree, selecting only those that were ripe or very near to it to ensure they would both be juicy and last longer under the sand. The time had obviously been worth it, judging by Mali’s delight. Samar ate somewhat more slowly than Mali, though it was only because she was trying to condition herself to her tribe’s methods for desert survival. It was odd to be eating at high noon when she should be resting. And now that Mali was here, there were no traces of anyone else in the sands.

“What’s venison? Oh, thank you, for the figs.”

Samar swallowed her current bite and smiled at Mali. Well…this was one of the most courteous pale ones she had ever met. A proper thank you was not something the teen had ever expected to receive from someone besides her master. But that was only because Samar had known upon meeting him that he was very different from other pale ones. It was a bit odd that Mali did not know what venison was. It was a word belonging to the pale ones. “You are welcome, Mali. And to answer your question, venison is game meat – taken from a wild animal like a deer, rather than cattle or pigs. As I said, what venison I have is dried so it may be a bit difficult to swallow. So perhaps you should stick with the figs for now and we can try the venison later.” A comfortable silence followed Samar’s brief explanation, broken only by the barely heard sounds of both females eating their figs. It was a nice change of pace for the teen. She felt relaxed and content for the first time in many cycles of the Son’s Light.

“Where are we?”

Samar blinked and focused on Mali again. That was an odd question – or at least it seemed odd to Samar. They were clearly in the Moumsabi…the Hadarac. She would need to remember that was what the pale ones called the Mother Wolf and Father Serpent’s desert. Or did Mali mean where were they within the desert? That was a bit trickier to answer with any accuracy. But Samar supposed she should try her best. “Hmm…well, we are in what you call the Hadarac. We are somewhere in its southern expanses, some two or three days’ travel south on foot to reach the…the Beor Mountains. You were coming in from the west, though. I am not certain how long you were traveling, but there is nothing to the west for nearly a week’s worth of travel. It truly is a miracle that you are still alive at this point. The Hadarac is quite unforgiving to those who do not know its ways.”

[Mali]

Mali was enjoying the figs so much, stuffing her face with the fruit that it wasn’t until she’d had about ten when she noticed how slowly Samar ate. Why was she eating so slowly? As soon as she’d finished her tenth fig, Mali picked one up with much more practice and ate it slowly in comparison to how she’d been eating before. This didn’t mean that the expression of pure delight that came across her features after biting into the fig stopped. She was still enthralled with how much juice was in the fruit, she just ate the figs slower.

Maybe Samar was eating slowly because they only had so much food to begin with. Looking down at the figs, Mali noted that there weren’t many left. It was then that she finished her last fig and placed the few that remained on the ground. She didn’t know if she should place them on the ground, seeing, as the ground should be dirty, however, she hadn’t been handed a plate to place them on.

Game meat is taken from wild animals, Mali wondered if game meat could refer to fish as well. However, the likelihood of Samar having fish was very unlikely since she hadn’t found water for a few days and fish kind of needed water to live.

Nodding her head, Mali picked up another fig, judging that it was okay that she had eaten so many already since Samar said to stick with figs instead of trying to swallow the venison. Although Mali felt bad for eating so many, at least she knew that Samar had other food with her. Now she wouldn’t be eating Samar out of house and home.

Mali’s question about where they were seemed to confuse Samar for only the briefest of moments. Did Samar not know where they were either? Shaking her head, Mali dismissed the thought. Samar knew how to survive in the desert, that much was obvious to the werecat, so of course she would know where they were. Samar wasn’t an idiot as Mali was. What had she been thinking, wandering off into the desert without food or water? However, she had just wanted to leave the spoiled-brat’s clutches quickly that the thought had never occurred to her.

Mali smiled to Samar, complimenting how Mali had survived this long. Although, maybe it wasn’t a compliment as what Mali had done had been stupid, leaving without provisions. Thinking about their location, Mali had no idea where Ilirea would be from here. Even if she were shown a map, she wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

“How far are we from Ilirea? I was trying to get home to my friend Niko,” mentioning Niko’s name shouldn’t be a bad thing. Samar didn’t seem like the type to hunt or track people. Animals maybe, but she didn’t seem like the type that would do strange and cruel things to Mali, so she had nothing to fear about telling her where she was headed.

The comment about entering the desert and it being a miracle that she’d been alive for so long in the desert struck something in her. If it was safe to tell her about Niko, it was safe to tell her what had happened to her, right?

“I was taken from Teirm and some guy who lived out in the desert said they owned me. I stayed for a while but then I left. I didn’t think it was that far to Ilirea from there. How do I get out of the desert?”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Samar patiently listened to Mali’s explanation and questions. If what the creature said was true, then Samar suspected she knew what tribes the man/boy may have belonged to. It was unfortunate, really, but nearly all of the Moumsabi tribes dealt in slave-trading at one point or another. Sometimes it was necessary to have just that little bit more coming into the tribe so that they could all survive. Those that did it consistently, however, tended to be more barbaric – more like the pale ones.

But what made Samar frown was Mali’s questions. She knew of Ilirea – Master Clarus had spoken of it on more than one occasion – but she had never been to the fabled City of the Dragon Riders. The most that she really knew was that it was to the west, beside some river whose name she could not recall. But it would be a very long journey. It was at least ten nights travel from her location to the westernmost edge of the Moumsabi. Perhaps it would take another week to reach the city? Depending on where one exited the desert, it would be at least a two-day walk to the river and then one could follow it down to Ilirea.

She looked at Mali, smiling sadly. “That is quite a journey you have taken thus far, Mali. I wish I could say that it will soon be finished. But the Hadarac is vast. Even if I had not been travelling in it for much of my life, I would know from maps alone that its borders extend for a great distance on all sides. If you wished to take the straightest path, it would be…about ten nights travel from here through the sands until you are at the western edge of the desert. And then you would need to reach the river. I do not know its name. That is at least another two nights. Once you had found it, you would follow it south until you reached the city. That is the surest path that I can think of.” Samar frowned again, trying to recall Master Clarus’ many maps of Alagaesia. The land was so much larger than she had ever envisioned could exist, which was both thrilling and exasperating. Travel had been so much easier to navigate before her tribe’s massacre. As she scanned the most up-to-date map in her mind, she said, “The questionably safer and much longer path would be to go south until you reached the Beors, then turn west and follow the mountains until you reach a river and lake. You would then follow the lake north until it turned west, then keep heading north until you reached the city. But you are looking at more than a month’s travel going that route. And of course, one must think of the supplies one can take along and if one can find suitable game to hunt and many other factors besides.” She looked at Mali. “Does that answer your questions?”

[Mali]

Mali listened, her hands slowly lowering the figs as she heard the news about how long it would take her to travel. She could try to take the shorter route or the longer route, but would have difficulty trying to feed herself during her travels. She couldn’t just ask Samar to provide her with supplies either as she assumed that Samar only had so much with her. The chance of her having extra water canteens was slim.

Nodding her head, she thought it over a bit more. Her eyes seemed to glaze over at the thought of how much longer it would take her to get back to Ilirea. The safer route was the longer route and the fastest route sounded confusing. There was a lot of heading in one direction until you reach certain key points of directions, such as the edge of the desert and the river. She didn’t much care for either solution and wished that Niko and Arashi could just show up and fly away with her but the chances of that happening were even slimmer.

Mali then thought of something Niko had said before about being lost. She had mentioned how she had been lost many times before, often just wandering around until she found a town to take refuge in. He had said that without knowing which direction you are headed in, you can disorient yourself without knowing it. He had said something about a dominant foot leading you in circles. If Mali left this little shelter in hopes of making it out of the desert, would she only make herself even more lost? And how would she provide supplies to get through the journey?

Looking up to the shelter, she decided that she would need something to protect her during the day. She had been travelling at night already but had differed when the dehydration had set in. But what could she use? She needed something that was light enough to carry during the night but strong and sturdy enough to protect her from the sun during the day. She had no idea what something like that could be, but that was just one of her problems to deal with. The most important was how did she find water?

“Samar, is there a way to make water? I don’t know if I’ll be able to find water everyday once I leave,” If there was a way to make water, then she would be set. She could make water at night and then hunt for things then. She wondered if there were any birds in the desert other than the vultures. Those would be too hard for her to catch and kill since they flew around so high up.

“I’m thinking about what you said, and I don’t know what I’d be able to kill. Are there birds in the desert?”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Samar closed her eyes, set aside the satchel, rested her head on her knees while wrapping her arms around her legs and sighed The teen suddenly felt very tired and just how inexperienced she was in guiding others as she was bombarded with even more questions. She could not just let Mali go wandering off on her own. The creature didn’t have the knowledge or the tools for surviving the harsh defenses and tribulations the Mother Wolf had set in place in Moumsabi. It would be madness to let her leave alone. But Samar did not want to think about all of this right now. It was too hot and too bright outside right now. She had always thought better and more clearly at night – switching her sleep schedule around to suit Master Clarus’ routines had been difficult and she had gladly returned to something far more normal out here in the desert.

She let out another sigh and unwound herself from her curled up position. She rose with fluid grace, picking up the satchel as she did so. She checked how much food was left – roughly two-thirds of the figs and all of the venison – before closing the satchel and burying it in the corner she had dug it up from. She repeated the process in the other corner with her water skeins. If Mali asked any questions, Samar either didn’t hear them or chose not to answer them. The teen simply couldn’t think about these things right now. So when she had finished burying her food and water she returned to Mali’s side and gently picked the creature up. “We will discuss these things once the sun has set. For now, we must both rest.” With that, she laid both of them down in the same hollow they had been seated in before. She stretched out on her side beside Mali and slowly let herself drift off to sleep.

[Mali]

Mali watched Samar move with curiosity. What was she doing? Did she feel sick? Was she going to be sick? Mali’s head filled with questions. Samar wasn’t answering any of them though so she thought about remaining quiet for now. It was best to let Samar do whatever it was she was doing, right?

Continuing with her thought process, Mali wondered if there was a way to make water. She would need to be able to find water on her own if she wanted to survive the desert. However, if she were able to make water in the desert, then everything would be fine. She would also need some kind of shelter. There was no way that she could build something akin to what they were currently resting in. She would need to figure something out. She didn’t want to think about digging herself into the sand for protection. What if a sandstorm came? She’d never be able to get out then.

Mali noticed Samar sitting up and moving over to a corner of the shelter with both the bag of food and the water holders. Since she didn’t answer any of Mali’s questions, the werecat wondered if Samar pressed her head to her knees because she had a headache. It would make sense why she hadn’t answered any of her questions. As Samar came over and picked Mali up, positioning them differently, Mali nodded her head. “Okay, I’ll remember my questions then.” She felt the ground underneath her and started to drift off. With Samar beside her, Mali quickly changed into her feline form before curling into a ball beside Samar and fell asleep.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Sleep came easily, as it usually did, and Samar found herself floating above a familiar dreamscape.

She stands by with eerie serenity as she watches her noble mother and remarkable father leap from the doe-skin-rug, snatch up their weapons and disappears from the tent. She knows this sequence by heart now. It is so deeply ingrained that it no longer wrenches her from sound sleep with agonized howls and the feeling of a heart torn asunder. As usual, the screams of the dying are accusations in her ears. She has long since become accustomed to the guilt that twists in her gut at those sickening sounds. With a sigh, she follows her fifteen-year-old self as it flees in fear from the approaching horror of enslavement. The usual stench of blood, burning flesh, greasy smoke, piss and shit assaults her memory. It still causes a slight gag reflex even in her sleep, despite the fact that nearly three years have passed since that day. Oh and here is the part where she slinks away from battle and unknowingly burrows underneath the bodies of her slaughtered parents to avoid being captured or killed. Their blood is still slick and warm against her skin, black as the flesh it was drawn from with how thickly it is pooled. She can still taste that smell – the coppery, metallic, sickly-sweet tang that is so wholly unique to blood.

Wouldn’t Hinewai be so very proud of me, Mother Wolf? I used my skills well in order to survive – just as I was taught to. Why hello Disgust and Self-Loathing, how have you been since the last time I slept? Feel free to join the party. It isn’t as though I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.

Eternity passes and now all she can hear are the flies shrieking/buzzing as they crawl over the corpses – that and her own rapid heartbeat. She senses the vultures circling overhead, knowing they are eager to begin the feast the slavers have left behind – knowing she will be part of that feast if she doesn’t get moving. She doesn’t remember when she became fifteen again, but she knows she has no desire to move. She never does. She feels the vultures dip steadily closer, eagerly awaiting the part where they rip her to shreds.

But here, things change. She feels something shoving aside her parents – a cold, wet nose wuffling against her. Frowning, she opens scrunched-closed eyes to find herself facing the most oddly colored wolf she’s ever seen in life or dreams. It appears black at first – a black so deep, it shines and shimmers in the sunlight. But as it tilts its head to one side it becomes a brilliant violet that is the exact shade of the amulet that is suddenly resting warmly against her chest. She stares into its eyes that are the heavens, the stars of the night skies swirling in the depths.

Siaso…

The wolf seems to smile at her and moves forward to nudge the amulet. A burst of light fades out the dreamscape, the wolf that she can still feel touching her. A voice whispers softly in her ear. Trust the creature. No matter what you may see, trust her. She has been raised without my Son’s taint. You will not come to harm in trusting her.

Samar sighed as the dream dissolved into reality. She rubbed at bleary eyes that were already adjusting to the dwindling twilight. She yawned and sat up, wondering where the bundle of fur had come from that was resting beside her. She frowned and prodded it. Whatever it was, it was alive based on the way it shifted under her prodding. She shook her head and bent down slightly to get a closer look before scrambling away with a barely restrained shriek. There was a cat in her burrow! When had a cat gotten in?!? She was already scrabbling for her bow and arrows to kill it, kill it NOW when the image of Siaso – Blessed, Loving Mother Wolf – suddenly loomed into her memory. You will not come to harm in trusting her.

Samar shivered. Okay. The Mother Wolf would not lead her wrong. The Mother Wolf did as it saw fit and knew far better than a human what was necessary for the path of growth and enlightenment. With a sigh, Samar rose and stretched. As she passed the creature on her way out of the burrow, she nudged it and said, “Time to wake up, Mali,” before disappearing outside to relieve herself.

[Mali]

Mali frolicked in the field of wildflowers, chasing the birds as she skipped from flower to flower. She was miniscule in comparison to the size of the flowers but for some reason the birds were still their regular size. It irked her but she didn’t pay any closer attention to it. Looking to the sky as she tried to catch the birds, Mali noticed a large shadow starting to cover the ground in front of her. Staring up, she was amazed to see flying sky fish. That must be what they were since they were fish, flying, and in the sky. It only made sense that way.

Following the sky fish to a valley, Mali thought that the sky fish had led her astray again when she noticed that these flowers were much smaller and closed up for some reason. It was then that the sky fish took in a deep breath before blowing all the flowers in the field. The flowers than began to open, revealing everything that she’d ever enjoyed. There was even a Niko and Arashi flower, although, she didn’t understand how Niko and Arashi could have come from such small flowers.

Mali was purring in her sleep, quite enjoying her dream when she felt something prodding her side. Letting out a small ‘merow’ she rolled over and continued to sleep not knowing the terror she may be causing. She did notice how the heat that had been beside her was gone now. Upon hearing her name and the nudge, Mali raised her head with sleepy eyes before yawning. Sitting up, Mali cat stretched feeling better now that she’d slept a bit. It was always nicer to sleep in her feline form than her humanoid form since the stretch at the end was always much more pleasurable than stretching in her other form.

However, she didn’t know how Samar would feel about speaking mentally so she decided to shift forms. Her back cracked in the process of the almost painless transformation. Glancing around the burrow, she noticed how Samar seemed to be missing. She wasn’t too concerned that Samar wasn’t here since she had woke her up and knew the desert much better than the werecat. She knew that Samar would be safe wherever she was and would come back eventually.

Mali raised her hands to her ears and started to pull her fingers through the fur. She wasn’t the type to lick her fur while in humanoid form, it just made her look even more out of place among everyone else. Pulling her fingers down her tail, she felt all clean and refreshed. Now, to find out where Samar went. Mali tried to stand up, her legs a little shaky since yesterday, but she was able to stand and moved over to get a better look at the burrow. “Morning Samar, wherever you are,” she smiled as if Samar could see her at the moment.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Twilight was fading fast, so Samar quickly finished answering nature’s call some distance away from her burrow. Once she was both relieved and had her mental faculties back in order, she returned to the burrow. She reached the edge of it just in time to hear Mali’s called out greeting. Samar winced at the volume and prayed that nothing else had heard the greeting. The last thing either of them needed was to fend off desert predators, whether they were animal or human.

She peered inside to see the human-shaped being she knew as Mali standing and exploring the burrow. So apparently Mali was a ryupay, a shapeshifter who could become a feline at will. Samar shuddered at the thought. What manner of being would choose such a fate? She simply couldn’t fathom it.

Samar gave a small sigh. There was nothing else for it. She had committed herself to helping Mali and the Mother Wolf approved of that. Her right hand strayed to the amethyst wolf hanging about her neck on its delicate ruby-and-emerald studded gold chain. She gave it a brief stroke with her forefinger before dropping her hand and entering the burrow. “Good evening, Mali. Might I ask that you refrain from calling out so loudly? I would rather we did not attract unwanted attention,” she said, her voice quiet and even-toned. She awkwardly patted the creature’s head as she walked to the back of the burrow. It suddenly occurred to her that Mali’s eyes may not have as good of night vision as Samar’s. That complicated things immensely. First and foremost, a fire would attract all sorts of unwanted attention, in addition to adding far too much heat in the already too-warm burrow. With a mental sigh, she squatted down in one corner and dug up the water skeins. Taking one, she left the rest in their hole and moved to the opposite corner to repeat the process. Once she had satchel and water skein in hand, she turned to Mali. “Can you see well enough?” she asked.

[Mali]

It wasn’t that Mali chose to be a werecat she had just been born one. It was highly convenient at times as well. It allowed her to watch things happen without being noticed. If someone were to be robbed and for some reason, Mali felt like watching, in her humanoid form she would be attacked asking what she saw. However, if the robber were to see a cat sitting in the alley watching, they wouldn’t think anything of it since it’s just a cat. Though being able to change forms did have problems at times. She wasn’t normal even for a werecat so people frowned upon her at times.

Hearing the sigh come from what Mali assumed to be the entrance to the burrow, she looked over to Samar curiously. Was something wrong? Oh, she was too loud. Her ears flattened back against her head as she whispered a small apology. “Sorry, I didn’t even consider that there might be others out here,” If there were others out in the desert, they were very good at hiding. Mali had searched for days trying to find someone or water within the desert. Maybe it was because like Samar, they slept during the day and hadn’t heard her nearby. It was lucky for Mali that Samar had heard her or else she may be dead already.

Feeling the pat to her head, Mali’s ears picked up a bit, wondering if she’d been forgiven for being too loud. She watched as Samar moved about the burrow, digging up the water skins that she had used earlier. So that’s where she magically got them from. Earlier, when Mali had been hallucinating, she had thought that the skin appeared magically, but now she knew that they came from under the sand where Samar had buried them. Looking up to her, she thought about the question. She had feline eyes, even in her humanoid form. They weren’t as great at seeing in the dark as they were in her feline form, but they could still see fairly well in the dark.

“I can’t see perfectly in the dark, but I can see fairly well. My feline form’s eyes are much better at it, but these can see fine,” she whispered quietly, remembering what Samar had said about other unwanted company.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

OOC: Short, uninspired drivel for you. Sorry about that. :/

Samar felt relief rush through her when Mali explained that her night vision was just fine in her humanoid form. That meant there would be no need for a fire just yet. Satisfied with this state of affairs – as much as she could be, at any rate, what with a feline ryupay in her burrow and all – Samar nodded and moved to sit on the side of her sleeping hollow that was closest to Mali. When she was comfortable, she opened the water skin and took a few sips before offering the skin to Mali. As the ryupay drank, Samar opened her satchel and pulled out six figs and several strips of jerky venison. The teen split the food evenly between the two and set Mali’s share across from herself before starting to eat her own share. She would have to go hunting near the oasis soon. Mali would probably not be up for any kind of lengthy travel until she had some proper food in her and had been allowed to rehydrate. Samar’s eyes grew distant as she considered her options and began mapping out a rough sketch of what she should do in the coming days – almost ignoring Mali as she did so.