Nine: A Storm of Sand

My woven mat was laid out on the sand. I was face down on it with a fat bird sitting on one of my calves. I debated on making him get off of me, but I didn't have the energy.

"Here, dinner." Schula sat down next to me with a selection of dried meats and fruits laid out in a shallow dish made from woven palm leaves.

I raised my head enough to take a piece of jerked lamb in my mouth, then laid it back down while Schula giggled at me.

"Is she going to be alright?" Kai asked, not all that concerned.

"Oh, she'll be fine," Schula teased. "She's just out of shape."

"I am not out of shape," I groaned into the mat. Everything hurt. Shula had pushed me hard tonight.

It was our fourth night in the desert and the sun was rising fast. We had fallen into a routine. We woke as the sun was setting. Kai and I put away our light cotton shade that kept us from roasting while we slept. Schula and Nassir pulled out food for everyone from our provisions. Then we walked for half of the night, breaking to rest and eat, then walk the other half. After our night was done, Schula would make me do my stretches and run up and down the sand dunes.

I had become faster over the weeks following my unusual transformation. Releasing the seal on my back had tipped my magic over the edge and allowed me to really grow into my half elven body. Nassir told me what he could about the elves. Apparently they were all quite fast, and had lithe bodies. It should have made me feel a little better that I was always such a scrawny thing, but it didn't.

My belly growled at the meager offering. I had to eat more than just a strip of dried lamb. I sat up, disturbing Puko, and stretched.

"You're getting quite fast, Wren," Nassir said. "You'll be faster than a fae in no time."

"Not faster than Thain," I said.

"No, I suppose not faster than Thain." Nassir chuckled.

"If she isn't a fae, what is she?" Kai asked skeptically, eyeing me.

"Oh, just something of the Wyldes. So, Kai," Schula turned to our guide, firmly shifting the subject from me. "How is our progress? Are we still on track?"

We had decided that as much as we liked Kai, it was too risky to let word of a half elf get around. All of us were better off not talking about it, Kai included.

"Oh we're better than on track. I'm impressed with our progress," Kai admitted, tearing his dried apple into small bits and feeding them to Puko. He had grown fond of the raven after he adjusted to his odd appearance.

"Does that mean we will arrive early?" Nassir asked.

"A group is only as fast as it's slowest member," Kai said. "And for once, that person is me. I can cross about half a week faster than a party I'm guiding, provided we don't run into any trouble. I'd say we'll be there in two weeks. We have a water stop coming up tomorrow."

"Good, we're running very low," Schula said.

"We'll be fine. The oasis is..." Kai stiffened, putting us all on edge. Our heads whipped to where he was staring in the distance behind where I sat.

A wall of brown covered the sky. it ate up everything in its path. I could just hear the roaring wind if I tilted my head, and it was approaching fast.

"What is that?" Nassir asked, his eyebrows snapped together as he tried to sort out the sounds he was hearing.

"Storm," Kai scrambled to his feet. "We have a few minutes, but we need to pack everything and get out the tarps."

"I'll pack," I offered, pulling our things toward me.

"Let me clear the sand," Nassir said.

He had shown us what to do our first morning in the dessert. I gathered the food we hadn't eaten yet and shoved it in a pack. Schula and Kai pulled out the leather enforced tarps and metal spikes the length of my forearm. Nassir used his magic to push the sand out of the way, clearing us room to reach the earth under the sand. Humans had to judge if it was worth the precious minutes before a storm to shovel sand away. Thankfully we didn't, and the further in the ground our tarps could be staked, the better.

I pulled down the cotton tarp and poles or we would lose them to the wind. With everything packed away, we had two large tarps staked deep in the ground on all four corners. It was just loose enough for us to crawl under, two per tarp.

"Get under," Kai called. "One pole each and split up our water supply."

I shoved half of the packs and a pole in one tarp and pulled the others with me as I climbed under a tarp. Schula joined me shortly with a squawking Puko. Nassir and Kai must be under the other one.

I just had time to grab Schula's hand. Then, the sand hit us.

Kai had warned us of the sand storms. They came suddenly and ferociously. It shouldn't last long, but on very rare occasions they lasted a day or better and we had to prepare for the worst just in case.

The angry wind pulled at the edges of the tarp, hurling bits of sand and dust under to assault us. It stung, it was thrown so hard at our skin. I could only imagine if we were outside of the tarp with no protection. Even through the tarp I could feel the relentless pulse of the storm.

Puko was pretty shaken up by the storm. Schula and I stroked his feathers and tried to sooth him. I even wriggled around enough to pull out some dried cherries for him, but he didn't want to eat.

We laid under the tarp for maybe twenty minutes when the wind seemed to finally let up a little. The wind was still whipping at the tarp above us, but it wasn't hurling sand inside anymore. It had almost let up enough to talk reasonably, maybe yelling I could be heard.

"Nassir, Kai, are you alright?" I called out.

"We're fine," Kai said. "Sounds like it's nearly done. Have some water, we're changing plans for today."

I looked at Schula, who shrugged as well as she could while laying under a tarp in the desert. I scrunched down to the packs at our feet and pulled out a waterskin.

I took a long and refreshing drink, then passed it to Schula. When she was done with it, she gathered some water in her palm and offered it to Puko. He took it gladly.

We waited for the remainder of the storm to calm down, then when it was nearly done Kai called all clear and we left the tarps. Puko was the first one out of ours, and he took to the sky immediately.

The landscape was different. The small hills of sand now took on different shapes. The sky was now full of dust and the sun couldn't be seen anymore. The rough plants that grew in the sands were half buried and coated with brown dust.

"Oh my," Schula said. "It's not what I was expecting."

"That's a sandstorm for you," Kai brushed himself off before using his pole to pry the spikes out of the ground. "Pack up, we're moving camp."

I helped pull up the spikes on our tarp with Schula and Nassir helped Kai. When we began gathering our packs once again, I de used to break the silence and ask about the move.

"Why are we moving, Kai?" I asked.

"Can't see the sun, can't see the stars, can't navigate by night," Kai said. "It's going to take a couple days for the sky to clear out, so we're pressing ahead to the oasis. We can sit there until the stars come back out. If we waited around here we'd be out of water, and I'm not doing that again."

Schula stopped in her tracks. "Again? What do you mean again?"

Kai turned to her with a smirk. "I've been in just about every situation that could kill you in this dessert. How I'm still here I couldn't tell you, but I can tell you that I don't make a mistake twice. So, we're heading to the oasis."

I shrugged a pack over my shoulder and drew even with Schula. She sighed and we walked together behind Kai and Nassir.

The walk was slow going. Puko sailed lazily overhead as he waited for us to catch up. Kai took his time picking out our trail, making sure we got safely to the oasis. He said it wouldn't take long, but that was an hour ago And I was losing hope of soon happening.

"Ah, I'm so tired," I yawned. "I can't wait to sleep."

Schula grinned and patted me on the back. "You wouldn't be so tired if you'd lift your knees when you run."

"That sounds harder!" I whined, then smiled back at her. "I'll work on that tonight."

Puko landed on my shoulder, nearly knocking me off balance. "Oof, watch out, Puko. Are you hungry? We'll be there soon and I'll feed you."

"Caw!"

Schula giggled and gave him a pat on his head.

Nassir fell back and joined us, a gentle smile on his face. "I believe we are getting close. I feel the dampness in the earth ahead."

"Good," I sighed.

"Hey," Kai called from ahead of us.

We all faced him as he waived us ahead.

"We're here. Take your time and I'll meet you down there. It's just ahead."

"We'll be right there," Schula called.

"Ah, fresh water sounds nice," Nassir said. "Maybe I can convince Kai to tell me more about these sand nomads tomorrow, since we won't be traveling."

"And maybe we will work on your meditations," Schula winked at me. "You need to practice all of your skills to stay sharp. Not just your body but your mind too."

"I know," I said, lightly pushing her. "Let's go see this oasis place."

"Right."

We crossed over a dune of sand and my eyes opened wide when the oasis came into view. A body of blue water, a little murky from the sandstorm, but beautiful all the same. A few trees had managed to grow around it, and signs that this was a popular place to stop were everywhere.

Rocks and stumps had been pushed in a circle around a well used campfire area. There were a few wooden planks attached between two trees to provide a permanent shade area for resting. All four of us would have no problem fitting under it comfortably. There were even a couple flat rocks and a strip of iron for cooking if we felt like it. If we were going to be stuck in the dessert for two days without moving, I was glad to be stuck there.

"Now this I can live with," Schula grinned and pulled ahead of me. "I'm taking a bath tonight!"

I yawned. "Well I'm sleeping as soon as we set up."

Kai and Nassir were already pulling food back out of the packs. We ate a little more before resting for the day, and Kai showed me how to use two of the big palm leaves to strain the sand out of the unsettled water.

After filling our water skins and taking care of Puko, I was finally able to unroll my woven mat and lay it out under the wooden roof between the trees.

Kai grunted as he lay down next to me on his own mat. He sighed contentedly and turned to me.

"So, fellow half breed," he teased. "How do you like the dessert so far?"

"It's beautiful in its way," I said. "But give me a windy mountain path any day."

"That storm wasn't enough wind for you?" Kai laughed. "Stick around, they can get a lot worse."

I threw a handful of loose pebbles at him and he laughed harder. We both settled back down after that, and I bit my lip as I balanced on asking a question.

"What is it?" Kai asked.

"What's out there?" I asked softly, even though that wouldn't stop the others from hearing us.

"A lot of things," Kai said. "Why?"

The unsettled feeling I had the first night was still with me. I thought maybe it was something from the sands that Kai would know about, but no one else seemed to sense it. I was probably just paranoid.

"Just curious," I said, rolling over on my mat with a yawn. "Goodnight, Kai."

"Yeah," he said. "Goodnight."

Nassir was wise, maybe I would ask him tomorrow.

I yawned again and closed my eyes, letting sleep take over.