Twelve: Forward

Kai was right, the dust and sand had settled around us as we slept, opening the skies once more. After our somber night of reflection on the dead, I was pleasantly surprised to wake up to an invigorating night air sweeping across the oasis. I stretched, rubbing an ache from my back from sleeping in a bad position and I crept away to relieve myself behind the trees and touch brush that grew on the far side of the water.

Kai was pulling together some of our supplies for breakfast and Nassir was with him, asking more questions about the desert people. Puko was on Kai's shoulder, begging shamelessly for scraps and Schula was at our gear making sure everything was packed up. I yawned and headed to the food, the last one awake once again.

While I walked, I touched the high and tight braid that Schula had put my hair in last night. I smiled a little, it was invigorating to show off my ears for once, and I enjoyed styling it similar to Schula. When my stomach growled, I dropped my hand to over my naval with a blush, just as I arrived to the cooking spot.

"Evening, Wren," Nassir smiled as I approached. "How are you feeling?"

I nodded and sat down next to Nassir in the sand.

"Well enough, I think." I shrugged. "It's behind me now, I want to look forward."

Kai grunted hi approval from over a tray of cut up meat and dried fruit selections. "Don't let the bad aoyi'ka aura get under your skin. She's dead now anyway."

I grimaced at the image of her body, twisted and left in the sand.

"Should we have done something with her? I mean, what happens when you leave... something like that, out in the sun?" I asked.

Kai shook his head and offered me food off the tray. I took a few favorite items as the tray was then passed to Nassir.

"Don't worry about that," Kai said. "The sands will take care of it. That aoyi'ka isn't the only thing living out there. When almost nothing grows in the desert, you aren't picky about what feeds you."

I shivered at Kai's implications and a cool hand touched my back. "Hey, what have I missed?"

I turned to look up at Schula as she sat by me. Kai offered her some of the food and she took a handful of dried apples.

"Schula, I don't believe for one second that you didn't hear everything that has been said." Nassir chuckled.

"Hm." She bit off a piece of fruit. "I was blocking you guys out so I could concentrate on the task at hand. Speaking of which, Kai, I'm done packing everything up."

I looked up at the sky overhead. The stars danced in the blanket of blue overhead. The wedge of moon that could be seen was bright. "Then, we move on tonight?"

"Yes, we do." Kai took the last of the food on the tray for himself, and put the tray away. "Actually, we can go on as soon as we are done eating. The water skins are all topped off, our things are packed. All there is to do now, is to follow our feet under Lon's Jar."

Kai pointed to a cluster of stars overhead. I'd take his word that it was supposed to be a jar. Mila had tried to teach me the names of the stars over the mountains but I was never very good at it.

I popped the last of my meal in my mouth at the same time as Nassir and the two of us silently walked over and took our share of the bags. It was pretty routine for us by now, having traveled weeks from the Wyldes to Sulls together. Adding Kai to our party to cross the desert surprisingly didn't disrupt us much at all.

By the time were were situated, Shula and Kai were coming over to take their share. Puko pestered Nassir for the nuts he could smell in his pocket, landing on his shoulder while Nassir laughed.

And finally, we were on our way once again.

The night air was refreshing, if not still warm from the sun which hadn't set too long ago. Our pace was maybe a little faster than it needed to be, but we had lost the small lead we had grown from the first few days on our path and we were determined to gain back some of that time. I was content in the quiet walk, each of us concentrating inwardly and on the path ahead. Kai was keeping a sharper watch than ever as he scanned the sands with the eye he kept under the patch when light was out.

Schula and Nassir walked side by side. I could hear Nassir mumble something occasionally, it sounded like he had Schula helping him practice his walking. Whatever he was fine-tuning, it was amusing to Schula.

I fiddled with the pendant from Thain as I walked and tried to picture him meeting Bryn. I wondered what he would think of my human guardian, but I suppose it was a waste of time to dwell on something that wasn't going to happen.

I sighed and tucked the delicate chain back beneath my tunic when the caw of a bird overhead caught my attention.

I looked up, Puko was beginning a descent toward me, and he looked worried.

"Stars, what now?" Schula murmured and caught up to me. Kai noticed too, and was stopping so we could all reach where he was in the lead.

"Does he see something?" I wondered out loud and looked around the sandy landscape for life.

Kai did the same, frowning as he scanned the sand dunes and glanced up at Puko as he descended until he landed on my shoulder.

Nassir dropped to the ground, hands buried in the sand as he felt for the ground. He clenched his jaw as he concentrated. He ripped one hand out of the sand, tossing grains in the air as he pointed south east of us. "There."

I looked, but I couldn't see anything. Not even with my fully developed elven vision. "I don't-"

"Shh," Nassir whispered. "Ten things come this way, all on four legs."

Kai rattled off what I could only assume was a sting of suggestive swearing in his native language. "Go back to human or turn off your magic or whatever it is you need to do."

"Why?" Schula asked, though I saw that she put her glamour in place all the same.

"The only ones that ride horses in the desert are the Khusru, and they will be hostile to the aoyi'ka they don't know," Kai said.

I looked to the horizon and watched as dots of movement came out of sand and began to grow larger as they approached us. I ducked down.

"What are the chances they haven't seen us yet?" I asked.

"They wouldn't be riding this way if their scouts hadn't seen something," Kai said. "Nassir, can you tell if they are coming straight at us, or veering off into another direction?"

"I can try," Nassir answered. "But there is little out here to hide behind. I suspect that even if they were heading to another destination, they will see us on their way."

Kai grumbled and stood straight. "Yeah, there isn't really any getting out of this one. Let's just continue on our way and hope they weren't coming for us. Wren, can you do something about your appearance?"

"My-" I reached up and groaned as I felt my completely exposed ears with my hair in the new braid to match Schula. "Right, my appearance."

I grimaced as I reached into my back, digging out my old cloak once more.

"Continue as we were," Kai grumbled. "If they come our direction, let me do the talking."

I pulled my hood low over my face with a sigh and we re-formed our walking order, albeit closer to each other than before. Puko stayed on my shoulder and was deathly quiet, keeping his one good eye trained on the movement on the horizon.

"They won't be much longer, not at that pace," Schula murmured.

"The Khusru horses are bred for size and speed. They have run in the sand their whole life, and it's as natural to them as the grasslands would be for other horses." Kai sighed as he watched them grow even closer. "They will be on us soon. It looks like we were their destination after all."

"Should we keep going?" I asked. "Or should we stop and wait for them?"

"We keep going," Kai said. "It will be them who interrupts us, not us who waits for their arrival."

I nodded, accepting his words and resigned myself to watching the oncoming horses.

They were much closer now, I could see the buckskin coats of the horses with black around the feet and nose. The riders opted for light colored clothing that billowed in the wind behind them. Soon they were close enough that I could see the wrappings around their faces, hiding them and making the riders indistinguishable from one another.

The riders were practically on top of us now, ten just like Nassir had said. The riders encircled our party, not slowing down as the horses rode around and around in a loop, chasing the one before it and making sure we couldn't run. I nearly rolled my eyes, it was an intimidation tactic if I'd ever seen one. Some humans might be different than other humans, but a few things would always be the same I suppose.

When the riders finally decided to slow down their horses, Kai reminded us in calm tones. "Let me talk to them."

I nodded slightly, as did Schula and Nassir.

When the horses had come to a stop, they were still surrounding us. The lead rider was directly in front of us, and hopped off their horse. Now that they weren't moving, I could see the horses had decoratively woven blankets on their backs, similar in patterns to the clothes of the riders. Their reins had colorful tassels on them as well. I could only see the eyes of the head rider as they approached Kai, but they were proud and sharp.

"What do you want?" Kai asked calmly.

The rider removed part of her face mask, making me realize they were all women. Of course, all of these riders were small and light. They were all women. A man of much bulk would have looked too big for these small and agile horses.

The head rider spat several foreign words at Kai in a demanding tone. He stood there, silently taking them all in until the rider was done with her rant.

"If it involves my customers, you will have to speak in common so they may also understand," Kai said.

Her eyes narrowed at him and then turned to look at each of us. She didn't spend much time on Nassir, probably since he didn't look much different than any other human around here. She spent a little more time on Schula, still human but not a common sight around here as pale as she is when she's glamoured. And then, those sharp eyes fell on me. I could tell she didn't like my cloak over my face, so I wasn't surprised when she came toward me.

"Off," she said.

"Off?" I asked. "Do you want me to remove my hood?"

She didn't wait for a reply as she reached up and pushed my hood off my head. Murmurs from the other riders encircled us. Hushed whispers of 'aoyi'ka' and other things.

The rider stepped back immediately. "Kai, what are you doing with one such as this?"

"She travels through the desert with her companions. I am guiding them. We had not intended to stop anywhere," Kai answered.

The rider never took her eyes off of me through Kai's explanation. When he was done though, I could tell she put a little more respect into her posture and tone to me. A little.

"Aoyi'ka, my shaman asks me to seek you out. Come with us to meet." The rider's words were clumsy, she didn't practice the common tongue often and it showed, but I understood all the same.

"Why?" Kai asked, skeptically. "Why does the shaman want to talk to an aoyi'ka if they didn't know she was here in the first place?"

The rider turned back to Kai and made a sign across her chest. "Surely only an aoyi'ka could kill one such as the Bunjudaa ta."

"The Mist walker," Kai sighed and turned back to us. "We can do whatever you want to do, but I don't think they mean us harm and they will fight us if we run."

I looked between Schula and Nassir, hoping to silently convey some sort of message. When we weren't able to do that, Nassir shrugged and spoke for us all. "The aoyi'ka will speak to your shaman, lead on."