[Flashback/Solo]Between the Sun and the Sand

[Satish]

53th Fall, 511 AV Today i will start my journey, i planned and prepared it for 4 years, since my Rite of Searching. i had to work hard to prepare this travel but my tribe was kind to me: the crafter made my bow and arrows, the breeder prepared my horse, the hunters taught me about hunting alone in the desert and the trackers gave me a map with the safe route until Ahnatep. This route is not the shortest until Ahnatep but i will not cross Tsana or Baral territories and i can find some water source on the way. If everything go well this travel will take half season, a long time but this can be good to sharp my senses and skill. After packing everything and placing on the horse, i turned to the crowd that formed to send me off and spoke to each one to give them appropriate goodbye. finishing the farewell the Wayhali gave me his blessings and desired me good journey. This sad atmosphere was broken when i tried to mount the horse. i have never rode a horse alone, so i failed miserably on trying to mount. the tribe laughed and both my father and Wayhali showed a worried face and asked if i was sure on continuing this, i asked that they did not had to worry and mounted on the horse with the help of one of the hunters. Once i herd that we should not look back but little after starting the ride i looked again my tribe and saw them giving me the last goodbye, i even started my journey and i am already missing them. i shake my head and told myself again that one day, when i gathered enough knowledge, i would come back and make my people stronger. Today starts my journey, i do not know what waits me but i have to surpass it if i want to become strong enough to honor my tribe.

[Satish]

56th Fall, 511 AV Three days past since the start of my journey. long three days, i had no one to speak but my horse, obviously she didn't answers me. talking about my horse, i was finally starting to be able to stay on her back for more than a hour without falling, i don't know what hit me harder on those three days: the ground or the sun. Oh yes, the sun. since youthhood i don't like it, even with my extra clothes and the black painting on the arms it still burns me, that's why back on the tribe i was more active during the night than day. i want to travel during the night, it would be great for both me and my horse since we could travel on the cold and not dehydrate as much as we do under the sun but my lovely horse don't want to sleep on day, even when i stop with her on a shadow during hours on mid day. well, at least it's autumn, almost winter, so the sun isn't as strong as on summer. I got only four days more food and the water is about to end. happily, i am supposed to find an oasis tomorrow. the Wayhali once told me that the Benshira can't live without water for more than three days, i guess how can they live on desert with such a low stock of water. it must be by hunting us.

[Satish]

57th Fall, 511 AV Today when the sun was about to fall i have found the oasis marked on the map. it was very small, with only few trees next to it but Kawak and i could finally drink as much we wanted and i filled my water skin. Kawak is the name i gave to my horse, i thought it would be silly to keep calling her "horse". we both can live with little water but it doesn't mean we don't like drinking a lot of it. Now that the moon had risen and i got water source it was time to restock my food supply. but before i had to prepare myself, i established and camouflaged my tent and the water trap, then i took my hunting gear: sword, bow, arrow, sighting lens and cloak. this feather cloak was made by my mother and have the Eagle Lord's symbol on it's back but it isn't my favorite feature, this cloak has a weak smell of bird even after all those years and it's enough to hide my smell from the keen sense of the wild animals. OOCI never wrote or experienced a hunt so it will be *very* strange。 Please, if you know anything about hunting, send me a PM with tips on how to write it. If there is water, there is life. there is no other oasis on few days range and i found a lot of excrement near to the oasis, the number and the smell was enough to tell me that it was goat's waste and it was new: there is goats nearby. i am lucky, it is not so easy to find games but i found it on the first try, now i had to track them. a quick search was enough to find some footprints and now i had to follow it. I tracked the footprints until a place covered by sand, i became afraid i wouldn't find those goats, i quickly took the sighting lens from my hip and overlooked the area. thanks god, i found them. excited but carefully, i started my approach, i am not well trained on bow as the elders, so i have to stay very close to them to hit. step by step i got near enough to start feeling their winds on my hand, close enough to my archery but i didn't wanted to mess my effort by missing an arrow. slowly i approached them but suddenly they became very nervous. why? why? i concealed my smell and was approaching very cautiously, but still i failed on my hunt. When i started to give up and curse myself, i felt a very strong wind. almost instinctively i hid behind a rock. this sensation, i felt it before, i don't know where. is it... baral?

[Cantrip]

Satish was right to fear. However, hiding wasn't of any use. He hunched behind his boulder, while the whisper of the wind spoke of danger, stank of rank fur, of putrefying flesh. The beast was there, buried in the murk, in the threads and folds of sand, and it was hungry. For him, perhaps. But for now, it was just playing. The inky dark closed around the hunter, the abruptly frigid wind howling in his ears, grit scouring at his face. There were noises, nearly all of a hush, barely perceptible. The bleat of goats, that he heard most distinctly. And then, before he could react, the thing came vaulting from a crease in the sands, just a flicker of dark fur. The squat face - not that he saw it, even - a ram that struck him viciously in the hip, making him tumble, sprawl on the cold, brutal sands. And then it was gone, without even tearing his flesh, and the bleat of the goats was frenzied. Harsh, squealing cries, the tear of teeth, a rending of flesh, crunching of bones. They halted, for a long moment, and then began again, unrelenting, a savagery that easily could be repeated.

[Satish]

57th Fall, 511 AV After being knocked down by the beast I stand up quickly fearing another attack but by some reason the creature left me alone and was hunting the Goats. Was it a warning? Anyway, staying here any longer can make the beast change it's mind and make it want to eat me as well. With a bit of chagrin for the fail, I head back to my camp. Finally on my camp, I had to review my plans. If I could get some more meat, I would rest next day and resume my travel at night but my failure and knowing that I won't be able to hunt around here I will have to proceed on my way. I got 3 more days of food, if I distribute it maybe it will make for 4 or 5 days, I hope finding a new source of food on my way. But today I tracked Goats and was hit by a Baral. I... I guess I'm allowed to rest now and worry about it tomorrow...