The Sea of Sand [completed]

[Ronin Invictus]

42 winter, 512 av

The sun was just rising now on the sea of sand that was the Burning Lands. The sand was like an endless ocean that stretched on from horizon to horizon, the enormous dunes where the waves of this ocean. Ronin groaned as he crested yet another of the gigantic waves, catching a glimpse of the horizon now after being in the shadow of the last dune. The sun was now rising, and he would go from freezing to being cooked. Ronin sighed, plopping down on the top of the dune, setting his backpack beside him now as he started scanning the horizon from his vantage point. This is hopeless... Ronin thought as he saw nothing but even more dunes of sand that seemed to stretch on endlessly. Ronin then looked back from where he came, a winding trail of footprints in the sand showing him where he tread previously, beyond those foot prints the wind had already buried the prints, but he knew the generally direction from which he came.

Maybe I should turn back... Ronin sat there watching the sun rise then, bathing the desert in an orange light now, the dunes casting long shadows now across the landscape. Ronin shook his head slightly then, getting up to his feet with a new found resolve. He had come this far already, already leaving behind Cyphrus beyond the horizon, maybe he would find something, anything if he just pushed on a little farther; And with that he shouldered his backpack pushing forward down the opposite slope of the dune, heading towards the rising sun.

[Ronin Invictus]

43 winter, 512 av

Ronin had made little progress through the desert during his first day in the Burning Lands. Ever inch he traveled yesterday was earned with sweat, and every ounce of energy he had. He had never fathomed it would have gotten as hot as it did, remembering how cold it was at night. Last night was even more of a shock to him than his first night, going from sweating profusely to freezing, needless to say, Ronin didn't get much sleep. Again, he was faced with an endless expanse of dunes, but now he didn't have any water left, water that would usually last him a week only lasted him one day, and as the sun started to rise once again, he wasn't as sure about himself as he was the previous day, but he knew he had to try, while he kept moving, he would at least have some chance to live, salvation could be just over the horizon, so he pushed on, only running himself into the ground.

Soon, it approached noon in the desert, Ronin was running on instincts, but just barely. His whole body was cramping at this point his shallow breath causing his whole chest to protest sharply with every breath. Just when he thought he was a goner, that is when he saw it! A magnificent oasis with a big lake full of water, green grass and trees grew around it. As fast as he could, Ronin made his way to the water, dropping on his knees near the edge of the pool cupping some water in his hands, but as he went to drink it, he found it to be sand! Ronin promptly spit out the sand, it was hot and dry in his mouth, not what he was expecting. The oasis was now gone, replaced by endless sand once more. That was when he lost hope then. He crawled to a small rock jutting out of the sand nearby, the only real thing from his mirage, everything else was just him seeing things. He set his backpack next to him before leaning back against the rock closing his eyes then. Shortly after he lost consciousness.

[Bethsyliss]

Day 44 of Winter, 512 AV. Two weeks into her journey from the viper nest to Ahnatep, Bethsyliss started to grow rather hungry. The last meal she had enjoyed before she left the place where she had spent her whole life had consisted of a goat that had taken her three days to ingest. By now the energy provided by the nutrients was wearing off, and she desperately needed some energy if she was to reach her destination. Before leaving, Bethsyliss knew that traveling alone in the desert for twenty days -- the time it was supposed to take to get to Ahnatep -- would be a difficult matter, but she was determined to prove to herself that she was strong enough to succeed, choosing to travel under the open sky during wintertime rather than taking the long underground tunnel that connected the viper nest to the capital of Eyktol. However, the exhaustion starting to pile up on her little serpentine body, she was now painfully aware of the full meaning of the word "hunger". Maybe this wasn't sssuch a good idea after all, she thought. The nessst was a nice place. The men brought back food from their hunting expeditionsss while I ssstudied poisons with my eldersss. Never was I required to hunt for food myself, let alone experience hunger this intenssse. Perhapsss I ssshould have ssstayed there. I would have taken care of mother as I have been doing diligently for the last ninety yearsss of my life. She stiffened. No. What am I thinking? There's a reason I'm doing all of this. I am doing thisss for my people. I am doing thisss to avenge mother. I am doing thisss to honor the memory of father. Never mind the hunger. I am ssstrong enough now to ssset out on life on my own. I don't need the nessst anymore. Mingled feelings of determination and deep regret had been haunting Bethsyliss for the entire duration of her voyage. Her decision to carry out her life elsewhere in order to achieve her goals was definitive, but she had not yet managed to sort out her feelings about it. The inner conflict was using up a lot of her energy, which she already did not have enough of. She desperately needed food as well as something to get her mind off her worries. As she was slithering slowly on the rolling dunes of the sea of sand, her acute nose picked up a satisfying scent of live meat. Cow? she thought, her spirits high. Sssiku be praised, today I'm feasssting. Bethsyliss silently crawled along the trail of the smell. The cow was further than she had expected. The freezing nights of the desert carried smells a longer way than the day did. Once she crested the steep dune she was climbing, she spotted her bovine target. The cow was sleeping on the gentle slope of the dune facing her. An easssy target, she said to herself. As she approached the slumbering cow, she slowed down, trying to make as little noise with the rubbing of her scales against the cold sand as she could. She was only a few feet away when the cow woke up, immediately alert. The animal that was to be her breakfast threw a glance around itself, its eyes tainted with suspicion. In the darkness, the cow was udderly unable to spot Bethsyliss, her scales black as the night. When the cow's head was turned, Bethsyliss quickly coiled herself up, and sprang upward onto the cow's back. There was a loud moo as she dug her little fangs into the cow's neck. The cow reared back, throwing Bethsyliss on her back, and awkwardly bolted away, running up the slope to escape the dreaded reptile. That went rather well, she congratulated herself. Looksss like I'm ssstuffing myself tonight. Bethsyliss knew that it was a mere matter of minutes before the poison she had delivered through her fangs reached the cow's heart, so she did not hurry behind it. The cow disappeared behind the top of the dune. Soon after, Bethsyliss heard the squeals of pain her deadly poison undoubtedly caused the animal. She did not pride herself with her success, but was excited at the prospect of devouring such a great amount of fresh meat. Before she had attained the top of the wavelike dune, the cries stopped. She smiled in the manner of snakes and slithered toward her well-deserved meal. What she saw when she crested the dune did not please her. Near the dead cow was another figure, lying down on the sand against a small rock. She knew a fight would be inevitable should she approach that figure with open hostility, because there was no way the noisy agony of the cow could have passed unnoticed. The thing down there was undoubtedly awake, and it was probably aware it was not alone. Bethsyliss thought it best to greet the figure in human form. She shifted from her snake form in that process that gave her so much pleasure. Arms and legs grew from her limbless body while the scales smoothed and fused with each other, permitting the shape of her body to organise around bones strapped into place by her muscles. She gave out a little yodel when she was done transforming less than a minute later, and started down the sandy slope toward the figure, the rock and her food. She said, in common tongue, "Hello, there. This is my cow, but I sssuppose it's a lot of meat for one woman. Care to ssshare a meal?" Then she realized with great dismay that she was naked in front of a stranger at night in the middle of the Burning Lands.

[Ronin Invictus]

Day 44 of Winter, 512 AV

Ronin squinted at the bright light that blinded him suddenly as the sun peaked over the rock he leaned against, shining the bright rays in his eyes. Ronin groaned, shielding his eyes from the sun with one of his arms as he propped himself up on one elbow, he seemed to have slid down into a laying position when he fell unconscious. Judging from the position of the sun, it was already late in the afternoon, as he had been in the shade of the rock most of the day until now. Ronin sat there for a few moments, simply trying to remember why he was there, his mind felt muddle, as if a haze had came over it, he was finding it very hard to think straight. He even reached for his backpack, taking out his empty waterskin before remembering it was empty again. Ronin tossed the empty water skin a stone's throw away in the sand irritably then before moving to sit up. The moment he sat up the desert started spinning at a nauseating rate forcing him to lie back down in the sand where he laid for a few long minutes before gathering the energy to crawl to the other side of the rock, slowly but surely, and propping himself against the rock again now once more shaded from the sun.

Ronin remained propped against the rock then, staring at the shadow of the rock as it became longer and longer as day turned to night, he seemed to be in mental conflict, forcing him muddled and confused mind to try and come up with any ideas to get water, to get out alive. At least it would give him some sort of hope. Once the sun had fully disappeared behind the horizon, the desert now completely enshrouded in darkness, the desert started to get colder by the minute, leaving Ronin shivering, as he rapped himself in his own arms to fight off the cold night.

It was then that Ronin spotted a cow, oddly enough, just in the corner of his vision. Ronin watched it pass by him, the cow only offering him a glance before disappeared over the dune. Ronin wanted more than anything to go after that cow, it would give him the hydration and nutrients he needed to survive out here. Ronin stared at where the cow disappeared over the dune, that could have very well been his last chance at survival, now gone. After a few long minutes pondering how long it would take him to die here, and if he would suffer the cow appeared over the dune again, obviously the animal was in a panic. Ronin watched silently as it ran towards him now before collapsing and convulsing a few times before lying still not more than a few feet away from him. Maybe he would be dieing a lot sooner than he thought. Ronin tried in vain to at least hide behind the other side of the rock, but was rewarded with more nauseating spinning, causing him to lean back against the rock with a solid thump. It would take him to long to crawl away, whatever the beast that had killed the cow was, there was no avoiding it.

Just then, he heard some footsteps being made in the sand, about a stone's throw away before a woman had came into his field of vision, he wasn't able to see very far in the darkness. Ronin seemed slightly puzzled as well as frightened now his eyes jumping from the cow to the woman a few times.

"Hello, there. This is my cow, but I sssuppose it's a lot of meat for one woman. Care to ssshare a meal?"

Ronin sat there in silence for a few moments, as if wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him again, like it did previously with the fictitious oasis. Ronin didn't ponder it too long now though, desperation soon getting the better of him. Ronin went to speak, but was met with a sort of rasping sound in his throat which was quite painful, so instead of trying to speak he simply nodded his head quickly although making no move towards the cow yet.

[Bethsyliss]

Bethsyliss thought the young man's silence and stillness was a consequence of his bewilderment at her naked body. He merely nodded in agreement to her proposition but did not move an inch toward the carcass lying between them. "I'm terribly sssorry," she apologized quickly. "I hadn't planned on running into somebody in the middle of the Burning Lands, so I didn't bring any clothes." She paused. "I'm not sssaying that I'm in the habit of running around naked when nobody'sss looking. You sssee, I'm a --" But her mind caught up with her tongue before she blundered into anything rash and she left her sentence hanging in the cold air, suddenly remembering what her father had told her years before about the reputation of the Dhani among the other races. Despite his explanations, she couldn't for the life of her figure out why people should be suspicious of snakes. Nevertheless, she took the precaution of not awakening this stranger's potential xenophobia -- at least not until she found out what his intentions towards her were. Then she realized something very important. Perhaps it was not her nudity that appeared to baffle him so. Hundreds of leagues away from any kind of gathering, this person had likely roamed around the desert for weeks, effectively rendering him exhausted and dehydrated, as was she. Only, she was partly snake and had tremendous digestive capacity that he probably did not possess, enabling her to conserve some of the vital energy he was deprived of. Bethsyliss's eyes narrowed as she grasped the full meaning of the current circumstances. His weakness put her in a position of power. She had no need of civility; he was the one who would have to comply, should she decide to take advantage of the situation. Naturally, she decided to take advantage of the situation. "I jussst killed a cow," she proudly hissed, rising to her full height and with her head slightly raised at the stars in the pressing darkness. Her snakelike golden eyes shone brightly like burning beads of molten amber. "I killed a cow, and you're hungry and tired. Before I let you touch any of my food, you're going to talk. You're going to tell me everything I need to know about you before I even begin to think about trusssting you. I want to know your name, I want to know your lineage, I want to know where you're from, where you're going and why you're going there. And I want you to give me two very good reasonsss why you think I should keep you alive. Ssstart talking. You'd better be convincing." With a self-satisfied smirk, she peered intently at him, urging him to advocate for his survival with sadistic eagerness glowing in her glare. Deep inside, she didn't want to dispose of him, but was trying to assert her dominance in order to ensure her own safety. Of course, she didn't want to admit her peculiar little fondness for this vulnerable young man. Unwanted thoughts crept into her mind and she cast them away as she strove to keep up an impressive allure and powerful demeanor about her.

[Ronin Invictus]

Ronin shifted slightly to get a better look at the woman who had approached him. She was nude, which might have startled anyone else, but the kel'vic didn't pay no mind to that. The only reason Ronin didn't travel in his animal form was his need to carry what belongings he had, and shifting into human form in the middle of the desert during the day with no clothes on, well the sunburns that could result from that were definently not appealing to Ronin. At least his clothes gave him some sort of protection while in his human form, something he would lose if he wanted to shift into his animal form.

"I hadn't planned on running into somebody in the middle of the Burning Lands, so I didn't bring any clothes." She paused. "I'm not sssaying that I'm in the habit of running around naked when nobody'sss looking. You sssee, I'm a --"

Ronin titled his head slightly at her, but did not press for any answers. Whoever she was, she seemed to be quite adept in traveling through the desert, and she had so much energy over him. He could only hope she wouldn't take advantage of it.

"I killed a cow, and you're hungry and tired. Before I let you touch any of my food, you're going to talk. You're going to tell me everything I need to know about you before I even begin to think about trusssting you. I want to know your name, I want to know your lineage, I want to know where you're from, where you're going and why you're going there. And I want you to give me two very good reasonsss why you think I should keep you alive. Ssstart talking. You'd better be convincing."

Much to Ronin's dismay, he was wrong. Ronin frowned slightly before moving to prop himself up a little higher on the rock, into more of a sitting position. Ronin had to speak now, or he could be as good as dead. Exhaling slightly his voice broke the long silence, strained and grating at first.

"My name is Ronin Invictus, I am from Cyphrus." He paused then wincing slightly as his dry throat protested but his voice seemed slightly steadier now, maybe it was from lack of use. "I don't know anything of my lineage, except that I had a mother and a father, but I don't remember much of them. I don't know where I am going I was chased into the desert by slavers, I couldn't turn back, they were probably expecting me to turn around and come back out."

Ronin sighed then, his shoulders slumping even farther now, "I don't have any good reasons why you should keep me alive, but I can make it worth while." Ronin said gesturing towards the backpack that was beside him, in it was about six hundred mizas, money was the least of Ronin's worries at the time.

[Bethsyliss]

As the man who had introduced himself as Ronin Invictus gestured toward his backpack, Bethsyliss gave him a wry look and smiled slightly. "Well," she declared, moving over to the backpack, "let's check out what we have here." She had hardly even opened the main pocket that she gasped. She jerked her head towards Ronin. "How much are you carrying, lad?" she asked, her mouth agape. She did not wait for him to answer before roughly counting the amount of money contained in the backpack. Sssiku's fangs! she thought, her mouth agape as the sheer value of the backpack's contents struck her fully. There must be at least five hundred mizas stassshed in here! And the boy didn't think of buying food with it before sssetting out in the Burning Lands? What a fool! I ssshould rid the face of Mizahar of such idiocy and gobble him up on the ssspot! He does seem quite tasssty. But then again, if I'm going to take his money, sssomebody's going to have to carry it, and I sssure don't plan on crossing the whole desert until I get to Ahnatep in human form dragging that along. Plusss, I can probably come up with more than one way to make this Ronin person useful. As she conferred with her thoughts, she saw Ronin eyeballing her. She figured his expression was that of a man patiently waiting for his fate to be pronounced rather than one who was prepared to bolt away in a final, desperate attempt at saving both his freedom and his life. She tried to find a way to turn this attitude of his to her advantage. At the nest, she had learned that, when in a dominant position, one must always give one's enemies the possibility of escaping or salvaging something if one is unsure of the enemies' capabilities because, if they're certain that they can't flee, they become desperate, fight more ferociously and act more dangerously. Such strategic thinking seemed to Bethsyliss to be applicable to this particular situation. She also didn't want to strip this man of everything he had, out of a mysterious feeling of empathy she didn't fully comprehend or even accept -- but she convinced herself she was making a decision solely on the basis of logic. "Tell you what, Ronin. I could take everything you have, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not trying to be unfair. I need a way to guarantee my life if I so choose to sssave you, and you have been unable to provide with sssuch a way. But since you ssso kindly offered to make my rescuing you from the sandsss worth the trouble, I won't do you the insult of refusing. You have clearly proven your inability at sssurviving in the Burning Lands on your own, and there's no question you need me if you plan on making it alive. Ssso here it goes. Upon arrival at our dessstination, you will give me the five hundred gold-rimmed mizas required for providing yourself with lodgingsss. In exchange, I will allow you to use my place as a shelter until you make the money necesssary to buy your own home." Bethsyliss paused, and her golden eyes went distant for a small moment. Then she focused back. "Think of it as buying a house like a regular sale. I'm not cheating you out of the price. I'm just forcing you -- no, encouraging you to strike a fair deal with me. No ripoffs. You get to keep the rest of your money and belongingsss, as well as live under my roof, for the same price it would cossst you to buy yourself one. And you have your life. What do you say, Ronin?" All in all, Bethsyliss was quite satisfied with the way she handled the situation. All at once, she was causing someone to owe her their life, she was making herself a household companion, and she was getting good money out of it. She was positively glowing. It couldn't have gone any better. Soon they'd agree on a system and then they'd happily feast on the fresh cow lying dead at their feet.

[Ronin Invictus]

Ronin watched with the same blank, exhausted expression as the woman dug around in his backpack. It was filled with a variety of things, mostly coin filled the backpack, with a few bits and bobs Ronin had deemed useful. He didn't have much time once he had set his plan in action to escape the slaver that owned him. He had quickly raided the secret coin stash that the slaver had kept in his tent, Ronin only knew about it because he had pretended to be well behaved enough to become the slaver's personal servant. So the moment the slaver had left him alone in the tent he had taken everything he would of thought he needed as well as all the mizas in the small stash.

Ronin didn't like the idea of stealing, but in his frenzied rush he didn't really care at that moment, taking whatever he thought he needed, and six hundred mizas sure can last him quite a while. After the fact, he felt slight guilt at what he had done, but there was an odd feeling he could remember that night as he quickly shoveled the coins in his pack, was it excitement? Did he actually enjoy stealing while in the heat of the moment?

Ronin seemed to have trailed off in his thoughts before slightly shaking his head, what kind of thoughts was he thinking? He was no thief.

His attention returned as the mysterious woman spoke again. As she continued on, the deal seemed fairly reasonable to Ronin, he would just have to deal with living with the woman for a while. The prospect of that so far didn't seem very good, but she was his only hope of survival, he had no choice. Ronin nodded slightly then accepting the deal, opting again to not use his strained grating voice if he could help it. Ronin's eyes then fell on the cow carcass again almost involuntarily for a slight moment before his gaze landed back on the woman. He was slightly unsure if it was okay to start feasting on the cow carcass yet, and he didn't want to anger her. Looking over the cow carcass now, there were two small, cuts in it but no other wounds. How did she kill it? Ronin didn't want to find out.

[Bethsyliss]

The deal was sealed. Bethsyliss stifled a grin, but a slight smile nonetheless managed to creep on her face. Bethsyliss actually surprised herself with the amount of satisfaction she felt as soon as Ronin had signaled his agreement with a faintly perceptible nod. Thoughts that she did not want to think and pictures she did not want to imagine pushed into her mind, but she ignored them, struggling a little with herself in order to blot them out. After all, she could only have expected that kind of satisfaction: she had earned herself a whopping five hundred gold mizas in exchange for dragging this incompetent but docile man along with her across the desert and sheltering him until he made the money to find a new home. She could easily live with that price. She certainly did not intend to use him as a slave -- the mere word brought haunting memories and nightmarish worlds to her soul. Ronin's eyes droning toward the carcass reminded Bethsyliss's stomach that it was empty. It growled loudly to signal to her its impatience. Bethsyliss laughed a rich, genuine laugh, then said, "I'm glad that'sss settled. Now, let's eat." Bethsyliss had always preferred ingesting her food while in snake form, because it was a relaxing process that did not involve cutting the food up in manageable bits, munching and swallowing. She started to morph. Several seconds into the process, as her skin began shimmering into scales, she interrupted herself, remembering the young man. I'd better not ssscare him away with something he's not expecting, she thought, composing herself. I highly doubt he's used to the notion of people changing into animalsss. His mind must be too tired right now to cope with sssuch novel information, ssso I'll wait until after we feed ourselves to let him handle it. Even if it means I'll have to eat the human way... She sighed a little regretfully at the fact that she wouldn't be able to enjoy her meal to the fullest, but, at the end of the day, food was food and all she needed was to eat it, whichever way. "We're going to have to cook it, I'm afraid. Our... human digestive syssstems are unable to processs raw meat effectively. We might die from food poisoning if we don't sscorch it at leassst a bit." Bethsyliss looked all around her at the plain expanse of endless sand. She frowned. Finding firewood to build a fire was not going to prove easy. "Ssstay here," she ordered. "I'm going to have a look behind this dune to sssee if I can ssspot an acacia tree. We'll need the branchesss if we're going to make a fire." She trailed off a ways from Ronin, going up the next sandy slope, her feet hitting rock at some places in the sand. She strangely trusted the young man not to steal her food and run away, despite the fact that he confessed having already done so only a few days ago.

[Ronin Invictus]

Ronin could just slightly make out the slight smile that came over the woman's appearance when he accepted the deal, what had he gotten himself into? She laughed suddenly then, before speaking. At the mention of eating, Ronin's eyes fell back on the cow carcass once again. He pondered then a few long moments if he should shift into his animal form to eat, as the woman had mentioned nothing of cooking it, but surely she wouldn't eat it raw? Ronin was distracted by the prospect of finally feasting on the cow to notice Bethsyliss start to morph into her snake form, his eyes only flicking back to her after she spoke.

Ronin nodded slightly at Bethsyliss before she turned around to go look for a tree. Ronin wordlessly watched as she disappeared from his sight, only a short ways away, his eyes weren't accustomed to the dark night, so he couldn't see very far. In fact the only thing he could make out was the sand near him and the dark mound nearby that was the cow. His instincts where screaming by now to quickly eat as much meat as he could and book it, but he was able to restrain himself somewhat, he couldn't tell if she actually paused some distance away and was watching him from the darkness. His mind was still quite muddled, and he feared the woman could just be playing him, but him being in his current state of mind he couldn't very well tell if she was.

Ronin then thought about the inevitable situation of when she found out he wasn't just a regular human. If she didn't find his long canines that resembled those in his animal form supicious when they ate the cow, it would only be a matter of time before she found out. He didn't really know what to expect when she found out.