Otataral, 956th Year in the Time Dying

[Dome]

Romidus looks at Sapphire as she gets to her feet and holds his tongue on making any comments. He was hoping she took initiative on her own, not recommended by someone else.

With a sigh, Romdius says to the group, "he wants us to head to him. He thinks that if we don't get on the Caravan path we will die. He seems pretty sure about that and doesn't understand why we would go any other way. The place is death as far as he is concerned."

Romidus looks up the cliff face trying to pick out a path they should take while holding the reins of one of the camels. "There," he says pointing out a path that the camels could take.

[dice=100]Basic Climb 27%[rand=16974793636693829849934420939372305413542968602575813886816355878]

[sasqaricious]

"Well I guess that did not go as planned fully. I am sorry I have failed you all!" Sapphire looks down ashamed.

[albatross]

Searching the goat herder's mind, the deadlands are so called for the simple reason that plants and water grow steadily scarcer for hundreds of miles. He doesn't lend any credence to old stories about people becoming sick in the deadlands. Most people die of dehydration or starvation before anything could make them sick.

Meanwhile the caravan trail the young man is leading his goats along has regular buried water holes and a (relatively) abundant amount of vegetation.

Once the camels have come up the ridge, the young man seems to regret saving them - seeing only a bunch of of migrants who will either steal his goats or overgraze their camels and make him miserable.

But as he leads his goats away, each of them laden with water skins, he follows some kind of path. In the shifting sands its hard to track the caravan path in front of the goat herder - its obvious he is going by sense of direction more than the few traces of passage. But behind the goats the path is easy to follow.

[Dome]

As they come up the rise Romidus points out the goat herder to all. "There is water along this path, any other way, we would find none. He," pointing at the goat dude again, "knows the path, we do not. We should try and keep our distance, he doesn't trust us, but if we lose sight of the last of the goats, we may lose the trail in wind blown sand. It doesn't seemed to be marked."

Romidus wrapped up in the same robes as everyone else begins to move his camel to follow, he realizes he has forgotten to mention something. Turning in his saddle he says, "by the way, he isn't human."

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Who, besides Aki, is human?" Allen asks, his camel going with the caravan-herd. "It looks like we have found our guide. What do we have to ohfer him for his services?"

[Dome]

With a shrug Romidus says, "fair point, I just didn't want you to be surprised by him. Hmm, let me see what I can do, we may not need to offer anything."

With his telepathy, Romidus tries to send images of their group and showing that they are friendly and mean no harm. He doesn't know if it will work or not but shows the group smiling and laughing and extending a hand out to the boy palm up. He also sends images he thinks up of the young man guiding them. Pointing things out and showing the way. He hopes that the lizard-boy shepherd will think it is his mind showing him what he should do.

[shiivster]

Yumi pokes her head out again and sniffs the air. gives a chirp and then half emerges from her bag to stare at the goatherd. sniffing the air she sneezes then ducks back inside, only to peek out again to watch with bright eyes. a small chirp has Aki giving the furry beast a sliver of dried fish.

the Mongoose takes the food and disappears and then pokes the head out to watch as it chews, food held in one hand. Aki simply scritches her friend with a look down at the little flirt and can be heard chuckling.

*she gives a curious look at the goats. her mind seeking any that might have an injury. she doesn't like animals in pain, and if possible, will attept to heal them and make them feel safer

[albatross]

Aki is able to discover that some of the goats have minor injuries from their travel through the desert. The injuries would be easy to heal.

The goat herder is very unhappy at Romidus' offer. He wants the camels to stay away from the goats, preferably behind them, so they don't eat the plants the goats need. (Camels can range fairly far for edible plants, and its easy for a rider to go with them, ranging far for food with a herd of goats is hard work).

The goat herder doesn't want them to die of thirst on the wrong path, but he'd rather they kept their distance.

[Dome]

"He doesn't seem to want us around. He can't stop us from following, but he has no plans on being our guide," Romidus says watching the goats up ahead. "Does anyone have anything that we can offer him? Anyway we can make him want to help us? With out force," He wonders how Sapphire is doing. She had climbed on a camel and followed them up the trail although no one had ordered it, 'that was good,' Romidus thinks to himself. While waiting for the others to answer he reaches out to her with his empathy and his telepathy to see what she is thinking and feeling at this point.

{empathy: 4 isp Telepathy 4 isp.}

[Renekin Skywalker]

Allen nods to Romidus. "We have one thing to offer." he says, waving a hand at Aki. "Let's see what she does with his goats. Maybe it'll get us some good will. In the meantime, we'll take his advice..." He turns to Romidus. "What is his advice, exactly?"

[shiivster]

*as the others haven't yet commited to travel yet and others are still on their journey up the trail still .. she clicks at the camel and taps the shoulder .. and once it kneels, slings her bag on teh saddle and motions it to stay .. and hunkers down between the goats and themselves .. and clicks at the injured ones to approach.

*she natters away in Korean to the lad, even if he can't understand her. 'some are hurting. i fix .. i fix. they travel longer for you then' *her giggle as the smelly beasts move up to sniff at her is funny to observe.

*she simply calls to them to come sniff the back of her hand and the other is palm up to the goatherd. [american] 'can you tell him i fix goats. they like me .. heheheee' *she's giggling again as she touches an ear of one and closes her eyes and resumes in Korean. it's some kind of chant to focus her mind to the task at hand.

[11% - healing animals is working]

[sasqaricious]

Save vs. Psionics - [dice=20] (Telepathy)
Save vs. Psionics - [dice=20] (Empathy)

Sapphire continues on her way, not even noticing the intrudes on behalf of the new comer to the group.[rand=98552771239440842424933016394493816911384236205838696683790967438]

[albatross]

The goat herder accepts Aki's healing of the goats, but he still seems every suspicious of the group, and nothing they do or say really changes that.

But he does seem to know where he is going. Every few days, he halts the goats and digs a hole in the sand which eventually fills with sandy water. He strains this water, re-filling the water skins that the goats carry and letting each goat drink its fill.

It is slow going, following a herd of goats, but it beats being lost.

After a couple weeks, everyone feels sandy and has gotten used to the sway of riding camels.

Off in the distance, something catches the goat herder's attention, and he stares at it a while trying to figure out what it is. Eventually he continues towards the speck on the horizon. There is no other path, no way around. Whatever it is will become clear eventually.

[shiivster]

Yumi now takes to riding on the shoulders of Aki and looks about and chirps from time to time. Aki laughs again, then the mongoose is down in the carry sack again. when she gets down at evening break to check o nthe goats, the mongoose follows her and hops on the girl's back to look down at the goats

[dakota]

Dryzh was feeling horrible, the dryness of the planet taking it's toll on him. He consumed three times the water of anyone else because of his amphibian nature, but was still constantly slightly nauseous and thirsty.He kept himself covered up, chancing overheating in favor of drying out from the sun. Because of his condition, he kept quiet and to himself, but at least he had learned to ride the camel somewhat competently.

" Dryzh not think take much more this. Mantella no made this long on beach without swim." He said while drinking more water.