Otataral, 956th Year in the Time Dying

[shiivster]

Aki pauses the camel and has it circle and return to the giant warrior and gets it to kneel down and lets Yumi out to sniff about. she watches the small beast move about then roll about in the sand and then shake off. the mongoose then approaches the foot of the giant and sniff then trots back to Aki and chitters as it swarms up the cloth and into the carry bag again.

Aki scritches the patient camel and feels better as she waits for the others to come. then looks at Ora and asks while mimicing fight. 'Ora fight . . . ?' then points in the direction the beast went in .. wondering what THAT thing was called

[albatross]

"Ora fight?" Ora responds. She shrugs, looking after the creatures trail and mumbles something. Its possible she doesn't know what it was called. Then Ora indicates the piece of stone on her arm and points at the trail and then indicates her now much shorter sword and points again at the trail.

Eventually, the goat herder and the goats and the rest of the group and their camels arrive. They all have a long water break, the goat herder sharing two full skins with the giant, and they proceed traveling. The goat herder seems eager to get away from where the beast made its lair, as if it might return. The giant seems ambivalent, but strides next the goat herder when they set out.

The two of them talk a little during the day, and when the sun starts to set and the goat herder moves to make camp, the giant moves from one person to the next, talking and pointing towards the horizon.

She doesn't talk to the goat herder, but instead goes to everyone else. She repeats herself, and gestures towards the goats, the water skins, the camels, and each person several times as if she expects them to arrive at some conclusion.

Eventually, with the goats taken care of, the goat herder also accompanies the giant, and the two of them indicate that they would like the group to mount up on its camels and continue during the night.

The copper skinned giant is very patient, and doesn't seem upset, but she and the goat herder are also insistent that they must move on.

Eventually, she draws a long waving line on the sands, and puts pictures of little stick goats on one dot and little pictures of stick camels and people on a different dot, and puts a couple more dots between the two pictures.

Then she draws another line, this time with one dot. She draws all the camels and goats and stick people all together at the same dot only this time upside down. Then she points to the water skins, to the goats, to the water skins, to the camels, then back to the water skins.

[shiivster]

Aki yawns once and nods. turning to the others she comments "ora would like us .. feed and water selves and camels .. then travel at night. the beast she fought was bigger than she and her sword broke while fighting it. it may come back. while it look like animal, i cannot touch its mind. so is not animal. we are near its lair now. i not want to see it again up close. once is enough'

[dakota]

" Bigger?" Dryzh's eyes went wider in disbelief, looking at the size of the giant. "And we go that way? Sure good idea?"

[Dome]

Romidus watched the battle and the following activity by the giant in wonder. He paid close attention to all the details. As someone who witnessed human history and spent much of his time recording it he found the entire thing fascinating.

He says to the group, "In all my millenia of experience, I have never witnessed anything like that. Aki, would you know why this giantess would want to help us?"

[shiivster]

'no .. but i think she was interested in the sword as a fellow fighter to back her up in the battle. but we cannot understand each other's words. but i think that moving now would be good. i am not wishing to see that thing return. it wore its bones o nthe outside and the insides were black skin or hide.

'it bite her sword into pieces with one bite. I am not staying here to wait, i will follow them and the camels most likely will follow me. they like me, muck like the little horned ones down there . . ' *motions to the goats

[Renekin Skywalker]

"She probably wants to make sure we drink water and get our camels watered." Allen says. "Or esle, they want us to move on so as not to tax their own goats' water supply." Looking at Romidus, he adds, "Unless there are other insights?"

[Renekin Skywalker]

Making sure his camel had enough to drink, Allen mounts up, ready to follow the giant, Ora. "Tally ho?"

[albatross]

The giant nods. Her long strides set a good pace, though its no trouble for the camels to keep up.

Traveling in the cool of the night feels much nicer than the daytime, and there is no clouds to hide the stars. Without the herd of goats and the herder on foot, they are able to travel more than twice as far as usual.

Ora sweeps out to the side from time to time and returns with edible cactus plants for the humanoids or some weeds for the camels. It is easy to see she has traveled this trail before.

She is constantly pointing to things to get someone to say the word in English, and she learns rapidly. She appears to be a natural linguist, she even curious about Aki's occasional lapses into Korean.

Before the sun comes up, she finds sheltered spots for each person and their camels. They have to spread out since steep dunes and rocks are scarce.*

Even though the goat herder will be traveling today, he won't get this far. Each day he will be left a little further behind, which is exactly what the goat herder and the giant intend, for reasons that will quickly become clear.

Sleeping in the daytime proves surprisingly difficult, except for those who are solar powered. It is almost 100 F/38C in the shade, and though it is a dry heat it is still unrelenting. Also, they need to shift positions in the afternoon once the shade moves. Despite the difficulty of sleep, rest proves easy. Lying around drinking water is about all most people want to do at that temperature, and the few plants Ora leaves them go largely untouched. Eating a cool cactus at night tastes delicious, eating a hot one in the afternoon just makes one more uncomfortable.

But when the sun sets and Ora starts to round up the camels, its hard not to like the new arrangement. Riding camels in the cool darkness is hardly strenuous, so it hardly matters if they slept.


*Sapphire probably doesn't want or need shade. Which earns a laugh from Ora.

[sasqaricious]

Sapphire indeed does not want shade at all, and sits and enjoys the sun soaking it up as much as possible. Also it provides her alone time to reflect and how scared she is now. Almost more of being "Alone" now then when she was when she was attached to someone and left by herself.

[albatross]

As the group continues to travel by night, and rest during the day, they make good time and start to learn the rhythms of desert living.

Since Sapphire doesn't really need sleep, she is able to notice that the giant sleeps for only a few hours during the day, and that she takes at least two long walks each day to find food.

This isn't very strange, as the giant must need two or three times as much food as anyone else, and she brings back forage for the camels to eat as well.

But she also occasionally lies out in the sun without much clothing, as if meditating. This is unusual, as almost everyone but Sapphire covers up to avoid the sun's scorching rays as much as possible.

[sasqaricious]

She looks at the giant and tries her best to cast the tongues spell to communicate, even if it does not, "Why are you in the sun when the rest seem to hide?" Still shy in the asking but her curiosity overwhelming her.

[albatross]

The tongues spell doesn't work, but the giant seems to understand the question, repeating the word she knows: "Sun." She scratches her head, and is plainly at a loss to explain. She tries a couple times with gestures, but she can't really come up with anything Sapphire can understand.

But she smiles and points to her head and makes a curious gesture. She will answer the question, but later.

[Dome]

Romidus tries to read the large woman's thoughts to try and determine what exactly she is thinking about the group.

ISp = 4 Telepathy,

[albatross]

Surprised, Ora quickly senses Romidus' presence in her mind, and she is excited and curious about this new method of communication.

At first her thoughts are jumble of racing images. Romidus realizes that Ora's elaborate drawings indicate the water capacity of certain springs along the trail.

Some of the springs trickle slowly into shallow rock depressions. While they might support a dozen camels, a griffin, a giant, and a few people.... there is no way they would have supported a herd of goats as well. Staying together, the group would have not been able to survive along the trail. Putting a few nights travel between themselves and the goat herd will help all of them.

Then Romidus can sense a more coherent stream of thought:

You can read my mind? Wonderful. I didn't think we could talk for at least another thirty days.

You can tell the child with the big sword that we can spar if we make camp early. It has been years since I have met a proper swordsman.

And you can tell the sun child that I wish I had her skin. Forty-two seasons I have walked this desert and I can only manage one day in the sun at most despite all my training. She must be a truly ancient child to withstand it. Or perhaps she uses magic like in the old legends.

Who is your leader? The animal talker? The one with the flying demon?