"I am called Dred'Rikath Tenull, he is Atar'Ashi Tenull. The surname was a gift of our cohort. Some religious nonsense meaning "The Burned Ones". Silvedr'art..." he whispered to himself, then removed the wrap he had covering his face which he had moments before applied. Black cloth in this heat, bad idea he decided, wool no less. His eyes broke from the weapon buried in the ground before him and drifted to hers. Silverd'art. It sounded familiar, he wasn't sure from where, but it wasn't terribly important. The lady was correct in assuming he wanted to live, her name was relevant to their survival. Something shifted in the sand before him, he noted it in his peripheral but made no move for the weapon, nor did he fright away from it. "There is water everywhere in this desert, presumably easier to reach in the cooler temperatures of the eve, assuming we do not dehydrate and get the heat sickness. Presumably I want to live, even so, it would be unwise to move right now, and near impossible in your armor, and dragging the dead mule-" he paushed a moment and gestured with his hand to Atar "Dragging him. Speaking of your armor, you should remove it lest you die, dragging both of you would be unfortunate, and when you black out I will have to remove it anyway, it would be unseemly-"
His words trailed off, his attention back to the dagger before him, his hand snatched out, withdrew the dagger, and buried the blade into the writhing sand before him. In a fluid motion he pulled a scorpion about the size of his hand out of the top layer of earth, free hand snapping the creatures tail from its body in what looked like a practiced motion, tossed the tail aside, and dropped the dead scorpion on his cloak. Upon completing these actions he stuck the dagger back in the ground, whereupon his attention turned back to Silverd'art. "Unseemly to strip you, but if needed I will." He stifled a grin at the thought but he doubted he could hide it, he imagined she would fret at that, or throw something at him. "I think we are in the Moraki desert, in Esswyrn. I can gather a better location once the stars are above us. If there is groundwater, it likely feeds a river, perhaps a few days' travel from here, and from that river we can navigate to the golden city... if this is Moraki." Motion in the sand again, another scorpion caught, tail removed, and tossed to his cloak. The swordsman paused a moment and wiped his forehead clean of sweat with his sleeve.
"My father's father was of the desert people, we traveled a few times to Essyrn in my youth to visit distant relatives, we lived in a border village just inside Adela's claimed territory and so, distantly they governed us. The Adela military will also punish insubordinate soldiers with tours and patrols just outside of their territory, into the desert country bordering theirs. Most of these patrols will not survive to come back, those that do are generally better behaved...harder, better soldiers...but it leaves a bad taste. I have begun to ramble. The black scorpions here" he gestured, one hand to the scorpions, the other to the tails. "The claws can be ground up once you clean them out, when mixed with water it thickens, you can apply it to your exposed skin to prevent burning. The poison gland in the tails, the venom is thick, you can crush the sac and apply it to your skin on burnt areas, it will act as a numbing agent. Slick your blade with it and it is paralyzing. I will show you how to remove the venom sac in a moment." he looked beyond her, to the nearest of the cacti. This one had a large red flower atop it. "Those large cacti, among other things, are likely to contain water when sliced open. You said their is deep ground water? That would explain the state of the vegetation. It is my belief that if we rest, we can travel at night and easily sustain ourselves." This last sentence was spoken succinctly and upon completion he flashed his most winning smile, which he realized wasn't very winning when accounting the scars that marred his face. More movement under the sand before him, another scorpion nabbed.
"What is your relationship with Werglk?" Dred'Rikath's tone was harder, far more serious than it had been a moment ago, as he gazed forward his eyes seemed to gloss, lost in memories.