An Arctic Expedition, Interrupted

[kleineklementine]

Aha! So he wasn't a man. No man could say that he didn't need food or drink. Haala had to admit that he looked like a man, however, and she watched him unabashedly as he removed layer after layer of covering. Though many things could look like a man, and Haala certainly wasn't convinced. But she frowned a little at his answer to her questions. She hadn't really been interested in his outfit... well, she was a little interested in it, she supposed, but what she'd really been hoping for was an explanation of why he was here. Hopefully attached to some story or adventure! The open desert was an odd place to wander looking for tasks. Surely he would find more in the cities, or on the trading routes, or in whatever lands he came from. Maybe he was an outlaw! And had been driven away from his home. An outlaw and an enchanted spirit? Why not? But if he was an outlaw, what was he doing with her? That seemed to be the persistent question, and she wondered again if she ought to trust him.

But then Haala realized that he was explaining to her what to do while he was gone and that he hadn't bathed and.... where was he going to bathe? And, more importantly, how? "Wait, but where are you going?" she asked, picking herself up a bit more, but Dirk had already set off. Curiosity winning out over weariness, Haala leapt up as soon as Dirk had disappeared around the rock. Then, forgetting his warnings already, she climbed a quarter of the way up a ledge on the rock formation, just high enough to peak over and - uninvited - spy on Dirk as he set about to somehow 'bathe' out here in the hoodoos.

[Aeytrious]

Dirk found a suitable place not far around the corner at all. He walked perhaps 90 yards before spotting a place with the appropriately slanted slab ground, and a rocky enough wall that he could wedge objects into it. He reach into his grey satchel and pulled out a large piton, that he drove into the wall with a climbers hammer he pulled out shortly after. From this piton he hung the bag, making it easier to work with both hands. He retrieved a hanging mirror from the sack and hung it from another piton he drove in next to the first. Next he pulled out a flask, and using the hammer, he gently wedged the flask into the wall a few feet from the hanging pack. Dirk returned the hammer to the bag and removed from it a small block of glycerine soap, a large basin, and a washboard. He hung the washboard on the side of the wooden basin, and then pulled two stones from the pack, one flint and one obsidian, and placed them in the basin as well. When he unstoppered the flask and spoke the words 'tansui sutoriimu' water began to pour out of it at a fairly rapid pace. He filled the basin and after setting it down, stood within the streaming water, letting it soak over his entire body, then saying 'teishi', stopping the flow.

Dirk finally began to wash, quickly lathering his soap over the now fully translucent clothing he was wearing. When the shirt and arm wrappings were thoroughly soaped, he removed them, dropping them into the basin. Next he lathered the pants and leg wrappings and then removed them, tossing them in the basin as well. He squatted by the tub of water, now in the buff, and began using the washboard to clean his fine linen garments. When Dirk felt his clothing was fully clean, he draped it all across his shoulders. He placed the washboard on the slab of rock he was standing on and the two stones, which seemed to be steaming now, on top of the board. He dumped the hot soapy water over his head and tossed his clothing back in the basin once it was on the ground. Now he lathered his entire body, and once fully sudsed up, 'tansui sutoriimu' started the water flowing again. He fully rinsed his hair, and his hands, only to stop the water again. From his bag, he pulled a small pair of scissors that he used to trim his hair in the mirror. He returned them to the bag when he was done and then pulled a straight razor from the bag, he used to shave his stubbled face clean.

A shave and a haircut, cheaper than two bits, and Dirk started the water flowing again. The water ran over him, cold, giving him goosebumps. Temperature wasn't a threat to him, but that didn't mean he didn't feel it. One of his multitude of magical trinkets protected him from the negative effects, which allowed him to enjoy this cold shower, without risk of hypothermia. Bathing was a vice for him. Every three days, a week at the longest. Longer than that and he'd go mad. As the water took his clips of hair, and suds away, down the slightly slanted slab of rock, Dirk rinsed his clothing thoroughly, and replaced it on his body. Once he had the linen garments back on, and the long strips were wrapped around his arms and legs, he finished cleaning his things and stopped the water. All the items went back into the bag, and the hammer came back out to be used in the gentle removal of the flask. He left the pitons in the wall, and before slinging his pack over his shoulder, he pulled out his belt and grappling hook along with some low ankled cleats.

Dirk stepped into the cleats, and then unwound his belt, attaching one end to the grappling hook. What had looked like a simple belt, turned out to be magic, and was now a fifty foot cord of rope. A few good swings of the grappling hook, and Dirk had it sailing up to the top of the rock formation he was at the base of. Strong tugs convinced him it was snug and would support his weight, and the word 'uzbrdica' made the rope rigid. Hand holds appeared for Dirk, and he quickly scaled the rocks. At the top, with the quickly rising sun already heating the desert, Dirk would quickly dry. He pulled up the rope, changing it back to a belt again, and headed back to where he had left Haala. Hopping across the hoodoos could have made it a quick, straight path, if some weren't so far apart that he had to make a circuitous route. No matter, he needed the time to dry.

[kleineklementine]

Haala's mouth fell open when she saw Dirk bathing. Not because he was a naked, bathing man - though she couldn't pretend to have no interest in that matter - but because he had so much water. And look how he was wasting it! Even at home where there were wells and you knew where your water was coming from, you didn't just it so thoughtlessly! And where had it come from? And why was he hiding it? Surely he must be, or why would he go so far away to bathe in it? Haala supposed that perhaps he was trying to hide from her ire at the waste of it (surely he couldn't be quite so shy as to go so far to hide his nudity - not that he'd succeeded). Or perhaps he was hoarding it for himself. And that might be understandable if he were saving his drinking water for himself - but bathing? Really!

Haala pulled herself up, sitting on a ledge in the rock with her feet swinging below her and watched Dirk make his way back to her and Faisal. The rock was cool, but warming, and felt nice to rest against. She made no effort to hide herself or pretend that she hadn't been spying on him. As he drew into earshot, she called out to him.

"That was a nice trick making that bath for yourself. It certainly looked relaxing," she quipped, her voice a bit accusing and hoping a little to embarrass him. "It seems like an awful waste of water. Though I suppose you can do whatever you like with the supplies that are yours."

[Aeytrious]

"A waste of water?" Dirk was genuinely confused. He had lost his concept of poverty. When he was a small boy, he had had nothing but what he could scavenge. Spending such a long time with Ritousaey, and having an abundance of everything, had made his youth a distant memory. The flask was an endless supply of water. Letting it fall on the ground and wash away didn't seem like a problem to him at all. After his moment of confusion about the waste of resources, he realized what she had said before that and what all of it meant. She had been watching him bathe. He blushed at the indecent thoughts that aroused in him, hoping she liked what she saw. He shyly cast his eyes at the ground and reached into his sack to fetch out the flask.

"Would you like to use it?" He held the flask out to her as he approached her. He was mostly dry now, the rising sun quickly heating the desert.

"The water that comes out never ends," it still had not dawned on him that water was a valuable commodity in the sand country, "I can teach you how to activate it."

[kleineklementine]

Haala felt a bit pleased with herself when the blush spread across Dirk's face, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Everything had, thus far, been something of a struggle with this man. And she appreciated every upper-hand she could get. At least, that's what she told herself. But once Dirk explained about his 'never-ending' flask of water, the pleased look was quickly replaced by one of suspicion. Warily, she took the flask from him and began to slowly inspect it.

"But everything comes from somewhere," Haala protested as she turned the flask over in her hand. "Even if water always comes out of the flask here, you don't know where it comes from and everything must come from somewhere. Maybe whoever made it enchanted it so that it would tap into a well far away, and the water comes from there. Maybe the well was standing by itself somewhere when it was enchanted, but now there's a village built up around it, and this flask takes its water from their village. It probably even has a name... Parsia, maybe. You can believe that no one in Parsia wastes water like that, even if they're right next to the well."

The truth was, Haala simply could not imagine an endless supply of water that could be used without consequence. Of course the river in Essryn always flowed, but even its water was carefully managed to irrigate crops and sustain fisheries. She had heard that there were other places where water was abundant, so abundant you might just waste it like Dirk had and Haala supposed she believed it, but in a very academic way. She was going to need to see it for herself before she really believed it.

But on the other hand, an 'endless' supply of water in the desert (if it was really endless)... Haala couldn't pretend she didn't understand what a great treasure that was. Surely the people of Parsia would share their water for practical purposes.

"No," Haala finally declared after silent consideration, "I don't think you can use it for bathing anymore. It isn't responsible. But I think it's okay if we use it for drinking and cooking and," she glanced over to Faisal, who spat, "for thirsty camels."

[Aeytrious]

Well of course it came from somewhere. Like Haala said, everything came from somewhere. It just didn't come from this world. Using it for bathing was only one use. Dirk used it for cooking and cleaning, and of course drinking.

"Uh, it really is endless," he explained, "the water comes from another world. A magic world made of water." Dirk took the flask from Haala and uncorked it but nothing came out. He turned, aiming it back the way they had originally come, and took a sturdy stance.

"Tansui no kanketsusen," as soon as he said the words, a powerful geyser shot forth from the flask. Even braced, Dirk slid back on the sandy terrain. "Teishi," his second command stopped the water and he replaced the cork before tossing it back to Haala. He silently wondered how she would handle an adventure with Rit. He could literally create anything from thin air, be it food or riches. Water seemed a simple thing to Dirk. When Rit had taken him to Mizu, the magical plain of water the flask was connected to, he had been astonded. An entire world that existed fully submerged.

"The water comes from a world that is home to water elementals," he told her, "creatures that can create water from nothing." Dirk moved then to begin removing his armor and weapons from his bag. He was not fond of being without them. Rit had made him practice constant vigilance.

[kleineklementine]

Haala folded her arms and looked supremely unimpressed and skeptical at Dirk's explanations (or excuses!) about why it was 'fine' to use the water indiscriminately. Haala was clearly not convinced. And she was also not prepared for the geyser that suddenly shot forth from the flask; Haala jumped nearly a foot into the air and just as far backwards with surprise at the sudden gush of water. Haala caught the flask and stared at it with wide-eyed wonder.

"Well, maybe," she said, paying  much more attention now to the flask than to Dirk, "but I still think we should be careful with it. You never know..."

Despite her words, what Haala really wanted to do was figure out how the flask worked. How it really worked. She held it upsidedown, staring into the open flask as no water came out. Then she held it in front of her again and did her best to parrot the words Dirk had spoken.

"Tan soo no can cat Susan," she muttered to the flask. Apparently, though she'd gotten the words wrong, they came out close enough, because the geyser of water erupted again, knocking Haala off her feet. She was sitting flattened in the sand now, holding on desperately to the flask, with buckets of water falling back down on her from the geyser. Of course now that she'd started it, she couldn't begin to remember the words to stop it!

"Gah! Get -" she gurgled through mouthfuls of water, " - help - mrk - get it -" she spat out a mouthful of water, then finally managed, "MAKE IT STOP!"

[Aeytrious]

Dirk leaped into action, luckily he was still wearing his cleats, or the wet sand would have stuck to his freshly laundered foot wraps. Nobody wants sand in their clothes. He got close enough to the flask that it would accept his command and made it stop.

"Teishi, the word you need to stop it is teishi. It's Japanese, a language not of this world." He smirked, he couldn't help it. Haala was on her back, soaked to the bone, and covered in wet sand. It was a rather amusing sight. He offered his hand to her. She likely did not wish to remain in the mess she had just created.

"I promise not to peek if you now wish to clean yourself in the same location I did. I can even lend you my soap and wash basin if you like." He would thoroughly explain how to use the flask, if she chose to. All that sand would quickly become uncomfortable, she'd likely want to get it out of her hair and garments.

[kleineklementine]

Haala quickly released the flask, tossing it unceremoniously at Dirk's feet the moment the water stopped. She wasn't really listening to what he was saying, preoccupied instead with recovering from the sudden deluge that she'd brought down upon herself. In fact, she'd already stripped down to her bra and underwear when she'd heard Dirk's last offer.

"Peek at what?" she asked, oblivious. Essryni culture was, as a rule, less prudish than the pale people of the north, and Haala was no exception. (Remembering before it was too late that Dirk had felt it necessary to hide his own nudity, however, Haala stopped there.) "Oh no, though," she finally answered, shaking her head at the flask, "no thank you. I don't trust that thing for one moment."

Instead, Haala shook out her clothes as vigorously as she could muster, then laid them across the sun soaked rocks to dry. The sand would come off on its own once they had. Then, when that was done, she set about doing the same thing for herself. After brushing off whatever sand she could from her skin, Haala pulled herself up onto a sunny ledge on the rock and stretched out on her stomach. It wouldn't take too long, this way, to dry and in the interim the warmth of the rock and the sun was nice after the cold night in the desert.

Folding her arms before her and resting her head lazily on them, Haala looked at Dirk curiously (not for the first and surely not for the last time). "Where do you get all this stuff, anyway?"

[Aeytrious]

Feeling the beginnings of his involuntary arousal at Haala's disrobing, Dirk quickly turned away and went about donning his armor. Peek at what indeed. He was surely comfortable with his own nudity, but there was not much time spent with women in all his years of education and training. As he pulled the black leathers from his sack, he deposited the magic flask back within.

"Most of my more powerful items were given to me by my teacher," he figured teacher was easier to accept than all powerful Guardian of the Multiverse. Ritousaey told Dirk that people would likely think him mad if he claimed to know such a being, let alone be raised by it.

"Since my pack can carry a near endless amount of things, I tend to pick up anything that I find odd or interesting," he reached into the worn satchel and pulled out a finely crafted coin purse. It was smaller than his hand and looked to be the kind a wealthy noble woman would have.

"With this gift from my teacher, I have no need of money either. So the price of the things I acquire myself is never an issue." He pushed the magic coin purse back in his bag and returned to pulling tight the straps on his leather armor. Once the last buckle had been fastened, he pulled on his boots and secured his cloak around his neck. With the hood down and his scarf resting against his chest, he looked both intimidating and dashing. His hair was freshly cut and stood up in spiky tufts, his face cleanly shaven, was boyish, yet strong. He turned his head just enough that he could spy the nearly nude form of Haala, to see if she was looking his way. She was, and on seeing that, Dirk turned away again. He did not wish to be rude, and he knew he would stare if he let himself.

To occupy himself he returned to the task of arming himself. Armor on, he could now start sliding the numerous daggers into the hidden places in his armor. He did it with practiced efficiency. The thirty-two blades of nearly identical shape and size, went in quickly, and Dirk was soon buckling on his sword belt. Across the small of his back, he slid the kukri he had left for Haala. The hilt was at the perfect height for him to reach back and grab with his right hand. On his right hip, he hung his dirk, the long knife angled for a quick draw with a left handed grip.  The grappling hook he'd used earlier to scale the rocks, he hung beside it.

"You were not pleased with my killing of the snake, though I had intended to eat it," Dirk said as he pulled a longbow from his pack, "when I was crossing the tops of some of the rocks I saw a small herd of gazelle. Would you mind if I ate one of those?" The pack next supplied him with a full quiver of arrows, which he hung from his left hip. "It bothers me to go long periods of time being sustained by magic instead of food."

[kleineklementine]

Haala remained entirely oblivious to Dirk's struggle. Having six sisters who were all famed beauties, she had been long accustomed to thinking of herself as plain. And it didn't help that she'd spent much more of her time thinking about astronomy, maps, and learning the art of metal-smithing than she ever had about men or romance. He was acting funny, but he'd been acting funny since she met him! So his current evasive behavior didn't really stand out to her.

Haala propped herself up on her elbows to get a better look at him. Why he was already on his feet and putting all that ridiculous armour back on was a mystery to her. Surely he should be relaxing and taking it easy in, well, normal clothes for awhile? Maybe even nap? They'd traveled all night.

"So you mean you never have to earn or work for anything?" she asked, perhaps not as kindly as she could have. "I mean, you don't have to earn any money or carry a heavy load or worry about water or supplies or... Sounds a bit like cheating, if you ask me. And where does all the money come from, anyway? Also from the poor, good people of Parsia?" she asked, pulling a face remembering the poor people whose well she was sure Dirk was draining. She heaved a loud, exasperated sigh as though Dirk were beyond hope, then stretched out, catlike again, laying her head back down and closing her eyes.

But she secretly opened one eye, watching Dirk arrange what seemed like countless knives or daggers or who knew. Who needed so many weapons? What a mystery he was - and mystery meant adventure! And Haala couldn't entirely pretend that she didn't find him intriguing. (Intriguing, right?) Secretly, and maybe pointlessly, Haala found herself wishing she had some of her sisters' beauty. But why was she thinking that?

"Yes, that's fine," she answered, trying her best to act nonchalant like Shoshana or Jala or Mahala might. "A gazelle is fine. Well, one gazelle is fine. Can I come with..." She almost asked if she could come along; she'd never been hunting and she was curious, but then she realized it ruined the nonchalant attitude. So instead she finished with, "I'll be here getting dry."

[Aeytrious]

Haala would remain behind to get dry. That was for the best. Dirk didn't need her there looking over his shoulder. It was bad enough he couldn't control his body, even as he kept his desire in check. He slung the bow over his shoulder and began his trek through the craggy paths that led to the herd he had spotted. Not getting to close, he climbed up a sturdy rock face to give himself a better shot. As the gazelle nibbled at the sparse grasses, Dirk set his arrow and drew. He kept steady, feeling the wind flow and judging the angle and speed. He watched the lean of the few plants and observed the flow of dust and debris. When he was sure of his shot he loosed. His arrow flew true finding its mark in the heart of one of the graceful creatures. It let out a cry and gave a little hop, its last movement before it fell over and died. The others had taken the warning and began springing away in fear, but Dirk had all he needed.

Only gone maybe twenty minutes, Dirk returned to Haala with the gazelle across his shoulders. "She's pretty big. I hope you have a good appetite."

[kleineklementine]

Haala had drifted off in Dirk's absence, lulled to sleep by the warming stone and sun. In her dream, she'd been in the North, surrounded by snow and fluffy wolfdogs and ice bears, with her sister Layla. They were watching the Magical Lights in the Sky. Haala had turned to tell Layla something, but the snow had swallowed her whole. She was gone. Then she was back in the desert, chasing after Layla and Amira, but she couldn't catch her sisters, no matter how hard they ran. Then she tripped on a snake, the one Dirk had killed, and looked up to find him entwined with Jala, the most beautiful of all of her sisters. Then she was in the workshop attached to their house, but Amina was yelling at her, about how she'd left the family and had to leave. Go, go, go, Haala, we don't want you here. You left us. You embarrassed us all.

Haala woke with a start. Gradually, the reality of her surroundings returned to her. Finally she was able to focus and see Dirk standing there, with the gazelle slung over his shoulders.

"What? Oh. Oh, um," Haala rubbed her face, yawned, and stretched. Then, pulling herself up into a sitting position, she looked at Dirk and the gazelle anew. "Yes," she agreed, "she is. We'll have to stay here a bit longer to dry all the meat. I suppose that's fine. I'm not going to get where I'm going tomorrow." This, in truth, was a little bit of fishing; Haala hadn't talked to anyone about her plans, and she couldn't believe that Dirk had come this far with her without even asking where she was going!

Haala slid off the rock, landing on her feet, then gave another sleepy stretch and set about brushing the now dry sand off her skin. Trying to get it off her back involved quite a bit of spinning and contorting. Finally, after she'd put herself in a tizzy and done a good impression of a dog chasing its own tail without actually successfully removing any of the sand, she cast a glance over to Dirk. "You can't give me a hand here, can you?"

[Aeytrious]

When Haala got up from the rock, Dirks neat control was bombarded with desire. Then the dancing around in near nudity sent him through the roof, his face turning bright red. He was glad his scarf and hood were up and that his leather armor hid the growth in his loins. His embarrassment was well disguised, but when she asked for his help he was frozen in terror. She wanted him to touch her, touch her bare skin, with his hands. He slowly put down the gazelle and approached Haala. For the first time in decades, he was shaking with nerves. Luckily for him he didn't sweat much. His dry hands brushed against her skin, dislodging the sand from the hard to reach places on her back. At first his movements were jerky, and unsure. Human contact was not something he was accustomed to. Her skin was soft, and warm from the sun. Once he got passed the initial nervousness, he savored the feeling of her skin. Then he realized his pleasure at contact with her and his blush returned, along with more fervent desire. He quickly finished stroking the sand from her soft flesh, and retreated back to the gazelle. Putting himself into the task of preparing the meat would help clear his mind. No need to give in to those base human feelings.

[kleineklementine]

Haala' stretched, arching her back as Dirk brushed the sand from her dried skin. It would have been nearly impossible for her to get that herself... well, maybe. She realized as his hand brushed against the small of her back that she probably could have just used her scarf to get the sand off. Or her traveling robes; they were always full of sand, anyway. Well... no reason to tell him to stop now. It'd be rude, right? And anyway, this way none of her things got sandy! Or, rather, sandier than they were destined to be in the desert anyway.

"Oh, thank you so much," she said appreciatively when Dirk finished, "I don't think I could have spun around fast enough to get it all to fly off!" She tried to throw him a grin, but he seemed to be determinedly not looking at her and, she noticed, he looked rather scarlet. Surely he couldn't be burning already! And he said he didn't need to worry about the sun... Haala decided not to chastise him for it, though; she didn't want to seem like a nag.

Instead, she went over to where she'd laid her clothes out to dry. Deciding they were close enough, Haala shook them out vigorously and, doing one final shake to get the remaining sand off herself, put the mismatching, brightly colored clothing back on. Though, compared to Dirk in his head-to-toe hooded armor, Haala still seemed only half-dressed in her Essryni attire. Wrapping the sheer turquoise scarf loosely about her shoulders, Haala padded back over to where Dirk was cleaning the gazelle and perched on a rock to watch him work.

After a few moments of silence, Haala finally couldn't bear it anymore. Pushing her hair away from her face in an unconscious tick, Haala asked, "Aren't you at all curious where I'm going, or what I'm doing out here in the desert by myself?"

[Aeytrious]

"I am interested to know where you're headed, yes," Dirk said to Haala without looking up from his bloody work, "but I don't ask about things that aren't my business. If you had hired me as a guide, I would want full disclosure. As a stranger met in travels, it's not my place to ask."

He had fully removed the skin and pinned it to a rack he'd made from the branches of a sparse tree. In the heat of the desert, the tanning would happen quickly. His movements were automatic, slicing the meat into the proper cuts. He made sure to keep and use all the parts of the animal. There was no need to be wasteful. As Rit had taught him, waste not want not.

"Now that you seem to be offering though, I would gladly hear where you're headed." The work, and the casual conversation helped Dirk tame his desires. His blush had long since faded, and his manhood was no longer attempting to rest control of his senses.