Spirits of the Earth

@wandering_giraffe

It was just past dawn and Jelani was already out of bed and seated cross-legged on the floor of her bedroom with scrolls and papers spread out before her. A colorful robe made of loosely spun cotton rested around her shoulders to help chase away the night's chill, but she knew soon enough the sun would beat down on them and she would trade the garment for something more fitting for the day's heat.

A lamp flickered beside her as she studied the map, a frown deepening on her features. Something wasn't making sense. But no matter how long she studied it, she couldn't quite place a finger on why. What was she missing? Too many good fighters were losing contact recently out on missions to ensure the Never King would remain in his slumber. And yet, after centuries, they still could not locate the one piece of information that would keep him locked away for good.

Where in this dammed world was the artifact that was said to raise him? It had never been in their possession. Yes, they had the priest who slumbered in stone deep beneath their compound, but was that enough?

Previous leaders seemed to think so, but her? No...something wasn't sitting right with her. Something was wrong...

She rubbed a hand over her haggard features. Bags were under her deep brown eyes and she was thankful that her deep complexion helped to hide just how tired she felt. When was the last time she had slept properly? Years, probably. After taking over the Mtetezi at the age of 20 she had basically agreed to never sleep again.

A soft knock came at her door.

"Enter." her voice was deep and melodious, but that too was laced with years of worry; years of duty.

A woman entered and pressed her fist to her heart before giving a curt bow, "We have a missive."

Jelani motioned for her to come forward and reached up to accept the small envelope. It was thin, not much was written here she knew well before she even used a small, jeweled letter opener to slice through the top. A small card slipped from its wrapping and she glanced down to skim the words.

"Nuru." her eyes snapped up and she jumped to her feet, "Fetch Pyla to me now. Quickly."

Nuru's fist touched her heart and she bowed once more before disappearing back into the hallway. Jelani shrugged the robe from her shoulders and hastily donned her day-clothes. Much like her robe, they were brightly colored with blues and yellows which were woven in a pattern to distinguish her rank. Like all Mtetezi, it was a cropped, loose bodice and matching skirt with slits to her hips. But these were just for color and comfort. The real attire was the leather armor that strapped on top and held everything in place with belts and loops. She slipped circlets of gold around her upper arms which rested between black tattoos that wove in circles around her biceps. Even these each held a meaning. One was for her family. Another for her rank. More were added over the years and would continue to grow as her deeds increased.

Leather sandals were the last thing she donned before sweeping up her work from the floor and depositing it onto her desk.

Then, ready, she sat and waited.

Pyla sighed, her eyes scanning the sky for Zephyr, her pet falcon. He had left to go find the mock artifact she had hidden an hour ago.
She adjusted the specially made leather gauntlet on her wrist. She had it made for Zephyr, because while she trusted him, his talons were still razor sharp, so she just went ahead and got something to protect her arm with.
She idly inspected the newest tattoo she had gotten, a silver caricature of Zephyr, one that covered her entire left arm. Pyla loved tattoos, and her entire body, except for her head, was covered in tattoos. She had a Phoenix, mid flight, on her back, with flames surrounding it.
A loud cry filled the sky and she glanced up. Zephyr, ever the drama diva,  was proudly announcing his return. Pyla wryly shook her head as he flew back.
"You absolute idiot!" She jokingly yelled at him. He had the crudely carved "artifact"...but also had brought back something else. A very pissed off kitten.
"Zephyr!" She yelled.
"If anything happens to that kitten...where the hell did you find that?!! I give you one job, Zephyr. One job."
Zephyr had gently let the kitten onto the ground, who Pyla immediately picked up and comforted. She gave Zephyr a death glare.
"What were you thinking? You could have injured the poor thing."

Zephyr immediately turned around, his eyes looking offended.
"Pyla!"
Pyla immediately looked up from the kitten.
"Yes, Nula?"
"Jelani needs you immediately!" Nula informed her.
"I'm coming right away."
She was still holding the kitten, and sighed.
"Actually, Nula, would you mind holding this kitten? Just until I get back?" She didn't even wait for Nula to say yes, she just handed it to her, and then took off at a brisk walk, Zephyr following and landing on Pyla's shoulder.
"Zephyr! Talons!" Pyla protested.


Pyla arrived at Jelani's door and didn't even knock, opening the door and walking in.
"You wanted to see me—-Zephyr NO!"
Zephyr had happily flown and landed on Jelani's shoulder, nuzzling up against her.

Jelani tried to hide her annoyance when Pyla entered without even a knock, but the unruly bird sent her over the edge and she scowled.

"Pyla." She nodded curtly, noting that the woman hadn't even attempted to show the proper respect. Was she still that annoyed over Jelani's election after all these years? If she wasn't as skilled as she was, the Mtetezi would never have tolerated her for this long.

That and often Jelani felt they had picked the wrong person; wondered how different her life would have been if they had just picked someone with more experience.

"I assume you haven't forgotten proper protocol." She reprimanded, not even moving to address the bird on her shoulder nor the claws that pressed dangerously into her skin. She was Mtetezi. She was their leader. She could not afford to be weak.

"And your falcon needs a firmer hand. If it will not follow directions, it has no business in our ranks." It was not a statement directed just at the bird.

"Zephyr!"
Pyla's voice had a dangerous edge to it, like a razor sharp sword.
Zephyr immediately stopped and flew back to Pyla, clicking his beak in an apology.
"I'm sorry, we were both out of line. Forgive my boldness," and she bowed slightly.
Zephyr ruffled his feathers, affixing Jelani with his golden eyes, unbeknownst to Pyla.
Pyla straightened up, and stood at attention. If Pyla was honest with herself, maybe she was slightly annoyed still. But she had pushed down those feelings and ignored them, so perhaps they had become more of a subconscious thing.
Pyla cleared her throat, hoping that Zephyr wasn't doing anything ridiculous.
She pressed her fist to her heart and held it there slightly longer than normal.
"What do you ask of me?"

Jelani sighed and rubbed her hand down her chin. She was tired...so so tired...but this was her life. If she wasn't the embodiment of poise and strength their entire civilization would crumble. No. She didn't have time to be tired.

She took a small, militant step forward, and handed the letter she had just received. There were very few words on it, but they were enough to spook her. She needed to know if she was being paranoid. She needed another perspective from someone who wouldn't mince words; someone she could trust. Someone who forgot to bow and show proper respect.

"Tell me what you think."

Pyla took the letter and read it, her eyes widening.
"I think several things. Number one, it could be a trap. Number two, it could be true. These coordinates are too specific for it to be false. So I think it has some credibility too it."
Zephyr quietly hit Pyla with the end of his wing. Pyla didn't notice.
"Number three, it's honestly probably a combination of one and two. And as much as I hate to say this, we should go check it out." Zephyr shook his head at Jelani, which Pyla didn't notice. Or so he thought.
"Zephyr. You're on thin fucking ice," Pyla warned, shaking him off her shoulder. He indignantly walked over to Jelani and sat by her feet, glowering at Pyla.

Jelani nodded curtly, it was exactly what she was feeling.

"Too many of us have been disappearing." She spoke quietly, "I'm loath to send more out to meet a similar fate but....something is changing, Pyla. My bones feel uneasy. The desert is restless."

She looked up at her friend, her soldier, her better, "I will be going on this mission. Will you join me?"

A slight smile formed on Pyla's face.
"Yes, I will join you."
She thoughtfully reread the letter, looking at the parchment the letter was written on.
"Curious, this parchment is unlike any I've ever seen."
Zephyr moved...only to sit on Jelani's foot, and continued glowering at Pyla.
Pyla grinned.
"Zephyr, you're leading the way."

A curt nod in reply and then Jelani pressed her fist to her heart and bowed towards Pyla in a sincere form of respect as a thank you. And she meant it. Pyla represented everything she could never be in this life. Her future was written so solidly that only death would mean freedom. She just hoped that in her time as the Mtetezi leader she was able to continue leading them with strength, honor, and safety most and foremost. After all, if she failed, the world would suffer.

"Pack light, we must move swiftly and quietly. We will leave at twilight to keep unwanted eyes from following and I will shroud us as we move. Tell no one. Is that understood?"

Pyla pressed her fist to her heart, bowing slightly.
"Yes, understood. Zephyr! Come on!"
Zephyr indignantly got up and flew to Pyla, landing on her shoulder.
Once Pyla got back to her living quarters, she hurriedly packed, grabbing her scimitar and her desert staff. She packed a small rucksack and slung it over one shoulder.

Pyla arrived back at Jelani's quarters alittle before twilight, Zephyr sitting proudly on her shoulder. This time, Pyla knocked briskly on the door.

But Jelani was not in her rooms when Pyla arrived. Instead, she was already waiting in the shadows of the hallway before her sister in arms even arrived. It had been a long day with lots of preparations needed before the leader of an entire organization could just waltz out of the gates. People needed to be informed, albeit very few people as she did not want her absence to be known to any but a trusted few.

Once the Is were dotted and Ts crossed, she was able to pull out her travel sack and begin packing. Extremely light packing. The Mtetezi had perfected traveling in the desert and she had enough water and food to last two weeks, along with coin in case they needed to stop for more. Most were nutrient dense strips of salted meat and a few specialty breads - more like crackers - that had enough calories and additives to sustain you for a day.

A blade was strapped to her back and a set of sensible daggers rested at her hip. Otherwise her attire was practically identical to that she had donned that morning with the exception of a sand-colored, hooded duster that fell to the floor to help ward off the sun. Her hair had been braided in tight rows around her head and then piled on top in a sweeping bun-like design that was sewn tightly in place.

"You weren't seen?" She asked from the shadows after Pyla had knocked.

Pyla didn't expect Jelani to be out of her room yet. She slightly jumped when Jelani spoke.
"No, I wasn't seen. I made sure of it." Pyla uneasily adjusted her rucksack.
"Jelani...something's coming. I've got this strange feeling. I think the sooner we find the source of the letter, the better."

"Good." Was her curt response as she lifted her bag over her shoulder, "We should be quick then."

She turned and began the descent down the stairs and towards the cold desert air that came with the setting of the sun.

"And I know." She murmured quietly as they moved, slipping out of the gate just as the sand began lifting from the earth to shroud them. Jelani's doing. "I feel it, too."

Two camels waited for them and once they were mounted, they'd be off.

Pyla got on her camel, and they were off. She was always amazed at Jelani's powers, and this was no exception. They were shrouded from everything, the sand expertly veiling them.
Zephyr quietly sat on the camel's head, watchfully looking for any danger and occasionally guiding them. They journeyed for half a day, before they stopped, Zephyr pointing towards two sand dunes that were slightly bigger than the others. They rode over to the crest of one of the sand dunes, and looked over the side.
A dark, yawning hole was in the valley formed by the two sand dunes, sand cascading over the sides and falling into it seemingly forever.
Pyla got off her camel and stared, her jaw dropped.
"Wow..." was all she could say.

Jelani clicked her teeth and pulled on the reins and just stared. Her senses of the desert extended far and this tickled at the back of her mind in a sinister, unnatural way.

"Pyla..." she said quietly while reaching to unsheath the blade strapped across her back.

Then she dismounted and quietly inched forward until her toes were close to the edge but not close enough to be at risk. The whole was massive. Expansive. Dark.

"We should investigate. Do not make a sound." Every part of her was screaming that this was a trap. Gods they had walked right into it. Now all that mattered was if they could get out with their lives and, maybe, determine what this trap was meant for.

Pyla looked...and looked. She knew the sinkhole——whatever the thing was—-was most likely a bad omen. But Zephyr seemed to be nonchalant about the whole thing, cleaning his feathers and shaking the sand off of himself.

Something just felt...off about this seemingly infinite hole in the ground. The way the sand just...fell over the sides down into an inky, dark blackness was unsettling.

While Pyla was lost in thought, contemplating how to get into the sinkhole without drowning in sand, Zephyr flew over to Jelani, deciding to carefully sit on her shoulder.
Pyla unslung her staff. She looked at Jelani, who seemed quite on guard about this strange hole in the ground.
Pyla was quite worried. This, more likely than not, was probably a trap of some sort. But who designed it? Or was the sinkhole naturally occurring? It felt too ominous for that. It rather gave off the atmosphere of a portal to hell. The way the silence fell over everything like a blanket was almost oppressive.

Silence is golden until it's overwhelming and then silence is formidable.

Zephyr clicked his beak a few times, and Pyla absentmindedly ignored him, musing to herself. Zephyr could see...something down there...it looked like precious metals...or...something else. Zephyr jumped off of Jelani's shoulder, circling around the expanse a few times, getting uncomfortably close to the hole every time he circled around it.
"Zephyr!" Pyla's voice was panicked.
"What are you doing—-" Zephyr dive bombed into the hole, disappearing.
"If we survive this I'm going to kill him," Pyla muttered to Jelani.

Jelani instinctively held her arm out to keep Pyla from stepping too close to the chasm as her damned bird decided to jump off a cliff. That bird was a liability and  set her teeth on edge.

But he was the least of her worries right now. There was a pit before her and in her chest and she couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling that something was desperately wrong. Her eyes were telling her one thing, but her mind was screaming falsehoods that she simply couldn't rectify. If she made a wrong choice, just one wrong step, she could cause the downfall of her sister in arms. The guard had orders to treat them as fallen if they did not return in a fortnight, but she would do anything in her power to keep that from happening.

"Pyla." She said in warning. Jelani wanted to reprimand her for her inability to train the falcon, but that wouldn't keep them from harm so she let it die unspoken.

"Pyla, look at it." She pointed towards the center of the sinkhole, "This feels wrong. Do you feel it?"

On a whim, she stooped down and grabbed a handful of sand and cast it over the ledge and it....floated there....

And then fell.

If Jelani hadn't held her arm out Pyla might very well have gone over the edge. It wasn't like Zephyr to just dive down into something like that. She concernedly looked into the sinkhole thing, but she couldn't see Zephyr and she couldn't hear him. Something was wrong...she instinctively gripped her staff tighter, anxiously looking for any sign of Zephyr.
"Jelani, I think—-"
Her surmising was interrupted by a flash of silver at the bottom of the dunes and an unearthly screech. A blur of gold shot towards them and Pyla instinctively fell into a defensive position, before realizing that blur was Zephyr. And he was flying towards them awfully fast.
Then something else flew past her face, but it wasn't a bird. It was an arrow, followed by two more, narrowly missing her and embedding into the sand with a thunk. Pyla's first thought was to protect Jelani. She couldn't tell if the arrows were being shot at Zephyr, or they were being shot at Jelani.
Time seemed to slow down, and she could see an arrow headed straight for Jelani. She couldn't move fast enough. She couldn't see, her eyes stopped focusing. The world seemed to go out of focus and lose its sound. All she could hear was her own heartbeat. The arrow was still making its way towards Jelani. Her eyes focused again, and out of the corner of her eye, the golden blur that was Zephyr flew in front of Jelani, and the arrow impaled into him, a pained scream echoing across the desert as he lost control and slammed into the side of the dune. She wanted to run to Zephyr and help him, make sure he was ok. But she couldn't. She pushed down the grief that was threatening to explode into rage and ran for Jelani, pushing her to the sandy ground and shielding her from any more potential deadly arrows.

It all happened so fast. So ungodly fast. They were expected and now found themselves in an ambush and at a clear disadvantage. The moment the first arrow registered, Jelani reached into herself and tugged at the piece of the desert that lived there and sand immediately responded. They were shielded from sight, but arrows were not hindered by tiny pieces of glass and stone and they came in an unescapable onslaught of deadly rain.

Zephyr was hit and then Pyla was shielding her. Her mouth filled with sand, but none of that mattered.

"Close your eyes!" She cried and tugged on that warmth within herself harder to urge the winds. Wind would protect them, but it would also blind them.

And she would lose control.

She always lost control when she was forced to delve deeper into the smouldering depths of her abilities. It would try to consume her body and spirit. It was unforgiving. It was dangerous. It was chaos.

But it would be the only thing that could save them.

"You must lead, Pyla." She demanded before she grabbed hold of that tiny thread and kindled a spark into a roaring fire. The winds howled and swirled while sand whipped against their bare skin and hopefully the arrows would be thrown off course. Hopefully Pyla would be able to get them both to safety.

For now, Jelani used every ounce of her existence to keep the desert from destroying everything in its path with a sandstorm of behemoth proportions.

Pyla was bracing herself for the painful impact of a hostile arrow, but it never came. What had been oppressive silence had delved into chaos, the sand seemingly roaring to life and covering them. Pyla's desert survival instincts kicked in, and she  quickly grabbed Jelani by the arm, helping her up and quickly going over the other side and traversing down. The sand only seemed to get more intense, and for a few moments Pyla was worried they would be trapped in the sand storm, but then, as she leaned against the sand dune to rest for a short second, there wasn't a sand dune there. There was a small cave, and Pyla quickly got herself and Jelani inside.
"Are you hit anywhere? Are you alright?"

Jelani was lost in the fire within herself. A fire that made her skin burn to the touch and made everything else superfluous. She knew Pyla had hold of her, but it was secondary and she barely responded as her sister pulled her across the sand. Tiny micro cuts appeared on exposed skin, some deeper than others, and still the winds rose.

She needed to control it. The storm still raged, but Pyla had removed them from the brunt of it and on some level Jelani understood that they were safe for now.

Her arms were wrapped around her torso in a desperate attempt to hold her magics in. There was still worse... much worse...that could be unleashed if she wasn't careful.

"Pyla." She gasped, blood dripping from her nose, "I'm trying...need to...control." and she curled in on herself in the cave and pulled back on that string she had unraveled to save them.

Pyla had never seen Jelani like this.
She pulled Jelani close,, wrapping her arms around Jelani.
"You can do this," she said calmly.
"You were chosen as the leader for a reason, and even if I have never said it, you were the best choice."
Pyla took deep breaths, hoping that it would ground Jelani some.
"I know it's difficult, but breathe with me. Slow down your breathing. Focus."

She didn't fight or argue when Pyla pulled her close. In any other circumstance she would have, but here in this hell she welcomed it. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the rise and fall of her chest and she focused on it. Pyla was right. She needed to breathe. She needed calm.

So Jelani honed in on that feeling, the steady rhythm of her breath and of her heart. She grasped onto it with everything she had and pulled on that thread with more confidence and more strength than she ever realized existed within herself. She pulled, and she wound the threads of magic into a tight ball. Blood pour ed from both nostrils and her skin boiled to the touch, but the storm eventually stopped and a deafening silence fell upon the world.

But Jelani didn't move. Exhaustion had claimed her in those last moments and her body forced herself into darkness to recover. It would take time, but eventually the fever would disappear and her body would stop shaking.

Pyla quickly grabbed a soft handkerchief and pressed it to Jelani's nose, stopping the bleeding and cleaning up the blood.

She didn't know much about how magic worked, but with how hot Jelani's skin felt, she was worried about a fever.
"I'm sorry, this isn't going to be comfortable, but I've got to do it."
She unrolled the blanket she had tied to her knapsack and covered Jelani with it, tucking it around her shoulders and leaning her up gently against the cave wall.
She carefully took a look outside. The sand storm seemed to have died down. She hoped whoever had tried to ambush them would have lost them in the ensuing sand storm.

She strained her ear. She could hear something in the distance...she grabbed her staff and waited. As she looked, she could make out a bird...it was Zephyr! He was limping, a pitiful cry coming out of him. She threw her desert staff and ran to him, carefully picking him up.
"Zephyr! How are you alive?!"
But behind him was a blood trail...if the ambushers were smart...they didn't have long. She carried him into the cave and set him down, stabilizing his arrow wound. She checked on Jelani again, making sure she wasn't feeling any worse.

 
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. That whole situation could have gone so much worse.
Pyla leaned against the cave wall, anxiously taking a glance every now and then outside of the cave.

It didn't take terribly long for Jelani to stir and when she did she was covered in sweat from the fever and the blanket tucked tightly around her. Her head was fuzzy and she was thirsty but otherwise very much alive and aware of their situation.

"Pyla." Her voice came out as a croak while she pushed aside the blankets and shakily rose to her feet. She stumbled over to where her friend stood by the front of the cave.

"What's our status?" And then she noticed the blood and the bird, "He's alive?" She asked, surprised.

The bird was alive...but barely. After Pyla stabilized his wound he went limp, and she thought he was dead.
Pyla was concentrating so much on making sure they hadn't been followed, that she didn't hear Jelani get up.
Jelani's question cut through her intense train of thought like a knife, startling her back to the present. Pyla promptly engulfed Jelani in a hug.
"You're awake!"
Then she let go of Jelani and glanced out into the relentless desert again.
"Currently, I'm trying to make sure we weren't followed here."
Pyla gestured to her knapsack.
"I have a small container of water in there. You are welcome to it."
Pyla studied something suspicious looking on the horizon, before figuring out it was only a dead bush.
"So those coordinates we got were a trap. I should have known they were."
Pyla looked over at Zephyr, who was currently in a deep sleep.
"I'm just glad you or Zephyr didn't get killed."
If Jelani had been killed...Pyla didn't want to think about that. Jelani was her sister in arms, her friend. She quickly wiped away a stray tear from her eye.

Jelani returned the hug with a single arm before pulling away and taking Pyla up on the water. Her mouth was dry and dusty from both the sand and the effort it took to control the desert. It was why she rarely did it - raising the sand for cover  was one thing, but the wind was uncontrollable and went its own way. If she wasn't careful it would kill her.

But not today.

"We were both fooled." I've always been a fool, she added silently, "But I wouldn't have been able to sleep if we didn't come and see. Any lead could bring us closer to those missing pages and they cannot fall into the wrong hands. You know as well as I what's at stake."

She sighed and rubbed her thumb and forefinger against the bridge of her nose, "Rumors have been spreading, Pyla. I've tried to quell them but....people are searching for the city."

Pyla gasped. The city...rumors were spreading? But how...
"What if...what if that wasn't a trap..."
Pyla half muttered to herself, pacing around the cave like a maniac.
"Jelani! What if the pages are there, in that sinkhole thing? What if the ambushers were just trying to kill us since they knew we would go there eventually? But...what if we spring their own trap on them? Sneak in...find the papers...and then collapse the sinkhole on them!" She stopped her pacing and looked at Jelani.
"It sounds like false hope...but it could work..."

Jelani grunted softly. As usual, Pyla wore her emotions on her sleeve and was quick to voice things that might better be left unsaid. She was loyal, honest, and that honestly was why Jelani selected her to come in the first place. As the leader of the Mtetezi people were constantly itching to gain favor despite her very open and deep seated hatred for all things political. Even warriors in her supposed inner circle believed themselves to be greater than others when, truly, Jelani only selected them because it was customary for her to have a guard.

As far as she saw it, a woman didn't become a soldier unless they were able to complete the rigorous trainings and pass all required examinations. Each and ever woman was capable far beyond average skills but...Pyla had never lost her freedom. She was free within the confines of their community. Free within the confines of their sacred mission.

Free to speak her mind.

"I know, Pyla." She placed a hand on her shoulder, "That has always been the hope...that one day we can gather and protect everything about him to keep our world safe.

"We'll need to investigate. Someone wanted us here, wanted me here. That someone hurt Zephyr and knows that we were caught unawares. They need to be dealt with before we turn around or our other sisters will be at risk. Are you prepared for battle?"

Jelani's words had a needed mental and visible effect on Pyla, who was feeling rather discouraged.
She straightened up, pressing a fist to her heart.
"Yes, Jelani, I'm ready. For battle. For vengeance!"
She covered Zephyr carefully with her blanket, crouching down and pressing a loving hand to his forehead and closing her eyes for a moment. He was breathing more slowly than normal, but was alive.
She stood up, grabbing her sword, slinging her staff over her shoulder, and checking her knapsack, before turning to Jelani.
"How shall we attack?"
Jelani was ready to go, itching for a good fight.

Jelani gave Pyla's shoulder an encouraging squeeze before withdrawing to drop her linen cloak from her shoulders and pull her own double blades from their sheaths against her back. They slid almost silently, but the sand from the storm had gotten into them making it more difficult to maneuver. That would not do.

In one quick motion the straps that held the sheaths were undone and she had dumped their contents onto the cave floor. In her bag she had oil which she applied deftly to each blade before returning them and re-buckling them to her back. Next came the daggers. Those were much easier. Sand had gotten into their sheaths as well, but a quick wipe of a cloth was all that was needed to ensure a quick, silent draw.

"That sinkhole," Jelani started to explain while she resheathed the daggers, "I don't believe it's real. I can sense the desert and that...thing...I can't sense it. That's how they caught us. We stopped."

She tightened all of her straps but left her cloak on the ground. The brown of her skin and the brown of her leather armor would blend better with the desert. Even the yellows and blues of the cloth beneath her armor was intended for camouflage. It wouldn't help with the sun, but they were far past that worry.

"Ignore your eyes. Follow me."

She didn't need to look back for acknowledgement. She knew that Pyla would be right behind her, walking into a sinkhole in the middle of the desert. 

She followed Jelani, almost half expecting the sinkhole to be gone when they arrived.

The sun was sinking beyond the dunes, casting long shadows that fell over the sand, creating contrasts of inky black over the hues of golden sand.

Pyla kept one hand on her desert staff and the other hand hovering just above the hilt of her scimitar. Her eyes constantly scanned the desert, the temperature rapidly sinking now that the sun was descending.
She looked for that sense of familiarity and grief, where Zephyr had been shot protecting Jelani.
Ah...there it is. Slowly fading. She picked up the pace, almost overtaking Jelani and slowing to a stop. She drew her scimitar and crouched behind a rock. The sinkhole was still there...or was it? The more Pyla looked at it the more it felt off. Jelani was right.
She heard distant shouts. A group of men, looking to be quite well armed, numbering around 10, emerged, swords drawn; some men holding bow and arrows, and looking ready to kill. Jelani felt a chill go down her spine. These guys were not good news. She really didn't want to attack first...she looked at Pyla for confirmation to attack and then something embedded in the sand next to her.
It was a knife, buried in sand up to the hilt and still vibrating from the force of the throw.
Pyla smirked at the unfortunate man that had foolishly thrown the knife "That's the best you can do? Figures. You're all men. That's why the ladies do the fighting!"
And Pyla charged, sword in hand. And then absolute chaos happened. Pyla figured if she didn't die in this fight, Jelani was going to kill her personally.
An angry looking, older man with an unshaved beard swung his sword at Pyla and she deftly blocked it with her staff and stabbed him through the torso, the man promptly collapsing to the ground.
An arrow whizzed through the air and stuck into her staff with a thunk!
She yanked the arrow out and threw it like a makeshift knife, the arrow finding its mark with startling precision, another man falling down with a startled cry. She felt rough arms grab her from behind, a sword grazing her arm, and she slammed her foot down onto her assailant's foot, cracking his foot and causing him to release her. Pyla swiftly turned around and tripped him, letting the momentum of his fall carry into her staff, which she swung up and hit the guy square in the face, at least knocking him out. She hoped Jelani was faring well, in the chaos she had lost her.

Jelani cursed audibly as the fighters appeared from the illusion. She had hoped that they would have been less obvious in their approach, especially after the wait for her recovery, but they would have no such luck today The desert wanted blood and She would have it. Pyla's bloodlust, however, was unexpected and that caused another string of curses coursing from her lips. Rushing in was foolhardy! If you let your emotions cloud your judgement on the battlefield, the battle would claim you faster than thirst.

"Pyla!" Jelani cried in a desperate attempt to draw her attention, but her sister in arms was already gone and she needed to keep up or see her friend die by a wayward blade.

Despite her years of leadership, Jelani never let her skills dull and trained daily to ensure she remained battle ready and it was apparent in the way the blades slipped from their sheath. They were not just tools of destruction, but an extension of her very arm. They moved with her, sang with her, were a part of her. She did not fight their movements but adapted to their needs as she let them whistle through the air.

One down. A crimson line from shoulder to hip appeared even as he fell and the top three inches of her blade came away stained. His companion charged in anger – fool.

Anger got you killed. Anger clouded everything.

He was close. Much closer and faster than she anticipated. Her leg lifted and she kicked him forcefully in his chest to push him back – he stumbled – her blade drank from his throat.

Another fell.

An arrow wizzed by her face followed by the sting of being struck. Nothing pressing, nothing to kill her, just a slice from the fletchings or the head. She continued, scanning the surrounded area for Pyla while also avoiding being struck.

A slice on her arm from the left told her where the arrows were coming from and she spun to dash towards the source, her lips set in a firm line. Thankfully, the sand hid her just as well as it hid them so their aim was less accurate. Then, a shadow appeared in the distance and a throwing dagger was out of her hand in an instant. The resulting thud and grunt told her that she had hit, but he didn't go down – not yet.

She was close now, so close she could almost see the whites of his eyes before he realized that another dagger was being slashed across his throat. He fell in a heap.

Pyla. Where was she??

Pyla was enjoying the battle alittle too much, her scimitar dripping with blood and her staff being spun around, its' unfortunate targets falling down.
That was two gone...where were the other two?

The other two men were lurking, they had hidden themselves the moment the battle started. They didn't have swords, they were armed with daggers and murderous intent.  Pyla spotted Jelanj barely through the sand and the chaos, holding her own. Suddenly, both men jumped out from behind a small dune, viciously attacking Pyla from both sides. At first it caught Pyla off guard, but the men's attacks were uncoordinated and she slowly started to gain ground. She dropped her scimitar in the scuffle, changing to just her desert staff, swinging it hard at one of the assailants, who parried it with his arm, grunting with exertion. He swung his dagger in an inside cut, and Pyla quickly brought her staff down to block. In the chaos, the other assailant crept up behind Pyla and grabbed her. She promptly threw her head back and headbutted him, stunning him. She broke free from his grip and swung her staff again, walloping him in the side of the head.

There.

As the last man fell to the bite of Jelani's blade, she finally laid eyes on her sister. She was flanked by two men and her breath caught as the second grabbed her. Jelani was too far away to do anything but stare as she pressed her toes into the sand to begin her sprint to close the gap.

Still too far. Too damned far!

But Pyla was able to free herself only to be sandwiched between the two. Gods she needed to be faster!

In a desperate attempt, Jelani summoned the desert one more time - this time in a very small amount - and sent a swirl of sand into the first man's eyes. He screamed and clawed at his face.

"Pyla, now!" She cried while sending her final throwing dagger towards his throat and praying she wasn't too far away for it to actually help.

Pyla's hit didn't even phase the man, him angrily grabbing her staff while she was swinging it and twisting it. Now she was stuck between two men, unable to do much. One of them grabbed her arms. She was trapped. She could see, out of the corner of her eye, Jelani running towards them.
The other man drew back his dagger, preparing to run Pyla through.
Suddenly he cried out and reached for his eyes, dropping his dagger.
There was a spray of red and the first man dropped, a throwing knife embedded in his throat.
Pyla twisted in her captors grasp until she felt cold steel on her throat, dangerously close to her jugular vein.
"So it seems we are at a stalemate," he snarled, addressing Jelani and pressing the knife against Pyla's throat.

Jelani froze, breath coming quickly as she skidded to a halt a few feet away from where Pyla now stood as a hostage. A low guttural growl rumbled in her throat and her hand gripped the hilt of her sword tighter.

"Who are you?" She hissed, but didn't make any movements that might alarm him. She had to play her hand carefully. She knew she could hit him with sand, but she couldn't guarantee it wouldn't cause his blade to jerk and slice into Pyla's throat.

"Why did you draw us here?"

"I'm no one of consequence, I'm just someone that decided you jaded women need to learn your place."
His grip on Pyla unconsciously loosened as he talked. It seemed he couldn't do two things at the same time.
Pyla could tell from where the man had his knife on her throat that even if it cut deep it wouldn't hit anything major. 
"You metezei or whatever the hell you call yourselves always running around the desert, disturbing things you shouldn't. You should stay at home. Let the men do the fighting."
Pyla had had enough of this man. It was risky, but she headbutted the man hard. She could feel the knife slice across her neck, a line of sharp, red hot pain where the knife had been. She only prayed she was right, as she tried to wrestle the knife from him, blood beginning to drip down her neck.

Jelani was still a good distance away that there wasn't much she could do to directly assist Pyla. Her throwing daggers were gone and that damned blade was still against her neck.

Except...

As Pyla moved, Jelani was quick to act. She summoned the desert again and whipped sand at the man's eyes hoping that it would be enough for her sister to finish him.

The sand and Pyla's headbutt were too much for the man, and he let go of Pyla, who promptly grabbed her staff and knocked him over the head with it.

Pyla pressed a hand to her neck, trying to stave the crimson flow.
"Well, I'm still conscious so that's good...what if there's a whole cell of these extremists?" She worriedly asked Jelani.

Jelani rushed to Pyla's side and drew her blade across the man's throat for good measure. They couldn't take risks and she wouldn't want their presence, or how easy it was the lure them out, to reach ears she'd otherwise hope to remain deaf.

"Pyla." She lifted her chin with her hand and hissed at the angry line across her neck. It didn't appear to be deep where it would kill her, but it also wasn't small enough to be unconcerning. She pulled her pack around off her back and rummaged inside to look for her first aide kit. First came the alcohol based cleaning agent which she poured mercilessly onto the wound before pressing a clean cloth to help staunch the bleeding. Once clean she'd be able to determine what to do next.

"We're the extremist to them." She replied softly, pulling the rag back slightly to inspect the wound, "It's easy to hate what you don't understand, and if they knew the holy task with which we've been tasked, they would fight us all the more vigorously." She frowned and pressed the cloth back before pulling out another small kit with the other hand.

"You're going to need stitches, but otherwise it doesn't look life threatening if we move quickly."

She winced when Jelani poured the cleaning agent onto it, but took it like the soldier she was.
"I understand that, but they tried to ambush us and kill us! That seems rather extremist to me." Pyla kept a sharp eye out on the desert, she didn't trust the eerie silence.
"Stitches?!!? I don't need stitches, just bandage it or something," Pyla protested.

Jelani pressed the cloth against her neck and reached her other hand to hold the back of her head so she could hold her in place while glowering directly into her eyes.

"Be still." She snapped, "You'll serve neither of us dead from bloodloss."

She released Pyla suddenly and began the process of threading the needle with sterile wire, "You'll need two or three at most. Do I need to tie you to a rock?"

Ok, Pyla thought, it must actually be somewhat serious.

"Ok, I'll be still! Or, at least, I'll try to be...I'm not exactly fond of needles," she admitted, warily eyeing the needle Jelani was currently threading.

It wasn't the worst wound Jelani had ever seen, not by a long shot, but she didn't know what else awaited them in this desert and she wasn't about to take the chance that the injury could get worse and ultimately claim Pyla's life. People died from seemingly small injuries all the time and the neck was delicate. If they were home, perhaps a nice bandage and some rest would be all that was needed, but out here? No. Where the blade had started was the worst of it, then it tapered off to a shallow line. It was that deeper part that gave Jelani pause.

But she was also no healer. She knew the basics of battlefield aid, maybe a bit more than the average soldier, but she couldn't do much more than tourniquets and stitches.

"Hold still." She moved with the agility and deftness of someone with extensive practice and the deeper part of the slice was stitched in only a few minutes. Then she slathered it with a balm and proceeded to wrap a clean bandage around Pyla's neck to keep it free of sand and dirt.

"When you're ready we can investigate further."

Pyla sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. She really, really, really hated needles.
Jelani worked fast, to her credit, and before Pyla knew it she was done.
"We can investigate now, I'm ok..."
Except her fear of needles made her lightheaded...so when she stood up, she promptly collapsed.
"Fuck...I'm ok, I'm ok...just not as ready as I thought."

"Pull yourself together." Jelani snapped, grabbing Pyla by the shoulders to keep her from falling on the ground. How had she made it through so much training and injuries over the years that this is what got her? It would get them killed if they were attacked again and she couldn't have it. She also wasn't one to coddle anyone.

"You are Mtetezi. You are only as good as your weaknesses. Stand up."

She was right...she was a Mtetzei...she was better than this.
"You're right, you're right," she muttered, gaining her footing and pushing down any thought of needles.
"Ok...so what's the next move? Do we go back to the library and try to find some clues?"
Pyla then remembered Zephyr.
"Oh my gods above we need to go back to the cave...Zephyr is still there!"

Jelani's demeanor softened at Pyla's concern for the bird. She might think he needed better training, but that didn't negate the fact that he was still a brother-in-arms and deserved the same respect as his human handlers.

"Go. See to him." She pulled out a locator ring and pressed it into Pyla's hands, "I'll go further in for reconnaissance - it will be easier for one to sneak around than two. Follow the thread that connects these rings when you're able. If it grow hot it means danger is imminent."

Pyla did not like the idea of Jelani being by herself.
"But you're the leader of us! You shouldn't go off by yourself..."
But then Jelani pressed the locator ring into her hand and Pyla's fingers reluctantly closed over it, taking it with a sigh.
She embraced Jelani tightly.
"Be careful," she whispered, and released her, running towards the cave where Zephyr was.

Jelani watched her sister disappear back towards the cave and then began the arduous task of searching the bodies. With any luck they would be carrying something that might give some inclination as to their intentions.

A swift kick with her foot flipped the first over and she set to work rummaging in pockets, under clothes, and only walked away with a few pieces of silver and no answers. The next was the same, though he was also wearing an expensive looking bracelet that would sell for a good price. It was difficult work. Bodies were never easy to move around and they were getting stiffer with each passing second. Soon she was breathing heavily and while her purse grew heavier, her knowledge remained the same.

"Who are you?" She growled over the last man - the one who had been holding Pyla. This one was better dressed than his companions and she prayed that Hakeshna would be generous.

Her prayers must have been heard because inside the right breast of his sleeveless shirt was a rough-sewn pocket that might have been invisible had it not been for the slight bulge. She ripped it open and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.

She scanned its contents and her blood went cold. She needed to find Pyla. Now.

Pyla had gotten back to the cave without trouble.
But Zephyr was nowhere to be found.
"Zephyr?" Her voice trembled.
She had left him here! She desperately looked around the cave. No sign of him.
Pyla went to the back of the cave, just in case she missed somewhere.
She turned around, and a blur hit her straight in the chest, knocking her over.
Her heart skipped a beat. It was Zephyr!
Zephyr burrowed into her chest, embracing as best as he could, tears in his eyes.
"Zephyr! I'm so sorry I left you! Jelani and I had to take care of something."
An ominous feeling settled over her. She'd taken too long in looking for Zephyr. She got up.
"We've gotta go find Jelani!"
And she took out the locator ring and headed out of the cave.

Jelani ran as fast as her legs would take her in the desert sands with the list of every name of every Mtetezi that had gone missing held tightly in her hand. This was more than just some fringe group trying to show women their place. This was so so so much worse.

Some of the names had been crossed out and she didn't even want to take a moment to linger on what that had to mean. Her friends were on that list. Her mentors. Her sisters. There were symbols next to their names, some repeating, like they were split into groups.

She was going too slowly. Gods, Pyla...she was going too slowly!

Pyla was running, following the locator ring. But up ahead...there was a form lying still in the desert, unmoving.
"Oh no...please don't be Jelani, please don't be Jelani!"
She skidded to a stop, next to the fallen figure. There was a cloak covering the figure, and it looked to be facedown.  Zephyr was anxiously tugging on her shirt.
"Not now, Zephyr, someone's hurt!"
She knelt down by the figure, anxiously grabbing them by the shoulders and turning them gently over...it wasn't Jelani. Pyla breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"Hello? Are you ok?"
The man didn't move, limply lying there. He could have heat stroke, multiple things. But Pyla didn't see any visible injuries...she put her head to his chest to see if she could hear a heartbeat. Then rough hands grabbed her and she reached for her weapons, trying to get up. The man on the ground had her in a vice grip, and three other men had emerged from behind the small dunes in the meantime.

 In the commotion, Zephyr had flown off unnoticed, screeching for Jelani

"Let go of me!" Pyla yelled, but the men had the element of suprise. Her wrists were tied behind her back and she screamed as loud as she could, yelling for Jelani, her voice tinged with fear.
"Somebody shut her up!" The guy holding her yelled.
And that was the last thing she heard before something crashed into her head and her vision went black.

Jelani was too late. Zephyr found her, but she still had a ways to go and she was already going as fast as the sand would allow. Her breath was ragged, her blood pumping in her ears. And then the sand began to swirl around her as a storm began to brew - a storm not of her own design but a true desert storm.

Hakeshna help them...with Zephyr's distress she knew, she knew Pyla was in trouble. She knew these men had taken her. She also knew that the storm would make it nearly impossible to follow their trail.

Zephyr stopped and swooped around, skeeing frantically around an area of desert that was darker than the rest.

Blood.

The storm loomed closer, but Jelani was able to see the trail before she was forced to take cover. They were going west.

With the sand storm, Pyla's captors couldn't make it very far either, and they managed to hole up in a very small cave.

The sand storm was harsh, and even with the cover of the cave, the harsh, biting sand still swirled inside the cave.

"Fuck, did you kill her when you hit her? I said 'shut her up' not 'kill on sight', you bastard!"
The leader anxiously leaned Pyla against the cave wall, inspecting the wound on her forehead and checking her pulse.
"If she's dead there's going to be hell to pay."
The offending guy, bearded and very muscular, angrily leaned against the wall, folding his arms.
"Well next time be more specific!"
The leader angrily drew a wicked looking dagger, forgetting about Pyla and lunging at the bearded guy, putting his dagger to the guys throat.
"You backtalk me one more damn time and I'll throw you outside!"
The bearded guy merely held up his hands placatingly, and the leader, after a tense moment, let him go.
Pyla groaned, anxiously leaning up and after a second opened her eyes.
She didn't even waste a second.
"You bastards release me! You have no idea who you're messing with!" And she affixed the leader with an angry, icy glare.

"Sit. Down." A voice cold as ice bit through the chaos as he appeared from just outside the cave. He was speaking to Pyla, but even the men who had grabbed her stopped bickering and looked abashed.

"You embarrass us all." He growled, shaking the sand from his coat and pulling the wrappings and goggles off his face that kept him safe from the biting storm that raged outside.

He stepped forward and spit at Pyla's feet before crouching to look her in the eye. He had a scar that extended from his temple to his collarbone along with an eyepatch that clearly was covering what that blow had taken from him.

"You killed too many of us, slave. But we'll make sure you behave. And if you don't."
He grinned and touched the large scimitar at his side, "We'll take your hands."

Pyla involuntarily sat down when he spoke, but she didn't break eye contact with him for a second.
"Slave?" She asked incredulously.
"I think you've got the wrong person, Patchy," she snorted.

Her eyes darted around the cave. Only one entrance. This one was even kindof chilly, and there were a few stalactites and stalagmites dotting the cave.

No sign of Jelani, so that means Jelani was still relatively safe.
So far there were five men...five against one weren't the best odds. Especially because she had no idea where any of her stuff was. The bastards. They had taken all of it. Her weapons, her knapsack, all gone—-Zephyr! Where is Zephyr! He wasn't in here either.
"Where are you taking me? You'd be a fool to go back to Essryn."

He looked into her eyes with an iciness that could freeze the soul and his lips remained in a nondescript line.

"Men. The slave thinks it can speak." He said slowly, still crouched before her, eyes still staring directly at her. There was a tension in the air that grew by the second as the silence continued after his words.

"Do you know what happens to slave who speak out of turn?"

Pyla once again made unwavering eye contact with him.
The problem with Pyla is she is stubborn. It was a trait that's gotten her in trouble.

The tension that had settled over the cave was dangerous.

"I don't think you heard me the first time. I'm not a slave."

A small, almost sweet smile, spread across his features as he reached forward to take one of her hands tenderly in his own. They were bound together in front of her, but all he needed was a finger.

Which he slowly began to bend backwards by pushing against it with his thumb. Slowly. So slowly. Deliberately. The sweet smile didn't falter.

"You are." He pushed further and further, waiting to hear the snap of bone, "What I say you are."

A dull ache started in the finger the guy was currently breaking, and it intensified to a sharp pain with a snap. With which Pyla quickly reacted by trying to jerk back her hand, and forcing down the scream of pain that wanted to erupt from her. The room kindof blurred in and out of focus for a second.
"You can say whatever the fuck you want...it—-it doesn't change the truth," Pyla spat out through gritted teeth.

"Do you know how many of you we've already broken? Some much older than you. Do you think you'll be able to withstand what we have in store for you if they couldn't?" The sick smile remained on his face.

He selected another finger, this time pushing it back quickly, not giving her any time to prepare for the pain that would follow.

"You are a slave."

"No actually, I don't know. Please enlighten me," Pyla shot back at him.
And then he broke a second finger and Pyla closed her eyes for a second, the pain seeming to exponentially multiply. Strange how two fingers can cause so much pain.
Pain is just weakness leaving the body she thought to herself.
"No. I'm a soldier. Whether you like it or not," Pyla said,  taking slightly deeper breaths than she usually did.
I hope Jelani is safe, she thought.

"Slave."

And a third finger snapped like a twig beneath his fingers.

"We can do this seventeen more times. Or, perhaps, we'll just start taking them." one of the other men came over and murmured something in his ear. He barked a few orders and within seconds their make-shift camp was broken down, bags packed, and scarves wrapped firmly around their faces.

They didn't give the same treatment to Pyla. Instead, they simply threw a rough sack over he head and tied her, tightly, to a sled. Then they went out into the storm.

If there was one thing Pyla hated more than needles...it was not being able to see. More specifically, the dark. It was a stupid, irrational fear she's had ever since she was a child, and normally she had Zephyr to sleep with. The bag was shoved over her head and she was met with blackness, and then rough hands grabbed her and tied her to something...a plank? No, it was moving...maybe a sled of some sort. So they were going somewhere. She managed to discreetly tear a tiny piece of her shirt and dropped it in the cave, desperately hoping it wouldn't blow away.

Her left hand was absolutely throbbing right now, and she could only imagine how bruised and swollen her fingers were. She wouldn't be suprised if they were bleeding too. Which could be a good thing...if the blood trail stayed.

You don't realize how much you appreciate someone until they're not with you. Pyla realized how much of a sister Jelani was to her, keeping her in line, even asking her to go on this mission with her. She'll never cause Jelani a lick of trouble ever again...if she ever survived this mess...if she ever saw Jelani again. There was that annoying feeling of something being stuck in Pyla's throat that signaled she was about to cry. No. She was stronger than this.

Then her thoughts drifted to Zephyr...wait...she can communicate with him! They'd only really ever done it during training sessions and the occasional hunt...but it could be done!
Pyla took the fear she was feeling and latched onto it, using it as a signal to try to reach Zephyr.
Zephyr, please...I don't know where I am...time is short...we're moving again... She put all of her energy into trying to reach him.

Zephyr started going crazy in the little cave that sheltered them from the storm. Cave was a stretch as it really was more like an overhang of rocks that just happened to be facing the opposite direction of the storm so they were mostly protected. Even still, Jelani sat huddled against the innermost rocks with her cloak wrapped tightly around her body and damp fabrics tied around her face.

She had thought she would have to wait out the storm, but the bird was in so much distress he was pulling at her clothes. Hakeshna, he wanted her to move. He wanted her to go out into the storm.

And she wasn't about to ignore him.

So she scooped him up, he was still injured, tucked him under her cloak and pulled at her magics to try and, at the very least, lessen the winds that were about to tear them apart.

"Tell me which way." She told him softly.

Pyla's muscles ached. The sled finally stopped, only for her to be thrown roughly into a wagon instead. At least, she thought it was a wagon. Whatever she was on was slightly rocking, and it was definitely It was hard to tell. The sandstorm had finally stopped, much to Pyla's relief. At least there wasn't a harsh, hot wind that was ruthlessly attacking her with sand now. Her fear was still ratcheted up to a hundred. If that deranged guy was serious...she didn't even want to think about it.
She lay limp, trying to convince her captors she was asleep or, at the very least, not paying attention. She strained her ears to see if she could hear anything.  The bag over her head made it difficult to hear much.
She could hear strains of their conversation though.
They were going to a port. Her throat tightened. A port near Essyrn.
She desperately tried to reach Zephyr again.
Zephyr............headed for a port near Essyrn...at least seven men...I think.........I'm in a wagon now...there's more that they captured, I don't know where the others are...Zephyr, I love you—- but her silent, telepathic message cut off there, one of the men cruelly kicking her.
"You still alive?" He mocked, and then laughed, turning back to the other men.
Her eyes watered. She desperately wanted to wipe her eyes but she couldn't.
The men were arguing about the best way to get to their ship.
 

Jelani was able to make fast progress with it only being herself and the bird versus the men and their cargo. It hadn't taken too long before she was able to get close enough to start seeing tracks once the storm had passed. Zephyr's tiny nudges and skees had helped guide her - accurately - and there, on the horizon, she could see them.

Hakeshna there were so many. Far too many for her to fight alone. That became even clearer the closer she came. Even still she let a little bit of power swirl from her breath to keep her hidden. If she could see them, they would be able to see her.

Gods she hoped they couldn't see her....

---

"Shut your fucking mouths." The leader with the scar barked at the others. They quickly fell in line, looking ashamed, "Is this your first run? Is it?"

He slapped the loudest arguer across his ear.

"We use the same route we've always used. Now move."

Pyla had discovered a nail jutting out of the wood in the wagon, and started sneakily rubbing the rope that was tied around her wrists against the nail.
15 minutes later, she felt the rope snap. Pyla quietly lied there for another 5 minutes, gathering up the courage for what she was about to attempt. Finally, she inhaled a deep breath, and slowly slid off her the bag from off of her head. The desert sun was blinding, and it took a second for her eyes to adjust. She looked around the wagon. There was one guy, luckily for her, not paying attention to her at the moment. She quietly kept the rope around her wrists to make it seem like her hands were still tied, and then coughed loudly.
"Excuse me," she said, making her voice sound weak.
"I feel sick."
He glanced at her and his eyes narrowed.
"Hey! How'd you get your hood off?"
Pyla shrugged.
"I just needed light, I feel really sick."
The man suspiciously got up and roughly yanked her to her feet.
"Don't try anyth-" and that's as far as he got, Pyla letting the rope drop off her wrists and slamming him as hard as she could into the side of the wagon, a suprised and angry yell coming from the man.

The rest of the band were quick to respond upon hearing the grunts from the carriage. Despite their bickering, they had done this before and this wasn't the first time they'd had to fight against attempted escape. The two that came with the wagon were especially skilled - they were full time slavers after all.

Pyla would barely be able to get a foot off of the wagon before two, then three, then four burly men flattened her to the ground, pressing her face into the sand and pinning her arms behind her back.

"Bring her to me." The leader snapped once she was subdued.

Pyla thought she had made it. For all of two seconds. She managed to land a powerful punch to a guy's jaw before she was slammed into the ground and got a mouthful of sand. A faceful of sand, really.
It was chaos, and then she found herself in front of the leader. She was breathing hard from exertion, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
She said nothing, choosing instead to ready herself for whatever was about to happen.

TW: maiming

The rest of the crew knew what was going to happen and a table was brought before the leader without a single command. The men were silent, but that didn't stop the smirks they passed around.

The leader didn't break eye contact as Pyla was forced to sit on the other side of the small table. He wasn't smiling this time. He actually seemed to look...sad...

"I warned you." Was all he said. And in less than two seconds her hand was forced onto the table and he brought his scimitar down, severing her hand from her arm at the wrist.

TW for references and results of maiming

A sharp, harsh impact.
Then pain. Blinding pain that caused her vision to black out for a moment.
Pyla couldn't hold back the agonized scream that erupted from her, her whole body tensing up as her brain tried to process the amount of pain she was feeling. The pain was so sharp, so intense, that she involuntarily broadcasted her scream to Zephyr.
She wanted to ball her hand up into a fist, but she couldn't.

Her body went into full fight or flight response, her pupils dilating, causing everything to look brighter, the harsh sun reflecting off of the desert sands.
This man was insane...they all were.

Zephyr lost it, the moment the blade cut off Pyla's hand, though Jelani didn't know the reason just yet. She was close enough to the caravan now that she had been making plans to sneak in at night to free Pyla, but the bird couldn't be contained. She could feel his fury, his pain, and she didn't hesitate when he flew off without her and raked his talons across the face of the man holding Pyla down and the diving towards the man with the scimitar.

It was chaos. In the time it took Zephyr to close the gap, the group had already seared the wound closed with a red-hot iron so Pyla wasn't in any immediate danger. At least there was that.

Jelani called to the sands and swirled it around the camp, ignoring the part of her that screamed caution - Pyla's screams had echoed through the desert and Jelani was fueled by rage. A rage that only amplified when she saw the hand sitting on the table. A rage that blinded her.

Save her. Her brain screamed. Kill them.

And she listened. Sand tore through the camp like razors as she entered in like some kind of mythical goddess.

Her vision blacked out again only to feel a red-hot, searing pain where her hand used to be. She tried to jerk her hand away. Pyla wanted relief.
She screamed again, a broken, heart-wrenching scream.
"Please...just make it stop," she sobbed. She had screamed so harshly her throat already felt hoarse.

And then there was another cry. An angry—no, enraged cry. 
Zephyr came flying in, a vengeful blur, attacking the man that was holding her down. She felt hands release her and then the world exploded into chaos.
She instantly dropped and rolled under the table, away from the leader and grabbing a dagger off of the belt of the man Zephyr had killed.
Pyla honestly had no idea how she was going to be able to fight anybody. She pushed down the burning, sharp, searing pain that had spread up her whole right arm, and viciously stabbed a guy in the chest.

The whole camp was engulfed in sand. Pyla recognized this. This wasn't a natural sandstorm. This was Jelani's doing.

Merely stabbing the guy in the chest was too much exertion, and Pyla fell to her knees, clutching her only way of protection tightly, gasping for breath.
"JELANI!" She yelled as loudly as she could through the chaos, before grabbing onto a tent pole to keep from collapsing all the way to the ground.

Jelani had given herself over to the desert at this point, rage tearing through her as it tore through the caravan. She couldn't have stopped it if she tried, but she didn't try. She wanted them to suffer even if it meant taking every last piece of strength she had. She wanted the sand to rip them apart the same way they were tearing her family asunder.

Her eyes glowed gold and the sands obeyed her with a thought. Within seconds the screams stopped. Within minutes flesh had disappeared and was replaced with bone.

And she couldn't stop.

Pyla remained untouched while hell itself rained down and destroyed even the animals she that pulled the wagon. Even the wagon itself began to creak as sand pelted it with such force it was leaving rivulets behind.

It felt like she was in a hurricane of sand, but sheltered in the eye of the storm. The entire caravan was decimated. Pyla forced herself up off her knees. Her eyes were dry. She couldn't cry anymore if she wanted to.
She stumbled through the destroyed camp, searching for Jelani.
Then, she found her, looking like a mythical being, her eyes glowing gold. She wasn't sure what to do. She slowly approached her, holding her injured arm to her chest.
"JELANI!" She yelled as loudly as she could. All of her energy was almost gone, the strange calm she felt for a moment, shattering into intense panic. She couldn't lose her again. The world was swirling around her, and she couldn't tell what was real anymore.

Jelani heard Pyla and turned her glowing eyes towards the woman she had come to save. A part of her knew that her mission was complete, that there was nothing she could do anymore, but the storm continued to rage; she had let it go too far.

Hakeshna this was further than she had ever taken it before. She was no longer Jelani but the desert itself. She was sand. She was wind. She was destruction and she was life.

"You are safe."

The storm continued to rage.

"Safe?" Pyla repeated.
She looked down at her wrist where her hand used to be.
"Safe?" She whispered.
She stared at it for a moment.
"Jelani...there's others..."
The storm seemed to be getting worse.
Zephyr flew in from the other side of the camp, his talons stained with blood and an enraged look still in his eyes. But the rage left as soon as he spotted Pyla, flying into her chest full force with a cry, snuggling against her chest. "Zephyr...I missed you...but the storm...can you do anything about it?"
Pyla stopped close to Jelani, trying to ground herself, tell herself it was alright. She wanted to embrace Jelani, thank her for, well, everything.
She was safe...she was safe. But her breathing wouldn't slow down. It was too fast. It felt like there was a weight on Pyla's chest. Zephyr could sense Pyla was in a state of panic. He could also see that Jelani was practically becoming a storm.
Zephyr took off, and flew, straight up over Jelani, and hovered high above her.
He closed his eyes, and a low hum filled the desert, low in frequency, but loud. Then, a second pair of wings sprouted from his back. The first pair were gold, these were turquoise blue, almost glowing. His eyes shot open, and they were the same blue.
Zephyr seemed to freeze in the sky, he was flying so slow. Almost as if he was floating.
Then Zephyr uttered a single word:
"Çåłm
It echoed across the desert, shattering rocks and even vibrating the sparse oasis.

The desert was using Jelani at this point more than she was using it. There was nothing she could do, but it brought her peace to know she, at the very least, was able to keep Pyla from whatever fate their sisters suffered under the thumbs of these slavers.

She had just about given up and resigned herself to the fact that this magic would only stop when her strength completely failed, but then the bird...that damn bird...took to the sky and...

What was he?

She didn't have time to contemplate before the single word he spoke rang like a gong in her brain, severing her connection to the sands. The storm stopped almost immediately and the sand that was still in the sky hovered, frozen, for just a moment before falling to the ground.

Jelani's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed with them.

Pyla didn't know Zephyr could do that. She had rescued him several years ago in a sandstorm. For a split second she thought this must be someone else's bird.
And then he spoke, and all the panic and fear just left, replaced by an almost eerie calm. Eerie, perhaps, because the sand storm also stopped, time itself seeming to stand still before the sand just fell to the desert ground.

Pyla glanced over to Jelani. Who had collapsed. Was...was she dead? Pyla worried about what Zephyr had done. Did it hurt her?
What even did he do? Pyla wasn't sure. She had never read anything like it.

And yet, Zephyr's extra pair of wings didn't go away as he flew back down to Pyla and Jelani, landing on a large rock and preening his feathers.

She knelt next to Jelani, and worriedly checked for a pulse.
"Jelani? Jelani!" She gently shook her with her remaining hand. Her other arm still was in a lot of pain. But there wasn't much anyone could do.

The desert had taken much from her, and if she had struggled with its power before, she was in worse condition now. Her skin was pale and blood oozed from her nose and her ears. Yet, somehow, she managed to open her eyes just enough that Pyla swam into view, almost angelic in appearance with the sun shining around her.

"Pyla." She croaked. She couldn't move, her limbs felt like lead. They were a pair, the two of them.

"Are they gone? Are...are you safe?" A rough cough shook through her and her eyes closed again and didn't open. It took too much effort.

"Yes they're gone...I'm safe..."
But then Jelani passed out again.
"Zephyr what do I do? Hakeshna help us." Zephyr cautiously sat on Jelani's chest, watching her for movement.
"Zephyr what are you doing?" Pyla anxiously watched him.
He merely lowered his head, and acted like he was sleeping. His wings glowed again. He was attempting to transfer some of his life energy to Jelani.
Pyla ripped off a tiny bit of her own shirt, dabbing at the blood that was oozing out of her ears.
Jelani didn't look good.
"Hakeshna above, please, let her live. I should be the one you take. She's—-she's the leader. Without her the Metzezei crumble. I can't lead them."
Everything seemed to culminate and overflow, tears falling down Pyla's cheeks.

Jelani's breathing steadied and the blood flow slowed significantly. Whatever Zephyr was doing was working, and the leader of the Mtetezi inched back from death that had threatened to claim her only moments before.

The air was as unnaturally still, almost mirroring the woman who had commanded the sands and now remained unmoving.

But she wasn't dead, which was an immense improvement.

Pyla carefully cleaned the blood off of Jelani's face, taking her wrist and checking her pulse once more. It was slower than normal, but it had improved.
Zephyr raised his head and looked off into the distance, then alighted into the sky and looked at Pyla.
"What? A small oasis? How far?"
Zephyr just began flying in the direction he had indicated.
"Weird bird," she muttered to herself.

Pyla sighed and gently picked Jelani up, following Zephyr.

The oasis was small, but the pool of water was clear, and there were a grove of palm trees around the water. The shade provided some much needed relief from the scorching heat, and Pyla laid Jelani down in the shade.
She took the flask and refilled it from the pool, then sat down beside Jelani.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to Jelani, before leaning back against a palm tree to rest some.

Jelani didn't know how long she was out. She didn't know if she was awake or dreaming. She didn't know if she would ever actually wake up.

Until she did.

The sun was blazing around her making her eyes water and her head pound as a quiet groan escaped her lips. Hakeshna her mouth was a desert and her tongue coarse and swollen. Even half awake she could feel the cracks that had formed in her lips.

What had happened? Where...where was she?

Where was Pyla?

Pyla.

Pyla running towards her hand outstretched.

Hand.

Jelani lurched upright, suddenly lucid and looked around for her sister. "Pyla? Pyla?"

Her eyes found her and she moved, stiffly, to be by her side.

Pyla had leaned back against the palm tree to rest, and then the adrenaline wore off.
She fell into a restless sleep. She didn't mean to, really, her body just took over and shut down.
Pyla didn't even want to think about the past two days. But every time she closed her eyes she could feel...everything.
The men forcing her arm onto the table. The terror and realization of what was about to happen.
The sickening sound of the blade cutting through her wrist.
The fear that she might bleed out.
The redhot iron being used to stop the bleeding.

Pyla's body was so stressed out that it had felt like she was viewing the whole ordeal from above. She couldn't really remember what happened afterwards...Jelani came in like a raging bull and just...obliterated all of them. Zephyr did something weird.
Her wrist hurt. A lot. It was a strange dull but sharp pain.

Then she could hear Jelani's voice. Oh. That was happening right now. Jelani...Jelani's awake!
She weakly sat up alittle bit. She didn't have much energy. Honestly she didn't know how she got Jelani here. Sheer willpower. Probably.
"There's water...flask...near you..."
And Pyla protectively held her damaged arm against her chest.

"Oh Hakeshna, Pyla!" Jelani choked, her usual calm and stoic demeanor crumbling beneath shock and exhaustion. She looked at her hand and her mind went blank for what to do. It was just...gone. There was her arm and then her wrist and then nothing.

This was her fault. She had brought them here knowing it would most likely be a trap.

"Oh Pyla I'm sorry...I'm so so sorry..." tears filled her eyes.

"It's not...it's not your fault."
"Jelani...I'm glad you're ok," Pyla said, her throat hoarse from exhaustion, tears in her eyes threatening to spill over.
It killed Pyla to see Jelani like this.
Pyla found the water flask and gave it Jelani.
"I'm the one that should be sorry, not you. If it wasn't for you I'd still be—" and her voice choked up, and Pyla placed her hand on Jelani's, a silent comfort.

"We need to get you home." Jelani said softly, doing her best to control herself for Pyla's sake. She wouldn't be much of a leader if she couldn't support her people when they needed her most. She needed to stay strong, needed to be strong.

She accepted the canteen, took a long sip, and then went back to the little lake to refill it with perfectly clear desert water. It was places like this that reminded Jelani that the Gods still watched over them - that they would provide for their people as long as their people continued to trust in them. Now she just needed Hakeshna to help them return to safety. It was a long journey from here back to their mounts, through the desert that threatened them with dehydration and sun poisoning.

She returned and held the water to Pyla's lips, "Drink, sister. Then rest. We will travel once the sun goes down and we can use the stars to guide us."

"Go home? We can't...there's more traders, Jelani. We have to find them. We have to find them!"
Pyla carefully sipped the water Jelani was offering her.
"The pain won't go away," Pyla whispered. 
"But it's my fault...he-he kept calling me a slave. I'm not a slave, Jelani, I'm a soldier. I'm a soldier," she repeated quietly to herself, rocking alittle side to side.
 

"Pyla..." Jelani leaned forward and pressed her hands against her cheeks and then her head. Her forehead was burning and not just from the desert sun, "Pyla we can't do anything now. This is a deep rooted organization and we need our sisters. We need our council. We need our people if we're to free our sisters."

She continued to encourage the water, knowing that simple movements like this could help her regain not only her physical strength, but her emotional stability as wells.

"We both need rest, need healing." And sat back on her heels, doing her best to quell the nausea that rose. She needed to be strong for her sister, but she was low on her own strength. Getting back to their starting place would be difficult and they would be lucky if they made it at all.

Pyla thought about that. Well, as well as she could in her current condition.
Pyla drank alittle more water and then pushed it away.
She shivered, suspiciously eyeing the flask of water.
"I'm cold, I don't need that," she protested, hugging herself to try to ground her.
She pushed the flask toward Jelani.
"You drink it."
"We'll rest and then head out, like you said. We'll make it." And despite her pain, she managed a smile at Jelani.

"Rest." She brushed Pyla's hair from her face and turned to find the bag that she had managed to bring with her. There wasn't much, but there were some pieces of ash bark that could be used to help with the pain.

"Chew on this." Pyla would know what it was and hopefully wouldn't fight her own it. Then she turned to refill the canteen while soaking a cloth in the cool oasis water to use on Pyla's head.

"I'm here. You're safe. Sleep, sister."

Pyla chewed on the bark, wrinkling her nose at the taste. Stuff always tasted worse than she could remember.
"Can't sleep," she mumbled, the exhaustion and stress taking hold of her.
"The men...they're coming," she said, the fever making her agitated.
She grabbed Jelani's arm with her one hand.
"Are you safe?"
Then the exhaustion finally took hold and her eyes closed, sending her into sleep.

Jelani did her best to ensure Pyla was comfortable where she leaned against the tree, using whatever she could find to help support her. Then, very carefully, she pulled bandages and salve from her bag and began dressing her wound. The balm had numbing properties, but she doubted it would do much for this situation. The most important thing was to stave off infection. Even cauterized the way it was, that was no guarantee it would heal without issue. If they had been anywhere else, she would have better materials to work with.

She was done quickly – there wasn't much she could actually do – and clean bandages covered Pyla's stump and extended up close to her elbow to ensure it didn't fall off. She then gently laid her arm across her body and began preparing some fabric from her cloak to use as a sling after she awoke.

"Hakeshna, help us." Jelani murmured, dashing tears away from her eyes. She had failed her. Gods she had failed as a leader and as a friend. How had any of this happened? How had she been so careless to chase after a lead that was very clearly a trap – a trap she was fully aware of – and still get caught in the net?

"Pyla, forgive me." She took a deep, shuddering breath and then leaned back on the same tree to wait for night.

Pyla woke up alittle before nightfall. Her arm was killing her. Moving it at all was absolute agony, but at least Jelani had fixed it the best she could.
"Jelani," she whispered, pushing against the tree to sit up more.
"Don't beat yourself up," she winced as she finally found a more comfortable spot, "really. I'm alive, we're both safe, and once we get back home, which we will, safely, we can formulate a plan."
Zephyr was fast asleep too. Pyla nudged Zephyr.
"Wake up."
She glanced toward Jelani.
"Do you want to rest some?"

"Rested enough." She lied, and the bags under her eyes proved it. She groaned as she pulled herself to her feet and found more ash which was immediately handed to Pyla. Then she pulled a flask that was buried at the bottom of her pack and handed it over.

"Drink. All of it." A command, "It will mess with your head but it will make the journey bearable. Then, and I'm sorry, we need to move as quickly as you're able."

Pyla took the flask and took off the lid, sniffing it. She almost threw it purely from the smell.
"This smells like it's going to kill me."
She took a drink and wrinkled her nose.
"It tastes like it's going to kill me." She cautiously took another swig.
It was even worse the second time.
She sighed, and drank most of it, before suspiciously looking at the flask.
"You..." Pyla paused as if she didn't recognize her own voice.
"You should have the rest."
Pyla looked in the flask, as if she was searching for something.
"Orrrrr...second thought...I should."
She clumsily stood up.
"You sure you don't need to use the sleep?"
She downed the rest, and held out the flask to Jelani.
"My lady," she bowed and just about face planted into the sand, somehow catching herself.
"You're a good woman," she said as she passed Jelani, going straight towards the lake.
"Not you," she glared at Zephyr.
"Because...because you're a bird. Birds can't be women."
And she laughed at the thought, turning to look at what she thought was Jelani, but was actually a palm tree.
"Cmonnnn, we've gotta get to...where are we going?"

Jelani tried to stop her from drinking the whole thing, but it was gone before the words could leave her mouth. This wasn't a normal but if alcohol, it was brewed specifically to knock out patients before a limb needed to be amputated. It was the strongest drink know to man as far as she knew and...

"Oh Hakeshna." Jelani took her good arm and threw it over her shoulder, "C'mon. You'll feel better now but...we'll deal with the after effects tomorrow..."

And she began the long trek back to their mounts. Hopefully it would take the night and not longer, but...it was going to be a hard walk.

Pyla stumbled when Jelani started guiding her.
"Fuck, this stuff could knock out a muuule...like that one," and she pointed vaguely in the direction of Zephyr, who looked offended. Zephyr followed them, flying slightly ahead of them, watching for any potential threats.
"Feel better?" She looked down at her stump.
"Huh...kinda feels better I guessss."
"The after effects? Am I gonna lose my other...hand?" Pyla grew worried, and stopped walking.
"I can't lose that hand too...how will I eat?

Jelani kept a firm arm around Pyla, cursing their luck that she had decided to down the whole thing. Of course, walking while handling shock and pain wouldn't have been better at all. She just hoped that the woman wouldn't completely pass out; she'd certainly had enough that it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility.

"I'm spoon feed you." Jelani replied, exhaustion commanding her words and her steps, "Hold onto me. We have to keep going."

And they did.

It was long. It was arduous. It was more exhausting than anything she'd done in her entire life. And the stars continued to move across the sky marking the hours.

Just put one foot in front of the other. Keep going. Gods, Pyla felt like shit, even with all of the alcohol in her system.
At least she wasn't in pain...honestly she rather felt like she was floating...in a weird...floating but still walking kind of way.
"I'm sorry," Pyla mumbled, almost somehow tripping over air.
"I shouldn't have stopped to help that guyyy," she muttered.

Jelani couldn't help but stop in her tracks at that last comment. Her eyes swiveled to stare at Pyla in disbelief.

"I'm sorry. What?" She snapped, exhaustion wielding her tongue, "You did what?"

Surely she had misheard. Surely Pyla wasn't stupid enough to stop and help one of their attackers. Surely she had been trained better than that.

Surely.

Pyla gestured vaguely at the ground.
"He was justtttt lying there. Had to make sure that, he wasn't dead. You know, help."
Then she made a vague punching motion with her fist.
"And then..." she trailed off, her eyes nervously looking at Jelani and then at her injured arm.
Man she felt so heavy. Her legs felt like lead, like she could hardly lift them to walk.

"Pyla." Jelani snapped, knowing full well she probably wouldn't remember any of this in the morning, "You are a fool."

And then she grabbed her by the good arm and picking up the pace. The moon was high in the sky and they were losing cool hours. The sooner they were back with their camels the sooner they could be on their way home. The list with the Mtetezi names was burning a hole in her pocket as the women on it begged to be freed.

And the women who had been crossed off...Hakeshna guide them as they used the stars to navigate to a better life.

"A fool?!!?" Pyla exclaimed, looking insulted.
"Yeah I guessss. Whatever you say. You're the boss," Pyla decided, attempting to walk faster and looking absolutely ridiculous.
"Why did I drink that? I mean, why did you drink that," Pyla corrected.
Then she looked confused.
"All I know is...somebody drank something...and I lost my hand...and camels."

They finally made it to their camels, and Pyla managed to walk over to one, hugging it.
"My tree...get your own tree," she said, glaring at Jelani and possessively guarding her "tree".

"oh no you don't." Jelani peeled Pyla's arms from the creature, careful not to touch or disturb the stump. It was surprising after all these hours that Pyla remained intoxicated, but perhaps it was a combination of the alcohol and the blood loss that had surely come after the amputation. Even if they had moved at lightening speed to cauterize the wound the major arteries would have released her precious life blood; fed the sand.

She was exhausted. It took all of her strength to keep her eyes open, but they couldn't stop. They had another day's journey ahead of them and still a few hours night before the dawn began to break. With strength she didn't know she had, Jelani hoisted Pyla up onto her personal mount and then began lashing the two together so the second could be lead. Then she proceeded to tie Pyla's torso and legs to the saddle – it would help keep her still and it would aid if either of them should fall asleep and attempt to fall.

Then she pulled herself up behind her sister, still seething that she had been so stupid to approach a prone figure in the desert after they had just been attacked, tied herself to the saddle as a precaution, and kicked her mount gentle to urge him to move.

They were on their way.

The steady rocking of the beast lulled her and she felt her eyes dip closed.

Pyla woke up with a start, disoriented and in pain. She couldn't move...did she get kidnapped again?
"Fuck not again..." she took deep breaths to try to calm herself.
She felt like she was enveloped in sand.
She couldn't breathe.
Searing pain. Her whole arm was throbbing.
"J-Jelani..." oh please let it be Jelani...she just wanted this nightmare to end.
Her whole body was straining with exertion, she was starting to panic.

Jelani could be called many things – strict, overbearing, serious, meticulous – but one thing she could never be accused of is being ill-prepared. This was one of those moments that her own hyperattention to details saved them both. Somewhere along the journey her eyes had slipped closed and she fell asleep on top of their mounts. Thankfully, the lashings she had placed to keep both her and Pyla save had done their job well.

When Pyla woke and started to panic, the leader of the Mtetezi jolted awake and blearily glanced around for a moment before realizing where they were and what had happened. She cursed, quite loudly, at herself and then wrapped her hands protectively around Pyla while making soothing noises to try and calm her.

"Breathe with me. You are safe." She murmured, letting one hand run through Pyla's hair and around her ear much like a mother might do to a frightened child – but she wasn't being condescending. Jelani knew how to handle people in crisis and Pyla? Well, she was in a massive crisis and would be for some time.

The sun was starting to rise steadily on the horizon, and a quick look at the fading stars showed they had veered off course. Hopefully it wouldn't make the return journey too long, but it was hard to say for certain how long they had managed to stray from the road home.

Pyla's panic was interrupted by the soothing voice of Jelani, helping her calm down.
She was safe. It took her awhile to calm down nevertheless.
"I failed...Jelani I failed! I'm so sorry." Pyla shifted alittle and hissed in pain as her brain reminded her about her arm.
"How far away are we?" Jelani asked quietly. To her, this mission had been a failure, and she, once she had her full strength back, was considering resigning. 
"I'm sorry I put you in so much danger."
The stars indicated that they were off course a bit.

"I'm not sure." She replied, continuing to look at the sky as she turned back in the correct direction. Once the sun was up, they'd lose their more accurate directions and have to rely solely on the sun's placement which, while better than nothing, could still place them miles away from their actual destination. It wasn't as if the desert had discerning sand dunes to mark their passage.

And the Mtetezi did not place markers that would lead others to their home. Everything was shrouded and it wasn't unusual for expeditions to take a few extra days because warriors and traders in the community misread directions.

She didn't reply to Pyla's comments about failing. She didn't reply because she wasn't going to lie to the woman, and also because they had both failed. Pyla from stupidity in the moment, but Jelani from lack of preparation. And her sins were far worse. Her failures had cost Pyla her hand.

A quick measuring of the fading stars with her hand gave her a more accurate idea of where they were, and she shifted the camels once more.

"We won't make it home today." She concluded, "But there should be a village to the west that we can reach in an hour. We'll head there and rest. Maybe find a healer who can help in the interim. Rest. Lean on me. You're safe now."

Gods she hoped there wasn't infection. The bloodloss hadn't killed her, but infection was far more likely than Jelani wanted to think about.

Pyla was beginning to get a pounding headache. Probably from what she drank earlier.
And the pain had returned in droves. It was only getting worse. Pyla shivered. When did she start shivering? It did feel cold...at least to her.

She did as Jelani said and leaned on Jelani.
"That guy that I stopped to help...well...he was lying face first on the ground and I got worried it was you...I admit it was stupid of me."
Pyla fell silent after that, watching some dark cumulonimbus clouds that were hanging over the horizon.

Jelani was tired. No, not tired, that wasn't a word even close to the pure bone weariness she was feeling. She had no energy left, nothing except for the sheer knowledge that if they stopped now, they would die before the sun reached its peak. Pyla needed medical attention and Jelani? She was fully intact, sure, but the amount of energy she had used to control the sands had nearly destroyed her. Even now her eyes could barely focus and her fingertips had been numb for some time.

She didn't have the energy to reprimand Pyla. She didn't even have the energy to think about being annoyed or angry. Perhaps tomorrow, or the next day, but now she could only bring herself to focus on one thing: survival.

So she said nothing. No reply, no response, just let Pyla's words fall into silence and be eaten by the desert.

And they rode on.

The sun rose higher in the sky and just as it began to get hot and she pulled her cloak up and over her head, the outlines of the village she had mentioned came into view. They were almost there. Thank the Gods. Thank the Stars. They would have rest tonight.

She pushed her heels into the camel's hindquarters to spur him onwards and a blink or two later they had reached the edges of the community. That must have meant that she had faded out of consciousness for a time as it would have taken at least twenty minutes ride to cross that distance.

Then people were surrounding them, asking questions, staring wild-eyed at the stump where Pyla's hand used to be.

"Healer." Jelani croaked, realizing that she must have been severely dehydrated for her tongue to feel so rough in her head, "and Lodgings. Please."

And then she remembered nothing except the feel of gentle hands lowering her from their mount and carting them off to...somewhere else.

When she woke, she was indoors in a room by herself. A pitcher of water and a cup had been left on the table to her right and she had been changed into a loose cotton robe. The slash on her arm had been bandaged and the small scrapes and cuts from their ordeal had been treated. Overall she felt better. Not great, but better.

Pyla remembered seeing a faint outline in the distance before she passed out. The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back on a comfortable surface, her injured arm bandaged, and surprisingly, she wasn't in pain for the moment. Someone was standing next to her, saying sentences. But she couldn't make sense of them.
The word "infection" she was able to unravel from what the people in the room were saying.
A knot formed in her stomach, like panic waiting to explode. She was safe, wasn't she? These people had helped her. But how had she gotten here? Where was Jelani? Was Jelani safe?
Pyla worriedly tried to sit up, panic on her face, and a gentle hand pushed her down.
"You need to rest."
Pyla did not want to do that. Not at all. What if Jelani was dead?
She managed to yell for Jelani before she passed out again.

Jelani sat up with a groan and pushed herself to a seated position with her back resting against the bed's headboard. Every part of her ached like she had been beaten within an inch of death and her head ached so badly it was like it had been cracked open with an axe.

But she was alive. More than alive, it would seem, she was taken care of. Her injuries were bandaged, and it didn't take her long before she was reaching for the water pitcher and pouring water into a glass. It was possibly the most refreshing thing she had every tasted in her entire life. It didn't matter that it was luke warm and probably hours old at this point – it was refreshing and perfect and everything that she could have hoped for.

Two cups later she had the strength and the resolve to put her feet over the edge of the bed and onto the floor. It was cool to the touch, though even the soles of her feet ached when she put any pressure on them. Her magics had taken their tole and she knew it would be weeks before she was back to full strength. Weeks that they didn't have. Weeks that meant more and more of her sisters would be sacrificed to whatever evil had abducted them.

The names on that list were burned into her memory. She didn't need the paper to know who was on it, what colors they were written in, nor which ones had been viciously crossed out in black ink.

They would be avenged. She would make sure of it. They would train harder. They would prevail and liberate them.

But that was a challenge for tomorrow because at that exact moment, Pyla's panicked voice rang through the halls and Jelani jolted to her feet.

Too fast.

She stumbled into the wall before finding her balance and began the excruciating hobble into the hallway and to the door directly to her left.

"Pyla?" her words were hoarse as she opened the door to a few people bustling around Pyla who seemed to be out again after her initial cries. Normally, Jelani might be on alert, but based on her own healings she doubted that whoever was taking care of them meant them any harm. At least not at this moment.

"Is she ok?" she croaked as the women looked up to see her standing in the doorway.

"Ah! You're awake! Good." Then she glanced back at Pyla with a sad frown, "She is surviving." The woman muttered quickly, tutting a few times after looking at the stump where Pyla's hand used to be, "You two have been through a lot."

"Slavers." Jelani said softly and her words were greeted by a sad sigh of understanding.

"They're getting bold. Brazen. The desert is overrun. No one is safe, especially women. You were alone, where is the rest of your caravan?"

Jelani paused for a moment, weighing how much truth she wanted to present to this woman and ultimately deciding that discretion would be in their best interest. Most of the people around Essryn would not support women being so blatantly masculine and outside of their societal scope as women.

So she shook her head slowly and cast her eyes down. The woman would take it to mean they were dead, or taken, but she wouldn't have to actually say any lies.

And sure enough, a motherly arm was soon wrapped around her.

"Let's get you some food, yes?"

"I'd like to eat it here...for when she wakes again...if that's alright?"

It was more than alright. The moment the words left her mouth a chair was pulled up and she was gently lead to it where she could sit beside Pyla. A warm cup of tea was placed on the beside table within her reach and soon a spread of fruit and crusty bread were placed there. Despite everything, Jelani found she wasn't terribly hungry and sipped slowly at the tea and gnawed on the bread so not to be rude.

And she waited.

Pyla woke up to someone sitting by her bedside. She concentrated on getting her eyes to focus.
"Jelani?" Pyla weakly reached out a hand to Jelani.
"The slavers...are they gone?" Pyla asked, her eyes worriedly looking around the room.

Jelani was dozing again by the time Pyla woke and jolted awake as someone touched her hand. Her first reaction was to pull her hand back defensively, but quickly realized where she was and what was happening and returned to wrap her fingers gently around her sister's good hand.

"Yes. You're safe now and cared for."

She reached towards the bedside table and poured a glass of water before offering it to her sister in arms.

"Drink. It's been a few days at least, but I was not awake for all of it so I can't be sure. There are some dried fruits as well, when you're ready."

Pyla seemed to relax, slowly taking the cup of water offered to her and carefully sipping it. 
"I can't eat." Pyla said flatly.
"Not when I know our sisters are still out there. Not when...not when I know they could be suffering the same fate as me. And worse."
There was a ruckus outside of the room, and Zephyr flew into their room, a piece of paper in his claws and landed on the bed Pyla was lying in. A concerned woman followed and apologized, and she tried to shoo Zephyr back outside.
"He-he can stay," Pyla said, discreetly managing to get the piece of paper from Zephyr.
The lady left, albeit a bit suspiciously.
Pyla took a look at the paper.
It had more names. More of their sisters. Except on this one, Pyla's and Jelani's names were on it.
Most of the names were crossed out.

Pyla handed the paper to Jelani, an ashen look on her face.

Jelani only glanced at the paper but didn't pay it any mind, at least outwardly. She recognized the handwriting and the style immediately and didn't need to dwell on it when more immediate dangers faced them. Anger would cloud her judgement, was clouding her judgement.

She could not properly lead while she was angry.

What she could do, however, was ensure that Pyla was cared for and the council made aware of the severity of their plight. Someone was trying to eliminate them. Someone who knew them well enough that they could control their movements like puppets.

"We can't face them, Pyla." she murmurs we softly, "Not by ourselves and certainly not in our condition. You need your strength or you'll be no use to me or to our family."

Something seemed to click in Pyla's mind. She weakly pushed herself up more in bed, so she was leaning up more. She extended a shaky hand for the dried fruit.
"Ok...I'll eat...but afterwards...after we're better...what's the plan? Are these people that helped us to be trusted?" After every question she would pause and take a long sip of water. Honestly Pyla felt sick to her stomach, like anything else would make her throw up, but she kept drinking water.
Zephyr had curled up by Pyla, and was alertly watching the door.

Pyla quietly felt her injured arm. It was cold to the touch.
"Perhaps I could have more medicine..." Pyla quietly asked, merely touching her arm sent spikes of pain all the way to her head.
"Can I do anything for you, Jelani?" Pyla asked, wanting to be there for Jelani like Jelani had for her.

Jelani just smiled sadly, though unintentionally, down at Pyla and gave her good hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

"No, sister." She reached forward and brushed a stray hair from her face, "As long as you regain your strength, I'll have everything I need."

Then she stood and walked to the door. She hadn't missed Pyla's reaction when she touched her arm and was determined to find something that could help take the edge off the pain. These women helping them should have something - nothing that could come close to the healing touch of magic, but something that could be of assistance.

Not a short time later, one of the women returned with a steaming hot mug of tea mixed with a tincture that would help, not only with the pain, but with the infection as well.

"Here." She placed it on the side table, knowing better than to try and hand it directly to the woman with only one good hand. Jelani stood by the woman's side and nodded in encouragement to Pyla. It is safe, the nod relayed, you are safe.

And she needed to be well enough to travel by the morning. They couldn't delay any longer.

Pyla gratefully took the tea, slowly sipping it.
The tea tasted bitter but had a slightly sweet aftertaste. Pyla wrinkled her nose at the taste but finished it, setting the cup down carefully on the side table. 
The tea seemed to put Pyla to sleep, and she slept till the next morning. Pyla woke up with a start, the intense pain in her injured arm having faded to a dull ache. 
She felt much better. 
"I think....I think this is as good as I'm going to feel," Pyla quietly said, before sitting up and forcing herself to swing her legs over the side of the bed. 
"Thank you for the tea...and for taking care of me." 
"If you'll just lead, I think I can walk." 

Jelani took the time Pyla slept to examine their surroundings and prepare for their departure. It should only take them a day to travel back home with a decent pace, and their camels were well rested, fed, and ready for the journey. Pyla, however...

But that didn't matter. They had to leave. Pyla's condition wasn't going to get better anytime soon and they couldn't just stay to wait for her to get stronger. Jelani would just have to hope she wouldn't get worse on the way.

The women had taken great care of them and the tiny village had done so much for two strangers. She would make sure to compensate them once she was able to work it out with the elders. They wouldn't deny her, of that she was sure, and the Mtetezi always paid their debts.

She returned to Pyla's side when informed her sister had woken and nodded when she declared herself ready.

"Good." She replied, making sure to contain all of her doubts and fears. She needed to be strong. She always needed to present herself with strength and competence, "We're off, then."

They were doted over by the villagers as they left and had a good amount of food and trinkets that could help with survival that were already loaded into their saddle bags. Jelani had told them they had a ways to go to reach their home, not wanting them to know where they actually lived, and the people had come through.

Then they were off, the sun still slowly rising from the east.

Pyla was concernedly quiet the entire journey back to their home base. 
When they got back, Pyla took care of her camel, and then headed to her room. Her arm was throbbing.



Once Pyla got to her own room, she practically collapsed onto her bed, letting her knapsack just fall onto the floor.  Anger was building in her.
She just wanted to scream at herself. She had failed. She had almost gotten both her and Jelani killed. And she lost a hand, potentially hindering her ability to fight. 
Pyla angrily sat up.
And then there were the relentless memories. 
She just wanted to forget the last few days.
She wanted to forget those awful men. She wanted to forget everything.  She let out an angry, painful yell. 
"I'm useless!" she angrily yelled to the empty room. Pyla stood up and grabbed her knapsack that had fallen on the floor and angrily launched it at the opposite side of the room, the knapsack hitting the wall with a crash. 
"Fucking USELESS!"
And she collapsed to her knees with an angry yell before breaking down into sobbing.


Zephyr had watched the whole thing happen and anxiously flew off to find Jelani.

The moment they entered the walls of the Mtetezi compound, they were set upon by concerned family, friends, brothers, sisters, nearly everyone who had been waiting with baited breath for the two warriors to return. They had been gone much longer than Jelani had expected and the look of relief that washed over anxious faces was so intense it could have set the very air on fire. Their mounts were taken, though Pyla insisted on doing everything herself, and people followed behind to make the process as easy as possible.

No one asked questions. They knew better than to accost newly returned Mtetezi. No. Protocol insisted that rest was needed to receive the most accurate accounts and a full tribunal would be summoned with the Elders for the next day. Nothing would be rushed, especially not with the state of Pyla. They knew something bad had happened, that much was abundantly clear, but their sisters had returned – their leader had returned!

"Jelani..." a quiet word in her ear brought her back from the bustle, "You gave us all a fright."

"I know, Kaz." She muttered to the man who stood by her side, his hand taking the reins from her fingers. He didn't say anything else, but she knew he wanted to ask what had happened and his concern was palpable against the waning desert sun. She was so tired....she wanted to melt into him as they did on occasion, but now was not the time for creature comforts and they both understood that. Perhaps one day they would marry, or at the very least decide to have children, but for now....

For now she was the leader of the Mtetezi and she had a duty to others, not to herself.

"Check on Pyla, please?" she asked him instead, taking a step back as the camel shifted closer to him. Already others were coming in to unload the saddle bags and beg the grooming process.

"I will." He bowed with one hand against his chest.

And then she left him. There was too much to do. Jelani did not exist, only her position. Jelani couldn't exist anymore, not while her sisters were being kidnapped and traded for sport. Not while the dreams of impending doom continued to plague her....

"Yasmina," she caught the arm of one of the Mtetezi warriors who was standing guard. The woman quickly pressed her fist to her chest and bowed.

"Jelani."

"The crypt is sealed?"

"Yes. No movement."

Jelani nodded and let out the tiniest sighs.

Then she went back to her room and began cross-referencing the names on the list she had acquired and the list of her missing sisters.

---

Kaz put away the camel and then made his way to the barracks where the Mtetezi warriors were housed. It didn't take him long to find Pyla's room though he paused when he heard the shouting. He understood how she must be feeling and shifted uncomfortably on his prosthetic leg before rapping smartly against her door and waiting for it to open.