Grea also takes a full kit from her corpse for the purpose of disguise. Gathering her own meager belongings takes less time than stripping the dead.
She smiles happily at the waterskins and makes sure they are full before departure.
She does not smile at the kank when it comes time to mount. She casts a wild look at Djal and Jaryx. "I've never ridden. What do I do?"
"Make friend. Sit quiet. Relax."
Jaryx attempts to climb into the saddle, then reach down to give Grea a hand up to ride with him.
Picking himself up off the ground on the far side of the kank, Jaryx walks back around and tries again.
It may not last long, but he's happily ensconced in the saddle for the moment.
Cahel has Danet's trail. He is heading for a range of low hills to the south.
"Make friend. Sit quiet. Relax."
...
Grea's eyes flick toward Th'kal. "It seems I've lost the touch for making friends of large insects...."
She squares her shoulders and takes two quick steps forward, giving her speed for a vault to the kank's saddle.
"Go om then." Grea urges her own mount forward, but wonders whether Djal means to literally cut Danet, or merely intercept him.
Arakan doesn't even question the possible connotation. Cutting the man seems like the best course of action. If that cut happens to land from ear to ear across the throat, then all the better for it. "Yes, we must hurry if we're to catch him before he ruins it all." Turning to their 'prisoner-guide' he asks the captured bandit, "How close are we to the camp? Is it within those hills or past them?"
Grea rises in the saddle to see better.
"It is in the dunes beyond the hills. We still have far to travel."
Surprised by the simultaneity, Grea looks at Djal and twitches an eyebrow upward.
Jaryx nods. "Long way, not easy."
Arakan nods at the responses given, "Alright, if we can catch up to him in the hills, we may be able to stop him there and manage to find somewhere to get the remainder of the rest we missed at the village." He urges the group forward.
Danet was obviously not as stupid as he looked. His trail leads on to a rocky pavement, pitted and weathered. Following his trail here will be more of a challenge.
Grea urges her mount forward beside Cahel and slides off its back.
She looks down where Danet's traces disappear, then, crouching, moves to her left seeking other signs of the warrior's passage.
Arakan does what he can to aid the woman from the back of his kank, ideally without having to disrupt his own comfort, however little it may be.
Jaryx stays on the mount, looking for signs and disturbances on the rock.
Danet might have thought he was being clever, but his trail is apparent to Grea as if he's been leaving footprints in wet sand. They group continue on in pursuit.
The hills drop away to an escarpment. Beyond mound curve-backed dunes as far as the eyes can see. At first it looks like a trick of the light, but it isn't - the sand really is black. It is clear from where the Blacksand Raiders got their name - somewhere with this featureless expanse of ebony dunes is their lair.
Morthak fidgets with his goggles, angling against the sun's glare. He nods grimly, pointing at something moving amid the black sand dunes. "That may be our quarry."
The half-giant squints into the distance.
The group proceeds on kank-back in the direction that Morthak indicates. Eventually even the most perceptually-challenged can make out a lone figure on foot. As they get closer, Danet turns to face his pursuers, spear in hand.
"If we ignore him there is a chance, probably quite small, that he will get there first. I'd rather be sure that wont happen."
Arakan looks at Djal like the man just sprouted fruit from his ears, "Ignore him? Are you insane? We rushed out before we intended to stop him before he got to the bandits. Because of this, some of us were unable to make the appropriate preparations. I say we deal with this man, then return to the relative safety of the hills vice this black plain. We may still be able to recoup some of our lost rest time, and reach the bandit camp at sunset, when we first intended."
"He will not be ignored."
Jaryx looks between the lone man and his companions, waiting for a sign.
Morthak approaches the traitor, warhammer in hand. "You want to do this the hard way or the easy way?"
Danet snarls, "You will only get everyone killed. They have my wife!"
"You tell them we are coming and you will get everyone killed. You let us do what we do best, and by the time they know what hits them, they will be too busy to worry about your friends and we will get them out."
Grea slides off her kank to approach the man on foot. "Danet, you are brave and strong, but you can not win against all of us. You have three choices."
"Fight us and we will take your water and leave your body to feed the desert. You may weaken us enough that we fail, and so assure your wife's fate."
"Return to the village to cower and hope we win and bring your wife back to you."
"Or you can help us. When we reach the camp, you will be among the ones who try to break through to the prisoners' cage and free them all."
"The stakes Djal wagers are no lower than yours, and he fights now."
"Die, cower, or join us. I don't care what you choose."
Arakan slumps, defeated in hearing the others. They are not selling the man the words he needs to hear. "Look man. Think about what has happened thus far. We overcame Hedla's attempts to poison us and turn us over, and ended up convincing her that we can defeat the bandits, which we did. With minimal planning we overcame them and came out with a prisoner and information. With greater planning, we are turning our attentions to the host camp. They will not be expecting it, as the aggressors, and we will be putting them at a disadvantage. We have a greater plan, and face them on our terms, so our odds are better than those of the ambush we so easily produced. Now, these others will try to play to your emotional sense. I'm here to tell you that, regardless of your reasons, look at the evidence. Look at how effective we have already been, and how much positive influence we have had in such a short time. Tell yourself that instead of living under the yoke of the bandits, you can live free for once. All it takes is for you to sit back and let us do the dangerous stuff, and you and your tribe get to reap the rewards. Is that so hard?"
Looking to the others, he adds as a little extra oomph, "You don't want to have to think about what may happen if you try to ruin the chances of these others that also risk losing loved ones."
Danet's shoulders sag and he wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. His voice is rough with emotion when he says, "OK, it looks like I don't have any choice. But if you are going to do this, I want to come with you."
Cahel remains a silent watcher of the situation, paying more attention to tones and body language than the content of the speech, which he doesn't entirely understand. When Danet gets emotional, he takes the opportunity to scan their surroundings.
Grea listens to Arakan's speech. He sounds so smart, so confident. I must be careful if he ever speaks so to me.
She watches Danet carefully and tries to gauge his reaction.
She spins on her heel and trots back to mount her kank. "Come then."
"Danet be prisoner, too?"
Danet looks hard at the raider, bound to his saddle. "I know the way to the bandit camp. We don't need him."
Arakan eyes Danet suspiciously, "Why, is the real question. Why do you know the way to the bandit camp?" As he waits for the answer, he tells the others, "Let's go back just enough to use the hills for cover, that way Jareen can get the rest he needs to prepare for our deception. Now that the immediate threat of Danet ruining our surprise has been resolved, we can revert to working under our timetable."
"There's a few people in the village know where the bandit camp is," says Danet, "I'm one of them."
The bandit looks scared.
Arakan presses the issue, knowing the language of exclusion, "I didn't ask who knows, or how many. I want to know why you know, and since you shared, why others in the village know as well. Regardless of your 'suggestion', we will be keeping the prisoner. See, his life is dependent on us being shown where the camp is, but you have already tried to sabotage our plans. If we remove the prisoner, and then you lead us astray, we are hamstrung. The directions the two of you give, if and when they agree with one another in leading us to our destination, will determine who among the two of you are willing to cooperate."
Grea listens and watches to the conversation.