For whatever it was worth, Melitus knew why he was here. The blasted sun beat down on him from above, its heat turning his olive skin an ugly brown. All around where his squinted eyes looked, he saw the glinting sand of the Exiled Lands. He had heard of the place, in stories and myths, but he had never seen it. He vaguely remembered having a shroud shoved over his head. His body, wincing in pain, remembered being beaten by fists and cudgels. When he awoke, the only thing left of his captors was a single man, standing in front of him, laughing. His words would never be forgotten. ”This is what you get for trying to get ahead in our world, Melitus. You don’t belong here. This, this is where you belong.” He left after that, disappearing into the shimmer of the wastelands.
Already, Melitus’ lips were parched and he knew that he needed to find water and eventually food, in that order. The dunes and rocks around him were not promising much. His leather bound hands and feet were no help either. The flock of dark birds circling overhead told him he had little time left. As he glanced to his right, he realized he was not alone. There was a woman there, bound as he was, on an upright pillar of dark wood. He could not tell from here if she was still alive.
”He..hello?”, his voice cracked in his native Ophirian. It was a long shot that she might understand.
Shira woke to a throbbing pain in her skull. That was the first thing she noticed. The second was the sound of a man’s voice. It was saying something. Now what was that translation? Her years of thorough studying came back and she translated the sounds to words. He was saying hello in a very unsteady sort of way. She carefully lifted her head looked a little to the left and could now see a man bound to a large post and realized she was also tied to one similar.
She tried to remember how she got there and it came back to her that she had been attacked and knocked unconscious. They must have dragged her off to the so-called sands of exile.
The sun started getting hot and before she can get back at those who did this she will first need to get out see you survival first….
She replied to the man tied to the post next to her…. ”Hello”.
All at once a shiver of relief and concern washed over him. This woman had the coloration of a desert girl, not like from the cities where he was from. Yet, she seemed to understand his language. A trader perhaps, merchant. He then wondered what it was that got her tied up here too. Especially since he didn't remember her at all.
"Melitus," he managed. "I don't suppose you have a bit of water on you? A knife perhaps? Those birds look awful hungry and I don't dare to tempt them much longer."
She could see he was pretty bad off. They must have beat him before tying him to the post to die. Pointless violence really. She wondered why he was tied there and for just a second fearful doubt darkened her thoughts. What if he deserved his fate? But then logic returned and she thought about the fact that she too was tied up condemned to die and she knew she did nothing to deserve it. Well, she stumbled across some information about someone she shouldn’t have. Someone powerful and this was how they decided to “deal” with her.
No, she would give him the benefit of the doubt and if she could manage it she would get out of here, rescue the man next her and then plot her payback.
”I’m Shira… I don’t have any water, nor a knife, she said, trying to not sound fearful, but let me see if I can get loose and I will find water once we’re both freed.”
She then began to twist her ankle sharply to the left. She knew she would need her strongest foot, her right, to lift her body weight upward and see if she could slide it out of the ropes. It might even dislocate her ankle but better that then die from thirst.
Melitus watches as the woman squirms in the ropes. He had already tried, but she was smaller and her joints might just squeeze through, if they didn't tie them too tight. He looks at the horizon, a vast nothing but sand and broken rocks. There was a shimmer in the distance.
"There is moisture in the air, probably a water source nearby it, but it could be a ways off. The birds might now the way, but we have to convince them not to eat us first."
Shira tries to sneak one of her feet out of the ropes but feels dizzy from the blow she took to her head and loses her balance which causes her to slide down the pole and back to where she was.
Hmmm… this is harder than she anticipated. It may take a bit to get out. She should try to hurry that guy next to her is looking worse.
Melitus watched as Shira attempted to get free from the ropes. They were well tied and whoever wanted them here did not want them getting down. He sighed. Turning his head to look at how they were trussed up, he tried to formulate a plan.
Noting that their arms were spread out, he realized that they might have some leverage, if their strength wasn't already sapped from being beaten and hung here. He secretly hoped the wood was dry and weak as he strained one last time, grunting as he pulled with all the might he possessed.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. His arms were too weak to do much of anything. There had to be another way. He doubted anyone would come along and free them. More than likely, they would kill them just for spite. If the stories he had heard about this place were true. He couldn't let that happen.
"Keep trying. There has to be a way off of these gods forsaken poles." He looked to the birds. They were closer now.
Shira agreed that we needed to get down from here as quickly as possible. She knew this was going to hurt and there was the possibility of infection but they could deal with that later. She took her arm that was out spread and slowly began to twist. The pain was almost too much and her skin began to scrape against the ropes. A little more and now she was starting to bleed. This was expected and was what she hoped would give her enough lubrication to slide one wrist out.
That didn’t seem to be working so she tried to just pull the rope as hard as she could to see if it would loosen.
Shira had always been really strong. Stronger than the adoptive parents who raised her. After pulling on the ropes and the blood soaking into them it loosened just enough for her to get her one arm free. This allowed her to untie the other arm. Good! Halfway there.
”I almost have it!” she said triumphantly.
Melitus smiles to himself. The woman was free and despite being tied up here, she was no waif in distress. He however, was still stuck. "I might be able to help with that wound, if you can get me down.", he said hopefully.
Shira bent over carefully to reach down and untie the ropes from her ankles. They took a few minutes. Good thing she is flexible. Once the ropes were free she fell forward into the sand on her knees. She had to stop a minute and catch her breath.
Once the dizziness passed she stood up and started to untie the ropes of Melitus. That word sounded familiar to her. Like she read it in one of the medical books her parents own. Hmmm something to look up later. Finally she got him free but he looked pretty weak. She sat down and took a hunk of fabric from her shirt and pulled hard in two directions to rip a piece off so she could start working on her wrist where it was bleeding. She didn’t want to draw the attention of any larger creatures in the area. The birds were bad enough.
Unfortunately, she is right handed and so she couldn’t quite make a good knot with her left hand as it was her right wrist that was bleeding.
”I don’t suppose I could get some assistance with this?” she asked the man.
Dropping to the ground, Melitus could barely gather the strength to stand, let alone thank the woman. He looked at her and at himself. Both of them were left with little but the underclothes on their bodies. The sun threatened to burn them if they didn't try to get some shelter or coverings soon. His survival knowledge started to flood to his mind, but he took a sharp breath and looked at what Shira was asking about. "I can certainly take a look. I'm no healer, but I can keep you from bleeding all over."
Unfortunately, his fatigue and the sun and sand in his eyes made things more difficult than he imagined. He tied the bit of cloth on, but it seemed to bite into her flesh more than anything. While the bleeding stopped, the wound may not heal properly. He needed to find something to make a poultice, but the options were scarce.
"Can you walk?", he said, noting his own stamina was lacking. "We will need to find water to clean that out and to drink." He pointed towards the shimmer in the distance. He then held out a hand to her. "Let's head that way, we can at least try to find some water in that direction."
Melitus starts walking, helping Shira along, seeing if anyone left any waterskins behind or if there were any rocks that water has collected in. The shimmer seems to move as they approach and he is getting tired already. As they travel, he asks, "Any plans for the evening? We may be here a while."
Shira looked over and realized the man had actually fallen over. She stopped what she was doing and went over to help him. He was beaten really bad and so she started checking for broken bones. He might need a splint.
Before they started waking, she patched up his wounds as best she could but wasn’t sure how it would hold up once they started to travel.
He takes her hand and tries to try to clumsily flirt with her, despite being a stones throw from death.
”Well, I’m afraid I’m a bit busy this evening. But how about dinner tomorrow evening?” she says, and bats her long, dark lashes.
She sees a stick on the ground and picks it up and attempts to use it as a divining rod.
Melitus attempts to smile, despite his wounds. At least she wasn't trying to kill him, yet. Happy that she was playing along, he continued. "I will definitely have to take you up on that. As soon as we find someplace nice." He looked up at the sun glaring down at them and then ahead at the haze that seemed ever so distant. Sniffing the air, he said, "We're getting close, I can smell the moisture."
They walk in the direction of a supposed smell and after going over a couple of hills they can see what looks like a dip in the sand. As they get closer she can see potential. There are a few plants trying to grow and some brush. Definitely some water in that vicinity.
She walks a bit faster, pulling Melitus along. Now she can feel her thirst as she realizes there may actually be water. Just as they approach the brush she hears a growl and stops in her tracks. This could be a problem. She gets ready to fight…whatever is making that sound for any water that might be available.
Knowing full well that the signs of brush meant water had to be nearby, Melitus allowed himself a smile of relief. It quickly turned to worry as the brush began to move. It appeared they had a rival for the water. His instincts told him to grab for his weapon, but alas, he had nothing but his fists to rely on. Any fight they got into could be their last, at least without some sort of protection. He tried something first. He crouched low and reached out his hands and made a small whistling sound.
The creature growled, but didn't attack, at least not yet. It slowly emerged from the brush, its teeth bared. It was a furry thing, with dark brown and gray stripes. It was probably the size of a small hunting cat. Melitus slowly backed away, staying low and gesturing for it to follow. He only slightly turned his head to get Shira's attention.
"If I can get him to move away, can you find the water and see what you can gather up?"
Shira slowly and quietly moves off to one side, trying to not draw attention to herself. She thought the man must be crazy with heat sickness to be even attempting this trick. Once she was off to the side she moved more quickly and was in the brush. The first thing she did was look for a stick or branch.
She realized there was nothing but twigs and some soft plants in a clump. Nothing useful as a weapon. Realizing this she quietly went back toward the creature being drawn away and used the opportunity to attack from behind. She jumps on the creature attempting to get hold around the neck.
Melitus is genuinely surprised as the woman moves away and then suddenly springs to grab the creature. She was frighteningly quick and the thing had no idea that it was happening with him distracting it. He hadn't thought about food, but she obviously was. It was suddenly squealing and growling and gnashing its teeth at her, trying to get free.
The creature hasn’t given up yet but Shira is still hanging on for dear life. The creature slips into the sand is now ankle deep. It will have more difficulty moving now.
The beast that Shira is holding on to attempts to bite her so that she lets go. She manages to stay clear of its jaws and holds the thing at bay. How he wished for his bow right now.
Watching the struggle between the woman and the creature, Melitus feels that there is little he can do to help her. Instead, he works to gather up the water they had been looking for. Not having a container to put it in, he rips off a piece of his underclothes, hoping they can reach shelter before nightfall. He uses it to sop up what water he can, so they would at least have something to drink as they moved along.
Shira grabs hold with both arms around its neck and begins to squeeze. It struggles wildly but then starts to slow its thrashing.
Suddenly, it swings its head to the side and tries to bite at her, but misses.
"You almost have him!", Melitus shouts in encouragement. "I'm going to look for some sticks or something to try to get a fire going so we can cook him up." Looking around, he sighs. "Not that I'll have much luck."
Melitus smiles as he sees a small curvature in the sand, leading to an outcropping of rock. He would tell Shira about it as soon as she was done wrestling with their dinner.
Shira grabs the creature around the neck and tries to hit him with a rock she sees lying on the ground. It isn’t a very big rock but it might be enough to knock him out.
The creature falls on its side for a moment.
Shira is pretty sure this will come to an ending soon.
Melitus hears the whimpering cry of the animal as Shira uses a rock to finish it off. He sets to work starting their campfire so that they can cook the beast right away. He knows that if they leave the raw meat as it is, it will spoil quickly. "Well done. Are you hurt at all?"
Shira feels a wave of guilt and sadness at the death of the creature.
”I am alright. I just feel bad I had to kill it. I would have preferred something a little more on the lines of a quick death but our situation is dire so it had to be done and I had no proper weapons. Do you know how to prep it for cooking?”
Melitus sighs. She was right, it was just defending its territory, but out here, especially in the Exiled Lands, there is little room for mercy. Still, even he mourned for it. "Usually, I would have a sharp knife and a flat place to work." He looked around. "Not much of that going on. We will have to improvise." He worked at getting the fire going as spoke. "I will go and find the sharpest rock I can, but you may not want to watch the next part. Here," he said, handing her a stick. "Keep the fire going while I work."
Shira thought about her childhood and remembers digging in the sand and being cut once by something sharp.
”I may be able to find you something that will make the job a bit easier. When I was a child, we would find pieces of small sharp dark glass in the sand”.
She walks off and after looking for a little bit she comes across what she is searching for. It is sharp on both ends so she rips off another piece of her shirt and raps the cloth around one end and then hands it to him.
”Here, try this, it might make things easier”.
Melitus accepted the sharp glass with a nod. "That will do nicely," he says. At least I know I won't die because of ineptness out here. That last part he only thought to himself. Instead, he went back to focusing on his work. Once he was done, he found a branch and spitted the animal on it, placing it over the fire to cook for them.
"So, how did you get stuck out here? You don't exactly look like the criminal type."
Shira is surprised at how quickly he is able to fix the meat to the stick for cooking, and while she isn’t sure how it will taste, she will be grateful to have a full stomach. She knows how easily someone can die to starvation and thirst out here.
”I’m no criminal but I do have a knack for sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. I am a scholar and I ran across some information that I shouldn’t have. Involved parties were not impressed. Now that we are free I plan to go back and expose what I have found out so this doesn’t happen again.
So, does that mean you ARE a criminal then? What did you do?”
He doesn’t seem like much of a criminal.
Melitus stifles a laugh, instead letting out a snort. Some of the things I have done may have been criminal in nature, but I assure you, they were at the behest of higher authority." He pauses, rubbing his chin and turning the spit. "I too had some information that I wasn't supposed to. I did my job, and then they decided to cut off loose ends. At least, I am assuming as such. They didn't bother to give me a speech when they left me here."
After turning the spit and watching the meat brown, he says, "I'm not sure about the going back part. We may want to get ourselves situated before we think about that."
Shira considers his answer. It sounds like you may want to rethink your employment.
She notices the sun is slowly setting and a cooler breeze brushes her skin. A fear starts to rise in her chest but she suppresses it. Letting fear take over won’t help them survive.
As gar as going back is concerned, we may not have a choice. Surviving in the dead lands is not an easy task. I will be happy to take first watch after we eat so you can rest. I know your injuries are still healing.
She gets up to see if she can find more sticks to burn. They will need to keep a fire going to scare off animals who may try to attack. In addition, the desert will get cold soon as the sun goes down.
Melitus chuckles. "Yeah, it seems my options are open." He waves his arms as if to indicate just how many potential employers there are. "No, surviving here will not be easy, but going back, especially if they know we are alive, could be even more dangerous. For now, I think we should try to find a settlement of some kind and get established, get our bearings and then make a plan for our triumphant return." After eating, Melitus felt better. He didn't want to rest and his male need to protect females was starting to kick in. Something told him that she would put up a fight, so he left the matter alone. "I will rest, but wake me in a few hours."
She manages to gather a few more twigs and piles them neatly beside the fire. Then she takes the piece of glass rock he was using and starts to whittle one of the larger sticks into a point. Not much of a weapon, but it might be useful as a deterrent.
She sighs and says, Better to at least try to be prepared. We will go with your plan. Although, I haven’t lived out in the desert since I was a child. I don’t know which clans are safe. It will be difficult and possibly very dangerous. I doubt they will take kindly to strangers. You rest and I will wake you in a few hours to take over. We shouldn’t rest too long. It would be cooler to travel at night.
Shira thinks about how they can acquire more water before traveling on. She will watch over everything now and then get a couple hours of rest herself. While she is on watch, she gives herself something to do by trying to clean the skin of the animal they ate to see if it can be made into clothes.
Eventually Melitus is awoken and he lets Shira rest for a bit. She was right, travelling at night was cooler, but could be enough to even freeze a person if they weren't careful. It also meant that more predators could be about as well. Animals also knew what they knew. She was also right about anyone they might meet out here. Considering their location, most everyone here who has survived is probably running on instinct and will kill anyone that they consider a threat. For the moment, that meant anyone.
Looking at the sky, he pondering the thousands of lights he saw there. There were many theories as to what they were, but he had hoped that they were ancestors watching over them as they travelled. They successfully survived the first day, but the next, well, that would remain to be seen.
As they travelled, Melitus sees more of that shimmer. He leads Shira towards it and they are rewarded with a small pool of water that has gathered under a shade of rock. "There is enough here for both of us to get through the day, but we should look for some food too. Perhaps a desert hare or something."
Melitus watches as a dark cloud appears on the horizon. It soon grows closer to them. He recognizes it immediately. "Sandstorm!", he yells as the wind starts to pick up.
Shira is able to make a small shawl with the skin that was left behind from the animal. She was grateful she didn’t have to use the pointy stick she created because it would probably have broken right away but it makes her feel better so she keeps it with her.
Everything seems to be going well. They found water and Shira was about to look for food when the sky turned a dark color and she could see the storm heading at them. She heard the man yell, “Sandstorm!” She grabs his hand and tells him to duck down and covers them with the small shawl.
Here, get under and cover your mouth!
Melitus shares the makeshift shawl with Shira. While it still smelled of the dead beast, at least it kept the sand and grit from their mouths. They would have to stay sheltered for a while, the storm did not seem like it was going to let up anytime soon.
Melitus quietly admired how the desert woman was easily able to withstand the sand and acted is if it was an every day occurrence. Growing up in the cities, he had no such experiences.
Shira takes 1 pt of fatigue
Shira is hiding under the animal hide and tries to keep her mouth covered and her breathing slow and shallow.
After awhile she feels the strain of the last two days over take her and falls asleep cuddled next to the man called Melitus.
Melitus watches as the woman falls asleep next to him. Either she was exhausted or she felt safe enough to rest, or both. It seems the sandstorm was just as tired, as the wind started to die down. Though it would be difficult for them to see, at least it wasn't cutting their skin. Though it was midday, resting in this heat would do them better than trying to move in a storm. He could certainly use the rest too, but he didn't dare fall asleep at the same time. Instead, he kept his eyes open for anything that might take advantage of their hindered senses.
The sand blowing around them was still too much to see anything and the varied shapes of the rocks and sand did nothing to help. Still, when Shira awoke, they would have to move on, despite the blowing sand. Food was scarce where they were, and so in order to get anything worthwhile, they had to move.
Shira wakes up with a start. She hears that the storm is still going on, though it appears to be less. She gets up and takes the mama hand and says,
We should get moving again. We need to find our way past this if we are going to survive out here.
She can see that he didn’t rest at all and so she knows he will need to rest soon.
She looks into the distance to see if she can see a way past the storm but sees nothing in the distance but more sand.
Melitus nods as he looks around, keeping his arm up to keep the sand out. His other one feels warmer with her hand in it. He knew this woman to be of the desert, so it comforted him. ”Well, there is one thing going for us. We have all this sand to keep us from being seen by predators.”
They trudged on for what seemed like days, though it had only been a couple of hours when they came across a break in the sand dunes. While the storm didn’t let up just yet, they at least found some shelter in a shallow canyon, away from most of it. Melitus hoped that this meant they would find some water soon.
They travelled for some time, but as the sand continued, Melitus had to blink more than once to believe what he was seeing. Though the canyon, there appeared to be trees. He felt a renewed vigor in his step.
Shira was having a hard time staying upright while walking. The sand was blowing in her face and hurting her eyes. The dunes seemed to go on forever. In the distance, she saw a dark shape but couldn’t make out what it was. As they kept on, she could barely see some trees and she felt better because she knew they could take refuge there. The trees would break up the storm and they would be able to get water.
She could taste the dryness on her tongue and knew this was a lucky break.
She pulled the man forward quicker and she knows he can see what she was seeing because he increased his step.
Once they reached the trees she cautiously starts to look around for water and also predators.
The sand is less thick and she has better visibility.
Shira looks in the small patch of trees but is unable to find anything that will help. She is dismayed that an environment like this would not have water. She can only assume that whatever was available in that regard was used by the trees and foliage.