Terror from the sand 25JUL20
29
JUL/20
The Terror of the Obelisk:
Oni brought Paulu, and Mar’iya up to the obelisk, “This might be the gate that the voices in the desert talked about. Let’s search.” The three of them looked over the stones for every detail. Oni started to examine the glyphs. Like the spellbook he started to understand. It had gaps, but he was starting to understand. Oni started to say the magic words. The glyphs started to glow. The earth shook.
Paulu, and Mar’iya started to search the sand in the regions between the stone spires. They carefully moved it around. They sifted it with their feet. Oni knew he had not opened the gate yet. They were still glowing but without all the power they could hold. He started to speak the magic again. Oni cast his most precious treasure upon them. He splashed a half days water on the glyphs. The glowed grew in intensity. The earth shook with an even greater strength. Something was happening, but what it was could not be determined.
Mar’iya looked deeply at the symbols. Both he and Paulu tried to draw upon their mental powers. They were both trying to find guidance within themselves. All could feel the heat coming off of stone. Paulu reached out her hand. Oni and Mar’iya just watched with open mouthed curiosity as she touched the glowing stone.
Paulu screamed in pain. Everyone else in the tribe perked up like prairie dogs popping out of their holes. Oni’s mouth slammed shut as he saw blood start to spray from her hand. Rain ran over. The all looked as her blood pump sprayed from three missing fingers with each heartbeat. Rain started to speak of water as the fingered stopped bleeding. The fingers were gone, but the bleeding had stopped. The smell of burning blood and flesh was in the air.
Fear moved through the group. It was time to move on and leave this place. Oni could feel hope just drifting away from him and the group. They packed up and moved on. As the tribe moved out into the night Oni left the obelisks last. He was about to lose sight on the tribe when he ran off to follow them. He just stood there staring at the glowing glyphs in the night. He looked back one last time seeing the glow behind him. He marched off with the tribe into the night.
The introduction of the Sky Riders:
The moon was bright, and it cast light as far as the eye could see. The only thing obscuring sight that night was the periodic sand that the wind would spin up into a fury. Oni held his side in silent complaint to the walking. He had somehow been able to keep up and even sound like he was fine. Each time Paulu his mother came up to check on him he would brush her off so slightly.
Paulu pulled out her mom voice, “Let me look at this. You should be feeling better and it bothers me you are not.” Oni snapped back, “I feel fine. I feel great.” She gave him that mother knows best look and just continued to look at his side pulling up his shirt. Oni finally relaxed and let her push and prod on his side. “Here, this should help. Not right away but you will be feeling better in a about a month. Your bother has the same problem.” Paulu look over to Joe, “Now, you two need to be a little more careful.” Paulu looked off wondering about Selise but never said a word about it.
Oni gave his mother a really confused look. “How did you know?” he asked. She smiled at him with the warmest smile. It was like when the dawn stretched out across the sand and brought its warm with it. Her smile now did that to his soul. All she said was, “a mother knows.” He knew he was feeling a tiny bit better. Oni was not sure if it was the herbs, she rubbed on him, or her smile. One of them made her feel better and he did not care which.
Paulu circled her arm in the air and the Yavapai started to travel again. Oni just watched as Joe, Rain, and Paulu led them into the desert. Oni was walking a tiny bit taller. He had noticed, even if no one else would. He smiled over to Korbra. Oni thought the shadows across his face made him look a little grey. Kobra’s moments seemed stiff in the night. Oni scanned the horizon again hoping to see Selise tracking them, but he saw nothing. He wondered if she was looking out into the night for them too.
Joe raised a fist into the air. Everyone stopped moving. Joe pointed off into the distance. There were four flying creatures. At first, they looked like vultures, but as they came closer it was clear they were something else. They looked unbirdlike in all ways except the wings. Oni yelled out, “Lets gather up around the camels and the water.” Everyone started to gather up in a protective circle around the gold of the tribe. He watched as Pakku was walking up and feeling uncomfortable. “Pakku, can you go over there and hide,” Oni pointed to a small ridge. Pakku turned fast and sulked off into the darkness. Oni continues, “Protect from the shadows.”
The beasts approached and circled above. They were not birds. They were four legged mounts with giant wings coming off of them. Each one held a rider. A human armed with a crossbow and some other weapons. Oni searched his mind. He searched the books in his head. Horses, no, Pegasus, that is what they are. With riders. Three of them continued to circle above as one came down to land. It was amazing as the wings arched up as the back legs gently touched the ground. A blast of air blew through Oni as the front legs touched the ground. The man on the beast jumped down. He had a crossbow in his hand, but he was not pointing it at anyone.
With Agis gone, Paulu was our tribal leader. She stepped up, “Can we help you my friend?” He did not seem threatening, but he did scan the tribe like a hunter trying to figure out if something is a meal, or a friend. He must have decided as he smiled in the moonlight, “My name is Ahsha and I am the Captain of the Flying guard in Raam.” He spoke with a confidence that suggested he did not see the tribe as a threat. “We are out here looking for a caravan that stole some supplies and headed into the desert.” He scanned the group, missing Pakku each time he looked out. He either did not see Pakku, or he did not want the tribe to know he saw him. It was unclear. “You guys are clearly not the group we are looking for. Has you seen any caravans out here?” his word choice suggested he has not high born but had worked up to his authority.
Oni and Mar’iya looked subtly at each other. They both first wondered if they were looking for John and Janes group. Oni risked a quick look at Jane. He thought there was no way it could be their group. They were not made of the stuff that would steal from a city and make it out of that city. Mar’iya must have come to the same conclusion as he started to talk in Oni’s head, “Maybe they are looking for the defiler.”
Oni had to think about it. What did that piece of shit say? He had said he was part of a larger group and they had died. Oni had presumed he and he buddy Baldwin killed them or ate them. Oni still thought that was the case. It might be good to throw that out and make these fliers know we are trying to be helpful. Oni piped in, “We killed a defiler some time back, I think his name was Jokhal. He had a friend by the name of Baldwin.”
Rain in his excited voice, “Yeah the dwarf.” Oni looked quickly at both Rain and Ahsha, “He was defiantly short, but I do not know if I would call him a dwarf.” Rain stepped up, “Yes he was a dwarf, bald head and all.” Oni tried to hide the smile, as he thought this mild altercation would make their story sound true. It was true, but it was always good to have you story sound true as well. Oni responded back to Rain, “like I said he was short and bald, just not sure if dwarf is a good term, hmmm, maybe little people. Anyway, that was him.” Rain explained back, “Dwarf is what they are, it is not rude.”
Ahsha looked at Oni and Nodded, “that sounds like the guy.” Oni was hoping to send them off, “there is a small oasis about five days walk that way. We killed him there. You will find that evil defilers buried in pieces all around.” Rain spoke up, “he defiled the land and I healed the land with his body. Reap what you so.” Ahsha seemed to relax a little, “yeah, we was there a ways back, saw about 5 folks.” Oni could not tell if that was his tribe, or if someone else had now found their oasis.
Ahsha firmed up his chest a little, “Do you all have some water you can spare? We are almost done with ours.” Oni peered at his mount and looked up real quick. Their water skins were empty. Oni looked at Paulu, “give us a second to talk about it.” Oni gathered up a few people talk it over. Joe was watching Ahsha, hoping this was not a distraction. After a few minutes of conversation Oni finally came back, “yes, we can spare a day’s worth of water (roughly 10 gallons). Ahsha’s total deminer changed. He had not expected this. As Paulu and Ajamu gathered the waterskins, he stood there almost socked. Almost stuttering it out, “if you are in Raam, look me up. I can find work for you.” He placed his foot in the stirrup, “Oh there is sunken temple that way. I would avoid that evil place if I were you.” Oni thought to himself that is exactly where we want to go. Ahsha continued, “although it is a little less sunken as of today.” Mar’iya spoke in Oni head confirming Oni’s own thoughts, “That might have been us that caused that.
Maybe it opened a portal there.”
Ahsha bounced onto his mount, its wings reached out and it jumped back into the air.
The Sandstorm:
We continued out into the sand hoping to find the sunken temple. Per the Flying guard we presumed it was close, very close. Oni hoped that he would not find his mother’s missing fingers at the temple. What that would imply hurt him. It hurt him as much as his side hurt him. He believed it was a gate. He just could not understand how to activate it. Oni will always worry; he left that obelisk in a more dangerous way than he found it; still glowing in the night.
The heat was starting to hit the land as the sun was now baking it. Most of the tribe had their heads down. The sun could bake your very eyes if you were not careful. Joe raised his hand in the air and pointed up. It was one of the Fliers coming towards the group. Oni nodded to Paulu and she signaled for the tribe to group up and rest. The rider never landed. He circled just above the group in tight little rings. He yelled down, “Sandstorms a coming. You need shelter, NOW.” With that he pulled on the reins and was off into the sky.
The Yavapai have suffered through a lifetime of sandstorms. They all knew immediately how deadly this could be. In the past they would hunker down in their home of Trobridge, but out here in the wild what could they do. Joe and Pakku had been through a couple while hunting. Pakku grabbed the tents off the wagon. Joe started to bark orders. Oni watched as they acted like wild dogs with Joe as alpha for the group. Joe worked to get the group setup for the sand. Pakku did most of the work. He moved with reckless abandon.
They all moved into the tents just as the first gusts of sand hit them. Pakku kept his camel calm. He and the camel had bounded, and it trusted him. With the simplest of commands, it laid down in the tent and tried to be calm. Pakku moved over and started to stoke its nose and neck. The stroking was rhythmic. Everyone in the tent rocked back and forth matching Pakku’s rhythm.
The storm raged for a short time. The tribe decided to camp and not continue on.
No Rest for the Yavapai, as the earth eats the tribe
Purple Worm
The tribe had found a place that had large rocks on a couple of sides. It provided a little shade and shelter from the wind. It was helpful during the sandstorm. Now is was making the air feel stale. Oni was lying back on his bed mat. He was not sleeping well. His mind was racing. Yas came over to him. She loomed over him with a giant toothy grin on her face. She was hiding something behind her back.
Oni was in a bad mood. The heat was doing it to him. He looked up from the top of his eye without hardly moving. “What do you want,” Oni said to her. Yas moved her hand around from her back. She pushed her hands to Oni as if giving him a gift. In her hands was a pair of Eskima Fighting Sticks. She was pushing them at him. Oni moved to take them in. he stood up and moved through a few forms.
Yas watched as he moved through strikes and blocks. He often followed up stick strikes with kicks or elbow strikes. Yas had seen this set of forms before, but now he added weapons. It ended with a flying kick and a double strike with the two sticks. Oni stood there in the final position for several minutes. He looked up at Yas and said, “these are amazing. Thanks!”
Oni started to examine the sticks. They had been formed from a piece of the petrified wood back at the oasis. She had made them a good length specifically for Oni. They were smooth to the touch, but you could see the wood grain within the stick. She had baked them and used palm oil to make them harder and smoother. The only part of them not made of the wood, were leather wrapped on one end to make hand holds.
Oni was deep in thought looking at his new treasures. Finally, he heard Yas say, “Do you feel that?” She was mildly shaking him, and it was clear he had not heard her or felt whatever she was talking about. Oni looked at her blankly but did feel the ground rumble. Oni rushed out of the tent, “what the fuck is that?” he yelled. Yas followed right behind him. They both looked around. The only person that seemed to know what was going on was Joe. He was shifting over to the Inix.
Oni instinctively cast Mold Earth to make the ground harder next to him. Chunks of sand and rock exploded into the air. A giant purple worm burst from the ground. Its mouth was open and swallowed one of the camel’s whole. Its scream could be heard for moments as it went into the worm’s mouth. Pakku’s face dropped as his friend was eaten.
Oni Yelled out, “Get up on the rocks, it will be safe.” Oni ran across the camp, hoping the draw the beast his direction. Once to the other side he leaped up on a large rock. From the rock he watched as most of the tribe moved to the rock on the other side of the camp. Joe stayed still and moved slowly over to the Inix. Mar’iya moved to a large rock by himself. Oni wanted to test the rock safety. He launched a fire orb at the worm. It bounced off the it’s thick skin. Oni saw this and slid back on the rock to be as far from the creature as possible. Joe unhooked the Inix and slapped it on it tail. It took off running. Rain grabbed the living Camel and helped it up upon the rock. Jane ran in panic and the worm ate her next. John could not stand seeing his sister eaten. He moved up to attack the worm until one of them were dead. Meer moments later, it was him.
Oni stood fast as the ground next to him blow up from a second time. Panic ran through him and the rest of the tribe. The rocks gave some safety but not the level Oni had thought and promised. The purple beast went straight up next to him. Oni held his breath. Joe pulled up his crossbow. He was going to draw the thing his way if needed. The other rock calmed down. Pakku tried to use his calming voice on all them on that rock.
Paulu was in one of the tents. Everyone could hear it moving around. That was not good. The worm burst out of one tent and smashed into another. Food and water sprayed out in all directions. The worm might have killed them, even if it was not now but in a day or two. Paulu stood very still as the creature slid within inches of her.
All stood hoping the creature would become bored and leave. It finally burrowed after the Inix. No one moved for what seemed like hours. Off in the distance you could hear the Inix cry out.
Paulu started to go through the supplies. It was bad. They were down to a day’s worth of food and water. Oni started to mend what he could, but much of the supplies were just destroyed, with nothing to recover. Sadness moved over the tribe again. Even Oni could not show a good spark of hope on this day. Joe and Pakku did a little hunting, Paulu did a little foraging, and Rain created a small amount of water. Oni sat in the shadow of a rock and thought to himself, “It would just need to be enough.”
They decided to try and get some good rest before heading out again.
Dust Diggers
The tribe was close to exhaustion. Oni was not even sleeping on his mat. He had moved over to a rock and was using its shadow side to try and stay a little cool in the heat. He closed his eyes. Guilt came over him. He started to breath in to meditate. He would draw in a breath through his nose. He would bring in Ki as he did. He moved the Ki through his body and ran it in circles around his pained side. He had the Ki grab bad energies from his side. He exhaled his breath through his mouth, forcing the bad Ki out of his body.
He still had guilt. He was distracted by it. Oni had no guilt for bringing the tribe out into the desert, even if it kills them all. He did not feel guilty for the dead, even Nessy who had given her life for him. No in this desert of doom, death did not make him guilty. He thought about Kobra. He could not figure out why the new monk came into his mind, but he was not guilty of that either. His mind found the guilt. He was guilty of losing his hope. Hope is what the new dawn brings, and Oni was supposed to bring hope just as the dawn does.
Oni closed his eyes again. This time he smiled. Through his meditation, hope had crept into his soul. He started to fall asleep again. His mind went quiet and his mind started to drift into the dream world. The Ragged Man came to him. This time he said nothing. He watched over Oni and laughed. He made no sound but the way his body moved gave the impression of laughter. Oni began to take control of the nightmare. He often enjoyed just letting the dreamworld play out, but from time to time, he would take command of his dreams. He needed good sleep and needed a calm dream to make that happen.
Oni was about to the move the ragged man out of view in the dream scape. He was about to look for Selise and see where she was in the dream world. Joe’s voice cried out across the entire dreamworld, “get up, we are under attack.” Oni body was moving a little slow, but he forced his eyes open. Joe was already moving to wake folks as the ground burst again.
Oni hoped it was not another giant purple worm. There it was, he hoped again. He smiled as he stood. With hope they would be fine. He started to scan the tribe. Joe had everyone up and ready just as the small dust diggers burst out all of over the camp. Small only based on the size of the worm. They looked as if they could swallow someone whole. Kobra did a kip up in excitement and bounced into battle, with his famous, “sweep the leg,” battle cry.
The creatures burrowed under the sand. They popped up through the sand unfolding their four large tentacles. They must have had some kind of tremor sense as they were artful in popping up right next to their next target. They then reached out to slap with the tentacles. They looked like they wanted to eat us.
Oni looked over the Kobra. He knew he had to work on his over confidence but loved watching him in battle. With a taunting joke, Kobra went from target to target. He loved smashing them with his hands and feet. Oni was now using his Eskima Sticks, but Kobra said he would never do it. Kobra was fine on one end of the fight, so Oni moved to the other side. They would work to defend the tribe from two directions. Hope flowed through Oni.
Oni stuck one of the diggers and it crumbled beneath his strike. He looked over to Kobra. It was strange. Oni had a flashback to the other day. Kobra looked oddly stiff and gray again. Why was Oni seeing the other night? Oni should be in the moment, but he was seeing Kobra as a gray stiff warrior. In Oni’s mental distraction one of the diggers tentacles stuck him. Oni yelled out. He stumbled a little as he looked over to see one of the diggers strike Kobra. It slammed him so hard his limp body flew five feet to land in an unnatural pile. Oni knew he was dead instantly.
Filled with rage Oni killed two diggers as he moved over to protect Kobra’s body. Oni would not let them eat him. He might be dead, but Kobra would not be a dinner. The rest of the tribe were equally enraged by Kobra’s death. The diggers were all killed in moments. Kobra was dead.
With the diggers dead the group gathered to bury their family member. Kobra would be missed. They slowly dug a grave in the sand. Paulu and Ajamu wrapped his body in some of the extra cloth from the destroyed tent. He was gently laid within the earth. Joe, and Oni silently moved sand over his now still body. Rain was the groups most spiritual person. He came up to the body and started to pray. He spoke of the how we come from the earth and how we are returned to earth. He spoke of how water gives us life. With that he cut his hand and sacrificed a tiny bit of his life blood to the earth.
Still tired and without proper rest the group tried again to rest.
The Sand Dervishes:
Finally, Oni awoke feeling as if he was rested. It had been days. Even with Rain creating water and joe and Pakku hunting they were down to 1 day of food and water. Oni walked around again filling the tribe with hope. He had his role and even when things looked grim, he would make sure they all had hope. It seemed even with Kobra’s death they were able to rest. The entire tribe was ready to move on. Everyone was doing their part to pack up the last camel and spread out the supplies.
Joe was talking to Mar’iya and Paulu when Oni walked up. They were discussing where to head. Do they look for the sunken temple or look for the burned-out caravan? Oni just entered the conversation without a good opening, “we will look for the caravan. There might be supplies there. They are likely no longer using them.” With that the debate was over. Oni smiled and headed off to help break camp.
Oni ate a little breakfast but could not keep it all down. He found a new secret place and through up. He looked down at the slightly blood-stained vomit. He looked at it for a long time. He felt it was better. It still had blood in it but it less than before. He was getting better. His hope moved to into him again, as he now knew, he would recover. It might take months, but he would recover.
They moved out into the desert again. They moved a little faster than the last time they were in the sand. A couple of days of rest make it easier to move out into again. Joe and Paulu led the group. It did not take long to find the camp. Pakku, and Joe moved in. Pakku moved one direction and Joe moved the other. They were trying to figure if there was any danger. Soot had not been out in the wild much and she moved right through the middle of the burned-out camp.
Before Joe could give his normal warning, people burst from the sand. They had made hidden graves that they could pop out of at any time. Oni thought, “most of the dangers in this desert come from beneath the ground.” The Bullette, The Spiders, the mine, the purple worm, thunderherders, the dust diggers and now dervishes, came from beneath the ground. Oni wondered if he could craft some tool or weapon that could help him with those that hide below the ground.
These sand dervishes should have sued for peace. The tribe was starting to become good with working together in battle. Even without Kobra, the Yavapai killed the dervishes in moments. An ambush against them had turned into a blood bath for their enemy. With the sand dervish’s dead, the Yavapai moved the search what was left of the old caravan.