Desert Demons?... For Valter!

[valter]

Zihan nodded and swatted his tail high across the air to show that he understood, and sprang to his paws from the sand. That was the tradeoff: the Torph's increased weight made his paws sink if he stayed still too long. Two against twelve, I like those odds. Zihan thought with a fanged grin as he charged, breaking the turbulent air with another roar as he collided head on with the Desert Demons.

At once they were upon him, and he, them. Blades flashed brightly in the sun from all directions, while the whuft of more impossible arrows came from nearby. Zihan moved like a river of quicksilver through this mass, fluid but deadly. He barely grunted as the occasional sword cut into his side, accepting the pain, knowing his tigershape could endure much more. Keeping his head low, he twisted to the side, narrowly dodging two scimitars, and then leapt up, ripping the throat of a bandit. They fell together, Zihan's claws digging into the dead man's chest, and Zihan turned and charged back into the fray, thinking, Just about 5 or so more here...

[Chani {♥}]

Iliad felt his blade collide with the man. He felt the skin give way, felt the blade get stuck in the bone. Then he felt something sharp graze his right arm. Judging by how it hit him, he guessed the general area of his opponent and swung again, this time feeling and hearing the skull give way.

Using his hooves, blade, and fist, he managed to kill three men, but each left a wound on him. One was a stab wound in his chest that hurt badly. He finally stopped, shielded his eyes, looked about.

The men were retreating into the sand. He couldn't see far... Quite a few were running from Zihan. The wind picked up, nearly knocking the heavy centaur onto his side. The sand stopped grazing his skin, so he again opened his eyes to find that there was a tornado of sorts before them. The men were in it... and then... they were gone. The wind died down completely, leaving nothing but bloody corpses.

"I'll remember you," a deep, disgruntled woman's voice said. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. Iliad thought he had caught her scent, but then it was gone as well. There was nothing left to smell but blood.

[valter]

The Desert Demons were all around Zihan, ripping and getting ripped in return, and then, quite suddenly, they were gone. Zihan blinked, confused, and chased after their retreating figures. Suddenly, that strange scent that accompanied the sandstorm swelled, and some kind of force knocked Zihan backwards, his paws tangled with each other. That's impossible! Zihan thought as he looked up, the Demons were somehow inside a Dust Devil (sort of like a tornado), and then, suddenly, both tornado and men were gone, leaving the ominous words, "I'll remember you..." .

Zihan turned around to face Iliad, kicking up clouds of sand as he dashed towards him. There was a grin on his face, they'd won! However... as he got closer to his friend, the exhiliration of battle began to drain away, as he faced the truth of the bloody aftermath. Corpses, strewn everywhere, lifeless eyes staring blankly at the son. The sand was painted in slippery red, its scent lifting up from everywhere. It ran in rivulets through his fur, and as he padded up to Iliad, he saw the injuries inflicted on his new friend, and shivered, tail drooping.

Zihan cast his big head up towards Iliad, and then swept his great big yellow eyes across the scene. With a low yowl that sounded almost like a sigh, he flopped down into the sand.

[Chani {♥}]

"Some of my wounds I can tend to now," Iliad said, his voice strained from holding back so much pain. He stood, his muscles still rigid, his face blank as always. "But some of them need to be looked at by a healer. We both need looked at. We'll have to get past the desert and into the city."

Upon hearing his friend's yowl, he lied down on his legs in the sand. "Ugh," he grunted, putting his hand to his chest. He looked down, having to shove his hairy chin into his neck to see it. He pulled his hand away, it was covered in fresh blood. "This wound... first," he groaned, standing and walking toward the oasis.

I'm lucky he missed my heart and lungs, he thought gratefully.

[valter]

Zihan nodded his head. Right, he thought with another upward swat of his tail. He rose out of the depression he made in the sand and padded slowly after Iliad, attempting to change back to his humanshape. As expected, he met with strong resistance. Looks like I'm still going to have to wait a few minutes, he thought, turning his head and licking one of his shoulder wounds. Once it was cleansed of blood, he looked towards Iliad at the oasis.

He's in more pain than he's letting on. Zihan thought, being uncharacteristically shrewd. Tavros was always the same... He admired Iliad for this, and for his level head. With a soft grunt, he padded over towards one of the dead bandits, and ripped off a long strip of cloth with his teeth. The disgusting taste of dried blood and sweat nearly made him gag, but he kept the cloth in his mouth until he'd reached Iliad, lifting his head to present it to the centaur.

[Chani {♥}]

Iliad had knelt down in front of the water and began washing his cuts. He forced a smile as he looked at Zihan.

"Thanks," he admitted, taking the cloth and itching behind Zihan's ears briefly. He sat the cloth down next to him and completed the cleansing. Finally, he pressed the cloth on his chest wound, deciding that cleaning the others could wait until the bleeding subsided. He looked around, analyzing the bodies, the sand, the few trees and bushes that the wind and sand had torn apart.

He stung in so many places. From the burns the abrasive sand had left, from the sword wounds. His horse hide had been protected from the sand by fur, but he had been struck on his haunch by a mace. He thought maybe it had been fractured, but his other wounds had overcome that pain a great deal.

Iliad pulled from his pensive state, removing the cloth to find that the bleeding had stopped a little. He used the cloth to cleanse his others, relishing the feel of somewhat cool water against his burning blood and burns. It stung, because once the sand was washed out, the wounds were open to the air, but he knew how much worse an infection could be.

"What wounds have you?" he asked Zihan. His face showed no concern, but his heart felt differently. Zihan reminded him so much of himself. He was naive to what the outside world was like due to being in one very different area all his life. He was glad they'd be going to the city soon. He thought that, like him, Zihan would love seeing the many wonders of it. And he could perhaps prevent Zihan from making the silly mistakes he had while he was still adapting to the new world.

[valter]

Zihan had shut his eyes in a tiger grin when Iliad scritched behind his ears, his tail standing straight up. As the sensation faded, Zihan reopened his eyes and began to tend to his own wounds, watching Iliad out of the corner of his eye while he bent and twisted his head, washing almost all of his wounds with his tongue. Most of his wounds were inflicted by swords against his sides, filling his pelt with the odd rip and tear.

"What wounds have you?" asked Iliad, prompting Zihan to turn his head up. The golden light which accompanied shifting appeared on the diamond of blue fur on his forehead, and zipped across the rest of his body, returning him to his speech-capable human form. The weight of his Zanbato and katana returned to him as he tentatively stood back up, his pouch jingling at his side. "I'm fine." Zihan said brightly, flicking an ear backwards. "I got all of them, I think." Indeed, his wounds were hidden underneath his robe, which covered most of his body.

"So, now, I guess we're off to the sit-city to find some hel-healer, is that it?" Zihan asked Iliad, using the new words in common while gazing out into the desert. Cities and healers were foreign terms to him, but he trusted that Iliad would explain. "Well, then, let's go!" he said, taking his first step towards the horizon. Suddenly, one of his larger side wounds flared up, sending a spiderweb of pain lancing through Zihan's body. His field of vision was clouded in opaque red, shutting off all his other senses. As the pain ebbed away and his field of vision cleared, Zihan found himself on the ground, staring up at the sky. "What the... ouch! What just happened?" he groaned, not trusting himself to sit up.

[Chani {♥}]

"Yeah, a healer," Iliad said. "They take care of your wounds."

"Well, then, let's go!" Zihan exclaimed.

"Just a--" Iliad heard a thump and the sound of sand giving way. He turned to see that Zihan had collapsed. "Zihan!" he called, standing quickly and trotting over to the boy. When his eyes fluttered open, Iliad felt instant relief.

"What the... ouch! What just happened?" groaned the boy. Iliad shook his head slowly.

"Your wounds are more painful than you think," he said, leaning forth so that he could help the boy up in the least painful way possible. He seemed to be debating something mentally. Finally, he said, "Get on my back. As long as you stay off my haunches and don't bounce around, my leg shan't pain me. We're gonna have to take it slow enough that we don't die from exhaustion, but quick enough that we don't die from wound infections or bleeding."

[valter]

"Are you s-sure?" Zihan groaned, gritting his teeth while staggering back up with Iliad's help. Naive as he was, he'd learned at least one piece of centaur etiquette from Tavros, which was to never ride on a centaur's back unless the need was life-and-death. "It's not that bad, I can wal-" His side gave a painful throb, causing Zihan to grip it impulsively. His hand came away red and sticky, causing a slight shudder to run through him.

"Alright then, if you insist." Zihan said reluctantly, clambering onto Iliad's back, following his instructions and staying off of Iliad's haunches. "I promise that I won't tell anyone." Zihan said, keeping still so as not to be a bother to his friend. "Thanks." he added, with a ghost of a grin.

[Chani {♥}]

"It's no problem," Iliad replied. He would have smiled back, but that wasn't his nature. He took a small drink from his water flask and strapped it to his side before starting into the desert. Surprisingly, his haunch did not pain him any worse with Zihan on his back. He even trotted. It worked him harder, made him sweatier, but he figured that, as long as he wasn't in overwhelming pain, he had best get to the city as soon as possible. Zihan had serious wounds that needed tended to, and he wasn't doing so well himself.

The sun was already hanging low in the sky. Iliad left the oasis behind, letting time fall one grain at a time in silence. He knew that it was best to keep Zihan conscious until darkness enveloped the desert; he didn't want the child falling off of his back and worsening his injuries.
Most people like to talk, he thought. I know that Zihan is no different.

"So, you've never been to the city?" Iliad said, trying ineptly to start a conversation since that seemed to be best for Zihan right now.

[valter]

Zihan sat slightly slumped over on Iliad's back, listening to him trotting across the sands. Zihan's swords tapped gently against his back in time with the up and down motion of Iliad's body. There was a relaxing, lazy sort of feeling as the sun hung low over the sky, in fact, the only thing that kept Zihan from falling asleep was the constant nagging pain lancing into his side.

"So, you've never been to the city?" asked Iliad, breaking Zihan out of his sleepy trance. "Um, yeah." Zihan said, stifling a yawn. "I've lived in the great Gigantii desert for 39 years, but now that I'm 13, our tribe's leader has me going and exploring the world." he said, oblivious to how impossible his statement sounded. He raised his head up a little, and glanced backwards. "Right now though, all I've seen is fighting, and people killing for this gold stuff." he said frankly. "Oh yeah, and I've got a question. Iliad, what's a city?"

[Chani {♥}]

Iliad cocked an eyebrow at the first part of the response. Then shook it off as Zihan just messing his words up due to sleepiness.

"Iliad, what's a city?" Zihan asked. Iliad smiled.

"It's a place where people gather, sort of like a tribe, I suppose," Iliad replied. "There's a lot of buildings, people selling things... There's people everywhere during the day, but at night, there's hardly anyone. You probably won't see many people, since we'll be arriving during the night. But that way we can get our wounds mended and you can explore all you want." The sheath of his sword banged against his front leg as he took another step. He winced slightly and then adjusted the belt so that it wouldn't continue to pain him.

[valter]

"Like a tribe, huh? I guess it'll be fun to explore. What race are the people in the city?" Zihan asked, his tail flicking across Iliad's back in curiosity. A gust of wind played over the pair as they trotted across the desert, but this wind was soothingly cool, in sharp contrast to the burning winds they'd encountered only so many hours ago. Zihan looked up, the desert sun had finally sunk underneath the horizon, and the temperature had already begun to drop.

"Iliad? Is the city in the desert? How many times have you been there?" Zihan asked in rapid succession, sitting up on Iliad's back; he was beginning to get excited again, and even the sharp pain in his side couldn't stem his flow of questions. "What kind of buildings are there? And, um, what's selling mean?"

[Chani {♥}]

"The people are mostly humans, but there are a few of other races, too," Iliad began answering. "The city's on the edge of the desert. If you look around, we're already starting to see more vegetation. That signals that the desert is turning into more fertile ground. I've never been to the city we're headed for. I normally avoid places that I have to march through desert grounds to reach." He forced a scarce smile, but it vanished as fast as it arrived. "There's a great variety of buildings. Some huge, some tiny. Selling is... giving items in exchange for gold. The pieces you're carrying are to buy things in the city. You exchange them for food and other supplies. You can also trade items of equal value. Gold is very important, Zihan. Don't let anyone steal it from you, and watch people that get too near. There are people called pickpockets who like to steal your gold pieces, and they're often skilled enough to do it without you noticing. Keep a sharp eye." They reached a large hill, though it was not steep. Iliad began to climb it, making sure that he didn't sink or fall. Being half horse, he naturally had pretty good posture and balance, but he wasn't adapted to sand. It took them a bit, and Iliad's haunch hurt him a couple times, but they finally reached the top. There were lights on the horizon before them, though dim. Iliad pointed.

"Those are the torches of the city," he explained. "It looks close, but I'd say we still have about five more miles to travel." He estimated the distance, scratching his chin pensively, before starting down. Going down required more concentration, but less pain and balance.

[valter]

Zihan listened raptly as Iliad continued to explain, nodding every so often. As Iliad mentioned another strange word, vegetation, he took a glance down. Sure enough, there were clumps of scraggly bushes and grasses scattered here or there, turned silver by the light of the moon, which Zihan stared at with fascination. The cool night air playing over his skin and fur suddenly seemed humid, wetter somehow, which was yet another new experience for the young Torph.

Zihan snapped back to attention as they began to climb, noting that Iliad appeared to be having some difficulting scaling the sand dune. "Pickpockets, huh? Pickpockets and bandits and thieves... are all humans greedy like that?" He mused quietly, until they crested the dune. "Wow..." Zihan mumbled, gazing at the far off city. "It's big." he said simply.

"It looks close, but I'd say we still have about five more miles to travel." Iliad explained from in front of him, before they started downhill. "Iliad, hold on." Zihan said suddenly, sliding off of his friend's back, wincing as he landed; his side wound had jabbed at him. "If it's only five miles, I think I can tigerwalk it." Zihan said, taking a few steps downhill. His bare feet delighted in coming into contact with coarse sand yet again, evident in the little shiver that ran through Zihan's striped tail. "I mean, I don't want to cause you anymore trouble. You're probably hurting worse than I am, and my tigershape can handle more pain," he insisted.