As old Saxaul manifests Ohanzee looks about at the straightening, strengthening growth and then up into the branches of the tree and smiles ”Greetings Saxaul, thank you for answering our call and gracing us with your presence, with your great wisdom.” and he bows his head.

He keeps digging as they are bid by the spirit trying to find the blemishes and free the tree with the others, but his concentration is diverted somewhat by the presence of the spirit and his desire to talk to it.

”Great Saxaul, we travel to the sea and then up the Zola Fel before heading East back to the Bison and Rhino grazing. There is much harsh land to travel and we seek your great knowledge on where to find your children and any great dangers on our path.”

He pauses and considers a moment before continuing ”And I, perhaps others too, seek your training in how to bolster my resilience through the magics you can teach.” he looks at the others to see if any agree ”We are charged with greening the land and cleaning the roots of your children where we camp would be an honour.”

He had put some rhino fat on his hands and then covered them in cloth so he didnt get it every where while he slept.
In the morning, he carefully unraps his hands, which are still red, though not as bad as he had feared. He gently cleans the fat off and washes his hands. They still itch, but less than they did the night before. He watches the others digging up goyo, but doesn't join in. After he's eaten, he sees that Amara has gone on watch, so he gets some more food and heads over to her, "Have you eaten yet? I'll stand watch if you haven't"

Whilst the braves dig, Saxual answers, explaining where stands of her trees might be found between here and the river mouth. There's not many but Salen is able to transfer the knowledge to his knot map, meaning that they'd likely have enough water until they reached the river.

Nixa and Sand Fox find nothing, whilst Tarnessh finds one of the tubers, It's black and bulbous, with long feather topped stalks and certainly looks poisonous. Not long after, Henal locates another two. All in all a bonus haul and when boiled down they would provide a useful blade venom paste.

The ancient spirit, once more glad for worship says that she will gladly teach such respectful followers and that when they had time to come seek her out. As she listens to the braves she recognises the nearby Kobal "You fertilised my roots with melon, I remember you well. There were others with you, ones I do not sense now, though now there are new ones who sing me praise."

Amara eyed Melock suspiciously, wondering what plan he had up his sleeve this time. She watched him closely for a few minutes without saying anything, but detecting no sign of falsehood, she nodded her gratitude and fetched some food from the fire.

Having gathered her food, she headed out to guard the side of the camp opposite Melock.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:00, Mon 20 Oct 2014.

In reply to Amara Brightsky (msg # 695):

He tries to smile sweetly, but the effect is ruined by the look of concentration on his face as he does his best not to scratch his hands. Once Amara has gone to eat, he keeps a look out, trying to distract himself from the burning sensation in his hands.

Tarnessh walked over to Amara. "What is between you and Melock?" he asked simply. "I don't need Sun Hawk's light of truth to see that you two seem to be having some conflict."

Amara raised an eyebrow "And what concern is it of yours?" she asked.

"I have made my concerns known to Melock. He knows why I have an issue with him. Why should I involve anyone else?" Amara looked confused. "It does not concern any of you. I am part of this band and will support everyone in it as if they were my brother....despite their behaviours against the rest of us."

"Because, frankly, you've acted like you have a cactus up your ass. We've been gone for weeks and I don't think you've smiled once." Tarnessh replied. "We are brothers, alone and far from home, and so if one of us needs help, or is in trouble, then we need to know, because one weak link can destroy an entire chain."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Mon 20 Oct 2014.

Amara raised a dismissive eyebrow. "And if you had any example of any time where I failed to hold up my end of our vow then perhaps you might have a point. The difference I have with Melock does not interfere with our work. If anything it is him you should be talking to and not me." Amara breathed in deeply "Or is it merely because I am a woman brave that you feel you can talk like this to me? I do not need your help, I have not asked for it, nor requested it."

Amara glanced over to where Melock was standing "The weak link in our chain stands over there. It is not me."

"I am an initiate of Sun Hawk. Being nosy is what we do. I would speak to Melock, but since I accidentally caused him to have quite a bad rash right now, I didn't think he would be in any mood to talk to me. Besides, he's a Raven, and trying to get them to not commit mischief is pointless." He breathed in again. "I don't care that you're a woman. We all know that you could kill me where I stood right now, and no one has doubted that, or your abilities. And frankly, it does interfere with our work. If you two need to work together at some point, if the rest of us were killed or just lost or whatever, then how do I know that you two could help save us?"

Amara looked angry at Tarnessh "You don't know if we will come and find you. You trust that we do. If the trust is not there, then you are not a brave in my group. I don't particularly care what you feel is just or a good way for things to be. We are braves, we do as we wish. I have Melock's back just as much as he does mine. What you think of how we react to each other is your own business, just as how I react to him is mine."

Tarnessh just shrugged. "Well fine. You can lead a bison to an oasis, but you can't make it drink. Just remember that if you want to talk about it, I'm here." He said, then walked back to the fire with the others. "I just don't get women." He thought to himself and Tulox.

It's time to go...

Goyo roots are wrapped and stored away, mounts readied and water skins filled from the porous bark of the Saxaul trees. The ancient spirit, often hard to please, seems happy with all the love and sacrifices and bids the Wandering Rangers farewell, having spent sometime talking to the group's guardian spirit Emesh-Ga

Salen leads off, his knot rope in hand, Mordy running at Kohana's side. The dog barks happily and once free of the boulders runs off to scout ahead.

Of the Zebra riders there is no sign and with a loud flutter of wings Tulox shoot up into the sky intending to make sure that no one follows the Rangers.

And so it goes, the Rangers spread out into their familiar places, turning South West following their scouts as they lead the way to promised sites of Saxaul on their way to the Zola Fel.

Though still haunted by recent events, the kumis and Melock’s incident with the plant, along with the lingering effects of calling and speaking with such an ancient and kind spirit have improved Ohanzee’s moon somewhat.

As he rides out on the left he remains alert, not only to possible dangers, but to possible opportunities too, food, water, signs of any potentially useful plants, not that plants of any kind are common out here!

At one point he spots a monitor lizard and before it has time to react or more importantly before it has time to run far enough away. With a couple of disrupting spells it is immobilised and Ohanzee giving a prayer of thanks to Oglod.

Henal rides looking around for any likely sources of food or water for the party feeling that he has started to become part of the wandering rangers, but seeing the risk has been great with so many already having died on their journey.

Amara raised an eyebrow as Ohanzee started heading out in her direction. She remained silent as she realised he was just looking for somewhere different to ride. Amara kept her eyes open looking for signs of water or prey as she rode. Always careful. This was not friendly land. This was land where they would encounter hostile strangers.

Tarnessh rode beside his brother, Kobal. "Have you given any thought of what you will do when we get back home? Considering our success, father might try to get you married off to another tribe before you become competition." He teased.

Melock rides at the back, near Sand Fox. He keeps an eye out for enemies, but doesn't look for things to hunt. He castes a few healing charms, when he has given in to the urge to scratch and drawn blood.

"Aye, Lady, there are new friends now, and some old friends have left us..." the brave places fist over chest and bows to the spirit.  "Among us now is Emesh-Ga, Earth Captain of Tada, who remembers the old times when this land was green.  We join now with Emesh-Ga to try to restore the land, so your kin, and the kin of others, will spread across the land."

Kobal leaves it to the two spirits to converse, while he goes to Black Hoof, retrieves one of the remaining melons from his sack, and cuts it up to lay around the saxaul plants.




"Haha," Kobal laughs, "not as much thought as you have put into it, it seems.  I admit I've thought of finding a mate.  But also of other training I would like to have."  He smiles.  "I am no competition to father.  He will always be our elder.  And why would he marry me off?  I am a man, not a woman to be married to another clan.  But you, have you given thought of whether you will get back home?  Telling a Vingan she has a cactus up her ass is a brave deed.  You may be a member of Sun Hawk now, but sometimes being forthright brings its own problems."

From their position riding on the right flank of the group, he looks off into the distance of the sky.  "It will be a hot, muggy day, I think.  Perhaps the spirits are stewing over something."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:07, Wed 22 Oct 2014.

Tarnessh flinched at Kobal. "Oh shit, you heard that?!" He shook his head. "Yes, truth be told I was terrified when I said that. I was afraid she would lop my head off right there." He looked at the others to make sure they weren't listening to them. "Brother, as we're talking about what we're doing back home, can I tell you a secret? One that you must swear not to tell anyone, especially father?"

Kobal turns in his saddle and looks at his brother.  "What is this about?  I can't swear not to tell anyone - especially when I don't know what you're about to tell me.  But we are brothers, and I'll certainly try to keep your confidence."

"By the way, I'd like to know what happened between Melock and Amara too.  Haven't gotten around to asking them, though.  Good thing you asked before I did, haha"

Early morning

Up ahead, Salen comes across a small pile of naked and very dead human bodies. He dismounts from Kohana and takes a good rummage around. Finally he looks to everyone else.

"High Llama, the Cloud Walker tribe. They've been killed with weapons, been dead a day or two."

The Condor brave does a quick scout of the area, and notices a couple of points of interest.

"There's no High Llama tracks, but there are Zebra Tracks that head back towards the Zebra Graze."

So their mounts weren't here then with no Llama tracks. Just the bodies of the riders been brought here by the Zebra Riders?

Scouting around Henal can see that that seems to be the case.

"Looks like a warning...'Don't come here'...Works for me any rate."

Bamled makes a sign to avoid the evil eye.

"Zebra riders don't want folk on what they see as their land by the looks of things."