Osiris Fraternal Order

"All improvised my friend. I'm sure if I spent some time on it, it might end up a bit more refined." V chuckled and shrugged as their camels continued forward.

The group made good time through the desert and they reached the heights just before nightfall. Their proposed camp was little more than a rocky outcrop on a hill but it managed to provide both cover from the wind thanks to the large boulders that littered the ground and good views of the surrounding terrain from on top of them.

"We must act quick to get ourselves prepared. If someone wants to get a small fire started to cook then a couple of others can get some cover up. We'll need people on watch at all times guarding all directions. There's always the risk of bandits but we can handle them well enough. It is the creatures that come from the sand that are the worry. That's why we needed to be on the rocky high ground".

Kelikon dropped from his camel. "I will make a fire." He then stalked off to gather what brush he could find.

"I don't think a fire is a good idea friends." V muttered. But he pulled himself onto a stone and laid his side against the adjacent one so he was sitting a bit. His hood came back to reveal cracked lips and a weary face. The assassin preferred any urban environment to the vast expanse of desert this journey had offered him. Nestling in, Valk looked out across the expanse and thought of Claire...

Honestly, Kelikon agreed with Valk. His experience in the desert had taught him that drawing too much attention to oneself, especially a party as large as this, was asking for trouble. It was better to follow the suggestion of his employer than to cause trouble, though. For outerlanders to kill a Zeira who "caused trouble" was nothing unusual, but a Thanosian noble like himself to be injured or slain would likely elicit a violent response from King Ozimar. The consequences were much greater than he was willing to risk.

When Kelikon returned to camp, he noticed the cracks on Valk's face, accompanied by the immense exhaustion apparent in his breath. Seeing a potential opportunity to make an ally in this odd band, he grabbed an extra waterskin. Addressing him in his fluid but accented mastery of the foreigners' tongue, he offered it to the parched assassin. "Drink. You will need strength."

Valk nodded and smiled up at Keli. "Thank you. It is much appreciated." He sipped sparingly before handing it back with a grateful nod of the head. The assassin then reached into his pack and pulled out some dried meat. "Here, I packed extra jerky if you want some." He extended it out in his hand.

Kelikon gratefully accepted the meat and sat down next to Valk. "Thank you, azeri*."

*a term used when addressing non-Zeira in the Thanosian dialect of the Zeira language, literally translates as "foreigner" or "outlander". Also occasionally used derisively when addressing members of other Zeira tribes.

Hastein had ridden in silence for most of the day. They'd reached the camp and he quickly dismounted, before feeding his camel some desert weeds he carried in one of his many pockets.

He looked around, getting his bearings and finding a largish rock near to the top of the outcropping. He climbed it, kneeling and then bowing to the cool surface. He prayed to his Joms gods to keep him safe - and to bring glory to his wards back in Maadi - then slid off the rock and nodded to himself.

"I will scout the area, see that we weren't followed." He announced, taking a bow stave from where he stored it on his camel, and stringing it. He shouldered a bag of arrows and started to leave the outcropping.

"Someone had better be ready to relieve me, in 4 hours time."

Hasan clambered down from a large rock above the others that he had been scanning the horizon from. He walked over to Valk and Kelikon. 'A fire will draw attention to us but in this part of the world that would only be from bandits and with the skills of this group that might be a nice opportunity to get extra supplies...'

'It is the creatures that lurk under the sand that is my fear. They can't see the fire from there so that need not concern us. They'll smell us and feel the vibrations of our footsteps through the ground. No way we can mask that.'

"There's no such thing as prepared enough to fight, kill, and take no losses ourselves," Shar interjected, "A fire is going to bring risk, and it's a risk we need not take,"

Shar had been among these dunes often enough to know that the easiest way to get buried beneath the sand was overconfidence. Though how this man had survived long enough to know of the Beasts Beneath the Sands and still think that provoking danger was a good idea was beyond Shar's reasoning.

"While Hastein is scouting, I'll stand watch here at the camp, he seemed to think four hour shifts were good, and we can make that work tonight I think,"