Mature: Desert Moon

[Emora Deen]

Tenele turned her gaze on the arrow shaft protruding from her skin. She tugged the cloak over her shoulder to hide it away. "Later," she replied. "When we are safe from the storm."

But, there was no telling what they would find when they reached the village. They could run into more of those crazed fanatics. Even worst, they could be greeted by nothing but death. There wasn't any other option, it was too far for them to head back and beat the storm. Pressing on was all they had.

Tenele drew the horses to him.

[Soran Nightblade]

Atul put a tender hand on her back, running his fingers in a light massage along her neck through the fabric. "I'm sorry. Bear with it just a bit longer. I'll ride with the girl."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele nodded gently, wanting to fall into the comfort of his tender touch, but that would have to wait for later.

Tenele took up the unoccupied horse and started off towards the village. It was an hour or more ride away, and by then the storm was so bad that she coward low against the horse to shield her eyes from the wind.

They stumbled into a dark smouldering villages. The fires that normally kept its people warm were snuffed out, just mere embers being buried by the sands. Talon had done them a service by finding an abandoned village for them to inhabit. It was a mixture of mud and stick structures, along with canvas tents. Tenele tied her horse off and ducked into the nearest mud structure for shelter.

It had been too windy to make out if there was anyone else alive in the village, or if there were other fanatics lurking there. She took a deep clean breath of air before heading back into the sand for Atul and the girl.

[Soran Nightblade]

Atul tied off his horse and walked slowly with his delicate cargo. Sho was curled beneath his robes, wrapped close against his bare torso. Even the heat of his demon body wasn't enough to stop her frantic shivering, and she'd barely spoken a word to keep from biting off her own tongue.

The king supported her carefully and ducked into the hut where Tenele had gone, the most stable looking of those available. It was so much calmer away from the wind that it was like diving below water to finally escape the sand.

Good. Shelter. Now to just keep them from dying of exposure. Atul lay Sho carefully on some dry mats at the edge of the half-singed shelter, Tucking his robes tight around her. She didn't move or even look at him, shivering with closed eyes against the fabric.

"J...jisep..." she muttered, whuffing in the scent of the mats.

[Emora Deen]

"We should build a fire," Tenele coughed, dropping wood she'd collected after ducking back out into the sands. She knelt, or more like collapsed next to the pile, shoving the sandy hood form her head and pulling the veil down around her neck. She stacked it before ducking out quickly again for something to start the fire.

Tenele built it close to Sho, near the corner of the small mud house so that the walls would warm and act as an oven for her. When the fire was going she took stock of her wrist and the blood soaking the bandage. It dripped down her hand and over her fingers. "I need to get the packs off the horses, take stock of our surroundings. There could be more of those men." Tenele pushed to her feet, tucking her arm under her robe.

[Soran Nightblade]

"You need to sit still," Atul said, rising to intercept her with hands gently on her shoulders. "Sit with Sho. Please. I will scout things out." He tried to guide her back to the fire.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele shook her head, even if that was exactly what she wanted to do. "You nearly had your throat ripped out and you took a holy arrow to your chest," she argued him. "I'm fine."

[Soran Nightblade]

"Tenele," he drew her carefully against him, chest to chest with his face resting against her warm neck. "You aren't fine." He kissed her shoulder lovingly. "There is necking to do....not much to do...maybe some booze...once everyone's alive...see if there are any alivers, so you Sho with the fire," he said in a warm, protective murmur, fully confident in his role of protector.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele chuckled at his partially delusional rambling. "Fine," she sighed softly. "How about you sit down by the fire too. I'll sit with you. We'll sit together. Then, we can do some necking." Tenele pushed him to a spot against the wall. "Oh, darn. I really have to pee. I'll be back."

Tenele turned for the door, tugging the hood over her head and the veil up over her face before heading out into the sands.

[Soran Nightblade]

Atul sat down, disoriented by all the words at one time. The room was going in slow motion. As soon as Tenele left, he felt a sense of adrenaline pump through him and couldn't keep track of why. His hand hovered ready above the sword on his hip as he hunched over and yielded to his ribs' complaints.

He closed his eyes and let things slowly ravel back together as he listened to his surroundings and let his body sit still for a minute. When he regained the capacity, he found himself counting the seconds, wondering how long it took women to pee. It didn't take him very long at all. Did women need longer, like with dressing for dinner, or reaching sexual climax?

[Emora Deen]

Tenele wondered around in the sands until she found one body, one of Sho's people. Next to it was another, and then another. She felt along the earth for them, checking them for life and finding none. Her heart twisted with each slack face or stiff form she crossed. She wove around the sand filled tents and mud houses until she was lost with them. If there were any alive she'd never find them in the sand or the wind, so Tenele felt her way back towards the hut and the horses.

* * *

Talon blinked up at the bright sky. Damn the sun. Why did it have to be so bright. The storm overtook him quickly, and rather than walk in it and let it peel the skin from his bones he chose to lay down and let it blow over him. But, it had passed some minutes ago and he still lay in the sand like a dolt.

What did it matter. He was a long way from home and he was starving. Not that he wanted to go crawling back to his master like a dog. And, Knights command hadn't been a direct order, or his feet would have kept him moving until they were worn away.

Talon reached up to his head and dug his nails into his scalp.

"Are you okay?" a soft voice asked him. He'd heard her approach, along with another, and yet he'd hoped they'd pass him by without so much as a notice. However, they hadn't and here she was, leaning over him with concern creasing her features.

She was a dark haired middle-aged woman and the man with her at least a decade older. They traveled with a camel.

"Oh, my your covered in blood. Are you okay?" she asked, falling into the sand next to him.

Talon flinched away, trying to curb the wave of hunger that blasted through him. "Are you thirsty?"

Talon laughed, hard and long as she reached for her leather flask. "Thirsty," he sighed. "Very."

She smiled kindly, passing him the flask. "Drink."

Talon reached for it, but his hand passed the leather and went for her wrist.

[Soran Nightblade]

Atul eventually got his pain-fried nerves in line again and realized he'd been tricked. Damn, when it came to ignoring injuries, he was horribly outclassed by both Vlad and Tenele. Embarrassed to be sitting comfortably inside while she did the hard part, he stood and checked on Sho. She was breathing more steadily, and staring at the fire.

He scooped her up and set her a little closer to the heat. The stick walls were drafty with the wind outside. As he turned to go after Tenele, a small hand caught in his pant leg. He looked down at the young demon.

"Talon?" she demanded. He was surprised to notice her voice was still shivering. "Where is Talon?"

"On his way home. You'll see him there."

"In the sandy place?" she demanded anxiously. "I saw him. He was sick."

"He will make it home, and you will see him there," Atul asserted again.

"Liar." She studied his eyes like she could see through him. "You're lying..." tears rose to her angry eyes, disbelief adding to the tremble in her voice. "What happened to him?" She looked ready to seriously lose it, and he felt guilty to be grateful about how weak she was at the moment.

"Look, I'll get Tenele," he muttered. "Talon went the other way so that you'd be safe from him when he was injured. Don't question him. He is protecting you, and we can't help him until you're feeling better. Okay?"

She calmed down, sobered by his explanation, and melted back into his robe as if all the strength had gone out of her. Her worried eyes stared back into the fire. "...Okay."

He watched her for a long moment, beginning to understand why Talon was so fond of this kid. "I'll find more wood for the warm place."

"This is not my warm place anymore," she whispered into the fire, eyes dull with its reflection.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele was almost back to the hut when she tripped over a body half hidden in the blowing sands. She fell, toppling over onto her side and the arm with the arrow still lodged inside. It slammed deeper, earning a sharp cry from her throat, muffled by the cloth and the wind.

She withered on the ground, holding her arm to her side while she thought through the pain enough to get to her knees. "Stupid, mother-," she cursed, kicking the pile of sand collecting near the horses. "Gods damn them!"

The horses jumped at her outburst, but she ignored them and dragged the packs off their backs and headed into the mud hut where she dropped them on the ground and sank to her knees.

[Soran Nightblade]

Atul returned to the hut a few minutes later, loaded with a towering armful of salvaged wood. He knelt slowly just inside the gate and let it tumble to a pile, since his ribs wouldn't tolerate him bending over to set them down nicely.

Sho yelped at the noise, jerking back from wherever it was her mind had wandered. The king frowned at her spooked expression. Whatever she was thinking about, it wasn't good. "Tenele," he said, approaching his wounded lover. He looked over her shoulder to see if she'd tended to her injuries, and saw that she hadn't. "Can I tend to that?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked up at him. "It will burn you," she whispered softly, slowly removing her cloak and working her shirt open. She huffed deep gasps as she drew her arm out of the sleeve to better admire the offending wound.

Tenele hated arrow wounds. She hated removing them. She hated stitching them. It was always a habit for her to try and ignore it as long as possible to put off having to deal with it. But, falling had shoved it deeper, had stopped its corking power, and the blood was flowing now. Now there was no avoiding it. She needed it out so the wound could be closed and bandaged.

Tenele wrapped her hand around the short shaft, barely anything there to grab hold of now that it had wedged deeper. She took several deep breaths and pulled. Before she could even get it out she screamed, slamming back against the mud wall and kicking her foot across the earth.

"Ahh ahh...." Tenele grimaced, swallowing nausea. "I don't like this part... Vlad usually does this part and its usually not a holy arrow."

* * *

Talon rested his head on the soft hair at the top of the lifeless woman's head. His arms squeezed tighter around her as he stared over her shoulder at her husband's lifeless body. The camel had wondered a short distance away, just standing in the sun as if nothing terrible had happened.

"I'm sorry," he huffed, turning his red eyes to the sky. "I didn't mean to. You tasted too good. I was hungry. He wasn't so bad either..."

Talon ran his clawed fingers through her hair. Eventually he shoved her off his lap and stood up, flexing his fingers. He paced back and forth, pulling on his silver hair and muttering apologies to the dead.

"Was this what its like to have a limiter removed?" he wondered allowed, thinking of Vlad when Verin had taken away his restraint.

Talon shook his head fiercely. "They should have let me die! I'm am a monster. A monster. I eat... people. I..." Talon stopped to look at the bodies, torn to shreds. He thought about the girl he'd killed while making lover to her several years ago. The one he tried to get Tenele to resurrect. The one he'd stuffed a box and buried in the sands. He had no place among the living, especially among his sister and her daughter. He was evil. He enjoyed killing.

He hated orders. He hated being a puppet. He hated being controlled. He hated his life, existing in this state of servitude and fear. But, this... He turned his eyes to the dead. In the sands, he was free.