Reece found the desert to be the most awesome place ever.
Despite that the feel of the tough scrub plants was amazing. If only the desert could have more plants! You couldn't touch the spiky things, they hurt too much. The grass was short and tough, the plants that weren't grass were strange and not like Shaman plants but they were plants and ahead of them was water! The fairy rushed forward to splash into the water until Wefios' squeal stopped her in her tracks. The mule stared at the bits in the water that seemed to be more than water. There were... things in the water and near the water. Things with a mouth like the thing that had attacked them last time. The thought of that made him shift his weight uneasily and made his fairy gasp before rushing back to him. Neither one felt up to dealing with the monsters again.
They still needed the water. The dryness of their throats had only increased at being so close to the water but they couldn't stay there with the monsters. Reece looked at the river like she wanted to go anyway but Wefios stopped her from doing so with a swing of his head and a mental order to get on his back. This unexpected privilege caused her to scramble to his back within seconds. She even tried to not bounce too hard because that was exactly why he would never give her a ride but it was exciting and she couldn't help jumping once or twice to look over his ears to see just where they were going. The mule bore this with a surprising amount of patience considering his thirst, the closeness of water and a fairy who managed to find the sorest spot on his back at any time to bounce on. They would just have to travel further down to try to find a place that had been cleared of the monsters. Even in the swamp they didn’t' cover every bit of land but these weren't exactly like the ones in the swamp.
The two trudged forward. The mule twitched an an ear at the reptiles that lurked in the water but they didn't seem inclined to chase him currently. They had remained far enough away that the predators surely knew about them but found them too far away to bother with which reassured the mule not at all. The water was close, maddeningly close, but every nearby rock was claimed by those things or other things that made strange noises and neither trusted. The fairy made a move to dismount and Wefios knew he had to find someplace safe while discouraging her to roam around. Hold on! That was all the warning he gave her before he took off again, using the last of his reserves to dash away from those things. They needed to get to water quickly... there! The water branched out in front of them as if welcoming them to that spot and he saw nothing there waiting for them. There were bellows of something nearby but this little pool was theirs. Reece leapt from her familiar's back and glided to the water. She just missed the rocks that surrounded most of the water around the grotto and dove as deep as the pool allowed. It wasn't much since this was blocked off from the main flow of the river but it was enough to cool her skin down and to get her cool again and wasn't too bad tasting when drunk. Even Wefios couldn't find much to mutter about even though he was too big to fit in the water and had to settle for letting Reece splash him and trying to splash himself but not being able to that well. They couldn't stay here for long. The things would notice them here. Reece was keeping a sharp lookout for the things but she couldn't look everywhere at once and sometimes things had a way of sneaking up on you especially if there was water.
Besides, they had to find that thing for the person! Something special to someone, he said. Something that could be duplicated with the super shiny awesome necklace that he had given to everyone. The problem was that there weren't any people! Wefios hadn't seen any and she hadn't seen any and they hadn't even seen any houses in the desert. People liked water though. So they had to be somewhere near because everyone liked to swim and if you were going to be in a hot place like this you would just have to swim for hours and hours or you might melt into goo. They left the river after a time, though Reece could not help looking back at it and tripping over things because the river needed to have its goodbyes. The pair didn't leave the river entirely because they had no way to transport water but they didn't want to leave the water anyway. Just to stay far enough away for the monsters to not get any ideas! She checked the lotion to see if they had any left but there definitely wasn't enough if Wefios got bit like before. That had taken all of it! There wasn't anything else of much interest either except something that gave stuff that looked like water but didn't taste like water and the knife that had been found in the tomb of the walking things.
Goats! There were goats ahead! Goats with horns and short fur and making loud noises. Reece knew goats, goats had been at home and goats were nice things that sometimes liked to play headbutt and sometimes liked to play chase and sometimes liked to run around like crazy with you for no reason. There was something else too. Something a lot bigger that looked like Wefios but was a lot bigger and had a funny back and a bigger head. And there was a person his its back!
Not a happy person. The person was waving and shouting and yelling something at her. Neither Reece nor Wefios knew what to do so they both stopped and just stared at the weird person that didn't seem to have any wings or speak a real language. Everyone in Shaman spoke the same language! But they weren't on Shaman. That must mean they spoke another language! That was a scary idea. Suddenly the wingless fairy stopped his not-a-mule and yelled something even louder. “Jiniri, Jiniri!” That word was repeated over and over as the man stood and stared at them. For a brief moment the two pairs stared at each other then the man turned his not-mule around and ran back the way he came still shouting that word but also another one she couldn't make out. Wefios had only seconds warning before Reece ran after him yelling the same word for some reason that he was sure had no real reasoning behind it. Of course she coudln't keep up with the animal and ended up running after a ghost of a track in the sand and then he had to go after her just to make sure she didn't get lost and get too far away from the water. Honestly! He had no clue how she'd managed to survive without him all these years. Maybe his coming had allowed her to stop looking all the time and let him look for her.
Reece! Come back before-. Too late. The strange animal and rider came back with friends and Reece found herself surrounded by them. The fairy turned in circles to look at them and to giggle at their funny faces and to stare at the long tunics they wore and to hear that word being said over and over until she nodded very firmly. Jiniri, that was her! Even if she had no idea what it meant the first one had seemed convinced she was this person called Jiniri and then she saw him in the circle and walked to him. Wefios was outside the circle and gnashed his teeth in worry for her as he tried to force his way in but the man did nothing but look down at her. With a giggle the girl produced a large ruby and offered it to him. He had named her, after all! And people liked shiny things. She liked the way that it looked in the sunlight too! It was extra shiny and made her hand look like it had turned red. That thought made her giggle again and when Wefios finally made his way to her she leaned against him and waited for the man as he hesitantly took the gem from her. He held it up with a startled cry before handing it to the nearest rider. The gem changed hands several times as the men looked at the fairy in disbelief and wonder. The nearest rider gestured to her to follow him and the two of them did. There wasn't much of a choice, to Wefios' mind, and Reece followed because she wanted to know what the thing he was riding was. |
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