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the path to enlightenment is paved with ignorance A nod of his head expresses approval of her simple response, though Arishok wonders if the female truly does comprehend. For all that they emphasized their individuality, the ashqaad were known to be a weak-willed people, a race of followers and few leaders. When confronted with conflict, they inevitability turned to another, whimpering like lost children. Not Arishok. First as a warrior of the ba'shok and now as the cornerstone of his people, he faced hardship unblinkingly, knowing that struggle was the world's most convincing mirage. The sands might be hurled about by the wind, but inevitably they must return to their place on the earth. The oases might dry and the ground exposed in their absence might become parched and cracked, but the water, too, must return in its own time. Everything was a cycle and there was no finality; even in death, Arishok knows his flesh and bones will become the ash from which new life emerges. She, too, is part of life's vast tapestry, though the color of her thread has yet to be determined. The rumble of a grunt acknowledges her next words of the desert, though Arishok is concerned with more vital matters now than her opinion of his kingdom - such as how she will fit into it. He has no use, after all, for the useless; those with neither strength of body nor wisdom of mind did not possess the means to live in such a harsh land. And Arishok has no desire to relocate, though he is confident in his ability to wrest one of the more bountiful lands from its lord. For all that the desert is plain, it truly is a beautiful land - and for all that it unforgiving, its trials only served to strengthen those who could survive them. Turning his eyes to the sun, Arishok watches it begin to descend from the apex of its climb in pensive silence. After a long moment, he finally speaks. "If you truly believe that your destiny lies here, then you may remain, basran. But you must also discover purpose within yourself; a direction without a path to follow still leaves you among the lost." A pause, and then he continues. "Perhaps you would like to know more. I will answer any questions you have of this place and our ways." a bloodstained gray stallion standing proud at 16.2 hands and following the ways of his warlander ancestors for nine years and counting |