Looking for trouble

_{Contains scenes of violence, if you do not wish to read then I recommend skipping this post and vote for the other one.} 

 

A new day begins with Doa and Ruben listening to orders from the Head Scout - Taek. "You will each be with a veteran scout and you need to follow their orders not only for your own safety but for the safety of your partner. Understood?"

Both men nod in unison, then Ruben, reminded of the army, adds "Sir Yes Sir," and salutes, causing Doa to give him an odd look but he keeps his thoughts to himself. Doa doesn't know much about Taek so prefers to appear more restrained than he actually is.

Taek laughs at Ruben's awkward salute, "No need for that, this is not the Capital, but I do expect you to confirm any orders, again this is for all our safety. We are a team and only as a team can we confront any issues that arise."

Taek continues to explain how they need to keep visual contact with their partners. They should move directly to their partner's last location if for any reason they lose sight of them. Things in the desert can go wrong very quickly and time will be of the essence.

"Ok now we move out. Doa you are with me, and Ruben you will go with Growler." A skinny, sun-baked presumably middle-aged man steps forward and gestures to Ruben to follow him.

The scouts have five teams of two, and four of the teams work in the areas ahead of the tribe and one covers behind.

Yanig has explained to Ruben and Doa that the scouts are their first line of defense. They are invaluable for keeping everyone moving in the right direction by finding the best migration paths or traces of nearby oases. They also serve as the obvious early warning and if need be they will hold an enemy until the tribe can either prepare to fight or find safety.

The four frontal teams move out ahead of the tribe then split evenly with two covering the range on either side almost parallel to the tribe's movement, the other two teams scout further ahead down the middle. Soon Doa cannot see any teams nearby.

Following Taek's instructions Doa climbs to the nearest dune and follows the ridge from there. Taek does the same, every few moments each will glance over to confirm visual contact. The current area they are scouting has many large dunes stretching to the horizon. Doa notes how different the area is from the flat dead area he had covered when first entering the desert.

Although movement is much harder, he prefers the waves of dunes before him over the naked wasteland he came from.

"If you need to move down, let me know so I can shift to your position, with these dunes it is easy to lose sight so we need to move in tandem." Taek's voice carries across the valley to him as clear as if he is standing next to him.

Doa squints and stares over to where he can barely distinguish Taek's features, and whistles to himself still impressed with the wind spell they use for communicating.

Instead of using the 'whispers on the breeze' spell, Doa uses his own innate talent for the wind to confirm the order. Yanig has explained how he should always try to first use his own talent before falling back to using the spells. That is the only way he can actually get stronger.

Having confirmed Taek's order, Doa wonders what Taek's talent is and notes to ask him later. Most of the tribe have the blessed affinity with sand or as Yanig is happy to finally dive into more technical information, 'crystal'.

Still following his dune's crest, Doa realizes he has not checked on Taek's position for a long time. The moment he looks over to check, the man's voice sounds in Doa's ear "You need to focus and stop day...."

Doa does not hear the rest, as he finds himself falling directly down. He recovers his orientation quickly and realizes he is now sliding down a sand funnel. Doa looks up and sees the clear sky above the opening of the pit threatening to swallow him. He focuses on the air, and creates a whirlwind beneath his feet, he can't step on the air directly but the force is enough to close the opening beneath him and give him something solid to push from. He digs his hands and feet into the sides of the tunnel and begins to climb up. Doa moves his whirlwind with him as he climbs to further compact sand beneath him and slowly closes the distance to the top.

As he reaches the exit, Taek is there to pull him up. "No good," Taek remarks and Doa says nothing in response, assuming he means that Doa messed up.

"Glad you are ok Doa." Taek adds, he notes that Doa seems to have quickly recovered his composure, and is glad there does not seem to be a need for much coddling. Taek shivers at the thought of dealing with a crying person. "You dealt with that perfectly. This is a 'Grovel Ant' hole. Fortunately for us they tend to not have many entrances to their nests." He explains to Doa while sending a huge amount of heat down into the pit.

Doa notes he did not hear Taek chant anything so his talent must be fire. The sand in the tunnel quickly becomes red hot then gets covered by more sand as the walls of the pit collapse. Taek places his hand on Doa's chest and urges him to stand back as he keeps his focus on sealing the entry way with the resulting glass.

"That should do it." He finally says, indicating to Doa to follow him, they walk down the ridge of the dune. Now deemed a safe distance away from the entry point Taek just sealed, he tells Doa to watch. Still at the top of the ridge they survey the valley below. After only a minute a man-sized ant bursts out at the foot of the dune catching their attention and Taek quickly slides down, still a good distance from the beast.

"Doa, use your wind to blow as much sand as hard as you can in the direction of the Grovel Ant!" Taek commands. Without question Doa pictures a sandstorm in his mind and lifts his hands towards the Grovel Ant. From behind them a slight breeze blows, then it becomes a gale a few steps ahead of them. The desert dune seemingly springs to life and particles race across the floor weaving their way forward. The wind slowly picks up more sand as it blows past the beast and slips into the overcurrent and turns back. Having established the cycle, Doa pushes for more force.

"This is the most I can do for now," Doa tells Taek through heavy breathing.

"Good enough, just keep it up ok." Taek then sends his heat into Doa's sandstorm. Doa watches as his sandstorm now pierces the Grovel Ant with glass shards. Behind the ant three more have joined and are still protected by the body of the first. "What are they doing?" He asks Taek curiously, still trying his best to maintain the wind's strength even with the growing weight of sand and glass. Fortunately once his cycle finds momentum the burden on him is significantly lifted, still it drains Doa's energy faster than he would like.

"They aren't stupid, they are using the first one as a shield, can you change direction into a whirlwind?", without waiting for an answer Taek turns the desert floor beneath the ants' feet to molten glass. Soon after, Taek removes the heat from the area, hardening the glass and trapping the ants' legs. Doa having changed the direction of his storm into a whirlwind is pouring all his focus into gaining more speed.

"Why don't you just burn them?" He calls out to Taek over the increasing noise of rushing winds in front of them.

"I can't, they are extremely resistant to heat. Notice how they did not even register the molten trap I set until they were in it. Just keep going, this will be over in a jiffy!" He calls back to Doa, then creates more glass shards in the storm.

Doa notes how thin they are as the shards now follow a whirlwind path past them. For a moment he freezes in fear thinking some are escaping and coming straight at him.

Taek notices but just laughs at Doa's eyes almost bulging out in fear, "Don't worry they won't get far, outside your wind they will lose momentum quickly which is why we need to keep our distance and most of the wind's path over the ants' bodies. Ok last shove." Taek raises his hands and turns the sandstorm with glass shards into a dazzling torrent as light reflects off the unbelievably delicate but deadly blades ripping through the ants.

Exhausted, Doa tells Taek he is going to drop the storm, Taek says to push the wind directly up before he lets go. Doa guesses his intent immediately and thinks how ruthless Taek actually is. To Doa's eyes the fight is over, but Taek still wants to impale the beasts with one final shower of death.

With the last of his energy Doa directs the airflow upwards and releases his control. The remaining shards follow easily, being that Taek formed them wide and thin, they perfectly ride the currents. Reaching the peak, the sun glistens off the glass edges, the shards hanging frozen mid-air and Doa gasps at the sight .

During the onslaught two more ants appear behind their trapped brethren, of the original group only one is still fighting the glass trapping it. The trapped ant goes so far as to rip off its hind legs and crawl forward on the remaining four. Their intelligence surprises Doa again, the other two ants had waited just outside the death torrent.

The ants hesitated long enough for the glistening blades to rain down on them. The beautiful collective - moments ago a colossal sculpture refracting the sky and sand, quickly becomes slicked with the dark blood of the beasts. 'From wonderland to horror show.' Doa thinks and sits down in the sand propping himself up with his arms behind him.

"Good work Doa, that was lots of fun. We should be going now because more will come and we do not wish to be here when the Armoured Ants arrive. These were just workers." Taek stands behind Doa and without asking lifts him up in a bear grip, Doa grunts at first then just sighs in relief for the help.

When Taek is convinced Doa can stand on his own, Taek hands him the water bottle and sends a message to the tribe and surrounding scouts. Both eat and drink while waiting for responses to come back.

Doa and Taek listen to the replies and prepare to head back to the caravan. The tribe will not be taking the route they had scouted, another group has found a better one which will also likely lead them to an oasis sooner than expected.

"What happens now?" Doa whispers, with barely enough strength left to focus on walking he does not want to waste more energy on speaking louder.

Taek just smiles as he looks at Doa walking beside him, the guy seems to be in a daze staring forward, every motion seemingly without thought, “Now we head home.”