Through the Sands pt. 2

When they dismounted this evening, Silina turned his attention towards a patch of cacti with words and gestures. She then led the camel to lay down before disappearing behind it, rummaging through their supplies.

“Ber, al’fel ber yifa veisl cun.”*

He was grateful for the extra words he had been able to pick up, acknowledging he needed to gather something. To make sure he gestured towards the prickly plants.
“Ber?”

Her head leaned out from behind the draped cloth, straining to look as she struggled with the retrieval of something. She donned a look of mild irritation and rolled her eyes before shouting back.
“Ma, Tarm’en al’fel ber!”*

He still didn’t know how to feel about her pronunciation of his name, but found it humorous enough to let it stay. Going about his task, he was grateful to have his ‘good’ arm still intact, though had underestimated how much of his finesse had been lost. Taking several unnecessary slices through the skin instead of nicking the thorns off, he began harvesting in a more dour mood at this degradation of his skills.

He didn’t think anything wrong until Silina called out, pacing over while letting loose a barrage of words he hadn’t known existed. She smacked the bulb he held, then rummaged through what he had gathered while still mumbling to herself while shaking her head. Tarmen could easily guess he had messed something up, but simply leaned away in case she decided to smack him as well. Grateful as he was for her help, he wasn’t about to get beaten up by a child.
She then picked a certain kind from the small pile, how she knew what to look for was lost on him and based on the continued glances, she was well aware of that fact. She pointed to several others as she went, then clenched a fist over her gut while skewing her face. Once again words weren’t needed for Tarmen to understand it would be very bad to eat them.

After calming herself in organizing what was edible and not, Silina shooed Tarmen away with a fleeting remark of him being an idiot. He hadn’t caught the full sentence, but he had heard her berate the camel enough to know what she meant.

Taking this chance to fill his water skin and refresh himself, Tarmen couldn’t help once again drawing comparisons between himself and Silina. While not from the rough and tumble Septs of the Ozainae, being around a fellow survivalist brought on the same feeling of connection.

Even while she still held a level of mistrust, he learned she slept lightly and with a dagger she had salvaged from a misunderstanding the first morning they had stopped, and still displayed a bit of youthful tartness, he found himself enjoying her company quite a bit. She reminded him of his own youth, surviving in a deadly place and facing death probably more often than they should with a mix of stern resolution and attitude.

This connection was enforced as he saw she wasn’t yet a full master in her skills, being a bit rough in using the knife. She had been trained at some point for sure and he wondered how old she truly was and just how long she had been traveling. He assumed she was another pilgrim of the Call, mainly from the assassin’s attempt to kill her, though was definitely more sane than he had assumed them to be.

Thinking of that night, something had been gnawing at him since. He had been so willing to jump to her aid, when just months prior he was aiding in killing another.
He still had no clear connection to her, he remembered Alexis mentioning her name was Islana, but both her and Voah had displayed a firm bond with the woman.
Still, there was a knot that was settling in his chest at the memory.
How would things have gone if things had gone to plan? Would Voah have been so merciful if he had sacrificed her friend to a bloodthirsty god?

*Cactus, gather barrel to make food
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*Yes, Tarmen gather barrel!
Ber: Barrel, meaning the cactus
Al'fel: Gather
Cun: Food