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 Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:15 pm
Seth sighed as he watched Femi's reaction to what had unfolded. 'This is my fault. I should have known Femi couldn't handle that level yet. But nothing happened when I read it.' he thought to himself pulling up his hood and standing up to walk out into the raging storm. He muttered a simple spell that would hopefully counter act the previous one, but the damage had been done all he could hope for now was that the storm would calm.
The storm slowly began to calm and the sky turned back to it's previous color. Seth still wasn't happy though. Self loathing ate at him as he walked over to his hut and sat against the outside wall.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:39 pm
Femi shifted slightly, pulling her face out of her knees, and watched him for a short moment before frowning. "Se... Master Seth?" She asked, sniffling slightly as she wiped at her face to get rid of the tears. "I'm sorry I messed up so badly, Master." She apologized, moving out of her little ball to kneel on the floor infront of him. "I know that you were able to fix my mistake, but..." She bowed her head low and put both hands on the floor in a submissive position. "Please forgive me Master." She asked, staring the floor down. It was the first time that she'd messed up this badly, and it was the first time that she'd felt that she was really his inferior.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 7:46 pm
Around her the sound of wind and thunder appeared to slowly die down, but still Nadira was rather reluctant to uncurl herself from the protective ball. She had a feeling if she moved that somehow the sand that had surely built up around her would fall into her bubble of air and she would choke to death. There was, however, this odd feeling in her chest, almost as though she could sense life nearby. There was an instinct to seek out this life, kind of like the instinct that urges baby animals to seek out warmth, and in the next moment she found herself sitting up and out of the sand, the warm sun beating on her eyelids.
She hesitated a second before removing the kerchief from her face, and then she shook the sand from it. Carefully Nadira wiped the sand from her eyelashes and then opened her eyes, looking around her. Somehow she had gotten from her apartment to the middle of desert, and while it made absolutely no sense to her at all she still felt that strange tug forward. Not being one to normally disobey instinct Nadira pulled herself up ontop of the sand and crawled forward slightly. "Hello!" She called out, frowning serverly and feeling stupid. "I know someone else is out here!" Nadira called louder, looking for lumps in the sand sent up by the sandstorm where someone would most likely be covered.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:42 pm
He turned from the window and moved with a gentleness towards the open archway that allowed access to his room and to the hall just beyond. When he reached the doorway, two gaurds who were stationed there for the day bowed at his presence as he just softly touched each of their shoulders with his hands.
"Rise, and follow," He said with a slow nature, but the words themselves sounded loafty.
As he moved down the hallway, his stride was elegant and graceful. His posture was perfect as was his steps. Behind him the two gaurds stood side to side as they marched in unison; each armed with long spears whoms shafts were constructed of fine yew and the spear heads made of copper.
Along the way, the three of them walked past may subjects of his father, each paying their respects as he passed them. It was a quiet journey down that long hallway, from time to time, they'd pass a doorway that would lead into a seperate chamber.
He finally reached a large Archway that lead into the Royal Hall (throne room). Upon entering his gaurds stopped at the door, and dared not enter the room of their God (Pharaoh). He entered by himself , and saw his father was positioned on the Thorn with a sheet of papyrus, carefully examining its contents.
"Excuse me father, You told me to come to you when the sun smiled down upon the land. What is the need you have of me," he asked as he moved halfway into the room, not moving any closer to his father.
"I need you to head out to the desert, and patrol our lands," he father spoke without lowering the papyrus.
"Father, is that not a job for our subjects to do. Why ask me?"
"Do you question your father's orders?"
"No, of course not," he muttered with a slight tone of resentment.
"Good. Son, I would ask our Army to do this task however, I am making one of my rare appearences to our men and I prefer to keep you far from it."
"What why?"
"I know you eye my throne son, and even though you may think I am blind to the fact, you have to remember I was once your age," he said as he lowered the papyrus showing his dark brown eyes, his roughly aged skin and the ornate headpiece upon his head, "in good time you will have this seat, but while I rule you will be reminded of that rule. That is why you are to head into the desert. Understand boy?"
"Yes father," he didnt argue with him, he couldnt. Even though they were blood he still was expected to comply.
"That is all."
He turned around and didnt bow to his father, if that was anyone else he would have been sacerficed for such. He walked out and snaped his fingers once, and spoke in a harsh tone, "Lets go. First we need to head to the armory to get my swords."
The gaurds complied and followed him down the hallway again.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:02 pm
Karah sat in the corner of her tent and listened to the storm die down. "At last!" She cheered standing up and stretching her sore limbs. "That storm was so unexpected. The sky was so beautiful before and then that." She talked to herself as she began to strap her dagger belts to her waist arms and ankles. Her katars hung from the back of her belt wrapped in fabric to keep them from clanging together. She decided to leave her scimitar in the tent. She really only used it when she was working.
Karah wrapped her crimson linen cloak around her to hide the katars and daggers. She smiled at skipped out of her tent only pausing to bask in the sunlight for a moment. "I might as well go for a walk since no one has contacted me for a job" she stated walking off into the desert.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:07 pm
"...llo!"
Aleks came back to life in an instant, and sat bolt upright, coughing violently. He'd gone unconscious at some point during the maelstrom, but he had no idea how long he'd been out. He wondered, if that voice hadn't woken him up, how long would he have remained buried?
How long could he have survived?
He stared down at himself. He was buried to the belly in sand, and as he got up, the sand fell away from him in waves, but it remained clinging to his skin and clothing.
Then he looked up.
Desert. Open, empty desert. He looked from side to side. Nothing but yellowish-white dunes. The vast expanse, clean and deadly and unlike anything he had ever seen, took his breath away.
Before he even registered what he was looking at, he could hear the words in his mind: My lungs taste the air of Time / Blown past falling sands... It took him a moment to even remember what they were; two little, obscure lines from the book Dune. Shuddering at the thought, he told himself fiercely to stop thinking about useless fictions and figure out where the hell he was. Because he certainly wasn't in Luxor.
"I know someone else is out here!"
He spun, suddenly remembering the voice that had awoken him, and the sight that greeted him took his breath away once again.
Behind him, atop a dune, stood a young woman, some distance away, which would explain why she hadn't seen him yet. But behind her, the world seemed to come together into the most perfect piece of artwork Aleks could ever recall seeing. The sky was a fierce blue-white, and wispy clouds seemed to frame the woman like a goddess in human flesh. Further away but in the sand, he could see the outline of something too angular and regular to be natural; a city, but not one of the ugly modern cities Aleks was accustomed to seeing. Instead, this was a city of stones, a city of sand. A city that was truly of the desert. And this woman, this teenage goddess...
If Aleks had been able to capture the image as it was in that moment, he would have named it "Chani of Arrakis". At least, he would have named it thus if he had been able to assure himself that such a title wouldn't earn the piece too much ridicule.
But the image lasted only for a moment, when everything seemed to align perfectly. Then the woman's posture changed, the clouds drifted, the city wavered in the heat, and it became a simple, barren desert scene.
"Hey!" Aleks called, finally, and began making his arduous way through the sand towards her. "You speak English? Do you have any idea where we are?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:55 pm
Nadira frowned out at the desert and started searching for the voice before her eyes landed on the young man attempting to make his way through the now very loose sand, a job that would prove difficult for anyone. Pulling her feet up out of the sand and with a strange kind of relief at seeing another human, something Nadira wasn't known for since she actually rather shunned human contact in general, she began half running half slidding down the sand dune toward him.
Being raised in Egypt and being used to the sliding motions of walking on sand, Nadira had once made a trip by herself on foot between cities, she was able to make considerable more progress than the young man did; it also probably helped that she was going down while he was going up. "Yes! I do speak English!" She exclaimed as she neared him, switching from the Arabic she had been screaming in to an accented English. She came to a stop infront of him, a bit confused by why she was so happy to see another human being, but she straightened herself and adopted a rather calm frown on her face despite being so confused and frazzled she wanted to kick something.
Looking at the foreigner she judged that they were both in the same boat since he seemed not to know where they were either, and she highly doubted this was a natural occurance. "No, I do not know where we are," She told him in a slightly harsh voice, frowning. There was something very wrong here she felt, she felt more like she had just ran into an old friend than someone she had never met before, and that feeling made her very angry and made her a lot moodier than she normally was; and a moody Nadira is something no one wants.
"It does appear that we are in the desert though," She snapped sarcastically, English not being her first language she spoke rather oddly, but she was still getting her point across. She frowned suddenly, appearing more like a weak lost little kid than the angry person she normally was, "Do... do you somehow sense someone else nearby?" She asked rather softly compaired to before, looking around her as if searching/
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:49 am
Standing quietly and almost without movement was a young man. Two swords were held in his hands and his eyes moved slowly about the dark room. It was a rare ocassion to see another person, but such was the life of Anubis. Working as a guard for the local embalmer meant that most of his time was spent in poorly lit rooms and seeing little to no life. This did not bother him much, as he rather enjoyed the silence of the dead.
Suddenly, a strange feeling swept over his entire body. Something supernatural was at work and he could feel it. He moved swiftly to the entrance of the building, just in time to see a massive sandstorm appear and then disappear shortly after. Such a thing could be a danger to existance and thus he began his sprinting towards the location of the former storm.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:53 am
Aleks found himself wondering more and more at their strange predicament. Where had they found themselves? Was it possible that an entire city had been buried in sand? Aleks doubted it, but... Where was everybody? Where were the buildings? And he had awoken buried in sand, though not much. The bizarre notion that Luxor had been buried continued to p***k at his mind, but he couldn't lend it enough credence to actually believe it.
"No," he said apologetically, "I..." he trailed off, furrowing his brow.
And this young woman before him was a surprising study, though he couldnd't imagine why that should be. Her clothing didn't suggest that she was in any different of a situation than he was, though perhaps she had come from a slightly less privileged position. Even so, something about her made him want to somehow take a picture of her. He was by no means an artist, and the pen and notepad in his back pocket would not do him much good.
The odd pseudo-qualities of the young woman disappeared from his mind like a shot as he recalled something else.
"I have a phone! Maybe I can call someone for help." He detached the Razr from his belt and opened it. It must have escaped the worst of the sand, because it worked fine. Except that it said there was no signal. He opened his contacts anyway, and dialed his landlord's phone number. He wasn't sure who else to call, though he might try his professors next. But the phone hadn't been mistaken; there was no signal. The number didn't dial, and he sighed, replacing the phone on his belt. He looked around some more.
"We could try to get to that city," he suggested. "I don't think I'll collapse before we get there, and you look like a very..." He paused, unsure of how to phrase it without sounding rude, "...capable person."
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:29 am
Nadira was barely payaing attention to him at all, but she had caught onto the fact that his cellphone hadn't been working. 'How strange...'She wondered to herself, eyebrows furrowed as she looked around her, trying to find the source of the odd feeling in her chest that seemed to just scream that there was life here. If she was here and this strange young man was here then surely she couldn't be wrong about this, right? She had somehow sensed his prescence even before he'd uncovered himself. Still, the feeling was far too annoying and vauge, and it made her mad enough she was now glaring at the world around her and gritting her teeth.
Brushing aside the feeling as if it were merely a sand flea she focused her attention back on him, despite the fact that annoying sensation was buzzing at the back of her mind and tugging at her chest. Nadira had been almost positive that if she felt it then this young man in her situation would feel it too, and the fact he didn't made her want to hit him and yell at him that she wasn't insane. Instead, though, she fixed him with that uncomfortable glare, looking quite like a wild animal taken from her element and dropped into a new one and unknowingly took a partial step forward.
What was that he had said? There's a city? She looked around again and didn't see anything, which meant had to be behind her. Sighing slightly Nadira cursed her luck, a city had been right behind her and she had stumbled off further into the desert. Today was not her day... Then there was what he had said about her, he'd called her cabable or something, she hadn't been paying much attention, but the way he hesitated had made it seem like an almost insult. Nadira didn't like the insult, and though she was angry she somehow felt like she couldn't be angry at him, which only made her angrier at him and the world in general; what a paradox she was finding herself in.
She took a deep breath and run a hand through her horriably gritty feeling hair, fixing the same glare as before on him, the one that spoke of caged predators pacing and waiting for escape. "Yes, well, if you collapse then I will just have to carry you, now won't I?" She asked him in harsh tone, then she winced slightly, somehow feeling guilty for being cruel. "I am Nadira Kanaan." She sighed after a moment of fighting with the od feelings tumbling in her head; she wasn't happy about any of this, but she felt like she had to be nice.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:06 am
Note: I'll use these: << >> to indicate dialogue in Arabic, anything without will be English.
Hala was still in a state of numb terror as the city itself disappeared around her, leaving her huddled against the sudden raging sandstorm alone, or so she thought. Her mind barely registered as the falling began to stop, and the tearing winds began to die, leaving a muffled darkness in their wake. Almost as if she were buried underground, she realized after a long moment, still waiting to wake up. Or under sand. And she couldn't breathe. What an odd thing to feel in a dream... The insistent burning in her lungs shook her out of the stupor, driving her to claw up through the sand, gasping and coughing for a clear breath as she finally reached the dry, hot air at the surface.
Once she finally moved, it was surprisingly easy to get free, the fine sand falling in tiny rivulets from the folds in her clothing as she stood. After fruitlessly trying to rub away the grit from eyes, she held a hand up to shield herself from the sun, which blazed white-hot over the sand, casting a doubly blinding glare from the pale dunes. It was a desert in the midst of the day's deadly heat, rolling dunes stretching into infinity, empty except for a roughness on the horizon, but she didn't focus on that.
Instead, she immediately began scanning the desert for someone else, though why, she couldn't explain. There really was no reason for anyone else to be stranded out in this wasteland, and yet... Voices! She stumbled forward, gaining her footing easily after a moment as she climbed up the dune, after the echo of voices. Two voices. And they sounded so compellingly familiar... She crested the dune, and as she saw the two figures standing beneath, the sudden wave of relief that rippled through her was surprisingly strong. Of course I'm not alone...
<<"Hello!">> The shout scraped dryly through her throat, and she hurried down the dune, every few steps sliding down unevenly through the sand, bounding toward them as if she were afraid they would disappear.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:07 am
((EDIT: I got ninja-posted! Editing. Don't do anything yet! sweatdrop
EDIT EDIT: Edited. ninja ))
Aleks flinched slightly, then cursed silently at himself.
"Sorry," he muttered. Then, because she'd given her name, "I'm Aleksandr Zuyev." He glanced around them, getting an eerie sensation. He suddenly wondered if this was what she meant. He'd never actually felt 'as if he was being watched' like they said in books, but he wondered if this was what it meant.
"Now that you mention it, I do have the strangest feeling that... But we'll get dehydrated or worse if we stay here. We should get - "
"Salaam!" the voice caused Aleks to blink, but he turned to see a girl running down a nearby dune as if something were chasing her. He quickly shrugged that thought off, not wanting to imagine more problems than there already were. He trudged through the sand toward the girl, glad for the company.
"Hey! Um - " He was about to repeat his earlier request for English that he'd given the Arabic man, but then realized he was now the minority; an English-speaking white boy, with two Arabic-speaking women. It would be best, he supposed, to try to speak their language. But he had a feeling he would be asking for a lot of clarifications. "Salaam," he repeated, a little halfheartedly. "We... um... Ana taayah? Er, I mean... Nahnu..." He broke off, sighing. He was trying to say they were lost. Then he realized that that was about as obvious as you could get. He looked wistfully toward the city again. The heat was beginning to get to him; even the promise of shade sounded terribly seductive right now.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:33 am
((Thank you for that system, Dragonfyre! ^^ Of course, in a while we won't need a system any more... >> *smiles the smile of someone who knows something*))
Nadira frowned at the strange name, but she felt infinately relieved when he said that he knew what she meant. 'Finally, I'm not insane.' She sighed happily to herself, part of her anger disapating. She'd been about to agree to that they needed to get to whatever city it was quickly when she suddenly felt one of the tuggings on her mind grow stronger, and then a voice call out. Without that she whirled around and made to start towards her, but she forced herself to stop. It was strange enough she felt so drawn to this odd young man, she didn't need to go running after yet another stranger that she didn't know.
The boy, Aleksandr, started speaking in rather bad Arabic, which actually made her crack a smile and laugh slightly, releaving more of her anger. His actions were kind of endearing in an odd way, something she had only felt before when watching a young child playing a strange game or doing or saying something completely out of the norm. It was a strange feeling for Nadira to feel that way about anyone, and she didn't welcome that feeling at all. <<"Hello!">> She called out loudly to the other girl, the half smile on her face full of relief. <<"If you can't tell, he doesn't speak Arabic well. He speaks English, so you may need to switch over.">> She suggested, feeling quite pleasent compaired to before.
There wasn't much question in her mind that this young woman had the ability to speak English, from the look of her clothes she probably came from a family far better off than Nadira's had been and how she was now, and with money normally came better education. For that matter Aleksandr seemed well-dressed too, and he'd had such a fancy phone as well... The feelings of relief in Nadira's chest quickly transformed into anger and jealousy, and in a subconcious gesture of closing herself of from them she took a step again and pulled her limbs in slightly close, presenting them with her side as if to minimize contact with them.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:49 am
Hala clutched at her purse and her headscarf as she skidded down the sand dune, sliding to a stop as she approached the two, then shaking a little more of the sand off as she finally paused enough to actually look at them, her eyes narrowing slightly as she tried to place them. Both of them seemed somehow familiar, yet at the same time she was positive she hadn't ever seen them before. Odd. She put the thought aside, and smiled at the woman's remark, <<"Of course.">> She switched easily, her English hardly even accented, though it did have a bit of a formal, businesslike ring to it, hopeful as she grasped at any other familiar connection. "Were you both caught in the sandstorm?"
She followed the foreigner's glance, and her eyes widened slightly, "A city..?" The hopeful look was quickly followed by a frown as she failed to recognize the skyline, or anything else about it. It certainly wasn't Luxor... but she quickly looked away and drowned out that line of thought, ignoring it as blithely as a child plugging its ears and singing lalala.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:06 am
It took all of Nadira's willpower to keep herself from stepping back closer to the two of them, somehow she felt oddly eager for their company and that was a feeling completely at odds with her emotions of jealousy and anger. "Yes, I believe we were," She explained in her accented English, each word pronounced almost carefully; it wasn't as though English had been hard to learn, she had somewhat of a gift at picking things up, but she didn't use it often enough to have perfected it... and only added to her anger that this other woman was better than she was at it and could speak with almost no accent. "We were about to start going to that city, it is not very safe to remain here." She explained stiffly, glaring in that caged animal way at the two of them.
There was still an odd tickle at the back of her mind, a feeling of someone else at there, but she wasn't going to bring it up. Feeling helpless and trapped was making her angry again, she didn't like feeling like a small child anymore than she liked feeling like she knew these people. "There is still someone out there yet, so I will not say my name again." She snapped harshly, turning around to look for the other person she sensed somehow. 'Let them talk to each other, I'm sure they have a ton in common.' She growled to herself, crossing her arms carefully and glaring daggers at the sand around her.
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