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Arms trembling slightly with her weight and eyes dried, Femi stared at the floor of his hut and wondered to herself just what it was that Seth was thinking. He was being so cursedly silent, and it had been a good three or so minutes since she had prostrated herself on hands and knees infront of him and begged forgiveness, so why hadn't he said anything? Frowning at the floor, hair thankfully obscuring her face, Femi wanted desperately to look up and try to read his face. 'Something's wrong...' She thought to herself as she allowed herself to shift her eyes slightly forward, but she was carefuly to keep her head in it's same position.

Femi had been apprenticing for Seth for awhile, she thought that she knew his personality well enough to know how he would react to her doing this; and yet he was almost purposely doing something unexpected. 'Master Seth is normally quiet, but I thought he would've spoken by now,' She thought quietly inside of her own head, her stomach twisting in worry as she almost started crying again over this new development. She wasn't exactly a crybaby, but Femi posseses many self doubts, and those doubts were making her self-concious and rather depressed. 'Have I really done something so horriable that he won't speak to me anymore?' She wondered to herself, and that thought succeeded in tearing her eyes up again.

She wasn't heavy, but staying like this was taking a real toll on her arm muscles and she wanted to break down and collapse on the floor, but Femi had a tiny stubborn streak that wouldn't allow her to move until Seth had either forgiven her or delievered out whatever he saw fit as a punishment. She really wanted him to hurry, too, even if it was a severe punishment; her arms were starting to burn and her knees ached a little.

Femi chose that moment to have an odd flashback, remembering a conversation that she'd overheard her older brothers having; they had never really bothered with being secretive or shy about their sex lives, but it had been one of those times that Femi had wanted to just get up and walk away. Ottah, Adjo, Gyasi, Jahi, and Nuru had begun discussing certian positions and Femi had sat there in silent shock and had blushed furiously in her silence; there had been one she chose to remember now, a very specific one, that Nuru had specifically had something to say about that was making her blush straight to the roots of her hair in rememberance alone. "It's really no fair," He'd said in a pouty voice. "It's the best one, but their arms always give out after a three or four minutes!"

She fixed a frown on the floor of the hut, feeling her face hot with the blush and with the tears from earlier. 'I only hope Master Seth doesn't know what I'm thinking about.'

((^^ Look Kit, I included in my post some of that no qualms about sex you've gone on about! Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, this is the list of people in Femi's family in chronological order with name meanings in case you're curious...:

Kahotep(Peaceful essence) Rashidi(Wise), her father. ^^ Egyptians took their father's name as their last name.
Nuru(Born during the day, this is kinda funny because after this EVERYONE in Femi's family was born during the day) Kahotep
Adjo(Treasure) Kahotep
Ottah(Born third, the most uncreative name.) Kahotep
Gyasi(Wonderful) Kahotep
Jahi(Dignified) Kahotep
Femi(Love) Kahotep
and her youngest brother Umi(Life, ironic) Kahotep, her mother died in childbirth with him.

Anyway, that has been your lesson for the day, kiddies! ... It's, uh, also kinda here in case I forget someone...))

((( Sorry, Ive been living up the last days of my summer. But Im here now! )))

Jaxon was still positive that this was still a terrible nightmare. His cries had done him little good, instead resulting in a throat full of sand. He started to choke for a panicked moment, coughing hard to dislodge any sand that tried to fall into his lungs like a wicked hourglass. He struggled, kicking free of his tomb of sand, and heaved himself onto his hands and knees.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there gasping for air. Jack took a final, shaky breath and hauled himself to his feet, taking a moment to brush of his clothes and shake out his torn jacket. He surveyed the area with detached curiosity. This was by far the strangest dream he had ever had. Jack made a mental note to lie of the sleep medication.

The distant sound of voices reached his ear. Normally Jack had no desire to be near others, but there was a pull in his chest that sent him walking in their direction. He followed this strange instinct to the crest of a dune and peered down, shielding his tender eyes with a hand.

Only a few yards away from him three people had gathered. Behind them was a great stretch of bristling desert with the outlines of some city just beyond. The impact of this image made Jack falter. While it was so surreal, so improbable to be here and not in his home, Jack suddenly knew that this was no dream. The hot sun bearing down on his neck felt too real; the grittiness of the sand in his eyes and clothing and the crunch of it between his teeth could come from no dream.

And there was that pull he felt to go towards those people…

Jack hesitated no longer and descended from the dune. He finished dusting off his rich clothing, draping the tattered jacket that offset his image over his shoulder. He was glad for the English the three people were speaking, for he cared to learn no other language.

“Hello,” he said briskly. In his mind Jack registered that many other words could be said in such a strange situation, but he already felt so familiar with these people. The simple greeting was more than he had offered any other in over a year, anyway. Jack inclined his head to each person in turn, but that was the extent of his kindness. Feelings of familiarity or not, the truth was that he did not know these people.

One final thought struck him. “What the hell is going on?” Jack asked no one in particular.

((Ya know, Ikken, I was wondering before I went to bed last night if Aleks had imprinted or something on Nadira. Ya know, it's where sometimes if someone has gone through a truamatic experience they kinda latch on emotionally to the first person they see? ^^ It kinda seems that way...))

'So, I was right once again...' Nadira thought to herself, watching as yet another newcomer made his way towards them. 'That makes two females, two males, and both males are foreginers... How odd.' She pondered to herself, allowing the feeling in her chest to move her body back towards the group. There was no one else out there, she could almost certianly feel it in her chest, the strange panicky feeling of someone out there that had been pulling on her was now instead concentrated into where they were now, and she couldn't quite resist the pull of going towards them.

She had noticed before that Aleks had told her name to the other woman, and while normally that would cause her to snap some sarcastic mark it hadn't bothered her strangely enough, which did bother her; it was hard work staying a paradox all the time. With as cold of an expression as she could manage she eyed him, realzing that she did indeed seem to be of the lowest class here, and that thought caused the caged animal glare on her face to become even more so. With a slight growl of anger in the back of her throat she looked at each one in turn before she landed on Aleks. He was looking at her like he expected her to do something, and that made her kind of nervous.

Crossing her arms she arched a brow at him in question, but seemed somehow to understand what he was getting at. Nadira shifted all her weight to one leg and swivled herself towards the newcomer, considering everything that she had gone through before coming her. Her eyebrows furrowed deeply as she thought, but she was more than just a little sure that they had all been in the same boat; none of them had planned this little trip out to the desert. "As far as I can tell we were all somehow dropped out in the middle of a sandstorm." She explained gruffly, trying her best to keep everyone else away from her. She admitted inside her own head that she felt closer to these strangers than she did to anyone she had known for the past nine years, but they didn't have to know that.

Letting out a long sigh she uncrossed her arms and allowed herself to frown in a way that leaned more towards the helpless child side of life than the caged animal. "If I am correct, then I assume that you were all just minding your own business as well, going about your lives before you suddenly..." She trailed off, eyebrows furrowing in anger as she tried to figure out a way to put this phrase in English when she couldn't even describe it in her own thoughts. "Found the world had fallen away?" She questioned, unconciously glancing over Aleks and raising an eyebrow slightly in questioning at what she had said.

When she realized she had done that she crossed her arms again and hunched her shoulders up slightly, turning away to glare back at the sand between them all. In her mind she justified the action in that he was the only one thus far who had admitted to sensing the same thing she did, and perhaps because he seemed to have the best grasp of English that she'd heard thus far. Nadira almost nodded at that, of course, instinct had told her he was better at English so she'd looked to see if she phrased it right. She frowned even more as she considered this. 'But why do I know he has a grasp on more words than that other man does?' She wondered to herself, wiggling her toes into the sand; her sandals seemed to have slipped off after the sandstorm struck. Nadira quickly added the fact that the other man hadn't said much yet to the mix, and then mentally she stepped back to consider all the puzzle pieces.

Happy now that some aspect of her life had just been put back into a nice order she began making attempts at sorting through the odd connection she felt to these three, but so far none of it made sense at all. It was really beginnning to piss her off, too. First person to say anything to her that she could take the wrong way would be getting punched in the face at this rate, and if no one said anything before she reached her breaking point, she'd probably snap and throw a tantram like a little kid; and that thought wasn't pleasent.

((Don't let her additude fool you, Nadira can be downright pleasent to be around on days where things go her way. ^o^))

Shifting weight from one leg to anyother again so that she was more focused on Aleks she frowned thoughtfully, seeming to truly consider what he'd just said. "I was just about to leave my apartment when it happened, so no one will have noticed that I am gone." Nadira explained, eyebrows still in a thoughtful furrow above her eyes. She wasn't about to say a word about the fact that someone would very well know she was gone, but that he probably wouldn't do a thing about it and would most likely celebrate her seeming disappearance. Young or not, Nadira had influence in the underground, and with her out of the picture... She shuddered to think about what would happen without her guidance.

Sure, she had never really been merciful herself, but she had some kind of code, some sense of morailty; Craw had none of that, and he was highly unorganized. She frowned at that thought, drifting for a moment from what she had struck upon to thoughts of what would happen if she didn't get back soon. Nadira wasn't what you would call a perfectionist, and her world was certianly far from perfect, but she had worked for nine long hard years to get it the way that it was now and she had barely had two months to enjoy it before this, whatever it was.

Her eyes became refocused as she found her train of thought again, arms still crossed tightly over her chest and her hip cocked to the side. "Perhaps if you were in such a public place, Aleks, then someone will have seen what has occured to us and they will come looking?" She suggested in what could almost be called a optimistic tone, her eyes even widened out from their narrowed state as she said it into what could almost be mistaken for hopeful.

Hala smiled politely as Aleks introduced himself and Nadira, blinking slightly in surprise at the woman's name, an odd note in her voice as she repeated it. "Nadira? Well, it is good to meet you both. My name is Hala Zaman." The words grated strangely in her ears - she shouldn't need to introduce herself to them, they knew her. But- wait, that didn't make any sense, she'd never seen these people before... The formal, clipped pronunciation of her English became a little more clear as her thoughts wander away again, leaving her clearly absent from most of the conversation, though she looked up as the other man approached, just as oddly familiar as the rest of them. Her mind accepted the strangeness simply, deliberately avoiding any questioning of it.Just a dream, just a dream... I hope I haven't gotten sick or something, I've never quite had a dream this vivid... She deliberately avoided examining anything around her too closely, lifting a hand to shield herself from the scorching blaze of the sunlight.

..."Found the world fallen away?"

Hala's gaze snapped to Nadira at those words. "Yes, that was exactly it... That's exactly what happened, I had just gotten breakfast for my sisters, I was walking out to get the newspaper, and..." And even as she considered it, Aleks began describing the rest. She could only shake her head mutely in amazement. Only of course, they had been elsewhere, apartments, street corners... they had their own homes, their own lives. She simply couldn't deny any longer that these people were real, strangely almost more so than anyone else she'd met.

I couldn't make this up...

Despite the overwhelming heat, her skin suddenly felt clammy, as the consequences of that sandstorm began to loom. This was no dream. Luxor was well and truly gone. None of them seemed to have a clue where in God's creation they were, and unless they all got swept back by another freak sandstorm, she had just missed 5 appointments. In the same day. In a row. Hala suddenly felt dizzy again, and her knees were shaking for some reason. What did it matter if people were looking for them in Luxor? Luxor wasn't here anymore. Her home wasn't here anymore. And her family... She cut off that thought mid-sentence and shuddered visibly, her eyes beginning to go wide and glassy with panic as she replied in a terrified whisper, "How are we going to get back?"

Jack felt his stomach tie in a knot when the woman standing across from him described the feeling he had encountered just before finding himself in an impossible sandstorm. So he wasn’t crazy after all. The thought wasn’t as comforting as he would have hoped. Too many questions were left unanswered and more seemed to be springing up like hardy weeds every second.

Taking a few moments to examine the members of their small group, Jack tuned out what the others were saying. He looked over each person in turn, making a mental note of the way they moved, dressed, and presented themselves. It didn’t take him long to grow bored and decide that none of them were more interesting than any other stranger he met on the street. So why did his body keep pulling him towards them? What made them so special?

He feebly attempted to wipe away the sweat that was quickly accumulating on his forehead. Despite the fact that it might very well make him hotter, Jack swung on his black jacket, pulling the hood low over his face. It at least provided protection from the sun that was rising steadily to bear down on them. He found himself wishing he had glasses; his eyes were sensitive enough without each grain of sand reflecting the sun like billions upon billions of tiny shards of glass. Jack tilted his head down to shield his eyes further and tuned back into the conversation.

“How are we going to get back?” he heard the other woman ask in a whisper that betrayed her fear.

Without looking up he replied “We can start by walking.” Jack raised his hand, gesturing at the city far away. He had no idea where they were, but sitting out in the sun complaining would do them no good. He gave them a moment to register his words before turning from them and begin walking away. Under normal circumstances he was sure he would have left them, but that nagging feeling presented itself once again when he was only a few feet away. Jack gave into it, turning to look over his shoulder and wait for the others to follow. If they didn’t however, he decided, then he would leave them anyway and ignore that damned feeling. Nothing was worth staying out in this desert any longer then he had to.

With the fear so obvious in the other womans voice it was no real wonder to Nadira that she quickly found herself at the older woman's side; though it didn't appear part of her nature the combined feeling of being close to her with the small section of humanity that natural disliked seeing people she cared for in pain worked to bring her closer to the other woman. Still not thinking and acting on instincts alone she slipped an arm around her back to pat it and grabbed her other arm with her free hand, it was only after completing this action that Nadira chose the step back and really consider what it was she was doing.

'I'm giving in,' She thought to herself. 'I'm giving into a strange feeling that isn't even mine, but... it's too strong to fight right now. I might as well go with it for now...' She sighed mentally, not truly giving in but doing what she liked to call "biding her time", she would find a way out of this strange connection somehow; Nadira would be damned if she let three people she didn't know get close to her without making them work for it.

Still, she allowed herself to utter words of kindness, though later if asked she would feverantly deny them. <<"Don't worry, everything will be just fine...">> She said in as soothing a voice as she could, slowly pulling her forward so they could follow after the other man. She would take full advantage of the fact that Aleks didn't know Arbic well and the other man didn't seem to speak it at all.<<"You'll see, we'll get to that city and then we'll be able to call home, or take a cab, or whatever. Everything will be just fine.">> She reassured again, even cracking a slight smile to look encouraging. 'Damnit, if Craw or anyone else ever hears about me being nice like this...' Nadira shuddered mentally, and though she oddly hated being nice it also oddly made her feel better; such work it was to be a paradox.