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The wind had died down, as Joshua knew it would. When it was safe to stand up again he did so turning around 360 degrees to look at their new surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that his surroundings had drastically changed, the group must have wandered farther during the storm and to make matters worse his hat had been stolen by the wind and now his long red hair fell over his shoulders freely raising a hand to wipe the sand from his hair he noticed the second thing.

There was a fort in the distance.

"Hmmm might be abandoned...." He muttered looking at the group who was still with them. Alihi was gone and that could mean trouble, without someone calling the shots it would be harder to get organized.

"Hey! If you can hear me try to come to my voice!" He called out for the benefit of those who were out of sight he winced as the cut on his face moved with his mouth raising his hand to his forehead he ran a finger along the cut to brush off any loose pieces of sand... obviously some had gotten in the cut and Joshua was worried about infection.


Jaren's eyes flew open as he sat up quickly hand flying to his sword, which wasn't there. "s**t!" He swore getting to his feet and looking for the dog that had carried him and not seeing it.

Puzzled Jaren looked to Marina and shrugged before climbing up the sand dune he had tumbled down when the dog dropped him once at the top as he saw other people moving around he slid back the cow-hood and revealed a grinning face

Turning back to face down the dune he said to Marina. "Hey good news! We're not alone." He smiled at the man. "There are some people up here... I can't see who they are from here.... we're pretty far away..." Jaren put his hand over his face as he scanned the skies. "... That Pegasus knight is gone.... I hope she's okay. She must have gotten the worst of it."

They huddled close to the base of the dune, trying to get as much protection from the storm as possible. It wasn't much; Charice stood close to her mount's muzzle in an effort to keep it from inhaling too much sand. She just kept the facemask close and held the sword high, not daring to stop the magic that helped keep the storm at bay. But she was getting pretty tired, and couldn't keep this up much longer. She turned to the base of the dune and make two strong swipes; the wind magic sliced away at the base of the dune, and before more sand could pile down to replace the sand blown away, she threw her back at the new opening, letting the sand cascade down around her, Aph doing the same by sidestepping in the new crevice. Though they'd both be extremely dirty from all the sand, they'd both receive decent protection until the storm passed.

...Which it did some time later. But neither rider nor pegasus were sure of their location--disorienting storms would do that. Charice was unwilling to mount up at the moment, Aphrodite shaking herself this way and that in an effort to remove the sand from her body. "Augh, what a mess... and it won't be long until those bandits return. Maybe in greater numbers."

More than anything, what they needed was time to regroup and get back in the air.

After the sandstorm had died down, Sue brought her cloak down off her face. She saw Ninian approach her, and was glad that the dancer was still here amongst them. The tower was a dangerous place, likely but the bandits here weren't exactly any better. But still, that group was nothing a Silver Sword couldn't handle.

"Ninian, I'm fine..." Sue answered her finally after assessing the situation a little bit. She remembered part of her training, should she ever be captured or lost, that even ten seconds of observation was enough to save a life. "But if you look over there, it appears our enemies are unphased as well. It's to be expected, as they live here in this desert... and yet... I will not fall to them."

She would have said more, had she not felt like she was stepping on something. When Sue picked it up, she noticed it was a wing, too small to be a pegasus wing. When she attached it to her boot, it mysteriously vanished as all magic items do, and the nomad felt faster.

"We have no choice but to just keep fighting as long as we can." Sue answered the dancer's question, her Silver Sword still ready to slice and dice up some bandits. By Father Sky, she would not be part of what they wanted her to be. The nomad would kill every last one of the bandits after them and leave no room for sympathy. She knew well enough their intentions for women, and she was not happy.

"Relax..." Sue said, trying to keep both her and Ninian calm so they could avoid the ballistae, bolts, and other such long-range tactics instead of frantically moving right into the projectiles. "We'll hide within the dunes, and I'll shoot them from afar when we get close enough. For now though... we'll put on the act that we're helpless. It will throw them off."

And there she was, playing tactician. Well, Alihi wasn't here, so someone had to! There were no sign of the others she could see, so as far as Sue knew, she was alone to defend the mother of General Roy. I will not fail, I promise.

Even if she were deceiving her enemies, a high dishonor amongst the Tribe, she was doing it for the sake of survival. Hers and Ninian's freedom would not be taken!

"Follow me." she whispered, and over to the left, they headed towards the first dune in a hurried, seemingly panicked pace.