The sun beat the Desert of Destruction like a fist. Nothing moved on the glaring sands, as even what little indigenous life hid from the heat. Even the scorpions had enough sense to crawl under a rock for the worst of the heat. A line of horses trudged across the sands, as their riders tried very hard not to move very much. The intense debate from earlier in the day continued. "Are we there yet?" "No, Mari-chan." "Are we there yet?" "No, Getehl-san." "Are we there yet?" "No, Mari-chan." Feyik privately thought of something unpleasant to do to the next person who asked. Possibly involving caltrops. "OHOHOHO! Have we yet arrived at our intended destination?" "...Yeah. This'll be fine," Feyik grunted. Dismounting, the guide drew a pack of rations and water from the saddle bags, before looking at the others. "Come on. It's within spitting distance now," the wiry guide stated. Extending a finger, he added, "Look, we can see it from here." Sure enough, between their position and the horizon, a slightly darker sand-colored blur shimmered. "Once it's dark, we'll cover the last few miles and get Actinaea-san out." ***** Improfanfic presents... Slayers Glorious! Chapter 16: Pursuit! Approaching the Fortress. By Anonymous Started by Todd Harper ***** At one side of the encampment, sat a red-haired assassin. On the other, sat a pale-skinned assassin. After some length, Torr spoke. "So... you're not Mariposa." "We've already established this, yes," Lilen grumbled. She'd liberated a white cloak and now trying to use it as shade, to keep the sun from poaching her pale complexion like an egg. The larger agent shifted uncomfortably in the heat, before asking, "So Erika sent you, eh? Figures, the bitch." Torr pulled out his sword and examined the edge. "So, do you do anything useful, and are you just here for ornamentation?" Lilen's reply was to turn her back to Torr and drape her cloak further over her head. There was a moment of rustling motion under the cloth, before she turn back to face Torr. "Does this answer your question?" Torr looked at himself for a moment. Lilen looked back and smirked through the red-haired assassin's features. Torr took a moment to grin nastily. "Nice trick. I think that'll do quite well." ***** In the hours until sunset, Naga's party refreshed themselves and their mounts, dipping into the rations. Afterward, Feyik instructed the others to rest for a few hours, before they reached the nomad's fortress. "OHOHOHOHO! Do you think that Naga the White Serpent will idly wait around while one of her companions languishes in the hands of these common thieves, no matter how flat-chested and abrasive she may be?" Feyik winced. "Well, for one, every time the King of the Nomads does this, the wedding has always been on the second night after the capture. Tomorrow night. And it's best to plan ahead a little before we try to raid the fortress." This produced a scowl from Naga, then a shrug. "Very well, guide." Before Feyik could return his attention to his rations, Getehl and Mariposa stepped forward. "Excuse me, Feyik, but what did you mean 'every time the King of the Nomads does this'?" Getehl asked. "You make it sound as if this has happened before." Feyik chewed a strip of dried jerky and sipped a bit of water before answering. "Ah... well, you see, the thing of it is... it has. A few times." The guide slumped as he continued. "I'll be guiding a group across the desert, and just like this time, one of their raiders will come along and swipe on of my employers. Then the King of the Nomads marries 'em, and it's a real bitch getting them back." "But... But you do get them back, right?" asked Mariposa. Feyik cast a weary eye at the blur that was the nomad fortress. "Sure," he replied. "Mostly in a couple of months, once the King of the Nomads gets bored with 'em. But, yeah, eventually. I'm not gonna just leave an employer stuck like that, you know. Wouldn't be fair. Nope, not all." He gesticulated vaguely. "Of course, it's not fair that the King swears up and down every time that he'll stop swiping my employers, and then nails me again the next time I pass through. The bastard. But that's how it goes. I just want to do my job. Take care of my employers. Don't ask for a lot of pay." He clenched a sun-browned fist. "And what happens? My pack animals get lamed, I get double-crossed and left to starve to death in the desert, the nomads steal my employers... One thing or another, every damn time." "I'm gonna get that King of the Nomads jerk! And his camel, too!" swore Feyik, eyes aflame with righteous anger. It took him a few seconds to realize that Getehl and Mariposa had wandered off to get their rations, and he was now ranting to himself. Feyik cursed himself for a fool, then sat back down and went back to eating his rations. ***** It was a hard life being a guard. When you're born into the wandering life of a nomad, sitting around making sure things stay put is a very tedious job. It goes against everything you were raised into, really. A nomad's life should be one of traveling across the burning sands, bravely facing sand storms, dangerous animals, and nasty peeling sunburns, raiding desert travelers, and the occasional round of palm wine and dancing girls. Unfortunately, after you do this for a while, you wind up with a lot of stuff and no where to put it. This is when you find an abandoned fortress, repair and refortify it a little, bring in the most respected member of the local tribes, name him King of the Nomads, and leave him there with your stuff and a bunch of poor saps who get stuck as guards. None of the fortress' guard detail were particularly happy about this. Having a platter bounced off their heads didn't help. "What the heck is this? Dates and figs?" Actinaea yelled, throwing the plate of small sticky brown fruit bits back at the pair of guards who had brought her supper. "Go back and get me some real food!" Scrambling up from the floor, the guards cried out, "Yes, Actinaea-sama!" The pair dashed out into the hall. A few seconds later, Actinaea could hear them shouting. "Chief! We didn't expect you!" "We were just going to get Actinaea-sama some food!" Then both of them wailed in unison, "Please not the scorpion pit!" There was a moment where Actinaea couldn't make out the words, followed by the guard's chorus of "Thankyouthankyouthankyou..." Actinaea beat a retreat to the divan on the far side of the room, as the thump of boots sounded on the stairs outside. For a moment Actinaea shifted her position from sultry to demure and back, before settling on something she knew would work -- glowering. The expected knock at the door came. "Enter." Time to meet the groom. ***** During the chill night hours, Naga's group moved across the dunes to the scattered reach of sandstone on which the nomad's fortress rested. Tying their mounts at the edge of the rocky region, they approached the fortress. "Now... we'll just go up to the main gate, fight through the dozen or so guards in the bailey and inner courtyard, climb to the upper most chamber of the tower, rescue Actinaea-san, and battle our way back out." Naga looked down at Feyik. "And pray tell, dear guide, has that plan ever worked, during your other rescue attempts?" Feyik shuffled a bit, then replied. "...Not really. I managed to get a group through a rear entrance once, but... ah, it got bricked up after that. But you see, I've never haaaaaaaaa--" Feyik's explanation was cut off as he stumbled across a chasm in the sandstone beneath his feet, which had been concealed by the night's shadows and the deceptive coloration of the landscape. A moment later, Mariposa called down after him. "Feyik-san? Are you alright?" At the bottom of the chasm, Feyik coughed, spat out a mouthful of sand, and looked about. "Hey, you might want to come down. There's a tunnel here." Naga and Mariposa quickly Levitated down into the chasm, carrying Getehl between them. Once they landed, Getehl eyed the hewn stone arch that Feyik had stumbled across. "Looks like a way in. Let's go." The party moved down the tunnel. The tunnel contained a series of niches, in which rested the dusty bones of the original builders of the fortress. After some time, the tunnel opened into a large chamber. The first indication of trouble was when Getehl put his foot down on a half-buried skull, crushing it with an audible 'snap'. The second was the odd skittering noises coming from a crevasse on the far wall. The third was when Getehl crushed the skull and a scorpion the size of no less than four draft horses lumbered out of the crevasse. Which explained the noise. Feyik nodded sagely. "At least we're on the right track. This'd be the scorpion pit, then." The scorpion replied by lashing its stinger, snapping its claws and producing a keening roar that shook the chamber. Naga strode forward. "The White Serpent shall crush this over-sized insect as befits its nature!" Confident that no overly large insect could withstand her sorcerous might (barring the incident with the sandworms), Naga laughed heartily at her adversary. "OHOHOHOHOHOHO!" The sound ricocheted around the cavern like a bat fired from a slingshot, shaking the chamber in a far more impressive manner than the scorpion's cry had. At which point the scorpion stopped roaring. The chitinous monster blinked its compound eyes a couple of times, then raises its pincers to cover its face before retreating back into the crevasse in the cave wall. There silence for a moment. "OK..." Feyik slowly stated. "Let's keep moving." The group continued into the lowest catacombs of the fortress.