21st of Vhalar 721
There was a certain cleanliness of purpose, and purity to travel through the desert while alone. Undoubtedly perilous, however, even the part of the Hotlands that Demda’s horse now trod. South of the Salt Lake, and west of Luesco’s Wall. She’d been off any beaten path for days, traveling through dunes, and then across rocky ravines. There was little left to forage at this point in the journey. Mostly salt flats and stinging winds railed against her goggles, scratching the lenses to where she wasn’t sure she’d be able to see out of them before long. Demda had to tuck them beneath her headcloth several times, so as to get a clearer view of where she was going.
All the while, her attention was split between the trail of her quarry and the stray that had dogged her horse’s trail all the way from the Sky Caves. The wolf didn’t seem aggressive and kept a safe distance from her when she made camp every night. It was cleverer, certainly than the wolf that had attacked her when she’d followed Dimza to the Sky Caves. It seemed to have a stronger sense of self-preservation. Still, she wondered that it'd followed her this far without making a desperate move. Had it been hunting while she slept? Catching sand rats and other juicy critters here or there?
She could sense its presence on the periphery of her own trail, listening to the padded footsteps on the wind. The sound of its maw opening and shutting, whimpering after her. She couldn't help wondering what it wanted, and if this had anything to do with Cantara's drawing a wolf card from her deck of cards. Not in the sense that she'd given any kind of accurate reading of her future. But more to the point of tricking her, by sending one of their strays to dog her steps. Several times throughout her journey, Demda checked her gear, to make sure there wasn't anything that'd attract a stray wolf's attention.
Thankfully, the wolf appeared to be alone, with no pack to call itself a member too. Even so, Demda shrugged and went along following the trail of the quarry she'd been sent out to dispatch. A great desert lion had been said to be stalking the lands between the Salt Lake and Luesco's wall, denning in one of the ravines nearby. Demda had found signals that the animal may be close by. While she couldn't readily identify the tracks to the exact specimen, she could follow a trail and knew feline paw prints when she saw them. These weren't as large as expected, yet desert cats were known to be light of step, so she heard.
She followed the tracks into a ravine, just south of where Luesco's wall stood, barring the way from more verdant lands to the east. There, she ventured into the rocky terrain, hoping to find the lioness' den and half hoping that she was already dead and ready for slaughter.
Demda made it several hundred meters into the gap when she thought she spotted shadowy figures above the gorge. She only had moments to react, kicking her horse into a gallop down the path as arrows came whistling by her head.
She was cornered. Two men bearing bows stood on the high cliffs facing the north. Their arrows effectively flushing her out of her holding position, while a Thray pursued her on foot. One of those large green mud-men from the lower desert, nearer the jungles and mudflats. She'd wonder what it was doing so far to the northeast, had she the time to wonder. As it was, it was forcing her out of her cover, along with the arrows raining down on her. Their aim was poor, but it only took a lucky shot to find purchase where it oughtn't. They didn't need to be good hots, they only needed her to stay still, and eventually, they'd find their target.
The thray was the more immediate threat, however. Demda wheeled around on Monk, brandishing her sword. Arrows wouldn't do much good against the thray, but a blade would cut it and disable it, for at least a while.
If the creature was smarter than it was impetuous, it'd have taken up the position at the bottleneck, where two rocks narrowed the path. As it was, it ran right into her midst, and she took full advantage, using the room to maneuver her thorned horse around the mud man, and send a low cut across his shoulder. The blade found purchase there, but barely seemed to affect him. He pawed at Monk's hindquarters, and slapped him with his crudge cudgel, sending the horse into a slight panic, forcing it ahead through the narrow passage.
Meanwhile, arrows flew from across the top of the gorge. Several of them were close calls, but others missed far off the mark. Still, a few of them almost found purchase in the coverings of Monk. She spurred him along, flying along through the ramp leading out of that ravine.
The men at the top of the gorge followed alone, trying to find a more advantageous vantage point to hit her. They ran ahead to the very edge of the ravine's plateau, making it easier to fire in a straight line, as she approached the exit to that canyon. The thray followed close behind, dogging her steps all along the way. She had little to do for it, but to chase the exit from that canyon. So long as she found her way out, she could turn the situation to her advantage... against the thray at least. It lacked a mount of its own, and a lone cavalry, even lightly armored and armed as Demda was, could be devastating against any lone footman by virtue of the momentum of blows delivered.
She kept herself crouched close to the saddle of Monk. Arrows flew truer and closer to her than before, some of them even grazing the light, iron hauberk she wore under her travel robes. She pressed her heels against Monk, urging him to move fast, but maintain some maneuverability for the purpose of side-stepping any missiles as they flew. By then, the thray was well behind her, but the archers were nearly on top of them. One of the arrows finally landed on Monk's hindquarters, in a vertical arc. Demda didn't have time to check whether it'd penetrated the padded armor of her horse, or if it'd pieced its hide. She raced past the two rock faces to either side and into the open desert.
The thray was by now catching up. Demda wheeled her horse around, being careful to remain mobile as she ran along. The arrows flew sloppily, but more sparingly. They may have been running out of missiles to waste on her.
She held up her sword and began charging the thray, head-on. The creature seemed surprised at this approach but squatted down, taking up a defensive posture, and pitching his long staff cudgel against the ground, so as to hit the horse full-on if it managed to remain on course.
Demda tried to avoid the cudgel's brace, but the tip made contact with her horse's caparison, hitting the ember steel rings but likely bruising Monk into the bargain. The horse pitched backward, kicking the thray full in the face, sending clumps of dirt from its head while sprawling it out across the ground. Demda wasn't prepared for that, however, and was sent tumbling backward, barely managing to land on her hands and feet on the desert floor. Monk then began going berserk, running off into the ravine, and leaving her in the dust.
The thray reconstituted and began menacing at her. He stood at about five feet tall, but looked fairly tough anyway. With a sudden rush, he charged her, and she held her sword defensively, as Xander had taught her. At the last moment, just as he would've tackled her, she brought the blade up across his torso, cleaving through the earthen flesh. She engaged her footwork, making distance and empty spaces where there wouldn't have been, had she stood stock-still. From there, she delivered more cuts to the creature, his shoulder, his arm, and then his neck. Disarmed and without a weapon, as he now was, he was at her mercy. She cut him into little bits of mud.
Finally, after dicing him up into little clumps of earth, she turned to face the ravine where her horse had charged off into. Then she remembered, the archers. They began taking shots at her again, and she could do little but to use her running boots to try and complicate their aim.
Yet the arrows kept falling closer and closer to her position. Finally, when it appeared they'd had her pinned down against a rocky outcropping, she heard a great howl, and a sudden lurch of one of the archers over the cliff, as a wolf pushed him over. The other turned to face the animal but wasn't able to get a shot off on it before the beast fell on him too.
Demda, out of breath, and out of energy, marveled at the creature's silhouette in the light of dusk. She thought she could spot its glowing yellow eyes, even from here. The lone wolf bitch from the Sky Caves? Had it followed her this far?
In either event, she was happy to leave a meal of the archer that had tried to kill her to the poor, starving wolf. And hope that it didn't acquire a taste of sentient flesh.
Demda had to search for a while in the darkness but eventually caught back up to Monk, who she led out into a shaded area near the bottom of the ravine. As she made camp, taking what she needed from the horse's saddlebags to set that up, she thought she saw the silhouette of the wolf bitch, her yellow eyes bearing down on her as she readied her camp.
