Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Ghandrah ❯ Part 1 ( Chapter 2 )

Part 1

The rapidly dying sunlight slanted through the weighted air. The swirling dust pressed heavily upon the light, turning the struggling sunlight from its usual blue to a sickly purpling bruise. Rotting corpses, baked into the ground during the day, stood in stark relief with their long shadows stretching across the caked ground. The bruised light seemed to enhance the lines and cracks, but worse, it seemed to bring out the smell. The dying light itself smelled of the dead. The occasional cawing of the circling bhakh(1) echoed dismally throughout the scarred landscape. Quatre lifted his hand to his brow to shade his eyes from the bruised disk sitting on the distant horizon. He surveyed the dead land ahead of him with dismay. There was no water in sight, and the sun was almost gone for the day. The creatures of the Ghandrah(2) would follow the sunset, swarming from their burrows in the shifting sands to prey on whatever they could find. Quatre shuddered to think of the consequences should he and his tribe be caught after dark. He let his eyes roam the somber dunes. Nothing. He felt his msanii(3) shift under him and briefly wondered if his mount was telling of water or creatures nearby. He looked over his shoulder at his tribe as they traveled behind him. There was barely enough light left to make out the msanii other than their colorful harnesses. He sighed as Duo reigned his mount next to him. He looked over at Duo, his best friend and most trusted advisor, and unveiled. Duo did the same, throwing him a grin as wide as the Ghandrah. Quatre couldn't help but grin back.

"Do you know of water?" He leaned against his saddle to speak to Duo. Duo shook his head but pointed toward the hump of bruised light on the horizon.

"No, but I saw a trail of dust earlier." Quatre started in alarm. A trail of dust? That could only mean another tribe was close by.

"How far?" A shrug and another grin passed the space between them.

"Far enough." Quatre nodded and pulled in the reins. Rsanjii tugged the reins, telling him that she wanted to go to the west. He looked over in time to see Duo's mount do the same. Duo looked at him in the dying light imploringly. "Water or djeinge?" Quatre had no answer, but either way he would rather be going in the direction his mount wanted. The djeinge were the scavengers of the desert. They preyed on the dead mostly, but there were times that they would attack anything after dark. They never were seen during the day, the blazing of the giant sun heaving off too much heat for them to handle, but they were always hunting at night. Everything was a danger on the Ghandrah, but the creatures were one of the worst.

"Either way we find water or escape."

"Agreed." Duo pulled his aja across his face, hiding his ever-present grin. Quatre tucked his own veil under the cloth wrapped around his head. He pulled the aja over his nose and turned his msanii to the west. He raised his arm to signal his tribe in the last struggle of the sun before it pitched completely under the horizon and the desert was draped in darkness. He reached into a saddlebag that was secured behind his saddle to pull out his lantern. It was going to be a moonless night for at least the first part; it was best to have the lanterns. He struck his flint on the door to the lantern and gently set the wick inside on fire. The lanterns were made to be used while mounted and traveling, so they had the grainy material necessary for sparking the flints coating the inside of the door. He closed up the lantern and blew out the flint. Gently tucking the precious flint into his bag, he held the lantern up, turning in his saddle so he could see his tribe behind him. He could see Duo on the edge of his lantern's meager light holding up his own lantern. He could see the lanterns of his tribe light up, one by one all of the way down the caravan line. Good, they were all turning. He turned back to settle in his saddle and let his mind wander to the various corpses he had seen earlier.

Normally, the djeinge wouldn't be a worry to him, but normally, one didn't traverse an uprooted graveyard. It was obvious that something had happened, but as to what, Quatre didn't know. It could have been another tribe that had been without water for days, or a tribe that had lost their msanii. It could have been a battle between two tribes, or perhaps, it was the Lsar, the strange ones from another place. Duo reigned in beside him again, dragging him from his thoughts.

"Are you worried about the djeinge?" Quatre nodded as he leaned forward to attach his lantern on Rsanjii's saddle. He watched the slow circle of light bounce along the shifting sands to the rhythm of his msanii. Green fire flashed across the sky in its nightly dance. Great sheets of green, purple and red light waved through the night sky on an invisible wind. They named the event after the God of Destruction, Shikah. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in the saddle as he watched the vibrant dance. "What happened back there?" He knew that Duo referred to the cooked bodies behind them. He shrugged, offering no condolences to Duo's raving mind. Duo unveiled and leaned closed, Duo's mount rubbing against Rsanjii. After a moment of silent scrutiny, Duo sat up and secured his aja. "Fine." Quatre regarded his friend with thoughtfulness before responding to the veiled threat. It was common between them, if one held a secret that the other wanted, they would act like they didn't care, but it was always a threat. If the one didn't speak up, the other would put sand in the one's sleepmat. It was at the very least, a nuisance, and it really wasn't worth harboring his thoughts from Duo anyway.

"Do you think they were Lsar?" Duo snapped his head around in surprise. His mount grunted in response to the sudden movement.

"Out here? We're in the Deep. They wouldn't risk coming to the Ghandrah, much less this deep." It made sense, the offlanders were afraid of the desert. It must have just been a stupid tribe or a tribal battle. But Quatre's worries didn't disappear, and he knew that Duo sensed that. They rode together in silence as their msanii climbed a dune. The soft sounds of their tribe drifted along the line and comforted him. As long as the Lsar never ventured this deep, his tribe would be all right. And Duo had to be right; the Lsar would never come this far. So why couldn't he shake the feeling that the corpses had been Lsar and not something native to the Ghandrah?

"Are they after us? After all of this time?" Duo's voice floated between their mounts, voicing the very thoughts in Quatre's mind. He looked over to see Duo remove his aja completely, unwinding the light cloth from his head. Duo shook his head, letting his hair move freely for the first time in three days. They didn't remove their ajas unless they were at camp, but in the cooling night air, Duo would sometimes indulge himself. His hair was long, flowing down his back. Quatre kept it trim at Duo's waist. If it was any longer, as they had discovered, the aja wouldn't stay on properly, and Duo had no wish to relive those long days of fried skin. Quatre chuckled as he watched Duo shake out his hair. Duo turned a scowl upon Quatre.

"What?" Duo's voice radiated irritation, which cause Quatre to laugh even more.

"Nothing. I was just remembering when you couldn't keep an aja on your head if your life depended on it." Duo's scowl deepened.

"And thank you for reminding me of that oh so wonderful experience."

"No problem." Duo tucked his aja into a saddlebag as Quatre closed his eyes to rest. It was common for the tribes to sleep in the saddle. He felt Rsanjii crest the dune and he shifted in the saddle for the descent. The air seemed cooler, but that was simply due to the lengthening night. But the air was also fresher, cleaner, as if water was close. His eyes snapped open and he sat up, reaching out to flick his fingers against Duo's arm.

"What? I'm trying to sleep."

"Water. Do you smell it?" He heard Duo sniff the air and then a soft exhalation of relief.

"Thank Khanji! She's brought us to water." Quatre could see Duo's grin in the dusky light from the lanterns.

"And not a moment too soon. We would have been out of water by the end of tomorrow." It was Duo's turn to smack him. He didn't flinch.

"If you've jinxed us, I'll make you walk tomorrow."

"You're too paranoid about water."

"And you're not paranoid enough." Duo's yelp of pain was vengeance as far as Quatre was concerned. "Ow, that hurt." He turned to fix his stare on Duo.

"Your point?"

"Okay," Duo held up both hands, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that you weren't water conscious." One of the moons peaked above the northern horizon. Quatre squinted, trying to see if he could see the water.

"We'll camp at the water. Tomorrow we'll rest. We've been travelling for a month with no true rest. We deserve one." Duo grunted in agreement. They fell silent, and Quatre watched Khanji, the larger moon, rise stately into the fiery sky. Shikah faded in the light of the brilliant moon. The colored sheets of fire would dim even more when the other moon rose, and would disappear in the morning when the bloated sun flooded the sky.