In a World of Shifting Sand

[Deleted]

The sandstorm had come upon them quickly. Jaga had been in the desert before, but had never been in anything like this, great plumes of dust, sand and debris had engulfed them. Jaga had struggled briefly to keep hold of her horse, but the strength of the spooked animal was too much for her, so she let it go. She was going to need all her strength to survive this, and she wouldn't waste it fighting a losing battle. The sand and dust burned her nostrils and eyes, her lungs, and she wrapped as much of her head covering over her face as she could, thicker layers over her mouth and nose and a thinner layer over her eyes. It didn't stop the dust from getting in entirely, but it helped.

She couldn't see much through the cloth. She didn't care if she lost track of most of her group, if she was honest. But she didn't want to be stuck out here alone, and it helped that the one person she didn't want to lose track of was the largest of them, so he was easiest to see through the storm and cloth over her face. She kept her gaze on Tomac's looming form as they looked for shelter. They didn't find any, but when the storm died down, they were together. Along with Klara. They'd lost Skaikru. No big loss. Clarke had said they could do without her anyway, right?

When the storm finally stopped, Jaga uncovered her face and dropped to her hands and knees, trying to cough up as much sand as she could for relief. If she had water to spare, she mightv'e poured it over her eyes. As it was, she just let them run, her tears attempting to flush out the debris. She swore in Trigedasleng under her breath, then sat back on her heels, surveying their surroundings. Apparently, they had all lost their horses.

"Shit," she said again, starting to catch her breath. She looked over at Tomac. "You okay?" And then begrudgingly looked at Klara. "You?" She was Trikru, after all, even if she seemed to close to Wanheda. She could be useful.

Tag: Klara , @tomac

[Klara]

Klara had never really ventured into desert before so when the sandstorm had come upon the group, she had been quite surprised by its strength. She hadn't struggled for a long time to stay on her horse because feeling the animal panicking too much for her to be safe on it, she had prefered letting herself fall softly and let the horse go away. The sand was whipping and burning her face and all the other parts of her body that weren't protected by clothes so Klara curled up on herself, protecting her head with her arms.

When the storm finally calmed down, Klara put herself on her knees and tried to look around her but everything was blurred and tears quickly began to fall down her cheeks flushing out the sand that was in her eyes. When she finally managed to look around without having to close her eyes every ten seconds because the sand was burning them, she noticed that only her grounder companions were there, Clarke and the skaikru boy, Monty had disappeared.

As Jaga looked at Tomac and asked him if he was okay, Klara could see the concern on her face, she really worried for him apparently. For a second, Klara wondered if her companion was going to ask her the same question, not that she wanted to complain to someone or that someone worried for her but she knew Jaga didn't really like her so she was just curious to see how she will react. As the tall woman asked her if she was okay, Klara answered "Yeah, I've seen worse.", she coughed, probably having sand in her throat, before adding "We need to find the others!".

Tag: @tomac , @jaga

[Deleted]

Tomac was a man of the sea. So when the grains of sand started to hit him, with more and more force, he was irritated. Despite the size of him, it hurt. It went into his face, into his hair and beard and stuck to his body. He didn't know how long it lasted for. Only that when it was over, he looked liek a sand creature. Growling with annoyance he huffed out a breath, his eyes inevitably tearing, trying to flush them out. He would inflict pain on himself to help, but . . . well, he would just see what happens. A voice brought him back to his surroundings as he looked. Jaga. An unfamiliar feeling of relief swept over him to see that she was ok. And evidently concerned. He nodded at her, reaching out to cup her chin and carefully  tilt her head from side to side. His way of inspecting her and making sure that she was unharmed.

He didn't ask, he just touched her to see for himself. Lowering his hand he glanced at the group's healer, his eyes quickly looking over her as she spoke of needing to find the others. Not a huge priority for him, but he fought back asking why. It wasn't as if the machine that the little boy carried would help them out here. Skaikru were together. They would be fine. "We need to get out of the desert. And trust that if the others have any capability, they will do the same." Wandering here aimlessly looking for Wanheda and the small boy could kill them. He stood up, his hand shaking his beard a little to get some of the sand out. "Hurry. We will be dehydrated soon." They needed to find some water. Tomac missed water.

Tag: @jaga , Klara

[Deleted]

Tomac didn't answer her question if he was okay, but he touched her chin, and Jaga closed her eyes briefly, then opened then to watch him as he looked her over. It was completely unfamiliar, but not unwelcome to have someone look after her like that. Well, no one else had looked out for her for months, at least. She held his gaze for a long moment, her expression softening briefly, and then she forced herself to her feet as Klara suggested the find Skaikru. Skaikru could take care of themselves. Or not. Either way, it didn't matter to Jaga. Not right now, anyway.

When Tomac offered his opinion on what they should do, it sounded more reasonable to her. "He's right," she said in their shared language. "We should find shelter first. Once the sun starts to set, it'll be safer to look for water." If they weren't under the direct sunlight, they'd loose less moisture to sweating. She looked at Klara. "We won't find anyone if we shrivel into jerky out here," she added, more to try to dissuade Klara from arguing going along with her and Tomac's plan than out of any real concern for finding Skaikru. She started walking, evaluating their surroundings again. "Keep a look out for any dense vegetation or dry stream or river beds we can return to after the sun sets. If nothing else presents itself, we can dig."

Tag: Klara, @tomac

[Klara]

As she saw Tomac touching Jaga and understood how close they were, Klara wasn't surprised that Jaga agreed with the huge warrior. Actually, she knew that they needed to go with their plan but in her heart, she had a bad feeling, there was this feeling that they needed to find their Skaikru companions. Plus, Klara was almost sure that in a situation like this, Clarke would have decided to find a shelter because she knew that Klara won't let her down and will do everything she could to find her. But she didn't want to time arguing with the two grounders because of a feeling which was better for everyone because apparently, Jaga didn't want to argue neither. "Okay, let's do that..." Klara finally answered reluctantly.

Then, she barely heard Jaga as the latter one spoke about what to look for to find water, not only because she already knew what to search but because she was concerned about Skaikru, maybe she worried too much for Clarke, she had always been overprotective towards her friends. It took Klara a moment to notice that Jaga had finished her explanations, but as soon as she noticed it, she nodded at her faking to have listened. She hoped her two companions didn't notice how much she was concerned, they already didn't appreciate her a lot and it was going to change if she showed too much concern about Skaikru. So she decided to try to cover up, not to let it show. And as Jaga started walking looking around, Klara followed her doing the same. But she wasn't looking for something the group's scout had evoked, she was searching for any traces of a shelter where the rest of their companions could be.

@tomac ; @jaga