Crossing of the Paths

Book 1: Desert Wind - Chunk 12

The Crossing of the Paths
Second Edition
By MMM/AJ|
Part I: Desert Wind

A/N: Hello again my lovely readers! If you're still here with me then it's an exciting time, as we're now entering into the home stretch for the ending of Desert Wind! After this chunk there's just two more left to go! Those last two a real seat-grippers too and have a ton of balls-to-the-wall intense content, so you're in for a ride!

These last few chunks are FUCKHUGE too! This one is a whopping 44K words long, so please make sure you have plenty of beverage on hand before you sit down with it. We're getting a ton of action scenes here, as well as a gigantic new portion of additional content that was never included in the first edition of the story. Ironically, a bunch of this was actually fully intended to be included originally, but younger me was even more smoothbrained than current me and I had simply forgotten to write it all in. I hope you'll enjoy it though, as it is very important stuff that clarifies a large portion of the plot of how the Sulaaq empire works. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Interlude 2

"You're in so much trouble young lady!" Kamilia bellowed furiously.

"Yes mother, I know." Indiru replied with quiet acceptance.

"Neither of you have any idea of just how dangerous this journey is going to be, nor how your presence is going to impact it!" Hadara added, standing next to Kamilia.

"I don't but Indiru might." Ruru replied snarkily.

The two young Princesses were standing side by side with their backs against an unoccupied Helmasaur out behind the parked caravan. They had all stopped for Molduga hunting hours at sunset and the collective forces of the three tribes were sitting together on the other side of the cluster of vehicles sharing dinner together. They had parked atop a large, sloped sandstone mesa for extra safety, and just as Indiru had predicted, they had discovered the two stowaways when they unpacked their dinner. To avoid humiliating the girls in front of the crowd, the two Chiefs had dragged them off for a private dressing down behind the vehicles out of sight and earshot.

"Indiru! Was this all your idea to drag Ruru out here along with you on this insane quest?!" Hadara asked.

"Actually yes." Indiru replied shamelessly.

Hadara looked flabbergasted by Indiru's utterly fearless admission of guilt. She sputtered in confusion for a moment before resuming.

"You're incorrigible! Ruru is rebellious enough without you making the problem even worse! Kamilia are you completely incapable of keeping any of your daughters in line?!"

"That's funny, I seem to remember your eldest daughter helping Mewtwo to lead us all on this wild Cucco chase in the first place!" Kamilia snapped back.

"Perhaps, but at least this level of insolence doesn't seem to run back through my family line for generations like yours! This wouldn't be the first time a Lasheera Princess violated her mother's orders to go running around the Vile Desert like this!" Hadara replied.

"How DARE you bring up that old garbage again like that?! Mewtwo assured me you said you regretted disrespecting our family with it!" Kamilia yelled.

Wincing slightly, Indiru worked up the courage to step forward and interrupt their bickering by poking her mother's hand.

"Mom, since we're all stuck on this journey together and can't afford to fight like this, maybe you two should be commiserating with each other over how incorrigible Ruru and I are?"

Kamilia's train of thought was completely derailed here by her daughter's sheer gumption and wit. She couldn't help but break out laughing, and ultimately this ended up infecting Hadara with laughter too.