Echo(On Hold)

Clouded Minds

Ikiru woke with a start, realizing within seconds that she had fallen asleep on watch. Ecko greeted her with a “good morning” and what could barely pass as a smile. No one else was awake yet, though Ecko was already preparing breakfast. He didn’t look the slightest bit tired despite the fact that he had been up all night.

 “Damn,” she cursed and Ecko looked up, confused.

 “What?” he asked.

 “I fell asleep,” she said. “Sorry. I know I was supposed to stay up with you.”

 “I don’t mind,” Ecko said, though he still felt relieved. If she had stayed up, she would be terrified of him, or worse, worrying about him.  Mari and Kuro already did enough of that. His conversation with Teichira had left him with a pounding headache that lasted the night and got worse with the rising sun.

 “Still,” she mumbled. “What’s for breakfast?”

 “Just the stuff we packed, plus I found eggs in the tree over there,” he said, holding up a pan of what looked to be piled up with scrambled eggs and ham. Ikiru looked over at the spindly tree growing a couple hundred meters away. She nodded, rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes.

 “I smell bacon,” Kuro said, sitting up. Ecko smiled a little. Kuro couldn’t have been awake for more than a second before he realized food was cooking, which was funny because Kuro was usually woken up by a grumpy Mari to alert him that food was already prepared.

 “Hey little man, cookin’ breakfast I see?” Ecko nodded, shifting the pan over the fire. “Awesome,” he said, walking a couple steps and stretching.

 “You know, sand is actually really comfortable,” he said, nudging Mari with his foot.

 “What?” she muttered, kicking the blanket off her feet and rolling onto her back to block the sun.

 “Food’s on the way and we should get moving soon, it’s almost one or two by the looks of it,” he said, turning his face to the sun. It beat down, huge and hot, on the desert. It had hit it’s hottest around noon and Ecko had draped his sash over his head to block the rays. He liked the night more than the day out here; at least it was cooler then.

 Mari groaned and stretched, sitting up and looking around, then stood up to wake Yamori and Nikko.

 “How was the night?” she asked, directing the question generally toward Ikiru and Ecko. Ikiru blanked, still feeling guilty for falling asleep.

 “A couple birds were flying overhead in the morning but other than that, nothing bothered us,” Ecko said coolly. At least nothing physical, he thought, then shook the idea of the demon out of his mind.

 “Good,” Mari said, prodding Yamori and Nikko’s shoulders. The two woke faster than expected, on their feet and wide awake in seconds. Mari had mumble something about wishing Kuro was like that.

 They ate breakfast quickly, then set off, still going in the general direction of the Phoenix Village. After a while the sun got near unbearable; Ecko wrapped his sash around his head to keep the sun off, Kuro and Mari used the blankets to do the same thing and the guides had packed things that resembled white hoods without the jacket part.

 The pounding in Ecko’s head refused to let up and soon enough he could hear Teichira’s whispers in the cracks of his mind, though he was too exhausted to acknowledge them. It seemed even Teichira was worn out, though it was unlikely.

 The sunset eventually and the relief it brought was unimaginable. The moon rose, the temperature dropped and even though they were a different kind of tired now, it was still better than the heat of the sun.