Lucidity

Chapter Thirteen: Fraying Nerves

For the first time since she'd come to the desert, Anwyn looked up at the morning sky to see clouds. Perhaps they'd experience some precipitation today - of course it would be on the day they were planning on travelling on. In spite of the cloud cover, it was still hot and the humidity was insufferable, causing Anwyn to want to just curl up in a corner and sob, which she didn't do.

"Urgh, you couldn't turn out to have temperature regulatory powers, could you, Nokia?", moaned Anwyn, lying on her back and staring up at the cracked ceiling. It had been about a week and she was still no closer to finding out what was so special about Nokia. Actually, now that she thought about it, he'd been coping pretty well with the lack of water in the desert. Maybe he was a camel puppy? Or maybe a fire dog and was actually enjoying this break from being bombarded with water. What about a water creatute? He could be creating his own water to drink while no one was looking. Or maybe Olvia had just made it all up.

Tiredly, she pressed up from the floor and saw Kosa opening her eyes for the first time that morning. Groggily, Kosa grumbled and threw the covers off herself, having overheated while sleeping, then tried to go back to sleep.

"Kosa!", said Anwyn, "We need to be getting up. We're going to the order today, remember?"

"You can go without me, I have a date with my bed," Kosa tiredly announced, burying her head in her pillow.

Five minutes later, they were both downstairs and ready. Everyone else was already eating breakfast in the pub or socialising - that was, everybody except Caitlyn. Seeing just two of the roommates, Hjalmar asked, "How much longer is Caitlyn going to be?"

Anwyn's eyes went wide and she just gaped, a sense of dread making itself at home in the pit of her stomach. Kosa saw that Anwyn wasn't going to answer, so she said, "We thought she was already down here."

"You mean to say we haven't even set off yet and we've already lost somebody?", grumbled Hjalmar. He was hoping this mage just told half of them to go home. He really couldn't cope with some of them for much longer.

Around then was when a small girl with dark hair ran into the public house, sweating and afraid. The girl was shaking as she stammered, "Please... Help... My brother... G-gone..."

Suddenly, the air changed; they all grew fearful, whereas she started smiling. Dale recognised her as one of the twins Lin had taken in. He crouched down next to her, hiding his fear best as he could and asked, "Do you have any clue where he might have gone?"

When the girl responded, she was rather cheerful and relaxed, practically the opposite of how she'd been before. "He went out last night to talk to the moon. It was a full moon, he's always said the moon listens best when full. But he never came back."

Dale exhaled loudly, then began to dig through his bag. It didn't take long for him to reach a black object that resembled a roll-up pencil case. He unbuttoned the hatch and unrolled it to reveal a collection of glass vials, each of which contained a thin strand of something. "Caitlyn, Caitlyn, Caitlyn... There we go."

"What in Lypera's name are you doing?", groaned Junior, while Oburon anxiously asked, "Is that our hair?"

"Look, let's take a wild guess and say Caitlyn and this girl's brother are in the same place. The fact that I plucked out a hair from each of you is a lifesaver because that's how I can track them. The other method is a lot less favourable," explained Dale.

Most people had a premonition and were too on edge to ask due to the little girl's fear, but she curiously inquired, "What's the other option?"

"Bodily waste."

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As the group had left, Lin had caught up with them and tried to convince her adoptive daughter, who was called Tamison or Tammy, for short, to stay behind. As Lin held her wrist, the girl's fear briefly returned to herself as she said, "I have to find West, Lin..."