Ade sagged in relief when he finally crested a sand dune and saw the Oasis in front of him. It had been a long five days, and his respect for his grandfather had risen considerably. Even with Grandfather, Amy, Kane, and Toor all helping him with the burden, trying to lead the entire tribe through the Shifting Sands was a massive strain. Every moment he wasn’t paying attention was an opportunity for him to lose his sense of direction and start guiding the group away from the Oasis. Even the tribesmen who were championing him as his grandfather’s replacement had been grumbling towards the end, but all that was behind him now. The tribe was safe, there wasn’t anyone else who had found the oasis while they were travelling, and he could spend the next few days relaxing and ignoring everyone else.
Having seen the Oasis with their own eyes, the tribe elders quickly took charge of the situation.
“Set up the tents over here, not on the grass! The animals need to eat that you have enough fat on you that you don’t need the extra padding the grass would provide.
“Go ahead and start organizing baths for everyone, Sara. We might as well put the water we brought with us to good use before we refill everything from the Oasis. I can’t believe how clear that water is!”
“Stop chasing the animals around boys. If your families don’t need your help setting up tents and getting things situated, I’m sure the cooks would love some extra hands to help get dinner ready.”
“Right then, I’ll need the quartz crystal, the gold dust, and the incense from that chest over there. No, the one in the red bottle to the right. I’ve taught you enough I thought it should be obvious by now. Watch carefully now because I’m only going to do this once. Since we’ll be staying in the area for a good period of time, we need to set up some magical alarms to warn us of danger. Normally we’re either on the move or camping somewhere out of the way, but this Oasis will draw enough animals and monsters in that we want something to give us some warning. You might also need to use this outside of any cities we set up camp at, but that tends to be on a case-by-case basis and gets voted on by all the leaders. Gold dust isn’t cheap you know…”
Ade simply let the commotion wash over him as he staggered towards the cool water at the center of the oasis. It seemed larger than he remembered, but he hadn’t really given it much thought, and was more interested in recovering his drained mental faculties than trying to figure out if something was different when he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. As he walked he began to strip down, peeling off the layers of wraps that protected him from the sun and the sands leaving him in his smallclothes and carrying a bundle of cloth by the time he reached the edge of the water. The washerwomen would clean everything later, doing an especially thorough job now that they had plenty of water to work with and not just alchemical mixtures and shaking, but for the moment his bundled clothes worked nicely as a pillow. Ade waded into the water and sat down on the bank, just outside the gently rippling waves the wind was stirring up. With his legs submerged he took a few moments to splash his upper body with the cool water before lying back on the soft grass. His pillow kept his head comfy and he grabbed a loose strip to put over his eyes shielding them from the sun overhead. Eventually he’d need to move or risk getting sunburnt but that was a problem for future Ade.
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Three hours of relaxation later and Ade was feeling mentally restored. He still wouldn’t want to do any Pathfinding for a week at the minimum, but he had enough energy to interact with other people again. Getting up, he stretched before carrying his clothes over to the part of the Oasis the washerwoman had set up their work. It looked like most of the animals had been run off while he was dead to the world, with only a few animals cautiously drinking from the far side of the pool. Ade watched for a minute as the women went about their work. It seemed that whatever magic kept the pool clean was also useful against the dirt and detritus the clothes had collected. A few partially dissolved articles showed the flaws, but the quick dips the washer woman had ended up using seemed to remove the vast majority of dirt and stains with no visible damage done to the shirts, dresses and wraps. More delicate articles were being cleaned in portable bowls, the magic not present once the water had been separated from the source.
It took a bit of rummaging through the piles of clean clothes to find an unclaimed tunic in his size, but soon Ade was dressed and on his way back to the main camp, where he could smell the delicious aroma of roasting meat. The hunters had been busy, and Ade could see two antelope roasting over fire pits while the cooks cut finished meat off of another pair and added it to a variety of dishes. While most were being held for a large celebratory feast later in the evening, Ade still left with his hands full of flatbread and strips of pepper-seasoned antelope steak.
Actually getting to enjoy the food was another manner. Now that most people had settled in and now that Ade was looking more alive, he was instantly the center of attention. Everyone wanted to come up to him and thank him for finding the oasis, before then spending as much time as they could chatting and getting to know the ‘young prodigy’. Ade eventually just started keeping his mouth full of food so he wouldn’t have to talk and nodded and shrugged along with the tribesman before pulling away at the earliest opportunity.
Eventually he made his way over to the command tent that had been set up. While not an official rule, most people were discouraged from going inside by the scolding the Elders would hand out when they needed to use the place and found it occupied. Ade wasn’t immune from such scolding, but records and other resources for the Pathfinders were kept there providing him with a small excuse to deflect their ire. A simple mumbling of “Pathfinder business” held his admirers at bay long enough to slip inside.
The sanctity of the tent held, and Ade enjoyed the fifteen minutes of peace and quiet that it took for him to finish his meal. Before he could do anything else though, a procession of Elders and Pathfinders entered the tent.
“Oh good. You’re already here, Ade. We need to talk about what comes next.” Elder Gomer said as he shuffled over to a cushioned chair that had been set up.