Ryan was exhausted. After he’d been forced to stay awake the remainder of the night he had Shifted the both of them to the most northern point of elevation he could see and repeated the feat thrice. It had drained near half his Energy Pool and the sudden light-headedness after hit him hard enough that he nearly lost consciousness. He had to grit his teeth and buckle down the rising tide of black oblivion and then stumbled down the little hill that had been their final shift destination. Fury immediately set to scouting the area while Ryan gathered himself, slowly moving through his poomsae to recoup at least some of the energy through meditation.
It probably made for an incongruous sight, him going through his forms and kicking up the red dust of his bleak surroundings. Bare red earth, studded by ridges of barren granite, not a single speck of green covering the ground or denuded branches, as far as the eye could see. It was a desolate hellscape made worse by the swirling clouds of red dust ground to the finest consistency by millions of hooves. Ryan could only wonder where the progenitors of this massive collection of animals had originated and only hope that the barren landscape would eventually have an end as he moved northwards. If the destination of his trip had been in the path of the herd relocating the Guild there would be the height of stupidity. He finished his attempt at mediation before his pool was even close to full, sweat beading on his forehead the urgent reminder that he needed to get moving.
Once again reassured by Fury that there were no threats nearby he asked Michelle to have someone ready to send breakfast and sufficient water through the portal he’d open up to the fortress in a few minutes. As much as he’d like to have a relaxed breakfast and chat with whoever came through he advised her that he’d keep the portal open for the minimum of time possible to preserve his diminished store of energy. He was just glad that he had option to resupply via portal and wouldn’t have to carry a truly ridiculous amount of water to last him through the day.
As he wandered ever northwards in a haze of exhaustion, reassured by Fury’s constant reminder that no living threat was anywhere near his location. After he had been resupplied he carried quite a lot of water but knew that between the two of them the seemingly plentiful 10 litres they had remaining wouldn’t last them through the day in this desolation where not a single speck of shade was to be found. He didn’t want to have to open another portal just to resupply with water but accepted that he might need to unless they found a way out of the herds path of destruction. Ryan imagined that he could feel the sun leeching the precious liquid from his pores, sweat evaporating before it had even the slightest chance at providing any measure of cool comfort. The shimmering haze of heated air rising compounded by the thick haze of dust raised by even the slightest puff of a breeze limited his horizon to an uncomfortable degree. Ryan sipped on his water sparingly as he walked through the nightmare born into the day.
Fury was diligently scouting ahead of his path but the lioness’ usual enthusiasm for life was similarly suppressed by the bleak landscape. The sun was closely approaching the zenith of the arc it traced through the blistering sky before Fury had any good news to share. “I can smell green. Bush, plants, whatever. Head northeast.” Ryan turned and faced into the stiffening breeze that carried the fine talcum dust into any exposed orifice. He had long since fashioned a mask out of his one spare shirt but the relentless dust effortlessly bypassed the shades he was wearing. Muddy red tears were constantly carving tracks through the cracked mask of red dust on his face and Ryan more than once had considered just giving up and shifting back to base. He’d get a great laugh out of scaring everybody with the apparition of a red dust golem he had become over the last few hours. The thick dusty haze had lightened perceptively before even Ryan’s enhanced sense of smell detected the first markers of life. Tantalising hints of aromatic leaves, citric notes of green grass and earthy smells of moist earth mingled through the astringent scent of shitty dry dust. As he trudged on against the wind ever more flashes of green teased their presence on the dusty horizon before an unbroken line of green announced the end of his turmoil. Ryan had no concept of the distance he had wandered through the desolation bereft of any opportunity to mark his progress against discernible landmarks as hidden as they had been by the haze. Similarly, the lack of any known landmarks in the vista that presented itself wasn’t conducive to fixing even an approximate location.
Ryan knew he was far further east than he had ever intended to travel while on this expedition but not particularly worried as he knew that he could reorient if he hit the next major road, either gravel or tar, travelling north. If not made impossible by the track of desolation, he’d keep a north-westerly heading, correcting his course until he was on target. If they made good time he expected to arrive at the plateau sometime in the earlier hours of the next day after a good night’s rest watched over by a few members of the guild who’d better agree to portal to his location come evening.
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Ryan kept up a fast pace along the boundary of the herds path intermittently wondering at the sharp demarcation between bare earth and living bushveld as Fury continued ranging ahead. She had held up well through the ordeal but still remained uncharacteristically quiet as the sun moved closer to the western horizon and the two made good time even if Ryan didn’t take a single opportunity to shift them forward along their hike to husband his Energy Pool. Mid-afternoon had passed before Michelle informed him that a team of five volunteers would be on standby for a portal about an hour before sundown and would carry all necessities to allow for setting up a comfortable camp. Ryan kept an eye out for a suitably defensible location as they continued moving along the boundary which was shifting further and further onto a westerly heading. He focused his attention on the desolate side of it reasoning that it would be the safer if less comfortable option and before too long spotted a likely kopje a short distance into the desolation.
At this point he was near delirious with exhaustion and even his enhanced stats had given up the delaying action of keeping it at bay as fantasies of sitting in a comfortable camp chair sipping on an ice-cold beer watching the sun go down where the only thing keeping him on his feet. Ryan forced himself to full wakefulness before he committed further stupidity by approaching the kopje fully exposed and settled down on his haunches as he called Fury to him. As she came closer he noticed that she wasn’t in a much better state than he and after only the shortest bit of deliberation he called Michelle and asked her if the team was ready. The second she confirmed they were he opened a portal to the fortress.
“You look like shit.” wasn’t the greeting he had hoped for but Miguel’s cheery voice was a tonic uplifting his flagging spirit. First through the portal, closely followed by Lizzy, William, Alexis and Johannes the Scout looked around in disbelief before he asked where the campsite was supposed to be. Ryan tiredly pointed toward the kopje and spoke.
“We’ll camp there but I’m not in a condition to safely scout it. You okay doing it?” he asked Miguel.
“Sure. Gimme a few minutes then you guys can follow. We got everything so Ryan can drop the portal?” the scout answered having noticed Ryan had kept the portal up.
“Ryan, you can drop it. We’re good.” William confirmed for the party. Johannes pointed at his menagerie, most of which were carrying harnesses and smirked at Ryan. “You’re camping in style tonight whitey. My zoo’s got you covered brother.” Ryan could have done without the reminder of the agonising early morning hours that Johannes’ two spotted hyena’s called up but the sight of the two carrying backpacks full of equipment was funny enough that he let loose a snorting laugh.
“How much water did you guy’s pack? I desperately need a shower.” he asked the Packmaster which only pointed at his wildebeest and said: “Tollie is carrying firewood and about 6 jerrycans full of water, you can even have a hot shower.”
Ryan was near overcome with gratitude. The guys had come through big time. Michelle must have picked up that he was dispirited by the day’s experience even if he kept his reports as clinical as possible and organised the watch-team as a pick-me-up for him. It felt great so before he could start crying he just pressed out a “Thank you guys. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem bro. Can’t have you moping out here on your own.” William defused Ryan’s cresting emotions adroitly. “Alexis will check up on you once we settled camp. You’ll just get to relax for the night. Looks like you need it and we can’t have you die because you’re too tired to properly do your job.”
As Miguel called the all-clear on the party-chat to which William had added him the group set off towards the kopje, laughing and chatting all the while. Ryan, initially keeping quiet, couldn’t help remark on the discrepancy between his solo experience of the prior day and the exuberant atmosphere reigning now and mentioned it to the group at large.
“We’ll be doing this every night provided you can scout a safe location for a small group. We’ve decided that it was stupid to expect you to do this on your own if we can take over guarding you at night thanks to portal. Should be safer that way too.” Lizzy informed him as she set up a camp chair for him to relax in. “Now, you just sit your ass down and I’ll fix dinner once William has the fire going. Water should be hot before I’m done so you can get clean beforehand.”
Ryan passed out in the chair before the water had even gotten warm and after William roused him from his slumber blearily managed to shower and shove down some braaivleis before he collapsed into his camp-cot dead to the world and only indistinctly hearing Alexis’ whispered “Good night” as she tucked him in, the warm healing energy soothing his aches.