Asrael awoke in a start and rose to his feet- ignoring the brief pang of pain to his forehead, to scan the interior of the carriage. The girl lay holding her nose on the floor; the small, fat man stood wide-eyed and stared up at the necromancer in horror and up above - atop the carriage; the women were resting lazily on the wood. He took hurried steps backwards- ignoring the soft thighs under his feet as he sought to gain distance from the bench.

“Ouch...” He could tell Neda was choking back some poorly concealed, reflexive tears. Outside; the sun stood high above them, scorching the unending plains of sand to cast mirages across the land and disrupt the light’s journey through the still, scorching atmosphere. Satisfied the creature seemed to prefer to appear in his nightmares; Asrael gripped the small, fat man by the neck and raised him up high to shout at him;

“Why have we stopped, you sniveling gremlin!? I told you to take us to whatever village this inbred ingrate crawled out from!” The small man struggled in his grip and attempted to speak several times, only to have the air come to a stop mid-way through his trachea. To Berral's relief; Neda stood on her toes to shout;

“He can’t talk if you don’t let him go, you idiot!” Idiot? Him? She could call him anything her poor vocabulary could produce- most of it was hardly news to him. In fact; he reckoned there were precious few things he hadn’t been called thus far... but idiot... He dropped the man and turned around to glare at the girl struggling to rise to her feet while still covering her nose. It was clear by the intense, furious glare to her red eyes that she had moved past welling in her sadness to the next stage of handling her grief... anger.

“Idiot!? I am Asrael Nessarat-”

“Oh, shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! I’m sick of hearing about who you are! To me; you’re an ugly idiot- too dumb to wrap your head around the fact you can’t travel in the middle of the day!” Asrael’s nose wrinkled up- he flecked his teeth. The infuriating girl had gone too far this time- calling him an idiot... it was simply and honestly; a lie.

Behind him; a timid, tremoring voice spoke to inform: “M-My L-Lord... T-the heat... t-the horses... they’d die...” This new, unsettling piece of information lowered a dark blanket of dread over his mind. Of course the horses would struggle in the heat and it made sense to have them rest in the warmest hours of the day... But if he were to accept this small, fat peasant’s wisdom; the girl would likely be deluded into having a sense that her suspicions had been confirmed. He was a genius and above all; the girl needed to understand this truth if he were to ever be able to rest again. A rare grin spread her lips as he televised his internal struggles by hesitating to find a proper reaction.

“As... the genius I am; I will admit that my mind is oftentimes so occupied with analyzing the complicated workings of our world that I fail to consider certain things. Simpler minds- minds that struggle to look beyond their own noses can, at times... however rarely... be useful.” He could tell by the dropping shoulders of the fat man that his confession of a brief moment’s myopia had lessened his panic- a disheartening thought, as it seemed he would have to spend some time with these two beasts and would rather have them continue to tremor in fear of him. Asrael continued; “Well, then... Barrel. How long must we stay here? I have an Inquisitor to kill and limited time to do so- I must get to him before his age does.” Barrel fingered his sweaty bellybutton and licked his dry lips before swallowing the contents of his dry mouth.

“I-It's... Berral, Sir." The necromancer's glare prevented any further corrections and sparked the fat man to continue. "A few hours, at least, My Lord. We’ll stay in here in the shade with the horses. They’re bred for the blighted lands, but not even they can last out there.” Asrael gasped with shock and shook his head sternly at the fat, timid man.

“Preposterous- I will not share accomodations with any more beasts! I have enough with the two of you!” he paused to glare at the girl still clenching her nose with pain, before continuing; “it is frankly an insult for you to suggest such a thing. Construe them a hovel out of dust- you simpletons should be more than capable of such an easy task.” The small man was obviously distressed with the order and looked to the fuming, tall girl in desperation; hoping she could talk some sense into him. To none but her own relief; she did.

“You’re the dumbest fucking guy I’ve ever met! Did you just suggest he builds a house out here!? Look at him! He’s half my height and still three times my size! Even if we had weeks, he wouldn’t even be able to pitch a yurt!” It was then that Asrael realized, save for the Inquisitors; none had spoken to him with such disdain- such spite. For it; he was slightly less disgusted with the girl, but no less disapproving. He had wasted years in indignance, only to die at the hands of his predatory hunters- running away like a wounded critter from a wolf... He would fight, if given the chance, but it would do him no good to declare his defiance against the scorching heat of the desert. He could kill the two, but for now; both had their uses... Therefore... just this once... He would have no choice but to turn to indignance one last time.

He felt lower than ever as he lay there in the shade of the carriage. Above him; he could hear the gaseous expulsions of the well-fed horses as their hooved clicked against the interior of the unnaturally solid construction. He had attempted to stay out in the sun, but had noticed that his fingers had begun to shrink and wrinkle- signaling that, even in his new state; he still could not allow losing too much humidity, lest he turn into a shriveled fruit out in the desert. Therefore; he had scuttled under the carriage like the cockroach he felt, while leaving his dead soldiers in with the horses and the now-sleeping, disgusting oaf of a chaufeur. To his dismay; he could hear a rapid scuttling behind him and as he turned, he was met with a pair of intense, vicious, red eyes. It seemed a natural thing for her to crawl on her belly like the rodent he knew her to be and she did so with a swiftness he had thought the human body incapable of. Naturally, he turned around and began to scuttle the other way, only to feel her tight grip around his ankle.

“You’re not going anywhere, you son of a bitch, not until you answer some of my questions!” He was strong... but so was she. Clamoring to his clothes as she climbed, she made her way up to his back.

“Unhand me, harlot! I will have you know that I overpower you in every way your feeble mind can imagine- you will release my pants this instant!” This only served to further anger her.

“What did you do to Rallo!? Why did you kill him! Tell me now!” She demanded as she tightened her grip on his fine, white shirt. He turned around to face her, only to realize she was far too close for his comfort- her face a mere hand’s breadth from his. Wincing; he pushed her away and sought to inform her with as much calm as he could muster.

“I reanimated his dead body to fight for me, but his already-rotten, septic flesh had already torn most of him apart from the inside. Then; I discarded him because he was of no use to me, you simpleton!” The calm he could muster, it seemed, was not enough. Her jaw dropped and again; he could see her eyes well up with tears. Next; her lower lip began to contort and tremor.

“Y-you... you really are the worst... how could you do that to another person? To me? He was... all I had...” She devolved into a miserable being- a dreadful sight of twisted, tensed facial musculature and seemed to have no shame about her devolution. He had been killed, resurrected, nearly raped more than once in his younger days, but this... was by far... the most uncomfortable he had ever been.

“Stop it. Stop!” He commanded, only for her to grip his shirt and scream at him;

“It had to mean something to you! You had to have a reason! He was everything to me!” Again; he attempted to shove her away, but even with his enhanced strength, it proved a challenge. In his desperation; he fumbled for the words. He had been honest in his reasoning and as the old man had said; honesty would be the medicine to cure this world. But this irrational beast seemed to abhor it. At the end of his wits; he imagined what it meant for Rallo and blurted out;

“He asked me to let him die! He wished for it- all he asked in return was that, in turn; I take you to safety!” He breathed a silent sigh of relief as he felt her hands loosen their grips. Next; her facial features softened, only to tense once more. She slammed her head into his chest and immediately stained his pristine, white shirt with her dust-mixed tears. Next; she released a bellowing howl into his shirt- screaming and crying words beyond his understanding, faintly reminiscent of Old Thuralian.

This was going to continue to test his patience. His already worn, already thin, already ragged... patience.