The White Rose's hand felt clammy in his but it was hard to restrain himself from clutching it further. He was sure that her big hands would break if he held them to hard.

The queer mountain rock flew past the minecart, slowly transitioning into a lighter and lighter colour. Cha-el felt dizzy from the light feeling of flying forwards in such a fast pace.

He felt like the others were trying to speak to him but their words got lost in the growing space left behind them. On the rails in front of them he could vaguely distinguish a figure that seemed to be the cart with the horses.

Just a few seconds after that thought they slammed into the cart in front of them with a big bang and came to a sudden stop. It felt like Cha-el's stomach had been boiled in water and turned upside down a couple bazillion times. The horses in front of them were whinnying like mad and Sash had jumped out to calm them. Cha-el tried to move but immediately got hit by the urge to puke up the stew that they had eaten earlier. So, he sat still and tried to take deep breaths, it was a vaguely familiar technique learnt from when he was younger.

"What made us stop?" The White Rose asked. She was swaying frontwards and backwards in a fazed state. It didn't seem like she was aware of it so Cha-el put a hand on her shoulder making her still. Her small forehead was beaded with sweat. Cha-el was tempted to wipe it off but he knew that Sash would give him a distasteful look if he did.

"The cart in front of us perhaps?" Cha-el said while clutching his stomach which was now throwing violent fits of pain through his body. He hated weakness and tried to ignore it to no proper avail.

"No." Sash said as she walked past the horses, who were calmer now, and out of Cha-el's view. "The rails end here."

"Well, what now then?"

"Guess we walk the rest" Sash said as she started to lead the black horse out of the cart with careful and treading messages sent through the reins.

"Are you ok?" Cha-el asked The White Rose. She seemed weak and aint in the light emitting from the elees mountain.

She turned her pretty face towards him and nodded carefully. "Let me breath for a second."

Sash stepped towards them with nonchalant body language but with stern words. "Let her be and help me with the horses."

Cha-el couldn't help but frown. Who did this foot soldier think she was, bossing him around?

"The roof is too low. We can't ride them here." Cha-el responded, hiding within himself. Sash looked annoyed at him for a second. "We'll have to lead them." She defended.

"Or we could just leave them here." Cha-el said, fed up with the foot soldier. In the desert there wouldn't be any use for them so they'd might as well leave them here.

"We could sell them for a faster transport or more clothes when we get across." Sash said a bit too fiercely. "This one is worth a lot." She said gesturing at the ugly brown one, with an almost forced calm.

"If you say so." Cha-el said with a tired shrug of his shoulders. He didn't know what she was talking about but if she believed it then he would let her.

He forced himself to stand up and get out the cart, even though his head started to spin so much that he thought he was going to be sick. Sash seemed to be perfectly fine, but The White Rose looked uncomfortable, as if she wanted to disappear into the ground. Cha-el offered her his hand. She took it and forced herself up.

The mine was low roofed, so it was impossible for them to ride the horses unless they wanted to be riding on their stomachs. Instead, they decided that Sash would lead them and Cha-el would carry The White Rose piggyback style. But it was easier said than done for The White Rose easily weighed more than any of the other girls or boys in the guards barracks, although her slim figure wouldn't prove it.

After a few stumbling minutes with her brown arms around his neck and experiencing the feeling of what Cha-el thought was his back breaking, he exclaimed breathlessly "Please no more!" before dropping to his knees.

Sash smirked at that and handed him the reins of the horses. "Don't worry old man." She said mockingly patting him on the back and immediately Cha-el regretted showing himself weak. If he couldn't carry the weight of The White Rose, then what was he for use here anyways?

The White Rose had an embarrassed dark flush on her brown cheeks, but she climbed onto Sash's back anyways.

"Damn it" Sash said as soon as The White Rose sat comfortably. "Guess that's what all the fancy food can do to a person."

But Sash managed better than Cha-el had done, as they walked through the mining tunnels that turned more and more blue as they walked further and further in. Sometimes they could hear a splitting crack or a slow wail from above them. Cha-el thought back to the myths that the old village elder used to tell him and the other village children. She would speak about the stories of the wind and tell them about its lost children, and how it mourned day and night, dawn and sunset longing for them to come back.

Cha-el had always thought of them as pure bull and phrased that often into words, and that often led to a beating from his sisters. He got suddenly hit by a wave of...

Of something, which made him shake his head to get rid of it. They did him no good. His only purpose was to take The White Rose safely to the riverbanks.

Up ahead Cha-el could make out a strange blockage in the distance but a few steps closer he realised what it was. "There's a door up there."

The rest of the party was quiet once he mentioned that expect for the brown horse who seemed to humph every time someone tried to speak except itself. It had quite the horse ego.

It was a mighty wooden door in the centre of a wall of stone bricks. similar to the ones that the border village had, that reached from one side of the mining tunnel to the other, completely barricading the way. Once they stood in front of it (all three humans on their feet) none of them knew what to do.

"Do you think that the host of the taverna knew that this was down here?" The White Rose asked thoughtfully. "Did he send us here intentionally perhaps?"

Cha-el didn't know what to say so he simply shook his head and noticed that Sash had done a similar gesture.

"Couldn't have." Sash noted while tracing the outline of one of the stones bricks with her index finger. "Didn't really seem like the type to leave his village."

Then she slowly stepped close to the door, took the iron handle in her hand and tried ramming the door in, shoulder first, with all of her might. Once, twice and then she rolled her shoulders before ramming it a third time. The door bent in quite a bit but didn't budge its position.

"What are you doing!" Cha-el said angrily, but he didn't do anything else. Maybe best to take distance from a ramming foot soldier.

The White Rose jumped back from the sudden clashing with the door, in a jerked fearing manner. But soon enough the door opened, but not from Sash's attempts to break it down. Instead, an old lady stood peaking from the edge door with wrinkly dark copper skin and grey dreads rolling down from over her shoulders. Cha-el's first thought was that she was pretty, even though she was a good couple decades older than him.

"Have you never learned how to knock!" She glowered sourly before slamming the door back in their faces. Cha-el stood stunned there for a second at what had just happened before he turned towards the rest.

"Why did you do that?!" He snapped at Sash. Had she no shame or feeling? She acted like some savage sort of beast that acted on emotion.

She stared him down with her brown eyes before answering angrily. "Because it seemed like the logical thing to do."

"Not at all! The logical thing to do would be to knock, soldier!" He retorted coldly.

"Don't speak down to me!"

Sash was really angry now for she had pushed her way to him and was clutching him forcefully by the collar of his woollen coat. She wasn't taller than him. They were the same height with mayhap an inch of difference, so he wasn’t able to look down on her and he hated that.

"I'll do whatever I want." He scoffed at her before shoving her away. At least that's what he tried to do but she was clutching the collar too hardly, and he only ended up swindling her stance for a second.

By then The White Rose made her presence known by stepping between them and saying "Please don't fight."

Her eyes were wide and immediately Cha-el felt regret for provoking Sash in front of The White Rose. He should act with dignity in front of The White Rose and apparently Sash felt the same for she was stroking The White Rose's braided head whilst keeping quiet. He shouldn't stoop to her level.

The White Rose dignified herself as soon as both of the guards stopped insulting each other. She straightened her back and rubbed her eyes. Cha-el thought she almost looked embarrassed for declaring her presence to stop the conflict.

"I guess we'll have to knock and apologise for the racket." The White Rose said as she took a step towards the great wooden door. (How did they even get wood down here? It so rare, Cha-el thought to himself.)

The White Rose knocked a slightly melodic sequence at the door with her smooth and unworked knuckles, and sure enough the door opened. Out peeked a sour looking face belonging to the same woman from earlier.

She was pretty. Almost competing on the same level as The White Rose but the wrinkles and greying hair were a minus. She was wearing some layered ragged garments and a pair of leather pants that hung to loosely for Cha-el's comfort. Her fingers were adorned with silver and gold rings with several colourful rocks and stones, but their shine had long been lost to the tooth of time.

"Who's there?" She said whilst examining them with a misty-eyed gaze.

"Passer-byers" Sash answered calmly.

"Nobody's just a passer-byer.” Old woman retorted with a scoff. “I mean really, who's there?" Cha-el noticed that her hands here covered with inkwork just like the host from the taverna. The woman had a pattern similar to the delicate spiderwebs that could be found in the dark corners of the barracks. They were detailed unlike the usual inkwork that would be found on every mediocre guard down in there.

"We're guards and seers."

"Hmmm. I see. Not the most common combination but maybe a useful one." The old woman half croaked, half said whilst rubbing her hands together thoughtfully.

Cha-el was quite surprised that The White Rose had addressed herself as a seer. He had never known if it were simply a myth amongst the commonfolk or actually true that she could see into the waters.

She had to be speaking about herself for he for sure wasn't a seer and Sash (he guessed) wasn't either.

"Well then 'guards and seers', where are you heading?" The woman asked while picking her ear nonchalantly. (It made her more unattractive.)

"To Támheich. From there we plan to cross the desert." Cha-el responded, eager not to let too much on, although he doubted that this woman would meet many people to blabber to.

"You're welcome to pass through my humble mine brigade, if it is hindering you from your destination."

"Thank you" The White Rose said with a happy and fluttery hand gesture. The old woman opened the door fully and led them and the troublesome horses into a small murky room with so much content that it was hard to take in. Dried herb bunts hanged from the élees rock roof and the walls were covered in everything from leather hides to tapestries. In the corner Cha-el could just make out a tiny hammock with metal lucky charms hanging from it. The floor was cluttered with bottles, books, jewellery boxes and other things that Cha-el couldn't distinguish in the dark. In the centre of the room was a table that, unlike the rest of the room, was quite empty. It had a few bottles and metal instruments on along with some chunks of mountain rock.

Something on the table caught Cha-el's eye immediately. A pipe. Cha-el couldn't remember the last time he had a drag of one. His body slowly filled with the desire to feel the calm rush of the smoke out his lips. He reached for it but Sash (who had stood close to him the whole time) saw him and smacked his hand hardly. "Behave yourself" She said angrily. She seemed to still have some of the heat from the earlier squabble in her.

Cha-el felt anger flare up at her but then remembered that there was a reason smoking pipe wasn't allowed for guards. It took all of the self-control Cha-el had to move his hand away from the pipe, even though his gut screamed to pick it up. Some other day he would get to finally get to taste the taste again, even if it was a dirty habit. Although this reminder of it would do him no good.

The old woman looked like she was biting the inside of her cheek when she looked at Cha-el's struggles. Almost annoyed if he had to guess. Cha-el took a step back and then she turned her gaze back to The White Rose.

"I used to live here with company. We used to study these empty mines and the élees." She said with a half shrug as she led them to the end of the room and started to work on a load of hatches and locks on a small door on the opposite end of the tiny room. Cha-el thought it was small for a single person to live in, so he had a hard time imagining that several people would have place to live in here.

Just as the old lady was about to lift the last hatch on the door she eyed both Cha-el's and Sash's scythes. "I already despise having two horses in my homestead, but not only that, you had to bring weapons in here as well."

Cha-el shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other but luckily the woman turned her head, lifted the final heavy hatch and pushed the door open.

This door was considerably smaller. They had quite a hard time trying to get out the horses who disliked the feeling of their heads hitting the bannister, but they managed. The mining tunnel in front of them was similar to the other one that had just been in, but it was slightly lighter in colour and big enough for the group to (finally!) be able to ride the horses.

They faced the old lady who stood now in the doorway looking at them and thanked her.

"If you don't mind me asking, who do we owe this thanks to?" Sash asked whilst patting the ugly brown horse's head (he had seen her whisper to it. Was she mentally stable?)

She scratched her chin thoughtfully. "Te-ama you may remember me as, though I would be grateful if you kept this encounter to yourselves.” She waved with her left hand. “Goodbye"

Then she stepped back into the brigade and once again slammed the smaller door back into its position. After that Cha-el could hear her folding all of the latches and hatches back into their places and locking her locks through the door.

"Te-ama" Cha-el said loudly to himself, repeating her name. "It's sounds a bit strange."

"I think it sounds similar to your name. Perhaps you are from the same region or town?" The White Rose said as she brushed off the dust from her whitish-now-greyish pants.

"Would doubt it." Cha-el responded. He did really doubt it, although her name could be built with the same syllables if he thought about how to spell it.

"Where are you even from?" The White Rose asked now looking at him fiercely with curiosity. "You look like a pebbler but the way you act, speak and how your name is built says differently."

Cha-el considered telling her a lie but decided ultimately that it would do no good. Better to be clean from the beginning. It's not like he was ashamed or anything. "I am from the savannas."

"Really? I've never spoken to a foreigner before. Well except for my languages teacher." The White Rose said with a shrug, some newfound curiosity and wondering in her manner of speaking. Sash just tightened the saddle girth on the brownish horse, but her lips were pressed into a thin line. Sash was obviously also a foreigner with her tan but still white skin and her short non afro and non-black hair. And Sash had to be a false name since it was so (or should he say too) sketchy. The White Rose was either oblivious to that or actually didn't know.

"Do you speak savannish then?" The White Rose asked. "I learnt a bit from my language teacher but he wasn't really qualified in that area."

Cha-el winced at the word savannish. He had always disliked it since it sounded very similar to other barbaric names and made his people sound like savage cavemen.

"I'll answer your questions when we're in the saddle. I want to get out of these damned tunnels, the sooner the better." Cha-el said whilst pulling her by the arm to the black horse where he helped her mount before swinging up in front of her, into the saddle. Sash urged the feisty brownish horse into a well-paced gait and took the lead. Cha-el followed from behind trying to match their tempo.

"Well then, do you speak savannish?" The White Rose asked with her hands clinging to the newly discovered handles on each side of the saddle.

Cha-el out of politeness didn't want to correct her to say the tongue’s real name, but still answered the question. She was after all the princess. "Amateurly. I don't remember most of it."

To be honest it was bit of an understatement since he did remember how to hold civilised conversation in his head without fumbling, but he didn't want to seem like a know-it-all or all too foreign. Educated people rarely liked what they didn't understand, even though The White Rose was a living opposite of the embodiment to that. Plus he really didn't think of sanyé as his main tongue anymore. The pebbles speech now was his inner monologue, his train of thoughts and his mainly spoken language. Sanyé was something of the past for him.

"Hmmm. Does that mean that you left the savannas at an early age?" The princess whispered breathtakingly too close to his ear. Cha-el didn't really understand why she used the dramatic whispering, but he couldn't say he disliked it, for it sent warm shivers down his spine.

"I left after my twenty fourth spring and harvest fest. I got picked up by the pebbles border by the usual scouting."

The White Rose nodded as if she understood, though Cha-el doubted if she actually knew what any of that meant.

"Quite young. Too young. I was just finishing playing with my ragdolls in those years." She said shyly, almost as if she was ashamed. Or pitying. Cha-el disliked the feeling of being looked down on, but he also equally disliked making The White Rose linger on uncomfortable feelings.

"Don't feel guilty or anything. The scouters gave me the chance of a lifetime. Brothers and sisters to fight alongside and a beautiful nation to devote my life to." He stated with all the confidence he could muster without sounding prideful.

After that, The White Rose kept quiet for a while making a thoughtful silence swim around the group, only interrupted by the horse's hooves hitting the ground in a steady rhythm, but it only lasted a moment before the princess started to whistle a waltz tune to herself.

What he had said to the princess was in basis true, but sometimes it was more than just that. Sometimes it was even more than Cha-el himself could understand. He did like being a guard and enjoyed living a better life than he would ever get to live on those dirty streets in the border towns. He especially enjoyed his scythe that made him feel powerful and mighty. But he still felt feelings for his blood sisters and his country.

When people spoke bad about outlanders and foreigners Cha-el felt strange feelings stir inside of him at their ignorance. Sometimes Cha-el didn't want to quote the pebblers pledge with the words "Glory to our nation the faultlesst and greatest." Sometimes he felt something close to mourning when raid parties came back from the treers and their trees and boasted about how they had defeated magicians and then slit their throats. It made him a bad soldier even if he never dared say or put any of these feelings to action. He knew they were wrong and oppressed them.

The barracks mainly consisted of once poor street children, mostly from the big mining towns. Then and then there would be people who came from the borders with other countries, who were usually still pebblers, or they could be like Cha-el and (he suspected) Sash who were foreigners who were good enough in combat, spoke the tongue well enough and blended in well enough to be scouted by the scouters. But he did wonder, how did Sash get scouted? She looked too foreign to ever be mistaken as a pebbler by anyone street smart. But her skills in combat were really something else. Now that he thought about it, what kind of hand-to-mouth-earning scout wouldn't say yes to that kind of skill?

He drove on the horse with a soft pressing towards its sides, and managed to ride side by side with the brownish horse. He disliked the gap and the slow wails of the great elees moving slowly above him. Better that they all rode close together. Although the brown horse kept on flicking its tail in an irritated manner towards the black one, that made it whicker in frustration.

"So how many languages do you know, princess?" Cha-el heard himself ask, interrupting her whistled tune.

"All the dialects of "the pebbles"" -She said while making finger quotations with her right hand. - "And the basics of some foreign ones."

"D'you know the language of the treers?" Cha-el said with the words blurring in his mouth.

"No." She said bored. "The ruler keeps his children away from such sorts. I have seen sketches of them though. Could you imagine living in a tree house? Must be exotic."

"Guess so." He answered, not putting much thought into it. Sash clutched her horse’s mane a bit tighter.

And so, it continued in silence. He could feel The White Rose fiddle with the saddle straps but didn't really care.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, the rock around them started to reverse its colouring. From light blue and filled with copper veins it started to become darker and darker and the already meagre veins thinned out into nothing. The tracks beneath them were untreaded and the crystal élees rock surrounding them became more and more unprocessed and jagged. It made sense since there wasn't really anything to mine here.

"We're reaching the other side." Sash said mostly to herself and perhaps the horse.

"If you say so." Cha-el said half mockingly and got an annoyed look in return.

True enough, behind the one of next slight bend of the mining tunnel a spot of light was visible in the distance. An end to these singing mountains.

While Cha-el muttered thanks under his breath, they made their way towards the light. Pain in his lower back made itself obvious the closer and closer they came to the opening. The horses were also half dead, either from the minecart ride or from carrying the party. The White Rose seemed fine but Cha-el guessed that was because she had been riding piggyback on Sash and him earlier.

They were at the small opening of dark and clear élees rock and rode out through it, even if the riders had to lower their heads quite a bit to come through.

They were situated quite high atop the blue mountain. Támheich was beneath them, perhaps a fourth of the size of the pebbles capital. And beyond that, desert. Big pale yellow dunes making waves on the horizon. Small tracks made of hoof prints flowing through the dunes like thin lines of ants. To the left, just beyond the ending outcrop of the mountain and past several tall dunes of pale sand he could make out deforested land, now making a slow transformation into desert in the like of its neighbour.

Somehow their passage through the élees had turned the early night sky into a burning midday sun tearing carefully through a peaceful blue. It was hot. The horses noticed it immediately and started to breath deeper trying to keep cool, in the frying heat. They were thirsty. Cha-el was also hot and took off the battered trench coat he had been wearing.

"We need to head down. Sell these horses and get some food and water. Maybe some better fitting clothing."

Sash looked his way with her eyebrows furrowed. "We shouldn't get rid of the horses."

"Well, what else are we going to trade with? This is the best way of currency and there's no way that these horses will make it across the desert. As much as selling you is tempting, I doubt you'll fetch a good price."

Sash sneered and pointed a crude v sign his way.

Yeah, definitely not going to do well on the market.

"Anyways, let's head down." The White Rose reminded. Cha-el had almost forgotten that she was there and a dark flush at that she had heard him insult Sash.

Since the mine that they had just came out of was very unused so was the path down. It was thin and winding with sharp turns that gave the already tired horses a harder time and a single misstep threatened to send the stumbling down the steep sides of the mountain.

Támheich consisted for the most part of huts made of stone just like the earlier border town, but these were smaller and more confined. He could see wives and husbands washing clothes in the tiny river that flowed through the city and dirty and dusty children playing hoops on the street. He saw slaves and servants pulling carriages for their masters and owners, and a market where he could make out stands selling food, water, clothes, services and cameli.

Carefully the party made its way down onto the main path that led to the city. It was more crowded, and they ended up riding behind a party of silk traders, who were complaining too loudly about broken trade routes.

Once the mountain path finally converged with the city and their horses stood on flat ground, Cha-el felt himself take in a deep breath of overheated air as he rolled his shoulders. A bit closer to wherever they were heading. He tightened his reins and followed Sash who was carefully navigating through the quite crowded streets in the direction of the market.

The market was pretty much as he had guessed from up on the mountains. It was crowded and people were screaming deals and hyping up produce. It was hot and dusty. You wouldn't feel a climate like this in the Pebbles unless there was a dust storm in a very hot summer. The heat from the desert sun made the air shimmer in front of him like water.

Sash had found a wooden post close to the market to tie the horses up to. She unmounted and looped the reins around the post into a firm knot. She took the liberties to tie up their horse as well, before Cha-el and The White Rose had unmounted.

"So, what's the plan?"

"We're not selling the horses." Sash said unswervingly.

"Well, what else are we going to do?" Cha-el asked with a cracking voice. He was thirsty. And tired.

"Come" Sash waved him over close to her. The White Rose didn't seem to mind. She was just dusting off her leather sandals.

"We'll do what I'm best at..."

Cha-el couldn't believe he was doing this. Again. After so many years.

He passed by a stand with oranges, trying to look as if he was minding his own business, looking into the crowd. Blending in. He was in his guard’s tunic and loose pants that made him melt into the crowd. He looked normal even if his appearance stood slightly out. His skin was too dark a shade of brown in these masses of tan bronze skin and his hair was a curly fro unlike the crowds who all had dark hair that was straight from the either the heat or genetics.

Sash was somewhere else stealing water in clay pots. Or maybe she was with The White Rose and the horses she liked so much. She was a bit unformidable and that was a bad quality in a foot soldier.

A gap opened by a grape and kiwi stand. The owner was weighing a number of grapes, his eyes on the lying scale, trying to charge more than needed. The gap was open for a bare second, but it was more than enough. His hand shot out from the gap in the crowd and snatched a handful of the underwatered kiwis. Then he ran. Pushing and ducking his way through the most crowded parts in case some chore boy was sent after him.

A shout and a growl were heard behind him, maybe aimed at him or maybe not. He didn't think he was seen but then again, he was very rusty in this trade. His heart was pounding. Throbbing maybe. His arms were shaking with adrenaline (?) He hadn't felt like this in a long time, and he sort of hated it.

He took out the fruit and looked at them. The kiwis were small. Too small, barely the size of a quail egg.

He moved with the crowd. A few brothers were close to him, speaking in mountain speech. He couldn't understand. But they were speaking excitedly with a few flurry hand gestures and the feeling flowed towards him. Excitement spiked inside of him and when another clear shot opened to a stand, he didn't hesitate. He took something hard from the edge of the table and ducked into the crowd so the vendor wouldn't be able to see his head, as he crept towards a sandstone staircase. It led up to a bridge that crossed over the market to where he had told Sash to meet up.

Once at the bottom step of the staircase and when he thought he was free from suspicion he looked at what he had picked up. A chunk of dried meat. Probs from whatever creatures lived at the top of the cold tips of the élees. Shouldn't be that bad.

When he reached the other side of the bridge Sash was waiting for him. Her short mousy blonde hair had so much dust that it looked like she had just come out of a dust storm shift.

"Did you manage?" He asked her.

"I'm here aren’t I?" She said coldly. Bad mood. Close to being caught maybe?

"Here." She handed him a clay jug filled with water. It was big, almost the size of a human torso and quite heavy. Cha-el placed it on the ground and handed her all of the food he had stolen. The kiwis, the dried chunk of meat and a loaf of oat bread from earlier. Sash eyed the meat suspiciously before she tore off a piece and ate it.

"Sorry, man. Very hungry." She said once she had swallowed it and met his cold and slightly angry stare.

"Anyways, let's head back to her." Cha-el said as he took a step down the winding sandstone stairs that led back down to the market. Sash stuffed the foodstuffs in a makeshift pouch made of a fold in her tunic. Her tunic was also quite dusty and almost on the verge of dirty. She jogged ahead of him and cut through the small crowds, leaving Cha-el with the struggle of trying to locate her and keep up. Once he managed to run beside her, he saw how dirty she was. Not only her clothes and hair, but her cheeks and bare muscular arms were streaked with grey dust and were dirty as if she had taken a bad tumble. He felt quite satisfied that he wasn't in the same condition.

"What exactly did you do to get that water?"

Forcefully she stated, "Mind your own business." before cutting through another crowd, leaving him to follow after.

For a second Cha-el thought he heard a holler behind him. Rough and angry, and in mountain speech. But Cha-el knew well enough from the tone roughly what it meant. His and Sash's calm jog had turned into a full-on dash fuelled by fear. Sash had the brains not to run straight to where The White Rose was but instead took a few turns around the outer market stands (selling heavyweight stuffs, like farming tools and basic and slightly barbaric weaponry) and then sped off into the teeny alleyways in between stone huts. Somewhere in the run they lost their perpetrator who had been following them for whatever reason. Or maybe he had simply been imaginary, and that holler was meant for someone else, which was an afterthought.

Anyway, they kept on running but in less of a flighty manner. Cha-el noticed that he was just a bit slower than Sash which annoyed him. Perhaps if he wasn't carrying this gigantic jug, he would have been able to surpass her he thought sourly. Yes, most likely he would have been able to. Foot soldiers are educated on field combat and endurance meanwhile guards are meant to have proper battle skills and like wisely good fight or flight instincts.

They reached where they had left The White Rose. She was sitting on the post with her feet dangling a few inches from the ground. Her face lit up when she saw them and for a second, she looked like a child. Youthful.

"Good job guys! A kind horsewoman came past while you were gone and offered to give the horses something to drink, so you don't have to worry about that anymore." She greeted and informed them.

For a second it looked like Sash had the impulse to snatch the clay jug out of Cha-el's hands and throw it on the ground, but she limited herself to an angry twitch in her arm and a foul mood. "Well. Then we can drink more than our fills worth and try to figure out our next leg of our journey."

Cha-el handed The White Rose the jug first and she drank with thirsty gulps. She wasn't strong enough (or didn't have the willpower either way) to hold it up while drinking so Cha-el had to hold it in a tipped position towards her face. After that Cha-el drank from the jug with an almost unquenchable thirst. It was warm and had a clay-tinged flavour but that didn't really matter. Warm water quenched thirst better anyways.

They all shared the food and water, giving the best pieces of the loaf and the best-looking kiwi to The White Rose, for she needed it. Not only was she a million feet higher than them in rank but she was also weak, unused to the heat and to the tempo they were keeping to get her to the river banks in as little time as possible.

Either they would need to cross the desert or go through the treers wasteland. The desert was the safe route to take, but it would take days and they would need to borrow cameli, get more provisions and they would either need a chaperone or a map, preferably the previous of the two, that in itself would have a risk of being discovered and sold out. They would need to get rid of the horses and get some proper clothing fit for burning hot days under the sun and nights cold like a wine cellar. In addition to that it was also a predictable route and if the darkly clothed fighter assassins were following then they would most definitely suspect this route. Or they had the option of going through the treers wasteland. It was deserted, empty and not a predictable choice, Cha-el pointed out. Bigger chance that they would find naturally growing food and they would be going through a lesser change of climate. But the treers wasteland was also filled with wood bandits and official raiders from different nations. There was also the chance that there wouldn't be any food at all, and that the climate would be just as tough as on the desert. They would just need a simple map to be able to navigate it. This treers wasteland was a small strip of previous forest with some remaining forest still lurking close to the north. Treers land and treers wasteland could be found in many different nations like the river banks as an example. This strip of it was small compared to others and on the verge of becoming desert in a few decades, The White Rose told the soldiers. She had spoken to the horsewoman and asked questions much to Cha-el's worry. How much had she let on? He wondered internally.

A voice behind them spoke; "Needing help?" In the pebbles tongue. Cha-el reached for his scythe but he had hidden it in his horse’s saddle fold to avoid suspicion earlier. And either way pulling a scythe on this stranger would probably not be a good thing.

The stranger was hidden in a cream leather trench coat covering them from ankle to mouth area. Non afro black hair was pulled into a short ponytail at the nape of their neck, not reaching further than their jaw. "Quite skittish I see."

"Do you want something?" Sash asked with the requesting air of 'step away or I'll break your neck' in her voice. "Yes" The stranger answered. "But that isn't what I'm meaning to talk with you soldiers about." They did a curtsy in the direction of The White Rose and Cha-el tensed up. The stranger knew who they were. He had just addressed Sash and Cha-el as soldiers and curtsied in front of The White Rose. This was no joke.

"I heard that you’re in need of a little bit of help, and I'm more than happy to serve The White Rose." The stranger said with slight submission and a hint of mystery in their cocky smile. The White Rose answered with "And I'm more than happy to accept" with the same calm and knowing smile.

End of chapter five.