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[Weirdsound]

Upload the image to this site: http://imgur.com/

Once you do that it should give you instructions for putting a picture in a forum post.

[Weirdsound]

Also: Might as well check check out the tomb.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

You close up the map, chewing your lower lip as you do so. It probably is the best decision to head to the tomb at this point.

You point the mahj in the right direction and enjoy a bit of shuteye as the beast is lead by the thrall at a mans walking pace.

...

You wake up to the thrall tapping you on the leg and gesturing with its arm at a far off shadow twisting in the heat. The sun has just climbed above the horizon, still only a massive glowing crimson half sphere. Near as you can tell you are a little over halfway to your destination and the day is almost upon you, and from the looks of it, whoever is coming your way is almost upon you too.

What do you want to do?

[Weirdsound]

Go off the path a bit. Try to keep him out of clear view so he wont be able to ID the thrall for what it is. If the oncomer alters course to go after you, prepare yourself for a fight.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

Your mind races as you remember your masters words. You take a few breaths to keep calm and veer off from your course a bit, enough to not be caught by whoever is heading your direction. From his distance you imagine it looks like a two men and a mahj, not a particularly odd site, aside from the fact that few people visit Ataf, not odd enough to raise any suspicion anyway.

 You plod along in this new direction, aware that you will have to correct for it at some point or miss your mark. Periodically you have been checking on whoever has been following you. It appears that the follower has altered it's course as well but it doesn't look like they have a mount, which would mean that they would have trouble in this heat. Then again the same could be said for your mahj, after walking all night the animal looks tired but not to exhausted to continue. You can see it's black tongue sticking out as it pants and are sure that it will need water soon though.

You estimate that you are a little under half of a day away from your destination.

What to do?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

inventory:
A pair of ankle high leather sandles, worn
a pair of loose fitting lenin trousers, brown, worn
a sash, brown, worn
a thobe, brown, worn
a shawl, brown, worn
a satchel, worn
an obsidian knife, worn
a map
a pouch, full with ash, worn
a pair of sunslits, chitin, worn
a veil, undyed, worn
a waterskin, worn

Resources:
8 days provisions
10 days water
1 mahj, tired, thirsty
1 thrall, bind knot and effigy intact

[Gotdamnmiracle]

New suggestions? Anyone? Bueller?

[Spinal_Taper]

Continue, keeping an eye out for water.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

Continue, keeping an eye out for water.

You have water. You just need to stop and let the mahj drink it. Do you want to do that with that person following you?

[Spinal_Taper]

Continue, making sure to note any oasises. Give the mahj a drink if we don't find any.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

You chew your lip nervously. The sun is beating down with full force and your mahj looks tired and parched. It was a bad idea to push on and not rest through the day, even if there was somebody following you. You look around, keeping your eyes peeled, desperate for a water source that doesn't dig into your supply. The search, as you know is hopeless however, considering you are in Ataf. The only water around for days is the slow collecting well at your home and possibly a solar still if you were to get one up, but right now you don't have the tools or the time.

The shadow seems to have slowed their pursuit, but they can still see where you are and they have not yet halted. As you sit attop your mahj in fact you realize that the shadow has stopped atop a dune and it looks like it is gesticulating. Waving it's arms perhaps?

Far past you, maybe a quarter of a days travel away you can make out outlines of non natural structures, twinkling in the light. That seems to be your destination. Worn pillars and collapsed mounds of shaped stone meld together in the distance and twist in the heat.

You fasten up your shawl over your face and fix your veil as a gust kicks sandat you. The wind is picking up and shelter seems a good idea. Pushing your mahj any harder may be bad for it's health however and it is obvious that it needs repose.

Small patches of grass blow in the wind and rustle giving a bit of a foreign noise to the usuall howl of the dunes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

inventory:
A pair of ankle high leather sandles, worn
a pair of loose fitting lenin trousers, brown, worn
a sash, brown, worn
a thobe, brown, worn
a shawl, brown, worn
a satchel, worn
an obsidian knife, worn
a map
a pouch, full with ash, worn
a pair of sunslits, chitin, worn
a veil, undyed, worn
a waterskin, worn

Resources:
8 days provisions
10 days water
1 mahj, tired, parched
1 thrall, bind knot and effigy intact

[Weirdsound]

Take a drink break. Let the pursuer catch up if it wants. If he isn't somebody you know and trust, jump him with the Thrall. If it appears to be more than one person when they get closer, send the Thrall ahead. No point announcing to a lynch mob exactly what you are.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

You decide to stop and rest the creature untying the large pot from its back and opening it up. The water isn't meant for animals as big as a mahj to drink out of so when the creature finally is sated it has drink 4 days of water leaving you with a remaining 6. You are mildly frustrated considering this was preventable if you had only rested duringg the day and traveled by night. An amatuer desert dwellers mistake you suppose.

As the hours pass and the sun slowly begins to crest the winds begin to grow until finally it is a full fledged sand storm. Luckily you aren't moving or else you would have been lost for sure. You lay down your mahj and sit leaning up against it. The thrall remains standing, braced against the wind, completely stationary and solid. You would have mistook him for a statue if you were a little farther away.

A voice yells over the wind "Hail!" You look, startled and see the faint outline of a person, your persuer. He yells again, "I mean no harm!"

He doesn't yet seem to be able to tell thet the thrall is risen dead and mistakes him for a person in this storm. You can't tell if he sees you yet, sitting behind the mahj, but he seems to be talking to the thrall.

You brandish your knife, pulling it off of your sash and wait. The persuer seems to be about ten strides away from you and the thrall.

[Weirdsound]

Have the Thrall sit behind the beast so as not to be seen, and hear the man out. If he is hostile, or figures out what you are, we have a problem.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

"Sit" you say quietly, commanding the thrall and pointing to where you sat before rising to a stand. The thrall complies andyou turn your gaze in the direction of where you think the voice came from.

"What is it you do mean then?" you say in your best attempt at voutin, the common tongue.

The figure, that sounds like a man, seems to be taken off guard a bit by this. "I... Well the same thing you mean to do I think/estimate."

"Remind/tell me what I'm doing here stranger/foreigner/alien." you say with no lack of venom.

"Looking/hoping to find some treasure/assets in a dusty old tomb. Why else does anyone come to Ataf? I saw you and another were heading this way. Probably are expecting a wide haul/win considering you brought a [you don't know a few of these words after this point but from what you can glean he want's to come with you and help you comb over the tomb]"

Some of his speaking was hard to follow but you think you got the gist, or most of it atleast.

[Weirdsound]

"Are you proposing that we are rivals then?"