Chapter Three: A Mirage of Hope

   Jairo nearly put his face through the top of the shelter at being woken up to Kort's whooping. He laid down again and put his arms on top of his face. Why oh why did he have to do it so suddenly? At least he loved his watch because of that. Jairo let out a deep breath and rubbed his face before wriggling out of his shelter. The moon was rising in a bright gibbous to the east, and the twilight deepened into night as he packed up.

   They set off again bleary-eyed, and this time Jairo stood at the back of the line. Stay independent. Do not be helpless. Jairo practiced with his sword as he went, attempting to be as fluid and swift as possible. He tried different things as he thought them up; blocking, attacking, balancing, dodging, fighting with one hand, the other hand, both hands, in reverse grip, switching from one hand to the other, implementing combinations with punches and kicks. 

   By the time they stopped for breakfast Jairo had almost given Kort a shave (who thankfully didn't notice) and was using fire in his combos. He rested the glowing red blade delicately on the sand nearby instead of putting it in the leather sheath. Jairo put his back to the steepest dune and kept the horizon and the other five in his view. He lifted his canteen and checked the contents. He had enough for a couple days, but for those who only brought enough for three would need water by the end of today.

   Jairo ate quickly and tried to meditate. He listened to the measured rasp of Hyle carving his bones. He tried to tune out the other sounds (mainly Korf's loud eating), and listen to every nuance of the grating between bone and stone. He could practically feel the patience and careful movement in every cut as Hyle slowly created, what it was he didn't know.

   A loud belch interrupted his focus, and Jairo opened his eyes to see a contented looking Korf lay back on the sand. He glared at him balefully for a second before rearranging himself and looking at the sand beneath him. He picked up a few grains and held them in his hand, cupping the other over the top to enclose it completely. Jairo heated the grains as steadily as he could, slowly but surely rising in temperature.

   He thought a tiny sound emerged, but he didn't stop and kept heating. Jairo kept this up until the grains had to be a good deal hotter than they were to change into the transparent material. He opened his hands and a bright white dot of liquid rolled around in his hand. It quickly started dimming and moving around more sluggishly, and Jairo held it up to the moonlight. When it was solidified it sparkled brightly, and upon closer inspection seemed almost completely smooth, and invisible unless you moved it.

   Excited about the discovery of this finer transparent material, he tried heating a handful of sand the same way. The temperature rose again, but Jairo was starting to feel light-headed. He kept pushing, but before he got it high enough, everything swung forward and fell into blackness.

-----V-----

   Jairo woke to everyone staring him in the face. Crap. Stay independent. He tried to sit up and put their back to them. Dae stood up, alarmed.

   "Hey, you just passed out. Don't get in a hurry, else you will again."

   Jairo stood up. "I feel fine," he said. And he did feel fine.

   "What were you doing, then?" Dae asked.

   "I was trying to make a purer form of that transparent stuff." Asa muttered something about fire and weird magic before going around a dune to do his business now that the Jairo crisis was over.

   Hyle sighed. "At least you were only out for a couple minutes. When Asa's done we'll be off."

   Jairo tried to hold a flame in his hand, and after getting it not to flicker so much, searched where he had been earlier and picked up the sparkling piece of cooked sand. He showed it to the other four, who watched it glitter in the moonlight until Asa came back from around the dune. Jairo walked slower so the others would pass him and he could stay in the back.

   Asa pushed past him. "Don't fall behind, Jairo,"  he said.

   Shortly after, Jairo spotted something in the distance.

   "Hey, anyone else see that?" Jairo called to the front.

   Kort snapped awake, and everyone else looked up. Within a few minutes, the shape grew more defined and acquired depth. A mountain stood before them, thankfully not in their way but a bit off to the left.

   "Just in the middle of nowhere," Asa said, and Jairo nodded before realizing no one was probably looking at him.

   "Yeah," he said.

   "Do ya think there might be some water, or animals to eat up there?" Korf asked, craning his neck to get a better look at the top.

   "We should probably keep our current heading," Hyle said. "Keep going west until we get to a better climate."

   "But there's gotta be at least ONE goat or something up there!" Kort whined.

   "Probably not very many," said Dae, shaking his head. "They'd be difficult and dangerous to catch as well. And the likelihood of there being water is minuscule. No, the mountain is too far out of our way."

   "At least it makes for a good land marker," Jairo offered.

   Hyle nodded, and they continued on in silence. When Hyle called to halt for lunch, everyone slumped down, and Jairo made sure he had his eyes on everybody. Afterwards Jairo sat down for meditating again. He tried listening to the wind whispering across the desert, and in between Korf's loud bites he could start to pick out the slither of sand being knocked around by the breeze. He heard footsteps crunching towards him, and Jairo opened his eyes to see Hyle approaching with an armful of his carved bones.

   He sat down and wordlessly started sorting out the pieces. Some had sharp edges, some had crosshatches etched into them and were round, others just square corners, but they all had blob-shaped protrusions and recesses, like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

   Hyle began to speak. "So, Jairo, I hear you've been able to fuse grains of sand with your powers of the Fire Child." He looked up meaningfully.

   Jairo looked up at him curiously. "Yeah..?" he said cautiously.

   Hyle picked up two pieces and handed them to Jairo. They fit into each other perfectly, but they just slipped apart and wouldn't hold.

   "Do you think you could fuse bone? he asked.

   Jairo shrugged. He stared intently at where the bones touched, and reached for the heat again. It was becoming really easy to do now. He heated the bone, but Jairo soon discovered that bone had a higher capacity for heat than sand. He willed the heat to not spread throughout the whole bone, but to stay in the small area where he was working. The bone began to change color, and as the temperature rose steadily, his thermal vision detected the bone was starting to fracture. Then playing on a hunch, Jairo tried to give it a sudden burst of heat. The bone where he was focusing on spontaneously melted and he had to put his fingers under to not lose any of the hot material. Then he drew out the heat as quickly as he could and it re-hardened, adhering to the other piece. Jairo allowed himself a small smile.

   He did the same thing several times for a couple minutes until all the bone he could see was connected.

   "What are you planning?" he asked Hyle, handing him the fused segments once he had cooled it to a safe temperature.

   Hyle grinned and placed the two pieces in the finished shape of all the bone pieces.

   "A bone sword?"

   He nodded, grinning. "No animal our tribe has ever hunted has had a single bone wide enough for a sword such as this. With me making the pieces, and you fusing them together, we could make any kind of equipment we want. Weapons, armor, tools, heck, anything!"

   "It would take a bit to do that," Hyle admitted, but then he sparked again. "But think of the possibilities!"

   Jairo wasn't looking forward to fusing bone bits all day. "Let's stick with some swords for now, ok?"

   Hyle nodded and left him to it, with a small satchel to hold the pieces. Jairo spent the time after lunch fusing bits together, and had almost gotten them all into pairs when the flaring of heat caused a bone to snap. Jairo cursed under his breath. He used his thermal vision and saw the bone was hollow inside. Curse bird bones. Different types of bones could have jeopardized the integrity of the whole sword. Hyle would have to start all over.

   Jairo called Hyle to the back of the line. Jairo explained the problem posed by different bones and how he'd have to start over. Hyle just puffed out his cheeks and exhaled heavily.

   "This is gonna take even longer than I thought, then," Hyle said. Jairo nodded in agreement.

   Supper came and went. The others didn't know what was wrong, but the unhappy feeling spread around and everyone was miserable by the time the moon was at the horizon.

   Then Asa shouted.

   "Over there!"

   Jairo looked up, and saw what everyone was now looking at. What appeared to be the top of a tree visible over the dune. They all climbed to the top, and before them stood what Jairo thought was the most beautiful place he had ever seen. An oasis, with an amazing pond of standing water, surrounded by thick vegetation and some trees. Everyone rushed down excitedly, despite the late hour and the recent atmosphere. The brothers cannon balled into the pool, splashing and refreshing everyone.

   "Woohoo, water!

   "Best, time, ever!"

   "Hahahaha!"

   "Water! Fresh water!"

   After several minutes of festivities, they all stood around a small fire Dae had wisely made. A large bug buzzed over and landed on Kort's shoulder, who anxiously tried to swat it off.

   "Food!" Asa said. "There's gotta be some animals in this place that we can eat."

   We then split up in pairs to rove the oasis for any larger animals. Jairo and Dae were wandering around when a bush to our right rustled. A wild boar charged out at us to defend its territory. It was surprisingly fast and Dae barely dodged out of the way. He clutched his arm and took in a sharp breath.

   The boar turned and began to charge again. Jairo made a small flame which scared the boar out of its wits and it tripped onto the ground. He rushed in stabbed it in the throat, then cut off the head completely.

   Jairo turned to Dae and looked at his cut. Nothing deep, but it could get infected if not taken care of. The two of them, mostly Jairo, then dragged the boar back to the campfire. Hyle and Korf caught a bird, and Asa and Kort got nothing.

   "Try washing off the blood, I'll be right back," Jairo told Dae and he went over to his pack. He rummaged around for his old bandages, but they were nowhere to be found. He emptied it out on the ground and the only thing resembling bandages were a couple scraps of cloth. Crap. He didn't EAT them did he?

   Jairo walked back over. "Sorry man, no bandages."

   Dae tilted his head in a weird little shrug and went over to pull a leaf off one of the trees. He wrapped it around his arm and made some small cuts in the leaf to help knot it together.

   A spit was constructed, then they all enjoyed cooked boar and bird that night, and the other half of the remaining boar was set up to be smoked overday (not overnight) into jerky for more lasting food. Jairo went to sleep with his back to a tree and watching Korf slowly turn the boar over the flames.

-----V-----

   Yelling woke up Jairo suddenly.

   "Bandits!" yelled Korf.

   Jairo desperately tried to get out of his shelter, but something hard bludgeoned him in the side of the head and darkness swarmed over him.

-----V-----

   He woke up momentarily, and had the sensation of being dragged across the sand. Must he always rely on others and have them fail to protect him? Maybe staying independent meant being able to trust no one. Then he faded out again from the massive headache he had.

-----V-----

   Jairo woke to a bright light above his face, and felt like he was leaning against something soft. He tried to turn his head, but a wave of pain emanated and he groaned, trying not to move any further.

   "Hey, this one's awake boss," some deep-voiced man said.

   The bright light came directly in front of his face and he blinked rapidly, trying not to look directly at the light. After a few seconds his eyes adjusted and he saw a rusty iron lantern with a flame burning brightly inside. Directly beyond that was the ugliest face Jairo had ever seen. An eyepatch hung over one eye, probably covering a ruined eye from the gash that went from his left temple to his nose. Crooked teeth, some of them missing, grinned at him wickedly. Black greasy hair hung down from under a musty-looking thing on his head. The one good brown eye glinted evilly.

   "Like my hat?" he said. Assuming it was a he from the hair and the lack of personal hygiene, not from the pitch of his voice.

   "Uh, what's a hat?" Jairo asked, confused. "Where am I? Where are my friends?"

   "Hmm, so more boys from that desert village. Well, boy, you shouldn't be worrying about where you are, but WHAT you now are. Now, you and your friends are eternal servants to the great and mighty bandit lord, Saph." He stood back and assumed a proud a pose as he could with a hot lantern and a small build.

   Someone behind him groaned. Sounded like Asa. Jairo tried to move his hands, but found they were tied with rope to a metal ring that would not move. He and the others must be tied up just like him around this metal ring.

   Saph leaned maliciously over Jairo again. "So, what do ya think, boy?" This time Jairo felt and smelt Saph's rancid breath, and he almost gagged. 

   Saph frowned at this. "I'll deal with you people later." He motioned to someone behind Jairo. "Take them to a cell." he said dismissively.

   Jairo felt like about as pampered as a bag of meat as he was hauled unceremoniously up and along some hallways, then slung into a dark and colder room. He tried to make himself as comfortable as possible while tied to a metal ring with everyone else, and went to sleep again. He better get all the rest he could, for Jairo doubted that being in the forced service of a vile bandit leader would be good.

Author's Note

Checkup on geographical lore: All that is known about Jairo's (by Jairo and reader) world is the Foore Desert that is intermittently broken up by mountains or oases. No other races have developed the ability to live in the desert as Jairo's people has.
Also, he has never seen a hat before.

Reviews

[Rose of Gondor]

....'m loving the making sand into glass thing cause that would actually work haha.

[Professor Xeronian]

me too, but unfortunately i haven't found any practical uses for it yet other than leading up to the bone fusing.

i need some way to moderate my chapter length -_- the first one is decent, the second one is significantly shorter, and this one is longer than anything else so far

[Rose of Gondor]

I dunno. I mean, glass is pretty fragile, so maybe no combat abilities (except sneaking up on an enemy and slitting their throat, but you know, that's bloody and stuff). On the other hand though, hot, liquid glass? I'm sensing really awesome liquid-glass-bending stuff lol

About moderation: Force yourself to write at least seven pages a chapter. That's what I do :D

[Professor Xeronian]

you mean like size-of-the-box pages? because otherwise it's just one long box, i dont put it throught microsoft word or something first...

[Rose of Gondor]

Oh :P Then I guess um....no? I'm getting myself kinda confused.

[Professor Xeronian]

do you have skype or something? where new messages are updated into notifications automatically, and you dont have to refresh the page constantly

[Rose of Gondor]

nope :P I live a sheltered life. Basically if you can't be reached through email or sites I'm on there's no possibility of reaching me haha

[Professor Xeronian]

i see lol

so no one can track you down and kill you for murdering the head of the CIA...
yeahhhhhh that was some random morbidity there

[Rose of Gondor]

shhhhhhh you're blowing my cover.

[Professor Xeronian]

haha ok, totally not sending an email to the police station... and DONE
muahahahahaha

[Rose of Gondor]

Pfffffft fine time to switch covers.