They had traveled for quite away, quiet save for the occasional traded snipe. The blazing heat was constant, everywhere, with no escape but for the cool night when the sun rested. It was such that Cypress was able to tell the approximate passage of time by the temperature. A red hand curled around the staff that Ulanan found for her, though it was nothing more than a glorified walking stick. It was useful, dried splintery wood though it was, it allowed some measure with which to test the ground before her. A measure of stability when she stumbled on some unseen stone.
((Follows
None of Us Would Ever Come Home Again))
Thal kept his spirits up as much as possible as the trio made their way vaguely northward towards Highbridge, forcefully injecting some spring in his step though he felt inexplicably exhausted. Every so often he pondered the problem of disguising the kid but would shrug it off after a few minutes as something that would resolve itself in time. He would figure something out. He always did.
He also made sure to keep an eye on K'ile, though the Tia had so far not made a move to attempt escape or attack. Still, despite Thal's outwardly relaxed demeanor, his senses remained on high alert - not just for the Tia, but for the Amal'jaa he half suspected to leap upon them at any moment.
He was so on the watch for these two specific events that he failed to notice another pair of wanderers until they were nearly upon them. His light steps stopped completely and he grabbed at D'aijeen to hide her behind himself as he watched the pair - a lalafell and a roegadyn, if he were not mistaken - approach from some dozen fulms away. There wasn't time to get to hiding and not look suspicious, so instead Thal went whole hog into a greeting: "Hey there, strangers!" He called out, flashing a grin with his tired face and blue eyes. One hand lifted in a wave and he hoped the Tia's shirt was enough to hide the worst of his body's wounds.
In her head, under the large white hat, the lalafell was performing some kind of training regime. Instead of pulling the Roegadyn's clothes constantly, she instead walked ahead of her and called out in the right direction. She warned her about obstacles and gave directions. She nudged her with the hand only when it seemed she wouldn't be able to go past an obstacle. Or when she was about to fall horribly to her death.
That last one had never happened, though. There was a large crevice crossing Eastern Thanalan, going from the Burning Wall all the way to the north. But they had the good sense to not walk near it. In fact, they couldn't even if they wanted: the more they walked, the farther it was left behind.
Her thoughts and the monotony of the journey were interrupted when she noticed people ahead and, once they were closer, a friendly greeting from one of them.
"Hello." she greeted, plainly and lifting her own hand.
K'ile had smelled the approaching strangers long before their arrival, grateful to smell something other than the stink of death rolling from his unburied family. As Thal stopped in his tracks, K'ile kept walking right past the man, lifting his arms over his head. "Hey there, strangers!" He recognized the smell of one of them, the Lalafel. He didn't run across a great many Lalafel, otherwise he'd likely have forgotten. He didn't remember where he'd smelled the Lalafel before, but even as he tried to place it, he would not let himself believe it a coincidence. "Strange to run into people in the middle of nowhere. I bet you're looking for something, aren't you?"
K'aijeen pinned herself up against Thal's back, well away of how she looked. She cast about for some hole to hump in, but couldn't find any, so bundled her rags up tighter around her. She recognized the Lalafel's voice. She'd heard it before. She didn't know what to expect from that Lalafel here, however. And the other... There had been another, hadn't there? She'd barely caught a glimpse before Thal had blocked her away.
By the time K'ile was chatting away, Thal had gotten a second look at the pair and did a doubletake. For several seconds, his expression slackened, and he blinked at them. Then he plastered that grin right back on and chuckled to hide his uncertainty. "Fancy meeting you out here."
A gentle breeze rode across the sands, a welcome thing it was in this heat. But it brought with it traces of unpleasant scents, though what they were was not easy to define in the acidic dryness of the air. Cypress stayed next to Ulanan, towering over the tiny lalafel as she tried to isolate the exact smells that seemed to come from the group that they had apparently met. She leaned down to quietly speak to the other woman, "There is something not right in the breeze that they bring with them."
Ulanan glanced once at each man, and once at the smaller person hiding behind the back of one of them. Or whatever little she could see from her which wasn't much at all. She hummed once, head half-turned to Cypress.
"We are." she replied to K'ile. She made a pause to look at him better. "We are looking for a Miqo'te tribe. The Hipparion tribe."
"You're a bit west for that, and we don't look too fondly on outsiders. Most of us don't anyway. I'm K'ile Tia." He walked gladly toward the Lalafel and the Roegadyn, separating himself from those other two Miqo'te as far as he could. He smirked down at the Lalafel. "I know you from someplace, right? I don't go to Ul'dah a lot. And you're looking for the K's, so..."
Thal raised one brow, ears tilting while he kept his eyes on the familiar roegadyn. "What're you looking for them for, exactly?"
Cypress's head turns up towards the voice, "For information. We are looking for a couple of persons. We were told they were headed to this tribe that my companion speaks of..."
"They showed up in the Church north of camp Drybone." Ulanan elaborated, gesturing with one tiny hand. "One of them left there an injured tribe membember."
When the Roegadyn spoke, K'aijeen stiffened, straightened, inhaled a quick breath. She grabbed Thal's shirt with both hands and pulled herself flush against him, hissing, "She's going to kill me! She's going to kill me!"
"Oh, yeah." K'ile Tia said with a jovial shrug. He gestured over his shoulder. "You're looking for these two. Yeah, we got in a fight, so that was me, the injured guy. Kind of embarrassing but I'll own it."
Thal let out a long sigh. "Oh boy." He put one hand behind him, pressing it against D'aijeen in what he meant as a reassuring gesture. "Well, y'found us, so unless you're willing to help us out with our own little problem, we'll just be on our way."
Cypress stared out emptily in their general direction, "I recognized your description from Gridania. I let you go then, but now you harbor and care for that which I have followed all this long way."
"Don't know what you're talking about," Thal shrugged, choosing to play dumb. He grimaced and rubbed at his hair. "Look, can this wait? A bunch of lives are at stake."