A Night In The Desert

When the alchemist had approached the shaman about going into unmarked territory of a new realm and mingle with the locals, Kieran didn’t think Rei intended for him to be out in the goddamn desert hunting around with a tribe of Saurians who were the color of shimmering indigos - mostly because that’s who seemingly vines with Kieran the most. They seemed rather patient with him as he felt out their beliefs and shared some of the Lopilu magic with them, including some of his own healing abilities which fascinated them equally. Just talking with their shaman was a wonderful experience, but he was invited to their hunts where the apprentice went with him to explain everything while the shaman had their due diligence and proceedings.

A medic traveled with them, and Kieran kept a little small talk going in between exposition dialogue as he wanted to get a good casual vibe around them. They watched from a comfortable distance as the hunters tracked some beasts for a time but wound up going the opposite direction where they found some larger dino laying out on the sand in its death throes. Supposedly an equal sized predator took it down, but the apprentice assumed a different tribe that valued the glory of fighting the victor probably drove it off, given that they found a different hunting party’s tracks going in the same direction of the other dino. Kieran hummed curiously at this information, happy to take it in and wandering over as the lead hunter readied a knife to ensure the creature suffered no more, and whence the deed was done; the hunting party began the arduous task of tying ropes around it to drag it back with them. Kieran offered to help tie the knots and his help was appreciated as securing a big kill like this was a huge boon to the tribe.

On the way back, the apprentice and medic explained the different ways the tribe would keep the meat and use the bones and hide or how to best cure either. Kieran participated, offering some ways he knew about and how they were different but from a fascinating standpoint. Over all, he believed he made a good impression, and the tribe didn’t mind inviting him to feast with them since he did technically help. He did, however, ask for a much smaller portion than what they ate as they packed in more meat than he saw Rito devour in a night. He pondered asking for a second portion to steal away for the big ole red boy, but he figured it was better to just describe the succulent meal to the dorito and watch him salivate.

The night was surprisingly calm as the tribe did not want to tempt rival tribes to finding them, and instead took the time to teach Kieran how they read the stars or tell him of their constellations. Kieran didn’t even think they had some form of astronomy, but honestly; he was pleasantly surprised and talked at length with the apprentice about the stars themselves.

In the morning, after a power nap of his own, he set back to the main port with good wishes of the tribe and the invitation to come back any time he wanted to learn more. And he did want to come back eventually, but maybe with some back up… in the form of Big Red, probably.