Alustriea sighed in pleasure as she pulled off a boot a dumped a fair bit of sand out of it, as she was doing her best to relieve her other boot of the invading grit she noted the others were not setting camp. "Shouldn't we get started on supper?"
Xing Lei shook his head, "We're only stopping for a short rest not the whole night, once the moon rises we'll continue on."
Alustriea gaped at the kobold, "But were we not resting for the night?"
Again he shook his head, "We'll make better time with the cool hours of evening. We'll make camp if we find a free oasis or the sun rises, we need to shift our travel times or you won't last too long."
Alustriea looked at Xing Lei but he shrugged, "It's simply what it is, crossing a desert on foot during the scorching day requires a vitality that you simply don't have yet. Rather than risk your health, easier to test ours and give you an more relaxed trip."
Frowning the elf crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Xing Lei, the look of betrayal in her emerald eyes rimmed with tears made him flinch slightly before shaking his head, "I'm not being mean, if you come down with any ailments while travelling the unrelenting sun will aggravate them, the deeper we get the chances to turn back will get slimmer, so best we do what we can now to ensure we all get through this."
Osilliaice glanced over, "The desert is that dangerous?"
Xing Lei nodded looking to the looming dune whose shadow grew longer and longer, "A desert is a merciless place, right now there's some heat but in the morning as the sun crawls into the sky the real heat will begin. Then there's the nomads and the patrols, we will more easily avoid them at night. Travelling at night will give us the most advantage."
Sighing the elf threw up her hands, hanging her head in defeat. "Alright, alright. I get the message, travel at night." Sighing as she pulled her boots back on with a groan of discomfort. Rewrapping her head those emerald eyes narrowed with discontent, leveling a glare at her lover, though Xing Lei just scratched the side of his muzzle.
When the time came Osilliaice and Xing Lei helped Alustriea back up guiding her out into the gloom, the moon slowly making it's way up into the darkened sky. The desert around them started to truly come alive which made Xing Lei more alert. Unlike the sun baked desert, the one draped in the pale moonlight was filled with life, all around the trio life that hid from the light surfaced and moved about.
Time slowly crawled on, while the going was easier as the heat no longer weighed so heavily on Alustriea's shoulders, still as the wildlife came to life their progress was now and then hindered as monstrous insects, giant scorpions or ants would occasionally bar their path. Osilliaice and Xing Lei took turns dealing with them, though the latter would always take time to harvest the bodies, much like the monstrous beasts he found no end of valuables to be carved from the carapaces.
Night eventually started to lighten, the moon sinking into the horizon as the trio found shelter, though little was to be found. The sun rose like a fireball into the clear sky, life abandoning the dunes as Xing Lei prepared a tent and food. Alustriea was barely concious at this point, travelling all day and all night had drained her strength. Her legs well accustomed to travelling long periods now hurt with every shift. The shifting sands beneath her boots having worked muscles she did not even know she had.
As he prepared a meal, Osilliaice was helping to try and relax their companion. Alustriea's groans of pain came from the tent as the lizardess carefully massage the sore muscles and limbs much to the elven womans both relief and agony. She couldn't figure out how they weren't hurting either, Osilliaice in particular had had no more rest than she, yet the lizardess was calmly helping her tend to her aches with no complaint which made her feel worse about her inability to do so on her own when her friend was likely just as tired.
Xing Lei stuck his head in through the flap as Alustriea was resolving herself to deny further help, "Food is about ready. She alright Osilliaice?"
"Just some strains, she'll be good and ready when we move out again." The lizardess nodded feeling Alustriea trying to wiggle free of her grip. Chuckling she gave her friends derriere a brisk seat, "You. Rest. No need hurting yourself trying to match us, you're a mage, we're warriors. Go figure we're less prone to being worn out from these sort of tasks."
Alustriea yelped covering the back seat of her robe with her hands, crimson covering her face and ears as a heat of another kind burned her face. Xing Lei joined his mate in Chuckling ducking back out to take up their meals. Osilliaice shook her head looking down on Alustriea, "Are you really trying to keep him from worrying like this?"
Alustriea blushed harder pulling her head wrap down over her face and burying her burning cheeks against the cloth, her sharp ears were both a vibrant red and emitted a heat that had nothing to do with being sunburnt. Refusing to answer her friend she started a bit when the lizardess laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I'll get you some food."
When Osilliaice ducked out, Alustriea lifted her blood red face and tried to calm down, between the exhaustion plaguing her mind, to her body rebelling against her mind she only wanted to dig a hole out in the dunes and bury herself. It didn't help when her friend spanked her but something was very wrong with her body. Ever since their initial stop she had been 'leaking' for lack of a better description. What made it worse was she wasn't even focused on anything naughty. Ever since Xing Lei awoke, her body was overheating in a less than pleasant way. Well, it WAS pleasant but it was inconvenient to say the least.
Before she staggered out to join the other two Xing Lei hefted a steaming bowl of... something. It looked like a soup but rather than chunks of chicken or beef, a greenish jelly like substance floated in the broth. The smell was very sweet, like honey, making her sniff a bit as the other two dug in with relish, glancing to them Xing Lei shrugged, "Better to not ask Alustriea, suffice it to say its edible."
Looking at the offered bowl she sat amongst her companions and dug in, while in the back of her mind she questioned what he had used to make the dish, the quelling of her hunger made it rather a moot piece of knowledge and did her best to not think too hard on it. "How far do you think we made?"
Xing Lei shrugged helplessly, while he did his best to keep the sun and moon to his sides he was as unfamiliar to the region as she was. "No idea, not too far in sadly though is what I could guess, we've not even seen an oasis yet so we're probably still on the deserts fringe. Try not to focus on the distance, we'll arrive when we do, counting the miles of sand will just grate on you."
Osilliaice nodded from the side, "What do we do when we reach the port?"
Xing Lei turned his gaze southward in thought, "We get a ship and see what's to the south, that island with the halflings sounds like a good place to settle in and finish our tempering."
Alustriea blinked, her emerald eyes widening as she looked upon Xing Lei, "We're headed to Tol-Vatal? That place is just a more intense savage lands, we could have stayed in your homeland."
Hearing this Osilliaice looked up from her meal giving a curious look to her mate, personally, she'd not heard too much about this other continent. Unlike the elves, kobolds really never bothered about areas outside their influence. Sure now and then groups ranged further but right now she felt she had gone further than any other in her old tribe, and now it seemed her mate was going to show her a whole new realm!
Xing Lei was shaking his head spooning some of the meal into his maw before answering, "Unlike the Savage Lands, this wild continent has been untouched by the majority of the world. I need resources to cross the last leg of my tempering and our homeland just doesn't have them yet, if it ever will. As we just saw, the human kingdoms are taking measures to eliminate threats early, to expect the expanding elven empire to do any less would be foolish. To stay here I would be limiting myself."
Alustriea frowned but then let out a sigh, "It's why we're not sitting in blood barrels again when we left Cheth Rrihinn isn't it?"
Xing Lei nodded, looking into his lovers gaze, ever since he awoke from his evolution he noted a slight change in his elven lovers personality. Maybe it was a close encounter with the possibility of dying to the soldier that had awakened it but Xing Lei more expected that Alustriea was becoming a little more aggressive now that she was cut off from the path. She was an adventurer and wasn't shy about taking lives but that battle he had awoken to she had been down right blood thirsty.
"My reserves have run dry, between my own needs then trying to supplement Osilliaice's and now your own, I simply don't have enough, we need a source that hasn't been hunted dry, it was either those wild lands to the south east or forgo body tempering and start spirit cultivation. While we have decent enough bodies, they're not perfect. I'd rather show you both the peak than leave my mates middling behind me." Xing Lei admitted honestly looking helplessly at both. In his old life plenty of cultivators never even used body tempering, they went straight to spirit cultivating, but those people never reached the apex. It was with inner demons he reached the apex before, his family watched but none had stayed anywhere close to his level. In this life, he wanted his new family to stay with him for every step, not just to watch him go on by himself.
Cultivating was ultimately a lonely road as others couldn't help you with the training and tribulations but this wasn't what he wanted. In their terms it would be like becoming a godly entity... yet being the only one to exist. Xing Lei was selfish, he'd never deny that he would watch the world burn in his pursuit of the apex. Yet he wasn't so selfish to want the apex alone, it wasn't a realm he wanted to reach and then look around and find no equals, no peers that similarly understood that level of power. Such is why he started to loosen his grip on his techniques as well. He didn't fear rivals, denying them the chance to oppose him? Was he so weak that he would deny a strong enemy?
Sighing internally he looked to the lightening sky, with dawn about to break over the desert he considered the battle back by the stream. They hadn't fully come to terms with what they had experienced, of regular weapons not being able to threaten them any longer. How long would the zest of life exist in either when they realized nothing in their homeland could oppose them, or force them to get stronger? Even the most strong willed would become complacent or disillusioned with life with nothing to make them work for greater heights.
As he guided the pair into the tent to escape the rising temperatures he hoped this Tol-Vatal would have what they needed, for it wasn't just higher rank beasts he needed. If his suspicions were right, Destorianaxe and her tribe was there, somewhere on that continent. By the time he reached it how much stronger would his new people have become? How many rivals would have trained up to push his own growth? Nestled between Osilliaice and Alustriea the kobold smiled inwardly, with stronger rivals he could grow stronger himself, it would be dangerous of course. He could trip on his road. But if he feared enemies, if he jealously guarded his power the world itself would trip him up at some point.
Many cultivators did not believe in karma, but he did.