"Where?" I ask and gesture with my shoulders, "We. are. where.?" I point to myself and the girl, then to all around us.
She laughs at me and I'm feeling ridiculously frustrated. I just want to know WHERE we are going. What if we are headed back toward Kiziljer? What if we are headed straight for the camp where I ditched Cai?
~Well, what does it matter anyway?~
Even if these people are headed in one of those directions it's not like me -a newly bought slave- could change the direction that this entire caravan is going.
The young girl with braids who shares none of the same language as me has been put in charge of me, I think. She follows me everywhere and leads me places. She seems nice enough, she's always smiling and she laughs at everything I say, as if I'm the worlds greatest comedian. I'm not certain, but I think her name is Lolo, at least that's what people yell when they want her attention.
Our caravan travelled for a whole day and then when the sun was close to the horizon, everyone brought their carts to a stop and began to set up camp. I don't know if I should call it "camp" though, it was so freaking elaborate... Basically in a matter of thirty minutes an entire city of yurts was built in the middle of the desert.
Well, actually, I don't know If we are still in the desert anymore. There is actually grass here, dry brown grass albeit, but it's still grass! There is also shrubbery and trees that surround a small oasis that we are camped beside.
"njoo, njoo." Lolo says to me and takes my hand leading me toward one of the yurts that have been set up. I follow her and I'm taken by surprise we when we enter the Yurt. It's so big! how the heck did they set this up so quickly? Bamboo matts are being rolled out on the ground for people to sleep on, and a small fire place complete with a chimney to help get rid of the smoke is being built in the center of the yurt to keep us warm when the sun goes down. Based on the other people we are sharing the yurt with, this is either the young un-married girl tent, or the slave tent. I still haven't figured out the status of Lolo and the other girls, if they are slaves like me, they aren't really treated like it. I know at least that none of them are Mages; they all have black eyes, that are calming to me because I know I don't need to expect any weird magic from them.
Lolo sit's me down on a bamboo mat and begins muttering something under her breath as she looks at me. she clicks her tongue like she's displeased and then gestures that I take off my clothes. I look down at the black dress that I put on back in kiziljer. I haven't taken it off in days, it probably smells terrible and its torn in places and frayed at the edges, most of the fabric is stained or dirty and I realize I probably look the part of a slave.
I look around our yurt once and note that there are only girls here, then let Lolo help me undress. she helps me into a comfy brown pair of trousers that are similar to the ones all other girls wear, and a loose-fitting green shirt. I assume these clothes are the colors of Earth Nomads, and Lolo seems worried about dressing me in them. She finds the blue handkerchief that Cai gave me knotted into me hair, and tries to remove it.
But when she touches my hair she makes a disgusted face and looks at her fingers. She's probably reacting to the black tar-like substance that Naomi put in my hair to change it's color. I give her an embarrassed smile when she looks at me like 'what the hell did you do to your hair?' She sighs then continues pulling the handkerchief from my hair.
When it's finally out, she ties it to my wrist, and then pulls me to stand again. I follow her outside, and she holds my hand as we walk, for some reason it reminds me of when Altan used to walk me around the palace holding my hand.
Lolo leads me to the small oasis that we are camped beside, then she comes to a stop, she points at me, then points at my hair, then points at the water. I know exactly what she's doing. she's telling me to bathe.
I look around us again. The sun is nearly set now and most everyone is either inside their yurts or off in the center of the camp where someone is cooking food. I can smell strong spices wafting through the air, and my stomach growls in response.
Lolo says a string of words to me that I don't understand then points at the water again. I nod my head at her, I want to get in that water much more than she realizes. She nods her head back, then begins to leave me alone. She says something else to me as she walks away and I feel like she's telling me to come to the yurt when I'm finished, but I really have no idea.
I glance around myself as I get undressed, paranoid that a random person will appear and see me naked, but no one comes and I leave my clothes on a rock and jump into the water. The water is surprisingly cold and as I enter the water every hair on my body stands on end.
It feels wonderful. I can't believe how beat-up my body is. There are bruises everywhere on me, caked-on dirt in different places, scraped knees from crawling, sun burned shoulders and cheeks, and raw rope burns around my wrists.
~I must look terrible~
I dip my head under the water and try to run my fingers through my hair. To my delight, the stuff in my hair starts to wash out, I keep my hair under the water and rub my hands through it until it doesn't feel stiff and begins to feel like real hair again. When I bring my head out of the water I splash my face and the cold water feel wonderful against my reddened skin.
"I have to admit-" someone says next to me.
I scream at the sound of a male voice and dunk my body under the water.
~WHO THE HELL IS THIS!? WHEN DID THEY GET IN THE WATER?~
"You're better at escaping than I thought." I whip around and stare with wide eyes ahead of me and meet the eyes of Cai standing in the water beside me... NAKED.