Kagewani, of the Warriors Of The North, The Yasenyakatho Tribe, sat in the belly of the strange metal beast that glided across the sands with its magic. It was amazing, really. A beast that talked like a Great Cat and ran better than one, surpassing its revered speed and stamina, with growls which meant nothing that he could understand; yet it was tamed so easily. It was as though its master, this frail man-child sitting next to him, was controlling its every move by rotating its bones. The speed of the Shiny Sprinter however, as it came to be called informally amongst his people, made his stomach churn. It felt like he was poisoned when he moved at these speeds. Fighting to retain his last meal, Kagewani once again examined the red man.
Although weak-looking, he still had more muscles than a regular Red Person, or natively "Umuntu Bomvo", meaning that he was probably a warrior like himself. He knew that UmBo were extremely deadly, but only when they had their alien contraptions. Without those they were weak and powerless, vulnerable to be controlled in order to utilise the shiny animals that were brought to his homeland.
The UmBo next to him was unarmed and no threat to Kagewani, but he was still uncharacteristically angry with the weakling. The man (that had constantly repeated the word "Aldish" whenever he spoke, and so that's what he was now called) had come for the UmBo woman that he had found lying half-dead and disfigured in the sands that could boil human blood. After carrying this woman for two hours to his clan so that the Elders could decide her Fate, Aldish and his Shiny Sprinter's roar appeared and followed them for another whole hour. The UmBo man then brazenly came next to him, obviously demanding custody of the woman in his own language. What angered him was not the UmBo's terrible manner, which he had become accustomed to from them, but the fact that this woman had shivered like a traumatised child at the knowledge of his arrival. He did not know what Aldish did to this poor disfigured woman, but he figured that she probably ran into the deserts ill-prepared in order to escape him, meaning that whatever it was, it was beyond a doubt against her will. He had been taught by the villiage elders, as a patroller of the UmBo territory, all of their known customs. One of those customs was that they treated their women without respect, making them wear frilly clothing that intentionally hindered movement and made them weak and unable to fight, gather or even travel long distances.
A shadow cast itself overhead onto the travelling party, created by a dense flock of Salt-spitter gulls. This signaled their arrival to the shores of Domanack's freshwater ocean. Life of every colour and form scurried out of the way of the Shiny Sprinter. This teeming life that made its home on the beach was indicative of the great season that the land had been experiencing, with multiple rains and a drop in temperature, allowing for easier times for all of the animals and people. Kagewani worried about it, though. From what he had heard from the Elders, the UmBo were having uncharacteristically warmer weather in their homelands as well, and much of their territories were being swallowed up by their salt seas. He coined the term himself "the time of All-change". If things changed too much, he stressed, then perhaps the Salt-spitters would not be able to survive, and the only source of water which fertilised their lands would be gone. After all, the gulls are what made the ocean fresh near the shores and in-land, feasting on and purifying the harmful salt form the waters.
Kagewani's train of thought suddenly ceased with the sound of the Shiny Sprinter's black feet straining against the water-soaked mud of the beach. He hadn't noticed that Aldish had actually shut up for the past few minutes. Perhaps he was planning something? Internally he berated himself for not being more aware of this change. He put his hand firmly on the UmBo's shoulder to signal him to stop straining the poor animal. The sands of the desert made a compact ground when tread upon by something heavy, but when water was introduced not even people could easily traverse the terrain. The howls of the animal stopped, releasing a bout of stinky, dark gas from behind it, and Aldish murmured something. He was being quiet and calm, and Kagewani did not like this. It meant that the man was thinking, and with thought came the possibility that the foreigner might be able to outsmart him. He respected their intelligence and tact, like that of his own people. To do otherwise and look down upon them would be to invite the enemy to take advantage of that gap. In order to get this man's emotion to once again override his logic, Kagewani pretended that he took Aldish's murmuring as an insult and slapped him square in the cheek. Aldish screamed and tried to retaliate, but his girly advances were easy to deflect. With all that anger, there was no way for him to think up a good plan.
The slight sound of shuffling behind him meant that Aldish's scream had woken up the women. Kagewani looked back in order to evaluate her physical condition, but his first instinct was to quickly turn back and put his hand over his mouth. He fought this urge. The woman was truly a disgusting sight to behold. With her flesh seared off, her face looked like that of Umtiholi, the Devil of the lands. As she strained to sit up, puss and half-dried blood stuck to the body of the Shiny Sprinter, making a repulsive spider web of human fluids. He punished himself to not look away and think clearly. Kagewani realised that he would need to fix her body. Not only would she get infected and slow them down, but who knows which of the strange diseases these people brought with them he might catch. After completing his assessment, he turned back to Aldish to see his reaction. Kagewani did not know what he was more disgusted by: the mess of a woman or the pure disdain shown on the face of her "kin". Aldish sat still, a cold sweat forming on his brow, looking intently down into his lap. This man would not even acknowledge his fellow, who was going through more pain than he could ever imagine!
"Calm," he whispered to himself. He would not let this sorry excuse for a man cloud his judgment. He was amongst two of the enemy, and he could not afford to let up the advantage that he held. He forced Aldich to exit the Shiny Sprinter, opening and then closing its flesh in order to leave. Kagewani held his fist firmly in the direction of the prisoner's face the entire time, communicating that his attention and malice towards him would not waver for a moment. It was important that, even when dealing with other matters, such as single-handedly and carefully lifting the woman out of the creature, his fist remained pointed square between his enemy's eyes. The woman groaned loudly in pain, but she neither screamed nor struggled as he expected her to. She was handling the pain admirably. One firm step at a time, keeping his fist rigid towards Aldish, he made his way to the shallows and placed the woman floating into a tidal pool, supporting her neck so that she would not drown. Small fish came and lightly pecked away at the strands of puss, blood and scabs that floated in the water. Staring menacingly at Aldrich, he signaled him to sit next to her and not let her drown. Like a stubborn child, however, Aldish resisted, only daring to see the woman through his peripheral vision. This angered Kagewani, but that did not matter. He had already formulated a plan for this exact situation. Anger could only speed up and intensify his actions. He brushed his hand against the pool floor, stirring up sand until he touched what he was looking for. Grasping firmly to it, he uncovered an Earth-coloured fish, which activated its defense mechanism as it squirmed in his hands: puffing up like a balloon in order to escape to the surface. He let the fish come up, silently apologising for his cruelty as he snapped off the fish's fins and placed it under the woman's head. This flotation would last for about fifteen more seconds. After releasing the fish, Kagweani sprang to his feet, eyes fixated sharply onto Aldish. Before the UmBo could think about running, he had been grabbed by the neck and forced to the floor like a dog made to atone. Kagewani dragged the man's face through the mud without much effort, blinding him. He brought the now sightless man to the woman, almost breaking the man's arm as he forced him to support the woman's head in place of the fish. The coward would not move out of fear, he was sure of it. The whole thing had taken seven seconds. Over the sounds of Aldrish's violent sputtering (The idiot tried to scream and swallowed a handful of mud in the process) Kagewani once again took hold of the slippery fish, snapping its neck with his fingers to end its pain. With the fish's last exhale, he put its mouth to the woman's and squeezed the air into her lungs. It was an old medical superstition that the breath of a Bubble Fish, alive or dead, would help in recovery of a wound. It wasn't very solid, Kagewani thought, but it couldn't hurt; in addition to keeping its meat to eat it had another use, and at least one of her breaths was easier to make. He could not imagine her suffering with just one. It was fortunate for her that these people fainted easily.
Kagewani looked to the skies, immediately locking on to two or three Salt-spitters simultaneously who were lagging behind the flock from exhaustion. He waited a few seconds before one of them landed nearby to take a small drink. Without hesitation he leaped and grasped the bird before it could finish swallowing, carefully holding its neck to retain the water it had swallowed. With the bird struggling in his hands, he returned to the pool. A shocked Aldrish had just finished clearing the mud out of his eyes, and was surprised at the sight of the bird, but dared not move lest he receive the same treatment as two minutes ago. Kagewani let go of the bird's neck so that it would breathe and immediately located its salt stomach with his finger and pressed into it. Mixed with the water that it just drank, it violently expelled a salty mixture into the pool. This salt would be able to dis-infect the woman's wounds and seal them faster in the water. It was a difficult task to do this without breaking a single one of the bird's bones, but he was trained and well practiced, and so when he let the bird fly away to rejoin its group it did so without trouble. As it rejoined some of its flock on the ground, one of its members regurgitated salt into the mouth of the abducted with an unpleasant squelching sound. The birds could not fly without energy from the salt, and so a small donation was much needed in order to get back out into the deeper seas and gather more. Kagewani looked back to see the progress of the woman's healing. Oh no, her eyes were moving. She was waking up from her faint. He sighed heavily. This wasn't going to be fun for her. He quickly dashed to her side once again, pushing Aldrish out of the way, restraining her hands to her sides and her feet together. She would be able to fight for breath on her own. As soon as her eyes were half revealed, they snapped open and the woman looked to the sky with the expression of a madman. She let loose a shriek of absolute pain, writhing against Kagewani's hold. She Wailed and screeched desperately, the desperation of a creature who was fighting for their life. Just as Kagewani's grip was beginning to weaken from the frantic thrashing, the woman clenched her jaw and tensed her entire body. His eyes widened with amazement. This UmBo was struggling not against her restrainer, but against her pain. Kagewani gained new respect for her. She must have recognised the familiar stinging of salt in a wound and accepted it for its healing properties. She was getting used to it now, and with one last convulsion she relaxed, exhausted. Kagewani let her rest, floating in the pool, replacing Aldrish's hand. He looked to her face. Her eyes were closed and her visage was peaceful. Kagewani thought that, for a second, within her disfigured appearance, he might have seen a hint of beauty.
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