The instructions that Drae had given them were pretty simple; the base camp was expecting a supply wagon coming from Sularia, and the six of them were to go and rendezvous with it to make sure that it reached the base camp without any issue. At the very least it was something to do since the group had more or less proved themselves rather useless in the medical tent and there wasn't much to do otherwise then direct people who were coming into the camp, and there were more than enough cooks in that particular kitchen to do that sort of thing. 

Most of the people in the company Iris considered family these days. Nathaniel was there of course, as were his sisters Holly and Foxglove, and their companions Dart and Justice. The six of them got on very well, and there was no shortage of interesting and stimulating conversation. All of them were intrigued by the events that had taken place with the appearance of Asyut and its mummified and spectral inhabitants but were hesitant to go venturing in. They after all, weren't the types of individuals to rush in unprepared. Dart, the more tactical minded of the group seemed quite vigilante as they trudged quickly through the sand back towards Sularia. 

"Dart! Move your molasses!" Justice hollered from the head of the group at the long legged individual who stood an easy head taller than most of them. Dart didn't answer but his bright intelligent gray eyes narrowed and he did indeed pick up his step to hurry and catch up with Iris. 

"Iris… how l-long ago did L-Lord Drae s-say this supply train left Sularia?" he asked her, doing his best to work his tongue around the phrase in the least halting way. 

The Avatar of the Keeper thought about it briefly. "He didn't say… but I will relay the question," she replied and projected the thought back to her Master. The response came pretty quickly. "He says they were due to arrive any time… why?"

"I've got a bad feeling," Dart replied. "This is a well t-traveled road. We've been walking plenty long, w-we should have met up with them by now," he replied, his tone serious and his otherwise present stutter almost gone with the seriousness of his thinking. 

Foxglove tilted her head at all of them. “You know… You could have asked me.” There was a light blush on her face now as she tried to keep her embarrassment down. “Did you forget about me.” Her fingers delicately played with the edge of her shirt.

For a moment Nathaniel stopped and looked back at Foxglove. He was taken back by how much she looked just like his mother once upon a time. “That’s right… We did forget.” Nathaniel facepalmed just a bit. “Do you sense anything on the sands?”

Foxglove bounced a bit as she pouted. “Even though this road is well traveled there haven’t been many who have traveled on it. Though in our case, people trying to survive the desert without aid from Mother would probably have stolen it.”

Holly groaned a bit. “Do we at least have a direction where it could be?”

Foxglove tilted her head for a moment as she nodded. “Northwest. That has to be the supply wagon… Though it is way off course than what it is supposed to be.” Nathaniel and Holly both groaned a bit. “Sorry… I wish it was better news. Please don’t be afraid to rely on me like you rely on Iris. I’m just as useful as she is, I promise.”

Dart looked at Foxglove and felt like a complete idiot for not consulting her first. He knew her abilities better than most people too. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. As he agreed with Nathaniel to have her do her thing. 

"M-my b-bad. S-Sorry Fox," he said apologetically, implying he had not meant to make her feel overlooked. 

Iris walked over and placed a hand on Foxglove's arm. "Thanks, Foxglove," she said appreciatively. "I wouldn't have known where to go," she admitted with a bit of a shrug. 

"I hate to break this up," Justice said as he crested the nearby hill. "But we have some ground to cover!" he called out. 

"What do you see from there?" Dart asked as he picked up stride to join the blond bard at the top of the hill. 
"Nothing bad, fortunately," he replied. "I see a shadow on the sand about a quarter of a mile to the north-west like Foxglove said," he said pointing off into the distance. Dart squinted and shielded his eyes with his hand and looked in the direction that Justice was pointing. 

"Yep… th-there it is," he looked back at Nathaniel and the others. "Let's get moving then!"

It was a rather dusty but quick jaunt the last leg of the trek to the clearly raided supply wagon. The wagon itself was on its side, and the nightmares that had been pulling it were stressed, rearing and pulling at the harness that attached them to the the overturned cart. 

Dart and Justice were the first two to reach the wagon, and it was clear they each had slightly different priorities. While Dart immediately began looking for the wagon drivers, Justice's first point of order was to calm the two agitated flame-maned mares that were still tethered to the wagon. 

"No d-drivers…" Dart said. "No trace, no prints," he said. 

"Check the supplies," Justice insisted as Iris and the others came up to the wagon. The Keeper's Avatar immediately began checking the crates and looked up at Nathaniel and the others.
"Everything is here," she said. "That doesn't make sense…" 

"I smell a rat," Dart said, suddenly on the defensive. "Nathaniel, Fox, Holly, help me get this wagon up right," he insisted.

Fox felt Dart looking at her and she blushed a bit across her dark skin as she shook her head. “Oh no Dart I didn’t mean to make you feel bad at all. I just thought I could be of help like everyone else.” Foxglove ran up to Dart and kissed his cheek gently rubbing her cheek against his to show how sorry she was. Her fingers entwined with his and she smiled gently. Surely, he would be alright now. She would hate to hurt his feelings.

Holly tilted her head. “Try not to be so much in a rush Justice,” the danced sighed a bit as she smiled at him. They were both on their best to move as quickly as possible. Nathaniel was surveying the land and very much distracted with the task Angela and Adraejen had given them.

“Nothing bad is hardly good though,” Nathaniel’s voice finally spoke up as he made his way over to Justice. “With things not being around, with no trace of what happened, and all the information we have this does not bode well for the caravan or us if we… That’s the theory I have… but we shall see.”

Finally, they found it with Justice’s help and the group was moving on once more. “Foxglove, I need you to see if there are any living things around. You should be able to read the land like Mother. If you cannot we will be at a severe disadvantage.” Nathaniel’s words had logic to them as he stared at the younger version of his mother.

“I just…” Fox had never practiced something so large spread before but she nodded and focused just a bit. “Mother is actually granting your request for you since I am not able…” The Avatar frowned a bit and played with the edge of her shirt. “She says that there are life forces but to be cautious not all is what it appears to be.”

The three Rosenites ran by Dart and basically pushed the cart over by themselves. Studying the sands and the cart for a long time Nathaniel lowered his gaze. “What’s wrong Thaniel?” Holly spoke as she looked at what he was.

“The smell… Earthly… Roses even… Ah hell…” Nathaniel stood up. “Run, just do what I say and run.” It was almost too late as the group found themselves surrounded by a group of women barely dressed. They had spears pointed at them.

“You take our goods?” One of the women spoke up.

Nathaniel held his hands up. “No dear cousins we do not take your goods. We were just looking for the wagon because it belonged to the Red Rose.” He had a spear in his face as one of the women heaved it just so he knew where he stood. “Antheia, are you here or are you just going to let them do what they want?” His green and red eyes flickered up to a perked woman with long blonde hair.

“No, leave them be… The wagon… Angela’s?” It was clear from the voice the woman had that the two women were not friends. Nathaniel nodded and Antheia scoffed. “She is lucky she has such power over the lands. We will take supplies of food… However,” Looking over at the group. “You have a group of caravans coming through with more supplies. Mummies are abound… I would focus on that.”

Holly had her hands up. “Cousin, will you tell us the direction or just leave us to wander.”

“You have Earth’s Chosen… You figure it out.” It took only a few moments for the women to take all the boxes that they claimed and haul them off.

“How did you know?” Holly leaned over to Nathaniel.

“Their smell… They didn’t leave this here to trap people… They left it here to bring back a way to take the items in it… People would be stupid to steal from them once they’ve claimed something.” Nathaniel murmured. “That would be Antheia… Queen of the Desert Nomads. Do not fuck with that woman. Her and my mother go a ways back… It’s not good.”

Foxglove was curled up in Dart. “That scared me. Reminded me of the Rainforest when I was caught.” There was a nervous laugh as Holly finally lowered her arms.

“Well, we at least have the healing supplies in this… but what about the other information.” The Red Roses looked to Justice, Iris, and Dart. “We can’t take back that food supply from Antheia… It’s pretty much damn impossible. We might have an advantage with Iris and Foxglove but… It would pretty much be civil war if we did.” Holly stated quite exhaustively.

Justice, Dart and Iris all turned to do as Nathaniel had instructed, but the appearance of the nomadic women, all with spears pointed lethally, their escape was effectively cut off. Dart and Justice had placed their hands on their weapons out of instinct as they had turned, but slowly slowly removed them to show they had no interest in a conflict. Fortunately, Nathaniel seemed to have the situation in hand as he called out to the woman who lead the nomads. In a matter of moments the situation was decided, and with some curt if not troublesome advice, the nomadic women were off with the supplies of food. 

Justice blew out his cheeks in relief. That could have turned nasty in a hurry. He turned back to the three Red Roses. 
"Let them keep the food. She said it herself, there are more caravans coming through. What they take now keeps the other caravans from being raided," he pointed out. "Besides, I don't think food is really as much the issue as the medical supplies were. Worst comes to worst, Lady Angela can create food. While it isn't as filling, it will still tide everyone over until the other caravans can come through," he said simply. 

"I a-agree with J-Justice," Dart replied. "L-Let's g-get this s-stuff back to base camp. Queen A-Antheia was r-right, mummies are all over." 

Justice walked over to the now righted and significantly lighter wagon and carefully patted the nightmares before he took hold of their harnesses. 
"Come on then. Girls, you climb in," he insisted. "We'll move faster if everyone grabs ahold. The mares will set the pace for us," he said. He held the harnesses as Iris climbed into the wagon and held out her hand to help Foxglove and Iris in as well. 

A few minutes later they were on the way again, this time with the wagon in tow. It was slow going on the deep sand, and Justice was doing his level best to guide the nightmares towards the trade road. It was taxing but eventually they reached the solid hardened ground of the road and were able to start traveling at a quicker pace. They were perhaps halfway back when Justice felt something slam into him bodily and sent him tumbling from the driver's seat of the wagon where he had climbed to upon reaching the road.