"Alright, you know the drill. We move in, skirt the outer walls, pick up anything we find, and hightail out of there. Remember: don't get surrounded, stay with your partners, and leave immediately when it gets too dangerous. There's always next time. Ready? Let's get going!" Shiloh landed into the sand softly, leaving her borrowed mount a good distance away and out of the mummies' line of sight. Today their mission was simple: grab as many artifacts they could carry and come back to Aestas in one piece. It was a special request from the camp organizers–the mages in particular. If they were lucky, they'd find something useful to help increase the survival rates of everybody coming through here. But first things first, they had a job to do.

She was with a familiar face–Gale, the girl whom she had met in Jasumin a while back. This time she wasn't alone, and had made a few friends along the way. A phoenix and a sphinx were just a couple of them. There were others in their scouting party today, and she hoped that everything would go smoothly. As much as she didn't want to nag, she made sure everyone understood the plan and knew what to do in case of an emergency. With her knapsack ready, she was off. The sprawling acropolis surrounding the pyramid still had a few relics left to offer. The sands hadn't claimed everything, though the tricky part would be going into the abandoned buildings. Open areas with multiple avenues of escape were best, but most of it had been combed clean. It didn't matter if she found an unused urn or a chamber pot, they were still 'artifacts' and would get her paid for it.

Setting her sights on an area with a high vantage point up above, she began running while keeping her profile low and close to the ground.  

"Tch, Tch, Tch, Tch." Serci clicked with his tongue. His hand held various crumbs of crushed bread that he was spreading around to the many stray cats in the area. He sat on a crudely put together bench under an equally crude shelter. He was clothed heavily in his white and grey robes to protect his skin from the agitating sand. His hood was pulled tightly around his face and bits of his long, blonde hair peaked out from he hood. A breeze made its way through the shelter kicking up sand and the smell of feces.

Next to him sat a half empty bottle of Angela's wine. He poured the rest of the delicious red wine into a canteen, while he walked to station where the helpers gladly refilled his water canteen. He arrived a day ago where he spent his time patching structures, refilling water, generally helping around the outpost. Serci's healing abilities was nothing special to be certain of, he stayed out of the way and let the experts tend to the injured and helped in other areas. However, he was ready to set out today. He unsheathed his sword half way, admiring the glow of Anglea's powers. No doubt it would come in handy with the onslaught of undead mummies roaming around.

He sheathed his sword and stood up, covering his eyes to protect them from the airborne sand. He walked his way out of the outpost out into the vast desert towards the city. He traversed many dunes, as the sand buffeted him from the sides, the heat of the desert increasing as he left the magical barrier that enshrouded the outpost. In the distance towards east he could see a sandstorm brewing in the desert.  He kept a steady pace as climbed up another dune steep slope. As he came to the top of the dune, he took a look at his surroundings, taking a few swigs of the water in his canteen. The city wasn't far now. Not far from him were the beginnings of ruble and debris from the forgotten city. Tightening his hood around his face he began to slow his pace as he entered the city.

The crunch of his boots against the sand was louder than he expected it to be as he started to move closer to cover as continued his treck into the city. The ruble began to grow in size until eventually the towers and homes loomed above, providing amble shadow to hide in. He could hear a disturbance in his surroundings, interrupting the howling wind. Keeping close to cover he trailed the sound around corners and across openings until he say a shuffling mummy. The rags were decayed and rotten. What once used to white was now a mix of brown and red, dirt crusted to the strips of the ceremonial paper that once wrapped the dead. The mummy was easily Serci's height,  and continually moaned, adding to the various wails in the damned city.

Making his way slowly to the mummy, staying within cover of the buildings,  he made his way to the mummy. He cleared his throat softly, "Rest easy, and may your passing be quick." The mummy, alerted to his presence made his advance to Serci all to slowly giving him ample time to get into stance and feel out his sword. Stepping back with his right foot, he placed his left hand onto his enchanted sword buckled to his right hip. His pinky followed by his ring finger and so on curled around the hilt of the blade and slowly unsheathed the sword with a sharp metallic sound as the sword  the desert air, free of its sheathe. His right arm found its way to his shield and he braced his self for the slow approach. In one quick, fluid motion, he lowered the sword and drew a diagonal slice on the mummy. Letting out a moan as Serci softly bashed the mummy in the chest with his shield, the mummy reeled back exposing his chest. Serci drew back his arm and thrust forward, plunging the sword deep into the undead's chest. He pulled back and the mummy fell on the ground. He said a soft prayer, and continued his hunt.

Hours passed and Serci found his self in what must've been a bust part of the city back in its hay day. Many buildings, dilapidated as they were, surrounded the area and allowed Serci cover to a short reprieve. He took a swig of the wine, letting the earthy notes flow down his throat as he sighed in soft relief. He heard shuffling around the back side of the building that he was taking his break. Investigating he followed the sound around back to find a beautiful women picking random things and putting them down. Not sure if this was friend or foe, he kept his distance but it was all for naught as the women must've noticed him. He stepped out of his cover and pulled down his hood, revealing his face, his long hair happy to breathe some air.

"Hold, fair beauty. I mean you no harm. I am with the outpost here to rid this city from the mortal world. I am Serci, one of Angela's order. You look like you may need help, may I offer my services?"

So far so good. No sight or sound of undead trailing after her, which was always a plus. As she was readying to enter one of the lower level buildings, she heard a voice call out to her. She froze up for a moment, and was crouching close to the ground with her right hand near her boot. Wait, what was she doing? Out of habit she was preparing to throw her concealed dagger. Turning to see who had spoken, she stiffened even more. It must have been the heat, the stress, or maybe the atmosphere–but she reacted in a way she hadn't done in a long time. Shiloh had been so used to seeing elves, dwarves, orcs, halfings, and the occasional other creature that she had almost forgot about one very important thing: humans.

Normally her reaction should've been less extreme, but there was that time from Vilpamolan that still got under her skin like a broken thorn. She relearned what it was like to hold distrust for anything that wore a human face, or voice. Her eyes gave him a cold stare, intense and piercing like an agitated animal. Even with extended periods of socialization, she was returning to her old habits. Part of her wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it was struggling. What did he just say to her again? Something about coming here to get rid of the city that had risen from the sands, and that he belonged to some religious order. Was he a mage? The first question that came to mind was that one. No, the order of the magi were gone. They didn't exist here. She was no longer hunted. But who was he? She could sense magic from him, adding more evidence to the argument. He was dressed like a knight, or some armored swordsman. He looked like he came from a family where he was given the chance to learn without worry of his needs. They're not the same as him, he's not like them–she told herself. The man was just someone unrelated.

But he was a human. Yes she was a human too, but that was different. She wasn't a human to the trolls, the halflings, or the shellycoats. Slowly rising from her crouch, she kept her hand away from her weapons. The thoughts were too tempting to let herself lower her guard like that. She knew herself; if given the chance she would at best try to run. The other choice would be…

It was a strained, drawn out silence between the two. Forcing her thoughts to think of something else, she tried not to focus on his face. "…I'm collecting artifacts for the outpost. There's others here, we won't be staying long." Her response was terse, like when she first arrived in that strange accident. Her mannerisms and body language were rigid. He didn't seem hostile, or that was what she was reading off of him. Her eyes darted to see if any of the 'residents' had noticed them so far. No mobs of walking dead, so she could breathe a bit easier then. Striking an internal compromise, she decided to be civil but not get too involved. "You probably aren't interested in scavenging leftover junk. By the way…don't get too close to the pyramid. Anything you try to kill will just come back, and you'll alert everything nearby." She turned as if to check for the mummies, but was trying to make it less obvious that she was diverting her attentions elsewhere. Right, there was that reason why she tried to avoid humans: interacting with them was difficult.

In her bag she had a few broken pottery shards and a small carved statue of a cat. The eyes had little emeralds in them, and felt like it had some kind of power. Naturally the first thing to pawn off to the mages, in case it was enchanted. She wasn't the one to fiddle with magical things.

She seemed distracted. He stepped out of the shadows so they both could better see each other. She was average height, her dark hair laying past her shoulders. Seeing her in the light, he could better see her movement which seem jolty and uncontrolled. Serci begin to worry about her physical health, maybe dehydration?

"I think you forgot to introduce your self." He said with a soft chuckle. He reached at the band around his chest that carried the wine and water canteens. "Are you thirsty? I have some red wine that I personally recommend, also plenty of water to spare. It's good to know we're both on the same side." He said lightly. He took a moment to survey the surroundings but didn't see any mummies shuffling around. At that moment, a gust of wind blew sand kicked up some sand.

"Wine really does wash the taste of sand out of the mouth. And it's important to remember to stay hydrated." He took a minute to brush his long hair out his eyes, "You're scavenging, huh? I don't mind being a look out while you look around. I fought off a mummy while ago, it was easy enough. But if a horde of them showed up, it would be wise to have company. Besides, I wouldn't mind the company."

As if on cue, a mummy hiding in the shadows shuffled out of the nearby houses and shambled towards Serci. Noticing the groaning, Serci pivoted on his back heel and faced the monster. He took his stance and threw the canteens at the young women's feet. He quickly unsheathed his sword and fit his arm through the shield. The mummy tried to wrap his arms around him, which Serci bashed his arms away with his shield and quickly replied with two swift strokes of his sword. The mummy fell dead at his boots. He turned to the young women.

"I am quite capable. Do I have your company?"

"I think you forgot to introduce your self." Shiloh was grimacing internally. No, she didn't forget. That was completely intentional. When he offered the wine, she replied in a taciturn manner. "…I'm fine. I can't drink alcohol." Technically the first statement was a lie, as she was rather conflicted and less than 'fine'. The truth was she could consume alcohol, she'd just get violently ill and throw it back up within a few minutes. But most people didn't really want to know that, so she just said she couldn't drink. It carried the point across more discreetly. The current situation was steadily growing worse. Somehow her attempt at driving him away went right over his head, and was somehow interpreted the exact opposite of what she wanted. She was sure she had used the right combination of body language and subtlety to imply that she wanted to be left alone. Why were humans so difficult?

Instead, he was coming along and was giving her things she didn't need. To put it mildly, it was frustrating. One of the shambling bandage-wrapped corpses came out from around a corner and was swiftly dispatched by the man who addressed himself as Serci. She recalled that he said something about belonging to 'Angela's order'. With her work in volunteering as scout and scavenger, she had only heard snippets of things happening back at Aestas. There was mention of two gods coming personally to assist with the fight, which was all fine and dandy. At least it showed someone cared aside from those who were related to the ghostly riders' kidnappings. At this point it was obvious this Serci was intending to stick around and wasn't going away anything soon. With a sigh of resignation, she forced herself into a compromise. She would allow the…human mage to stay within three meters' distance. Putting her hand on her sword hilt she looked down and pressed the point between her eyebrows.

"…Fine. Follow if you want, but keep quiet if you're coming along. I won't be needing these." Picking up the canteens, she handed them back to him. Pulling out a mask from her knapsack she put it on, and resumed her search of the house she had prepared to enter. The structure was simple, made of sandstone, and had only a few windows. They were more like rectangular cut holes in the stone, but if they had panes or shutters at one time they likely decayed. The structure of the house was composed of slabs of the sandstone to form walls, a stairway leading to the roof, and the foundation. The first floor was empty. Nothing but sand piles from the winds and the occasional scorpion. Climbing the stairs up, she saw the rooftop had some posts protruding from the upper walls which were only a leap away from the next house. That was probably the only good thing about these structures.

Aysut must have been densely populated back when it was thriving, which explained the packed layout of small buildings in certain areas. There were larger uncovered stairways leading upward to stone altars standing at the top of granite towers, open the to the sky. If she had time, perhaps she could to take a look and see if anything was still left for the taking. Unlikely, but worth the chance. The rooftop she was currently on had only some wide, clay pottery with a deep rusty red hue. There were the dried remains of some kind of wicker weaving, but not much. She took them anyway. The scholars could have fun with guessing what this piece of woven material once was, and how it was used. "Surprisingly intact after being under pounds and pounds of sand. Maybe the aridity helped keep it from rotting." She said to herself. 

Checking to see if Serci was still around, Shiloh then began to walk towards the roof's edge. Visually calculating the distance to the other side, she climbed down out onto the exposed wooden beam. She was preparing to leap across to reduce the time spent running on the ground. The mummies weren't very perceptive, so if she was above they'd never know she was there.

The women seemed agitated towards him. Looking back, he had taken the shaky movement and short conversations as dehydration or exhaustion. But her body language suggests that she has some ill will towards him. Knowing this now, he felt slightly embarrassed for making her uncomfortable for this long. He slightly chuckled to his self, checking the windows for any beasts shambling around. The woman scoured around the area picking up various amounts of pottery and cloth.

Serci searched as well, picking up pottery and wiping it gently with his cape. He occasionally handed what he found interesting to the woman. She would take it and inspect it vigorously before giving it back to him, or throwing it in her knapsack. In the distant groans could be heard, keeping Serci on his toes for any surprises.

"Forgive me for my ignorance earlier…" He said, peeking out of a hole in the structure, playing dutiful body guard. "It seems I may have angered you. I'm sorry for my intruding. If its too much too ask, may I know what I did to make you cross?" Pulling away from the peek hole and facing the woman. "I will leave, if you want?"

"…It's fine. It's not your fault." Came the terse response. He was being rather helpful, mostly by not talking too much. It saved her the trouble of making awkward conversation, and in general kept their focus on the task at hand. The silence was stifling, especially when it was like Serci was waiting for her to continue. "I just don't like humans…much." The last part was added to sugarcoat the idea, partly out of Shiloh feeling a bit guilty for being so hostile towards him earlier. "These buildings are fairly close together…convenient. I'm going to hop over, check the other side out. Good thing these cloth-wrapped undead aren't very alert." Balancing deftly, she proceeded to leap from the exposed overhanging wooden beam out towards the edge of the second story of the adjacent building. Grasping at the edge, she struggled as her legs were left dangling, then forced her arms to take hold and pull her body up and over onto the building's rooftop.

Grunting as she rolled onto the sandstone floor, she took several deep breaths as the burning in her arms subsided. Far from a perfect landing–just a little more speed and she would've sailed over on both feet like she had planned. Pulling out her canteen she took a few gulps before shoving it back into her knapsack. Standing up to let the man know she had made it over safely, she waved. Shiloh wasn't expecting him to cross the same way as she had done, rather she preferred if he didn't. Even experienced runners could slip at the worst moment, and a fall from this height would be severe if one didn't know the right way to break their fall.

Checking that she didn't crush anything on the way in her bag, she breathed a sigh of relief. Sure it wouldn't affect the scholars' willingness to take them, but she didn't want any small bits grinding in the corners of her bag. Seeing more mummies milling about, she figured another building or two would be enough and she'd return to see if the other scavengers in her scouting party were done.

Serci was relived when the women revealed he had done nothing wrong, but was saddened to hear about her dislike of humans. He respected the space between them and kept silent for the most part while switching between mummy watch and artifact seeker. He thought the time after his parents died in their house ablaze. There was a time where he loathed the lower class. Looked down upon them as if stood above them. After a while he found it pointless to blame entire social class for what a few did for quick cash. If it was anything or greater to what the woman was feeling he understands completely and didn't push the subject. The women jumped across the building and waved to him to signal she was okay. He wondered how he could cross, not confident in his abilities to cross the same way. He scoured the building and went on top where a pillar had fallen below. If he dropped onto the pillar and walked carefully he could jump onto a near by window and climb through.

Before dropping, he picked up a dull red gem and pocked it for the woman. He carefully held onto the ledge as dropped onto the pillar with an audible thump as landed. He cursed his self to be more careful to attract less attention. Though he could not see it, he could the scowl that woman was giving him. He carefully climbed along the pillar and landed in the room below the woman. He jumped and climbed onto the ledge of the window and forced his self through the opening and scowered the surroundings. Other than shattered pottery and rotted scriptures there was nothing of salvageable worth. He climbed the flight of stairs that led to the woman and spoke in a soft tone.

"I don't mean to push the matter, artifact seeker, but I know the pain to loathe an entire way of life. I grew up wanting nothing.  Anything I wanted my parents gave me and my sister. It was a very comfortable life and I knew it. I wasn't sheltered to the outside world. I was born into wealth and therefore I had anything I wanted." He said, keeping his soft tone. The woman looked disgusted at Serci, even angry, but he couldn't tell what was going through her mind. "My parents died in our house after thieves burned it down. In a drunken stupor I cant tell you how long I spent looking down on those below me. It was almost like I felt strangers that wern't equal to me owed me for what thieves did." He paused, looking out into the desert in front of him, lost in his story. "Eventually, I was given a letter from my sister and I sobered up. After some time, I forgave what happened and I no longer discriminate. But I understand the pain." He whispered earnestly. "I'm sorry if you didn't want to listen to my story, but I wont push anymore." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the gem and held it out to the woman. "I found it on the roof at the dwelling we just left." He was about to give it to her but pulled back. "I'm willing to trade this for your name, scrounger. But if you with not to, you can have it."

She was starting to regret waving over to him, thinking he'd do something reckless. Thankfully, he didn't and crossed over just fine. He found an alternate path into the building she was on and her ears picked up the faint whispering of grumbling. He likely made the same mistake she had, and misjudged the fall. Waiting for him to scale the floors, she leaned against the raised edge of the rooftop. When he had arrived, he showed a rather remarkable find. She gave him a few claps of applause, duly impressed. This would be a good item to show, and wouldn't go to the common hobbyist. Anyone with lesser appraisal skill would just chop it up into smaller bits to sell for jewelry.

She listened to him tell her his life story, with her arms crossed. She blinked a few times, her expression its usual poker face. It seemed she was giving a wrong impression again. While she was analyzing how her actions might have led to this misunderstanding, he offered the gem to her in exchange for her name. Shiloh looked at it for a while, then looked down. A drawn-out sigh escaped her lips. "…I was wondering why you started spilling your guts. Look, I don't hate you. Don't go getting wrong ideas." Rubbing the back of her neck she looked up at the green-tinted sky. "I don't hold a distaste for people who are better off than I am. Frankly that sort of thing doesn't cross my mind. If you haven't figured out, I'm bad at making the right face when talking to people. I don't give out smiles for free." She decided to hold off on the explanation of her personal quirks and moved on to addressing what he had just told her.

"Contrary to what you might think, I don't hate life or the way mine is now. If you're talking about apologies, I should be the one saying sorry. I've always had a hard life, and when you've been living as I have you get used to it. But life's sucker punched you in the stomach and kicked you while you were down, when you were least expecting it. Between you and me, you're the one having it rougher. …So I guess after hearing you out, we've got one thing in common." She looked back down, with a hand behind the back of her neck. "My parents both died in a fire as well, but it was a disaster that hit the whole village. They were able to get me to safety but couldn't get out in time themselves. After it was all over, I didn't have anyone else to lean on. We didn't have any relatives nearby, see. I won't bore you with the little details, but let's just say distant relatives aren't particularly fond of orphans." 

"The reason why I don't like humans is complicated. Looking back, maybe I was just unlucky to run into the few bad apples. But one thing I've learned is that humans aren't comfortable with things they don't understand. When they see something that scares them, they need a reason to cling on or they'll panic. It doesn't matter if it's a good or bad one–any will do. And it's always easier to pin the blame on something you don't like instead of facing the truth." Finally allowing herself to see him eye to eye, she said. "My name is Shiloh. I have survived at least ten different kinds of executions, and dying no longer frightens me as it once had." She held out her hand to him in good faith. It was one way to make a self-introduction, but she wasn't one to mince words or sweeten things.

Serci took the outstretched hand and gave a firm shake. "Shiloh, it's a very beautiful name." He paused to flash her a smile, "I'm sorry for pushing you, but I'm glad you accepted my trade." He rummaged in his pocket to pull out the dull gem placed it in Shiloh's hand. "I am a man of my word. And I'll trade broken pottery and tattered books all day long to see you smile." He chuckled. "I'm sorry to hear you're side of the story though. I know it must've not been easy. But you are strong Shiloh. You perceptive and analyzing. Two excellent traits to have not only on the battlefield but in life in general." He took a paused and thought about her words on humans not facing the truth. "I don't know about you, but that thing terrifies me." He said, pointing to the pyramid off in the distance." And I'm ready to face the ugly truth to rid that thing from these lands." The two of them went back at searching the house and sifted through the garbage in the place. Other than the gem, Serci found nothing important except for cracked jugs, dirty scriptures and what seems like children toys that were left to rot for eons.

A while went by and he had forgotten to check the surroundings for mummies. He took the decayed stairs up to the roof and and dropped a jug he was carrying at what he saw. It landed with with a sharp crack and broke into smaller pieces of its self. If it had not been for the howling wind it would've echoed and gave out their location. But there was no point in hiding now as a horde of mummies had surrounded the building they were in. Their collective moans dug into his head and gave him a headache as he saw the shuffling white and brown mass and try to find a way inside.

"Uh… Shiloh… I think you may want to come up here for a second." He felt saddened as she was probably expecting another gem. As she set foot on the roof she might've put the pieces together. " We can try to fight our way out or we can look for another way to escape. But I don't think we have too much time. It's up to you."