Bomilcar exited the caves as the last rays of light were being hidden by the horizon and the first moon began it's crawl across the sky. He sat quietly and waited for the moment.

The thopter had yet to arrive; the bats, however, started migrating, leaving the caves in small batches. It was likely the sign that the storm was over in these parts. In the light of the first moon, Bomilcar could try to remember their direction. Wasn't there a paracompass in his fremkit?

[Understand 3, 2 with Paracompass]

What was astounding was how the landscape had changed in the storm's passing. Bom could hardly recognise the environs of the cave when he had exited it. Rocks had got displaced, mounds of sand appeared where there had been flatness, and vice versa. Navigation based on natural features was very faulty, it seemed; the stars erred much less, but he didn't know them well enough to navigate by them.

He dug around in the fremkit he'd received and searched for the paracompass he'd noticed in there. Using it to get a heading and track the path of the bats, he felt he had a good idea of where he needed to go.

D6 FMR, Understand + Faith, Paracompass, TN 12, Difficulty 2: 4#1d20 9 15 1 20
Success, +1 Momentum, +1 Complication, +2 threat

Behind him a silent girl followed. Some lessons needed different teachers, experience and the trial of nature might be the one this offworlder needed now.

Bomilcar Thorvald wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 6:35 pm

He dug around in the fremkit he'd received and searched for the paracompass he'd noticed in there. Using it to get a heading and track the path of the bats, he felt he had a good idea of where he needed to go.

D6 FMR, Understand + Faith, Paracompass, TN 12, Difficulty 2: 4#1d20 9 15 1 20
Success, +1 Momentum, +1 Complication, +2 threat

He indeed noticed a pattern, how they flew down the False Wall's westernmost spur, assuming they'd turn straight west at a lower latitude. They avoided bee-lining over open desert if they could help it. Predators? In the end, it didn't matter as long as he could retrace the pattern. They weren't pouring out all at once, so even later they would probably be more to follow.

[Complication: Overconfident]

He looks to Ahmina while the bats flowed. "Very distant."

''I will ask again: why are you following the bats?'' she inquired, looking at the distance

"The seer. Having faith," he replied. It certainly was not like him, but he was also more on his own than he had been in the past. I didn't have a spoiled sibling to watch over. Maybe he always had this certain sense of curiosity and adventure but simply suppressed it for duty.

Slowly, the desert was coming to life. A bird-of-prey come be noticed circling around the bats, ready to take one down. Small lizards and rodents quietly moved about, digging up whatever edible vegetation the storm had covered. One of them was a kangaroo mouse which hop-hop-hopped across Bom's vision in some distance, illuminated by moonlight.

''You seek something...that might prevent you from seeing what is already there''

"Don't know." He looks out at the desert and the signs of life there.

He turns to Ahmina and asks, "What's already there?"

''Plenty'' she replied ''You have seen and heard plenty...but you want to be told the conclusion rather then working your way to one.''

"No," he says. "Just the direction. Hebe to bats. Bats to sietch. Then to there."

He pauses for a moment. "Fear. Won't recognize what I see. Miss it."

"Take your time. The bats circle around..." She gestured around "observe and learn from the desert"

"They know where," he says. "They have purpose. They act, react."

''Do they?'' she questionned ''If so...how and why do they know?''

He pauses for a moment. "To live, because ancestors did. To find water."

She frowns

''That is but the surface, sahid. Much like other outworlders you might be prey to a delusion''

"If it's not an instinct to live and because they had strong ancestors, then it is because god wills it."

She sighed

''No...that's too simple. Offworlder think themselves appart from Dune...we know we are but a part if it'' she explained ''Same as the bushes and the beasts that survives alongside us on this world. You will learn nothing until you begin to see yourself as a part of the desert....not a conqueror, not as a tamer...bt as a simple and humble part of it like any grain of sand''

He nods to himself. It wasn't actually a foreign concept to him. Spending time on frozen worlds of the Thorvald was similar. You don't command nature, you endure and survive it. And humans were so much worse at it than wildlife.

"Am trying. Like back home, survival training. Watch animals, weather for patterns, be part of system. Takes time."

She crossed her arms

''Survival is the first step''

He nods.

"Survival. Living. Understanding. Being." He almost sounds like he is asking, but there's a certain sense of confidence to it too, with the context of life in frozen wastes in his mind. He may be wrong, but the context did seem to make a difference in how he was thinking about it.

''Then you know were to begin. You are in a better position then most.''

"Very different, but same. Tundra and desert," he says looking over the sands. "Water everywhere, but, without heat water will kill you."