Snippet #2178774

'Blastut...Flat palm 'gain.' Grumbling to herself, Vooli snatched up the talismans she'd cast upon her stone table and readied her hand for another toss. Glaring down at the rock, daring it to disturb her work again, she let her talismans tumble from her open palm. The pleasant clacking noise did nothing to lighten her mood, as the talismans once again predicted ill luck. This time there were three facedown and two up, the two being 'Jackal' and 'Closed Fist'. That signified a clever danger that wouldn't reveal itself until ready to strike. The same type of reading she'd been getting all morning. With a sigh, she scraped her charms into her knapsack, collected her spear, and resumed her march towards the gleaming spire in the distance.

Vooli had no memory of how she'd arrived in this desert plane, nor how long she'd spent traversing it. Not that it mattered in a place like this, as she felt neither hunger nor thirst and so could theoretically travel infinitely. The landscape passed her slowly, though she took great interest in it, as she always did. Paying attention to the details kept Vooli sane, and also let her determine whether or not the landscape was really endless or simply vast. After much deliberation, possibly years worth, she concluded that it was simply vast and her objective would be met eventually. Many more hours passed, so Vooli decided to do another reading.

She climbed up onto a rather high rock formation and settled in. Groping around in her knapsack, Vooli drew another five tiles at random and scattered them in front of her. The result made her blink a few times in disbelief.

"Serenity, th' Starman, an' Shiner's luck? Suspecting, Oi yam," she commented to no one in particular. As she made to scoop up her talismans, Vooli's wandering gaze lasered in on two figures in the distance. Swearing mightily, she quickly tucked away her talismans and pulled out the mysterious note she'd found so long ago. 'You need to make it to the summit', it read. Those two may or may not have also gotten a note, but they were closer to the towering structure than she, which meant that either they'd been at it longer than her or had arrived her closer than her. Either way, she wanted to get closer and study them before announcing her position.

Like a nimble fox, Vooli somersaulted over the edge of the rocky shelf, landing in a roll and keeping low as she moved from cover to cover. Vooli always seemed to surprise herself, as she didn't know where she knew this skillset from, but was glad for it now. Darting between rocks and low dunes, she advanced on her prey quickly, always keeping herself mostly hidden. Within a half hour, she'd drawn close, though she now saw that the figures were quite removed from one another. The closer, a tall man clad in black, appeared to have noticed the more distant figure, so she waited to see how he approached the situation before revealing herself to them.