Lo-Muna looked to the raven haired woman as the people hurried around them, having no real reason to follow after Prefect Ro except his urging. Well, that and the possibility of danger coming to the people. As much as the rabbit woman saw this as a chance to escape, she couldn't turn away from the panicked faces all around them.
"In case I don't see you again, thanks for your help," Lo-Muna said to her rescuer with a slight bow of her head. She gave a small smile, and then, she was gone.
Even without using her chi, Lo-Muna was fast. She weaved through the crowds with ease and hopped over their heads when the throngs became too thick. Her powerful legs even allowed her to beat Prefect Ro, seeing him still running towards the square as she went on ahead. Whatever had the people panicked, the rabbit beastwoman would be the first to find out.
"Yeah, yeah, thoroughly," one of the dirtiest Sudeans, in both body and mind, chuckled, his hands making weird wriggling motions in the air.
"Argent, you say?" The old man hummed, flexing old muscles beneath his suspenders. He cracked a smile, his breath visible in the air of cold ship. "You certainly sound like... a milk drinker to me." His wrinkled fists clenched, cracking his knuckles. "You got a job lined up once we arrive, Mister Argent?"
***
Night swept over the desert, the inferno that baked the planet from above briefly beyond the rim of the land and replaced instead by a most magnificent sea of stars. The desert winds were as furious as night as they were during the day, but instead of burns they delivered shivers. The sky always felt larger than the earth here, be it blue or be it black. Girthfield blinked as he stared up at the glistening expanse above. He three-dimensional geography of space had always been tricky for him, a weakness in his otherwise worldly survivalist mind. But somewhere out there, in a cluster of stars, was his home.
"This is a bad idea. How many times do I have ta' tell ya'll, you don't mess with a dirty dward!" White Hat said, holding the brim of his hat down as they crouched in the shadow of a hard rock hill. Beyond their hill was the expansive wall Otis had seen earlier that day, stretching before them left to right. "They have ore needed to fix Cruise's antennae, unless you want to wait for a starship to handily deliver that ore to you this is the only place on the rock that has it..." Girthfield said, looking down from the stars to the walls before them. "The Dward stronghold."
"If what you two," He began, referring to White Hat and Tackle, "-Are saying is true... that antennae may hold the only records of any communication sent to or from the Meritocrat before it's crash landing, and lead us to the culprit behind who sent that gun to the Rock." Girthfield clicked his tongue before looking to his apprentice. "If this is Dwarden work they're quite industrious. You see any way in other than... over?"
***
Lucky, who'd huddled in on themselves in the freezing wind, slowed as the desert winds revealed a castle in the distance, it's outline stark and black in the night. "You don't see that everyday..." They murmured.
M'kama led the group on, toward the shelter found in the sheet of the night. Eventually the group had pushed open it's ancient doors, sand falling as they entered. "This place is amazing!" Thellani called to M'kama as he walked down the ruined hall, the castle creaking from the sand-storm outside. "It's older than I am!" The elderly man's laugh echoed. "Whatever was out there we're surely safe here," He said, turning to the group. "We must stay! We must- we must explore, this is a new discovery in the field of rocktology!"
***
"Okay, okay," Qunith muttered, hands in the air as the Sudeans surrounded them and the cultists both. "I didn't want to pull this card but... we're divines," Qunith gave a cheesy grin as a Sudean approached them and Talideth to bind their hands. "I mean, I'm a divine, and Talideth's... sort of a divine, depending on... how heretical we're being, but we're... we don't even know these people!" Qunith swallowed as the Sudean archers made no moves to stop. "I'm serious, I can- I can recite so much religious text!"
"Wonderful idea, Qunith," Talideth responded as she eyed Lorfyn. "But she has a weapon and we do not. I do not think walking up to her and assaulting her is the best idea either."
Talideth looked around, "Too many witnesses as well."
As a woman was launched at the target of a shopkeeper, Lo-Muna had been pulled forward and stumbled as the vendor's grip loosened. The rabbit beast-woman recovered her balance and looked up just as the woman slapped the back of the vendor. The noise resounded loudly and some of the onlookers laughed as the shop keeper tumbled forward. On top of that humiliation, the vendor looked up as his wares were being stolen by small children. He pulled at his hair, his face reddening, embarrassment and outrage bubbling inside of him.
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" he screamed at the muscular woman as he pointed at his ruined stall. "ALL MY STUFF! RUINED!"
Lo-Muna was pocketing the cloth she had wanted when two guards arrived, brought out by the noise. They noticed her pocketing the wares but as they were about to step towards her, the vendor stormed up to them and began shouting. He practically jumped up and down, fuming, and gesturing to the mess of a scene around them. A woman and her child, a pinwheel still burning in his hand, stopped in front of Lo-Muna. They shielded her from view and the beast-woman thanked them quietly. She was about to turn tail and leave when she hesitated.
Looking back, she saw the raven haired woman was a little unsteady on her feet. The crowd had begun to disperse and the guards were beginning to calm the angry vendor down. Lo-Muna sighed and walked over to the muscular woman, saying to her in a low voice, "Thank you but may I suggest we go get another drink on me? Away from prying eyes? Now? Please?"