Young Writers Society

Tasha dips her head once and gazes out into the surrounding rocks and brush. She can't see whoever it is. "Show yourself!" she barks.

It appeared that he had been discovered. Remaining in his current location would be foolish, and he wanted to avoid any conflict if necessary. Complying to the demands given seemed to be the best option.

Still concealing his face within his hood, he emerged from the shadows.

"Who are you?" she demands, tone hostile and posture defensive.

He thought for a moment, mulling over the possible aliases at his disposal. There were many of them, and he did not recognize the woman. He could chose freely from them, having no need to continue a narrative that he had created for this particular guise.

"My name is Ramses," he said. An appropriate name for someone whose life had been completely changed by Ra. Noting her defensive stance, his hands went for his own weapon underneath his cloak - a zat'nik'tel. If the situation grew especially dangerous, he would not be opposed to using it or any of the other powers at his disposal. "Who are you?"

"We're travelers," James answered, stepping up beside Tasha. "We don't want any trouble."

Odd. The intel Ra's jaffa had gathered suggested that the planet he was on was one where the people had settled into little colonies long ago. To make matters even more confusing, none of them were far enough apart for someone to be considered a traveler. A day was needed to travel from one to another at most.

But if this was some other world that he had somehow been transported to, and travelers were common place, he would take on the part of one to deflect suspicion. And it was true, to an extent. "I'm also a traveler," he said.

Tasha steps back slightly, letting James take control of the situation. She doesn't like this. Her instinct is roaring at her that something is wrong but she can't place it nor find reason for it to be as such. She maintains her balanced, combat-ready stance but silences - let James work their way out of this.

"Ah. Well. Then... greetings." James said with a small nod of his head in the fellow's direction. "But that doesn't really address the 'we don't want any trouble,' half of what I said."

"I'll only give you trouble if you give me trouble," he assured him. It may have been considered a threat by some, but it had been spoken as something that was meant to comfort. He had no intentions of harming these travelers.

James faked a small smile, though it looked genuine. "Alright. Good. Because we won't. So, we'll be on our way. Best of luck to you in your travels," he said, finishing with a full smile and a wave as he led his horse out of the cave and began to lead the way out.

Seung blinked. Ramses, huh? As far as he knew from reading perhaps the only book in the whole compound about ancient Egypt, that was the name of at least one pharaoh. Odd name to have.

Tavis put a hand on Seung's shoulder and said, "Let's go."

James did not trust Ramses in the slightest. As they gradually made their way away from the traveller, he kept a close watch on him out of the corner of his eye. The odds of Ramses being just a traveller were slim, especially in the Outlands. But he had run into enough people in the past few days (Tavis, Seung, and Tasha) to consider the odds not entirely against him.

He waited until they were little more than shadows on the horizon before he began to follow them. It had never been his intention to when he had first heard the sound of their voices, but it was the best course of action available to him in the current moment. He had no idea where he was or how he had gotten here. They were the only people he had found so far, and it was impossible to determine if he would find more in the near future.

And then there was that man - the man that struck him as somewhat familiar, even though the details of their previous meeting were so blurry that he couldn't even recall where they had met. All he had was a feeling. He knew that man. He didn't know how, but that much was fact.

So he had to follow them, even if it was the one thing he didn't want to do.

James had to admit, he didn't really know what he was doing.

He felt like he'd made that somewhat clear to his collected group of traveling companions, but he really hoped they weren't staking too much faith in him. He had one idea on how to find a dragon and that included going south, towards the desert, just outside of the Outlands where there was the one person he knew who might know where to look.

And he hadn't talked to that person in ten years.

But just getting there would be a challenge in itself with a sick man in their party, the constant threat of bounty hunters and thieves, and the hooded fellow on their tail (because yes, he was paranoid and hyper observant at the moment, especially with everything that had happened with Cowell and Romeo).

They had been traveling for a few miles before they stopped by a stream to drink. Even though there was snow on the ground from last night's storm, and the ground was cold, it was thawing quickly. The stream flowed with clean, cold water as the ice melted into it. James led the horses to drink and started filling his canteen, while the others were free to rest and drink as they saw fit.

Ramses - as that was the name he was going by, and one that he needed to remember to use - remained in the forest when they stopped by the stream. Journeying farther out would easily reveal his location, and he had put too much effort into following them to risk that. He watched from the shadows of one of the nearby trees, hoping that they would continue on soon.