((OOC: For now I just want me and Thoril, but as soon as they're off the cart, anyone can join))


Azirel and Thoril had been on the cart for about half an hour when Azirel couldn't shake the feeling that he was beeing watched by someone or something. Azirel kept looking around, but appeared that no one. But still, some how the sensation wouldn't leave. It was also dark, and the moon was full above them, which added to the spooky feeling of being watched. Azirel shivered, and suddenly he heard a buzzing sound. In his old, the only desert in the contenant was filled with Stingflies, three foot tall beetles with massive poison stingers. He wasn't exactly sure if these beasts existed in Arda, but he was paranoid anyway.

His eyes shot towards the sky and he scanned it for giant bugs and saw nothing. He was just being paranoid, the buzzing was gone anyway.
But then the buzzing came back, right in Azirel's ear. He looked again, but saw nothing.
"Thoril, do you hear that?" He asked.

The night pressed on, and all along Thoril had heard a strange buzzing noise, fading in and out. He was going to ask Azirel about it, but decided he was just paranoid.
Thoril kept getting a stinging sensation in his arms, which were pressuring him to let go. He finally hoisted himself up into the cart, carefully so he wouldn't be caught. He may have been lying in a cart full of hard, cold chunks of coal, but it was much more comfortable then hanging onto the back of the cart.

Once again, the buzzing noise picked up, louder and more annoying then ever before, now.
"Thoril, do you hear that?" Azirel asked.
"Yes, I do hear it, and I'm sure it's the most annoying nose in the world," Thoril whispered in relply. "What is it?" Thoril asked. As if an answer to his question, Thoril felt a sharp prod in his arm, which he slapped like a mosquito.

Suddenly, aggrivated high pitched mumbles of gibberish eminated from under Thoril's hand. He scooped up the what-ever-it-is in his hand and stared blankly at it. It seemed to be a tiny ghost, no taller then three, maybe four inches tall.
With the creature pinched between his thumb and forefinger, Thoril put his eyeball up to it and to get a better look and it. The thing reached out a tiny, pin-like arm and poked Thoril's pupil.
Keeping the wraith in his hand he put his other hand to his face "Ouch!" he cried out, forgetting that the driver of the cart was only a few feet away from him.

After Azirel asked if Thoril could hear the buzzing noise, he started complaining. Then when the buzzing got really loud, he slapped himself in the arm. He was looking at something that Azirel couldn't see, and when he held his hand up to his face, he cried ot, dispite the fact that they were trying to hide.

"Oi! Who's back there?" The driver called out, pulling the horses to a stop. a fat, heavily bearded man jumped off the cart and went back to catch Azirel and Thoril.
Azirel yanked Thoril out of the cart and ran to the front, cutting the horses loose from the cart. He was about to jump onto one of them when they reared and took off. Azirel noticed a three inch tall ghost-thing jump off of one of them and flew into Azirel's backpack.

"C'mon!" Azirel called back to Thoril. Then he ran.

The driver came down to capture Azirel and Thoril when Azirel yanked Thoril off the cart and cut the horses loose for some reason.
"C'mon!" Azirel called out as he took off. Thoril ran after him, and the fat driver gave up, yelling at his cart and how he hated his life.

Thoril and Azirel ran and ran and ran until they came to a big rocky hill.
Thoril climbed up the hill, searching for a spot to spend the night.
"We should sleep here, it looks like a good place to hide for the night!" Thoril called.

He found a place that had to rocks jutting up words, so that unless you were looking from directly above, you wouldn't see him.
"I'm sleeping here!" Thoril called. He had nothing to use for a pillow or blanket, but the warmth of the rock was enough to keep him comfortable.

Thoril layed down to sleep, and because he was so tired, fell asleep instantly.

The two soon came to a giant rock structure jutting out of the ground. Thoril instantly bound up the rock and found a place to sleep dispite his lack of covers. He layed himself down and began snoring.

Azirel decided to find his own place to sleep, it wasn't special at all like the Thoril's, no special landmarks, rocks jutting upwards, just bare rock. He reached into his backpack to pull out his cloak, and the little wraith floated out.

The wraith began speaking in some high-pitched chattering language that Azirel didn't understand at all.
"What are you?" Azirel asked the creature.
It made a strange screitching noise and Azirel covered his ears to block out the sound.
"As long as it doesn't start buzzing again, I'm happy..." Azirel said.
The thing floated up to Azirel's head and flew a few circles around his head. It then rested above Azirel's shoulder as it did what seemed to be it's way of catching its breath.

"You know what? I like you, you're not big and stupid, and you don't tell me what to do," Azirel told the little wraith. It glided down and sat of the ground beside Azirel, in the same form and with the same posture.
"Are you mocking me?" Azirel asked. "Well you better move, I roll in my sleep."

Azirel spread his cloak out under him and lay down on it, using his pack as a pillow. He soon drifted off to sleep (but not as fast as Thoril).

Thoril finally woke up early in the morning. It was already getting hot outside, and being in between those hot rocks all night had formed blisters along his arms and sides.
Thoril picked himself up off the blistering rock quickly hopping down to the sand, not much cooler than the rock.

Thoril stared off into the distance, all he saw was sand, and more sand. He could see dots of green far off in the horizon, but who knows how many days or hours it could take before they would be out of the desert?

Thoril carefully reached into Azirel's backpack, reaching for his map, scanning it and quickly looking at the position of the sun, he decided there were two general areas on the map they could be, one of them would only take a matter of hours to get out, but if they were in the other area it could take much longer.

If memory served him, and they were in the closer-to-the-end area, they were only four or so hours walking distance away not counting breaks.
Thoril dug through Azirel's backpack again... No water, that was a bit of a problem...

((OOC: Ok, this topic is now open to anyone who wants to join))

Azirel was awoken when he heard a loud crash and his head heart. He managed not to yell or cry out, but he couldn't move without bringing a tear to his eye. Without moving or making a noise, he opened one watery eye and scanned his surroundings. His backpack that he was using as a pillow was out from under his head and in the hands of Thoril, who was standing on the sand staring franticly at Azirel's map, trying to figure out where they were. He cast the map onto the ground and routed through it again, but his hands coming out empty this time.

Groaning, Azirel picked himself off the ground. He picked up his cloak which was off him and on the ground, and layed it on the sand as a cool place to sit. He sat down and snatched his backpack away from Thoril. The little wraith floated out of it and sat on the cloak.
"This neat little thing followed me here, isn't he interesting?" Azirel asked. The little thing hovered over to Thoril and started speaking in a high pitched, chattering tongue that Azirel couldn't understand.
"I think I'll name the little thing... How about, Inluluss?" Azirel asked. "It's Drowish, it means 'Small One', I used to know a bunch of it, and speak Khuzdûl almost fluently." He explained.

He looked at the miniscule wraith. "You should stick with me for a while," Azirel said. He felt more attatched to this wraith than anything he ever knew.

(Can I post now? If not just tell me and I'll stop...)

Drygonsky frowned, if it hadn't been his imagination he had heard a very soft high pitched squeaking noise speaking some sort of strange language. Felix crowed from his spot on Drygonsky's shoulder. Drygonsky put a hand on his head and absentmindedly murmered, "Sshhhh..." Felix opened a black beak and then Drygonsky firmly shut it and held it like that. Felix glared at him, What was that for? he thought at Drygonsky. Drygonsky smiled thinly and whispered, "I thought I heard something, be quiet will you?" Drygonsky grabbed Felix around his midriff and sat him down on a large rock. He crept over and hid behind a boulder, peering around it. He saw two people conversing. He fingered his short sword and took a deep breath, getting ready to charge out.