A race through the feilds

She soared through the wheated plains on horse back like a bird would while hunting prey. Her horses hoove dug up thick coulds of dust. His roar echoed through the plains. He made sure to let others know that they were here. She glided to a stop as they neared a tree. It was a hot day after all and she would like to cool off. She dismounted under the tree and looked over the steep hill down to a pool of water. She was suprised to find that the water was a pretty blue, which meant that it wasn't disturbed a lot. She removed her shirt and pants, but left her under garments on so as to not, give anyone anything to see.

She slid down the bank to the water and dipped her foot into the water. She squealed slightly and stepped into the cool blue sinking into the mud. She sighed happily and dunked her head all the way in. She still had a perfect view of her horse, and he seemed to be eatting away at the tree and the wheat. She swam about cooling off and then finally she climbed out and laid down in the sun. In the past she had had so little time to herself. She liked working for Jace, he allowed her time off. Her horse came over to her and sniffed at her. "Well, what do you think? Another race through the feilds?" She asked covering her eyes from the sun.

Onachoa, Plains section of the country. The sun was high and hot in the sky, and radiated downward making the dry plains drier, and Bishop's mouth taste more like cotton. Taking a few sips from his water pack he kept stretched across his back, his mouth was relieved again, but he was running out of water and would have to refill in a day or so if he wanted to remain comfortable on his recon trip. He was commander of Field Team Six under Task Force Silent Knight, but this one time he would not have the direct support of his team. Granted, he could radio them at any time for an evac, or information gathering, or maybe even fire support if he got into trouble, but it just wasn't the same. Still tho, he bared with it and kept on trudging onward.

He was sent out here due to reports from the recently allied Desert Scorpians of some kind of intelligent creature stealing wind scooners from them. Bishop's orders were not to engage unless attacked, and to observe and try to find out what this thing was, and meet up with a walker that was to help him with the assignment should she accept, or so the letter said. "There are times I really feel bad for those Walkers, always having be at the beck and call of the council. At least my time off and work schedule is clear: Get shot at, get to work. Not getting shot at, day off." He said to himself as he put the orders away.

He began to look for a place to refill his water before heading back out into the desert to find this guy, or thing, when he noticed a small shimmer off in the distance. Using his binoculars he found a lake with what seemed to be clean water in it, and he set himself a course for it. Upon drawing closer, he found the lake already visited by a women who was accompanied by a giant horse. Never being one to skimp out caution, Bishop took up a post i the tall grass and viewed from his scope, only to find the woman somewhat harmless from his distance. Figuring it was ok, he approached slowly, before finally appearing a distance far enough to see and speak with her in a civil tone, but still far enough to evade a thrown or fired object and disappear into the tall grass.

"Hey there miss, hate to bother ya, but do you mind if I join you in enjoying the spoils of that water? And I really hope you didn't pee in there."

The multi-fan jets that kept the plastic and mechanical contraption in one piece screamed from the tension at every turn. At the reigns was Afreet, his turban and upper tunic undone, with both hair and cloth flapping in the wind as he bend around another mound of sand in the vast desert of Onachoa. With movements that bordered between controlled and wild, he spun the vehicle around once more, launching large puffs off sand into the air in his trail. The horse that sat, wide eyed, on the dock of the land ship behind him caughed loudly multiple times, but Afreet did not mind. The goggles that came with every one of the baby's kept his eyes from watering up. A huge grin stretched across his face, specs of sand landing over his teeth, causing him to spit in time over board with every turn. He'd taught himself to drive these things a long time ago, following simple directions from a frightened scorpion that he'd taken off with. It had been in the man's best interest to teach him quickly, and now, Afreet had gotten hijacking these things down to a science. A very, very cool and practical science.

The young imp stuffed a small wad of jerky forcefully into the back of his mouth. The wind was now so powerful that it was beginning to peel back his glasses and made closing his mouth like squeezing down on cloth. Behind him, the horse whined once more, turning, Afreet could see the animal scoot itself nervously away from the engine. Small whisps of smokes were beginning to form from multiple orrifices. " Hunk of junk," the bandit said to himself. He was no mechanic, so whenever one of these ships broke down he was forced to abandon it. They really should prepare for those things to be pushed past the maximum safety limits for... emergencies, of course.

Luckily, this time, nothing aboard the scooner exploded. After a couple more miles, it just thud thud thudded to a stop, smoke and gas peeling from cracks in the gas casing. Afreet shut the thing off to keep it from setting aflame. He got his satchel, pushed his shivering, near-delearious mount off the rubber-rimmed sides of the landboat. With that, he mounted and began to ride.

It didn't take long for him to see a pool of water and abundent growth at the base of a small hill, where rainwater would've collected. The second thing he saw, however, was its inhabitants. There was no hiding his location at this point, but looking back, he was glad to see the trees hid the ruined remains of his previous vessel. With a grunt and sigh, he kicked his horse forward towards the strangers. At first glance, they almost looked like a couple, but as he drew closer and closer he could see that neither had anything in common on their clothing, well, it was what Afreet assumed was the girl's clothing, lying away, as the woman herself was half naked and submerged. The imp regarded the uniformed knight with only a small layer of caution. No foreigner would be able to identify him as non human without the help of local legend, and if he got close enough to the pool before making eye contact, his eyes would appear stark blue and at least somewhat normal. With that, Afreet tied his turban around a couple more times, pulling it down to his eyebrows, so that his eyes were partially hidden by the shadow and overhang.

When he reached communicating distance, Afreet tightened his lips and prepared his words carefully. " Eh, I, yes, I..." but his train of thought was interrupted by the.. smell. Now that he was this close he could completely take in the woman's superb beauty, nothing about the Knight bothered him at all now, he sniffed the air somemore, his mind racing at which of the relatively few bottles of perfume he had on him would compliment such a feminine allure. " Ah, the scent of the desert flower amongst blossoming life. In this, I find nothing but life eternal and satisfaction of the spirit." He took a few rapid steps until he was on the opposite edge of the pool, " You're name, Milady?"

Jeni laid there half submerged in the blue water, letting the sun bathe her skin in it's glowing gold waves. She was enjoying the day, the hot weather and the cold water. She heard a voice as if he could intrude upon her. She sat up and looked across the pool And looked at a man. She noticed his clothing. He was in operation of some sort. Not like her. She was slightly taken aback as he stated that he hoped she hadn't peed in the pool. "I'm a lady!" She said and then stood up, pushing her hair back off of her face. "And no, I don't mind the intusion." She said walking back up the hill to her horse and clothing.

It was at this point that she heard another voice as for her name. She turned to look and could see, what appeared to be another man asking for it. She stepped slowley down the hill. "Jeniveve Larou." She said and then stepped down further back towards the pool, keeping her eyes on both men. "Might I request both of your names? She asked.

"Ah yea, sorry bout that, but in my line of work I can't be too sure. I've seen the most beautiful of people do the nastiest of things." Bishop said as he began to move towards the water to refill his camel pack and refresh himself a bit. He then noticed what looked like a Desert Scorpian's wind schooner approaching in the distance. "Huh, that's interesting, wonder what they're doing way out here." He thought to himself. Then he really got surprised when he saw the driver of that thing looked like some kid, and was alone. "Alright, be calm, but be ready." He thought to himself. The scene was odd, and this guy, who apparently waltzed right on in seemed to be a wannabe charmer. He figured since he was still somewhat unnoticed he'd radio in to Rosa, his team's comm expert. "Hey Rosa, I just came across a rather interesting find. Check with the local militias and have em give ya the reports on what exactly this thing that's been stealing from them is supposed to look like."

After a few seconds, Rosa responded. "Sure thing commander. Everything ok in the field still? Not gonna have to call in air support to get you out again are we?"

With a slight chuckle to himself, Bishop replied with "Nah, I'll be fine, always am." And began to take a few, very cautious steps towards the new person he had just encountered. "Hey, I'm doing a bit of traveling and I need a ride, mind if I ask ya where you got the schooner from, she seems mighty fine."

" Ahh, Ms... Larou..." Afreet was only partially in this conversation. He had begun to daydream about potential scent mixes, considering whether he could part with the particular lavender scent that was housed in a fine, crystaline bottle on his person. He'd found it a couple weeks ago after shadely moving his way through a local bazaar. He had been saving it for something this... special. He shook his head, releasing his mind from meninial thoughts and twisted around to begin perusing through his satchel, his hands ceased moving and snapped back out again when the older officer addressed him. He tried to remind himself that he needed to keep a low profile on principle, but various... distractions in the area were attempting to hog all of his mind's processing power. Even so, he tried to play a neutral tone when responding to the man's inquiry, it only hit half way through his response that the question may have been cause for concern.

" I'm planning on traveling by horse actually, from this moment on that... Second hand boat broke down on me for the 8th time since I bought it and I don't feel like carrying it back to Shbaad. You're free to work it yourself ofcourse. " Afreet ofcourse knew just how screwy that statement sounded. The foreigners might not catch it, but just plain getting rid of a vehicle in the middle of Onochoan was not normal behavior the survivalist peoples that travelled through it. It hardly mattered, if the officer didn't believe him it wouldn't have to much effect on the suspicion already placed against the imp. For now, he just planned on keeping the man at bay with conversation, luckily, there was a half-naked woman right before him that Afreet might be able to play off of. All else fails, he could just abandon his horse and escape... the thought of which did not leave the youth in too comfortable a situation.

" My name is Ae'Gil Monswabe, ma'am. I take it the two of you just met?", he needed to get them talking about each other, hopefully enough distractions would slow the knight's initiative on questioning him. Afreet fiddled with the bottle around his neck and wondered how far he'd get in this match up with just a knife.

She listened to the decorated officer. "Well, from here it looks like your in incagnito, and doing some recon. I am guessing that you are a Luitenent." She said pulling her clothes on and pulling her hair up and out of her face into a bun. She looked down the hill at the two and nodded to her horse. "Looks like the both of us are traveling via horse, however, if you need a ride, I'd be glad to give you one, if you need a ride." She offered and then tighened the saddle on her horse. She guided her horse back down to the pool of water and let him take a long drink.

"Well, Ae'gil, it is a tremendous pleasure to meet you. What kind of horse are you riding there?" She asked looking back at his horse as it came up behind it's apparent master. She smiled. "Your partner looks stunning." She said nodding back at his horse.

"Yea, odd turn of events so soon." Bishop thought to himself. He had common sense, and he knew this kid was full of it. A survivalist nation giving up something still viable, not to mention the fact he was riding it alone, outside of the desert. This kid just didn't fit something, didn't sit right, but Bishop didn't have enough to act on yet, nor would he want to do it so soon even if he did. He knew waiting had it's benefits, and as such he decided to wait and follow both of these people to see what he could find out.

Oddly enough though there was indeed a horse with the kid, so perhaps he might be telling the truth, but still, something just wasn't right. "Indeed it is a nice horse, but seriously miss yours is by far a splendid and majestic beast, one of the best I've ever seen. What breed is he?" Bishop asked Jeniveve as he looked at her horse. It really was easily the largest one he ever laid eyes on. A Second after asking the question, Rosa patched back through with news Bishop didn't quite want to hear.

"Sir, I got something for ya. It's the reports on the one, or thing, by these accounts, that are attacking the Desert Scorpions. I'll have Xavier patch it through to you asap."
"Right, thank's Rosa." He said back over his comm, almost under his breathe as to not make himself appear anymore nuts then he already was by seemingly talking to thin air. Times like this he wished for a bigger comm device, so people could see what he was talking to. "Well now, Ms. Larou, if you don't mind, and if you're going into the desert, I'd love to hitch a ride." He figured he could look at whatever Rosa sent while he rode the easy way into the desert, and at the same time keep an eye on this guy to find out who he was exactly, and to see if it was worth pursuing at all.

Afreet simply listened by as the conversation between the two strangers began to take off. It was apparent by now that the knight did consider him a threat, but he suspected that Ms. Larou was less than concerned about any criminal history he might've been offering. The imp readied himself mentally to escape at a moments notice, this man Bishop had immediatly dropped the topic of the landboat after receiving his answer, which meant he probably wasn't looking for a sufficient ride, he was keeping an eye out. Whether it was for Afreet himself, however, was a different story, so it appeared the two of the were to continue their little cherade a while longer, until his pursuer finally took action.

He nudged his horse away from the spot where it had taken to drinking and carried him by his harness around to the common side of the lake. He conjured a slip of a response to her question about his ride," He is the second son of a feral one caught in the northern regions 4 years ago, it seems to be a common practice for we Onochoans to want more agressive stallions these days. Caravaners thinks that it had a pschological affect on would be thieves," They're completely wrong, Afreet said, idiot bruisers broke arms and tore flesh to tame wild horses enough to be ridden, only to have a staggering and chaotic mount that made organized bandits laugh at you from afar," This one, however, has proven he has no fighting spirit what soever," To add feeling to it, he gave a sidelong look to his horse, which blankly stared back before snorting a bit in his face, Afreet simply raised an eyebrow in return," I tell him he's incredibly ugly, but day in and day out, he refuses to shave."

" I agree with Doc, though" he added quickly, nodding his head toward Bishop," Your horse.." he said, but slowly looked Jeniveve down from head to toe," is incredibly fine." His back hand fiddled with the crystal container through the cloth in his bag, his mind has inadvertantly slipped back to the perfume when he had drawn closer, but continued to strain his mind, keeping it on track.

Porthos could make any horse wranglers mouth water. He was a very large breed of horse and he had never actually been tamed, but he was calm for her. If anyone else tried to ride him without her consent, they better be prepared to be sent to hell via horse. "This big boy is an English shire, Sired by the great Regino and Damed by the violent Tornado." She said caressing the place between her horses notstrils where it was the softest. She kissed his nose and took in the scent of him. This was one of her most favorite smells. The smell of horse sweat and dirt and clean laundry.

She turned her attention back to the other two men. She walked over to where the other horse was and beconed with her hands to have the horse come to her, which he did slowly. She lifted his head over her shoulder and caressed both sides of his neck with her hands. "Hello there gorgeous." She said and lifted the saddle and it's blanket slightly letting it air out. She then retightened the saddle. "Make sure you check every few miles to make sure that the saddle doesn't come loose. I'm sure you wouldn't want to fall off while riding." She said and smiled at him.

Returning her attention back to Bishop she nodded. 'Of course I wouldn't mind if you took a ride with me. I don't have a whole lot going on right now, so I wouldn't mind taking a small ride as long as you can promise water and shade." She said leaping and swinging up onto her horse.

Bishop listened to the two of them talk about their horses. Honestly to him he may have knew how to ride one, but he wasn't a fan of riding them on a constant basis, not while he has so many other much more viable ways of travel. However a pet is something that's treasured, and he did admire how much Jeniveve loved her horse. After hearing her say she'll give him a ride, Bishop gladly took her up on the offer, and began to get his things in check, and went to climb the saddle. "I can provide water. Shade, not to much, kinda hard to find that while in a desert." He said to Jen, hoping the words wouldn't make her reconsider the offer.

He still felt a slight unease coming from the other guy, Al gahib or whatever his name was. Still, not enough to act on, and from here on out all he could do was simply follow and play along.

It irked Afreet a bit to hear the woman giving him advice on how to ride a horse when they were already in the middle of the desert. Even so, he let her play her little game with his steed, but when she turned away, he nudged him with his shoulder and pointed at him to make it clear he shouldn't expect that type of lovey dovey treatment from now. He was sure to answer while pointing, though," I'll be sure to do that. It isn't the best saddle, or horse," he mumbled to himself," in the world, but compensations can be made." Afreet was beginning to suspect his unnamed horse was more intelligent than he gave it credit for, because it shook its head in annoyance a bit as Afreet walked him a bit closer to the other two.

As he began to mount up, while his two new travel companions were still working their way onto the same mount, Afreet absent mindedly added," Ya, I wouldn't worry about shade, I suspect it's going to be getting cloudy this way soon." With that, he nudged his horse into motion, walking it past the other two, to the edge of the grassy hill, where the land became partially sandy. He turned around and waiting for them to hurry on over.

It occurred to Afreet that they hadn't actually discussed a travel destination. The point being that one of two things were true. Either their foreigness had gotten the better of them, and they were ok heading for the closest know hospitable place, in which case they might fall back on Afreet's knowledge, or two, it was a complete set up which meant he couldn't trust the woman either. The latter did not seem true from how she had been talking up until now, he had no reason to truly suspect her. He turned his head off towards the north a bit, where the whisps of smoke had completely died off and only a piece of metallic colour behind a tree gave away the location of his previous vehicle. Depending on how this went, Afreet would begin to regret even more his ride breaking down.

" Yahh," he said, softly, apparently to his horse and no one else," I hope you know you're way around as well as I do..."

She smiled at Bishop and nodded to him. "The shades for him, not for me. He's a black horse running around in the middle of a desert, and he's not an arabian. He's none to fond of the heat, but he's willing to put up with it for now, atleast until we return home." She said smiling at the officers hospitality. As much as the other male tried not to show it, she could tell he was irritated by her suggestion. There was a reason she knew alot about horses. She was a world wide cross country rider and a 5 time national champion.

She hopped up and swung her leg over and kicked out of the stirrup to allow Bishop to climb on, they had work to do. She looked down at him. "Something tells me that you are out this way for more than just recon work. Something tells me you're also looking for someone." She whispered to Bishop.

As Bishop heard Jen whisper into his ear her suspicions he patted her side gently as he clmbed on and said back in whispers "Yes, I am, but keep it down until we got some distance on this guy."

Looking back at Ae'gil Bishop said "Hey man, nice meeting ya, but I think it's time we get moving for now, and since you're the one who lives out here as a native, why don't you lead the way hm?" He wanted to see if this person was indeed an actual native human of Onachoa. His appearance was odd enough as is, but his behavior was what gave something away, Bishop just didn't know what it is yet. However if this guy, who supposedly lived in the Onachoan Deserts didn't know his way around, that would be enough for Bishop to detain and question him, hopefully finding out who he was and what was really going on.

Afreet could hear the two gossipmongering women he'd been drafted into travel companionship with. They were whispering back and forth to each other, but from this distance he had no simblance of what it could be about. That said, he could atleast piece together a general idea. It was settled, something about the knight different sit right, and the atmosphere when the two of them had been near betrayed that. The woman, the imp suspected, was independent of their silent war so far, but was beginning to catch on to the tension.

He hoped to god she'd keep herself out it, she was nice and beautiful enough to make Afreet not wish to become conflicted with. If something sparked between the two men, and she became involved, he might not get the chance to try out the perfume. That would be a shame, a damn shame.

He perked his shoulders up atop his horse, raising his voice to a steady, loud hum. He had to appear atleast slightly oblivious, if his act bought him even a moment of intense questioning before any... activity, it would be worth it all the more in the end," Of course, good sir. Leave it to me. The bounty of these desert sands can be great, but treacherous if you have no grown to love their splendor with time." He abruptly turned his back to the two and began trotting off through the dry dirt, toward the east, with the sun beginning to angle down behind them. In the following mile, he would slowly inch his way back, hopefully gaining a better hold on the sound coming from his... comrades.

" Damn Scorp tech breaking down on me, " Afreet thought to himself with an inaudable hiss," If this is the death of me, I'll haunt them until someone finds my corpse wandering about the sands!"

First she felt his hand at her side. His hand was large and it fit perfectly around her side. She tilted her head to Bishop as he whispered in her ear. She smiled and nodded as he confirmed what she had noticed. She clicked to her horse and moved gracefully towards where the other rider was. She smiled to both men. "Come on, lets go!" She said and clicked to her horse and moved forward. She turned her horse around. "Well?" She asked Ae'gil.

She moved her horse forward at a nice trot. "So, I didn't get your name." She said to Bishop.

Bishop, now sure he had a good distance set between him and Ae'gil, began to talk quietly into Jeniveve's ear. "Name's Lt. Col. James Bishop Sheppard, from Task Force Silent Knight. You can call me Bishop. If you're who I think you are, then I got a job from the council itself for ya, but it's your choice to accept it or not." He said as he began pulling up his mission objectives and the reports Xavier had sent him. "The Desert Scorpians and over half of Onachoa have sided with Armetisia. As such we now help them since they've been kind enough to help us, and as our first act of help, I've been sent out here to find you, to track down some kind of super bandit that's been stealing the Scorps sand schooners. You want in?

Afreet found it disturbing. The officer knew that he knew that they were talking about him, but Afreet was just out of range to make out their words, which meant they were literally on the precipice of outright conflict, but here the imp, the Onoochoa Commander of the God Shield Complex, Aegis, giving direction to some sand hovel in the middle of a hundred mile stretch of sand and sun. It was his guard, but the knight had chosen, rather than bring up the issue at hand, to make the two of them wait at opposite ends of a relatively small hallway. All the while, variables were being thrown in because of this girl, Jeniveve. He honestly did not want to start something with that woman, it could lead to nothing but trouble.

In a snap, Afreet's sensibilities bent akwardly into an impulsive adolescence. He pulled the reins back violently, his horse's mouth stinging with pain as it haulted in its tracks. The imp sharply and quickly trotted up on the two chatty cathies. Wide eyed and smiling, he pulled his turban back onto the tip of his forehead and stared directly into the eyes of the knight. " So! What's going on, I love to talk, I wish I could get to talk more often, with more travelers, more and more travelers, they come into the desert, and where they end up, only Ae'Gil KNOWS!"

He altered his horse's direction, pulling to the side and coming around. On his return trip, he pulled up, parellel to his companions' shared horse. " Jeniveve, you know, you remind me of someone. A friend of a friend of a friend ," he repeated those two words franticly for a few more seconds," once had a run in with a beautiful, shapely mercenary down in the eastern kingdoms! Isn't that something, no one ever saw him again, his wife retold the story about how she caught them going at it like dogs in a cheap state house, they were all like, Rawrrarrarrrarrr! " He made tearing and shaking motions with his hands to acompany the animal noises. " She ran off, no one ever saw poor Rodriguez again. Poor, poor Rodriguez." He stopped, looked up at the sky, then immediatly back at Jeniveve," Stories, they can really make the time go by." His face took back its somber tone from earlier, as he trotted up about a yard forward, close enough to hear the two speak to one another," I've got a million of them..."

Jeni didn't really want to take the job if she had to kill someone who hadn't taken someone elses life. If it was just to hunt and track, then that was one thing. Still a job was a job and she never questioned her orders. "Of course I will accept the perameters." She said and then looked up as their companion came up to her and started rambling on about stuff that had happened to a not distant so called friend of his. He went on to tell a story to them about this woman just dissapearing. Was this supposed to frighten her?

As long as they were sharing stories she may as well share some of her own. "You know, there was a man, that I used to know. He used to be the boss of a close friend of mine. He started issuing death warrants for others arrests, and threatening peoples lives. So, a warrant was issued for his death. I killed him, I hung him upside down and slit his throat." She said smiling at Afreet.

At seeing how weird and on edge Ae'Gil had suddenly become, Bishop readied himself for the worse. He primed his side arm to be drawn quickly if need be, and loosened his shoulder in case he'd have to draw anything quickly, say, his knife for instance. He looked down at his wrist mounted monitor and read up on the reports of the one attacking the Desert Scorpions. A few of the reports began to match up, and as he read on, he began to notice odd similarities between them and Ae'Gil in terms of appearance. Then the kicker came; It would seem that somehow, one of the Desert Scorpions, before being killed, managed to capture a rough, but visible picture of the one attacking them. The picture looked uncannily familiar to Ae'Gil, and with the sudden show of instability, Bishop knew he had something very big, very bad, or both, on his hands.

Hitting the "Oh Shit" button on his monitor, Bishop called for his ride to come in ASAP, because he knew things were about to get very serious, and he made sure to bring the extra large heli, just for Jeni and her horse. "Ya know, I've done a lot of things to get by. Some of those I'm proud of, like dragging a wounded man across a field under enemy fire just to make sure he made it home alright. Others I'm not proud of, like blowing up a hospital just so enemy troops couldn't get healed properly. But of all those things, I know that if I do them, I get to go home to my family. In fact," He said reaching for his rifle and rolling off the horse, "Killing random people who are bat shit insane happens to be one of the things I do well! Now who the hell are you!?" as he pulled out his rifle and fired off a three shot burst at Ae'Gil, hoping he'd deflect them with something to see if he was right about him. If he wasn't, then oh well, it's bad to travel with crazed people anyway.

Afreet ate in the edginess that had come over Jeniveve and the shock that was displayed across Bishop's demeanor. It was sweet music to finally have some excitement in the crowd, not just silent tension that seemed to stretching on for far to long. And now, here was the girl making threats in response to a simple traveler's story, how rude, he thought with a jacked smile beginning to stretch over his face as he turned away from the two. The woman was threatening him, but it was Bishop's words that pulled the somber atmosphere into a close around the three of them.

He began to talk about his military career, and that was when Afreet knew things had finally come to pass. He readied himself for a standoff, but instead what he got was a thud as Bishop's fat officer ass hit the giving sands and the clack of a long gun being pulled into position. It wasn't in Afreet's best interest to fight this one, so he acted in the only way he could. With a heave, he pulled he floundered his whole horse to a side, putting it's large body in between the imp and the soon to come shots. He heard them ring out and his horse cry, but that was the last he would have of the situation. Behind his makeshift cover, he called up a burst of sand from the ground around them, pulling it straight up into the air as a smoke screen. He dislodged himself from the saddle and in an instant was gone.

He made it to the edge of the cloud, looked back once into the sand filled air, he couldn't see into it well and with a sigh, he turned away, called another torrent of sand to rain down in a highway for him, and he sped through it, alone, calling up more sand before him to keep up his speed. He ran like a roadrunner across the desert plain, avoiding the town they'd been heading for, instead heading for the center of a large plain of sand. A desert imp settlement.

Chokal, he'd been named as a boy, the son of a great, race winning stallion, but no one who ever handled him knew that name. He was stolen from birth and trained by a bandit militia from the northern country. One day, after being made to pull a simple, heavy wagon everyday for many of his years, he was sold to a thin man with long hair. He'd grown to like him, he treated and fed Chokal well, but somewhere in himself, he knew he wouldn't last long in the hands of this man. Chokal's head hit the desert sands, the western ones, hundred of miles away from his birthplace. The shock and pain had dissapaited, two shots bled out of his stomach and intestine, pouring red and brown into the sands below,and one hit his neck, lodging itself into his collar. Chokal then died, it the midst of a homemade sandstorm, alone, shot by a man he'd only known for 20 minutes.

On the sands before the now dead mount, lied a small crystaline object. A perfume bottle with an Amrstanian Lavender scent, aged for 12 years, meant for a beauty.

Jeni sat forward in her seat as Bishop hopped off. She sighed and watched the confrontation infront of her, her mouth fell open as Bishop asked the other a question and then fired at him. She hit her self in the face with her hand as a sign of frustration. She then heard the heart wrenching sound of a hot bullet searing through hair, skin, and organs. She looked up to hear the horse that Afreet had been on roar in pain. What happened in the next few minutes seemed to take hours to her.

She watched as the horse took a tumble. She didn't care about the rider, she watched as the sand went up from the horses hooves and came back down. She made eye contact with the poor creature. Fear and pain was registered in it's eyes. She pulled out a knife and jumped off of her horse, she was going to end it's fear and pain. She made her way over to the horse that was bleeding every where and then watched as it's body lifted feebily one last time and then was still. Sighing she sat there and then noticed the small liquid filled object. She picked it up and was about the test a very small amount via mouth. She then caught a wif of it and it opened up a can of worms. It opened her memories. This was exactly how her mother used to smell. In that instant every memory of her mother came back to her.

Turning her attention back to Bishop. "I think we've found your bandit." She said.

After firing at Ae'Gil and seeing that the stumpy bastard used his horse as a meat shield, Bishop was caught entirely off guard by the summon sandstorm that was summoned up, causing him to wear his goggles on his eyes and not his neck. "Shit! Rosa, get the chopper here NOW!" He yelled over his comm, his urgency not reaching far enough through his voice alone. Through his dusty and covered goggles, his vision barely caught the bastard running like a bat out of hell in a direction he knew led only to barren sand. "Son of a bitch! Think Bishop think, clock in the nav points guy c`mon..." He thought to himself as he tried to figure out which direction he was going in.

After getting up from his kneeling position, he walked over to Jeniveve and said "And it looks like your choice of whether or not to take this job just got revoked." He said as his helicopter came into view. "This is my ride, but I'm going after that guy. You may have helped me find my bandit, but it's be greatly appreciated if you could help me chase him down as well." Bishop asked as he climbed onto the gunner seat of the left side of the chopper.

"Yo fool, the hell you been up too out here?" A horse voice rang out from the inside of the chopper, as Marcellus poked his head out with Roger peering from behind.

"Getting my ass almost kicked, now let's go, we got us a freak of nature to capture." Looking back at Jeniveve, he asked one last time, "You coming or not?"

Jeni shook her head as Bishop yelled into his com. She sighed and climbed back onto her horse. Porthos reared up as the chopper roared over head. She sighed as he said he could use her help chasing the apparent imp down. He was a fugative after all and apparently he needed assisstance. She was about ready to answer when someone asked what Bishop had been up to.

As Bishop asked again if she was coming she nodded and had her horse hop up into the chopper. She put the poop bag on him, so that there would be nothing to clean up in chopper. Her horse whinnied and nodded his head frantically. She hopped off and was suprised at how roomie the chopper was. She covered her horses eyes and caressed them, to calm him down. She was not much into flying and anytime she had to, it always sent her reeling.