TOTU: The Territory of Tribe Two

Manipulatively Appeal

Dedicated to khiraeis00 because they are the best friend ever!!

And I'm just going to mention eggsontoast and Lynae17_happytimes here because I just went through my notifications (Idk why!) and wow... they were, like, the first voters TOTU ever had! I owe a lot to them...

Day 6

"This is impossible," croaked Tom, almost slipping up on the last vowel because he was so used to talking in Joju, not English. "It can't get this hot. This doesn't happen."

The team were in much the same position as they had been a few hours ago, only now they had all migrated to patches of shadows in an attempt to stay cool.

"We're in a desert, Tom," said Lochie, trying to sound matter-of-fact and failing. "We knew before we came here that we'd have some hot days."

"Remind me why the GPC wanted us to come out here in the hottest part of the year?" Ari groaned from where he was lying against the wall, in the largest patch of shade he'd been able to claim.

"This was the only time of the year where there wasn't supposed to be dust storms," Tom snapped.

"It's also the time of the year that the Igkuk is on, remember?" Arrakis reminded them. Igkuk— the male coming-of-age ceremony. "That's why we decided that the team would be all boys."

"To manipulatively appeal to the Tribe," drawled Milo, who was in a bad mood thanks to the heat. Lochie threw him a quelling glance.

"Vrevri!"

Carter's voice caught Milo's attention, though the rest of the team kept arguing. Looking around, Milo saw Carter's hooves touch the ground as his huge wings pumped painstakingly slower, the muscles in them standing out to support Carter's weight as he landed.

Finding his footing, Carter loped over to their striped guard, who he seemed to have been addressing. Carter said something to her, too quietly for Milo to hear, and the girl's face suddenly lit up. Looking delighted, she kissed Carter's cheek hurriedly, said something to him quickly –- it looked like a 'thank you'-- and ran off, leaving Carter looking quite astounded.

Milo wolf-whistled, and Carter looked around, saw Milo grinning at him, and scowled. He trotted over to the cell and leaned against the mesh wall, throwing a frown at Milo.

"What was that about?" Milo asked, amused.

"I just told her that she could go to the river, because we have to swap guard duty-- Chief told me that I should be on today."

"Ah." Milo nodded. "I understand her. I would kiss you, too, if you let me go to the river."

Carter grimaced at him, then turned his attention to the rest of the group.

"Igkuk is in, what? A week?" Arrakis was saying, still in English. "So, if we—"

"Why are you talking about Igkuk?" asked Carter, who must have separated the word from the string of English.

"Is this going to become a regular thing with you?" Tom complained, glaring at Carter. Carter shot him an equally-deadly death glare, punctuating it by spiking his feathers so that his wings looked twice as large.

"Relax," Carter growled, dragging one of his hooves through a pile of dirt. "I'm just on guard duty again."

He turned and stalked over to the little building where the team had taken shelter in the dust storm and sat down with a huff in the shade.

"Nice, Tom," said Lochie irritably, and ignored Tom's annoyed protests. Lochie shifted the team over to the other side of the cell, where they could look out the window, but Milo stayed leaning against the mesh, too lazy to move.

Yay!

- Read

- Vote

- Comment

- (Please!)

:D