"Master Ling." Ling was on one knee at the top of a tall sand dune, eyes slitted from the unrelenting light of the sun as he observed the horizon. He turned his head at the sound of Lan Fan's voice.
"What is it?" he asked. She regarded him for a moment. "I'm sorry, but we should get going." Ling nodded once. "Right. Sorry." He got to his feet and scrambled down the mound of sand.
May frowned and crossed her arms. "We can't afford to keep hanging around." Lan Fan growled. "Do not speak that way to the prince." Ling just grinned. The group of three was on their own with nothing but the clothes on their backs, their weapons, and a few days of food and water.
Lan Fan insisted on carrying the entire load herself, but Ling fought until he and May were allowed to carry their own waterskins. It would take them about a week and a half o cross the desert and get into Xing, and even then it would take them a few days to get back to the Yao clan. It's not like the rival clans would just let them stroll through without a fight.
For hours they trekked across the sands of the desert. The sun was hot and relentless, beating down on the already battered foreigners. May was the first to succumb to the heat.
"May!" Ling cried as the small girl crumbled, chest heaving. He ran to her, falling to his knees and grasping her shoulders before she hit the ground. May's head rested against her chest. Ling opened his waterskin and poured a generous amount into her mouth.
"Master Ling!" Lan Fan admonished. "I can give her my water." Ling shook his head. "Too late now. And besides," he added with a smile and he cradled May almost protectively from the harsh glare of sunlight. "You said that you'll be doing the hunting, right? So you'll need all the strength you can get." Lan Fan opened her mouth to argue, but shut in promptly when she realized arguing would be fruitless.
Ling hung his waterskin off his belt once more before shrugging out of his jacket and draping it over her head and picking her up in his arms. She was turned toward his chest so with both the jacket and his arms provided shade.
Lan Fan desperately wanted to relieve her from his arms so he wouldn't wear out as quickly as he already was, but something about the tender sight kept her silent. She may have even smiled to herself, if only a little.
Of course both of them knew May would be not only outraged, but genuinely embaressed should she wake up in her older brother's arms. They kept walking for a few more hours.
"Are you alright, Master Ling?" Lan Fan asked once more, and Ling looked up ahead of him to see her concerned gaze. He beamed at her, but it didn't quite same effect it would have if his bangs weren't stuck to his forehead with sweat and he wasn't panting from exertion.
"I'm fine, Lan Fan. How are you? Ed told me the hot sun was pretty bad for automail." She frowned a little. "It's fine, Master Ling." Ling frowned. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Ling pursed his lips. "Okay." They continued their trek, even past sundown. May started coming around when it was deep into the night. Their pattern for travel was to travel for a day and a night, then sleep through the day and travel the night before repeating.
May let out something akin to a mewl, and for the first time since they'd started travelling, her little panda peeked out of her shirt. "May?" Ling asked, looking down at her. Her eyes opened slowly, and Ling watched with a sense of amusement as she absorbed where she was, what time it was, and last but not least, whose arms she was currently nestled.
Her brows came together in confusion, then anger. "Put me down!" she yelled. Ling chuckled as she flailed her arms about. Her fist connected with his ribcage and he gave a small wheeze before setting her down on her feet. Lan Fan sent a glare to the back of her head. May huffed, face so red it would put a tomato to shame.
The trio ended up resting that night, Ling falling asleep almost instantly after eating. Not that Lan Fan really expected any different. May hadn't spoken very much since her 'ordeal'. The prince had made sure she was alright, but eventually left her to her own devices.
Lan Fan glanced at Ling's sleeping form, then glanced at the princess, who was still awake and looking up at the sky. "The prince carried you all day." Her quiet murmur jolted May out of whatever thoughts she'd been wrapped up in.
May watched Lan Fan for a moment. "Really?" she asked, a bit curious as to why Ling would do it all day if Lan Fan could. The bodyguard in question bowed her head once. "Yes," she said quietly. "He gave you some of his water, then refused to let me carry you instead." May looked guilty, which was part of what Lan Fan had been aiming for.
She knew without a doubt that her prince was a good man, and would make a wonderful emperor. May was also fair and kind. To those she liked, anyway. But she was also too clouded by past grudges and suspicions, refusing to see the good in other she'd already deemed untrustworthy.
But in her own right, Lan Fan wasn't being exactly fair in that statement, but when it came to her siblings, that's how it was. Lan Fan wanted May to realize and acknowledge the kindness and trust Ling had been giving her lately.
She felt that he deserved that much. "Oh," was all that May said. Lan Fan figured that she'd the princess time to stew a bit before talking with her again. The two hadn't been getting along per se, but they no longer had the overwhelming desire to kill each other on sight.
Lan Fan waited until May had settled and fallen asleep with Shao-mei nestled in her arms. Then she took up a crouching position between the two siblings, determined to stay awake so she could protect them. If she was incapable of doing something so simple, what use was she really?
Later that night, she was snapped out of her partially numb state by her prince awaking with a strangled gasp. She frowned at him, clearly worried. "Master Ling?" Ling was panted, and the arms that were supporting his weight were trembling.
"I'm okay," he rasped. It was obvious, he was not, but Lan Fan wasn't given training in a way to approach him in such things as his dreams and other similar matters. It came easier with other people she didn't know very well, like May, but with her own prince, she had no idea what to do.
Ling glanced at her, blinking away the cobwebs of sleep from his eyes. "You should sleep, Lan Fan." She regarded him with something akin to insult. "I am fine, Master Ling." He gave her a sweet smile, which gave her fair warning that he was about to ask her to do something she really wouldn't like to do.
"I'm not tired anymore, so I'll be up for the rest of night. How about I take watch while you get some sleep?" Lan Fan gave him a look that conveyed every once of displeasure she felt at that suggestion. Ling chuckled and let her have her way.
The next morning, they made a meager breakfast of bread and strips of dried meat. May kept watching Ling, and Lan Fan watched him as well, trying to determine if whatever he dreamt of last night was still affecting him.
Ling, in his own mind, was a getting a bit creeped out. Lan Fan had been staring at him for most of the night as well as in the morning, and May was also regarding him with renewed interest. If he was with any other two ladies he might've appreciated the attention, but considering they were his bodyguard and sister, it made the atmosphere a bit awkward.
If the three of them knew of the trails to come, they'd have enjoyed their slow-paced days.
They had been walking, Lan Fan leading the way, May following about twenty feet behind her, and Ling brought up the rear a ways back, hands in his pockets and lost in thought. Lately, he'd been having severe nightmares of when he'd been taken over by Greed, the philosopher stone injection, and other painful memories.
Ling wasn't sure why he was dreaming about it after everything was said and done. It was over and he was over it. Right? But he wasn't quite sure how to answer that one either. Lan Fan had gone scouting ahead, in case there was anyone out there they needed to avoid.
The wind picked up until it was practically picking up and sand and throwing it in their faces like they were childhood enemies. Suddenly, a muted rumbling sound filled the air. May looked around curiously. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she saw what was behind them. Lan Fan turned nearly at the same time May did, and her eyes widened. Her gaze found the prince next, who had stopped a good way back to twist around for the source of the noise.
The distance between set off dozens of alarms in her mind. He's too far away.
It was a wall of sand, hundreds of feet high. Like a tsunami of sand. Before she had any idea what she was doing, Lan Fan was racing towards them, but without a doubt, she'd be too late. And sje knew it.
Ling took a few staggering steps back before turning on his heel and he started running, kicking up sand with every step. May was running too, both trying to get to some sort of shelter from the storm, while Ling prayed Lan Fan could either reach them or get someplace safe.
The storm was hot on Ling's heels, and he soon overcame May. The giant cloud stretched over them, and May gasped as the sandstorm wall came racing at them. Ling tore off his jacket and pressed the fabric to the lower part of May's face. "Hold it there!" he yelled as the winds began to roar. He grabbed her small hand and tugged her behind him.
May stumbled after him, too terrified to do much else. Ling pulled her roughly to the ground behind a tall sand dune, and planted himself on all fours above her so he could shelter her. She finally yanked Ling's jacket away from her mouth. "What about you?" Ling brushed it off. He wouldn't have been able to answer anyway, because two seconds later, everything went to hell.
Everything was pitch black and the sand hit them so hard the grains left scratches in their wake. May kept her eyes mostly closed but her eyes still roamed the darkness for any source of light.
With a chocked gasp she realized that the sand moving beneath her was falling, slipping out from beneath her. And soon she'd fall down the side of the sand dune, and when that happened, who knows where the storm would drag her off to.
Ling was also aware of it and was already starting to dig, making a cradle-like hole that would fit May in it. Already his feet were slipping and he was constantly trying to find new purchase in the rapidly diminishing sand.
He felt around for May's shoulders and then pushed her to a crouching position and more or less shoved her so she fell back into the hole. Suddenly, his footholds vanished and he was falling, skidding down the sand so fast his hands burned. Then he was airborne, falling painfully on his back and sliding to and from with every small wave of sand that pushed his around.
Sand forced it's way up his nose, and down his throat. His ponytail was long gone and his hair slapped him in the face. Ling couldn't even hear his own panicked wheezes. It felt like he was choking, he couldn't get enough air and his entire was on fire now that he was out in the open.
And at the mercy of the storm.
Lan Fan was in a similar situation to May, with a piece of cloth pressed to her face and in a small crevice she dug herself. Desperately, she wanted to find the prince, to know that he was alright, but if she went out there, she'd probably just end up dead.
When Ling had suddenly been ripped away from May, she panicked, screaming out his name and feeling around for him. With a sickening coil in her gut, May realized Ling was out there. And that he'd most likely be dead in minutes.