The wind howled around them as the friends were plunged into sudden darkness. The stinging sensation on their skin was getting worse by the minute and they all struggled to keep their cloaks under control and wrapped around them.
" What the hell's going on?" Simon demanded.
" It's a sandstorm!" Jo yelled back by way of explanation. " And a bad one at that!"
" You reckon?" Lucy managed to shriek before getting a mouthful of sand.
" What do we do?" Lina cried out, her voice barely carrying above the wind screaming around them.
" Well, I don't know about you…" Mark shouted, " But this is my first time in a sandstorm, I'm a little unfamiliar with the correct procedure!"
" I think shelter would be good!" Glyndwr yelled, shielding his face with his hand.
" I don't remember seeing any nearby…" Marius said, his hood pulled tightly around his head.
" We can't just go wandering off…!" Jo informed them, " There could be a chasm or anything out there…I mean there could be a brick wall right in front of us and we wouldn't see it!"
" So what do you suggest we do then…?" Aradia demanded with no apparent attempt to disguise the scorn in her voice. Jo threw the princess a very unimpressed look that was sadly lost in the sand swirling around them all.
" Grab onto each other…!" Jo instructed, groping out blindly and taking a firm hold of the first thing she felt brush her hand. It turned out to be Simon's arm and she clung to it as if her very life depended on it, as he did to her. One by one the friends managed to find each other, linking arms and holding tightly onto one another's hands.
" What now?" Marius yelled against the bellowing wind.
" Follow me…" came the faint reply from Jo. Forming a human chain they began to edge slowly forwards through the biting air. They had all gathered their cloaks around their heads so that by this point, only their eyes were showing. Not that they were providing much help.
" Jo? Where are you taking us?" Phillipe called from his place near the back of the line once they had been walking into the wind for a good fifteen minutes or so.
" No idea!" was her sudden and relatively loud response. " But I thought we might as well try and keep moving…maybe we can outrun this thing…"
" What do you mean outrun it?" Demanded Jenny pointedly. " It's a storm, Jo, not an army!" " I wouldn't be so sure," Jo replied under her breath, not that she needed to with the noise that surrounded them all.
Jo squinted into the swirling sand, which surrounded them, as she continued to edge forwards with the others following her one by one. She paused momentarily, a frown etched on her face. She could have sworn she had just seen something not far ahead of them. Something, something moving…someone perhaps…
Her train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt. As was the floor. Jo screamed as she felt herself fall through thin air.
" Jo!" Guillaume called out, dashing forwards, clawing his way along the chain of people to where Jo had vanished.
Almost as if on cue, the sand filled air parted and the friends gasped. Jo was dangling several metres below them, her cloak was all that was preventing her from falling down to the bottom of the deep, rocky gorge below. But her cloak was also choking her, the heavy material having twisted around her throat. Glancing down at their feet the friends all felt their heart skip a beat as they saw they were all mere inches from falling down there after her.
" Oh my god…" Rosie murmured, falling to her knees, alongside Guillaume and everyone else.
" Jo? Can you hear us?" Marius shouted down to her dropping down onto his front and leaning over the edge to try and reach her.
" Yeah…I'm…" Jo shouted back up before a huge gust of wind seemed to lift her up and drop her callously back against the side of the gorge. Her head hit the wall with an audible crack and she hung lifelessly from her cloak.
" Jo? Jo, are you alright…?" Mark yelled down while Guillaume, Phillipe and Martin had all laid flat on the ground with Marius and were trying to reach down to where Jo's cloak had snagged on a rock. Jo didn't answer. The vicious wind continued to blow down on them all, mercilessly battering Jo against the rocks.
" I can't reach it!" Martin shouted as his outstretched hand and arm failed to grab hold of her fluttering cloak.
"Jo!" Guillaume all but screamed. He started to lower himself over the edge when Bertrande grabbed hold of his arm, pulling him back over the top.
" No! You can't! You'll be blown off the rocks before you can reach her!" She pleaded with her childhood friend.
" We can't just stand here!" Guillaume yelled back in her face, shrugging himself free.
" Wait! Look…!" Lucy suddenly exclaimed. " Who's that…? Down there..?"
The friends all stopped and peered down towards Jo and simultaneously gasped. Edging their way along the face of the rock was a figure in a long dark cloak, they were making their way slowly but surely towards Jo. The friends waited with baited breath as the figure reached Jo, carefully lifted her up, unhooking her cloak and took her into their arms. Looking up, the figure gestured to the friends, pointing to their right as they started to make their way along the narrowest ledge any of the friends had ever seen, Jo hanging limply in their arms.
" They want us to follow them I guess…!" Lina said, started to walk along the edge, heading in the same direction as the hooded figure. Soon the ground started to slope downwards and the friends were gradually taken down into the gorge. All of a sudden the hooded figure appeared by their side.
" Follow me!" They ordered loudly against the wind as they headed further down the sloping pathway they were following before ducking into a cave in the rock face.
The friends crowded into the cave while the stranger carefully laid Jo down on the floor, Guillaume rushing to kneel beside her. She was very pale, several small cuts on her face and arms from the rocks with her hair full of sand and grit, almost making it look grey, but more importantly, she wasn't breathing.
" Jo…?" Guillaume tentatively reached out and shook her shoulder.
" Come on Jo," Aradia mumbled, biting her lower lip nervously.
" Give her some air," The stranger instructed, leaning forwards quickly to undo the clasp of Jo's cloak, freeing her throat from the twisted, heavy material.
Almost instantly Jo started to cough and, to everyone's shock, several small clouds of very fine sand came out of her mouth. She lay still for a moment or two before her eyes fluttered open slightly.
" She's ok!" Guillaume exclaimed joyously, clasping her close to him.
" Oh is she…?" Jo's voice asked, it was definitely weaker than usual and rasping but it still had it's familiar bite to it. " For your information swallowing half or a desert and being bashed against nasty pointy rocks doesn't exactly leave you feeling particularly refreshed!"
A faint ripple of laughter went around the group, who were now shaking copious amounts of sand out of their cloaks, packs, clothing, hair, from just about everywhere.
" But who am I to thank?" Jo asked the hooded and cloaked figure hovering near the entrance to the cave, outside of which the sound of the wind could still be heard clearly as it screamed across the desert, the wind sounding even more annoyed then before.
" It was nothing…really…" The figure replied with a slight inclination of their head, " Anyone would have done the same…"
" But you were the only one there…if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't be here. Please, who are you…?" Jo demanded rather weakly from her position on the floor of the cave, leaning against the wall, still trying desperately to resume a normal breathing pattern. The stranger stepped forwards and, after a slight pause, raised their hands to push back the hood of their cloak.
A gasp ran around the group.
" Aitor?" Guillaume and Glyndwr exclaimed simultaneously as Jo's rescuer removed his hood. " Well I never…" Martin sighed.
" Are you all alright…?" Dedra asked, his pale eyes glancing at them all in turn.
" Yeah…yeah, I think so…" Jo answered.
" How did you…I mean…" Rosie started. " How did you find us…?"
" I was passing through a settlement back on the plains and they mentioned that you'd been there too and were now heading this way," Dedra answered, looking around but not quite meeting anyone's eyes. " I know the desert can be dangerous at this time of year and thought I should try to find you and warn you before you found yourselves stranded out here…I caught sight of you just before the storm hit and figured you'd probably be heading in this direction," He paused. " After all, it was the least I could, you did save my life not so long ago…" He tapped his left shin with a half smile.
Jo stood up and stretched, wincing. " Well I think that little incident will be staying with me for a while…" She grinned. " And Aitor..? Will you be rejoining us…?"
Within seconds Jo found herself at the back of the cave, surrounded by the rest of the group all of whom looked very serious. Very serious indeed.
" Alright, what's wrong…?" Jo asked cautiously.
" Jo, you cannot seriously be entertaining the idea of taking him with us again?" Glyndwr demanded, his usually quiet voice was quite stern.
" You know my feelings on the matter," Guillaume said darkly, when Jo's bemused gaze met his.
" He just saved my life!" Jo exclaimed in disbelief, her hands spread wide at her sides. " Does that mean nothing to you lot?"
" Don't be stupid Jo, of course it does, it's just…" Rosie glanced at the others for help.
" Doesn't it strike you as slightly odd though that he showed up at the precise moment you got into trouble…?" Mark pressed.
" No," Jo replied flatly, folding her arms over her chest. " It strikes me as lucky, very lucky!"
" But Jo, we know nothing about him…" Lucy said quietly, almost afraid she might be overheard.
" And he knows next to nothing about us and yet he risked his life to save one of us…" Jo retorted, her green eyes sparkling with suppressed anger.
" Yes he did," Jenny agreed, " But don't you find it even remotely weird that he managed to show up just as mysteriously now as he did in the mountains…?"
" Jenny, we were in a sandstorm, a Boeing 747 could have landed right next to us and it's appearance would have been just as mysterious!"
" That's not what she meant and you know it," Phillipe said rather firmly.
There was a pause while Jo's mind flew back to that morning at the foot of the mountains when she and Billabong had discovered that his injury had been self-inflicted.
'…it's not that I don't like him, Billabong, I just…don't trust him...He's got a secret and it must be a big one…'
She had even asked him about it herself…
'How did you come to fall anyway…surely you weren't up in the mountains alone…?'
She had asked but he hadn't answered.
She had suspected him even then of being more than he seemed. But why hadn't she done anything about it? Jo didn't know. She had, instead, taken him with them, given him a bead from Mithras' necklace to protect him when he had chosen to leave them. As she had watched him wander away from them through the rocks and boulders on the mountainside she had had a dark feeling about where his destination might have been.
Jo glanced across the cave to where he stood, looking pensively at them. His sandy hair was falling down across his forehead and into those pale turquoise eyes. She looked as deeply as she dared into those cool pools, searching for something, anything, to convince her and, she hoped, the others. There was something shining in those eyes, something that seemed so familiar, flashing occasionally amongst the nerves and confusion that were obvious. Jo bit her lip in thought momentarily.
" Weird doesn't come close to it Jenny," Jo finally said, turning back to them. " But then again, it doesn't really come close to describing some of our own appearances now does it?" She quirked an eyebrow. " He's coming with us, at least until we get out of the desert. We had no idea how to survive out here, he does, and with the effects of the sandstorm still to be fully seen, if nothing else we'll need a guide…"
" I guess," Mark agreed through firmly gritted teeth. Guillaume and Glyndwr's jaws were set so tightly they couldn't even respond, save a brief nod.
" Good," said Jo tightly, leaving the others and heading over to where Dedra stood.
" I have a bad feeling about this," Martin muttered as they all drifted slowly after her.
" Haven't we all?" Amos replied almost silently.
" And you're sure it's ok…?" Dedra asked more tentatively than ever, his eyes flitting from stony face to stony face surrounding him. Only Jo's face looked even vaguely friendly towards him.
" Yeah," Bertrande mumbled.
" It's ok," Simon muttered.
" Great," Jo said in what was obviously an over enthusiastic voice. " Let's get going then…"
The howling wind had stopped and the air was no longer full of sand and grit as the rather silent group headed back out into the sunshine.
They were now at the foot of the gorge and the walls around them were covered with cave entrances. The rocks were the same hot orange in colour as the sands had been and the friends had to shield their eyes against the glare. The only slight benefit to being down in the gorge was that the air seemed to be that little bit cooler and no where near as dry as it had been up on the dunes. Although it did little to cool down the hot tempers amongst them. Jo walked alone at the head of the group, Dedra was a few paces behind her, occasionally giving her directions with the others walking a good few feet behind them both, all of them with grim expressions and permanent frowns.
After an hour or so they reached the end of the gorge where it spread out into a much wider, almost, valley. The wall before them was almost semi-circular in shape with hundred of caves boring into it. The friends spread out while Phillipe consulted the map, with Dedra's help, taking much needed water from their packs. Guillaume stood to one side, his dark eyes focused on one thing and not shifting. On Dedra. Jo watched him for a moment or two before marching over, grabbing his arm and dragging him further from the rest of the group.
" Alright, what's wrong?" Jo demanded as soon as they were out of earshot of the others.
"I beg you…" Guillaume started.
" You've had a face like a smacked ar…well, you've not looked 'best pleased' since we last the cave…what's wrong with you?" Jo frowned.
" Oh come on Jo! Take a wild guess!" Guillaume shot back, his dark eyes now glowing.
" Please don't tell me this is about Aitor…" Jo groaned.
" Well what else would it be about?"
" What's wrong with him?" Jo demanded.
" What's right?"
" Don't be so childish Guillaume!"
" I don't trust him," Guillaume replied tightly.
" Why?" Jo responded like a shot.
" Well, he…he…er…" Guillaume struggled to think of anything that the sandy haired stranger had done against any of the group. " He tried to kill you, remember up in the mountains, he had a dagger against your throat once…!"
'Twice' Jo corrected in her mind.
" Yes he did…but you almost got me killed too, remember," Jo said softly, her green eyes piercing the dark brown of his own. " But I insisted we bring you along…and that wasn't too a bad a thing in the end now was it…?" She smirked slightly as a red colouring filtered onto his cheeks.
" But you and me…" Guillaume replied rather gruffly. " That was different…I loved you…and you…well…" He grinned, dimples forming in his cheeks. " You loved me didn't you…?"
" Yes I did, and while you didn't really mean to get me hurt back then, neither did Aitor, he was in pain, remember? And while I have no intention of falling in love with Aitor," Jo grinned back, " I don't see why he can't come with us too…" She lifted an eyebrow slightly. " Please, just let him come with us…if he does anything untoward…then you have my full permission to batter him!" Jo giggled.
" Fair enough," Guillaume agreed before his face became darker than Jo had seen it in a long while. " But I mean it Jo, if he even puts a toe out of line…I'll have him!"
" I know you will," Jo sighed, hugging him as they wandered back over to the others.
" Right then," Phillipe announced, folding away the map. " We think the crystal is in one of these caves…"
" Well that narrows it down!" Marius snorted, before receiving a dig in the ribs from Rosie. " What was that for? I was only saying…"
" We know," The others all replied as they looked at the hundreds and hundreds of caves before them. The effect of the black patches on the bright orange stone was to confuse their eyes, making the number seem to treble.
" Well, any idea on which ones might be more likely," Jo rubbed at her eyes, trying to get rid of the spots dancing there.
" Those three…" Dedra pointed to three large caves directly in front of them. " Most of the others are shallow caves, little more than dips in the rock…those three look like proper caves…the kind you'd hid something in…"
A thoughtful silence fell over the group.
" Well then, three caves, three groups," Jo said brightly. " Who's going with who…?"

" This is disgusting!" Aradia exclaimed for what seemed to the hundredth time in the last few minutes.
" No, you don't say!" Rosie sniped rather aggressively as her footing slipped slightly.
The cave that Rosie, Aradia, Lucy, Simon and Guillaume had entered it seemed was the home to bats. The smell was pretty horrific and the floor of the cave was somewhat slushy underfoot. They walked on slowly, Simon already having nearly ended up face first in it when he'd lost his footing earlier. Saved only by Guillaume grabbing hold of him and keeping him upright.
" The crystal can't be in here surely," Lucy mumbled, her hand holding her cloak over her nose.
" Well, I think this is the end of the cave," Guillaume said, reaching out rather cautiously to feel the back wall. " So I don't think so…"
" Then lets get out of here!" Aradia said determinedly, spinning around and starting to march, as quickly as she could, back towards the entrance. The others followed
Lucy put out a hand to steady herself as she started to loose balance and touched something. Something warm and furry and alive. She screamed loudly and yanked her hand away. Within seconds the air was full of screeching bats. Aradia's screams were by far the loudest but she was by no means the only one yelling as the five of them broke into a run for the way out.
" Aaaaaah! They're in my hair! They're in my hair!" shrieked the Princess as they sped out of the cave and into the daylight once more.
" Oh…my…god…!" Groaned Simon, his chest heaving as they stood and watched as thousands of bats followed them out of the cave and flew up into the sky.
" Guessing you didn't find it either then…?" A voice asked from behind them making them jump. " No…" Lucy sighed at Martin.
" No luck in your cave then…?" Rosie asked, while checking her hair thoroughly for trapped bats.
" Nope," Jenny groaned. The cave that she, Mark, Martin, Lina and Dedra had gone into had been had been just as fruitless. Rock, lots of rocks, but that had been about it. " Wonder how Jo, Marius and the others are getting on…?" Lina murmured looking to the cave entrance that they' d gone into. There was a sudden, rather high pitched yell as a bat flew out of Guillaume's cloak. He coughed a few times and squared his shoulders while the others gave him rather worried looks.
" You alright…?" Simon asked.
" Fine thank you," came the curt reply from the Frenchman.
" Well, the crystal must be in that cave somewhere," Lina said.
" Yeah, I wonder what else is though too…" Mark mused rather seriously.

Inside the third cave, Jo, Marius, Bertrande, Amos and Phillipe had yet to find any bats, or large rocks. They had however found something else. Something that had stopped them dead in their tracks, mouths open only marginally wider than their eyes.
" Is that…is that what I think it is…?" Marius somehow managed to ask after a few minutes of stunned silence had passed.
" I don't know Marius, that depends," Jo hissed from alongside him. " If you think that's a bunny rabbit, then you're wrong!" Jo snapped acerbically. "But if you think that what that it is, is a fifty foot long, bright red, rather worrying looking dragon…then yeah, Marius, you're right!"