The vast expanse of desert seemed unbroken as Setsuna stared out into the heart of it. The sun was high and she had been searching for a shelter. If not for her abilities learned during her training at the Shinmei School she would have perished in a place like this. The heat was oppressive and it was only getting warmer. Setsuna had to find shelter soon or she would have to sleep unprotected out on the desert floor. She thought aloud to herself as she looked around from the top of a dune. "Evangeline was right. It is hot enough to cook out here." She sighed and kept thinking aloud. "I could always just make a shelter with my own skills the question would be where to put it. I know I need water or else I'll die but that too can be made using my skills. Alright now, over there looks like a good spot." She ran over to the small tree that had been growing there.
After an hour or two had passed Setsuna had built a shelter out of the sand. She had dug down into the side of the dune she had walked down making a tunnel using chi magic to make the walls of the tunnel solid. When she found the tree Setsuna had found a small pool of water which would satisfy her needs for that necessity. Now that she had done all that it was starting to get late in the day. Setsuna watched as the sun set and after the sun set she found out just how cold the night was going to be.
The next day Setsuna woke up before the sun. When she stepped outside she stepped into a good three inches of snow. It surprised her how cold it still was. After taking care of a few things she went back into her shelter and waited for sunrise. Her thoughts, no longer totally on survival, drifted to thoughts of Konoka. Setsuna thought back to the day they had first gone out and it made her smile. Everything after that had just kind of happened. Setsuna had known since the both of them were very young that she loved Konoka. These feeling had been suppressed when she had gone back to the Shinmei School but had come to the surface again upon the school trip to Kyoto. From there it had just gotten harder and harder to hide it.
Setsuna sat and wondered aloud at her own thoughts. "I'm not at all surprised at this outcome. I've loved her for as long as I can remember but it was only recently that I was able to let it be known. I wonder if things would be different had I told her earlier." Her thoughts were all Setsuna had in the loneliness of the desert. Sunrise came up, burning heat into the desert, melting the snow. If she had not seen it herself Setsuna would not have believed snow could have fallen the night before.
It had already been one day out here in the desert. This day and one more to go and Evangeline would be back to 'train' Setsuna again. Setsuna's thoughts of how to deal with Evangeline had taken a backseat to those thoughts of Konoka. For today though Setsuna found that she needed to find food. If she was hungry when Evangeline came back she would certainly lose any kind of fight. The question was; where in this desert would there be food?
Setsuna made sure to mark her shelter so the she could find it again in the endless sands. After she had finished doing that she started to hunt for food. The desert was supposed to be the home of lizards and various insects and other crawling things. Her search for food started out with nothing but after a few more hours of searching she had found two lizards and a scorpion.
After bringing her kills back to the shelter she got out a rock she had found when digging the tunnel out and cooked her kills. The food was filling and didn't taste especially weird but even so Setsuna disagreed with eating it. She sighed and spoke to herself again. "I hope Konoka is doing ok. Even though it's only been an hour for her I still can't help but wonder if she's all right. I know I'm doing the right thing here but even so I'm still worried. I hope that all of this isn't going to be hard on me. When I get out of this and I'm still normal it will prove that I can be away from the one I love if it ever became necessary. I wish time went by faster when you were by yourself."
Evangeline had been watching everything Setsuna had been doing and saying. Evangeline was surprised to hear some of the thoughts being said but it only served her purpose in having Setsuna out in the desert by herself. It was to test the will of Setsuna's resolve to be with Konoka. Everything was going well. "Alright," Evangeline said to herself, "Now to go see if she can put up with a little fight." With that Evangeline went over to the magic circle that would take her to the desert so she could go get Setsuna for combat training.
Sunrise of the third day came with a slightly rude awakening. Setsuna woke up to see Evangeline standing at the entrance to her shelter. Her surprise was not well hidden. "Evangeline-san, I mean master I thought you would not be coming to get me until later in the day." Setsuna spoke with surprise in her voice. A smile crossed Evangeline's face. She spoke with a slight menace in her voice, "Oh no Sakurazaki I will come whenever I want to come and grab you on the third day. It could be any time of day from sunrise to sunset. Now you are coming with me, we are going to go train back at the castle. I do hope you're prepared." With that Evangeline and Setsuna returned to the castle. Training would be hell.
(I hope you enjoyed this. As always keep reading and enjoy. I'll try to update as soon as possible.)
Shinobi of the Onyx Sands
