The walk through town was relitively quiet. Altair had quickened his pace to put some distance between Demitri and Sasha. Malik kept a little closer, but was surprised when no questions were being asked. He had figured there would be much he had to explain, but the two didn't say a word. He sighed, figuring that if anyone is going to break the silence, it'd probably be him.

"Everything okay back there?" He asked, turning his head enough to see Sasha snapped out of deep thought.

"Huh? Yeah, we're fine." She answered. "We just are looking at everything there is to see."

Malik shrugged. "Not much to see here, just simple people walking about. But nothing special about this place."

"I see." Sasha replied. After a moment and a confused look from Demitri, she asked him, "If you wouldn't mind my asking, but could you maybe help me with teaching Demitri Arabic? I'm not so sure how long we'll be here."

"It's no trouble." He told her. "That is, if you wouldn't mind showing me some of those methods of healing you have."

Sasha smiled calmly, "A fair trade." Again a pause before she asked, "I've heard much talk between you and Altair about some place called Masayaf and a man... Al Mualim? Can you tell me a little more about this place? Or why the guy won't be happy?"

He took a quiet breath. "I know you heard more than you cared to reveal, do not play dumb."

"Then what does it mean?" Sasha questioned.

"Some of these things, Sasha, I cannot explain to you. It would be breaking rules I must follow. It actually was breaking them by bringing you to our Bureau." He explained. "But we are part of a group. Masayaf, as you probably can guess, is our home. And Al Mualim is our leader. He taught us what we know."

She nodded.

"Why not you tell them about how we kill while you're at it, Malik." Altair cut in, tone laced with irritation.

"You kill?" Sasha repeated, staring at them both with a new sort of uncertainty. He swore when he got the chance, Altair's head would be shoved down into the dirt to the point where it wouldn't be found without a shove.

"Yes. We kill, but found good reason." Malik answered, shooting Altair a glare that went on unnoticed.

Once again everyone fell silent. And within another few minutes, they reached the stables. Altair went straight to his horse, a large gray with a dark mane. He took a second to find his own horse, a chestnut with white spots across the side, he untied the reins from the post and put his pack of supplies on the animal's back. But when he glanced back to Sasha and Demitri, they just watched.

"Well, you might as well take a horse," Altair stated flatly. "I don't want you, your friend, or Malik for that matter, sitting behind me and hugging my waist."

Sasha snorted, "You'd like it too much." Before going to a large black mare with a sort of teardrop shaped white patch on it's chest. Malik smirked to himself, knowing that the horse was usually very dependable. She rubbed the horse's neck gently and looked over to the two of them as a silent "is it okay if I ride her?", to which Altair shrugged and Malik nodded.

While Altair was ready, and was staring over his shoulder, waiting for everyone else. Malik hadn't incase either one of the two would need help. But it seemed Demitri understood how to get in the saddle very well, and used his good arm to help Sasha as she seated herself in front of him. Demitri rung his arms around her and took hold of the reins. With them ready, he put his foot in the stirrup and slung himself over the saddle and on his horse's back.

"Can we go now?" Altair asked, impatiently. "Or does someone need to delay us any further?"

Malik rolled his eyes and pressed his foot into the horse's ribs, going forward and infront of Altair. "Whenever you're ready, brother." He replied with a smirk.

Around midday, Demitri started to notice how hot it actually was. Although his fever had made him believe that the air was friged for a short while, he found himself sweaty and becoming conscious of how chapped his lips were and the possible sunburn on his cheeks and nose. Sasha was lucky, as she hardly ever got sunburnt; he saw her laze around on the hottest of days back home, and she'd leave with an even tan hardly burned (if burnt at all that is).

And being on a horse... it reminded him so much of when he was a child. His parents had owned a ranch and six horses. He still remembered their names, how they came to them. A couple of the more memorable were Dixie and Hemitite. Dixie was an old guy, the kind of big ones you'd see pulling stage coaches. He was as gray as fog and had the temperment of a grandmother to their daughter's child when they're still very young. His dad found him open for adoption and according to records, was taken from his last home because he almost starved. Hemitite was the little colt who was stubborn as a mule and very much a little joker. He was black as night and his coat shined like the mineral that he was named after. One of the horses, Tempress, was given to them pregnant and Hemitite was the little trouble maker that she gave them. Demitri was even there, as a young six year old, when he was born.

"You seem quiet."

His thoughts were broken by Sasha's comment, so as a little pay back, he nuzzled her neck with his chin. "Just was thinking..."

"About?"

"Back when I lived on the ranch with my parents." He told her calmly. "I didn't know I missed the feeling of being in a saddle this much."

"You can enjoy it enough for the both of us," She chuckled. "I'm getting a weggie thanks to this saddle."

He kissed her neck, but didn't avert his eyes from the path they were following- Malik and Altair had gone a little bit ahead-. "Would you rather ride it bareback?"

"I don't know." She answered. "I've only been on a pony at a fair... when I was six."

"Then you're just not used to it is all." Demitri told playfully.

Sasha held onto his hands, which still gripped the reins. "I'll be fine as long as this horse doesn't try knocking us off."

"I doubt it." He assured, then patted the horse's neck with his good hand. "This girl here seems very mellow."

"It's a girl?" She asked, looking back at him.

"Yeah, why?"

"How would you know?"

"While you were talking with your friend, she swished her tail a bit and I saw something." He chuckled.

She almost elbowed him, but restrained herself. "Are you telling me you were staring at horse ass while I was talking to Malik? Pour girl probably feels exposed."

"No, I wasn't staring at horse ass!" He laughed. "I just saw that she had another-!"

"Alright! Alright! Alright! I get it!" Sasha inturrupted, unable to keep a straight face or avoid laughing her heart out while clutching the mare's neck to avoid falling off. "I don't need any details about your 'discovery'!"

He was glad that they were speaking in English, because Malik and Altair had heard them and paused breifly to stare at them while they came towards them, still laughing hard.

Malik asked them something, which Sasha translated to "What's so funny?"

Sasha ended up explaining Demitri's revelation on their horse's gender, to which he got a strange look from Altair, to them. Malik put a hand to his face, but he couldn't suppress the smile before he covered it, he was strangling a chuckle into a cough.

It was much later, the sun had drawn close to the horizon, when Sasha told him Malik and Altair were consulting each other on stopping for the night. For now, he just stared at the place where the large golden disk slothily dipped into the near flat horizon. The sky was stained cherry, slowly transitioning to deep purple behind them where the first of stars begun to appear, and what pitiful wispy clouds that did hang lazily in the sky were glowing the sun's light, reflecting it just as vividly.

Malik told Sasha something and she pulled back on the reins. Demitri tried to guess what was said, and assuming that since Altair and Malik both stopped as well, it must have been they were planning to set up camp. He watched a little bit longer while Malik got off his horse with Altair following suit. After an extra moment, Sasha slipped off with him right after.

It was a quick and relitively painless set up. Altair got a fire going and they all sat around it, trying to keep warm in the cold desert night air. They picked at a loaf of bread a little as Sasha held a conversation with Malik, which Altair would throw something in that would cause someone to glare at him. He wished he understood what they were saying. But their gestures were simply vague. A gesture to the sky could have meant anything from "back home we didn't even see this many stars" to "where we come from, airplanes could be seen from the ground." So he gave up trying and listened intently to the Arabic words and kept thinking of his grandfather's mucuss issues.

Sometime later, the banter came to a closer, and by that time the moon had made it a quarter of the way through it's arch in the glittering black sky. Altair had already called it in for the night, taking a blanket from his pack and using it as a pillow. Mlaik passed them a couple and took one out for himself before doing the same thing as Altair and rested his head on the folded fabric.

Sasha told him something, to which Malik grunted his responce and waved her off. She then turned and handed Demitri a blanket.

"It's getting cold." He sighed, unfolding the blanket and wrapping it over his shoulders. The fabric was about as thick as pencil, pale green, and warm.

His girlfriend nodded and put her blanket down on the sand before laying her head down on it and curling up in a ball. "We should get some sleep."

He took this as an opprotunity to get closer, it was clear that she wasn't as comfortable as she appeared. So he came in, wrapped his blanket around her as well, and held her close to his body as he nuzzled into her neck, managing to wrestle a deep rumble that sort of resembled a purr.

Sasha sighed, "What are you doing?"

"Getting warm." He stated.

"This better not keep me up all night." She warned.

He chuckled. "It won't."

Soon darkness engulfed his senses, saving him from the cold.

I'd like to thank my reviewers. And I'm going to spend a little time answering some questions.

"Is Sasha a linguist? It would explain how she is able to learn Arabic so quickly. Maybe there's something else at play that will enhance the duo's learning language abilities?"
Is she? Well the answer is yes. In high school she found languages and the meanings in the words fasinating. That and anatomy. So she tried to learn all she could about them, root words and all. Although she hadn't studied Arabic very much, she was able to put pieces together that allowed her to learn the dialect they were speaking. This and also the fact that she's been listening for days and quickly put meaning to the words in use by the situations. That said, it also explains why Demitri hasn't caught onto a lick of Arabic since he arrived. That and he was hardly conscious for five days give or take.

"How Demitri managed to get out with one good arm is beyond me, that's some pretty serious skills."
Indeed, this is very shocking. It's an amazing combination of him climbing trees since he could reach the branches, and my spacing the broken limb. If you want a more realistic idea of what happened, he still had movement in his fingers (I've had a fracture to the wrist before so I know how this feels) and since the arm was splinted, climbing was hardly effected because all that was bent was his elbows, right wrist, and fingers. - Sasha didn't make it because she's a city chick and wasn't exposed to the farm life that her boyfriend had when he was younger.

So yeah, big thanks to Crystalfeathers for these questions. And see you all next chapter.
:)