fh_trips | Arrakis - Sietch Tabr - Wednesday Morning & Afternoon

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field trip 2009: arrakis

Arrakis - Sietch Tabr - Wednesday Morning & Afternoon

It was around dawn when the scent of food began wafting up from the kitchens. Fresh baked bread, coffee, and the lilting tones of Fremen chattering in a mixture of Galach and Chakobsa as they went about their lives.

If they were a bit more outgoing and less-wary of the visitors than they had been the day before, well, going out into the desert to meet with Shai-Hulud had shown a certain daring and respect, and those were two traits that the Fremen held very dear.

The portal would arrive to pick them all up around three, but until then, the visitors from Fandom had the run of Tabr.

Although it still didn't make you safe from the Aunties.

[OCD UP]

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Dinah looked down for a minute, then shook her head hard, chewing on the pear. "Dreams. I think the Spice gave me other people's." She studied him again as she chopped up another one, ready to whap him with the hilt of the carving knife. "Gryphon? And a torch?"

Arthur popped the pearlike food item into his mouth and chewed soundly.

He swallowed before she could pony up the last two words. "You," he started, "Were in my dreams."

Not a notion he was too fond of, although at least gryphon and a torch wasn't that dangerous.

"Didn't want to be," Dinah said muleishly, pushing some of her hair behind her ears. "Yours, Francine's, Tony's, I don't know who all else." Chop chop chop chop! "No more tea for me. That thing," she gestured with the knife, then caught herself. "Was huge. And it could have killed you, yes!"

Arthur could've made more of a point of it, but she did look rather tired and there wouldn't be a good reason to anyway. Besides, the subject of the gryphon was sending him back to that particular skirmish. "Sir Lancelot killed it," he said, simply. "We dealt with it."

Dinah popped another pear slice in her mouth and rolled her eyes, unconvinced that that made it okay, then went back to chopping. After a minute of this, she slowly asked, "Arthur? Merlin's mom is alive, right? I know Gaius is. But I thought he said she was okay."

"Hunith and Gaius are both fine," Arthur said, blinking at her. "Why the sudden interest?"

Dinah looked down, shrugging again, and instead of answering, asked, "Do you know-- have you ever met a witch with really really blue eyes, and dark hair, pale skin, really red lips?" She paused. "Kind of oozes menace and I'm-so-evil?"

... Arthur considered her, tapping his fingers on the table for a moment. "Are you just taking guesses," he said, slowly, "Or did you see something? Were there any spiders?"

"No spiders." Dinah put the knife down to rub at her eyes. Which also let her hide her expression behind her hands. She'd really wanted that part to be just imaginary. "She had a chalice. And there was an altar. She said she was..." She frowned. "A priestess of the old religion?" Dinah blinked at him. "What old religion?"

"The old religion," Arthur repeated, his jaw setting lightly. "It's what wizards and witches worship. The religion of the dragons, of magic and magical creatures. My father has been trying to put an end to it."

"Because it's magic, or because it's... cruel?" Dinah frowned, dropping her hands. "A life for a life. To maintain balance. And the Old Magic doesn't care whose." She shuddered. "But she did. She was messing with it. She picked..." She bit her lip. "Gaius. To die." For him. In exchange for Arthur. That part had just come back to her.

"Because it's magic, and it is cruel," Arthur said, and considered her. And then someone else. "For the most part," he amended. "But Gaius is alive, we saw him last when we left, and Morgana hasn't said anything else."

So maybe it hadn't happened at all? Or maybe it had? But how would you bring someone back to life? And God, let it not be the future instead.

Dinah gave the fruit a miserable look, and nodded. "I think I have to talk to Merlin." Chop. "Just in case." Chop. A pause. "But maybe she's dead, then, and..." She frowned at the knife and fruit, and muttered, "It was easy when it was just dreams of my family in danger."

Normally, chivalrous instincts might have kicked in and he might have asked, but one part of that sentence-- "Merlin?" he said, "You saw Merlin?"

There was a pause, and then he was reaching for her hand. "It's touch, right?"

He needed to know it was the same woman, for a start.

Dinah nodded, then paused, arrested as he reached for her. "Are you sure?" she said cautiously. "I know you hate this."

"I need to know," he said, simply.

It went against his instincts, but if what she said was true (and the gryphon had been), then there were things he needed to know that seemed to have been kept from him, or might post some danger.

He went for the least forward part of her arm he could settle for, and yes, he was uncomfortable with it, focusing on an image of Her and trying not to let any (The ledge, the spiders, "It is not your destiny to die at my hand, Arthur Pendragon.", the flow--) other detail slip on through.

He was also going to yank his hand back as soon as he could.

Edited 2009-07-01 17:32 (UTC)

As Arthur's fingers settled on her arm, Dinah concentrated, trying to drop her shields only a little way--

the smile, curving up like a knife, and It is not your destiny to die at my hand, Arthur Pendragon

-- had her yanking her hand away and nodding furiously. "Her. That's her. Yes."

Edited 2009-07-01 17:34 (UTC)

More than happy to let the contact break. More than happy.

He took a quick breath and tried not to let his father's voice berate him too hard for turning to sorcery. "What did he do," he said, solid but not entirely calm. "What did he do with her?"

"She was trying to kill him." Dinah scrubbed at her face with both hands, trying to keep back the urge to cry. "It didn't make sense, Gaius was dead, I could see his body, and she said, she said Merlin should join her, and he said no, never, and she threw fire at him, I think he threw it first but she didn't even care, just caught it...." She got her breathing back under control, shaking her head, then swallowed.

You should not have killed my friend.

"And there was lightning and I think maybe she's dead now. If that wasn't just a dream. If that wasn't the future. If, if, if."

There had been a night shortly before they came here, when Merlin had barged in with strange words; he'd tried to banter as they always did, and yet nothing had come of it. He'd spoken in more riddles than usual, and Arthur had known there was something, had wished he could just bloody well ride out and help him.

There was no way to be sure, but perhaps...

"Gaius isn't dead," he repeated, slowly, "But if the sorceress is, it's no waste to us."

Even if Arthur was still sounding just this end of shocked through his certainty.

"Don't mind it."

Dinah shook her head, slicing through the fruit, still upset.

Merlin hadn't been Merlin. Or he had, but not the Merlin she knew, and she didn't know what was real, and what was in her head, and what he was capable of and... "I have to talk to him, I can't just let it go." Slice. They always talked when she had something sharp in her hands, what was that about. "You didn't see it, it was awful, and--" Dinah shook her head, dumping a handful of fruit in a bowl. "Scary."

All right, those chivalrous impulses that had been postponed by his concern about Merlin, first of all? They returned in full force, and he... leaned forward to lay what he hoped was a comforting hand on her shoulder. Was it forward in this time? He had absolutely no clue.

"That's why no one will miss her. Dinah, it's fine."

He might not have caught on to the bit where it was Merlin she feared; the thought just didn't really pass by him at all.

To tell him, or not to tell him, about being scared of Merlin? Not. Not until Dinah talked to Merlin, first. And that hand on her shoulder really shouldn't have been comforting, but it was. Except unnerving too, because Arthur was trying to be nice to her. Willingly touching her, even if not on skin. She really had to look like a mess.

She managed a very weak smile, and said, "Sure. Dreams, right? Not real."

The gryphon had definitely been real.

"Right," he said, "And any dangers they might hold are well in the past."

Arthur wasn't too used to giving the comforting speeches, no. Especially not when he was busy putting a few things back into place in terms of the latest events.

He let go slowly.

Dinah held still, then nodded, and picked up the knife again. "Thanks," she said, voice very subdued. "For letting me see." Slice. Slice. Slice. Awwwwkward. "And sorry about the dream." Chop. Chop. Chop. See? All good.

Except for the part where she really, really needed to talk to Merlin and hope that her brain had been completely Spice-crazy during that last dream last night.

Arrakis - Sietch Tabr - Wednesday Morning & Afternoon

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