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Ah, desert stars; one of the few true pleasures of life. The desert heat was his mortal enemy, the strong sun nearly a poison to his albino skin, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the wonders and majesty of the dunes. The cool nights where his world, the gentle moonlight providing a light that didn't burn his eyes, yet illuminated everything around him. The half-full sphere wasn't the brightest it could be, but it was enough to let him see clearly enough to move around the little oasis he was camped at. There was a small pond, plenty of soft grasses, fruit on the trees, and an outcropping of rock that provided solid shade and a waterproof ceiling for his little tent. It was a good place to wait out the scorching days in. He was in no rush to move along; the city was maybe a solid day's ride west, and if he timed it right he could make that before the sun reached it's zenith the next day. No, he was going to camp out one more day, his lack of motivation and that sense of 'make sure the camel is well rested' his justification for dallying. This little paradise among the dunes was nice, it was peaceful and quiet and the exact sort of place he liked to be; outside of the raging hot days and sun that burned so hard that it lit his skin on fire even through layer upon layer of cotton, linen, and silk wrappings. Oh well.

Beyond just his travels, he had a secondary reason for stopping at this place; in fact it was marked as both a resting place and point of interest on his itinerary. Rumor and legend abound of spirits and monsters haunting this little spot of green among the golden sands, and while he hated to work, his interest was peaked; and one his interested was caught, he was more than willing to spend some time and energy investigating. Who knows, he could even find some inspiration for a new novel, or something new to add to his 'clan's' library, which would mean more money and his pocket, and he was always very okay with that idea.

Haruka had been camped out for nearly three days by this point; his little tent safely tucked away as far back under the outcropping of rock as possible to secure the most protection from the sun and heat; with the deep shade and the gentle desert breeze washing over the cold spring water, it gave a cooling effect that made the mid-day heat tolerable for him, and he didn't really have to worry about his mount, as the beast was perfectly at home in a place like this and needed little tending beyond moving him to another grazing spot every half a day or so. His sleep schedule had been all but inverted from normal, he was sleeping from mid-morning until nearly dusk, trying to escape as much of the heat and harsh sun as possible, and using the light of the moon, stars, and a few strategically placed torches to move around during the wonderfully cool night air. Even then, he was well wrapped by layer upon layer of thick cloth, cut to the style of the natives to act as a sand shield and protection from the shining lights. Even the light of a bright fire stung his pale skin, it was the curse of being an albino really; too much heat and light was extremely dangerous to his health; so being in the desert as he was caused him significant pain and trouble. It was worth it, in the end, or so he hoped.

His days of resting had replenished some of his strength, at least; seven days travel in the remorseless sun had nearly drained him dry; now he was able to get to the reason why he was here in the first place. This place was considered to be sacred, or haunted, depending on the belief system of the source, and it was his job to flush out the possession and get rid of it. Really, he'd only do that if the spirits inhabiting this place where evil, otherwise he'd either cleanse them so they could move on, or leave them alone, if they where native to the area and not a threat. He was hoping for the later, as the former where both fairly bad situations. Evil possessions where annoying, not to mention dangerous, and possession by spirits unable to move on meant that a great sadness or evil had befallen this place long ago, and that was never something he enjoyed finding out about.

While he had seen or heard anything yet, that didn't mean that there was nothing here. He could 'feel', in a way, that something was in the area, but it was very weak, or rather, his senses where too weak to adequately pick up on it. This was fairly common for novice exorcists, they had to still hone and grow their sensory abilities, and he was no exception. It was a simple matter to do, thankfully, it just required time and dedication; the former of which he had plenty of, the later he did not, normally. At the moment however, he had plenty of both, so he would spend some time training, and maybe flush out what exactly was floating around this little paradise.

Haruka sat at the edge of the water, comfortable in the soft grasses and gentle night breeze. The tiny waves of the little pond lapped at his feet, missing him by several inches, but washing them with a thin misty spray that would eventually leave his skin damp if he sat long enough. He was positioned in what many would call a 'lotus' position; his feet where crossed in his lap and his hands where formed into fists which met each other at the level of his navel. This form was meant to create a circular pathway within the body through which the mediator would channel their energy and consciousness; allowing them to gain a better control over the ebb and flow of both, and therefore expanding their senses and mental abilities beyond their own body and fine tuning their connection to the world around them. His mind was cleared, controlled breathing gave a cadence and pace to focus on while he sought to bring forth the energy from within his own body. Around his body a thin, almost shimmering aura would begin to appear as his chakra and life energy, or Ki, began to move and pulse around him. His conscious mind was focused on his breathing and only his breathing, allowing his subconscious to expand upward and outward from the cage of his mind until he was connecting to world around him. His hearing seemed to intensify, the gentle brush of the waves against grass and sand was now crashing torrents, the gentle breeze a raging sandstorm. From within the trees and shadows, tiny voices, the sounds of the spirits around him, began to echo and whistle and moan and groan and speak and laugh and a million other sounds that only he could hear.

Just because he could hear them now didn't mean much, however. He'd need to hold this meditative trance for several minutes, if not hours, to essentially 'set' this new level of spiritual awareness. If he was to break the meditative state now, he would lose it entirely, and would have to start over to achieve it once more. He stayed like this for several hours, with each passing moment the sounds around him became clearer and more distinct. What started as a whirlwind and torrent of sound eventually refined into a perfect peace once more, much as it had been when he started, only now he was able to hear everything around him that had been beyond his ability. This was only part one of his training.

The second aspect of his training was a hair more dangerous, but only in the sense of, if he did this wrong, he risked going blind, or damaging his already sensitive eyes further. He needed to expand his vision now, and to do that he needed to be able to see beyond what he could now. That involved staring. A lot of it. He would need to see without seeing until this unsight became sight one more. It was difficult to put into words, but a simple enough practice. He merely had to pick a spot and stare, unblinking, until he lost all sight and came back to vision. It was similar to enhancing his hearing, he merely allowed his eyes to relax and stare blankly until the world faded to soft colors, then to a deep grey, and finally into perfect blackness. In this void of darkness, he meditated and waited, until the process seemed to reverse itself; at first the pitch softened to a deep grey-blue, then became a wall of shadows, colors began to wash over it, and finally clarity returned over the course of many hours. When he finally did blink, his eyes could see the dozens of small spirits and creatures that inhabited the world around him; small animal spirits that where obvious nature beings that had existed in the oasis as long as it had existed itself. As he turned and looked around, he saw not a single being that was out of place, and that actually made him a little happy.

Shifting his body, he relaxed out of the lotus position, taking long moments to stretch and flex his body before moving to his feet. He was satisfied by what he saw, and he would leave the beings as they where. He would however work up some basic cleansing tags to leave around, make it look like he'd done something. All they would do would keep evil and malevolent spirits from infiltrating this area, so it wasn't like he was entirely lying about what he'd done. Good enough to still get paid, when he got to the main village.

Glancing up at the sky, he checked the position of the falling moon, and gauged that he'd spent roughly 5 hours meditating that night; which meant that it would be dawn fairly soon. The oasis itself was in a small bowl between two large dunes, so he couldn't really see the horizon, his guess of the time was just that, a best possible guess given his knowledge of the stars and such.

It was time to get ready for the day then. He'd get the fire hot again, and get started on some breakfast. He didn't need to stay here any longer, really; but he didn't want to leave until he'd eaten something, and had a chance to pack up and clean up his camp.

WC: 1836

Perception E0-D3 1836/1925

The camp was packed and ready, his singular camel was chewing on a last bit of fresh oasis grass before they moved on; the saddle weighed down with the small tent and the remaining supplies he had on him for the rest of the trip. His canteens and water skins where full of cold, clean water, he had more than enough to cover the rest of the distance and then some; at least three days worth of the precious liquid, for him and his camel; although the large beasts didn't really need water that often. He treated animals well, and made sure to offer the beast the chance to drink once a day; if it took the water then good, if not, well, he understood it didn't need it right then. He wasn't going to force the beast to do anything, given it was the only reason he'd made it this far, and it was roughly nine times larger than he was.

He made one last pass in the pre-dawn twilight, making doubly sure that his fire was extinguished and the embers buried under enough sand to make sure that nothing was left; he wasn't going to risk it spreading in the morning winds and destroying this sacred place. Satisfied, he untied his camel from the date palm that it was anchored at and clicked his tongue against the top of his mouth, giving the command for the beast to kneel and allow him to mount up. He climbed up with little grace; he was extremely small and fairly weak, so even bowing low to the ground, it was difficult for him to get up on it's back. Once he was, though, he tugged on the lead and jabbed his heels into the beast's side softly, sending it into a trot and directing it toward the city of Suna.

Most of the day passed without incident, as he drew closer he came across people for the first time in days. Other travelers, locals moving around the oasis and such around the outer edge of the village, things like that. He queued up with the rest at the village gates, waiting his turn to check in with security; handing over his travel papers and declaring the few weapons he had; his staff wasn't meant to be a weapon, but it could be considered one, so he filled the paperwork out for it to be safe. Once security was satisfied, they allowed him into the village and he made his way toward the part of the city where the inns and such where situated. He'd turn the camel in at the local stable of the company he'd rented it from a little later. For the moment, he needed out of the sun and some food.

[Exit]

WC: 474

474+1836 = 2283/1950 Perception E0-D3