A Golden Forage

Subject: A Golden Forage Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:05 am

Daylight would be approaching in a few more hours. Till then, Yakate had the darkness on his side. But he didn't need it now, for now he was at least ten miles away from any sort of life; not including desert reptiles, though. He had been travelling with regular shifts between running, trotting, and walking. He had to conserve his stamina; he was yet to reach the hardest part of the journey - that towards Swamp Village.

And it was about now that he would begin to prepare for what he would do within the village. For although he was renowned for his sleights in battle, he had never planned them beforehand.

And he wasn't going to begin now. All he was going to do was collect enough sand with him to take to Swamp. Enough sand for him to battle with ease. He did this before every out-of-village mission - he called the the 'Golden Forage'.

While Yakate was thinking of the forage, he was walking; to prepare for it, he stopped. He sat down roughly, displacing several specks of sand from their position, and placed both his palms on the sand. Making sure that as much of the sand as possible was in contact with his hands, he started the procedure; his chakra seeped throughout the sand, spreading out in all directions. When he had just begun to use sand manipulation, this process was slow and ineffective. 6 years after, however, he had mastered it.

In the span of a minute, a few billion grains of sand had his chakra flowing through them. A few more minutes captured several more billions.

In 30 minutes, he had enough sand to cover a quarter of Sunagakure.

... Eh. Good enough.

Subject: Re: A Golden Forage Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:17 am

Now, the matter of traveling became more important. For now he had at least a ton of sand to carry with him. And he had wasted a portion of his chakra, infusing it within the sand. It weakened him just the slightest, but then again, the chakra in the sand meant he needed less force to move the sand around.

On the other hand, it had been years since he had infused so much sand with his chakra. He felt like a baby taking his first steps; the very same way he felt when he attempted doing this the first time. And the first time, he failed, and had to take rest for several days.

... No. This wouldn't happen now.

Yakate jumped back on his feet, and began walking just as he had before, in the same direction. A hissing noise filled the air as soon as he began his walk; impressively, a large mass of sand was moving along with him. In the same direction. It looked like a huge wave without ripples; it spread out like spilled water would, except it was much faster, and the sand was traveling on sand. The fact that all the sand was spread out reduced the collective weight of them in essence, so he required less effort to carry them along with him. Thus explained the indifferent manner with which he walked: if he intended to carry all of the sand in a massive boulder, he'd have to outstretch both his arms towards it, and carry it along with him. Slowly. Very slowly.

Subject: Re: A Golden Forage Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:26 am

Dawn broke. The weak rays of sunlight reflected faintly against the sand. Yakate grinned - the sensation of traveling in the desert came back to him: how the sun would glare upon him from above, how the sand would reflect the very same glare from below; how the mountains in the horizon teased him, never coming closer.

It was because of the mountains that Yakate had decided he wouldn't be traveling the way he used to. Through the mountains, through two different lands, and finally into Marsh Country.

No. This time, he would be going through the sea.

Yakate couldn't swim; none of the Sand villagers could. None of the Sand villagers could manipulate sand, either; Yakate could.

The persistent hissing chased him as he moved along south-east, towards the coast. It was convenient that there weren't any mountains at this part of the desert; it was a straightforward journey.

A drop of sweat trickled down his forehead; fatigue was reaching him. There was only half a mile left till he reached the coast. Mirages wouldn't delude him - if they were right, he would be standing in the water at this very moment. The sun rising in the east now shone down upon him with all its fierce heat, and once again he faced the golden glare of the sand.

He was lucky his journey in the desert was over. The bright blue sea was wide open, greeting him with even more reflected glares from the sun.

... How troublesome. Even the sea wouldn't let him escape from the menacing sun.