Lilith circled the caravan that morning, doing her normal morning cleanup routine- a visual check on the surrounding area, making sure nothing was getting left in the way of trash, that nothing was going to get in that shouldn't in the way of critters, and the new addition of looking at the caravan members themselves to see how they were doing. As she did so, her bond with Xenith told her that her apprentice was becoming increasingly frustrated and upset. She circled around towards her as she finished, and as she did so, the frustration was giving way to bursts of pain. Lilith frowned, and looked closely as she came up. Her jaw almost dropped as she saw Xenith sitting cross-legged, with her head fur in front of her shoulders and over her face. She was literally yanking at the tangles in it with her claws, and Lilith saw she was in tears- from frustration and pain, apparently.

Lilith quickly dismounted and came over. She grabbed Xenith's paws as she said, "here, here, don't try that, you'll just make things worse."

Xenith was sobbing with anger as she replied, "it can't get any worse! Look at this! It's all one big knot! It wasn't so bad when I could get it washed, then I could get the worst of things out, but I'm turning into one big bunch of hairballs!"

Just in time for Lilith's peace of mind, her presence caused Xenith to exert enough self control to keep her crying from turning into a wail. Instead, the choked sobs shook her frame as Lilith put her arm around her shoulders and pulled her to her feet. "Look, cub, don't worry. You're not the only female out here, believe it or not."

"I know, but you don't have any head fur at all- not even as much as a lot of males do!"

"True, but I wasn't thinking of me. Look-- Arneth is over there and I'm sure she would be delighted to help you out. Why don't you go over and ask?" Xenith clung to her side, and Lilith sighed inwardly as she said, "ok, let's both go and ask. Come on."

They walked over to where Arneth was sorting things away inside her wagon. Bedding was getting put back into the cabinets where it belonged, along with a lot of personal care items. Lilith almost felt the snap of Xenith's longing gaze as it settled on a comb. "Good morning, Mistress Arneth," Lilith said pleasantly.

Arneth turned around, and her gaze widened as she took in Xenith's disheveled appearance. "Good morning, Adept, and what do we have here?"

Lilith gave a small sigh with her smile as she replied, "We've got a young vixen in distress, Arneth. Could you help her get her head fur back in a reasonable semblance of order? We'd appreciate it."

Xenith had recovered enough poise to add a hopeful- and slightly wistful- "please?" at the end.

Arneth chuckled as she reached down. "Of course, sugar, come on up and let's take care of this. You'll look like a new vixen, I promise."

Lilith laughed. "You're dismissed until you come back as a new vixen, apprentice. I'll bring your horse over, and you just join me when you're ready." As Xenith and Arneth huddled together over the mirror, combs, brushes, and all of the assorted female paraphernalia, Lilith smiled to herself. then she kicked herself mentally. Fool! We were shopping for supplies before all of this started and you didn't even think of getting a good comb and brush set. You've been too long away from normal vixens, adept, that's all there is to it. She turned away, wondering how long it was going to take, and decided that it would probably be a while. However long it takes, it's worth it. It's been way too long since I've had to worry about these sorts of things. She sighed to herself and set about making sure that the things she did know about got taken care of properly.

Serans had just barked out the command to head out, and as he settled back onto the wagon seat his guide rode up beside him. "Good morning, wagonmaster," she said politely.

"Good morning, adept, and how are things looking this morning?"

"Sand, sand, and more sand, with a few small critters here and there that we don't need to worry about. How are things going with your side of things?"

Serans sighed as he replied, "not good. I'm glad you came by so early. This is our first trip out into the heart of the desert, and I've made a bad miscalculation. If you could guide us to some water, I'd appreciate it."

Lilith blinked. "We'll be coming to a nice well at about the halfway point-- say, another four days or so."

"I'm afraid that will be about two days too late."

Lilith's back fur bristled with the chill that ran up it as she heard that. "We'll be out of water by then?"

Serans nodded. "I'm going to tell them to start rationing today, but that will only stretch it out another day or so-- which leaves me two days short of your well."

Lilith grimaced as she replied, "I wish you'd told me this yesterday. I have a few other spots we can get to, but none close enough now."

Serans looked sick. "I had... other problems... to worry about then."

"I know. They shouldn't be as bad now, though."

Serans looked at her sharply but didn't say anything else about it. "So what do we do?"

"No need to panic, wagonmaster. But you're going to need to be getting water tomorrow morning, so I'm going to locate some either later today or tonight."

"It's just that easy?"

Lilith's grin didn't have too much humor in it as she replied, "not quite, but close enough, I think. I better start making preparations now, though. Good day, wagonmaster." She rode off with only a curt nod at the end of it. Serans stared after her, and hoped desperately that she had been right. He hated to think what would happen if she weren't. He might die, true... but worse yet, he might even live.

Lilith rode ahead of the caravan, then dismounted and walked slowly, her eyes searching out likely rocks. After a few minutes of looking, she had about a dozen and decided that would have to do. She rode again some distance in front of the caravan, checking the horizon and finding nothing. A search for life signs behind showed nothing close behind them, either, so she sat down and began her work. She was still at it when she smelled Xenith riding up.

Lilith looked up and laughed as Xenith dismounted. Arneth had been as good as her word- with her head fur tied back, she did look like a new vixen. Lilith gladly noted the main difference though- the happy, almost giddy, expression that Xenith had acquired along with the new hairdo. "Well, young vixen, and who might you be?"

Xenith actually giggled as she curtsied and replied, "Apprentice Xenith at your service, Adept."

Lilith laughed even more loudly, but then she replied, "apprentice Xenith, your first order for the day is to always stay downwind of me. You smell like an explosion in a perfume shop."

Xenith's gaiety faded a bit, but she still smiled as she said, "of course, Adept," and moved to Lilith's side. She looked at the rocks that Lilith had laid out and her eyes widened. "Adept, what did you do to these?"

"It's a life web for absorbing life energy from the sun-- oh, and a storage loop at the bottom."

Xenith gasped. "I didn't know that you could store life energy in anything other than a magical artifact-- and you have to buy those."

"So you do, " Lilith replied. "I don't think anyone else knows about this, either, and I'm not planning on telling them. But think about it, apprentice. The guild makes magical artifacts, so obviously if you had the knowledge you should be able to do it for yourself- right?"

Xenith nodded thoughtfully. "But don't they make those special? I mean, these are just ordinary rocks, not a custom made crystal or a specially cast gold piece."

"True, they're not. That makes things a bit more complicated, since you can't cast the desired net directly into your piece. In this case, you have to hunt for nets that are similar to what you want, then do all of the adjusting and adding necessary to make them right."

"Soo.... they wouldn't work as good?"

"No. Of course not 'as good' simply means that these webs aren't going to hold as much as a crystal of the same size- and it also means I better know what I'm doing if I don't want to make them explode when they get too much energy in them."

Xenith gulped. "Explode?"

"Oh, don't worry. They're fine when they don't have any energy in them yet. It's going to be this evening when they've had all day to store energy that you need to worry."

"Thanks," was the small-voiced reply.

"You're welcome. And for your further information, I've done this a couple of hundred times, and only the first two or three were ever dangerous to anyone." Dangerous to anyone when I didn't want them to be, that is. The sound of a small breath being let go made Lilith smile to herself.

Xenith stared at Lilith's hands as the nets spun and grew, teased out of the rocks that they were embedded in and made larger by Lilith's attention and energy before shrinking back down to almost the size of the rock. She became so absorbed that it was a surprise to hear Lilith say "There! That's got it. Now come on, let's go install these."

"Where?"

"Hmmm.... how does on top of the wagons sound? It's either that, or the top of the packs on the few pack animals we have along. I don't want it inside a larger life-net if I can help it."

As they went to get some leather strips from the main supply wagon, Xenith asked Lilith what she wanted the energy for. Her only response was a grave "for a very important reason, cub, and one you'll find out tonight." Xenith tried to nod understandingly, but Lilith didn't seem to be paying any attention.

Shoy gave them the required leather strips without any protest, although Lilith ignored his questioning looks. She simply had Xenith climb up to the top of the wagon, and she gave her the rock to tie on.

This time, Shoy's looks turned into a nervous question. "What's this all about?" he said.

Lilith noticed the quaver in his voice, though she doubted most furs would. "No need to worry, storesmaster, " she replied soothingly. "I'm just making sure I can keep track of where the caravan is. With these on top, I'll be able to detect where you're at from farther away." Which is true enough, she added silently to herself. Of course, the difference is between finding them from a couple of miles, and finding them from about thirty miles, which is hopefully not going to be needed.

They continued down the line, with Lilith deliberately skipping a few wagons- including one from which Turins glared at her from his seat. A quick mental survey of him showed frustration caused by a lack of agreement from his peers about these new guides. A hunt for the anger and humiliation that would have come from his understanding of what had happened to him revealed nothing, though, so Lilith was feeling quite satisfied as they finished off their chore.

As they left one wagon, Lilith patted one of the oxen with a smile and said cheerfully, "I see she recovered quite nicely from her trauma."

The fox driving it laughed, and replied, "yes, she did-- thanks to you."

Lilith's chuckle and wave accompanied a "glad to help" as they went to the next wagon in line.

"What was that all about?" Xenith asked.

"Oh, that's Yarins- he's Turins' younger brother."

That wasn't what Xenith had asked, but she dropped it. She figured it was probably all the answer that she was going to get.

They checked the rear of the caravan before heading back towards the front. Lilith took the left side and Xenith the right, and they came back together again when they were in front. As they did so, Lilith's nose wrinkled again, and she grinned slightly as she said, "What did I say about staying downwind, apprentice?"

Xenith ducked her head slightly as she replied, "sorry, Adept" and fell in behind her.

"Oh, don't worry too much about it, Xenith," was the calm reply. "There's not that many critters out here that you're going to scare off. I've just been too long away from feminine perfumes to be used to that strong a smell anymore."

"Oh, ok. Ummm.... Lilith...?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you have any head fur? Were you born that way?"

"No. I had it like any other vixen until I was in my mid-teens. That was when I stopped my moon times."

"What??"

"I stopped my moon times. When you do that, you lose your head fur, and you also lose a lot of other feminine problems as well. That also means you're not that interested in the other sex as well, but that's another benefit to it so far as I'm concerned."

Xenith shuddered. "Does that mean you'll never be able to have cubs?"

"Oh, not necessarily. It's not a one time and you're done sort of thing- you have to monitor and 'correct' your system all the time. If I just let my discipline go, I'd be back to normal in a few q's."

Xenith swallowed, and didn't say anything more about it. That didn't stop her from thinking, though. She remembered the other darkside Vixens (and rats, too, now that she thought on it) who had had no head fur. She had simply thought that they had cut it off. Now she realized it was a lot more than just head fur that they lost. She hoped miserably that she wouldn't have to do that... although, now that she thought about it, it would mean fewer problems of "that sort" in the future...

As she glanced at Lilith, she realized that her earlier comparison to a steel blade had been more accurate than she had realized at first. Lilith was very hard and sharp-- and it looked as if she'd sacrificed part of herself in the forge to do it.