deep within the sharp ridges of arrakis lies a sietch home to thousands of fremen. One being named Mili, meaning "of the sea". Unlike every other fremen, Mili is not affected by spice. this causing her to stand out not just to fremen, but to a speci...
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the sound of sand roughly colliding with the exterior of the thopter fills the inside sending vibrations through the walls as they flow through the storm.
they spin. and spin and spin and spin.
paul opens his eyes when the thopter begins to beep, signaling their fuel was low.
he grunts as a particularly hard piece of metal clanks against the aircraft causing them to shake.
"hang on mili." paul says as the thopter continues to ascent. as the thopter reaches the top of the storm, they finally can see the light of day.
the craft beeps uncontrollably, signaling that they had ran out of fuel. jessica fearfully groans at this. paul presses a few buttons making the remaining three wings spread out and causing them to soar through the wind.
it was a pleasant sight in an unpleasant situation. it was beautiful. mili in his lap, his mother by his side, and the beautiful arrakis storms. it was all he could want.. just under different circumstances.
as they soar above the storm, paul attempts to steer them as much as possible. the third wing, however, could not handle the desert wind any longer as it fell off.
"we lost one!" jessica yells.
they continues to soar towards the ground. and paul instructs, "as soon as we land, run for the rocks." jessica holds onto the side of the thopters wall as they inch towards the sand.
the second wing started to shake before breaking off, causing them to roll sideways and plummet toward the ground at a much more rapid speed than before.
paul held tightly onto mili as they rolled upside down. "oh gosh!!" mili yells digging her nails into paul's arm.
the thopter continues to plummet until it hit a dune, sliding with the sand momentarily before coming to a abrupt stop.
"mili, love, are you okay?" paul asks brushing her hair out of her face. mili, all shooken up, just nods and awkwardly smiles.
"we gotta get to the rocks now." paul says. they all scurry out of the thopter and run for the nearest rock which was 50 ish feet away.
once they made it to the rocks paul grabbed the bag from his back and pulls out two stillsuits.
"goddamnit. there's only two. here mili i won't wear one you-" paul says but is cut off by mili
"no, paul. i am immune to the effects of the desert. please. the heat or spice won't kill me. but it will kill you." she says holding his hand.
he looks down, unsure, but ultimately trusts her and nods.
-
paul's stillsuits was on slip-ankle fashion and he walked over to help jessica with hers. mili just stood there, soaking the pleasant heat of the day in. even though it was probably 145 degrees.
mili had to admit, paul looked reaaaal good in a stillsuit.
"okay mili, lead us to the fremen." jessica says. mili pulls out a compass and begins to descend the rocks.
-
paul and mili tread through the silky sand hand in hand, and jessica just walked holding her stomach. as they rest on another rock, paul is sucked into another vision.
-
mili leading paul through a cavern, at the end of it, a desert mouse and its babies.
"even a small desert mouse can survive." she whispers.
"don't be frightened. you'll need to face your fears." another voice says.
"a friend will become your lover."
-
as paul mili and jessica continue their journey they can't help but stare at the endless horizon of dunes. and with sand blowing at their feet, mili and paul look at eachother. seeing an endless horizon of futures.
jessica points toward a rock, "i can see greenery over there." she says.
"that means fremen live there." mili responds as paul looks through the binoculars.
"we'll cross after dark, that's how us fremen do it." mili then says.
-
"we're about to enter worm territory. meaning we cannot walk like normal humans." mili begins. "if we do, we're as good as dead." she continues.
"we'll have to walk like the fremen do, it's called the sandwalk. like this." mili says as she demonstrates.
paul follows suit, sandwalking like a real fremen.
-
nighttime has fallen by now the moon shines brightly against the three, causing their white eyes to practically glow. paul cannot look away from mili.
"this is the right direction, i think." mili says looking at her compass. paul grabs the fremkits on their backs and drops them, leaving them to the desert.
paul's calfs are burning as they climb up yet another dune, his energy is gone and he doesn't understand how mili is unaffected. he can't even imagine how his pregnant mother feels.
once they make it to the top of the dune, they sit to catch their breaths, mili notices a worm come to the surface creating another dune for them to cross. jessica huffs at this. "let's move." mili says.
"this should be it up ahead." mili says pointing to the sietch. however, as they approach, paul notices something peculiar about the sand. drum sand. He stomps his feet a couple of times, causing mili to say
"paul, no!"
but it was too late. the worm had already risen to the surface and was coming toward them at a rapid pace.
"run!" paul says.
they do so, not caring about the loud drums beneath them. they were in the path of shai hulud now.
"go! go!!" jessica yells as they run.
the worm grows closer and it shakes the sand beneath them causing mili to trip. "fuck!" she yells. paul skirts to a stop and runs back for mili. getting deja vu to a few days prior when she tripped in the path of another worm.
"paul no!" jessica yells as she continues to run.
paul picks mili up by the arm and gets her running again, just how she did to him when he had that vision a few days ago. paul whimpers as he notices the close proximity of the worm.
they finally make it to the rock and the worm life above the sand to look at them. it moans and groans as it turns it head at the three. suddenly, however, a thumper goes off letting the worm leave them alone.
"it's a thumper. someone set off a thumper." paul says.
