Solitude of Dune

Part 4 (Trigger Warning)

Chani got to work, unpacking her Fremtent and setting it up once more;she would sleep until nightfall and travel under the veil of darkness, rested and well - ready. The tent propped up and she activated the sand compactor inside, it's gentle humming noises in the background of the air. She took out a piece of Khinshsaa and threads of Chukka to eat. The crunchy spice bread went well with meat, and a few small bites filled her stomach no more than what was needed. She passed a hand over her remaining food; there would be enough for five rotations, a bit more if she started rationing it. I'll have to find new food soon, Chani noted to herself. She could hunt meat from eagles and hares, but without a fighting escort of Fremen , she could not attack a spice crawler to use for making anything else. A strange realization came over her, she didn't need to attack spice crawlers anymore. Dune was free of Harkonnens; Fremen would get their share of what belonged to them since the beginning, without violating their freedom. It felt unrealistic, like a myth come true, which is exactly what it was. Yet a bitter disappointment welled up in Chani's chest as she realized she was excluded from such privileges, by her own leaving. The regret was momentarily replaced by her fiery spirit, she knew leaving was the right thing to do, right now she seeked a life of the desert, not a royal palace to be standing in the same room as the wife of her lover. A woman who was everything she was not, and Chani was everything Irulan was not. A wild, free spirit of the desert and a tamed, taught princess of a great house. The polar opposites that both claimed Paul Atreides for their own, and yet he made the final choice, a choice not outright shadowing Chani but enough to shatter the trust that had been formed.

Chani took a last bite and packed away everything but the fremtent and sand compactor, still lightly buzzing. She let her hair down and adjusted the stillsuit to a more comfortable strapping, then lay her head down on a cushion of her own hair, closing her brown eyes and pushing all her thoughts away in the importance of rest. And just as they were all gone, one last image of the somber girl, sitting in the darkness and grieving for her mother, passed through her mind and a wave of empathy accompanied it, making her wonder if she could've stayed, before the heat and relentlessness of the desert took over and her thin body relaxed into sleep.

A black veil had covered the sky and the stars were vibrant in the clear night, though they shone weakly in the shadow of the two bright moons of Arrakis. The quiet desert silence was split by a deafening rumbling, sending heavy vibrations to dunes all around, causing a Chukka hate to scurry away hurriedly from one of the lone hills of sand.

All Chani could hear was the rumbling of the worm ride in the dead of night, above ground at this hour it scared every living being away. Her thoughts were restless, argumentative. She didn't know what she would do once she got to the sietch, but was on her way and couldn't stop. It seemed like a foolish idea now that she had executed it, but she didn't give way to faltering thoughts and remained focused on steering the sandworm towards Tabr. She had left Aktana at sundown and traveled a long way ; soon she would arrive at her old home, where everything had begun. Her shawl flipped around her in the wind and sand bashed at her mask and eye protectors, struggling to find a clear sight ahead, she swerved her head and tried to clean out to see how much farther there was. The familiar rocks Chani saw in the distance gave her a momentary sense of nostalgia and excitement, before she brought back her attention and slowly started releasing the hooks off the worm. She felt the rings close and the beast abruptly started tilting downhill, breaking into the flat sandy surface.

She jumped off and rolled into the sand away from the beast as it went under.

Leaping up from the ground, she adjusted her catch tubes and began sandwalking towards Tabr. In the night with a black stillsuit, she was a mere shadow drifting from one side to the other, pausing, and again, her hood swishing behind her on the sands in the mystifying darkness, a beautiful silhouette representing the sadness and melancholia of the desert winds. A female was like a flower on Dune, a true beauty in the nearly lifeless desert, strong willed yet, delicate, but with an air of willing suffering which made it all the more bewitching.