Lion Head Mesa You are a golden animal

open! tag for reference.

having eventually found her way back after being sent on a fool's errand, nazli entered @Tavina's quarters to stash some of the plants and things from the bundle. some of it might have been useful; above all, nazli burned with indignation.
it had been a foul trick!
nobody at the barracks had needed her after all. whoever she had been sent to learn from, for real, must have arrived to find her absent from that hill. and the fellahin who had insisted — jawahir, nowhere to be found.
nazli was out of breath. red dust plumed from each step she made, as if her embarrassment and internalized frustration fell away from her as grains of sand. she was a mess; it was not a good look.