The red star in the sky beat down a scorching heat upon the trio of young elves. Their only protection from the heat was the silken cloaks around their bodies, which absorbed and dispersed a large portion of it. They stood in front of a large dune; its height and width were unbelievable. If it weren’t for the sandy texture of its surface, one could mistake it for a mountain. The palest of the trio stepped closer to the wall of sand, a male with short black hair and eyes that looked like violet spheres of lightning. He wore a mask made of stained leather that covered his mouth and nose. He pressed a hand up against the dune, watching as the light-colored sand shifted and fell against his glove at the touch.
The pale elf turned to look over his shoulder towards the pair of elves behind him, a male and female whose skin was almost as black as the night sky itself. One could assume they were twins with how much one looked like the other. Each had brown hair and had eyes like pits of fire. Just like the pale elf, they were also wearing stained leather masks. “This… is a lot bigger up close. Neither of you happened to bring climbing gear, did you? Going around this on foot is going to add at least two entire days to our trip, and that’s if a sandstorm doesn’t decide to fuck us over.” The pale elf was softspoken, but the tone in which he spoke expressed his irritation by the situation he had found himself in.
“Oy, piss off with that shit. We’ve been planning this for two rotations. You think we wouldn’t have come prepared?” The dark male spoke out, his voice practically vibrating the sand he stood upon with how deep it was. He went about removing a satchel that hung upon his left shoulder, throwing it in the sand near the man closest towards the massive dune. It clattered to the ground with sounds of metal.
“You’ve been carrying these tools on you the entire time? Do you know how useful these would have been for the previous dunes? We could have cut our travel time by an entire week!” The pale elf’s annoyance grew, but with a deep breath in and out, he calmed himself and took the leather satchel that landed near him. Upon opening it, he found three pairs of farming tools with sharpened tips and blades stained red. “It’s… not actual climbing tools, but it’ll have to work. You’re both damned lucky this is a dune and not an actual mountain.”
The dark-skinned female spoke up; her voice was similarly deep, just like the dark-skinned male but was more matronly than rumbly in comparison. “Shut it and get climbing, Stonewalker. You’re here to lead us through the Dead Plains, not complain. The other dunes weren’t as big as this one anyways.” She soon stepped forward to retrieve a pair of tools from the satchel, her male counterpart following to do the same.
“Ah… so Stonewalker is an insult we’re using now? I have a name, you know? Also, being a Stonewalker is usually seen as a good thing!” The pale elf turned back towards the giant dune, and with a hefty swing, the red blades dug into the crumbling sand, and his climb began. Each step upwards caused more of the sand to crumble down the dune, his boots hardly being able to grip on with the land that slid out from under them. When the sand stabilized, he yanked one of the farming tools out of the dune, moved his arm up, then sank it into the sand once again. The process was slow, painstakingly so, but it allowed him to climb the mountain of sand, which was faster than going around it.
Once the now called ‘Stonewalker’ had made it up a few paces, the twins began the ascent. The female of the duo spoke up, her tone expressing her annoyance. “Oh, you sure fucking do have a name. It’s a great one, I’m sure. So great you didn’t bother to tell us you muck stain. Do you know how it feels to travel weeks without knowing your guide's name? It’s not all too wonderful” The sound of the metal tools digging into the sand and the sound of it running down the mountain of tiny grains rang within their pointed ears. That, along with the heat, only seemed to worsen their moods.
“Just be grateful we haven’t called you equine shit the entire trip, yeah? At least we were that courteous when you weren't willing to tell us at least a nickname we could use, dick.” If the Stonewalker didn’t know better, he would have thought that the other man’s voice would have shaken the entire mountain and caused all of the sand to crumble around them and either bury them alive or force them to start their climb from point zero.
“Oh yeah… I didn’t tell you my name did I? Eh, now that you reminded me, I’m going to continue to not tell you my name, now just out of spite.”
“That’s what you said LAST TIME we brought it up!” Both of the twins shouted out, their annoyance with the pale elf above them only growing.
“Well, it’s not my fault that I’m forgetful, maybe your words should be a bit more meaningful, and I might just end up remem-”
“Will you shut the fuck up and keep climbing? We’re tired of your mouth and just want to reach Kin’castello. Choosing you as the Stonewalker to lead us couldn’t have been a worse decision.” The female of the group of three tried to end the argument there, and she was successful for the time being, the silence quickly overtaken by the sound of a soft breeze along with their tools digging into the grains of sand.
What felt like hours had passed by with that eerie ambiance in the desolate wasteland that they found themselves. That ambiance began to grow louder. What was just a soft breeze began to become a hefty gust of wind, and joining with the sound of its piercing howls was a sudden rumble. These noises began to make the Stonewalker work his way faster up the mountain, his breathing becoming rapid and labored.
“What in the saints is that?” Asked the fiery-eyed male below him, but the Stonewalker gave no response. The pale elf continued his scramble upwards, and so the twins decided to follow, starting to rush up the dune as fast as their arms and legs would let them with the tools they were using. They were close to the top, so they assumed he was excited to get to the top.
By the time the group made it atop the curved tip of the massive dune, what stood before them was a vast desert. In the distance, many dunes similar in size and height to the one they were standing upon littered the land along with much smaller ones surrounding them, but it wasn’t long before their focus turned towards a translucent dome of energy that shimmered white. The dome protected a land covered in forests and plains of grass. In the heart of that dome was a city made of wood and stone, surrounded by a circular stone wall, and at the heart of the city was a tower that topped the most prominent building within the walls, the House of Kings, a building which was decorated with gold and silver.
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Before they could celebrate their long journey’s end, the ground below their feet began to shake, and the ear-piercing howls of the wind only grew louder. The source of the rumbling they had heard finally revealed its direction as a loud thud sounded out from behind them from the direction they came up the dune. It was methodical, almost like a massive creature taking steps forward. When the trio turned to see for themselves what it was, all they could see was a wall of moving sand with bright flashes of white inside of it.
The Stonewalker quickly turned back towards the barrier, his tone shifting from that once softspoken and sarcastic tune to more of what one would expect of a military officer “Down the mountain, now! Run for Kin’castello!”
The twins soon turned and were just about to run off the side of the mountain before swiftly pulling themselves to a halt. “How the saints are we supposed to get down the dune?!” shouted one of them
“It’s fucking sand, slide down it, you idiots! Stick as close together as you can and just run right towards the barrier!” As if to further prove his point, the Stonewalker be his descent down the mountain of sand. With one foot in front of the other, his feet began to slide down the steep surface, leaving two long indents within the sand.
The twins looked between one another, then back towards the wall of sand approaching them where the loud thrums were resonating. “Gah… fuck it,” said the male before following the Stonewalker’s display and attempting to slide down the massive dune. The female tried similarly, and both swiftly failed before they had even made it halfway down the dune and began to go into a free tumble.
The twins both groaned in pain as they came to a slow rolling stop at the bottom of the dune, though the reminder of doom that swiftly approached them as those constant thumps continued to get louder and louder made them get up to their feet without hesitation.
“It’s getting closer. If neither of you wants to fucking die, get running, now!”
“Die? Why the saints would we die? It’s just a sandstorm! It’s not going to eat us alive-”
The Stonewalker swiftly shut up the woman by grabbing her by the hair and tossing her forward. “It’s going to do exactly that if you don’t start running!”
While they bickered, the front of the storm peaked over the dune and began to cast a shadow over where the trio stood. The rays of light from the star became dim by the sheer amount of sand in the air, and before they could even start running, they were engulfed by the enormous wall of moving sand. The wind's howls became deafening, their vision became so obscured they could hardly see who was standing in front of them, and the worst part was the thrumming. It wasn’t on top of them, but it was getting closer, faster. What used to only sound like one set of giant footsteps started to become the sound of dozens, maybe even hundreds.
The trio no longer had time to argue. The Stonewalker grabbed hold of each of their hands and began running in the direction he remembered seeing the barrier, dragging the other two along like children. He did not stray off the path forward, nor did he let go of either of their hands even as they tried to pull away. The Stonewalker’s focus was on getting all of them through the barrier to Kin’castello and nothing more. Even as grains of sand flying through the air threatened to blind him, he continued pushing.
“Let us go! We have legs of our own and can run, you know? You’re freaking out over a damned sandstorm for no reason!” The irony in the fiery-eyed male’s statement was revealed to him almost comically swift as the howling of the winds was overtaken by a singular high-pitched screech, then two, then five, then dozens.
“Still think we have nothing to be concerned about?”
The pace of the twins soon picked up as they fell silent to the Stonewalker’s question. There was something in the storm, and they desired not to find out what had made that noise.
As the trio ran forward, the sandstorm only continued to engulf them further in its grasp. The thrumming of footsteps and the horror of the winds were completely drowned out by the chorus of deathly screeches that sang behind them. The situation left the twins with little hope, their bodies now wholly acting on fight or flight instincts, and they were down the path of flight.
The Stonewalker had fallen into a similar state of fear, that was until a flash of white shined a short distance away, not even a five minutes run away. The barrier was right there. They had almost made it, his hope had been restored, and it invigorated him to move faster, tugging the twins along with him. “Almost there… it’s right there. We’re so close.” The pale elf spoke to himself in pants of breath, just trying to encourage himself to keep moving forward while he attempted to ignore the screeching sounds of death that only got closer with every passing moment. He was doing good at ignoring them, or he did until the shadow of a figure darted past the front of the trio.
The female twin came to an immediate halt, forcing her hand out of the Stonewalker’s. “What the fuck was that?! Something just ran in front of us. Where did it go?! Something is following us!”
Her male counterpart turned to look over his shoulder, pulling both himself and the Stonewalker to a halt. “No shit, keep moving, or you’re going to find out wha-.” Before he could finish, the screeching that was once just pierced the ears now became deafening. It was no longer distant; it was on top of them. Before the male could move to grab his sister, he watched as a small shadow from the mist-like sands latched onto her arm and dragged her away, kicking and screaming. He was quick to follow before the Stonewalker could get a hold of him.
“Wait!” It was too late. As the twins disappeared into the sands, the screeching quieted. In its place were the guttural screams of a man and woman, along with what sounded like twigs snapping and soft squishing as if someone were stomping in a puddle. The Stonewalker turned back towards where he saw the barrier flash and went into a sprint. It wasn’t long after the screams were silenced that the screeches of the demons in the sands began to ring once more, the sign that their hunt was continuing.
The barrier separating the Dead Plains from the lush forests of Kin’castello shined through the raging sands once again. It was brighter than before, almost as if it were right in his face. Little did he know, it was. Just a few more strides forward, and he found himself stumbling through the barrier before collapsing to all fours on the grass-covered ground.
The world around the pale elf fell quiet, the screeching of the beasts hidden in the storm and the ghastly howls of the winds disappearing as if they were never there in the first place. He removed the mask upon his sand-covered face and began to take in deep gasps of fresh air, the adrenaline running through his body, causing him to tremble in his position violently. “My name is Kaldiel Arc’Calus. I’m a Stonewalker. Everyone knows the risks. They died because they didn’t follow the rules.” he began to murmur to himself as he shook. “Rule number five, If caught in a sandstorm, don’t stop running.” Kaldiel repeated the rule to himself over and over again as if trying to justify something. He did this until he had regained his composure and stopped shaking, and was able to work himself to his feet.
Once Kaldiel worked his way to his feet, he slowly brushed off the sand upon his cloak before picking up his leather mask from the ground to do the same. Once he had adequately cleaned himself of sand and left a nice little pile of the grainy substance upon the grass around him, he finally turned around to look at the barrier he had just come through. On the other side, he saw the raging storm of sand, beating against the dome as if it were alive, trying to reach in and decimate any greenery it could find, but it would find no success and be forced to go around. The creatures that were chasing him were nowhere to be found, and the lack of their sounds within this field of life almost made the man cry., but he was grateful nonetheless for it.
Kaldiel turned away from the barrier to behold a simple grassy hill that obscured his vision. Better than the sandstorm, at least. The pale elf marched his way up to the hill, and upon reaching its rounded top, he just sat down and looked out upon the city of Kin’castello. From where he sat, he could now feel a soft breeze begin to blow through his short sand-covered hair while the bustle of the city less than a day's trip away bustled with life. He had made it, his traveling partners may not have, and that’s the entire reason he was on the journey in the first place, but they didn’t follow the rules, so what did it matter? There was no room for regret. It was time to rest and recover before getting ready to do it all over again. That’s the job of a Stonewalker, to guide people who are willing through the Dead Plains of Nyx and bring them to sanctuaries like this one.
