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CHAPTER START---
Walking out of the city walls, Oberon leaves the narrow pathway leading into the wider desert of Minstrel.
He looks up at the sun as it rises to its peak, then out into the brownish-yellow dunes ahead.
Taking out one of his cards, he activates it, retrieving a jacket with a hood and pulling it on, shielding him from the harsh sun before looking at his map and compass one more time.
In the distance, he could see massive clouds of sand moving across the desert, starting a mere dozen miles away from the city walls.
He looks down at the map and calculates his route.
'Four days to this thing,' he taps an icon shaped like a giant doorway on the map, then continues tracing the route. 'Then I head southwest to the canyon. Go underground and follow the route here until I find this thing.'
He studies the icon of a knight on the map.
'This entire thing should take ten days.'
He puts away the map, secures the compass on his wrist, and then smiles at the sandstorm.
"Yeah, ten days, if I were walking," he begins floating, takes one look back at the city, and pulls his hood down.
He then focuses and alters his gravity, causing him to effectively fall forward and up, so he flies toward the sandstorm and climbs high into the sky.
He covers miles in minutes, conserving his Magic Energy enough to fight if needed, but still moving at an absurd pace.
"Woowww," Oberon's eyes widen as he continues to climb, over five miles up, and only now does he match the height of the sandstorm. "No wonder nobody enters these things."
He floats in place and looks around, seeing the city far below at the coast. With a thought, he uses the Telescopic Lens and zooms in on the ship being resupplied, and can clearly see a hand-off of contraband to the dockmaster.
Oberon chuckles and moves his attention elsewhere, looking out at the vast dunes and sparse boulders dotting the desert.
Looking to either side, he couldn't see the end of the sandstorm, and directly ahead was no better.
'I need to land at some point and get my bearings, since I can't see through to the ground. The last thing I want is to miss the gate thing, but on this path if I go too far I'll reach an oasis city.'
He deactivates the spell and rockets forward, above the sandstorm.
Holding out his left arm, he keeps his eyes glued to the compass, ensuring he doesn't stray off course since there is nothing this high up to orient himself against.
As he's flying, looking down and trying to peer through the sandstorm below.
'What is that?' Oberon thinks as he sees something moving through the sand below him, toward the top of the sandstorm. 'Huh, it's getting bi—'
Oberon's eyes widen as the movement below suddenly envelops his shadow, unfurling itself to reveal the silhouette of a massive bird.
He does a barrel roll and barely dodges its dive-bomb attack as it disappears into the sandstorm.
"Maybe it was safer inside the—" he can't even finish his sentence before another bird descends.
Oberon ascends even higher as both birds erupt from the sandstorm, giving him a horrifying view of their massive forms.
Each the size of a carriage with wings three times as wide. Brown and yellow feathers, which, had he not been paying attention, would blend into the sand below.
But the moment they rush past him, failing to strike with their talons, he sees their underbellies are a gentle white with sparse blue feathers.
"Awesome," Oberon mutters as he flips to face the sky and sees them circling above. "Let's play."
He smiles and falls upward, making a beeline toward them.
Both birds see this and are startled, not expecting smaller prey to charge them, and Oberon takes this chance to reach them and hover in front of the slightly larger of the two.
The bird immediately lunges forward, biting at him, but Oberon casually waves his hand, using Gravity to make the attack miss before slowing his speed.
At its current speed, the bird rushes past him, and he takes this moment to flip over its back, reaching down and grabbing a feather the size of his forearm, and plucking it free, all before both birds rush past him.
The bird releases a loud screech, feeling a slight pinch on its back, but the second remains focused.
Before Oberon could get out of the way, its sharp talons, each the size of a large knife, crashed into him.
The talons scrape against his barrier, causing one of them to shatter and sending him tumbling through the air, uninjured.
"Wow!" he steadies himself and comes to a stop as the bird releases a pained cry while flying away.
He looks out to see both of them disappearing into the distance, leaving him with his souvenir.
"Sorry!" he yells after them, but they were far out of earshot within seconds. "Really didn't mean to hurt you."
Oberon frowns and looks around, making sure nothing else is in the sky with him before checking his compass and resuming his travel.
Oberon refocuses on his journey and orients himself before looking down at the feather in his hand.
"I need to find a good spot for this one."
He places it into one of his cards, then flies off toward the gate.
Looking down at his compass, he sees that he's on the right course, then, checking the watch that's also on the same wrist, he's able to tell exactly how much distance he should have travelled by now.
'I need to land in a minute or two and start looking around. The landmark is probably on the side of a cave or som—' his thoughts grind to a halt as he sees it in the distance.
Eyes widening as he stops in place and activates Telescopic Lens.
"You've got to be kidding me," Oberon mutters as he sees the giant angular doorway in the distance.
Many miles wide and tall enough that a third of it peers over the sandstorm. Three grey stone pillars seemingly carved from one solid piece of rock to form rectangular limbs for the massive doorway.
Each face hundreds of meters thick as it rises above the sandstorm, a monolith in the vast desert.
'So this place really did have Giants once,' Oberon rushes toward the structure in glee, ascending to the top of it.
He arrives atop it and sees sand in the cracked and chipped stone beneath him before landing.
"This is insane." He takes out his Kamera from a Storage Card and spends minutes taking pictures before withdrawing his map.
He places his compass on the map once more and orients himself for the next leg of his journey, setting his sights on the horizon to the southwest.
"The canyon should be surrounded by high walls, so that will help. But I should still slow down when I get a bit closer," he stores his map and secures the compass before rushing off.
Minutes later, Oberon sees the silhouette of a large mountainous structure below and descends, finding a canyon protected from the raging sands on all sides by towering natural walls. He sees the floor of the canyon dotted with large rocks between the seemingly loose sand.
Descending below the height of the walls, he's protected from the sand that's been constantly crashing against him, and spots two people sitting on one of the large boulders.
A few dozen meters below, Oberon sees the two men huddled together, appearing malnourished and dehydrated, with too many bags for two people to have.
"Hey! Are you alright?!" Oberon yells as he descends to the sand in front of them.
One of the men jolts awake, holding his tattered robe and face wraps, allowing Oberon to see splattered blood across his clothes as he nudges the other man.
The second slowly comes to his senses, seeing Oberon on the sand.
"No!" the man screams, but before he could start his warning, two fins, each slightly taller than Oberon, begin circling the boy from within the sand. "Get off the sand! They'll pull you in!"
Oberon turns his head to look at them, admiring the brownish-green coloration, then the sand beneath his feet suddenly drops.
It forms a pit below him, two stories deep, and both desert fish rush out of the walls into the base of the pit.
But Oberon remains locked in his spot above it, even as the ground drops out from under him.
Both fish get nothing but dry sand for their troubles as they slowly use their natural magic to return the sand to its natural state.
Oberon sees the rising sand and wisely floats over to the men to stand on the rock. "Wow, those things are weird. Fish without water."
"Water. Do you have water?" One of the men asks, trying and failing to get to his feet before Oberon gestures for him to stay seated.
"Yeah. Here you go," Oberon withdraws two of his ration packs from a Storage Card, giving the men dried food, full water skins, and a few more essentials.
They ravenously drink the water, allowing it to rejuvenate them for a moment before turning their attention to the dried rations.
"So, how'd you get here?"
"We were—" One of the men begins before the other taps his shoulder, silencing him. He glares at his friend before gesturing to the food and water. "We're in no shape to continue, and this boy is obviously strong. From Fiore?"
"Yeah, how could you tell?"
"Accent," the other man says. "You're a Wizard here for the tablet, too?"
"I guess there isn't any other reason to be out here, huh?"
"No. And we're done. As soon as we have the energy and this sandstorm passes, we're gone. You can have the damned tablet. It's not worth six friends."
"You lost six people?"
One of the men nods. "Sand fish, snakes at that giant gate, the damned birds…"
His friend pats him on the shoulder.
"Huh, didn't know about the snakes. Guess it didn't matter since I just flew all the way he—" he stops talking as the men glare at him. "Sorry about your friends."
"The Mazeja brothers thank you," they say in unison.
"Well, I'm Oberon Alkwan, and I'm happy to help you. If you're here on the way back, I can give you a lift to the city."
Then the men share a concerned look, and then they turn to Oberon.
"We have information about the excavation," one of them says. "There are people ahead, two teams. One has been there for a few days, and we don't know anything about them. The other is blocking the only way in or out. The entire site is underground, so you should be careful. If you go in, they can block your only way out, too."
"You aren't going to stop me?" Oberon asks.
"We know who you are, King of the Fairies. We've heard of you in Stella. Didn't know you were so…"
"Young?" Oberon smiles. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Thanks for the warning. If you're here when I come out, I'll take you back to the city."
Oberon leaves the men and floats toward the massive cavern entrance at the end of this valley.
"We should wait for him," one of the men says as they watch him disappear into the cavern.
"Rumors say he's strong. But if he dies in there, and one of those other groups comes out, we don't want to be here to greet them…"
CHAPTER END---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]