The sky had turned a dull red, approaching the shade of the sand that Isel sat upon. He had not grown tired during the few hours that Charine had slept. He assumed it was because he had just been born a few hours ago. Isel decided that now was a good time to wake Charine.
He approached her and tapped her shoulder. His hand had since been bandaged after he had injured it earlier on his arrival to Comeidlan.
Charine groggily opened her eyes and slowly stood up.
For the first time, Isel had an idea of his height, at least in comparison to Charine. The top of her head reached his nose. He had expected to be taller.
"I am 172 centimeters tall."
"What? But I didn't even ask you yet."
Charine gave a signature shrug.
"Coincidence. I was telling you so that you have a better grasp of whatever future measures I relay."
Despite being only two months old, Charine seemed to be quite intelligent, or at the very least experienced. Isel felt almost pathetic near her, and there was only a two month difference between to the two. Perhaps that's what she meant when she called herself a bad example of someone who had just been born.
"Alright, so how do we leave?"
"You just need to follow me, we'll go back the way I came."
Charine turned to Isel's left, and stared to tread at a somewhat slow pace. He followed and walked by her side
"So we're not in any rush?"
The carpet of spikes that came up from the red dust were typically much larger than the average person. The bases were extremely wide, and they seemed to rise for tens of meters.
"Not necessarily, but even if we were it would still be better to take things slower. Nobody wants to be stuck in any area outside of Manichae while while they're tired. The only reason we were able to take a few hours of rest is because the danger had just passed."
Charine stepped in a way that she landed completely flat on her feet to avoid kicking up dust. Isel quickly took notice and mimicked her steps.
"The phenomenon that killed Leal."
" So what happened?"
"The spikes were growing. It happens every two to three weeks. It happens extremely quickly, the growth causes the surrounding spikes to be pushed and forced harshly. One of the reasons for my expedition was to study it, find out why it happens."
Charine sighed as she started to undo the previously crafted tourniquet as the blood had soaked partially through the bandage and threw the rag away in the wind. She replaced the bandage before making another tourniquet with a cloth taken from the black straps.
The bag that Isel gave to Charine was now tied to her left hip by another cloth. The purpose purpose for the eccentric upperwear had become more apparent. Since the cloths had already been ripped and segmented no time had to be wasted if there was ever an urgent need for a certain small amount of it — such as Charine's tourniquet and satchel tie. The clothes were specifically made for exploring the desert with scarce resources.
Over the course of two hours, Charine and Isel walked throw the desert of spikes. Charine maintained her steady pace, never changing speed. All Isel could do was maintain her pace, though he felt that he would've been able to go slightly faster.
Charine looked up as the sky transitioned into a shade of indigo. She stopped walking and reached between the layers of cloths on her back and pulled out a stone tablet with eight sides no larger than the palm of her hand. She rubbed two of her fingers on the surface of the disk.
"Come here, Isel."
He was caught off guard after the sudden stop and redirected his attention to Charine. He eyed the tablet with a suspicious look.
"What's purpose of the disk?"
Charine handed the object to Isel, and proceeded to give a brief explanation as he scrutinized it.
There was no decoration. It wad just an eight sided marble colored stone with a darker area in the middle where Charine had rubbed.
"It's hard to see in the dark, obviously. The surface of this tablet has a mineral in it that will help you see better. Or something along the lines of that. There are a few working theories but I didn't study them much, so feel free to look back on them in Manichae."
Isel feared the implications of this. He looked over to the two fingers that Charine had rubbed against the surface, and frowned.
"It needs to make contact with your eyes to work, it will stimulate them directly."
" Damn it all…"
Charine shook her head.
"I'm no fan of it either, but you need to be able to see on your own. If you step on a spike it's going to be hard for us to get out of here within the next two weeks. We absolutely cannot risk being here when the next phenomena occurs. I used the last coagulant earlier too, so if we're not careful we could bleed out."
Despite full well knowing the consequences of not being able to see, Isel still felt a deep pit billow in the bottom of his gut. He had to take a deep breath to snap himself into a more logical thought process.
"So you'll put it in my eyes?"
"Yeah, I'll teach you how to apply it.
Charine positioned her fingers just below Isel's eyes.
"Ready?"
Isel croaked out a pathetic confirmation with a deep frown.
"Yes…"
"Oh- by the way, it'll hurt."
Before Isel could react, Charine rubbed her fingers across both of his eyes. Even though the contact had only lasted for less than a second, Isel immediately recoiled and blinked as fast as he could. This was followed by his groan of pain.
His eyes stung, yet the pain subsided far faster than he had expected. After just a few seconds Isel was able to open his eyes again as if nothing happened. The land in front of him had changed, though only in color. The deep indigo of the sky was now replaced with a dull red —similar to how the it appeared at dusk.
It hadn't even been more painful than getting stabbed in the hand, but it was more grueling mentally. He spoke spoke softly as he shivered from the thought of the experience.
"Thank you…"
Still taking deep breathes due to his previous nervousness, he handed the tablet back to Charine. She quickly rubbed her eyes with the substance on the tablet as well, and returned it beneath the layers on her back. Isel noticed that there were other shapes that accompanied the outline of the tablet beneath her fabrics with odd forms revealed through layers, though not enough to discern what contents the back fabrics concealed.
Their march continued. Isel had many moments to ponder his situation. He found himself in a world that clashed against his instincts, ones that felt very integral to his sense of being. Though he could never come closer to a reason as to why his they were so offended, the same fog that clouded his mind when he thought of the origin of his name — or even a time before the spiked desert for that matter — appeared when attempted to make a connection.
As he attempted to continue his thought, the most aberrant event that occurred in his short life so far unfolded.
Something was impaled on a short spike. He had trouble understanding what he saw. He soon registered two abnormally long appendages as the figure pushed against the ground to dislodge itself from the spike.
What he saw looked to be an extremely perverse interpretation of what a human should be. About twice his size in height, the innumerable appendages left form places on the creatures body than it should have.
There was no head, though he could hardly discern a torso. The skin of the figure was black and flowed across its body with intense viscosity. It was akin to a void-colored ichor. The appendages writhed across the creature except for four, and he could only assume those to be its legs and arms. A deep fear washed over Isel. His terror was hardly given a moment to develop before the creature rushed towards him at a brisk pace.
Time moved slowly, and he felt his chest tighten horribly as his body attempted to react within the split second.
A flash of purple light followed by a deafening crash came from his left, in the direction of Charine. Before he registered the sound, the creature in front of Isel flew to the ground, blown over to his right from the sheer impact of whatever hit it.
Isel's heart was louder than the thoughts in his head, overpowering him as his thoughts scattered. The mass no longer writhed, and the viscous skin no longer flowed.
Isel directed his sight to the origin of the sound and the flash, and there stood Charine. She held a gun. Isel knew what that was, he knew very well. The metal was warped and twisted, with a deep purple liquid seeping from the barred and crawling down her fingers, almost similar to the way the skin of the creature flowed. He couldn't focus on the gun itself for very long, as something else caught his attention.
Charine's face was configured in an expression he had figured was on his face at the current moment. Her hand shook as she stared into the direction of the presumably deceased. They were both captured by a sheer and inexplicable fear.