“So, he walked up to me.”
“Mhm,” Kiur nodded,
“And he said,” Cylia paused, Kiur moved closer in anticipation. “He said he’s sorry.”
“Come again?”
“He said he’s sorry,” repeated Cylia with the same disbelief as Kiur.
Furrowing his brows, Kiur put his hands together and then on his lips in deep thought. “Are you sure you didn’t mistake it? Like ‘sorry’ for the word, I don’t know, ‘worry’, ‘foggy’ or something else?”
“That’s what I asked him too!” concurred Cylia, munching on one of the date palms they had. “But he apologised. To me. WITHOUT IRONY!”
“I can’t believe it,” Kiur’s mouth was agape. He thought Xander was joking when he said he would apologise to Cylia, but Xander had been sincere. “He really said it.”
“I can’t believe it either, but I am still curious. Can we go back to the scar on your back-”
“Drop it, will you?” Kiur grunted at her.
“Are you two talking about me?” asked Xander, walking up to them as they prepared makeshift beds out of palm leaves.
“No-”
“Yes,” Cylia blurted out, not letting up on being mean to Xander.
“Ah, good to know.” He put his hands on his hips. “Mind if we talk?” Xander sat down between the two with a sober mien. “I would like to discuss what we should do now?”
“Why? Did you grow tired of splashing around with water?” Cylia snickered. Xander was not in the mood for her witticism.
“Sure,” said Kiur. “Anything to get away from Cylia's newest topic.”
Xander raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Whatever. I want to confirm something. We still plan to go east, right?”
“That’s the plan. As it was before. Why do you ask?”
“We need to change directions.”
“Why?” Kiur sat up straight, stopping his futile attempt to make a proper bed. “Did you see someone follow us, or were there Scorpion People-”
“No, it’s not about that.” Xander took a breath. “I kept quiet when we wandered in the desert, but we found a safe place to gather ourselves, and now it’s time we reconsider our plan and head south instead.”
“But it’s not safe going south, is it?” Inquired Cylia, scratching her head and ruffling up her hair in the process—enjoying her new haircut a lot. “I’ve no idea where exactly we are, but any ‘friendly’ civilisation would be too far away for us.”
“I agree with Cylia,” said Kiur. “From what I can tell, we’re around the northern central area, west of the desert edges. If we head south, we might inevitably run into Reiszer-controlled territory. There might also be magic beasts like the Scorpion People and-”
“I don’t care about such trivialities!” Xander shot up from his place, yelling. “I say we go south! Not east, not North, or anywhere else, Basta!!”
“Xander, didn’t you hear? What do you mean by south- hey, stop, where are you going?”
“Leaving!” Xander paced away from them to the exit and up to the slope of the oasis.
“It’s night. Where do you plan on going? You can’t just leave.” Kiur stopped Xander by stepping before him. “We can’t go out until the next day. The elements are harsh and might kill you, and if not them, the magic beasts will. You’re tired; we’re tired. You’re not thinking straight. We need to regain our strength before attempting to travel the desert.”
“I don’t care. It’s better than sticking around with you. So out of my way, Idarien.” Pushing Kiur away, Xander began his ascent to climb outside. Leaving them for good.
“What’s wrong with him!? Did he just call me ‘Idarien’ like it was an insult?” Infuriated, Kiur watched Xander leave. He couldn’t comprehend it. Xander hasn’t behaved rationally ever since they were separated from their group—from Archil and everyone else.
“Bugs me,” commented Cylia with a mouthful of fruit. “If he wants to go, then let him. It’s his decision.”
“You can’t be serious,” Kiur shook his head at Cylia's callous opinion. “Xander’s our friend. We’re not out of danger yet; we need to cooperate.”
“If he were our ‘friend’, would he really just run away without talking it out? If he wants to leave, we should let him go.”
Kiur hated it when Cylia showed her cold and rational side. Both she and Xander were a handful, but she had a point. Though Kiur didn’t like it. “I can’t let him leave like that. I’ll go after him. You can wait here.”
“Do you have to go after him- Kiur! Ergh, wait!” Cylia ran after him. The second her bare feet stepped outside the underground oasis, Cylia shivered. It was cold, unimaginably cold. Nothing more than a thin layer of torn clothes protected her from the freezing night. “That bastard, forcing us to go after him.”
Xander was an ice mage. Therefore, he felt unaffected by the cold and with Kiur’s unnaturally higher body temperature and growing up in the environment, he could easily shrug off the elements. Though not Cylia, who struggled to keep going in those absurd temperatures. More than anything did she wish to be a mage like them.
“I wish we could have stayed at the oasis before we resumed walking. Take my shawl. It will help you.” Kiur wrapped his shawl around her neck. “I’m sorry that I can’t do much-”
“Shut up.” Cylia snatched his hands to entwine them in hers. “So warm. So. Warm.” She exhaled, tightening her grip on his hands to syphon the warmth. Kiur felt more than a little nervous at the touch.
Then he looked at her legs, which were shaking heavily. “What’s wrong?”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“It’s nothing, ignore that-” Without listening to Cylia making excuses, Kiur tapped with his foot and conjured a stool to make her sit down.
“Show me your feet.”
Reluctantly, Cylia gave in, showing him the extent of the damage. Her feet were burnt, and the wounds were covered with grains of sand.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I’m used to it, really, it’s no- what are you doing?” Cylia observed how Kiur ripped apart part of his robe and tried to clean her wounds before bandaging them so she could walk. “Thank you for caring, but don’t mind it. It’s that idiot’s fault. Doesn’t he know never to split the party?”
Kiur was sure that Xander knew about the consequences and dangers of splitting apart now. Xander was calculative, almost cunning, in whatever he did. This was irrational by his standards. Kiur felt bad for Cylia, who tagged along regardless of how much of a toll it took on her. He couldn’t leave either of them behind. He wanted to blame Xander, but he couldn’t without knowing why he did it.
Hours passed. Stars left. They tried to reach out to Xander, but he wouldn’t listen. He would frequently get upset and yell at the nothingness of the eerily silent desert.
“Quit following me!” he shouted when Kiur caught up to him. His voice echoed over the dunes.
“Stop acting like a child!” Kiur jabbed his finger at Xander’s chest. “We agreed to get out of this desert together, and suddenly you run off without a single explanation? We followed you because we were worried, and look what it did to Cylia!”
Pointing to the girl sitting in the shade, Cylia waved at them. She held a strained smile as she wiggled with her bandaged feet and simply said, “Hey there, moron, want to take a break? Cause I would appreciate one.”
Xander grimaced at her. “You’re insufferable.” When he looked at how she was holding in the pain of her burned feet, Xander reluctantly sat down in the shade with them, giving in. “I’m sorry, I got carried away-”
“Oh, now you realise!?” To the shock of the two, Kiur was yelling at Xander. He towered before him with a heavy expression and fists on his hips with a mien accentuated by the dusk. “I’ll probably sound hypocritical saying this, but talk, or so help me, I’ll hang you upside down like when we sailed off the cliff that one time.”
“Yes, sir,” Xander pushed himself further back and away from Kiur. He forgot how that usually calm and solicitous fellow could snap so badly—especially when magic got involved. “I cannot fully explain why I did it, but I knew I needed to try to get home no matter how. Even if it meant leaving this group.”
—❂—
Kiur’s expression softened on Xander’s confession. He sat down beside him, listening.
“Up until the moment your brother helped us cross that crevice and we reached the oasis, I kept thinking about this. ‘Only a little further, not much longer, and I’ll be home’. When you said we should go east, and Cylia agreed, I stopped thinking.” Xander turned to face Kiur. He tried to be solemn but failed. “I can’t go east. I need to go south where my home is.”
“Ha! Hahaha.” Kiur and Xander looked at Cylia, who buried her face in her hands and laughed uncontrollably. “This hurts. I can’t stop laughing. My insides hurt from laughing so hard! Hahaha!”
“Excuse me!?” Xander’s face grew red. He snapped. Cylia fell back, her fit only intensifying.
“No, stop Xander-” Kiur couldn’t stop Xander before he bent down and grabbed Cylia by her arm. “What’s so funny, you-”
Cylia revealed her face, grimacing with a contorted smile and swirling eyes that upset Xander’s stomach. “Let me ask you something,” she began, startling Xander further. “What’s home?”
“What do you mean by it?”
Cylia freed herself from Xander’s grasp and remained standing. She endured how painful it was. Unlike Xander, Cylia was accustomed to the feelings of pain and abuse over the years. “What’s home?” she asked him, stepping face close to Xander. “You speak as if you know how to get back to it, do you?”
“Of course I do-”
“Really?” she cocked her head. “Do you know how to navigate this vast desert to get back to it? Or at the very least, to somewhere safe? Do you even understand how hopeless we both are here?”
“I-” Xander halted, visibly faltering before Cylia.
“Thought so. You don’t know, and never do I.” With heavy feet, Cylia walked over to Kiur to hold his arm up. She gripped it hard, fearing if she didn’t, he would disappear. “But he does, and only he. I have no home to return to. Kiur, tell us what the other sides look like. What will happen if we change directions?”
Hesitant, Kiur took Cylia’s hand off of his arm and put his hand on Xander consolingly. “I don’t know how to say it, but we can’t go either north or south, to our homes. The Reiszer presence will be too strong. They will search for escapees in these directions, knowing we can’t travel far.”
“What’s left then?” Xander’s lips quivered. “East? Travelling across the entire desert? The whole Navarrien Desert!? It’s bigger than my home country of Hellas!” Xander yelled, his magic flaring up from his emotions and muddling the surrounding sand. “We almost got killed just from the sun. We had a hard time finding this oasis, which was just a lucky idiot’s accident!”
“Hey!-”
“Shut it!” Xander barked at her. “We’ve no means of transportation or viable resources. How are we supposed to travel the entire continent? It’s too far! Our chances are dismally scant. We’ll die before- ”
“I don’t know how we will do it,” confessed Kiur without a hint of restraint. He was just as frustrated as Xander was. He knew very well how bad their chances were with no equipment, resources, means of transportation, maps, or knowledge of safe spots. “Yet it is our only chance. The East isn’t safe either, but it’s our best and only bet. There’s no other option than that or the Reiszer.”
Biting down on his lip, Xander looked upwards. His trembling fist did little to hide his discontentment. “If I don’t go south now, I won’t know when I’ll ever get back home. Navarre dislikes Hellas; they’ll dislike me. I can’t go there. Is there really no other way?”
“Xander, I promise you, nothing bad will happen when we get to Navarre. I’ll guarantee it. Please trust me. It’s the only viable option not to get captured.”
Seeing Kiur’s riled-up expression, Xander realised too late how much Kiur still wasn’t over leaving behind his own brother. Kiur’s conviction was genuine. They promised to work together. Xander hated himself for forgetting their promise. His wish to go home clouded his judgement. Something that happened to Kiur as well. They both had to bite into the sour apple to survive.
“I’m sorry, I acted like an idiot,” Xander apologised in front of Kiur and then inclined his head to Cylia, startling her. “Especially to you. I was a colossal idiot.”
“You’re still an idiot,” Cylia hit him against his back. “Now, let’s return before the sun cooks us alive, especially me.”
“Not like there’s much to cook anyway,” remarked Xander with a sly grin. He dodged Cylia’s attempt to kick his shin. His mood sobered up. “It’s too bad we walked so far away because of me. I feel even worse now.”
Cylia shared a glance with Kiur. “You say it.”
“Why me?” Protested Kiur but gave in, regardless. “Fine, Xander, to be honest with you… You walked in circles.”
Xander laughed at this. “Come on, stop joking.” They were not joking. “You are lying, aren’t you?” Seeing as neither of the two dropped the act, Xander’s eyes widened. “You can’t be for real.”
Oh, they were real.
In not even five minutes of casual walking, they were back at the oasis. Xander learned true humility. Seeing his own footprints in the sand, he wanted to bury his head and hide himself from the world.
“Oh. My. GOSH! I feel stupid!”
“As you should.”
“Both of you, stop it. I hate being the reasonable one here,” Kiur let out another deep sigh, holding the bridge of his nose of his ever so sleep-deprived face. The sun was rising, and they all needed some proper rest.
Entering the cool areas of the oasis, Kiur nestled himself on his makeshift bed, right below one of the palm trees. It was calm and silent, except for the occasional rustling of the leaves. He was so tired he could immediately fall asleep, but resisted the urge.
It was the last thing he could imagine doing. Every time he was about to close his eyes and doze off, he would be reminded of his brother. His eyelids transformed into a dark and red desert where Archil stood with outspread arms, waiting with a blue flame dancing in his chest.
“I will do better, brother. Believe me,” whispered Kiur to his brother before he finally fell asleep to an irritating slumber and repeated the same words over and over for Xander and Cylia to hear on the other side of the tree.
It didn’t last for long.
Amidst the drifting of the morning wind and warm breeze, the calmness shattered. They woke up to the cries of people and the sound of an arrow flashing past their tired eyes.
The sharp arrow tip pierced through the palm tree and embedded itself into the solid rock walls behind them. There was no moment to rest as the next trouble had arrived before them.