Kiur woke up from his dream because of an earthquake shaking the ruins. He hoisted himself up and ducked away when a stone came loose and fell next to him.

Next to him, Cylia was sleeping whilst sitting—unbothered by the shaking. Her raven black hair covered her face like a curtain. “Wake up, Cylia!”

“I DIDN’T EAT IT!” Cylia shout out in a panic and noticed Kiur’s hand on her arm. She quickly pulled away before gathering herself on the realisation he was awake. “Kiur, are you alright? You were out for–”

“This isn’t the time for this. What is this earthquake?”

It took some time for Cylia to notice the shaking but when she did it hit her head—literally.

“We have to get out of here, fast.”

The two escaped the collapsing ruins and were met by a rising white cloud in the distance that was approaching their destination, fast.

“Don’t tell me.” They didn’t need to voice it out loud, they knew what was coming. “Cylia… Where are the golems?”

“... that way.”

The horse golems were set on standby and patiently waiting for their masters to return while observing the danger approaching them. Thankfully they were not real horses or else they would have already bolted.

“We need to find Xander, he went somewhere to explore the ruins.” Cylia on her golem leapt over the stone ruins and they went on their search for Xander.

What they didn’t expect was the Reiszer coming to them with Xander sitting on horseback with one of them.

“Xander!?”

“Hey guys, how are you?” He waved at them nervously. “We kinda have a situation at hand.”

“What are you doing alongside them?” Cylia exclaimed in outrage and keep clear with her golem as they all fled in the same direction towards the Achernar

“We have more pressing matters to deal with,” Jorunn came closer with her horse but Kiur and Cylia backed away. “I suggest we call a truce until we can shake off the Asag—alongside the Scorpion People that will surely get attracted by this commotion. What are you saying? It would benefit us both.”

Jorunn extended a hand but Kiur and Cylia exchanged uneasy looks with one another. They knew they couldn’t trust her since she was the enemy they were escaping from.

Kiur was taken from his home and his brother remained behind to keep the Reiszer Elite Tomoe at bay. Cylia and her mother were enslaved, and she hadn’t seen her for years.

She wasn’t sure if she was alive at this point.

“We should trust her, not like we have a different choice,” urged Xander. “It’s our best bet.”

Everything inside Cylia rebelled against the idea to trust the Reiszer. It was simply a horrible idea.

So when she saw Kiur relenting and extending a hand she galloped in between and slapped Jorunn’s hand away.

“Never, we won’t trust you!” Cylia cried out with venom in her voice. “Xander, you are a traitor! How could you have gone over to the enemy?”

“What are you saying? I am not–” before Xander could explain himself the Asag charged at them and brought the entire desert with it.

The cloud of dust swept over them like a storm and they heard arrows sizzling over their heads.

Cylia grabbed Kiur by the arm and led his golem to run in a different direction. “Cylia, what are you doing?”

“Keeping us safe.”

“What about–”

“Forget him! He chose his side,” Cylia yelled. Kiur didn’t understand what happened to Cylia to abandon Xander like that when she was worried about his safety not long ago.

“Follow them!” Jorunn commanded and the Reiszer left the dust cloud behind with the Asag tailing right behind them. “Don’t lose track of the local. Do whatever you must stay close to him. We must capture him at all costs!”

Xander’s eyes widened. He sat up on top of the horse and pushed the head down from the Reiszer he was riding with. “This isn’t what we agreed on! You said we would collaborate to survive. You promised–”

“Keep talking and we will leave you with the Asag,” Jorunn warned and signalled for the Reiszer to take down Xander at a moment’s notice. “I said we would collaborate on surviving the Asag as long as the local cooperates. Seeing how that girl ruined the arrangement you should be grateful we are keeping you around.”

Xander gnashed with his teeth and failed in keeping himself in a reasonable position with the Reiszer.

He thought it would be easy to convince Kiur to work with them together and increase their chances of escaping the Asag. Jorunn seemed reasonable for a Reiszer and Kiur knew what was good for them.

It was to the benefit of them all.

Yet Cylia had discarded that option. Because of what? Her dislike for the Reiszer? Her mistrust? Or had Xander crossed a line he never should have with her?

“It’s my fault,” Xander cursed and remained silent. “I did it again, didn’t I?”

There was nothing he could do now except to ride with the storm.

—✹—

The warning signs for storms can be hard to read at times.

Clear skies turning dark. Sudden rain. Change of wind.

In this case, the storm came in form of burning arrows, the clicking and slashing of scorpion people, and the steam-filled roaring of an Asag.

What could a ragtag group do in such a situation? Run? Sure, that was possible but they have been doing it the entire time and options were running thin.

“Gather ‘round, keep the shields close!” Jorunn yelled and the Reiszer formed a circle. They have lost the horses to the scorpion people and were now mercilessly surrounded. “Hellien, keep the arrows at bay.”

“I do not answer to you, stop giving me orders!” Xander cried out but when a volley of arrows came from above he projected the little water that was in the air and formed a dome of hexagonal plates to intercept the attack. “I have to get to my friends, you can’t keep me here!”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Tough luck.” Jorunn deflected a rogue arrow that was aimed at Xander. “I guess none of us will get what they want with those Scorpion People around.”

Xander had to watch how Kiur and Cylia were escaping on their golems. He couldn’t blame them, the Asag was tailing after them, after Kiur, he concluded.

Something was attracting the Asag to him and there was little Xander could do but watch as the Asag threw his giant arm against Kiur and shattered his golem.

Kiur went flying and barreled through the sand until he crashed into a dune, barely clinging to his consciousness.

“Child… of the- Dead,” the Asag towered above Kiur’s figure. “Your path… return… return to End of the River–”

“Hey, ugly!” A crossbow bolt pierced between the cracks of the Asag’s stone hide. He turned to Cylia who was on horseback above a dune, reloading and aiming at the Asag. “Come and get me if you dare! You will not take him.”

“Cylia…” Kiur coughed a wat of sand out of his mouth and held his left shoulder. “Stop… what are you… Don’t do it...”

“Kiur, it’s after you, when I say run, run” Cylia smiled at Kiur full of false confidence. Then she turned to the Asag with such malice Xander thought it was almost cute. “You will not get him!”

Another shot rang from her crossbow and hit the Asag right in one of its eyes, setting him into a hollering fit. “RUN!” and Cylia charged to the right with the Asag charging right after her.

“This girl is impressive,” Jorunn admitted with a bright smile. “If she weren’t a slave she would have made a great Reiszer. I judged her wrong.”

“Judged her wrong.” Xander let his head hang. He started to regret the words he threw at her. She deserved none of them. While he had been taken by the Reiszer she was facing off against the Asag even though she stood no chance against him. “Why did I do this, why!”

Xander stomped with his foot and watched how Cylia was leading the Asag away from everyone else. Alone, she did all of this alone.

“DAMN IT!” Xander yelled and ran out of the defensive circle and charged straight into the lines of the Scorpion People.

“You idiot! What are you doing running to the–”

“Returning to my friends!” Xander yelled remorsefully. “I can’t stay with you here, I hate to get back to them!”

“Get back here before you get shot–”

Jorunn stopped shouting and watched how the Scorpion People aimed with their bows at Xander. She was sure he would be a goner but then something unimaginable happened.

The Scorpion People exchanged looks with one another and turned their bows away from Xander, aiming them right back at Jorunn and her group.

“Um-bin, or…der. Ens-ur-e- safety– 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒄢”

Their arrows shot over Xander’s head who ducked away without realising they wouldn’t hit him. He ran past the monsters who didn’t pass him a single look.

Whatever it was, Xander thought, it was an opportunity. He reached Kiur in no time and helped him up. “Hey buddy, how’s the shoulder?”

Kiur punched Xander against the shoulder in response. “Stop worrying about me, we have to help Cylia–”

“AHHH!”

The two of them heard a chorus of shouts from two different directions.

One came from Jorunn and her group as they were about to be overrun by the Scorpion People. Jorunn slew the first one that reached her until she lost her raven cloak and was fighting alone with a shield and sword in a 3 to 1 battle.

Yet the other cry they heard was far worse.

—✹—

“Cylia!” Kiur and Xander hurried over to where her cry had come from.

They found Cylia’s golem smashed to pieces—crushed underneath the Asag’s large stone–plated hand. It released a breath of steam at Cylia as it clutched her in its three-fingered palm.

“You got me, big guy,” Cylia struggled in its grasp and was unable to escape. She gave it a sneer and was not ready to give in. “What now?”

The Asag gave Cylia a blank stare. It wasn’t even bothered anymore by the fact Cylia shot out its eye and gold blood was trickling out of it. Droplets sputtered down on her forehead.

“W-ho… are- you. I cannot– see… you…”

“Let go of her!”

Releasing another breath of steam the Asag’s eyes glinted and turned in Kiur’s and Xander’s direction. It remembered why it was here in the first place.

“Dead Child,” the Asag repeated. “Reach the End of the River.”

The Asag slowly made its way to them with Cylia still struggling in its grasp.

“Cylia, just hang in there, we will get you out of there!”

“Right, don’t sacrifice yourself before–”

“ASAG!” another roar reverberated from behind them. Kiur and Xander were thrown to the side as a Scorpion Man skittered past them and bellowed in rage.

His wild black hair stormed in the wind like a typhoon. He had only one arm and one remaining claw but wielded an ebony sickle sword that filled everyone that looked upon it with dread with its cold aura.

With its one remaining dark eye and red scleras Umbin, the Scorpion Man, leapt at the Asag and slashed with his sword at the monster’s face, throwing it backwards.

The Asag released another torrent of mist and punched the ground but Umbin jumped out of the way and climbed upon the Asag’s back. His pincer clawed at the Asag’s arm and chopped with his sword right into the side of its neck while Umbin let out a guttural roar.

The sudden assault of the Scorpion Man allowed Kiur and Xander to come closer and think of a plan for how to save Cylia who was having none of it.

“I told you to run, why aren’t you running?” Cylia cried and was shaken through by the battle between the two monsters as she was still in the Asag’s grip.

“Cylia, I can’t leave you behind. No matter what. How could I?”

Cylia tried to hold back crying any more than she already did but she couldn’t. She saw Kiur’s tears and was glad to have someone who was actually worried about her.

Her first friend who truly cared for her.

But it also fueled her anger and Cylia shot a glare at Xander. “And you, why are you back? I thought you couldn’t stand me.”

“I-” Xander stammered and looked over to Kiur who gave him a confused expression since he didn’t know what she meant. “I didn’t want, I didn’t mean–”

“ARGH!” Cylia cried as the Asag launched its arm with which it held her to thrash Umbin into a large rock and destroy it. Umbin and Cylia cried out in pain but as relentless as the Asag was it punched again and again until Cylia was close to losing her lights.

“We have to get her out of there quickly!”

“I know but how?”

They anguished for a solution but there was little they could do as Cylia was caught in between two monsters set on killing one another.

Other than brute force, there wasn’t anything else to do.

When Xander noticed Kiur’s shoulders starting to burn he knew things were about to get heated.

“Stop, what are you thinking?” Xander held Kiur’s arms and turned him towards him. “Don’t think about using your magic. You have no control over it.”

Kiur’s red eyes flickered. His flames subsided from his indecision. “What about Cylia? We need to help her.”

“There is no way!” Xander cried out. “I hate this just as you do but we need to abandon Cylia or none of us will survive this!”

Wide-eyed Kiur stared at Xander, his eyes full of surprise and pain. “I can’t believe what I am hearing, how can you say that?”

“How? I don’t know,” thought Xander and dipped his head. He had to think rationally if they wished to survive this.

The situation was growing worse the more time they spent on this matter. Cylia had lost consciousness and the fight was turning into an all-out brawl.

Xander had lost all hope to save Cylia but not Kiur. He pushed Xander away and raised a hand at the Asag. “Let go of her!”

Kiur’s anger turned into a raging fire inside his heart. The earth quivered but did not heed his command. In a second Kiur went up in flames and in the next, his flames extinguished.

Xander knew exactly what it was. Kiur had burnt up all of his mana at once and was out of steam. He caught Kiur before he fell to the ground but Kiur refused to remain still.

“Stop, it’s hopeless. She is lost,” Xander tried to reason with himself and wished he could do something, anything. “If only I didn’t say anything.”

Horns blew from the distance and Xander saw the silhouettes of Reiszer, standing with their backs against the sun. One of them was raising his sword and in a flash, unleashed a shockwave that shook the desert and carved it open.

Xander and Kiur were thrown back and could do nothing but watch as the Asag, the Scorpion Man and Cylia disappeared into the abyss.

The danger had passed them but so had their friend.