“City life is great. I’m all for the nice outdoors, but home is where my stuff is.”~Unknown Recluse

Bernin woke up from a stress dream. She supposed she should be happy that the dream ended before it turned into a full nightmare, but her grogginess spoke more of frustration. The deck hand seemed apologetic though and she quickly assured him it was just fine. It wouldn't do to take her frustration out on the help. Unless that deckhand was a hidden sorcerer and specialised into dream magic he likely had nothing to do with her dream…maybe she should keep an eye out just in case.

By the time she was back on the deck she felt a lot better. Her paranoia insisted there was some secret mage out there, but she knew better. While she had been targeted before, that was usually done after identifying herself to the wizard she was supposed to be auditing. She fondly remembered some of them, especially the idiot who actually believed she was staying at the hotel she told them about. The look on his face after she showed up, with backup, was priceless. The only sour taste from that story was that the hotel wasn’t empty. He had killed 20 innocents just to try and take her out.

They had travelled through the desert for a while longer when the edge came into view. She could see the field of grass in the distance, the unnatural end of the desert coming fully into view with every second that passed. The area around the edge was usually well kept to allow travellers to see exactly where the desert began. Some say that even a scant few seconds of the desert without protection could leave a permanent mark on a person. Although, it would only be visible on a much larger dose or given a few years to fester.

The desert had been a mystery to her over the years. She knew the most common theories and had for a project even created her own. Although her theory back then left a lot to the imagination. “It was the fairies” wasn’t that solid of a theory after all, especially since the fey were even more affected than the people of the physical realm.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Eventually the sun-boat stopped and she got out. She had to wait inside for a while longer as they hadn’t finished unloading the baggage, but it wasn’t that bad this time. After all, there were only a few passengers on this boat. Who would go to the untamed north on a sun-boat after all. Walking outside she took in the grass fields. It stretched for a full mile, but in the distance she could already see the dense forest that told her exactly where the untamed part of the untamed wilds began.

She had been mostly focussed on the mages in question, but the wilds offered their own challenge. She had thought of her own transportation, mainly her new expensive walking boots and insect repelling coat. She had originally thought to bring her broom, but after seeking some advice had found out that some denizens of the forest had remarkably good aim. Better to seek cover than being an easy target. Still, she hadn’t expected the forest to be this dense. She could barely make out something other than bark. She walked around the sun-rider compound until she got to a nice enough bench and took out her packet again. Time to check the directions.

“Shit. This might be problematic.”

Bernin had known that the packet didn’t contain directions, in the standard sense. Normally all that was required was the name of the village, but in the wilds villages fell and rose at such a pace that maps weren’t really all that useful. Instead she had been given coordinates. She had taken her magical compass and set the dials for the first village when it gave her the reading ‘Out of range’.

She knew to go north of course, but it might be better to ask around. The compound was on the edge of what was technically a city, due to the magical walls, but more realistically a small village. She headed to one of the larger buildings, the inn. It would be the place for travellers to meet and the proprietor might even know that village she was talking about. Though she didn’t relish having to ask where the village known as ‘Rock and hard place’ was located.