Zalia sat waiting, warming her hands by the fire as the short woman opposite her still stood, spear at the ready.
“How’d you get up here?” the woman asked, having ignored Zalia’s earlier question.
“Walking, as I’ve said,” Zalia repeated.
“Well, that’s real funny considering I’ve been stuck up here for two days due to the sand wyrms buried beneath the sand all around this rock,” the woman said, glaring suspiciously at her.
“They must not have sensed me, I am quite stealthy,” Zalia replied, pretending she had any idea what a sand wyrm was.
“They’ve got better sense for tremors than I do and I felt you coming,” the woman said.
“Maybe I let you,” Zalia said. She definitely hadn’t let her. She hadn't really tried to hide either.
“Where do you think you’re going,” Zalia said to Boreal, sensing she had begun moving away.
“... Sand wyrm tasty?” Boreal asked.
“Seriously? now? We can find out later,” Zalia reprimanded.
The woman was still standing with weapon ready.
“Look, if I wanted to harm you I wouldn’t have walked up to you to do it. I’ve just not seen another human in… a little while and wanted to see what the people that lived in the desert are like. This is the desert to the south of Endaria right?” Zalia explained.
“Well, we don’t appear by a strangers campfire in the middle of the night and most definitely do not appreciate you Endarians coming into our desert,” the woman said.
She did let down her guard, just a little. Zalia also didn’t miss that she had answered her question, indirectly.
“Well, I’m not Endarian if it helps. I suppose my approach was a little bit... untactful,” Zalia admitted.
“Just a bit,” the woman replied, letting out a tiny bit of a laugh. More of a sharp exhale really.
“So, what do I have to do to get your name?” Zalia asked.
“Tell me the truth for a start,” the woman said.
“Fine, fine. I flew here, I’ve got some magic that lets me fly. I’ve got no idea what a sand wyrm is either,” Zalia admitted.
She really did suck at lying.
“Better. I’m Sazcha, you?” Sazcha asked.
“Zalia and my friend is Boreal,” Zalia said.
“Friend?” Sazcha asked in confusion.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Come out Boreal,” Zalia called.
Boreal melded out of the shadows, padding up to sit beside Zalia. Sazcha’s somewhat relaxed posture when straight back to guarded.
“Boreal is my friend, no need to be worried. She’s quite harmless,” Zalia said.
“She certainly doesn’t look like she’s harmless,” Sazcha said.
“Looks can be deceiving. She would only ever attack you if she wanted to eat you and she doesn’t eat people. I think? Besides, she is way more interested in eating the sand wyrms you mentioned at the moment. Do they taste good, do you know?” Zalia asked.
Boreal opened her mouth slightly like she was ready to sprint down the rock towards the sands to try the wyrms immediately.
“Not the best but they are good enough. The bigger ones taste better, though much harder to kill. So, what exactly are you doing out here then?” Sazcha asked.
She was less guarded and more wary now, eyeing Boreal like she was expecting an attack. To be fair, Boreal had grown quite menacing in their time away.
“Well, I’m just back from a bit of an adventure, heading back to Endaria to see if any of my friends died while I was away. Heard any news from there, demon invasions, the dead coming to life, that kind of thing?” Zalia asked in kind.
Sazcha looked at her a little oddly.
“Where did you go on an adventure to have not heard the news?” she asked.
“A whole new world,” Zalia said sarcastically, though it was closer to reality than she let on. Tried to let on, at least.
“Well, it must’ve been far off in the world. Yes, there have been people fleeing Endaria into the desert, which is incredibly annoying. They tell tales of war, corruption, monsters and death.
Zalia’s heart sank.
“How bad?” she asked in a whisper. Today was just getting worse and worse.
“There are still fights warring across the whole kingdom from what the few refugees I’ve seen say. While people all tell different stories, one part seems to stay the same. Beams of light blasting into the sky and moments later, they all came crashing down causing explosions. Some caused massive damage, from others came monsters and yet others caused the surroundings to wither and die, the air becoming toxic. If you’ve friends in Endaria, you have good cause to be worried for them at this time,” Sazcha explained, her voice a little softer having caught on to Zalia’s very visible misery.
“I didn’t stop it then,” Zalia said quietly.
She had spent weeks, months even, in Cormaine. She had made that sacrifice to stop this very thing from happening. Maybe she had lessened the impact but she had not done enough.
She suddenly had a million questions flood her mind. She had thought Zen would have been safe in Ember’s capable healer hands but what if the ritual had caused an explosion and killed them. Worse yet, the corruption or some of the creatures from Cormaine coming over. Was the Hidden now free from influence with Juniper out of the picture? Was General Faian and the rebellion one of the groups of people still fighting a war?
All the troubles she had put aside when she had gone to Cormaine came back to her now, layering on top of everything she had already experienced as of late.
“Thank you for telling me,” Zalia added.
Sazcha shrugged.
“Not like it wasn’t something you’d have found out soon enough anyways,” she said.
Zalia stood up.
“I have to go, every moment counts. It was nice meeting you Sazcha, maybe I’ll come back and find you one day when this is over. I’d love to see more of the desert you call home,” she said, gently patting Boreal.
“And you… kind of. Hey before you go, could you um… give me a lift off this rock?” Sazcha asked.
“Oh, right. Yeah of course,” Zalia agreed.
She gave Sazcha a lift some distance to the west, past where she thought the sand wyrms to be waiting. Waving her a farewell, Zalia and Boreal flew with haste towards Endaria, a two day trip by Sazcha’s estimate.
She had friends to save.