Liz took Dere’s hand, she smiled. Even if they had just been expelled from the village, they were far from hopeless. After all, Iso and her had been wandering the continent for years now.

The trio continued walking through the wooden runways of the village, just like this morning. But this time the atmosphere was different. Even if the villagers didn’t know that they had been expelled, they were aware of the fight that took place less than an hour ago.

She saw how the two divers turned their heads when they saw her. The women shutted the windows at their sight. The mothers grabbed their kids, preventing them from getting close to them.

Dere hated it, she knew why they did this. She knew they had brought danger to the village. She knew they were just trying to protect themselves. But she still hated them, but it didn’t matter how much she hated it, it never stopped happening.

“Where are you going?” A man asked them before they could leave the village.

“Cole has expelled us from the village, Gale.” Dere answered.

“What!?” Gale replied, astonished. “I expect him to scold you because of the atack, but to think he would expel you, just like that…”

“We put the whole village in danger.” Dere sarcastically said, gesticulating with her hands

“He might have a point.” Iso said. “We knew we shouldn’t have stayed this long, yet we did anyways…”

“But… he shouldn’t…” Gale tried to think of an answer, he was also aware of the situation they were in. He knew the danger they brought to the village, and so, he couldn’t help but accept Cole’s resolution. “I… see…”

“We are leaving now, if we are lucky, we will arrive at The Oasis in two weeks.” Dere Said, resuming her step.

“Wait!” Gale yelled. “Even if I can’t stop you from leaving, I can at least help you on your journey.”

“But, you can’t leave the village now…” Iso replied.

“I know, but because of that, I won't need this anymore.” He said before rushing back into his house.

Some minutes later, Gale emerged from inside dragging a large wooden sledge with him.

Liz's eyes opened when she saw him, not because of the sledge, but because of the strange creature he was holding in his arms.

“I used to use this to trade with The Oasis, but now that Katniss is dead, I won’t need it anymore.” He explained.

“Are you giving it to us?” Dere asked, confused. Gale nodded his head as he handed her the strange brown creature. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Dere exclaimed, as she jumped on the spot.

“I should be the one thanking, if it wasn't for you, I would still believe that Katniss was alive, trapped in the depths of the forest…” He said, as he reached for the pendant he kept in his pocket. “Now I can at least try to move on.”

Shortly after, the trio reached the edge of the village. There, Iso strapped the brown creature to the sledge and placed it on the ground. Once its paws touched the sand, it rapidly burrowed itself completely in the sand.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Iso sat in front of the sledge, and there sat in the back, signalling Liz to sit next to her.

“What is that thing anyways?” She asked once the sledge began gliding through the sand.

“It's an infant sandworm.” Iso answered. “A monster tamed to pull this kind of sled through the northern desert.”

“Yes, even if it's really small, it can still move really fast through the sand, so we should reach The Oasis in less than 4 days.” Dere said, excited.

“People can tame… monsters?” Liz asked, intrigued by the possibility.

“Yes, although usually only low level monsters are tamed. But sometimes you hear stories of people taming brown megalodons, or even dragons.” Iso explained.

“Why don’t tame high level monsters, they would make better work?” Liz questioned him again.

“Because of their strength, it's said that only one out of every three taming attempts is successful.” Dere said. “Just imagine trying to mount a stone drake and getting your hand bitten off instead…”

“That makes sense.” Liz said, losing interest in the matter. This explains why we didn’t try to tame monsters back in my world. It would be much easier to enslave someone or create a golem…

The following hours continued without incidents, Iso kept guiding the sledge through the endless sand desert while Dere and Liz waited at the back. Dere’s boredom was quite noticeable, she was cleaning the surface of her dagger for the seventh time just to distract herself with something.

Liz was sitting with her eyes closed, focusing on the mana that surrounded her. Some hours ago, she had created a thin layer of mana over the sledge, protecting them from the scorching light that came from the sky.

She finally understood how this desert worked, her mana informed her of the characteristics of the sand beneath her. She realised that the desert was composed of the “solid” sand and the “sea”.

The first one was the normal sand, mostly solid and a reliable foundation for small buildings. The “sea” however, was like a watery quicksand that could reach a hundred metres deep.

She felt how several creatures swam in the depths of the sea of sand. How their body twisted to propel them forward, how the mana that surrounded them condensed, just to be expanded again.

How interest-

“Lise, let's play a game!” Dere said.

“A game?” Liz was slightly annoyed, she even lost her focus on the mana coverage, causing it to lose cohesion, which meant she had to pour some more mana on it. “What kind of game?”

“Uhhhh…” Dere tried to think of a game to play. “Honestly, I don’t know, I just want something to do…”

“...I see…” Liz thought for a moment, then a small ball of mana appeared in her hand. “Catch.”

“Huh?” Dere caught the ball of mana just before it fell off the sledge. “Haha, why not!”

She passed the ball back towards Liz, as they both began throwing the ball at each other. Of course, it fell off the sledge several times, mainly because Liz didn’t manage to catch it, but she simply made the ball fly back to them.

“I’m surprised you can maintain your spells for this long, you must have a great mana pool!” Dere said, after almost an hour of play.

“Not really… Don’t consume much… Once created…” Liz explained.

“You mean you don’t have to spend mana to maintain the spell!?” Iso screamed, astonished.

“No… It's just a… mana construct…” Liz replied.

“Is that that impressive?” Dere asked.

“Yes, it's like my barrier spell, I can maintain the barrier for a long time, but it would lose mana every second.” Iso explained. “If I wanted to create a permanent barrier, I’d have to keep supplying mana to it.”

“So… Lise is a magic prodigy?” Dere asked.

“More like…” Iso tried to think of the best words to describe it. “Her magic is completely different from the one I, and everybody else, use.”

“Really!?” Dere got up on the sledge and turned towards Liz. “How did you learn to do magic like this!? Can you teach us? Pleaseeee.”

Liz stared at Dere slightly annoyed, she wouldn’t mind teaching them some basic spells, but there was a big problem. “I… Can’t do normal magic…”

“Why?” she inquired.

“Cursed.” Liz lied.

As if a bucket of cold water was thrown over her, Dere’s enthusiasm rapidly disappeared. She easily understood what the girl told her.

“You’ve been cursed because of your magic, huh?” She sat down next to her, trying to comfort her. “Don’t worry, we are all cursed here.”

Liz looked at her, her face covered in a thin layer of sorrow, as if she was remembering some sad memories of her past. “Thank you.” She said, letting her face rest on Dere’s shoulder. Even if she wasn’t particularly sad about her inability to use normal magic, deep inside, she liked feeling that someone cared.