"What the fuck were you thinking!?" Smolder roared, causing Rose to flinch as she was stitching my wounds.

"Smolder! Lower your damn voice, you scared the shit out of Rose- OW!" I cried as Rose then hit me on the head too.

"Don't, I'm fine." She said sternly to me as she carefully sewed in more stitches, causing me to hiss in pain.

"I can see Rose is also pissed at you." Smolder snorted.

"I already told you, I would've died, by doing this I bought some time."

"Right... we still have to sneak past the other dragon's, before dumping you in the middle of the desert since I can't take you so close to the den."

"Right, then we go to Sunset's Watch and-"

"I'm not going River, I already told you that."

"But Rose..."

"I know... but I like it here, believe it or not. Smolder may not be a human but he is good company, better company than my own people."

"Rose, you cried because you thought you I would die, clearly you're isolated and-"

"If I went back, I'd be under someone's thumb again, just like last time when I was almost married off to a husband who would 'calm me down' in his words, I didn't want a boring life in a boring village, and how is it ever boring here?"

"Rose, the thrill of it is going to kill you, physically and mentally, you've been away from humans so long, someone to talk to, I can't imagine how lonely-"

"River... please stop..."

I sighed and clenched my fists. "Will you at least... join me on Smolder when we say goodbye?"

"Of course River." She said as she went to embrace me tightly.

"I hope we meet again... and I hope you change your mind before we land..."

"I know... I won't change my mind, but... I'll miss you too, Teardrop."

***

It felt nice, but also scorching hot as Smolder flew us across the desert before finally finding a nice spot to land, there were no cactus and the place had some relative shade from the nearby dunes.

"I now see why this 'Sunset's Watch' den is in no danger of dragon attacks." Smolder said as he looked grimly in front of us.

"Why?" I asked him.

"Titanoboas." Rose suddenly spoke up.

"What's a titanoboa?" I asked Rose but Smolder asked.

"That's a fancy name, we just call them dragonbite vipers." Smolder said, slowly catching on to Rose's words, he didn't know much but I had managed to teach him some of Common.

"So... it's a snake?"

"Thee snake, be very careful River, you didn't just go through this much just to die of a giant snake." Rose patted me on the shoulder.

"Oh, they're giant snakes, how lovely." I muttered.

"They can kill a dragon in one bite as well." Smolder said.

"How fortunate." I rolled my eyes before slowly setting foot on the sand. I turned back to Rose. "Are you sure this is what you want, to stay in that prison?"

"That prison is my home."

I sighed, before wrapping her into one last hug before starting to walk away, wiping the few tears that left my eyes.

"River, you almost forgot th-grrr." I looked back only to see Smolder tossed the small jewel, barely allowing me to catch it on time and put it in my pouch, his speech returning to his normal growls since they weren't translated anymore.

"Thanks guys, I won't forget you!" I called back out to them as they both gave me a wave, before Smolder took flight, sending a small cloud of sand to be sent my way. I let out a small chuckle as I looked at my new clothes that I had gotten from Pyro's body, the goggles being especially useful as I made my way through the desert, a day's walk and maybe, I'll have more answers and not more questions.

***

It had been what, six hours? Or it could have only been fifteen minutes, either way, I was exhausted as I continued to march my way through the sand, my body was slouches as I move, I could feel as the boomstick and the metal rod bounced against my back, if someone looked at me from afar they probably think I'd keel over and die any second now, but my eyes were alert as ever. Up down right left repeat, looking for any sign of anything moving, whether a small lizard, or a big one with wings ready to pounce on me, I had no friends here, the desert was not kind to the weak, and I had already lost an arm.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I gagged as I my nostrils then sucked in a foul smell, causing me to fall and gasp before I managed to return to my senses and closed my nose with my one hand as I breathed, I had smelt that before when I was given that dead deer to feed on, something was dead, hopefully whatever killed it wasn't still here. But as I got closer, the smell got stronger despite my nose being plugged, and I could hear the sound of squelching and tearing, followed by a low hissing noise. I finally climbed up the dune and looked down where I saw it.

A giant snake wouldn't do it justice, the thing was massive, it could probably swallow a horse in just one bite of its fangs that looked as if crystal shards, it was colorful with green and red, not afraid to hide in the desert, why would it need to? These things were the true rulers of the desert, not the dragons, the vipers.

As I noticed the brown string-like pattern seeming to wrap around the serpent, I noticed the victim, a large sand dragon the size of Smolder, it's ribs exposed with the large intestines spilling out of the belly, letting the viper feast and enjoy it's meal.

I took a step back, there was no sound, yet the viper whipped its head in my direction and raised itself to look at me, like a tree about to fall. I stayed stuck in place as I quickly fiddled with the boomstick, pushing the metal ball down the barrel with the rod before using my stumped arm to try and hold it as I got ready to aim, all the while the snake got closer, readying to devour me.

"Shit!" I muttered as I dropped the weapon.

By the time I had grabbed the boomstick and looked back up, it was mere inches away from my face... waiting for my next move as it looked at me with those cold and yellow eyes.

We stared at each other for ten seconds before it suddenly reeled back. I noticed now that the brown pattern I had seen earlier weren't part of the creature's scales, they were straps, manmade.

"You're a long way from home, Pyro."

I looked at the snake head and on top was a woman clad in desert cloth like mine, concealing her face with a mask and a hood and her eyes with goggles.

"I'm not Pyro!" I shout up to her, dropping the weapon with my hands up. "My name is River!"

There was silence for a bit before she suddenly pulled her mask off and picked some type of cylinder up with lots of holes before bringing it to her lips. What followed was a mix of bright and ethereal sounds as if the instrument was singing itself, causing the hissing serpent to lower its head to the floor and letting the women dismount.

"Where's Pyro, why are you wearing his clothes?" She demanded as she started to walk towards me.

"Pyro's dead, he was killed by a dragon. She liked how different he looked and kept his corpse as a trophy. I took his clothes when I escaped."

"You were in the sand dragon's palace?" She asked with skepticism.

"I got sold there, yeah." I said as I turned to show my arm, or lack of.

"Damn, what'd you do to piss her off?"

"I blew her up, and the bitch still lives." I then noticed that where her skin was showing without her mask, she was definitely more tan but Pyro's and I skin tone. "Wait a minute, are you-"

"Yeah, I'm a teardrop, welcome to the festival pal." She promptly grabbed my arm and started taking me to the large snake. "Come on, Scorpion's gonna have a lot of questions for you."

"And I'll answer the best I can, provided you can too."

"Yeah, I'll give you your answers, kid." She said while dragging me, but I stopped as the snake looked back at me, freezing in place. "Kid, come on, I don't have time for this!"

"You really expect me to climb on the back of a titanoboa!?" I asked, flinching as the giant serpent then hissed and bared its crystal fangs.

"How dare you! Titanoboas aren't venomous, at least get your snakes right." She huffed as she tugged once more, her strength overpowering my own as she dragged me closer to the annoyed snake, it hissed at us ,then made a softer hiss to her. "Yeah, I don't like him much either." She muttered back to the snake before stroking it as she helped get on, albeit roughly.

"So what is she?" I ask as I nervously sit behind her on the saddle, hooking my legs around the straps and hanging tightly on the hoops in front of me.

"We like to call them Basilisks, or Great Serpents, but they are the children of the desert, and we shall respect them." She explained but noticed I had looked anywhere but the dragon corpse.

"Are you a clairvoyant, or a reader?" She asked.

"A what?" I responded.

"Do you seriously not know, I thought Pyro would've-"

"He was dead long before I got there... I'm sorry... and this teardrop stuff, I'm new at this, but if it helps, I think I can see the future."

"So you're a clairvoyant, teardrops are born in two variants, you're either clairvoyant, like Pyro, or a reader like me."

"Which means?"

"I can read minds." She then whistled a high and low tune, causing the basilisk to slither forward.

"Oh... I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it, I can turn it off whenever I want."

"Wait, does that mean you can talk to d-"

"Animals? No, though I can feel what they're feeling, whether it's pain or frustration or curiosity."

"How many of us are there?"

She snickers, "That's a great question, five as of now, me, you, Scorpion, and Pebble."

"Who's the fifth?"

She growls. "Midas, surely you've heard of him,"

"No, I don't think-"

"The Invincible Lord?"

"Wait, he's a teardrop too!?"

"Yeah, he used to work with my dad."

"Is your dad a teardrop too?"

"He was..."

I knew what that meant and kept my mouth shut.

"Smart choice." She mused as she whistled another tune to get the snake to go right.

"So, how does it work?"

"I'll let Pebble explain that, he's good with that stuff."

"I see..."

"If you really don't know anything then there's a lot for you to catch up on, the artifacts, our powers, our-"

"Origins?" I ask, she went completely silent before shaking her head.

''We don't talk about where we come from, where we come from, what we did for the greater good, for a damn prophecy that pyro got himself killed for." She murmured loud enough to hear. ''I wonder though, since you're now the only clairvoyant, what's it like knowing what's gonna happen next."

"I've only had a few visions, they aren't that clear and they can change.''

"So it isn't set in stone, huh? Bummer."

"Why say that?"

"If we can't get it as a definitive answer, how are we supposed to prepare?"

"But if a bad fate is locked in, isn't it good that we can still change the outcome?"

"I guess." She said before letting out a sharp and shrill whistle. "We're here." she announced as she motioned to the gigantic adobe gates ahead. "Welcome to Sunset's Watch."