Beck noticed a beam of light up above.

Before, swimming through his core had almost been an exercise in futility, but now, he moved almost at the speed of thought. Within moments, he was at the breach, and could see a bright blue sky above him. He jammed his hands into the crack, trying to pull them apart, but had no luck.

Then he had an idea. The water around him churned, before a cone of the thick fluid slammed into the crevice and started to cut away at the stone above. It was slow going, but after what felt like days, he had cut a hole large enough to climb through.

As he pulled himself out, though, the water followed. Shortly after climbing through the hole and onto the steady ground he was used to, the hole behind him exploded, a geyser pushing its way through the earth. Once he recovered, he could only stare as the breach opened ever wider, until it was hidden from sight by the sheer amount of liquid.

Eventually, the water calmed, and where once there was a hole, there now sat a lake. Beck felt a pressure he had never noticed lift from his shoulders; when he pulled at the fluid before him, he could feel it moving more quickly than before. He returned it to the pool, then looked to the horizon. There was nothing around but sand and stone other than the new body of water.

With a shrug, Beck pulled back from his inner world to find daylight streaming through the flaps of his tent. Almost as soon as he sat up, Kenna popped her head in, dressed once more in her usual armor. "Oh, hey, you're up. Take your tent down, we're leaving in an hour." And just like that, she was gone again.

He sighed and got to work, pulling on his clothes and bundling up the rest. His Scorchhorn bundle was rolled into the bedroll, as was his other set of clothes. The tarp composing the body of the tent was similarly rolled up, with the poles that held it up being wrapped at the center.

Once everything was packed, a few of the Kode whose tents had been nearby helped him to heft the bundles onto a lobster. They all climbed on shortly after, using the beast's tail as a ramp, and began to tie the cargo to its shell. Beck took the ends of the ropes from one end and ran them under its glassy belly to hand to the waiting hands above.

Soon, all was ready, and the young man climbed aboard with the others. With everyone seated, the man seated nearest the lobster's head took hold of it's whiskers, at which point the massive crustacean began scuttling forward. Over the next few hours, the desert plains went by quickly, broken only by plateaus and rocky outcroppings.

At one point, they crossed where the dirt turned to sand, the furthest east Beck had ever been, though that wasn't saying much. It wasn't altogether that much different from back home, though there was even less vegetation and the sand was brighter than the dirt. Everything was still just as dusty.

At one point, he was able to make out a Gnomish Sandcrawler. The moving fortress crested a dune, before its front fell after it passed the peak. It reminded him of a ship cresting a wave, one of the illustrations he had seen in a picture book as a child. That memory was short-lived, though, as the reality of the behemoth's presence sunk in.

Beck saw the looks the other Kode on the lobster were giving the thing. He could imagine what they were thinking, because it was exactly what he was thinking. The only difference being that he had only heard the stories; they had likely lived it. We can only hope they don't see us.

The contraptions the Sand Gnomes rode could outrun any beast in the Rusts, save maybe the winged ones. If a raiding party were to attack, they wouldn't be able to lose them; their only choice would be to fight. And fighting the Gnomes was a losing proposition to begin with.

Thankfully, though, they were able to evade notice. The Sandcrawler was going in another direction, and no raiders troubled them. The plains disappeared behind them, and the sand beneath once more shifted to bare rock as plateaus grew up around them.

As the sun began to set below the mountains far to the west, the Kode and their lobsters climbed one of the higher plateaus in a clockwise direction. As they rounded the edge, Beck realized that they were not, in fact, headed for the top; the landform was solid rock for half of its length, but the other half was hollow. Two quarters of its height, one above and one below, were still solid; the unmarked stone pillars supporting the top caused it to look like a dragon's mouth, assuming the dragon was missing more than a few teeth.

The lobsters filed in through the nearest gap, and by the time Beck's group had made it inside, there were already a number of people setting up. The wind howled through the spaces in the teeth, though it quieted the further in they went.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

----------------------------------------

That night, as Beck lay down to sleep, the hollow was filled with the sound of beating wings. As he crawled from his small tent, he could barely make out the flapping silhouettes of gigantic bats thanks to the firelight. Aside from the beat of their wings, though, they made no sound.

He watched them settle, with much smaller shapes moving around above them. Some floated from place to place, while others threw lines to and fro. Standing there, beneath the blur of activity above, he wondered why he was the only one that had come out.

Beck jumped when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. His attention returned to the ground, specifically the man standing just to his right. Zephyr. The older man was staring up at the blur just as he had been, a strange expression on his face.

Not long after his arrival, the activity above had died down. Poles of metal and wood were visible now, the bats hanging from their hooked bottoms. Canvas floors stretched from the hooks as well, light bleeding through for a short time as their occupants finished setting up their camp. Soon, the ceiling was dark once more.

Finally, after the last light was extinguished, Zephyr spoke. "My old tribe. The Wheya." The 'whe' sound was more a rush of air than any spoken word. "It's been years since we last crossed paths. I doubt this is a coincidence."

Beck began to ask a question, but Zephyr simply shook his head. "There will be a meeting of the tribes tomorrow. For now, get some rest." He nodded, and the old man stalked back to his tent.

He didn't sleep well that night, either. Uncertainty for the future mixed with his grief, even with his goal cemented in his heart. He had his goal, but that didn't change what had happened, and a new factor had just been introduced. He hadn't even thought of other tribes' existence for years.

He'd discounted them as something he would never encounter, despite their nomadic nature. He hadn't even taken the time to learn the other tribes' names. Another gap in his knowledge he would need to fix. Those were showing up alarmingly often.

Even with everything going on in his mind, though, he eventually succumbed to sleep.

----------------------------------------

That morning, the respective chiefs met, goods were traded, and they confirmed that they would tolerate each other's presence. Fairly standard as things went with the Wheya, from what Beck had gathered. They didn't need to compete with anyone for places to set up or territory, thanks to their aerial lifestyle.

Afterwards, there wasn't too much interaction between the tribes. A few of the Wheya descended, some of the older members coming to speak with Zephyr, and other, younger tribespeople simply seeing what the other tribe had to offer.

At some point, it was mentioned that both tribes would be heading to a nearby town the next day, though for different reasons. The Kode would be trading for water before they moved on, as their supply was starting to run low and Beck was far from the milestone. Conversely, the Wheya would be staying in the area for a short while, offering their services to the towns in the area in exchange for water and coin.

During lunch, Kenna came to find him. Her armor had been expanded since the hunt, her greaves expanded into armored leggings and her skirt having gone from leather set with plates of shell to shell tassets in the shape of a skirt.

She ate with him, and once they had finished their meal, she dragged him off to the crafting tent to give him a "surprise." It turned out to be a breastplate, similar in construction to her own, made up of a solid plate to cover the chest, while a number of concentric rings of shell extended downwards to rest on his hips. It was surprisingly light for it's size, though it was still an extra ten or so pounds.

After Kenna helped him to cinch the armor together, he took a moment just to get used to the feeling. His arms and legs were still unencumbered, so his range of motion was almost completely unimpeded; only when he bent too far forward or back at the hip or the stomach did the armor get in the way. He turned back to Kenna, who was watching with an appraising eye.

"You like it?" He nodded. "Good. You'll be joining our sparring sessions today." Before he could even ask why, the large woman had already taken him by the hand and was once more dragging him away.

Their destination was an area close to the pillars, where P'tah and Ætan were currently wrestling in full kit, minus their picks, which seemed to have been thrown aside. Chief Kennet was standing off to the side, calling encouragement and correcting the boys form. Soon after the pair joined him, P'tah slipped his foot behind Ætan's heel and pushed, causing the two to go down in a tumble. As soon as they hit the ground, P'tah trapped his friend's arms beneath his weight and drew what looked to be a training knife. The blunt blade dragged lightly across Ætan's throat, and with a sigh, he ceased struggling.

P'tah helped the other young man up, and the pair turned to face the Chief. When they noticed Beck and Kenna standing there, they picked up their weapons and walked to his other side without a word. Kennet looked to Beck and Kenna.

He motioned to his daughter, whose face turned up in an all too familiar grin. Before he could object to whatever they were doing, Kenna pushed him into the rough circle that had been scratched into the stone. The big man followed, seeming to take up the entire space all at once.

Beck started to shrink back before the Chief spoke. "What kind of combat Skills do you have, son? And at what levels?"

It took a second to register that he was being spoken to, but he managed to get the words out without stumbling over himself. "[Knifework], [Pugilism], and [Longarms], sir. [Knifework] recently reached level two, while the others are still level one." Beck straightened as he spoke, though the cool regard of the tribe's patriarch sent shivers down his spine.

Kennet's mouth twitched up, the slight smile driving the chill from his face. "Well, you're in luck then. I used to be quite the brawler when I was younger." As the man's hands curled to fists, one held out while the other stayed close to the chest, and one foot advanced slightly ahead of the other, Beck realized what they were planning here.

When the fist impacted his armor, he knew for a fact that he wasn't going to like it.