Sniv pressed herself against the wall, covering her mouth; it was hard to hear anything over her thrashing heartbeat, but she needed to know if these elves were approaching. From only a faint glimpse, Sniv knew these strangers were from the northern elven nation because of their purple skin color. She couldn't tell if they had firearms or bladed weapons, but if they could traverse the desert in a boat, they certainly had magic at their disposal—and elves were exceptionally gifted in magic. No matter what, her heart refused to calm down, but she could at least determine that the strangers were approaching. Her eyes darted back to Rudd, who remained motionless on the floor.

She scanned the room for a suitable hiding spot, ultimately deciding on a nearby closet. Sniv scooped up her brother and heaved him across the room and into the small enclosed space that was barely enough to accommodate them. No matter—it didn't have to be comfortable so long as it kept them out of sight. The door remained cracked, giving Sniv just enough space to spy and eavesdrop on whoever decided to walk by.

"Hey, look! Our friends started collecting all the valuables for us," one of the elves called out.

"Dammit, that's our payload," Sniv sneered, tightly gripping the door's handle.

"Well, we're going to have to thank them whenever we find them, won't we," another elf stated.

"They weren't on their little skimmer vessel, so they must still be around here scrounging through this mess. Track them down before they slip away."

Yes boss, was parroted by a few voices.

"I'd like to see you sap-sippers try." That settled it; they needed to leave immediately. But with their skimmer gone, the elven vessel was her and Rudd's best bet to escape the Shard Crater. Piloting a ship that heavy would quickly tire her out in no time, but she just needed to get far enough away from the crater so that they elves couldn't easily chase them down on foot.

Deep footsteps sounded as one of the elves entered the armory. Cautiously, Sniv observed the lone elf—thin and tall, at least as tall as her and Rudd combined. They wandered over to the discarded weapons and perused the decades old weapons. He didn't seem armed to begin with, but also didn't seem keen on leaving the room anytime soon. He was at least distracted for the moment. Sniv listened out, deducing that the others were more spread out and further away based on the faint sounds of distant rummaging and loose conversation.

Sniv took a chance and tiptoed along the back of the room, with Rudd safely in her arms. As she passed behind the unsuspecting elf, he reacted to the scent of Sniv's wig but attributed it to an ambient smell of the area. She turned a corner and found a corridor that would lead them outside, but unfortunately for her, another iron spire was at the end of it. With the brooch still in her singed hair, every exit led to either her capture or her electrocution.

She didn't want to risk tiptoeing back to the closet for fear of alerting the tall elf, but standing around aimlessly in the corridor would just as likely end up with her capture as well. Then she heard another person enter the armory, conversing with the weapon-inspecting elf. She could maybe outmaneuver one person while holding onto Rudd, but two were pushing it. Sniv shifted Rudd to where he was now precariously draped over her shoulder, and with a heavy heart, she yanked the brooch from her wig and tossed it out the window, where Rudd was electrocuted. The metallic accessory flew between the two iron columns and immediately drew loud electric arcs toward it. The sudden sounds caught the attention of the two elves, allowing Sniv to flee unseen from the armory.

Now, the scrappy goblin's situation was a bit more dire since she and Rudd were out in the open. She scurried behind several spires of tektite to keep her and her brother hidden despite the yellowish glass being translucent. It didn't matter so long as it obscured their silhouettes long enough to fool anyone just passively looking around. Sniv cursed herself for not counting the elves sitting and discussing the Shard Crater while she was at the Lounge. Then again, she didn't expect them to travel to this strange place on the same day. In hindsight, maybe she did jump on the idea of traveling here too quickly, but then the elves would've stripped the place of everything valuable. She pushed the conflicting thoughts aside as she heard jingling; she looked over to see two elves filling their wardrobe. They looked different from the two inside the armory, so Sniv kept a running count of four people in her head to avoid.

She kept still, waiting for the two strangers to leave; as they did, Sniv hurried to another cluster of tektite columns. There, she overheard a fifth, more burly elf rummaging through a carriage modified to glide across the sands like the skimmer. It was torn apart by the shockwave that affected the who crater, but it seemed the elf successfully found something still wedged inside the seats. He was too close that if Sniv moved past, he would undoubtedly be alerted to her presence. She also worried that he'd hear her backtrack as well. She didn't have anything else metallic to throw; nevertheless, she looked around for what she could use. There! She spotted a glass spire near a torn-apart segment of the building; Sniv assumed it was the other half of the barracks. The spire stuck out of the ground at an awkward angle—a neat idea shot across her mind.

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She whispered the word for Godspeak: Wind, and focused intently at the base of the glass spire. She aerated the sand around it as she would for the sand skimmer, and with no pressure from the sand to keep it in place, the column collapsed, shattering on impact with the floor of the building. It grabbed the burly elf's attention long enough for Sniv to sneak on by with her brother still unconsciously limp on her shoulder.

"Gods above, I hope that was the last of them," Sniv thought as she weaved around other columns, not encountering any more purple-skinned strangers. She circled the entirety of the Shard Crater before quickly approaching the elven sand vessel. She gingerly placed Rudd onto the deck and then crawled on herself. The full extent of her exhaustion hit her as soon as she took a moment to breathe. Her legs felt like ten-ton rocks, and her shoulder felt like it was about to fall off, but she didn't have time to rest. She hobbled over to roughly where she would stand behind the sail of the skimmer. She invoked Godspeak: Wind again and tried channeling her energy into the air around her; she then commanded the breeze into the sand, aerating the space around the boat.

A frigid shiver shot down her back, making her falter and fall to a knee. The ship was easily three times as big as the skimmer and probably weighed even more; she couldn't get the sand to the right consistency, let alone generate enough thrust to sail away. As she struggled, pulling more energy from her core, Sniv felt another sharp pain, forcing her to dispel the magic. A steady stream of blood dripped from her nose. After that, she felt dizzy and wobbled over to the ship's mast to keep herself from stumbling. While collecting herself, something metallic nudged the back of her head, followed by a clicking sound. Sniv froze. She didn't account for one of the elves staying behind in the small quarters at the back of the vessel.

"Thought you could steal our boat, huh? We'll see what the boss wants to do with you two." He put his index finger and his thumb in his mouth and whistled.

*****

"I don't see anyone out here," a plump goblin said as he eased his sand skimmer underneath the shade of a palm tree. He popped open his canteen and immediately started chugging water with his feet propped up. Merrow had hired one of the Lounge workers to sail her out to the Indigo Oasis after finding her grandchildren gone and asking the dockmaster which way they went.

Merrow leaped over the side of the sand skimmer and crossed over to the soft-hued spring, stopping at the water's edge. She had never liked this place, and the water always tasted too funny to her. As she searched around the bank, she found a pair of discarded goggles; she couldn't tell if they belonged to Sniv or Rudd, but they were from one of them for sure. Merrow continued her examination of the immediate area, with her eventually picking up their tracks in the sand. She followed them back to where Sniv and Rudd had docked the skimmer earlier, only to find no path their vessel could've made. The one path leading away from the oasis was from that of a much larger ship.

She stamped repeated on the patch of grass underneath the palm tree. "Stupid, stupid, stupid..." Merrow slumped against the tree, her mind plagued with thoughts of Sniv and Rudd running away and then being kidnapped. Her thoughts lingered on all the horrible things being done to them at this very moment. The bottomless pit of sadness and loneliness swallowed up her anger. Each of her limbs shook, and her breathing intensified. She stumbled her way back to the watering hole and splashed her face. When that didn't work she dunked her whole head under the water. Her shaking had diminished, but not entirely.

As the water's surface settled, she gazed upon her reflection. Maybe it was her mind playing games with her, or possibly even the sun's intensity, but she swore she could see herself and her daughter, Aggni. Nestled in Aggni's arms were Sniv and Rudd as fresh hatchlings, curled up and sleeping soundly. A tear rolled down Merrow's face and landed on her daughter's reflection, distorting it—her ear-splitting screams soon followed as it overtook Merrow's thoughts and memories. The elderly goblin scooted back from the water's surface, taking deep breaths and processing what she had just experienced.

She slammed her fists to the ground. In a weepy tone, "Dammit, I promised her I would look after them." She looked over at her rifle sitting on the ground; she took it into her hands and glanced back at her reflection, which only showed her now. "I'll get the back Aggni. I'll get them back." With tears streaming down her face, she stomped back to the boat.

"Look, I'm not going to spend my day wandering around the desert for nothing—" the goblin sailor remarked.

Merrow reached into the bun part of her wig fashioned from an old mop; she yanked out a small handful of gold, inadvertently undoing her wig's bun and giving herself a new face-draping hairstyle. Despite her tears, her eyes flared with intensity. She shoved the gold into the goblin's hands, "Just follow that trail over there, you pot-bellied laze-about."

The sailor shut his mouth as he set the skimmer's course with his magic. Merrow positioned herself at the front of the boat, loading her rifle. She wasn't strong enough back then to save her daughter when she needed it, but now, only the Gods could stop Merrow from rescuing her grandchildren.