Cypher ran ever onward, his mind having shut off long ago as he escaped into the shifting sands beyond. Every instinct he had forced him forward, unable to look back as the roaring sound of the storm continued behind him.

His sense of time altogether disappeared as he ran, a newly raised obelisk in the distance calling for him.

After what must have been hours of running Cypher came to a staggered stop. His lungs heaving and his sight blurred as he fought to regain his breath. With the sound of a storm no longer ringing in his ears, he let himself fall back into the sand.

A perfectly clear sky greeted his gaze, its millions of stars a brilliant show of beauty as the arms of the galaxy stretched out before him. Despite the majesty, Cypher felt uneasy. Such a wonderful sight amidst such a morbid and disturbing event.

In that moment he felt one of disgust and frustration yet, rather than dwell on it, he swallowed the feeling and moved on in his mind.

Sitting up, he turned back towards the way he came.

The storm yet raged, its furious winds of dust whisking away all that it came across on that empty desert. It wasn’t the first storm Cypher had been through, yet something felt different to him about the whole area. Something that he couldn’t place.

A shadow in the storm pulled his attention, it’s visage a massive one before it disappeared deeper into the spiral.

“What is going on in there?” He murmured aloud.

To his horror, he was soon answered.

As the winds turned, a massive mountain of stone tumbled out and crashed into the sands. The landing caused the entire desert to shake with a massive BOOM.

“That's what happened?!?! The storm ripped out those plateaus!” He thought to himself as he saw another massive pile of stone move deeper inside the flying sands.

“I guess I need to keep moving”

Rising from the sand, Cypher turned away from the distant storm and moved onwards towards the obelisk.

The months of traveling had made the journey rather simplistic, a short jaunt towards the next marker. Yet as he walked, he glanced behind himself on occasion. Initially he merely considered it a trick of his eyes, a missed judgement. Yet as the obelisk grew taller before him, the realization began to set in. The storm was moving in his direction.

Now in the shadow of the great pillar, he pondered on his next move. “If I stay here, I can rest and follow the next stone. But that storm may catch up. If I go, I can evade it. But where do I go?”

The storm a distant reminder, Cypher took a break as he weighed his options. Taking the chance to get some sustenance while he could.

Sitting his fire, he kept catching himself staring off at the swirling winds of the sand storm. Its approach, like a growing veil across the sky.

With the sun's first touches reaching over the horizon, and those violent winds growing ever closer. Cypher took his chances and marched off into the desert, the tent from the obelisk wrapped up on his back.

For the first time since he appeared on this world, he felt the blistering heat that radiated off its star. The horizon, becoming one of haze and spots of light. The sheer brightness of the light reflecting off the sand forced him to wear his storm glasses just to see.

For hours he marched, occasionally checking behind him to see if the storm followed. At the start he felt confident, the obelisks are good markers. And if that fails he could just use the sun's position.

The hours dragged on and on for him however. The black stone of the obelisk soon being swallowed whole by the storm. And soon his quiet hope became one that he could see where the next rose from the sand.

Yet as he trudged ever onward, his body felt covered in sweat beneath his clothing while his mouth felt as dry as the desert that surrounded him. In this exhaustion, he sat down on the hill he had just climbed.

Looking back towards the storm, he realized that it hadn’t moved for some time. In fact, it looked like it was even slowing down. Content with his choice, he set about pitching his tent. Hoping to get a few hours of sleep.

The ground itself shuddered, the entire desert around him rumbling violently. The sound of shearing metal exploded through the air, forcing Cypher to cover his ears.

Looking about, Cypher tried to pinpoint the cause of the chaos only to freeze in place.

The obelisk he was just at stood hovering in the storm, the gigantic pillar slowly rotating along with the winds. Suddenly, the thing shifted. It’s form being mostly masked by the swirling sands. After a few moments it emerged again, and what felt like slow motion. Cypher witnessed as the massive obelisk flew through the air, only for it to smash into the desert once again. The impact created a massive crater and cloud of thrown sand.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Even from his distant spot, Cypher felt the ground shake violently. The sand beneath him shifted away from the sheer energy of the impact.

“Ok, I guess I keep moving.”

Packing his tent back up in a hurry, he marched ever onwards. The featureless desert swallowing him whole.

As day turned to night, Cypher moved ever onward. Rudderless in the endless ocean of sand. His only guide being that of moving away from the storm. Everytime he tried to rest, the storm grew closer, forcing him ever onward.

The hours bled away with each mindless step forward, his mind snapping out of his dreariness as his feet moved across flat ground.

The desert had given way to a massive salt plain, one that stretched far beyond the horizon. Where the desert sands had millions of hills and distinction in that. This land, its bone white flat surface seemed to shatter the very concept of direction.

Cypher’s exhausted mind rejected the thought of traveling through such a place. Yet as the storm continued raging far behind him, his body moved for him.

For three days he marched through that hell blasted place. Any thought, any hope, any wish was forgotten as the land melted away all distinction. All reason was lost, even the storm was forgotten as he walked. The action of walking forward being all he could comprehend.

His numbed brain noticed nothing until he ran into it, a massive tan colored stone larger than most houses greeted him as he fell face first into it. The impact shook the cobwebs of his mind loose.

Stepping back, he looked about. Quickly realizing that this was probably the only thing in the entire salt plain. He walked around it slowly, getting a good look at what was probably the last actual thing he’d ever see.

It was smooth as rocks go, yet it had some strange grooves along it’s form that seemed out of place to the man. Of course, the bigger question of how the thing got here in the first place raced through his mind. Yet as the impending storm appeared in the side of his vision, he was reminded of his endless fleeing.

As he rounded the stone, he found a relatively small hole that was just large enough for a person against the sand. Looking inside, he found an adequately sized cave. “If I keep moving, I'll die from exhaustion.” He thought to himself as he gazed inside the cave.

“I wanna sleep before I die.” A wiry smile crossed his dry, sandblasted face as his decision was made.

Climbing inside the cave proved a rather simple task, the floor was salty ground. Yet in that moment, a bed of spikes would be luxurious to him. Using the tent, he blocked the hole he had come through in a hope to be hidden. With his sleeping spot now hidden, he felt himself lay down and instantly fall asleep.

A deep rumbling shook Cypher awake from his dreamless sleep. The cave all around him seemed to be shaking, with the salty earth below him breaking away and sinking.

In a half awake stupor, he forced himself up and out of the cave through the makeshift cover he had made. With the morning sun greeting him, he stumbled away from the rock to where the ground was more firm.

Turning back towards the shelter he froze on the spot, his instincts seizing him in that moment.

On the rock before him, an eye as tall as himself stared right at him. The pupil, a vertical gash separating the shimmering gold of its iris.

Cypher slowly stepped back, the creature's eye following him as he moved.

The land shuddered again, this time though Cypher saw why. The entire of what he thought was a rock shifted about as the creature slowly dug its body from the ground.

What he saw as building sized rock was just the creature's neck and head as it stretched itself with great lethargy. The rest of its body emerged from the ground as it shook itself free, the dirt on its body falling away to reveal the shimmering gold of it’s scales.

Cypher watched in wonderment as what he realized was a dragon awoke. It’s four massive legs each had talons larger than half of his body, with wings that seemed to block the sun.

While he watched in a horrified wonderment, he noted the dragon’s eye had quite amused glint in it as it seemed to relish the attention. It’s slow movements seemingly more showing off than waking up.

With Cypher finally calming down, he readied himself to speak. Before his works could come out however the dragon took off with a great flap of its wings. It circled in the sky once, and with another flap of its wings it disappeared from sight leaving him in a stunned silence.

The glint of the rising sun caught his gaze, and the memory of the storm returned to his mind. Frantically he looked about, and breathed a sigh of relief as the sky was clear in all directions.

“Now, where is the next beacon…” He wondered to himself as he stared off into the horizon.

After thinking of his directions for a moment, he shrugged his shoulders, gathered the remnants of his borrowed tent, and set off towards where he thought the next one might show up.

Day turned to night, the salt plains returned to sand. This return brought hope to Cypher, one that he was in fact traveling the right direction. As night brought back day, and the hills of loose sand wrought their toll on the exhausted man. He realized the sheer strength of the baking sun on his dried body.

His face felt more like sandpaper than flesh, and his thoughts became of whether he’d be mummified from the dry air, or stripped to that of a skeleton.

As he mused on his impending death, a glimpse of a figure appeared over the endless hills of sand. Shaking it off as his imagination, he continued on as usual. Only to see the figure again.

The figure was hunched over, yet was as tall as Cypher. It’s body was covered completely in a black shawl which seemed to shimmer somehow in the sunlight. They walked with a large white wooden cane that towered over them. Even their arms and hands were covered by the fabric as they slowly shuffled across the desert.

Approaching the mysterious being, Cypher made to open his mouth to speak but found himself so dry that he couldn’t. The strain caused him to begin coughing from irritating his throat.

When the coughs subsided he made to speak again. The person however pointed it’s cane off into the distance. Following it’s gesture, Cypher looked off into the horizon only to see more hills.

“Is that the way I should go?” He asked, turning back towards the stranger. Only to find no one there. Blinking his eyes, he looked around and found no sign of anyone, not even the footsteps that the person should have left.

“Ok.. I guess now I have sand in my brain..”

He mumbled as he resigned himself and decided to follow the direction anyway.