A scriber spun between the turtle's fingers, it was in deep thoughts. What would his invisible friend want for the anniversary of the day when they've met.

A tip soaked in a black fruit sap landed on a sheet of paper and the turtle started tracing lines for hours, discarding one idea after another, tossing crumbled drawings away.

"Perhaps I should just ask him." - The turtle rolled down its sunbed in resignation, leaving the shadow of its primitive umbrella, crafted from palm leaves and bamboo. - "Or perhaps, there are still mysteries hiding under the sand."

The turtle looked in direction of his bamboo storeroom and sighed. - "I guess, it is the time, but I can't sneak out without informing him." - It then walked to the shack and prepared its equipment. There was a bamboo spear, a bamboo samurai armor, a bamboo blowpipe, a shovel, a rope with hook, scrolls, and waterskins crafted out of grass-like fabric.

"I wonder where he is." - The turtle uttered as it started writing a letter.

Hello, Nassim. I'm leaving for an adventure. I'll tend to the other graves later.

"Ready!" - The turtle put the letter on top of a round table, next to his unfinished drink, then put a stone on top of its corner, to make sure the wind won't snatch it away.

It was time to depart.

"Desert of ashes, here we go!"

[ . . . ]

The turtle unearthed one of the large hollowed triangles, confident that it would find the next tomb below it. Grave robbing was not an option, but the turtle could always look for clues while taking care of the dead.

The turtle already knew about a network of mazes buried under the desert and about a mysterious bridge to underworld town, but it never managed to find an entrance to any of these.

Perhaps, it would be its lucky day.

While cleaning the place, the turtle carefully examined the hieroglyphs. It was taught their meaning by the ghost, but still could not grasp the complex structure of sentences.

"Stars. Dust. Secret. Dreams." - It read. - "Ohh! I get it." - It opened one of its scrolls, there was a partial map of the nearest locations in the desert. - "Stars... stars... under the dust. Is that what it means? But how do I find them?"

The turtle looked at hieroglyphs once again, at the map, then sighed. - "No, I have not the slightest clue."

Resigned, the turtle lifted its maps and exited the tomb. It lifted its head, it was already night. A single star shone brightly above the explorer and that's when the turtle realized.

"Is it... could it be?" - The turtle knelt in the sand and placed the maps in front of its knees, then stared at the sky. - "The stars... they aligned with the tombs! That would mean..." - The turtle hastily pulled out his scriber and started marking important points. - "There, there, and here."

At last, the turtle lifted the main map and stared at it in awe.

"I know, I know the way!!" - It shouted with a wide smile, then scrambled out of the sand and ran towards a pair of lights known as the twin star, one blue, one orange.

[ . . . ]

The turtle hastily grabbed its shovel and began unearthing the top of uncharted construction. It took several hours, but at the end, a dome with a small window was revealed. After attaching the hook to the frame, the turtle tossed a rope down the dark hole and climbed inside.

"Cough." - A cloud of golden dust temporarily limited the turtle's vision of a small chamber illuminated by green lava lamps situated at the walls. The turtle looked at them in awe, they were different than torches and cold to the touch. - "What is all this? This sand, it's all glittery and those torches... how do they produce the light without a fire?"

The turtle carefully examined the lamps, then decided to unscrew one of them and stuff it into its bags. - "I think... it'll be an adequate gift."

Other than that, the chamber was quite empty, but the turtle combed through it either way, to make sure it didn't miss anything. - "Weird. Is it really the place? And I thought, that an entrance to the labyrinth could be here. Ehh. Either way, I've got what I've come for..."

It was quite late, so the turtle just moved under the wall and lied down. Its eyes though, were still open.

"I miss home."

The lights danced, lulling an adventurer to sleep. The turtle had a vision of its island, the city of light and the bubble sea, then nightmares of black hand that abducted it, of its own death.

Stolen story; please report.

It then saw a dazzling light and a wide grin, of someone he had never encountered before. It was a scary smile, like of a person who never learned how to smile. The turtle felt as If its soul transforms into a weave and thousands of threads travel to scattered pieces of its former body, then as If its dust transforms into clay and flesh.

When the process was done, the turtle opened its eyes. Waking from its sleep.

But the turtle was no longer in the abandoned tower. No, instead all around him were the stars and he stood on spiral paths made out of blue lights. They seemed to reach far to infinity.

"Is it, still a dream?" - The turtle tried to pinch its arm, but it was transparent and made out of incorporeal fabric. - "It should be... but it's so lucid and tangible."

The turtle walked the path ahead of him, it felt as If the years has passed, but at the same time, like no time has passed at all. There seemed to be no end to its march, but the turtle felt neither fatigue nor desire to stop. It felt like a trance. Like the turtle was destined to walk this road until the end of time.

Perhaps millenniums has passed before four blurry shadows appeared in the distance, racing along the infinite road. A black octahedron, with a number four on its torso, whizzed past the turtle, ignoring its presence.

"Bleep, Bloop!" - Right behind it, a blue shadow passed the silhouette of a turtle.

A few years passed before two other robotic strangers arrived, but both stopped next to a turtle, surrounding it.

"E-X-T-R-A D-I-M-E-N-S-I-O-N-A-L E-N-T-I-T-Y F-O-U-N-D." - Said a small machine in the shape of a cube with a number one on its front.

"Analyze pending." - The other robot with number two and tubelike appendages examined the turtle with its green eyes. - "Note: The participant is racing in a backward direction. Conclusion: CPU fault? Beginning diagnosis. Time-stasis anomaly detected. Proceeding with reversal procedure."

The steel tentacles came out of number's two steel torso, then started emitting a series of pulsating, golden waves.

It was as If the turtle's all senses were back to normal. He realized his situation, and the time started passing once again.

"Where, where am I?" - He uttered to himself.

"O-N T-H-E R-A-C-E T-R-A-C-K, D-U-M-M-Y!" - The small robot responded.

"I feel like I've walked for eternity..."

"Estimated stasis time: 9810345045776..." - Number two started reciting, but there seemed to be no end to it.

"I... I need to return home. Oh, by the light. Don't tell me... I need to go all the way back."

The small robot tilted its body, askingly. - "A-R-E Y-O-U N-O-T R-A-C-I-N-G?"

"Racing? No... no..." - The turtle waved his head. - "I... I was just exploring ruins in the desert... and then, I fell asleep and woke up here!"

Two robots looked at each other.

"A-G-A-I-N-S-T T-H-E R-U-L-E-S." - Small robot hopped in the air.

"Warning: Spectators are disallowed from standing on the track during the race. Stricly prohibited."

"Okay, okay! I understand..." - The turtle replied. - "...just tell me how to get out of here."

"R-A-C-E I-N-V-A-L-I-D. R-A-C-E I-N-V-A-L-I-D." - A slot on top of the small machine's head opened, revealing a small antenna.

A fluctuating purple light appeared in front of the three, and the black octahedron materialized there.

"Requesting permission to eliminate the abnormity." - It spoke in an ominous voice.

"D-E-N-I-E-D" – The small robot declared.

"Requesting an alternative solution." - Disappointed, the octahedron responded.

"Analyze: Relocation required. Coordinates: -90.1 Da'at, 114.2 Gevurah" – The number two responded.

The octahedron opened, revealing an orange eye, and shot a ray of condensed light at the turtle, who didn't even have time to protest. In an instant, the turtle was teleported elsewhere.

All around the turtle was a desert of blue sand, it was like its own home, but the colors were reversed, except for the night sky, which remained as dark as usual. The turtle didn't think twice and ran in direction of the oasis, where its home was, but found nothing there, but sand.

The turtle dropped to its knees, uttering a silent – "No... Nassim, please help me... I... I don't know what to do."

"Nassim?" - The sand around the turtle shifted, forming a whirl. - "Why do you speak his name?" - A voice spoke like from underneath it.

"He's my friend!" - The turtle shouted.

"Michi? Is that you?" - The sands stopped shifting, and instead started forming a silhouette in golden armor, wearing a crown like a sun with thousand rays behind its head. It held a spear, which seemed to have a miniature sun burning at the center of its golden tip.

"Nassim...?"

"You... you seem young. Way too young, and lost."

"Nassim, is it really you? ...and you can hear me?"

"It's me, my friend. I'm glad to see you."

"Nassim..." - The turtle approached the figure and hugged it at the waist. - "I'm back."

"Yes, but you are late. Very late. We wouldn't want that."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm an old soul now. Way older than I thought I would be. You need to return to the times when I was still young."

"How?"

"In this place, only the timeless can do that. Remember that once we meet again." - Nassim lifted his arm high in the air and the sands behind him raised, forming a shapeshifting mound of chaotic mass that grew larger and larger, until it reached the sky.

The mound lit up with thousands of white lights, appearing in the darkness like a cosmic nebula.

"I never had an occasion to return your kindness." - Nassim spoke as the sands around the two started shifting violently in circles again. - "This is the parting gift." - He extended a hand with a broken astronaut helmet. - "There will be a time when you'll be known as a hero. Wear it proudly."

"Nassim..."

"Michi. This is a goodbye, but we'll see each other again. In another time."

The sands pulled the turtle in, beneath the surface. Michi fell into a black void and only saw a white light, where the center of the black vortex was. The whirlpool slowly closed, leaving Michi in the darkness. Soon, bubbles of water formed around him and filled the entire void.

Instinctively, Michi began swimming back to the surface, where the hole with white light was, and emerged back at the oasis.