Absolute darkness. Some flat grainy surface. And a young man, laying on it face down lifeless. Lifeless? No, he was breathing now... his senses were returning to him. Suddenly the surface felt hot, burning hot. The lad tried to get up in panic, panting, and suddenly was nearly blinded by the sun. Gasping, he fell back on the ground, with his eyelids clenched. But there's this lava-hot surface again. He immediately got up, this time with his eyes closed, successfully.

"Why is the sun SO HOT?!" this was his first words in this place. "It's hotter than goddamn Sahara!"

He tried opening his eyes slowly, covering them with his hand for a shadow. Soon enough, he managed to look around, and found himself in a desert.

"Guess I wasn't mistaken much huh?" Wiping the sand off his clothes, he saw that there was nothing around to hide under. Just sandy plains, and metal-melting sun. There was nothing left other than either stay there and wait until he was roasted alive, or walk through this lifeless place until he gets somewhere else. He decided to follow the 2nd variant, and now, he was making his way through the desert, all sweaty, with his plain shirt pulled onto his head and hoodie hung over his shoulder.

"Why am I even here in the first place? How'd I get here?"

There was no way this guy could remember what lead to him getting in this place. Maybe he could call someone? He pulled out his phone in a hurry, but it was acting up pretty badly. Couldn't even operate it properly. And, of course, where would you find a mobile network in the middle of a desert? Disappointed, the object of our interest continued his way.

Suddenly, the sand around him started hissing for no reason. Confused, the lad hurried up, soon already running. Even after he had ran over 100 meters, the sand was still making this weird noise, and suddenly, right behind him, a huge, five meter long and 30cm thick snake-like creature dived out of the sand, charging at him. He looked back at this sudden burst from the sand, and his face froze in horror. Yelping, he tried to cover himself with his arms as a shield. The snake was already in a few centimeters from the lad's face, but then a whip-like sound could be heard, and an invisible force threw the snake away. From all of this, the runner fell on the ground on his back, and started looking around, confused. On his left, the snake was laying on the ground lifeless. In front of him, there was quite a big hole in the ground, where the snake dived out from. And on the right... "What the..." ...on the right he could see a person on a horse, approaching him. That person was still quite far, around 150m away, so it wasn't possible to see their face and identify their gender. The runner stood up, heavily breathing, and started waving both of his arms. The rider didn't seem to be hurrying though. Though, in a minute, the distance between them was already a few meters.

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"Good day fellow traveller, need a hand?" The rider said, with an unusually beautiful feminine voice. Her... or their... whatever, this person's face was covered by a hijab-like piece of cloth, and upper torso too, so it wasn't possible to decide whether they were an actual woman, a femboy or just a man with feminine voice. Though, that voice would be more characteristic to a 16-18 year old young lady. "Yes please... You were the one to kill that worm right?" The 'traveller' asked, putting his hands on his waist. "Indeed, that was me. Now, if I may ask, where are you heading? Maybe we have the same destination?" Heavily breathing, the lad responded back with a question. "First of all, where even am I?"

"This, my friend, is the White Wilds, the biggest desert the whole Rathseik." they had answered with a proud voice, like being here was an accomplishment. "Rathseik? First time hearing about it... Where even is that on a map?" The answer made no help in the lad’s confusion. "In the Great Ocean." 'Traveller', confused, scratched the back of his head and looked around. "Is this some kind of a play? Is this staged? There's no goddamn way I'd find myself in a desert, alone, with truck-sized snakes, and which shouldn't even exist on this goddamn planet! Ngh... Damnit... Give me some water please..." He started coughing, putting his hand on his throat.

The stranger was confused, but said nothing, probably thinking that this young man got sunstruck and wasn't in sane mind, and just gave him a flask, filled with some citrus-flavored liquid. The fellow reached for it, but... suddenly he started coughing violently, fell on the ground and couldn't move an inch, other than natural movements from coughing. The rider got down from the horse in a hurry and rushed towards already almost lifeless lad, which barely could breath anymore. They tried to bring him back to life, but nothing seemed to work. They started searching for something in her bag, but, apparently, failed, after which they grabbed the 'traveller' by his shoulders, dragged him to her horse, put him over its back and speeded off somewhere...

"Mark?"

"Mark! Something's wrong?"

Where's he? Oh right, he's in front of the counter in a restaurant, paying for the dinner. A beautiful young woman is standing next to him. That's his girlfriend... Elizabeth. A pearl in the sand, the one and only among billions. "Huh? Nope, all good." He smiles, takes Lisa's hand and guides her to the exit, and right after they leave the building, Mark hears tires screeching, people screaming and then strong impact...