Delminor's Trials by Stephen J. Wolf

Author:Stephen J. Wolf [Wolf, Stephen J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950110001
Published: 2019-02-18T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

Sandonia

Delminor’s travels took him beyond the reaches of any map he had seen. Where some would be terrified, he simply opened his journal and made note of the landscape so he could add to the atlases in Castle Hathreneir. There were distant mountains to the north and south and they seemed to be drawing together ahead of him. The grass was thinning, leaving a sort of clay underfoot, which eventually faded to sand.

Unlike the sand surrounding the castle, this was a natural desert and as he moved deeper inside, he noticed the air was hotter than any he had endured before.

He hadn’t come across a village in a long time, and so, when he saw houses on the horizon, his pace quickened. Heat wavered up from the sand, distorting his vision, and he clutched for the water bottles at his waist, sipping them though he wanted to down them one after another.

When he entered the town, he saw all the structures were made of sand packed into dense bricks. The entire place was a blur of beige and it was hard to distinguish one building from another.

The air was cloying, and his nose wrinkled in disgust. He kept his arm tucked around his face, trying to mask the horrid smell.

The town was silent, save the scratching of sand that scattered in a mild breeze. There were no people that he could see. No creatures. The place was completely deserted.

As he started poking his head into various structures, he understood quickly where the cloying scent came from. Mounds of sand were piled up in most of the buildings and he could see the limbs of dead villagers reaching out. He surmised a raging sandstorm had passed through and taken the lives of the people.

As he made his way through the barren village, he felt the jades vibrating in his pocket. He was both relieved and disappointed. Looking around at all the death, he doubted the jade he would find had anything to do with healing.

Delminor followed the guidance of the jades toward the center of the town, noticing a curiosity. The landscape was changing. The sand looked shinier, reflective. He reached his hand along the side of a building and it felt like glass. And as he continued, the homes themselves were collapsing in on themselves, their facades completely transparent and cracking.

The center of the town had a large fountain made of stone. It was the only thing he had seen that wasn’t sand or a byproduct of it. The jades led him to the stone, persistent in their vibrations. As he neared the fountain, he heard a slurping sound and when he tried to lift his foot, he couldn’t.

He was caught in quicksand.

He had only read about the phenomenon, where water was mixed and trapped with the sand. It was possible to get himself out of it, but he would have to move slowly so as not to get caught by the suction underneath the surface. He turned around

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.