"So, care to tell us where you came from, construct?"
"For the last time, my name's Charger. And I came from another world."
"Another world?" Cyrus shivers. His amulet wriggles around his neck for each step downward to the mountain.
It is noon already. Wellspring is piling sand across the water, and the bogs are dry. The land is as good as dead, even if animals haven't yet felt it. But the librarian wasn't surprised, as she knew a hill like this would have been the one desecrated for its serenity. The faith built upon the nature fractures by another nature intervention.
As they gathered treasures and needs across the Wellspring, their need to step on the hill no longer remains. The three wanderers left the town as quick as they could before the sand ripped off the bridge and cast them away from the rest of the land. But whatever happened to the Wellspring will no longer be known.
"Darn me. These sands are strong. Did you see that? I never see that before!" Cyrus commented. His eyes continued to glance at the sand forest of Wellspring, where the land was no longer as beautiful as before.
"I hope the people there evacuate immediately. I think there's a tunnel or a stairway to the lowhill...maybe..."
"I hope the Eastwood hasn't fell yet."
At the centre of the city, silence expands with no sign of stopping these massacres. Daylight is even hotter, and it's hard trying not to breathe in the sands. The three wanderers saw Great Stone, or at least what's left behind the desert. It's all done.
"Oh, why..." Cyrus glares in fear.
"*Gag* I think I'm about to *gag* ugh..." Eve gripped her stomach. The hanging bodies cannot be recovered, and the mix of sand and guts made everyone's nose.
"Huh, I feel nostalgic about my hometown right now." Charger walked through nonchalantly. "If only there's something to capture this moment."
As daylight rose, the gust of sand slowly dissipated into a wisp. But the damage is already done. The three could only gaze into the emptiness of a great town under the sun, outliving one disaster just for another one to come. Was it their end today? Or would it be tomorrow? Only time can tell.
The history of Great Stone is under their sole, trampled and scratched by each step they took here. The memory of its destruction still lingers in the librarian's head, like the same thunder that met her face in the sky yesterday. It's truly a moment to see here.
The echoes of windmills, children's play, and adults gossiping on the street had turned sullen in her ears. Those civilians who passed by her left have never returned home, and the chatter about tomorrow seems to have vanished in their eyes.
"*Sobs* All these innocents people..." Cyrus rubs the rubble. Communities were once here—centred. "So unfair. After everything we've done to ward off evil and misguidance, we're still fated to death..."
"I...I admit that this isn't what I hoped for your town. They don't even deserve to be condemned for this. But why? Why a town like Great Stone and not Frayfoil?" Eve mourns. "The sky really works in a mysterious way."
———————————————————————————————————
[Great Stone]
Ruin, and ruin is what's left of this place now. Eastwood has become its only salvation, a home for the librarian in the forest, now serves as the remaining hope for this town to survive. There's nothing in Great Stone she recognises anymore under those sands—especially the giant boulders.
"Where are we?" Eve pauses. "I...I don't know where we are right now. Everything is just flat sandy..." Eve pauses with horror.
"You're right. The disaster erroded everything into nothing but a plain sand." Cyrus wipes his tears off. "Oh, gosh...I'm so tired...I need to catch a breath..."
Her eyes couldn't believe how terrifying it was to be trapped in a place she didn't know anymore. It's as if she were not in her home anymore, trapped in another world without a mark or a beacon. The flatness—the seemingly even and equally flattened hill is a blank canvas without an edge.
"Where are we? I'm...so...tired..." Cyrus pants.
"I don't know, but we need to keep moving!"
They were trapped in their own beloved town. Every edge of the hill is the same wherever they go, and the scorching heat carries deception across their faces. Such a crazy journey for a day, going from the forest to the bog, and now the desert—all while their eyes are blinded.
"Wow. I did not realise a sandstorm could do that." Charger muttered. "We should've used the body-carrier."
"The what?" Cyrus pauses. "What...are you and Eve...have been doing while I'm gone? You don't bewitch her...aren't you?"
"As if I could!" It replies.
She continued to walk through the pain together with her friends, but still, they are trapped in the valley of dust. The librarian feared she had been walking in a circle, sweating with dread and drained of ambition. The others were no different.
"We're lost! We're lost! What do we do?" Cyrus catches another breath.
"I don't know! What part of this land we are right now? Because everything I see here is just sand!" Charger yelled.
"Oh, what could be worse than this?"
But then, a man appeared from afar to their distress. The hooded figure and his cane wander through the desert, looking at the librarian so proudly of its life. Taunting but pity, the prophet came to their aid with his left hand reaching for her.
"Ugh, you..." Cyrus mumbled. "The so-called prophet...:"
"Are you lost, lady?" The prophet reached.
But from that gaze, the librarian saw the real face behind the hood. A man with such a look, like a lost soul searching for a purpose. Was he familiar? The librarian thought profoundly when she saw what seemed to be an innocent, nonchalant face. There's no panic, worry, or fear—maybe he was already gone.
"We're fine. But thank you..." Eve stands up for herself. "Thanks for giving us nothing, prophet. I was hoping you could've been more informative."
"There's nothing to learn through calamity, librarian. You either accept it or you either escape it. You cannot bother the wave of indifference and change...for it cannot hear you..."
But one thing that matters is that he was here, helping the three out of this desert together. The prophet gave his hand and listened to their pleas when he heard their plan for this town. He was calm, ready to talk to them with an open heart. The wanderers didn't ask further, but the librarian does.
"What a word...for an idiot." Eve replied. "Maybe you would've made a good comedian in this town."
"What are you doing here, prophet? I thought you were supposed to be dead." Cyrus interrogates, facing the prophet with eyes straight. But his breath is too short to talk.
"I'm scouring the town for any of those who seek words from the tide. So far, there's no one to talk to." The prophet unveils his hood.
"You must've taken the wrong audience, old man. My friend said nobody in this town would want to hear wisdom from a man alone." Charger slanders. The prophet's eyes were widened when he saw the creature.
Some questions are not answered by the prophet, and it irritates her the most. But the prophet remained still for her answer, as if no answer could exist in his mouth. But before she could make a fuss out of it, she calmed herself and focused on the journey more than she could burn her head.
"What the—I mean...what a creature you have there? A lost puppet? Who brought a puppet to this town?" The prophet's eyes widen at its presence.
"I am not a puppet, human. I am alive, and I can tell you that one of us here is more human and it's not you..."
"Interesting. I haven't yet seen any likes of you here." The prophet muttered. "The randomness of life is what piquet me. Even if some were a fatal destiny."
They went together into the desert, where the prophet easily guides them to the west with his fingers. Their chatters unfold stories as they pass through, as they begin to learn something new from each other. The librarian, the cleric, the thing, and the prophet—all were in different sets of paths.
"Oh, priest. You and your gleaming voice, sharing wisdom, telling tales and gathering civilians like flowers." The prophet insults. "How are you always so delighted, so hopeful, and so wonderful? Yet your words can only move a heart, not a stone."
"My voice is aspiring, that's a move I could set them to. The civilians are feeble alone, but they are mighty together." Cyrus replies, still panting with exhaustion and short breath. "Cower once, and you can return from where you blinked. Abandon us, and your head has nothing to see behind. No remorse, no chance, and no hope."
"Tempting." The prophet utters.
But when the librarian asked him such an important question.
"Prophet, what is your belief? Do you believe in the voice of greatness or the absolute verity of all?" Eve questions.
"Neither. I believe in myself, my gifts, and my hands. There's nothing more convincing than my will, and there's nothing more true than my creation. I am the epitome of greatness, of where you are all leaning to."
Madness. The librarian couldn't contain her laugh when she had to hear how mad the prophet is. His belief is void, but his ego is full. If there's something more witless than a fanatic believer, it would be an atheistic person.
"Hahaha!" The three laughs.
"What's funny?" The prophet pauses.
"I didn't expect you to be this 'gone', prophet. But you were even worse!" The cleric laughs, but still coughing with short breath. "How could one imagine themselves as a creator without a blueprint?"
Eve chuckles. "Only a fool sees themselves as a king, and everyone was peasant. You are truly blind, prophet!"
"Your belief would have killed you! If your key is moulded only to your design, then what would be its lock...?" Charger giggles. "A key without a lock is like a blind man with glasses."
It was such a satisfying laugh. But the librarian couldn't hide that his belief was intriguing. To have someone who speaks neither through voice nor eyes, but through hands, is such a new picture in her head. Pride do corrupt a soul at the whole.
The prophet didn't take it easily.
"Laugh all you want. But you'll regret the day you let your belief possess you wholly. When your eyes and ears no longer help you, everything else around you would be nothing but a void."
———————————————————————————————————
[Wall]
"Believe in your own ways, civilians. But do not show me a preach without endeavour." The prophet walked off into the dust. He disappeared as fast as he appeared to them.
They made it to the edge of the land, where the wall stood protecting them against the dust. The tall shade comforts their hot head for long, and there's finally comfort in their struggle. Rest assured, because they worked for it. Now, they have to pass through the wall to continue.
"I had to admit that he was right about the last part. I do think some efforts made a perfect belief." Charger nodded with a slight hesitation.
"Nah..." The two replies.
"So how do we put this ship there? Anyone got an idea?"
The next struggle would be to bypass the wall again, but the librarian couldn't fit in anymore. Fortunately, the librarian found another way to reach the wall easily.
"Hey, look! The sand gave us a path!" Eve rushes.
"Don't forget the main treasure, you fool!" Charger yelled.
"Wait! Wait! What about another beast? I don't know what's there, but maybe it isn't too good to just go in?"
"Aw, come on, Cyrus! It's safe, I promise you!"
"Are you sure? Maybe you just didn't get to see everything!"
"I do. Now come on!" She grasps his hands, dragging him along into the adventure. Cyrus was hesitant, afraid, and his heart beats so rapidly at the thought of the other side.
"Wait, I need to catch a breath! I've been wtoo long!!"
[Coast]
———————————————————————————————————
The wall stands indifferent, but the sands grew stronger from its ignorance. A hill was born from the damage, and the wall was broken, with freedom for the three. The edge of the coast is only waiting for the outside.
The coast is free from the disaster, as all the sand is natural here. The ocean is clear, the sky is bright, and the sun is warm instead of burning. No beast is in sight as the cleric feared, and nothing but peace as he never promised.
"Whoa." Cyrus ponders at the ocean. "That's a huge water..."
"See, love? I told you it was amazing! We are safe here!" Eve replied.
"I don't know how I could be hidden from this. Why was this hidden? What was supposed to scare us? The outside seems...serene."
"Maybe they don't want you to leave because they could profit from your fear with that." Charger replied. "Have you think how dangerous they might be?"
The view was a freeze to the eye. The cleric and the librarian watched for the horizon together in this warm land, gazing for the unknown with hope and opportunity. There seems to be a chance for them to enjoy life together at last.
"What do you think we should do out there, love? I can't imagine the possibilities for us together living in a big world like that." The two of them held hands together.
"Everything. If it means that we could still be together, then I'm up for it." Cyrus replied.
"I hope we don't have to do what we do here all the time in there," Eve mumbled.
But the choice was too much, and the possibilities are unknown. Who knows what awaits them? The ocean is their new wall, bordering them from salvation. Maybe the two of them would've drifted into nothingness and arrived at the edge of an abyss instead. But the librarian wouldn't want that to happen. She wanted the worth in a new purpose.
To celebrate their soon-to-be departure here, the three chose to embrace the dusk by the beach. As the air froze rapidly from the ocean, the librarian quickly built a fire to warm herself and the others. It was the only pleasure they could be rewarded for.