The Land Below our Feet III (Legacy)

OBSTINATE

-Has anyone told you that you are a royal pain in the ass, Your Grace? – Finjël complained aloud as the group of camels took another strenuous step forward and his voice was rapidly carried away by the sandy wind that flew all around them – Why do you have to be so goddamn obstinate? Let’s just go back!

-He said one week… So, I still got one day left – The blue-haired man calmly replied as he raised an arm and shielded his face from the furious drafts of air.

-One night, boy – The Cahenean warrior sternly corrected him – That's all you've got… So, we better cut our losses while we still can and call this suicidal mission off before we end up being captured and eaten by the tribes, or stranded in the middle of another sandstorm.

-Not yet – Axe firmly stated. Pressing ahead and ignoring the man’s suggestion – The sun is still bright in the sky and I’m not quitting before my time is up. Not when we’ve come this close!

-Close to what, Axe? – The Yahurian guard sarcastically scoffed. Extending his arm and encompassing the desolated terrain – He is right… There’s literally nothing out here but these endless miles of barren land!

-Please! – The youngster murmured in a faint voice, straining his eyes as far as he could, trying to look past the infinite sea of hazy dunes – I just need a little bit more time to figure this out.

-Axe, we’ve done all we could – Skhana reasoned in a weak tone. Guiding the dromedary that Phomeryka and her shared towards his and placing a palm on the young man’s shoulder once they finally caught up with him – But there’s no sign of Alesh anywhere, and we are quickly running out of supplies! So, we must prepare to face the fact that we might have failed and be forced to come back empty-handed.

- But not yet – Axe repeated, as an incessant religious mantra, taking a glance at his sister, then at the rest of his companions, and involuntarily wincing at their deplorable state – I know that we are all tired, but we must have faith!

-Faith will be useless once we start starving, kid – Finjël somberly commented. Taking a sip of warm water from his old flask and silently steering his camel away from him.

-We still got that giant cat – The masked man suggested. Pointedly winking and nodding behind him, then spurring his camel and following the Cahenean one – I bet its cured meat would last us a while.

-I’d like to see you try that – The blue-haired youngster responded in a low, menacing voice, rolling his eyes.

Axe took a furtive peek at the small group of travelers and gritted his teeth, noticing how drained they all appeared, including the gigantic black feline, which paced a prudent distance after the caravan and seemed to have somehow shrunk to half its size nowadays.

He had tried leaving Rhoan at Cahen so that he would be safer, but Phomtek had been more than clear that he would have none of that.

“The hell you’re leaving an untamed beast inside these walls!” – He had angrily shouted at him as soon as he had suggested it.

“But it’s got to be a thousand degrees out there!” – The southerner had protested – “That is no place for a creature like him!”.

“Well… Neither is this” – The Cahenean Captain had responded – “And you should have thought of that before you decided to bring him across the Sand Valley and all the way here! You have already put him through a scorching torment. So, now, for bad or for worse, that poor thing is stuck with you for the rest of this ordeal.”

“That savage beast is going to devour our livestock along with us the first chance it gets!” – Finjël had grumpily complained while eyeing the black cat with mistrust – “I say you set it free and hope for the best”.

“He is not devouring anything or anyone, I promise you that” – Axe had been quick to assure him, rejecting the man’s recommendation – “And I’m not abandoning him in the wilderness...”

“Or in here” – Phomtek had added emphatically. And that’s how he had ended up having to cover Rhoan´s paws in leather once again, and making him trail after them for an excruciating week.

The notoriously harsh road that Phomtek had warned them about had seemed determined to be particularly cruel to their group as they transited its dusty fields. It had been slowly weakening them all to the verge of delirium… And he could tell that his colleagues had begun to hallucinate with troubling recurrence about the craziest of things.

Barely a day before, the Xoltunian Princess had been absolutely convinced that there was an enormous vulture flying in circles above their heads. So, she had thrown a lengthy feverish fit claiming to see its large frame casting shadows over them.

“Girl, any bird would be a welcome sight at this point!” – Akoh had bitterly mocked her, staring sadly at the perpetual blue skies as Skhana fought to restrain her partner and calm her down – “I wish you were right… I do! Cause then, at least, that would mean that there is life in this godless pit!”

“These hostile lands can surely drive people to madness” – Finjël had ominously told them – “That is why the few tribes that dare to roam them aren't quite the picture of sanity… Not that centuries of endogamy, cannibalism and seclusion have helped either, but you better limit your time out here if you know what’s best, kids”.

Axe was in no better shape than any of them, even when he tried to ignore that obvious truth at all costs… But after walking that unchanging landscape for days on end, reality had become a blurry blob, and he had found himself revisiting his last night at Cahen with concerningly increasing frequency.

Whenever his body seemed incapable of staying awake as he rode through the searing piles of sand, he would go back to those last blissful moments in the safety of the luxurious palace that seemed so distant to him now.

The image of Phomeryka readying her arrows danced before his tired eyes like a mirage. And he could almost feel the cool breeze that blew around the gardens and twirled her hair graciously from side to side while her fingers moved meticulously, humming a strange Xoltunian tune that had now annoyingly lodged in the back of his mind.

“It seems like you are all set to go, Phoms” – Axe had sheepishly observed after a while of staring blankly at her, finally gathering the courage to make his presence known.

“Not quite” – She had told him with a smug grin, as she produced the largest saber that Axe had ever seen from an ancient sheath and placed it into his hands – “I still need to sharpen Father’s birthday present… So, why don’t you stop stalking from the shadows and come help me out?”

“That’s quite a gift!” – The blue-haired young man had murmured appreciatively as he obediently sat to work next to her with dexterity.

“Yeah, he gave it to me this morning… But I liked yours better, you know?” – Phomeryka had mumbled in a weirdly shy voice that had made Axe’s eyes instantly rise and note that her features were slightly blushed – “How did you even know that I had never been kissed?”

“I didn’t” – Axe had gulped down, staring back at the humongous blade – “Honestly, I just thought that it could be something that you might enjoy.”

“Well, I did!” – She had answered, batting her eyelashes seductively at him – “So, why don’t you give me one more for the road now that we are here?”

Only a week had passed. Yet, that fluttering moment of joy seemed to have transpired eons ago. And Axe clung to it like a holly amulet as he tried not to lose all hope.

-That´s it, lad. We’re setting up camp – Finjël´s voice abruptly broke him from his delightful trance, and he was shocked to see that the sun was low on the horizon, and that it was almost evening now – You had it your way, but time is up… Tomorrow, we head back.

Defeated, he watched as everyone tiredly dismounted and began to stretch their limbs, getting ready for the night with relieved sighs. So, dragging his feet, he plopped by the fire that they had just lit and sat crossed-legged with closed eyes.

-Have some dinner – Someone had suggested. But by then he was already too immersed in his own world to care who that had been.

-In a minute – He would groggily respond before his focus completely shifted to the elusive object of his constant search once again… The Kakthos wren.

He had been summoning it nonstop throughout their entire journey to no avail. So, maybe Akoh was right after all and there was no other life form apart from them in that forsaken corner of the earth… Because as much as it pained him to accept it, he simply couldn’t feel a thing to connect with for miles on end. No plants, no bugs, nothing but silence and death.

Completely disheartened and profoundly overwhelmed, he whispered an old prayer that his mother used to say back in the day, then shut his eyes tighter one last time and took another deep breath.

At first, he didn’t know how much time it had passed when he felt the sturdy hands violently shaking him by the shoulders, and he reluctantly reopened them. But then, he realized that the sun was already out, and that he was covered in birds.