Where The Sun Rises - Chapter 1

The light gusts of wind moved the sand along the surface of the dune. It glowed golden under the morning sun peeking from the distant tall hills. Orma’s brown boots were sinking into the sand with every step, always just a tad under her ankle. The hood of her Orange cloak was tightly clad over her head, along with a dark brown scarf over her mouth and nose, with black goggles over her eyes. She walked East, like she was told by her mother many days ago, maybe months or even years which spanned over a time she would not know. All about time beyond days was forgotten time ago, or at least what Orma knew.

Walking in the sea of sand made her remember the water, the time when her father’s boat was all she knew. On the boat she was read books by her mother, and learned to read herself. She would drink filtered seawater, and eat all sorts of seafood. She would swim every day, not fearing the waves, no matter what size they were, her mother would always watch over her from the boat, and bring her back to the deck by simply reaching out for her.

Now she knew the driest of all the lands, a never-ending beach with little, but no apparent access to water. She sat down in the shade, on a solid, stone floor with one wall facing the sun, it was like a ruined room, slowly sinking into the sand. She slipped off a rucksack full of pockets from under her cloak, it was half-full. She took a flask of water that dangled off her right hip and drank a little, before opening the rucksack and eating dry pieces of meat, and taking sips of water with every bite. She searched through the rucksack and pulled out an apple. Ever since she found a forest of apple trees what she would say was close to a year ago, she always kept many of them for as long as she could, before they would go bad. The first time she took some with her, the two that rested at the bottom of her rucksack nearly ruined it along with other food she had with her. The one she just took out and ate was her second last apple, and after she pressed her lips together looking at its stalk, she threw the seeds into the sand. She stood up and left two pieces of meat on the ground, along with a couple of grapes.

She walked off the platform and continued up a dune, and struggled as her knees began to sink under the sand. She pulled through, and stood on top of it. Ahead of her, in the distance she could see that the mountains she is approaching have a parting in the middle, and in the parting is a structure. By the end of the day she should be at the gates.

A little closer up was a town, or what was left of it. Roughly fifteen weathered buildings, all with their roofs collapsed. It appeared that the journey will get easier now, since the ground will become solid after she conquers two more dunes. It was like that on that desert for the whole six days that she walked, for a couple of days she could be struggling to walk, and on other days she could hear her boots tap on its surface.

She was running out of food and water, so she knew she had to to get somewhere as quick as she can, because not many creatures inhabit the desert as she realised, and the only ones she saw she was not able to eat, and of course water was nowhere to be seen. As soon as she remembered that thought, the sand in the dune behind her began to shift, and above it she saw something blue flash out of her sight. She slid off the last dune and stepped on a nearly solid surface. Then she turned her head back towards the dunes.

A creature sprung out of the sand, and as it landed on solid ground it began to gallop towards her on its two charred arms. It looked as if it was made of just burnt bone, it gurgled loudly and aggressively and wobbled from place to place, its tail swinging around uncontrollably. Orma was running as soon as she noticed it, but it gained distance too quickly for her to escape. It grabbed her back and slammed her to the ground. It lifted her up and opened its mouth after looking her in the eye as her legs were barely grazing the ground. The inside of its mouth was black and dry. Orma knew that a creature like that wouldn’t need food to survive, it would have starved to death a long time ago. It wanted to kill her out of viciousness, and Orma didn’t like that. She reached towards her left hip, and swung out a dagger, continuing the swing until she reached behind her back, stabbing the creature between the thumb and the rest of the hand. Hysterically, the creature whipped its hand back as it let Orma go. She stumbled a little, and as it used its other hand to slam into her, she closely evaded it and slashed the inside of its elbow. The creature fell onto that slashed elbow and Orma jumped onto its back. She was just about to direct the dagger towards the creature’s head, when it began turning onto it’s back, and as Orma slipped off and was about get crushed by its weight, she held the Dagger up towards it’s nape; it went all the way in. In that moment, like hot sparks, burning, orange ashes swarmed the ground, and Orma along with it. The creature was gone, and the ashes that appeared where it was, settled and became white as they cooled down. They began mixing with the sand, and Orma sighed, stretched, put back her dagger, turned back towards the mountains and kept going.

She was passing through the town as the sun was right above her. All the doorways had no doors, the windows were empty frames, and in some places there wasn’t any walls to have windows or doors put into. Orma knew it was pointless to explore. She was running out of food and wanted to find someplace where she can. Although aware that the desert is desolate, Orma kept looking around, she knew she was being watched for three days now, and last night she slept well, after the other two when she was suspicious. At moments she could see flashes of blue escape her sight when she looked back. Before, she was defensive, now she’s more curious. As she walked towards the end of the ruined town, she dropped two pieces of dry meat into the sand that she had in a little pocket on the inside of the cloak.

As she kept going, and the sky began to darken, a lot more ruined structures started appearing. Stone arches under which she passed, and sat under for a little to get some shade. Once it got cooler, she slipped the scarf off her face, and put the googles away, and as it was getting darker, she found a small building with three remaining walls, where she decided she will sleep.

She put her rucksack in a corner and took out a peach and two carrots. Then she touched the rucksack with her palm, took a deep breath, and as she breathed out, the rucksack began to let out cold steam, and shone with frost.

She gazed towards the great gate, and it was possibly only an hour away, but there was only a couple of minutes of light left, and the last night she took a risk like that she had to sleep in the sand, and was constantly looking out for something that would want to chase her.

She was sitting as close as she could to her rucksack, just far enough to not feel the cold coming from it. After she ate, she crossed her legs and closed her eyes. As she opened them, they glowed orange, and she looked around. What she could see was a blue light behind a wall to her left, while the great gate was to her right. Whatever was giving the light off was not far, but it was moving frantically, until it stopped moving and began to shift, as if it was being pulled. Orma immediately stormed off into the darkness, racing towards the blue light.

The blue light was showing the location of a boy, wearing a blue tunic, along with white trousers and thin, brown shoes. Or one shoe, he was being pulled by two muscular, slouched, bony creatures, as he tried to wrestle away, and towards his shoe that laid in the middle of a room deprived of walls. He was grunting and crying. There were no tears however, and his lips were also dry. He was quickly losing strength, and it seemed that he has already lost lots of it.

As the creatures landed in the sand, they began to sink into it, and the boy began to screech in terror. Desperately trying to pull himself up, but his hands were sinking into the sand every time he tried. He also leaned his head out of the sand as much as he could, until it was just his head left. When a hand reached out for his head out of the sand, grabbed it and was about to pull it down, with the sound of a slashing blade, the hand slipped off the boy’s head and fell into the sand. Immediately, another hand, this time a smooth one, and soft, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him out.

The owner of that smooth hand had the boy in her grasp, it was Orma, her furious eyes still shining in orange. The two creatures raised from the sand, and gurgled. They rushed at her, and with every attempt they made to scratch her, or kick her, or grab her, she evaded, and slashed their hands, until she got one’s head as she slipped under it as it leapt at her and she tossed back her dagger as it landed. And as the second one tried to leap at her with its black teeth ready to bite into her neck, the boy, as if he appeared out of nowhere, tackled the creature to the side, and as it got up, he got away just as fast, moaning in fear. Then Orma slid down and punched it in the chin, her hand passing through the sparks that ignited as the creature dispersed.

She stood up and looked around, there was no sign of the boy.

‘I saw you already!’ Orma yelled, ‘You might as well come out instead of hiding from me!’

There was no reply, Orma breathed in deeply, and continued,

‘I will not hurt you. Look, I wouldn’t have tried helping you if I wanted to!’

There was still no reply, and when Orma tried calling out a third time, she saw the boy approach her slowly, with his head tucked between his shoulders, and staring at her with wide, fearful eyes, and both shoes on.

‘Hi.’ Orma said as she smiled.

‘Hi…’ the boy said as the cracks on his lips opened as he smiled.

‘Thirsty?’ she asked.

‘Yeah…’ the boy scratched his ear.

Orma turned around and as she walked back towards the great gate, she said, ‘come on, I’ll get you some water.’

The boy followed her back, and as she grabbed her flask, she told him to take a couple of sips as she grabs something from her rucksack. He took two desperately huge gulps, and quickly stopped.

‘I’m sorry…’ he said ‘I don’t want to drink the whole thing, because then you won’t have any…’

‘That’s alright.’ Orma replied, ‘I’ll get you something.’

They got back to the three-walled room. There she touched her rucksack with her palm, and as the frost evaporated from around the rucksack, she reached into it and grabbed the apple, which she gave to the boy. He ate it whole, and thanked her for the food and the water.

‘It’s alright…’ she said, ‘what’s your name?’

‘Neb.’ He said as he sat down with her.

‘I’m Orma. I’m looking for people, wouldn’t mind the company if you want to come with me.’

Neb smiled, with his now, smoother, but still crackly lips, and happily said,

‘You found one already, and uh- yes, I’ll come with you, thank you!’

‘Great! Now sleep, you look like one of those things that tried eating you.’ Orma said.

Neb snickered lightly, and after Orma gave him a pillow and her cloak to put around himself, they laid down and slept.