Blazing Heat

Nine days into the journey I reflected on how I was still alive...

The blazing fire of the sun had been carved into my body with its eyes pinned on me through each day and night, I had been traveling through the desert from my homeland of Noxu to the land of Naperone, following in my grandfathers footsteps to research more about their country and return to mine to try and help it. I knew the journey was going to be a tough one, but the heat of the harsh desert was something I had never imagined, doubt filled my mind, each thought became more deteriorated as the consumed me.

At the start of my venture I was full of confidence, leaving my land was a wish I had dreamed of for many years, I was finally able to do it and achieve something great at the same time by carrying out my grandfathers wishes. As I set off into the golden, tanned, sandy dunes before me, I looked towards the sun in awe at the beauty it set upon the land I was going to explore. I was mesmerized by its bright shine, but little did I know it was about to become the biggest enemy I would ever face.

Soon after I set off, all the naive confidence that had once filled my body was sucked out like a vampire feasts upon a young damsel, the heat was not even my biggest problem at the start. It was the land itself.

Noxu is a small country, especially compared to Naperone, but it is a country that is still one with the Earth. The ground is solid mass in Noxu and that is the first challenge I faced in the desert, every step I took made me sink into the ground as the sand seemed to move and surround my feet instead of letting me step onto it and continue on my journey. The more steps I took, the more I sunk into the ground and had to drag myself up, filling my clothes with the grainy land, I grew more and more irritated and with becoming more harsh, I started to take harder steps, taking my anger out on the sand which only bite back at me more. The harder I smacked the ground, the more I sunk through it and more sand got into my clothes. Eventually, I learnt to be light on my feet which with this land which allowed me to glide across its plains.

After defeating my first challenge in the sandy crossings, I felt confident once more, I felt invincible. My naivety had returned, and I thought that would be the hardest thing I had to overcome in my journey. Again, I knew little about what was ahead of me.

The heat started to affect me fully around five days into my adventure, I started to hallucinate and lose track of everything around me. I started to despise the thing that I once looked up to for making the world look beautiful and wished it would fall out of the sky forever. I think once I started to think about the heat it got much, much, worse and the more I tried to ignore it and get on with what I was doing, it was like the sun did not like that, it was like whenever I didn't notice it, it would turn its heat up and focus it directly at me.

I prayed all day for it to become night-time, for the sun to disappear and for me to have a few hours without its blaze upon me. So I could rest and prepare my body for the torture of the next day when the sun came back to play with me once more. However, I once again was being foolish. For the night was just as bad as the day. For with the falling of the sun in the sky came the rise of new heat. Maybe it was all in my head, maybe the sun had defeated me early and the heat had sunk that deep into my veins all I could feel was its devilish burn. But even so, the nights were just as hot as the days.

I don't know how I'm still alive or even how my grandfather made the journey all those years ago. Maybe he didn't? Maybe he did die trying to get to Naperone, nobody ever saw him after he left.

Suddenly, my body gave way.

My legs collapsed and I smacked the scorching sand underneath my boots. The grains burned into my face as the sun burned into my back. I was unable to move and the only thought that filled my mind now was that I was going to die, either of dehydration or lack of food, maybe even from burning to death?

I couldn't let myself go out like this, I thought to myself, I promised everyone back in Noxu I would complete this mission and come back to them. Trying to muster all the strength left in my body, I started to crawl, I wasn't very fast and the sand digging into my body, burning me in all areas, made it that much more of a task to keep going and I simply had no idea if I would even be able to keep on going on like this for long...

With the incalescence of the sun still watching every move I make...