L [o/i] ve is a journey

The Girl with the Fox Mask (The First Day Part 1) | Arrival

Heat.

Fiercely blistering heat.

A heat that attached to one's concience, able to eat it alive, and crack it open, to drink it's owner's will to live. The vast deserts of the continent of Eriash really deserved to be called boiling, burning, blazing hot.

Life in that truly deadly environment would have been impossible, if it was not for the occasional, ancient water, that collected over a long period of time in underground lakes, and served as the rarest places of life within that deadly landscape.

One of the largest settlement within such an area was a hot, if not the hottest, spot for trading: Khalaria.

A huge city, partly carved into the rocks of the formation it was called after, and carefully surrounded by high walls of grey stones that were cut from said formation, its oldest buildings whispered about an old, long forgotten civilization that arrived here to set this unlikely settlement into the stony desert of the valley. The buildings were constructed in a way, it would caught any small updraft and turn it into a gentle breeze that slithered through the heated streets, making it barely bearable to walk in the middle of the day, when the sun was at its peak.

Nerivie walked the cobblestone path and pulled the hood of her light beige coat that protected her from the scorching heat deeper. There was no patch of bare skin, only her finger tip revealed her light skin and could tell a close watcher that she was a traveller that walked a long, long way.

The little half moon formed weights that were clipped on her hood, surrounding it in a half circle, to keep it in its place hit her elaborate mask, which was made from the horn of a strange, rare magical animal, covered the upper half of her face. Her lower half was covered by a rough, light coloured scarf.

„Look at the girl with the fox mask." She heard the whisper, when she passed the occasional people that were out in this heat.

The girl, that just arrived in the capital of the local trade market, pretented not to care.

It was hot. Scorching, mind numbing hot. She liked heat, but the heat she had in mind was one that still left greens on tree and a landscape fully alive. This, however, was different.

It wasn't made better that on the way here she had to fight through a bunch of magical beasts one would expect roam the deserts for ANY source of food. It wasn't made better that she nearly died of thirst and just her gracious star of good luck granted her the blessing to find some animal tracks to a stinky water hole, that she collected, filtered out, and boiled. And it must have been the same protective star that pushed her through a sandstorm into the sight of this place.

She was tired. She was hungry. But most important of all: she felt like she stank of sweat and exhaustion.

A room. A bath. Some food. Some drinks. Some rest.

A turn to the right and the cavern, the „inside" part of Khalaria came into sight. One thing after another. She had to sell the monster parts she- forcebly due meeting giant sand scorpions, human sized antlions, and two or three giant death sand worms- collected, so a visit to the local adventurer's guild was therefore appropriate.

***

She left the adventurer's guild a few minutes later, with a surprising amount of money. „Maybe", she thought, „I should stay here a while and keep the trade routes... clean." It's been a while since she felt filthy rich, even though it was only enough to keep her going for less than a year.

She turned the street and entered the market, where the guildsman told her the hostel was situated, and got herself a small room for a while. Today, she would clean herself from the stink the desert forced her body to excreed, and sleep, before she would eat and see how the city faired during the evening and night.