Wet Fire

A Shadow in the Night (E2)

Adair

The next day came and Adair woke again by their old fire-pit. He wondered how Cass had brought him back her all by herself.

"Up, I see?" Cass tossed a heavy piece of metal on Adair's stomach causing him to curl up.

"What was that?" Adair croaked. Then he saw-it was a weapon.

Standing up hesitantly, he drew the sword and studied the blade, which was red with blood and still sharp. Then he checked the hilt. Sure enough, it was encrusted with a quartz crystal.

"It's not your sword. You know that." Cass said.

"Yes, but it has my stone on it. That is enough for me." Adair turned. He felt considerably better today. "If I am going to die out here, I want everyone to know what I am."

"There's the Adair that I remember! And anyway, we're not going to die out here. We just need to find food and shelter."

Adair nodded and sheathed the sword.

...

"This water filter is the only thing keeping us alive." Cass wrapped the treasures she had salvaged from the shipwreck in a large piece of cloth and tied it around her back with a splintery rope. Their camp was being dissembled. They needed to move on.

The pair waded through the red water, trying to keep cool in the desert sun. After a while of walking, they would each splash salt water on each other to dampen their clothes and wash off sweat. In the past few days, the air had become more arid than ever before. It was not a question that they were near the desert.

The vultures had finally gone, and the beach was littered with carcasses and stray bones of men that at once served Cyclonus. Each skeleton was pecked clean. At last, the familiar reek of rotting flesh was gone.

"You've changed." said Cass, stepping over a crust of driftwood.

"Have I? I thought I wasn't to blame for all of this." Adair followed her every footstep.

"You didn't ask for your memory to be taken away--"

"I trust you Cass. For all I know, you could have told me that I was a slave and I would have believed it."

Cass blushed. "I respect you for that."

Clearly there was something up with her. "You are not telling me something. Please, what were we like before this happened-in Cyclonus?"

"Why do you ask such things?"

"Why are you so eager to keep it from me?"

She smiled and dashed forward along the beach, kicking up water as she went. "You will have to catch me to find out!" she called.

But Adair wasn't in the mood for play, he wanted answers. "No, Cass. Stop."

Out in the distance, Cass came to a halt and turned back to Adair, with her short, wet hair spiraling outwards as she jerked her head around. Her large eyes pierced his soul. Adair walked contently towards Cass, with his head down. The lassitude that had grown so familiar to him returned, and he dragged his feet through the sand.

"Cass," Adair blinked in the bright sunlight, "I don't have time to play games." Cass's smile faded. "I need to get back to Cyclonus--where exactly are we going?"

"We are going to Cyclonus." She then collapsed onto her knees and sunk her wrists into the sand. There was pain in her eyes. "It might be years...unless someone finds us here. But they don't know we are gone! How-how can we make it through the desert?" She looked up. "That is out only option. The desert. We will try for Sandscape. There we will find someone loyal to Cyclonus who can escort us out of this place."