The fallen star

Chapter 4: The shimmering desert

The jet sped over the grassland towards the shimmering heat of the desert sands. "We have to go back though, we need to find Boreas. Hold on I'll turn this around". Skye started to turn the bronze wheel around, suddenly Silver shouted "he's dead! He's gone, never coming back!" "What do you mean?" "The battle at the misty lake. He was killed by a close friend, they never recovered the body" Seraph chipped in "so... He could technically be alive" Silver glared in his direction "really... my father who disappeared 19 years ago and has never been seen since. Still alive, stop daydreaming Seraph" he turns to look out the glass dome at as the grassland slowly turns into sand stretching into the distant, he and Seraph slowly close their eyes.

The jet leaps into the air causing Seraph to hit his head on the roof "ow... should of worn the stupid seatbelt" the jet slows down and crawls to a stops "I think we may be lost, we should of at least seen the city by now" she opens the roof and climbs onto the front "it's a city surrounded by a wall, we should of found it" "too bad Gaia isn't with us, she could of found it quickly" a small rumbling occurs which causes the jet to slowly shake "uh... what's causing that?" Skye leaps back into the jet and activates the engine "sand sharks" at that moment a small dusty yellow shark leapt out the sand and over the jet, the engine roars back into life and accelerates "I can freeze it when it jumps out the sand" Silver kicks off the glass roof and stands up, trying to create a spear of ice "why isn't it working?" "we must be in a fire orientated domain, ice is useless here unless you have a catalyst to use" "damn it" the sand shark swiftly follows the jet with its head above the sand, as it see's Silver it shoots a thorn from its fin hitting Silver in the side, causing him to fall unconscious and fall out the jet as it speeds off, the sand shark goes over to the unconscious Silver, but decides to follow the jet instead.

Silver slowly wakes up, dragging himself up out of the sand, noticing that the sun is setting over the horizon "perfect... the last thing I need is to be lost in the desert" he begins to slowly walk towards a nearby hill of sand "need a good vantage point, don't panic too much" as they begin to scamper up the hill, he notices a small stream of smoke rising from the other side "placing bets now, life or death". Silver reaches the top, panting heavily, he looks down and collapses tumbling down the hill and slowly rolling down until he comes to a stop, staring at the night sky as the cracking of a fire fills the air.

Standing up and dusting the recent sand from his clothing he notices a black haired and blue eyed male standing next to the fire, looking at him as if he was being analysed "um... hi" Silver takes a step forwards but stops when he sees the stranger draw a gun from under his yellow cloak "I'm not an enemy" the figure holds the gun level, there finger resting on the trigger "fine, if you have to shoot.." he quickly dives to the left as a shot rings out across the barren land and a small thud is heard from where Silver had just been standing moments before, he looks back to see a python laying head first in the sand.

"You saved me from being killed by a snake, thanks" Silver turns around in time to see the figure going to hit him in the head, he sees the gun coming but has no time to react and gets hit, knocking him to the floor as his vision goes blurry as the person starts walking away "head towards the pillars" he states and throws a blue crystal over his shoulder, hitting Silver on the head and completely knocking him unconscious.

Silver leaps up to his feet, getting in a fighting pose "where are you!" he notices the blue, tear shaped, crystal glinting in the harsh sunlight and proceeds to pick It up "it looks like an ice catalyst, these are rare. Was he trying to help me or kill me?" he looks around and notices several pillars sticking out the sand a few miles in front of him "looks a bit too far to just walk, this ice catalyst could be used to make a short ice road" he points the crystal forward and creates a stream of ice that floats down and settles on the sand, forming a slope towards the pillars. Silver gets a running start and jumps onto the ice road sliding along it "well, at least it hasn't lost its power".

After several minutes of skating along the ice, he notices a shimmer of light between four pillars, whilst placing the catalyst in his pocket he whispers to himself "can't hurt to look" as the catalyst is put away, the ice disappears causing Silver to fall and tumble down the sand in front of the pillars, as he gets closer he notices the inscriptions on the pillars "eagle, sun, pineapple, gummy bear" a giggling is heard from nearby followed by someone being shushed "I'm not alone then, judging by the sound it might be a child... and I should stop talking to myself" "get the captain, a storm approaches" Silver looks out towards the desert and sees a small sandstorm moving straight towards them, as it nears the pillars, a figure clad in Bronze armour and helmet leaps in front with their sword drawn and pointed at the storm "stand back stranger! The wind demon approaches, I will take of it" as they say this, the feather protruding from their helmet changes from white to red and the sword lights itself casting flames along the edge of the blade, the figure looks at Silver and he notices through the visor that they have vibrant green eyes "I'll apologize later" they say before a rumbling is heard behind Silver and the figure kicks him into a newly opened hole before they dash off into the desert.

As Silver falls into the hole, he hits the walls causing several bruises to collect on his arms and legs, he looks down and see's the ground rushing up to meet him, causing his reflexes to close his eyes, but the impact never happens, instead he hovers above the ground "um... can I be put down now?" several figures clothed in orange garbs and poncho's gather around Silver, they suddenly stop and one steps forwards, he is smaller than the rest of the group, his eyes remain closed but he has a yellow garb and white hair that seems to of been combed round his face to make a beard, he speaks in a slow monotone voice "friend or foe" "I do not wish to cause you or your people any harm, I am simply looking for my friends" as these words are spoken, Silver drops onto the floor "follow me" the old man states and leads him to a set of doors, which seem to open on their own revealing a town moulded from the sand of the desert "the guardians must of seen your honesty, otherwise you would have been killed in seconds, so let me be the first to welcome you to the town of illusions, Dustopia"