The Enchantments: Book 3 - The Key of Sorcen

Chapter 35: Well of Spirits

The wind swept earth was like a million webs lined with cracks as the sun shone down like a furnace upon the land. Dust devils whipped around drifting up sand like a mist across the parched ground. Heavy shoes tromped down through the dust and the dirt filling the dry air with a haze that drifted lazily down with the lack of a breeze.

Shawn knew the weather was going to be hot from his reading of Simeneon's memoirs of the search for the small section of the Key of Gandar. He sat amazed as he reviewed how Simeneon and Fin had made their way to the top of the mountain with the help of parachutes. She described in full detail how they had defeated the rock creatures and the minions that had gathered at the door of the great castle, but from what Shawn had heard when they had made their way to the town of Tumbleweed Gulch was that the castle was now in disrepair. What they didn't know was the castle held a greater secret than first anticipated.

He looked back at the figure trying desperately to keep up with him and sighed. Crazy was starting to get on his nerves. At first, he liked the guy, but the longer he had to put up with his constant complaining and whining, it started to wane on his nerves ever that much more.

"Why couldn't we have taken a break back at the town?" Crazy whined.

"That would have wasted too much time," Fin grumbled back.

"This is ridiculous!" He growled.

Shawn snapped around to face his tired partner, "I'm sorry if you disagree with my insistence to get this done as fast as possible but there's something more important going on in the big picture then you could ever imagine!' He said angrily.

"I never asked for this!" Crazy choked. "All I wanted was to get an exclusive story, not an adventure!"

Shawn wanted to avoid an argument as much as possible so he composed himself by taking in a large breath of the scorched air. "Just think about it, you won't have to write in the third person anymore. You can write the whole thing in the first. Tell the story through your eyes. It's every writer dream to tell a story after it's happened to you. You're living a dream man, go with it!"

"But I like the third person," he blubbered. "The third person won't get me killed!"

Shawn sighed as he turned back to the cliffs. He tried to put Crazy's constant bickering in the back of his mind but he didn't know if it was the intense heat or the dry conditions, but he found it almost impossible. He peered up towards the sun-drenched sky where a small bird was drifting lazily in the air and watched it slowly fly away. The bird was glorious as it swooped and darted towards the ground then floated up along the warm currents and landed on a distant ledge that held the Castle of the Cliffs.

Even if the desert was like a furnace, it was still a beautiful and wondrous place that held many secrets he wished he had time to understand, try, and discover those secrets he could unlock. Maybe under different circumstances, he could live those dreams but there were more important things to worry about now.

He shifted the pack on his back and looked towards the distant cliffs and the menacing feeling that the Castle of the Cliffs gave him. Something wasn't right there and he hoped he would be able to rectify that but something told him over the constant whining of Crazy trudging up behind that it would be more difficult than anyone could ever imagine.

Dr. Miller landed hard upon the ground of rock where he rolled to his right and waited. The worse thing that could happen to him now was to get caught before he even had a chance to find Marlanda and her captures. First things first, he knew scoping the surroundings was the most important task at that time.