Minstrel

Chapter #20 ~ Creak

Creak watched her feet as she walked through the snowless pine forest. She had followed Vern for a week, his promise of a safe place was the only thing that kept her going. She couldn't remember when the temperature had gotten so hot, but by the start of their second week traveling to Vern's home Creak found herself sweating.

'But it's almost the middle of winter!' She thought. Just a few days ago she had been freezing to death and playing in the snow. How could it have changed so fast?

"Not all places are cold in the winter." Gorgos said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'You've forgotten I haven't traveled much. I didn't know the temperature wasn't at least close in most places.' Creak didn't feel like arguing with herself, but she felt like she might have something to learn from Gorgos. She just needed to get the information out of her.

"Well there are these things called climates and different areas have different ranges of temperatures." Creak smiled when she didn't even have to fight to get answers.

'So what kind of climate are we going into that makes it so warm?' She asked the voice inside her.

"People call it a desert. Its know to be really hot in the day and freezing at night. A place so dry few things can survive." Gorges sounded a bit too happy about the last part, but Creak tried not to stress about it. Vern seemed to know where he was going so surely he knew how to survive the journey.

When Creak looked up from her feet she saw a sight she never thought she would see. The end of pine trees. They just abruptly stopped growing like an invisible wall prevented them from going any farther.
The idea of seeing something other than the same trees she had traveled through for two weeks sent Creak stumbling over the needle covered floor.

'Is it the desert?' She bubbled with excitement. 'What does a desert even look like?'

The fatigue of little food and sleep had Creak trip over her own feet. Just as she was about to face plant in a pile of fallen, brown needles, Vern caught her around the waste.

"Geez." He set her back on her feet. "Slow down. You don't want to burn out the last of your strength."

Creak smiled up at him. "Thanks. I just really want to get out of these trees."

Vern grimaced. "You'll be wishing for the trees by tomorrow."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." She looked around the pine forest. Every tree looked the same. Same color, same height. It was a little unsettling. "I think I've seen enough pine trees for my life time."

Vern shook his head with a soft grin. "Too bad we'll have to walk through them again on our way back."

Creak nodded in agreement. She didn't want to stay at Vern's safe place for forever. Her brother wouldn't be there and Creak couldn't imagine a life without her brother. Though it wasn't safe to go back to him, one day she would find a way.

Steadying herself, Creak grabbed Vern's hand and pulled him out of the pine forest and into a whole new world. It was yellow, red, and orange all at the same time. Hills of weird, hot dirt and nothing. The new world was made of hot dirt and sky. Looking out at the air Creak marveled at the way it swayed. She had never seen wavy air or so much nothingness.

"What is this?" She crouched to the ground and let the dirt sift out of her fingers. It was finer than dirt and a whole lot drier.

Vern crouched beside her and scooped up his own handful of the stuff. "It's sand." He tossed some into the air. "You've never seen sand before?"