Delmora: The Lost Quest

Halfas

Their journey continued and much to their relief they were heading towards less dry terrain. The wispy sand gave way to cracked, hard road, and in the distance they could make out more than just sand mountains. Clouds were starting to form in the sky and the chirping of birds was heard above the constant wind.

When they joined a wider road, travellers, nomads, camels and people crossed their paths. All with some kind of head cloth covering their faces or hair. It was a fashion the travellers themselves wore. The sand was still hard and the sun even more insufferable. They all moved with their heads down and their cloths the same colour as their sun kissed skin.

The Ranger stopped them on more than one occasion when long trails of people in white walked passed them. Their faces and eyes were covered in full robes. You could smell them before you even saw them on the road. They carried the scent of rotted flesh, shrivelled and enhanced by the desert heat. The long processions carried just that, on wagons covered in cloth.

They stopped and watched the strange and solemn march for the second time, Tyler almost shielded Nyam's eyes. The boy was very quiet as they passed, his head was high in the air as though he was reading the sky. The robbed mourners never looked up from the cargo they moved. Their tears had dried on their faces, and the only thing they were left with the face of pure grief. The men carried the wagon while the women and children, old and young trailed behind.

Simone was the only stranger who was engrossed on the wagons that wheeled by. His fascination was largely ignored but he could not help himself from examining every crispy limb that jutted out from the wagons. Some bodies were uncovered and held up on their own on cots, their grotesque rotting bodies for all eyes to see.

Tyler felt like vomiting at the site of them but Simone looked on unbothered, even by the smell.

Their faces and bodies were thin and cracked with huge holes in them. Boils pussed on their rotting skin, covering whole parts of their bodies in extreme cases.

One passed by, her hair was black, half fallen off, short and thin. Blisters covered 90% of her visible body. She was skeletal, all the moisture sucked out of her. Simone flinched as he took in her features. Her chest was rising and falling ever so slightly. Nyam gasped and grabbed hold of Simone's arm.

Simone jumped at the touch.

"She's alive" Simone whispered.

"not for much longer" Nyam said.

Tyler turned his head away.

"I don't want to know" He said.

When the death march passed they continued again. With a morbid feeling.

"those people had a disease" Simone observed. "It wasn't just the sun that killed them."

"A disease? How could you tell?" Tyler said.

"Burn blisters look a lot different" Simone said.

"Where are they taking them?" Nyam asked.

Tyler sighed, "maybe some burial ground"

"not out here, you don' burry the dead, you burn them" Edith said.

"burn them" Simone repeated distantly speaking low almost to himself he said, "Thats forbidden in Delfoil. There are strict fire restrictions"

"those poor souls" Lance said "they're with the light now"

"didn't even get a proper burial" Tyler said.

Morn laughed "You think they care?"

"Well clearly their families do" Tyler said.

"If they were true to their people they will be remembered." Edith said.