Summoned to a Shattered World

Birthright Chapter 33 - The Desert of Shifting Steel

Once the wagons Vorisen's men had brought were loaded with supplies, we set out. The great four-legged hulks of muscle that pulled them, one animal to a wagon, were vaguely reminiscent of oxen. Other than their asymmetric misshapen bodies their basic structure was similar, at least until you got to the heads. Namely because they didn't have any; just three gash-like mouths in a circle on their torso surrounded by a number of eyes that varied from one individual to another. They appeared docile but I kept a wide berth. There was no telling what something so grotesque might do, especially in a world where magic was a part of everyday life.

With the ogres some distance behind us, we walked at the back of the column. I assumed our position at the rear was a deliberate slight, but it suited me just fine. Let them face whatever we ran into while we were safe back here, they deserved the face the brunt of the danger.

After we left the manor behind and entered the actual wilderness beyond, I looked around. "Are you sure we'll be able to find them?"

"If we can't, they'll probably find us."

"Isn't that pretty dangerous then? They could easily just lay an ambush for us."

"Of course," she sounded awfully matter-of-fact about the whole thing, "we're marching right into enemy territory, what else would you expect? I suggest you keep your eyes open."

I'd been feeling relatively okay about this trip but her words made me a bit anxious. Somehow the idea of us probably walking into a trap didn't sit too well with me. "Well, can you tell me what I'm supposed to look for at least?"

Elmidath shrugged. "You've seen the Tertiums before, right? Big, hairy? See if you can spot any of those and let me know if you do."

"Uh, won't they be hidden?"

"Only if there's somewhere to hide. Watch out for any likely places, I guess."

I was going to do as she suggested, but I had little confidence that I'd be able to spot anything. Everything was too unfamiliar out here. I assumed the demons marching in front of us would have a better chance of it, or so I hoped; this was their homeland after all. What was left of it at least, considering what Elmidath had said about the history of the world.

Looking at the hard, glossy ground around us, riddled with cracks, I wondered what this place had looked like once. Had it been a pristine forest or grassland? Or something even more alien than what was here now? Maybe this particular region never existed in either world and the resulting combination of the two had created a shape unlike the others. Speaking of shapes... was this world even a sphere? Now that I thought about it, I really had no idea but no other shape made any sense to me. "Hey Elmidath, sorry if this sounds like a weird question, but is this world round?"

"Uh, yeah." She gave me an odd look. "Why?"

"That's good, I was just wondering."

Putting any strange notions about this planet's form to rest before I got started probably saved me a lot of painful thought. Even my initial thoughts in that direction had been enough to make my head hurt. Despite all the magic and demons, knowing this world was the same shape as Earth somehow made me feel more at home. My new-found familiarity quickly faded as we passed beyond the area I'd spent most of my time in.

Skirting the deep ravine that marked the edge of Azurius, the region in which Elmidath's domain lay, we passed westward into Phengaris. The stretches of blackened earth ended, replaced by fine brown-red sand with a silver sheen. Even the air tasted of metal; to the point where I could taste nothing else.

Swirling through the air in little clouds, the sand's movement seemed to have nothing to do with wind. Instead it moved either toward or away from uneven trapezoids buried by the shifting dunes. It floated through the air or shifted along the ground like a living thing. And yet when the wagons rolled forward they didn't get stuck, indeed they flowed over the ground like it was a paved road.