Knights of the Nine - The Unborn Seed

Chapter 13: Crimson Day

The heat, it was immensely intimidating. Ciri, Felix and the last Pride Prince stood saddled upon their steeds in the middle of a desert. The Jagged Ridge. Their water supply was nearly out, their food has been out since the battle at Fidar. The monsters weren't menacing, but they did drain energy almost as fast as the sun drained their water supply.

Ciri drank from her canteen, the final droplets landing on her tongue with a splash. She swallowed loudly, her horse - which she named Kelpie - was snorting and stomping her hooves in the sand. Ciri rubbed Kelpie's neck, having the flies and bugs fly away, to reattach themselves to another horse.

Felix's horse was the slowest and the biggest. It required the most food and water out of all other horses. Felix kept on urging his stallion forward, he thought each step would be his last yet the horse kept moving.

Negan, the last Pride Prince, rode along in his white horses saddle. He had no clue how his horse was doing so he kept on riding. Negan drank all the alcohol down in one night, drunk off his heels and into the saddle.

The heat stung like a hornet's bite, the sun burning their exposed skin, draining their exposed water, mushing the trio's exposed food. Ciri, Negan and Felix kept riding, they've been at it for - what seemed like a week - two days. Skeletons were spotted every once-in-a-while in heaps of mounds, unmarked grave territories, and in ruined, sand covered, homes.

'People used to live here?' Ciri asked as Kelpie snorted.

Felix coughed through his dry throat. 'Yeah, way before kings and queens or even certain territories were formed. Way before my time, of course. This desert used to be a jungle, with monkeys, frogs, birds, alligators, many monsters and creatures, but also humans and elves. This land was titled Ihiriox Xhama in Gracie Von Evergreene's book "Once Before".'

'Quite the read, that.' Ciri responded, shocking Felix.

'You've read that? I was forced to back when I was in the Knights... or, you know.'

The conversation died down after that, the horses stopped moving as the heat began to increase with the setting of the sun. In Ihiriox Xhama, or more knowingly called, Jagged Ridge the sun was only down for four hours. The moons were so low in the desert that they even emitted heat, making the night a deadly point for prey against the predators.

The trio let there horses rest while they checked the nearby area for caves or dens of any animals to eat. They all came up with nothing. Two of three canteens were empty, all sacks of meat depleted, all their vegetables and fruits turned bad. Felix, Negan, and Ciri were out of food and water, making this trip even more challenging and dangerous. Starvation was creeping, dehydration was peaking, and thoughts of suicide crept around inside Negan's mind.

The last Pride Prince was trying to force himself to shed tears to drink them but he couldn't. No matter the dark thoughts he put in his head, no tears fell, just his heart heavy with remorse and regret.

'No fire tonight, end up being burnt alive without feeling the flames nip at you.' Felix said digging into the sand, the small rocks bit at his sunburnt knuckles.

'What are you doing, expecting to dig to water?' Negan asked, his voice cracked as he hadn't spoke since they were at the beginning of the desert.

'It's possible... if I dig far enough.'

'You'll hit clay, break your nails and be in pain. Stop while you still got energy.' Negan said trying to force spit to fall into the canteen, it was unsuccessful.

'I'm going hunting tonight, anyone wanna join me?' Ciri asked, no one answered. 'Ok, thanks for the response.'

'Don't waste you energy, Ciri.' Felix began to take off his boots and socks to reveal cracked toes and scabbed feet. 'Nothing lives out here except monsters and other, devilish creatures.'