Children of Prophecy

Astra: Chapter 6

We continued our journey in the desert spotting some big dragonflies occasionally. The forest seemed peaceful in comparison to the desert where any creatures could come out of nowhere.

It was very hot, too hot for comfort and we had made plenty stops in the journey drinking water which we would soon run out of. We walked and walked in the desert heat until I spotted something moving in front of us. I thought the heat was getting my head, after all my sight was getting hazy. The moving sand came closer and closer as I rubbed my eyes to see if it was still any trickery behind it, but then out of the sand came a sand dweller diving on top of us with its mouth wide open ready to swallow us.

We shouted and I fired a flame inside its mouth panicking. We scrambled away from where we stood and had our guards up if it ever came back again. Basil had his sword ready while Tabitha and I had our magic orbs on our hands ready to fire. As we suspected, it re-surfaced, but not without bringing any company with it. We began to feel a bit more terrified as two more had approached. Tabitha and I fired at it trying to fend it off, but they were too strong. Even Basil was stuck trying to fend it off until suddenly a vehicle with a big fan on the back came with people dressed in desert clothes. They jumped of their vehicle with ropes and threw them over each of the Sand Dwellers pinning them down. One of them shouted "looks like we caught a lot this time!” We stared at them in awe at what they had managed to do, at least before we got knocked out. 

I woke up tied onto a chair; I looked to my side seeing Basil and Tabitha in the same situation. I looked around to see that we were in some kind of cave. "I see you're awake" a voice said. "Come out coward", I spat out. Two people came out from the shadows, twins? One of them wore a grin and had a small diamond shaped mark on his right cheek, while the other had on the opposite side and wore a stoic expression. Both of them had sandy brown hair and forest green eyes. "My name is Raphael and the one with stoic expression is my younger twin Sunspot or Spot us we call him", the boy called Raphael explained as he got hit in the by his brother saying "Only by five minutes". I blinked and then laughed as I watched them have a weird conversation and argument about being the eldest twin. They turned to look at me and laughed with me. Tabitha woke up eventually and Basil woke up with asking ‘who? What?’ And where?’ I could see he was confused and I mentally face palmed at him.

The twins let us go and introduced us to the Storm Raiders of the Desert. They were desert thieves who collected precious artefacts from ruins. We got more acquainted and had a very lively supper. ”So, wat'cha doin here in the desert?” Raphael asked. I looked at Tabitha earning a nod to trust them and maybe ask them to accompany us on our journey. I explained everything to them occasionally switching on the explanations with Basil and asked if they would like to join us. "I see, then we shall join in your journey", Spot answered earning a surprised look from Raphael. It seems that Spot does not really talk much if his brother has an expression like that.

We stayed a few more days with the Storm Raiders before continuing our journey, but this time we got to ride for the first time a Chamrosh which made it a bit faster to get to the Ice Kingdom. We rode through the desert feeling the wind, but suddenly a sandstorm came so we had to set camp in a small sandstone cave. We chatted and talked about what we had planned to do. I woke up early in the morning noticing that the sandstorm was gone. The Chamrosh were sleeping and I heard a deep growl from inside the cave. I went to see what it was and as I got deeper inside I saw a black object. It was a Sand Dweller, but it looked slightly different from the ones we had encountered and this was obviously twice as big as them.

I ran back to the others as I notice it flinch a bit. I woke them up saying that there was a huge creature inside and we to leave now and fast. Everyone except Spot, who actually listened to me, sat up rubbing their eyes asking again. Before I could explain again, the beast had already awakened completely when we heard the roar. Spot and I shouted, "Hurry and wake up sleepy heads! Get on the Chamroshes and we got to bail now!" They finally came to and rushed in doing things. We got out of the cave and as I looked back, the beast was hot on our trail. I tried shooting a light orb at it only to fail in knocking it down and making it spread out its wings. “That thing is not a Sand Dweller! That is a legendary Amphiptere!” Raphael shouted in horror. We would be dead if we let it get to us. It started to flap its wings beginning to fly and I told the Chamroshes to hurry up. It was gaining on us. Tabitha and I were trying hard to slow it down with our magic, but it was too strong. We arrived at a ruin and hid inside a small space underneath the main floor. We heard the Amphiptere fly over us and Raphael had to hold his hand in front of his mouth to keep him from screaming in panic. When it went away, we sighed in relief and continued our journey.

We got to the border and as amazing as it seemed, on our side it was sunny and hot, but on the other side it snowed and the air was chilly. We had finally arrived in the Ice country. The only thing left to do was get to the great library.