Princess Cari Scattered Arc Part Two

In The Desert

Ryo found that he could not move a he slowly woke up. His eyes rested on a yellow-cream sky. No, that was the ground. His head moved up and as he did his cheek felt like it was scratched by something. As his vision became clearer he soon realized that the yellow-cream sky was not the sky, it was sand. He was in a sea of sand.

He felt cold and as his movement retuned to him he felt his mouth was dry and had bits and pieces of sand in his mouth, this made his mouth hurt which made the dryness in his mouth just that much more worse. With the salt in the sand it also made his wounds hurt and saw.

He looked around, his mind in a blur as he looked up at the sky as it tuned dark purple. His eyes met over a thousand stars that he ha never seen before. He saw other colours like blue and and pink and red and lighter shades of purple and lilac with stars scattered like silver glitter. He had never seen so much beauty and he had never seen anything like this in the skies back home.

He then looked around and spotted the Chronicler beside him. She was starting to wake up. She slowly got to her feet. She looked around with a look that could only be described as nostalgia.

“Where are we?” he asked. “And where are the others?”

She blinked away the tiredness in her eyes. She looked around and then back t Ryo.

“Well, Scar and Oran are both in Scar's world and time, Kir is with that pirate and Cari...Well, she is with an old friend.” she said.

“Good or bad?”

“Bad once but good now.” she said.

“How do we get back to them?”

“Well, they will come to us, apart from Kir and the pirate.” she said. “Now, we need to get to the nearest town, being out here is never a good idea.”

“Where will we stay tonight?”

“We will stay in a tavern here. I know of a good one, if I am right about where we are.” she said. “Although I am going to have to get a job, after all we are running out of supplies.”

He looked at the scar on her cheek and gulped out of dread.

“Who will you be killing?” he asked as they started walking where the Chronicler was going.

She looked at him with a questioning look on her face.

“What makes you think that I am to kill anyone?”

“That F scar's a mark of an assassin.” he said.

She smiled.

“So you know a bit about the world do you?” she asked slyly.

“I know enough.” he relied.

“Alright, you have me there, however I am not going to be here as an assassin, no, I am sure that the tavern that we shall be going to will tell you all that you need to know.”

“So how many jobs did you take before you came to us?” he asked.

“Ahh, you are preceptive! Well I took many jobs and it looks like I was right. We are in Arrian.” she said as she looked in the distance.

“The Desert Planes...So this is where you're from!” he exclaimed.

“How do you know?”

“The colour of your skin, and the shape of your eyes.”

“That obvious?”

She then walked into the town whose buildings looked like they were the same colour of the sand and the roofs, if you could them that, were flat and had clothes and rugs on ropes linked by two wooden poles. None of the houses had glass only wooden doors that were on hinges. The doors were plain with a round top.

“Why are the buildings shaped like that?” he asked.

“Because it hardly rains here so the locals take full advantage of the sun, however they must all go to the same wells over there.” she said as she pointed to a large and deep well, where there was a pool of water. “Most of that comes from under the ground.”

“What? You mean that there's water that comes from the ground!”

“Yes, in fact there are many underground rivers, and that is where they get their water from.” she said.

“Whoa!”

She smiled as they approached a purple inn, that was shaped like the others but it had four levels. It was called The Arrianian Knights. His face dropped as he looked at her.

“You're a bounty hunter too?” he exclaimed.

She returned to her sly smile.

“Does that scare you?” she asked.

“No, I just didn't expect that.” he said as he zoned out for a moment as they entered.

They walked up to the board. The posters were made of papyrus. All of which were written in a language that he did not understand. They mainly looked like j's and h's or i's. With shiny paint on.

“What language is that?” he asked.

“Well, in Scar's world they would call this Arabic, although I can see that some of these have been written in Hebrew too. Ah! This will do.” she said as she took one with a painting of a lion with a scorpion tail and wings like a dragon.

He knew what that creature was as he gulped and he looked up. With the look of fear and dread.

“Are you mad?”

“It is easier than it looks.” she said as they booked in using the last of their money in doing so.”