Chapter 7

Xyvareth stood on the ledge, looking over the demon in the pit. "I hope this is important, Equenel," he said. "I do hate being summoned for trivial matters."

"You will not be disappointed, Master," Equenel's left head replied. "It is growing stronger and stronger by the day."

"Indeed," he said admiringly. Instead of a pile of infected flesh, trembling in agony, the demon had undergone a complete transformation into a writhing mass of pure muscle that quivered with power.

"I have been training it well, Master," she hissed. "Watch this." Equenel snapped her fingers, and immediately the demon bunched itself up and began to rise, muscles pulling and straining upwards and upwards until Equenel snapped her fingers again.

"Remarkable," Xyvareth said to Equenel. "You are dismissed, Equenel." She nodded her heads and drifted away.

Xyvareth turned back to the demon and smiled at the massive creature.

"Soon," he said.

Meanwhile...

"This sucks," said Lorre. "Nothing but desert as far as the eye could see. At this rate, we'll never get to the snow."

"Cheer up, Lorre," said Cassandra. "At least we can have some fun here." She removed the helmet from her head and shook her long blond hair loose. Then she removed her chest plate and greaves, revealing her simple white cotton clothes.

"What are you doing?" Lorre asked warily.

"Getting ready to play in the sand," she replied. Then Cassandra reached into her pack and pulled out shovels and buckets. "Lorre, Dr. Cassandra is about to teach you an important lesson of life. Listen carefully. Also, I don't know about you, but that armor is super overheated. I got really hot inside it."

"I think you're really hot outside it," Lorre said shamelessly.

"Don't flirt with me," Cassandra laughed. "We're supposed to be questing, not courting."

"O.K., Dr. Cassandra," Lorre replied. "I'll take off my armor."

"Good," she said. "Okay, the lesson of life. Are you wondering why I've got this stuff in front of me?"

"It has crossed my mind," Lorre said.

"Well," she said, starting to scoop sand into the bucket. "You were just complaining that there was nothing but sand. But..." Cassandra upended the bucket. A perfect cone-shaped sand castle stood there on the yellow surface. "Sand is a nice thing. It's soft, warm, and it just made this sand cone."

"So you're saying to see the optimism in everything?" Lorre asked.

"Correct," Cassandra said.

"I have a question," Lorre said in a childish voice. "Have you ever played roller?"

"Roller? What's that?" Cassandra asked, cocking her head curiously.

"YAHHH!" Lorre yelled, and then tackled her. Laughing, they rolled down the dune in a tangle of hair, limbs, and sand. About halfway down the dune, Lorre's lips found Cassandra's.

They were still kissing when they finally came to a stop at the foot of the dune.