Ch. 9: Sun and Sand
If one were to consider the epitome of life to be water, greens and the twill song of nature, then they had not spent much time in the Wildspire Wastes.
Howls of wind swept the ever silent sifting of a million particles of sand and dust across a luminesced landscape. Deserts of all kinds showed that while life can consist of many things, it always shares the capacity to survive at any and all cost. The marshy rivers that preluded the wastes showed scant traces of what the Ancient Forest contained, thriving reeds and weeds that swayed gently to the current of natural spring wells that cut through the land in their ever present, ever marching path that whittled rock and silt alike. But soon after the boundaries of the forest could not match the heat and the arid dry of the violent New World sun.
Towering pillars of basalt and gently rippled plates of limestone sought the fleeting comforts of a blanket of sand that ebbed and flowed the way that water did not. With swirling wind did the wastes change, it's landscape organically transitioning into shapes and forms that it had not seen for a hundred years, and may not see again in another thousand. Such was the way that those indigenous Wildspires held vigilance over their ever altering charge, and such was the way they held vigilance over a pair of sand seasoned huntresses.
Blake's head was wrapped in a tempered thick hood that stopped the invasive sands from impeding her steady breathes. Her pallid skin was hidden underneath a combination of leather garb slotted with slanted holes that allowed breathabilty and a long cloak that stopped the majority of the heat from settling into her body. Even with the desert garb combatting the light, she felt unbelievably hot, precious perspiration trapping itself within her tight clothing and making the creases of her joints become more and more uncomfortable with each slight shift in her position.
Currently the wyverian lay prone on a ridge that faced out into the wastes proper, eyes scanning through a tinted telescope that held back the glare and glint. The stand she had set the instrument upon shifted again and again much to her frustration as the gales and buffets disrupted the foundation she had sat it upon. The dunes bled together in her wandering sight, yet she slowly drank in their details, searching for the slightest deviation that may assist their current quest.
A small tapping sound came to the left of her, Yang lay in a similar position sans viewing utensil and watched her through a pair of goggles with three slits that ran horizontally across her face. Her mouth was covered by a tanned scarf and her monstrous amount of hair was wrestled underneath a hood that cast a shadow across her brow. Her body was cloaked and dressed similarly to Blake, though with the bunching addition of her charge blade and ruck sack. Blake pulled her balaclava down to speak but was choked by her parched throat. After a dignified cough and a quick swig of water Blake sat up in a crouched position. Yang mirrored her and let her hand wander to the hilt of her blade.
"We should proceed. Im not seeing much activity past those outcroppings. We should be able to make it to them in a few hours, after that I think we should make camp and continue our search tomorrow." Yang sent a nod her way and let her hands relax from the sheathed blade at her back, cracking her neck and tightening the straps of her bag. Blake secured her own things and collapsed the telescope within itself, clipping it to a section of her own bag and withdrawing a leather-bound notebook that she quickly notarized. With a snapping of the book the librarian turned field researcher climbed down the rocky edifice, soon followed by her blonde guard. The two set forth into the desert, and what was once a hot trek through dense rock had now turned into a sinking slog through sand. The duo climbed a dune and set upon it's ridge line in a general northeast direction, their trek filled with the sounds of marching boots and whipping winds.
Blake found the trek agonizing, monotony her constant companion as the sun leered at the duo, mocking them as they attempted to survive it's hellish trap concocted through millennia of planning. She longed to remove her hood and free her lengthy ears from their confinement; the rubbing of the thick cloth making her wish to scratch and allow them to breath. Yet as much as she desired it she knew that exposure would have them burned by sun and sand within minutes. So forward she strode, her gait ever hindered by the precarious ground as mounds of sand enveloped her feet and tumbled down the sharp sides of the dunes. This trek was almost unbearable in this heat, but she knew that it would not be the majority of their trip. Desert travel was best done in the night time, when dunes became frigid and the suns heat escaped. Their previous half of their journey was much more manageable and so with energy abound they decided to trek into the desert to the outcroppings they had spotted. From there they would rest for the remainder of the day, and then continue at night for the remainder of their expedition.
Blake cast a glance at Yang and stopped, withdrawing her compass and showing it to her companion, pointing towards their destination. The huntress nodded and Blake turned and continued. Navigating, while not a difficult task to those who were trained in it, was seldom needed done alone. Blake did not doubt that her skills were subpar enough to get lost in this expanse, but boasting did no one good if it meant the wrong path could lead to death. A dehydrated person could easily misread a direction time and time again, and before they knew it, could be claimed by the soulless desert. Simply showing Yang that they were well on their path not only kept the huntress informed but served as a check against Blake so that they would be able to safely cross.
The Wildspire Wastes were not unmapped, far from it, they were indeed one of the more well known areas in the New World. This simply being because it was easy to map landscape from the air, unlike how the Ancient Forest hid it's secrets from curious airborne cartographers. Though any secrets that the desert showed one on a particular day may be useless the following. Desert storms could envelop known resting outposts and rock oasis within an hour, and so this part of the waste could certainly shift and mold at much more rapid paces. Therefore it was wise for travelers to plan their track across the waste accordingly to what they saw and not what others had seen.
The hours ticked by and their salvation came into focus. Black granite towered above heaps of sands that rested against the monoliths like waves suspended at their crest. The rock outcroppings leaned and teetered against one another with what appeared as dangerous angles, but would in fact not shift even at the fiercest of sandstorms. As they approached, the true scale of the formations manifested within Blake's mind. Some of the towers seemed almost forty meters tall by her judgement, coal tinted stone greying out as it rose to it's burning god above. With a grunt Blake's gloved hands found purchase in the many groves that littered the rock face. The lip of the rock shelf was nearly four meters up, so with what little energy she had left the wyverian steeled herself and climbed to her resting place. Blake heard Yang follow and soon the two were nearly half way up the sheer.
Strength flagging, Blake lunged forward as she neared a particularly promising looking hand hold but let out a gasp as the crevice collapsed under her grip. With a slip she nearly lost her hold on her other hand but was caught by Yang, who had thrust her hand upwards, propping Blake with her palm firmly on her buttocks. In that moment the wyverian could not praise her head covering more for the job it was doing hiding her mortified blush, with another grunt she found purchase and with a nod downward she continued her ascent. Blake crested the lip of the rocks and paused to catch her breath before turning and offering a hand to Yang. Strong hands clasped her forearm and nearly drug her back over the edge. With a shuddering pull Yang hefted herself up and the two breathed heavy in their new fortitude of shade, an alcove formed by several pillars resting against one another.
The blonde yanked her hood back and threw down her scarf letting her skin breath for the first time that day. The huntress withdrew her desert shades and rubbed at her eyes as they adjusted to the brightness, lilac finding Blake as the librarian hid another blush under her protective wear. Life-saving grope non-withstanding Blake had found herself utterly impressed with the professionalism of Yang. While chatter was not uncommon it seemed the blonde's previous flirtations at the library and the party were diminished to good natured quips during particularly silent legs of their journey. In fact Yang's insights had saved them time and quite possibly their lives as they had managed to avoid not one but potentially two wandering monsters within the wastes. Blake finally undid her coverings and let herself take a fuller drink from one of her three water containers, the vessel now being half full.
A low hollow tone sounded across their arid environment, a whistle that gave the landscape an eeriness that was only accompanied by the absence of life, or it's perceived absence. With that hollow cadence their makeshift rest area whistled and echoed with the tides of the wind. Blake took the moment to check her map, now finally having the time to mark their journey without the invasive sands of the Wastes. She spoke as she notated their journey, "The air ships noticed some unusual activity a half day north from here, we should investigate that site and then make our way back to this spot again, I think in a few days we will make it to the ridge we were at earlier, then we can head back to Astera." Blake flipped the notebook around and showed a dotted line she had drawn on their map. Yang glanced at it and nodded, before going back to peering out over the edge of the cliffs and observing the nothingness that surrounded them.
"We should set camp," Blake stood and slapped at her pants, fruitlessly attempting to banish the layer of sand that clung to her, "And get some food."
Yang stood as well, "Right, dried meats and water. Unless you wanna chow down on one of these rock lizards." The blonde kicked a loose rock plate sending unseen creatures scurrying to whatever shadowed holes they could find. Blake scrunched up her nose, "Not particularly no."
Yang slid her pack off her back, letting out a content sigh as she rolled her shoulder, "The wastes can piss off for all I care, this sand is going to drive me insane." The girl combed her hands through her hair, frowning at the piles of sand that fell and collected around her. Even with the layers of clothing and leather, the sand invaded at every opportunity possible. Blake shot her a wry smirk and began to unfurl her bedroll, "The mighty huntress Yang meets her true enemy: dirt and grime."
"And heat stroke." She mumbled, shifting through her own pack, "This much hair under all this gear is going to kill me Belladonna. Alas, the price of beauty." Blake chuckled to herself as she wedged a thin rope into a crack in one of the pillar walls, drawing the line and securing it to the floor. She reached for a thin sheet to drape over the line and made that secure too. Blake turned and watched the huntress for a moment as she continued her futile efforts.
"Why do you keep your hair so long? Most huntresses I know prefer it short, aren't you afraid it'll get caught by something?" Yang turned and flipped her messy curls, their golden hue blending almost seamlessly with the shining sands around them, "First, something would have to catch me." Blake scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Second, my hair is gorgeous, cutting it would be a crime against humans and wyverians alike. Don't joke about these things Blakey."
Blake fought the smile that was growing on her lips as she shook her head, "And here I thought it was the source of your vanity. And stop calling me 'Blakey'." Yang undid the clasp of her cloak and pulled her charge blade from her back, setting the weapon to the side as she set her own camp, "It's hard to take you seriously when you smile every time I say it." Yang shot her a blistering grin.
Damn her. Blake felt some heat creep into her cheeks but cleverly hid it behind the book she had pulled from her bag, setting herself on her bed roll. She cracked open the pages at her silk ribbon book mark. "I have never and will never smile at one of your shameless attempts at flirting." Yang shrugged her shoulders, nonplussed that she had been called out. The Huntress collapsed on her own roll and undid the few buttons that held the top of her shirt open, letting her skin breath in the relative coolness of the shade. She took a sip of water and motioned with the bottle at Blake's reading material, "Whatcha' reading?"
Blake peaked from the top of her tome, "I would like to tell you that you would find it interesting but sadly it's research material. A collection of eddic verses from ancients skalds of the Old World. In my brief combing of the library archives the only traces of this disease I've been able to find are in mythos and song." Blake rotated the book and Yang squinted her eyes, stanzas of blocky lettering traveled down the middles of the pages surrounded by flowing depictions of war and heroes.
"There's a particularly odd set of verses about a dark plague that ravished the far northwestern reaches of the Furahiya Mountains. It describes black creatures crawling from the earth with eyes red like blood."
Yang quirked an eyebrow at the girl, "I say that's pretty on the money don't you?"
Blake shrugged her shoulders, "It's why I've been studying these stories so much. But it really shouldn't make any sense, by geographic proximity and by the time passed. This book is a transcription of those verses by a set of monks fifteen hundred years ago and that mountain range is on the other side of the world… And who knows how long those ballads had been sung before it was finally written down. This story could be ancient, so how could they possibly be related to one another?"
Yang persed her lips as she watched a spiky lizard crawl out into a beam of sun, "I… Dunno. But stranger things have been found in the New World right? Safi'Jiva wasn't felled not ten years ago, and no one had seen anything like it before. Do you think this is something similar?"
Blake gave a nondescript hum, "Mmmm, I had thought it might have something to do with the Everstream. A natural cancerous mutation, but the tests I had done on the Ptreyx, the growth on the Rathian, and the state of the Yian Garuga we killed… I think this may be a plague. Listen to this," Blake placed a finger tip on a section of the page, "From this third section, 'And from whence those death blows fell, great mortal spouts of coal ichor did come. Warrior spear of strong grip did slacken from their rage, and ruby orbs sought and searched and saw and scorched those found. Whether-to could we flee our fear-flight from the Grimm of Primordia, come again as they had past and will have again. Fear and fear forever more to our children, inheritors of Her monumental wrath."
Blake paused and saw that Yang was quiet, "I mean… It's just a story, but what jumps out at me is this word, 'Grimm', it's mentioned a few more times later but this is the only book I've found with reference to it. I made need to call in some favors to… certain parties to find any other books like this."
"Not my usual cup of tea," Yang let her head fall back to resting on the pillar, "But if it's helpful then it's a sacrifice I'll have you make." Blake shot her a look and hid her face behind the book again, "Har har. Color me surprised that prose and sentence structure is lost on a monster hunter."
Yang bristled and sat up, "Hey, I can read and write! Excuse me for not finding a cushy scholarship at the many available universities!"
Blake froze for a moment before letting the book slowly fall to her lap, page marked by her fingers, "… I'm sorry. That wasn't fair of me." Yang stared at her, the flame of anger wilting as she closed her eyes and crossed her arms, "S'alright. I know what I'm like, but I know my letters, and Ruby does too. Mom made sure to teach us early." Blake quirked her head at the girl, "Well, that sounds nice. Did she object to you're joining of the sixth fleet?"
Yang opened her eyes and locked them with the wyverian's, "No. She died when we were young."
Blake's attempt to lighten the mood had failed spectacularly. She sighed and leaned her head back in defeat, the two allowing the cutting of the wind through the rocks fill their silence. Blake sat in her own head for a moment and pondered her inability to avoid social disgraces. Her own mother always told her that she was too prickly for her own good, and that's why she was always dubbed unapproachable in her youth. She toyed with the idea of returning to her reading, but the combination of their trek and the weight of their conversation sapped the will from her mind. Marking her place with her book mark she closed the tome and carefully nestled it into her bag, laying prone and and folding her hands on her stomach.
After several moments, there was a shuffling across the way and the wyverian peaked her eye open, seeing that Yang had stood and walked over to her. The blonde scratched the back of her neck and said, "Hey. Look, you didn't know and I shouldn't have been bitchy about it." Blake sat up and looked at her with surprise, "You really shouldn't apologize. I said something very foolish. I've let prejudice blind me in the past, and that's had me make unfair judgements of others." Blake felt a familiar sense of shame settle in her chest, "I'll try not to make that mistake with you."
Yang considered her for a moment and offered her hand, Blake raised her own and shook it. "Thanks." Yang's smile wasn't as shining or flirty as her earlier ones, but had a tint of appreciation in it. "Let's get some rest, we have a lot of ground to cover tonight."
Blake felt heat exhaustion settling into her skin and took another sip of water before responding, "Yes. Lets. Goodnight Yang." Blake frowned, that didn't sound right. "Good Afternoon?" Yang laughed as she sprawled out against her pack, "Sleep tight Blakey."
Blake smiled in earnest as she drifted away to the shifting of the sands.
AN: First, thanks for reading and sorry for the lack of updates, October is a really busy time of the year for my job so you might not expect another update till the beginning of November.
That being said, I've been a lot less vocal on these author notes unlike my other story I'm just letting this one flow. Let me know what you think so far, I'm fairly new to publishing my stories and Im hoping to learn a lot on this one. Again, thanks and please enjoy.