CHAPTER 4: CONTE PETIE

It was evening, and complete darkness covered the desert. Jack and Jaileen sat around the fire. Jaileen was restlessly poking into the flames with a stick. Jack was leaning back on his elbows, looking at the stars. Melody stood some steps away, staring into the darkness around them.

"Interesting?" Jack asked with a laugh. "Darkness really is amazing. So much to see there."

"Let her alone," Jaileen interrupted, sending Jack a glance.

Melody's tail waved uneasily from one side to another. There was something, in that direction. Yes, that was it.

"So, where are we going?" Jaileen asked. "I don't see any adventure here in the desert. If the rest of the continent looks like this, I'm going to kill you Jack."

"This way." They both turned their heads and stared at Melody in surprise. She pointed into the darkness of the night. It looked like they waited for Melody to explain further, but she didn't say any more.

"Hm." Jack raised his eyebrows. "Why not. Better than nothing, I would say."

Jaileen followed Melody's direction with her eyes. "If I remember this right, I saw some tall cliffs that way. Near the point where we left the forest."

"Its definitely better than this flat desert. Do you know what we will find in that direction?"

Melody lowered her hand, looking back into the night. *What I have been looking for,* she thought. *Maybe this is what can show me what has happened. And maybe answer my questions.*

Jack sighed as he realised that he wouldn't get any answer from Melody and prepared himself for sleep. "Let's see what tomorrow brings then, shall we?"

The next day they began their travel in the direction Melody had shown them: north. Melody walked by Jacks side.

"It would be nice to something else than this never-ending desert," he sighed.

"Desert," Melody repeated and thought through the meaning of the word.

Jack looked down at her. "What did that mean?"

Confused, she looked back at him. "Desert? This is a desert, is it not?"

"It is. You never saw one?"

"Does the rest of the world look like this?" she asked without answering. The thought of explaining what she was didn't please her. And since they had not recognised her as a genome, they most likely didn't know about her kind yet.

He looked away. "No, not where I came from. The woods lived, and grass covered the ground. And Mist. Until one day it disappeared."

"Mist?" she burst out, shocked. "Oh."

"You know what that is, but you have never seen a desert?" Jack asked in disbelief.

She shook her head. "I do not know Mist," she lied.

Jaileen who had gone ahead was waiting for them to catch up. "Look," she said, pointing. In the horizon they saw a wall of brown cliffs, as the ground grew in the north more mountains blocked the way. "There's no way past those mountains," Jaileen said to Melody. "Unless you want to travel around them, if that's even possible."

Melody watched the cliffside. "We could go up there. Maybe find a way from there."

Jaileen sighed. "Alright then. And oh, and I saw some plants. Looks like the ground gets more nutritious in that direction. And there's another forest on the way up."

"That's just great," Jack mumbled as they continued.

They had travelled the desert for two days before resting at the outskirts of a small forest. Jaileen had once again taken the chance to scout the nearest surroundings while Jack sat in the cool shadow of a tree, cutting something out from a piece of wood. Melody looked over his shoulder, trying to find out what it was supposed to look like.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He laughed. "You really are something! I'm making a figure out of the wood."

"Why?"

He was quit for a moment. "Why? Well, I'm bored. I like doing it." He watched the wood in his hand, and smiled. "And it's a gift."

"A gift?"

"Don't you know anything? People give each other gifts. To show their gratitude, or their feelings."

"And this one is for Jaileen?"

Jack hid the piece of wood in a pocket inside his coat, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Don't tell her. It's our secret, OK?"

She nodded and looked up to see Jaileen coming closer.

"Not a word!" Jack repeated. "Gifts have to be a surprise!" He rose and waited for Jaileens report.

"See that over there?" she asked and pointed.

"Looks like a giant rock," Jack mumbled.

Jaileen sighed, patiently. "It looks like its man-made. And its big - a village perhaps? And that close to the edge?"

"Get to the point."

"We might have found some way to get past the mountains, Jack! If someone really lives here, they could tell us something. Melody talks like us, so why not?"

Melody forgot all about their conversation as she heard something nearby. It sounded like voices. Maybe the people Jaileen was talking about?

"What do you say, Melody?" Jaileen asked. "Does it sound reasonable?" No response. "Melody?"

"There is someone. On the other side of the forest - or perhaps inside."

Jack followed the shown direction. "Hm? So far from the village?"

"I didn't see other villages," Jaileen replied. "Maybe nomads?"

"Or treasure hunters." He watched Melody run in between the trees and nodded to Jaileen. "Come on, let's check it out."

It did not take long to pass through the forest, and the group stopped just before the treeline. Before them stood the three men they had heard, caught up in a loud argument. All three had weapons - a crossbow, a sword and mace.

"Doesn't look like natives," Jack whispered. "Looks like they're here of the same reason as us."

"You've got a way of saying things," Jaileen answered, her voice lowered too. "You were right from the beginning. Treasure hunters."

Melody looked at them. The same reason? She didn't believe that. The group before them appeared hostile and angry. Jack and Jaileen had never seemed like they wanted to hurt anyone. She also wondered what a treasure hunter could be. "What do they want?" she asked.

Jaileen had been listening to their words and sighed. "They haven't found the 'village', and they are blaming the leader for sending them out into a desert." She gave Jack a glare while he did his best to look like he didn't know what she meant. "Maybe we should leave."

Jack nodded. "Right. I would like avoiding trouble when we can."

They both walked back into the forest, but Melody stayed. She did not like the men at all, and she felt angry when she looked at them. Were they... bad?

"Melody, hurry! We have to move on!"

Melody turned towards Jaileens voice and left the men behind, hoping that she didn't have to meet with them again.

"Who would built something this - sorry to use the word - stupid!" Jack said, watching the village in front of them.

"I wonder how they did it," said Jaileen.

They stood in front of a village made of yellow stone, and built upon something that looked like two giant roots, which lead from the edge of the cliff to the mountains on the other side of the deep canyon.

"Do we go inside?"

"Only if you don't call the village 'stupid' when talking to the inhabitants," she replied.

Jack made an innocent face. "You really think I would do that?"

"Come on, let's get this over with!" Jaileen walked past the grinning Jack.

"I love when you ignore me!"

Jaileen was the first to walk up on the giant root that leads to the entrance, and Jack walked right after her. Melody hesitated, and then took the first step.

"Have you noticed anything?" she heard Jack ask.

"What now?" Jaileen sighed.

"These roots looks like those back home in Alexandria! You know, where the Mist came from."

Melody stiffened, and stared at the root underneath her. This was it. Now she was positive that this was what would lead her to her goal - these were the roots of the Iifa Tree itself!

"Melody, are you still with us?" Jaileen asked. Melody caught up with at the entrance and eyed two guards - two very small guards - that stood on each side. Jack carefully approached them.

"Um, hi guys."

"Rally-ho!" the first guard said. Jack stared.

"Well, rally-ho to you too."

The guard stepped aside and Jack shrugged to his two friends. "Guess I'm going in!" he said. Jaileen tried to follow, but the other guard stopped her.

"Oh, smart," she said under her breath, before she repeated: "Rally-ho." As she came in she turned to Melody. "Just repeat that, I guess its what they like."

"Yup," Jack said as Melody gained access. "Who would've guessed that and extremely intelligent race of dwarfs lived here!" He almost fell over as Jaileen punched him in the side.

"Shut up, you! We have to find the way through here. Maybe we can buy some rations too."

END OF CHAPTER 4