Off and on, Valyrie trudges along on her feet, wandering aimlessly across the empty expanse of the desert until she stumbles upon a path. Slabs of rock imbedded into the sand and near it, rests a big tablet in the ground. Curious, she walks closer to it and she slowly places her hand on the tablet, jumping back as she hears a voice. But she doesn't know where.
"Behold, bonded one. The very boundaries of civilization."
She looks at it curiously as it continues to speak. "Beyond the passage of our highways lie the wild places of the world where untamed savages make endless war upon each other."
At those words, Valyrie is unnerved. Worried what she'll find. But she doesn't have many other options. The tablet continues to speak. "You cannot pass into the endless wastes, Enslaved. Your bonding prevents it."
She turns around to look back at the green wall she saw before, and the giant structure she tried to hide behind. Trapped.. The tablet finishes, "Return. Follow the road. Any road. All roads lead to the city."
She looks down at the slabs of rock on the ground, and hesitates before she makes her first steps back to civilization. One of savagery.
Her throat is drying up and her stomach is collapsing in on itself. Her body weak and she doesn't think she'll make it much longer if she doesn't find something soon. To her amazement, she finds bushes in the desert. She looks in to see if there are any berries, or anything at all. She then feels something crawling on her arm and she looks down to see insects. She instinctively jumps back, wiping them off. Her stomach rumbles again and she realizes she's going to have to resort to drastic measures. Oh God…
She reaches back in the bush and winces as she feels more insects crawl on her hand. She hesitantly picks one up and looks at it as it wiggles around in her fingers. It's tiny legs moving erratically. Valyrie swallows hard and readies herself as she slowly leans in to take a bite out of the unfortunate critter, closing her eyes hard.
When she bites down, repulsion rushes through her and the critter's crunchy and unpleasant flesh splashes in her mouth. She falls to her knees and tosses the insect away, heaving on the ground. Her eyes start to water and she feels like she'd vomit if she had anything to begin with. She grips the sand with her fists as the repulsion surges through.
However, she eventually forces herself to eat another insect through much motivation, and it's even worse than the first. She can't bring herself to eat another one, and she feels she just has to endure through the pain.
The sun beats down on her, heating up her wounds, worsening the pain. Her feet stinging walking on the hot rock paths. Clothed with only a loincloth and a fiber wrap around her chest, she is fairly exposed to the elements. All she sees are bushes and pebbles of rocks. Scattered branches. She isn't quite sure how to clothe herself, and not sure what to do. She knows she had to do something about her feet at least. She gets some fiber from the bushes and she makes some makeshift sandals and hand wraps. Making a bandage around her wrists as well to staunch the blood from the dirty nails with a branch as a tourniquet.
She walks down the path a bit longer and runs into her first sign of danger. A giant bat feasting on a human corpse. Spread out, gutted, and decomposing. She feels a great sense of dread and revulsion. She takes a few steps back as the bat turns around and screeches at Valyrie as it flies away into the horizon. Valyrie sighs with relief that she doesn't have to face the beast, and hopes she never will if the dead body is anything to go by.
She's never seen a real bat before, let alone a giant bat. She turns away at first at the sight of the body, and then turns around again when she sees the unfortunate soul has clothes, but it's all tattered and bloody. It wouldn't provide the right protection against the sun, so she continues on her journey down the beaten path as her stomach turns at the sight of weathered skeletons on display on pikes along the road to certain death.
Finally, after what feels like hours, she finds her first sign of civilization. An oasis in the desert. But before she can celebrate, she finds creatures. They look like turtles on all fours, and young walking around. And some trying to walk. She hides behind a rock as she peeks her head up from over the cover and sees water. The sight of it reinvigorates her spirit after a long and dreadful trek. However, she has to get past the creatures. And she has very little cover.
She doesn't know if they're aggressive or friendly, but the bat didn't encourage confidence. She has water and food as well, though she doesn't have anything to harvest them with. She doesn't even know if they're poisonous.
Valyrie regrets not having an astute knowledge of survival when it comes to her current situation, but she has an idea. She takes a chunk of pebbles and wraps them in some leaves and twigs. She finishes crafting and as she does, a baby comes by her cover and as they make eye contact, the little one trots away as she hears a roar from behind. She doesn't feel like changing against the grown up, so she makes a mad dash towards the little one, snatches him up and carries it in her arms as she makes a beeline for the pool.
The giant turtles all chase after her, and she only hopes that they can't swim like other turtles do. She leaps into the water and finds its deeper than expected. As she comes up for air, she also discovers it's very cold. She shouts in pain, but also utmost relief with being hydrated once more. She almost forgets about the baby wiggling around in her arms, and then she turns around to see the parents standing at shore, shrieking at her as they go back to where they were before.
The baby slowly starts to calm down as it starts to drown, and then he dies in her arms. Valyrie's muscles already ache, but keeping a baby in place only worsened it. Luckily now, she has two things she desperately needed. Food and water. But then another question remains. A campfire. She knows she won't be able to swim in this state, but she knows she can ty to find somewhere safe to gather some materials. She wanders around, now hydrated, but still weak and starved. And paranoid of what might come next. She runs into a cave but hesitated to go inside, wary of lies beyond. Afraid of the dark.
The shimmering crystals help to lighten the dark, but she is still afraid. Her nervous breathing doesn't quiten her presence, and it appears something might've taken notice. She hears a low growl, and it only starts a chain reaction. She hears dozens of other voices, and she looks behind her to make her way back out, only for something to tug at her. And then she looked back. Through the light of the surrounding crystals, she sees a disfigured face. A humanoid appearance. Significantly shorter. And empty eyes staring into hers. Valyrie kicks it aside as it tumbles down on its back, and then she sees even more of these monsters. She takes a crystal and jabs it into one of the monsters as blood bursts out. Then it explodes.
Valyrie turns away as blood and guts sprays the walls and her body, and more monsters keep coming. "Shit!" She shouts.
She makes her way out of the cave as she takes a crystal in her exit, hoping this will be enough to cause a spark to start a fire. She had hoped the sun would be enough to stop the monsters, but it isn't. In the sunlight, they don't look as intimidating, but more grotesque. Valyrie uses the baby she still has in her possession, and uses its shell to take out one of the imps. Surprisingly, they don't seem as bad. Then her mind switches back to the giant bat, and wonders what else there is in these Exiled Lands.
As she finds a spot to sit down and use her campfire, she finally has time to herself as the night starts to fall. The fire keeping her warm. She pulls her legs to her chest and thinking about what she's gone through in one day. And how this'll be her life now. Trapped in a land she doesn't know for something she doesn't know she did. Why is this happening to me? She thinks as her fighting spirit diminishes as she lets herself feel weak. Vulnerable.
She remembers what the mysterious man told her. That he's the only one that'd have saved her, meaning he was and will be the first and only kindness in these lands. But little does he know, what she is capable of.