Taol's Compendium of Nent

Chapter 16: Haranae Desert (Petram)

The Haranae Desert. To think that we were forced to go through one obstacle after another when it came to this continent as soon as we set foot onto it, it was almost ridiculous. However, this was all that remained in order for us to reach the City of Iron and reach the ruler of the continent housed within. I suppose that gave us some form of motivation. Emphasis on ‘suppose’. There was still the pain of having to go through the dangers lingering within the desert grounds which could potentially grind us down to a permanent end.

For the first time, I genuinely didn’t know how long this journey through the desert was going to last – it could be weeks. It could be months. But I never really thought it would take more than that. I was just too scared to process such a thought – I didn’t want to go that far when it came to how long this could take. Thankfully, it didn’t take years, as I initially, in a streak of pessimism, believed. However, it didn’t take weeks either, as I wished deep down.

This desert trip took us just as long as the Scopulus Mountains to get through – albeit for all the wrong reasons. The first few weeks were us constantly having to battle the heat that blazed down on us and the ground below during the day, while also trying to cope with the freezing cold that came after the sun went down and the night arrived. It was one extreme weather or the other, and there seemed to be almost no in-between at all. I expected this, considering it was a desert, but considering what we have been through to get ourselves all the way here, you would think nature would try to be just a bit more forgiving…

But it would seem I expected too much, even when it felt I had demanded too little.

One month into our journey, and I could feel the heat beginning to act on me – Tirza looked mostly unfazed, as if she was already familiar to this high-heat lifestyle. Here I was, sweating buckets and constantly teetering on the brink of delusion and dehydration. It was clear to me, and to her, that I was barely hanging on and that nature refused to let up in its vicious trial to test my already fragmented and broken resilience.

My nights were ones that felt like they took hours to be over – I have to admit that there were more sleepless nights instead of nights where I could sleep soundly. This cycle of never-ending torment just kept going and going, with almost no signs of stopping any time soon.

It wasn’t long before the delusions soon went straight into my head as the desert’s tricks began to affect me considerably. Here I was, constantly falling victim to mirages as I was fooled by the mirages that came my way – just when I thought I saw an oasis, it disappeared seconds later, and because of all that, my delusions only grew more and more into blind rage as I slowly slipped into more and more of a crazed stupor by the day.

It was almost as if the Gods above were laughing at me, viewing me as some kind of jester that needed to entertain them…and this was their form of twisted fun…

Soon enough, I had reached close to my breaking point.

I couldn’t remember some of the details, but most of them still felt like they were yesterday – it was during one day…we were still walking through the sands, and upon seeing miles upon miles of sandy dunes before us, I just started shaking as I came to a halt, but I was shaking in place, as if I had momentarily lost control over my own body.]

And then, I started laughing.

It was almost as if I had snapped after so many months of suffering – months that had reached years, even. It felt like nature had finally gotten what they wanted and broke me. I fell to the sand, my laughing intensifying to outright unnerving levels as Tirza desperately tried to get me back to reality. Here she was, shaking me to no end and even slapping my face even to momentarily shock me into silence, but she couldn’t even stop me from my crazed laughing – I had given up feeling anguished at that moment and just chose to embrace whatever chaos my magic was trying to do to me. To my mind.

However, as my laughing continued, I saw something before me just as I looked up from the ground, and just like that, my laughing stopped. Not instantly, but gradually, as if I had hit some kind of realization. The dark elf was now grabbing onto my shoulders, yelling at me and asking if I were okay…I think there were tears on her face as well, as if she had gotten absolutely terrified on what had happened to me.

I saw apparitions again, right before my eyes. I was basically seeing through her at this point, though it was easy to ignore her, as her voice was suddenly drowned out, even though I could clearly see her mouth moving in her desperate attempts to reach out to me. I thought it was going to be more of the Void Servants depicting a horrid future awaiting me, and that how this was just another one of the terrible trials that I have to suffer through for the magic I possessed.

This time, though…it wasn’t that. It wasn’t even close to what I thought.

Instead, I saw the spirits of my parents. Were they dead? Were they just a figment of my already cracked and razed imagination? Honestly, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to think of the former, so here I was, thinking of the latter. I didn’t want any terrible potential future to ruin me further. My parents looked…pained. As if they didn’t like seeing me like this. Their eyes filled with sadness, not because of the fact that I was gone and away from home, but because of the fact that I was here, losing a fight that I believed I wasn’t going to win from the start.

Their silent expressions just made me stare at them, with me at an utter loss on what I should do – I think I silently mouthed out my question to them, actually. I begged them quietly, asking for something which could help me cope with my already declining state.

All they did was smile, giving me a nod before disappearing into thin air, and suddenly, I could hear Tirza yelling at me in an instant as I blinked a few times, with me seemingly snapping back into reality as I took a deep breath – I needed a few seconds to adjust myself, and when she saw me no longer zoned out, she would remain quiet as she took a few steps back to give me some space. I wasn’t expecting that to happen – for the first time, I didn’t hallucinate something menacing or cruel. Instead, I hallucinated something that struck my mind, as if it gave me a moment of epiphany.

It was as if that moment was enough to help me regain the lucidity which I lost minutes ago – I didn’t know why that happened, but something told me that deep down, within the back of my mind, they were the first people I thought of. I guess at the end of the day, only they can guide me out of a black hole when I’m close to collapsing into it.

I slowly got back up to my feet before shifting my attention towards my companion, and with that, I gave her my apologies for making her worry so much – to this day, I still don’t know why she still insists on sticking around with me, even despite the fact that she was virtually walking next to a timebomb right now.

There was also the sheer magnitude of this journey…most people would ditch me right now for their own safety. But not her – somehow, she could not, for the life of her, feel any sort of dissent for this journey. She could not, for the life of her, part ways with me. Why? I wish I had answers, but she herself acts very reclusive, and any answers which could exist remain within her thoughts, and seemingly nowhere else.

Perhaps I was thinking too much in the heat of the moment, and looking back at this experience, I’m almost certain that I’m just overthinking things. But in the end, I did feel immensely grateful over the fact that she had stuck with me for so long – this didn’t feel like a story of me being stuck with her. It was starting to feel otherwise.

Nevertheless, I didn’t let those thoughts mess with my self-esteem, and with that, I assured her that I was fine, and that I had momentarily ‘slipped’ for a while – with much convincing to make sure that we didn’t take a stop underneath the heat of the sun, we moved on once more, picking up from where we left off.

We still had a long way to go, and we still had very little indication on how far we had gone into the desert. From here on out, time seemed to have moved quicker than usual, almost as if it had decided to show some pity on me after the embarrassing display that I had put on just moments ago before I managed to shake it off amidst the heat of the situation.

Days turned to weeks. And with each hour passing, I tried my hardest to maintain my sanity and not lose it again, with my determination at an all-time high. I was no longer fearing disappointment, I was instead pursuing to avoid it. I didn’t let the paranoia overtake me, at least not yet…all it took were the visions of my parents to give me the motivation that I desperately needed. I didn’t want to fail them. I didn’t want to disappoint them.

I didn’t want them to weep for me.

The only tears they should be shedding are tears of joy and pride when I return home. When I’m finally free from the mess I had found myself in.

While time started to show mercy, nature didn’t – I had to bear witness to everything that was thrown at me while we were in the desert.

A sandstorm was one of them.

Two months into our journey, we soon found ourselves bombarded by rogue winds as they grew stronger and stronger – admittedly, this worsened the heat around us, but at first, we paid no mind to it, thinking that it would initially subside.

However, we soon began to feel bits of sand hitting our faces as our vision began to grow hazy – it didn’t even take long for me to realize just what we were about to find ourselves into. With that, I immediately reached out into my bag, pulling some cloth out before drenching it using whatever water I had as I then tossed one of the pieces of cloth to Tirza.

The idea was simple – put it over our mouth and make sure we don’t inhale the dust. That is, unless one of us wanted to suffer from blood poisoning, which definitely wasn’t the case.

The winds soon intensified, and things soon reached a peak as we found ourselves completely overrun by the sandstorm, with the surrounding area covered in a deep brown while the sand mercilessly pelted us while they raged through the wild winds.

Suddenly, we began to feel the ground below us quaking intensely – great, another threat that was coming my way. As we continued walking, with the two of us quietly praying to ourselves that the quaking we were feeling below us was just a minor tremor that was being caused by the sandstorm, it would seem that our prayers were unanswered.

In the blink of an eye, a massive explosion of sand would be unleashed right before our eyes as we quickly took cover from the wave that came splashing down on us – as soon as the coast was ‘clear’ we immediately shifted our attention towards the source of the noise as we stared what lied right before us amidst the storm.

Great. An antlion.

And this beast was huge. The monster looked about as huge as the beast we faced back at the Flos ruins, which, when we faced it at the time, was about as enormous as the room that it inhabited, which meant that it trumped us in terms of size and height. There it was, baring its large teeth at us while its pincers were right there in front of its mouth. The creature looked agitated…most likely mad over the fact that we had unknowingly stepped into its territory. Perhaps that was why the sandstorm was raised…it detected us while it was underneath the ground. It was at this moment where I realized something.

If we wanted to get rid of this storm, we had to shoo off the antlion. And if we’re stuck in a worst-case scenario, then we have to kill it, no matter the cost.

The antlion didn’t give us a second to act as the beast lunged at us, attempting to basically eviscerate us by catching us with its pincers, and in quick response to that, we quickly moved out of the way, with the two of us being separated in the process while the beast was in between us – all over a sudden, this felt like a repeat of that flesh monster fight all over again.

At least the antlion, as far as I know, doesn’t shoot stomach acid out of gaping wide holes – we still had to avoid its pincers, though. Those things were basically as huge as our own bodies, and if we were to get stabbed by them, they will go right through us, which would definitely mean instant death if we get caught.

The rule was simple – don’t get caught or trapped by the antlion’s pincers.

The beast would immediately shift its attention towards Tirza in order to focus its assault on her, and in response, she would quickly take on an evasive approach – she didn’t make any moves to attack, but instead, she would choose to swiftly evade and dodges any of its lunges and charges, and it was from here where we found out that its attack, while dangerous, is gravely limited. This was something that we could use greatly to our advantage.

However, the hard part was how we should incapacitate the monster – the intention wasn’t to kill the beast, at least not until the situation has reached a dead end.

With that, I decided to improvise while the antlion was occupied with Tirza. After so long, I was finally about to tap into my magical powers once more.

My hands would explode into a blazing flame, and in an instant, I would sink my arms into the sand as the ground around the antlion began to turn a faint red – it was at this instant where the antlion began to screech loudly…maybe its stubby legs quickly felt the sudden spike in temperature on the ground it was standing on.

The beast immediately shifted its attention to me, and upon seeing me momentarily vulnerable with my hands in the sand, the creature began salivating profusely before lunging at me – only for Tirza to immediately chime in as she jumped onto the antlion and grabbed the monster by its pincers before forcibly pulling it to the side, causing it to lose control as it veered out of my way and collapsing down to the ground after losing balance.

With the antlion now momentarily stunned, the two of us got back together once again as we took a good look at the now incapacitated beast – we had to figure out how to get this thing out of our sight, otherwise the thing will get back up and lengthen this fight further. I soon realized that I had to look beyond its pincers and look towards attacking its mouth – and just like that, I asked Tirza to try and shroud herself within the sandstorm so that she could quickly intervene in case my plan went wrong. Of course, she asked just what I was planning to do, but…

…I was just too in the moment to even respond. I immediately charged towards the beast, and just as it got back up, it noticed me rushing right at it head-on as the antlion swiftly tried to react by quickly closing down its pincers to try and grab me.

While I was able to barely get past its pincers and find myself in the space between its pincers and its mouth, I did hear something rip behind me as I noticed my back now completely exposed – its pincers caught the back of my bodysuit…oh boy. In a desperate attempt to finish this fight while also having to deal with the pain of countless sand particles smashing themselves against my back, my flaming hands intensified in terms of its heat before I straight up grabbed the monster’s mouth – I set myself up for something disgusting, I’ll admit that.

The monster, immediately responding to the pain, would let out a wild roar as the thing splashed me with copious amounts of saliva, and just like that, the creature would throw itself back with a great amount of force in an attempt to pull its mouth out of my hands’ grip, causing my back to crudely scrape against a pincer while the monster retreated.

Admittedly, the sheer amount of pain I felt from my now bleeding back was enough to send me fumbling down to the ground as my sight instantly grew hazy from the fatigue and from the pain – I could see, albeit with a somewhat blurry vision, that the antlion immediately dug down into the sand before disappearing, and just like that, the sandstorm around us began to dissipate rapidly in response to the antlion fleeing in an attempt to recover from its burns.

Another battle was now behind us, and another battle where I found myself completely inundated with weakness at the very end. Still, it definitely did me some good to finally utilize the magic that I hadn’t used in a long time. But I didn’t have the time nor the focus to think about anything like that – not when I found myself in a new and undoubtedly dangerous situation. My back needed tended to as quickly as possible.

Tirza immediately rushed to me as the area around us began to ease up considerably, and upon seeing my back gravely injured, she quickly plundered my bag, hoping to find anything which could help cover the wound and staunch the flow of blood that came gushing out. I didn’t really remember what happened next, and that was probably because of the fact that I fainted from being overwhelmed by the pain and the loss of energy…as well as blood.

I did remember seeing something, though. It would be the last thing I see before I was knocked out for a good while. I’m still thankful for that last vision, honestly.

All I saw were silhouettes from a distance, inching closer and closer to us…