The orange desert sun sank behind the jagged sandstone mesas of the Scorched Badlands, casting long shadows across the dry shale gullies.
Ye Chen and Han Ping hurried along the dry creek bed leading back toward their hidden camp, their boots crunching against the red clay flats.
As they rounded the final sandstone bend, the faint, sweet smell of desert dust was suddenly cut short by the sharp stench of burning camel dung and unwashed leather.
High on the rim of the sandstone bluff, ten mounted bandits wearing spiked bone armor and sand-scoured leather coats had encircled the narrow recess, their scaly desert lizards hissing with long, forked tongues as they tested the air.
These were the Dustfang Raiders, a merciless band of desert scavengers known across the frontier for hunting stray
