ACT III - Crystal lands

Titian rose, his head was sore, and his body felt so dry, he was half convinced that he was formed of the sand he was lying in. The first thing he was aware of is the tents and encampment being totally destroyed, some of the carts scattered all over the place, in every direction. Whatever had happened had been disastrous and happened in only moments. Almost like it was planned. The second thing the new hero noticed was that he was totally alone. Not one person from the people of the desert was around, alive, or dead, nor were his friends, who he suddenly felt a deep fear for and decided immediately he would try to find them, although he had no idea of where to start looking.With all the chaos, and the sun setting. Titian had gathered all of the supplies he could find.  Food, a few canteens of water, two he had already emptied in the heat of the day, some cloth and sticks to make shelter from, and of course his sword and dagger. Any signs of where they went were long buried under the sand which was blowing around and falling like a soft yellow blanket, removing any evidence of tracks beneath it.Titian had only walked a few miles when the sun seemed to almost disappear over the horizon. Sighing, he set his tent up and lit the camp fire, placing some meats over it to cook on a makeshift spit. There was a tense feeling without the laughter of Migual, or the snappy sarcastic wit of Sofia, and he found he missed them both equally as well. He longed for Miguals’ carefree attitude and optimism, and he desperately needed the experience and advice of his older and more experienced comrade.By the next morning, he awoke and without thinking drained a whole canteen of water, drinking it and pouring it over his head to try cool it off. "Idiot" he scolded himself when he realized what he had done, already regretting it as he looked at the one half and one quarter full canteens he had left. He had also not seen any of the spiked plants that they had gained water from in the past either, not for hours after he left the caravan camp the day before.It seemed he had walked forever, though it was probably only another few miles. The distance waved like water in the heat of the day, the sand stung his eyes and felt like little darts striking at his skin as the wind blew the grains around. Luckily so far, the scarf was doing its job at allowing him to breath and the makeshift hat was keeping most of the sun from his head, though he was still sweating beneath it.There were a few scavengers that attacked Titian on his way, but they were mostly solo attacks, and he was starting to improve now. Every sense in his body was alert, every movement seemed to be fast, without him even knowing that he was moving and then the monsters lay dead as though they were like that when he found them.It was not immediately obvious, but as time went on and day turned to afternoon, and then to early evening causing the air to cool again, Titian felt as though he were being watched or followed. Several times he turned around but found no one, no monster, no human, not even a desert animal. However, it was during one of these turns that the unthinkable happened.  Titian stepped on a small mound of sand, it was no different to any other he had, when suddenly the sand gave way beneath his feet. He slid in, grasping at the sand, for anything that might save him, stop the plunge beneath the sand, when he saw them. The open jaws of a scavenger, pointed directly up beneath him, ready to crush him and devour him before he had a chance to do anything.He froze in that moment. The memories came flooding of the monster he saw before, which tried to kill him after eating the dog. His body would not react anymore, it was stiff as a statue, and felt like it weighed a hundred times more than normal, before there was a voice. It was more in his head, but it snapped Titian from his daze and fear, and he found a strength and courage inside of himself that he never knew was there.That was when everything went slow motion.  He drew his sword, the weight of it becoming so second nature now, he could manoeuvre it perfectly onto the tip of one of the pincers, the clink of metal on a hard surface, jolting the fall as Titian used it to twist himself onto the face of the scavenger, sliding down it’s back dragging the blade of the sword all of the way down the body until he hit something hard at the bottom, in the darkness beneath the monster, which twitched a little and screeched, before it slide down onto it’s back. Green fluid forming a puddle beneath it.Lighting a torch, as the sand refilled in against the head of the dead monster and blocked all the light out, Titian realized he was standing in the tunnel of many. Some went up, some went down, some went along and that’s when he understand that perhaps scavengers did not live alone like the book said, perhaps at some point in recent times, they had formed colonies, that or nobody else had ever managed to survive the pit fall into a scavenger trap, that was possible too, though he doubted he was that lucky.Screeches came from further down the tunnel behind Titian as the man walked along, sword in one hand, torch in the other. Presumably, the body he left in the back had been found by other monsters, there were screeches coming from every direction now. Titian knew he had to get out soon or risk never seeing the light of day again. The longer he was down here the better the chance they would find and kill him, he had known that from when he started traversing this maze, however, now they knew there was an intruder everything was so much worse. Because now they would be looking for him.There was suddenly another call out; it was deeper and more frightening than the noise the scavengers made. More of a rumble, like thunder as something crashed through the roof of the cave he had just entered, missing him by inches as he crashed through the floor, causing the ground beneath to shake violently enough to cause Titian to lose his balance and fall, the torch being smothered by the hardened sand of the ground extinguished.There was another screech followed by other screeches as thuds sounded below, the ground shook more, and part of the ceiling of the cave started falling in. Titian grabbed the torch and blindly ran in the direction away from whatever was happening in that hole.A few meters away he hit a wall and staggered back away from it. Scurrying to the right of him let him know there was a tunnel in that direction, but there was a scavenger travelling through it.  It let out a screech as its much better eyesight adapted to darkness and picking up the scent of potential food allowed the scavenger to spot the human standing in a room of its house.Titian lit the torch so he could see the beast, as it reared up before him, ready to attack, the claws on the beasts’ feet ready to come down, sharp enough to slice him clean in half, hair, skin, bone, all.  He lifted his sword again, ready to defend himself when the ground beneath the scavenger caved in and another set of mandible jaws emerged, grabbing the scavenger by its mid-section and dragged it back down into the darkness of the new hole.Titian scrambled back before edging away from the hole, not taking his eyes off the abyss like darkness it lowered into. Both scared that the mandibles would emerge, or the monster they belonged to, he was not sure which would actually be scarier to witness.  Scratches and more thuds and struggles came from below, echoing in and out of the hole.Down the tunnel there was light. It was a long way away, but it was hope. Titian rushed toward it, sword pointed out like a lance, so if anything jumped out in front of him, it would be skewered like a kebab. The thought of that made him hungry and he realized he had not eaten since breakfast.Finally, fresh air met the warrior, who was finally feeling braver than he had ever felt. He still did not think he was good enough to be classed as a hero or worthy of the guild acceptance yet, but he had slain monsters, he had overcome his fear, he had escaped a nest of scavengers, and now, as he stood in the sun, he looked out into a new world he had never imagined could exist.In the distance, the sun shone like lasers reflecting off of large, mountain like structures but were too dark to see properly but seemed to jut out in a hundred directions. That was when he saw the man, sitting on a rock to one side. There was a large cut on his arm, but he did not seem too bothered by it, in fact his eyes were focused solely on Titian himself, as though he were trying to assess if he was going to kill him or run away.“You are searching for your friends” the man said, it was more a statement than a question.Titian nodded.“Who are you?” Titian asked, sword still in hand, though the man glanced away, he was totally unphased, “tell me, where are my friends?”The man looked back.“They are in danger, and they are safe. They are close and yet they are far away. They are grounded but sometimes fly” The man said, and was about to say more, but Titian interrupted.“Stop speaking in riddles” Titian demanded in frustration, “that makes no sense.”“It will” the man said and stood up, walking away, pointing to the large, pointed structures in the distance, “you will likely find them over there if they are still alive. You will meet a lot of danger over there so be careful, the beasts you encounter are not as soft as scavengers, nor are they as stupid” he called over his shoulder.“Wait! What’s over there?” Titian called but the man had seemingly vanished into thin air, or down the hole that had suddenly appeared around the corner he had just stepped around.The journey was long and arduous. Even with a visible direction to walk in now, Titian lacked water, food supplies were low, and the heat was constantly draining him of strength, while the cold drained his morale. This was a suicidal task he told himself over and over, gazing up wishing it would rain or one of those spiky plants would appear and he could puncture it for water.A few days later though, Titian ran into two new problems. The first being the horde of scavengers, facing them, pincers trying to grab at him, as claws sparked. Titian was running for his life, brave as he felt after the nest escape, he knew he was no match for the amount of them running after him now.The second problem was what the hell had just happened. The ground became less sandy, and more slippery and harder. Then Titian had the most unimaginable horror happen. The air behind him became red hot, though whatever it was had not touched him, the hair on the back of his neck felt incinerated. The desert was hot, and scavengers were deadly, but they never had the power to make the desert hotter before.The hero spun and, and slipped, landing and sliding a few feet on a rock-hard surface, jolting the wind out of him. The scavengers were on fire, but why? He looked around, maybe members of the guild were here, maybe there were some bandits or someone who had saved his life with fire arrows or something.That was when he heard it, above him. A roar that sounded deeper than a drumroll, and as loud as thunder. He gazed up and flying above was a large shadow, large wings flapping steadily, as it swooped and breathed at the desert again with another roar. With the roar came a great river of fire, so intense and hot it was more blue with sparks of yellow, than the red-orange colour the book had depicted it as.The scavengers screeched, lifting the pincer like fangs toward the sky in rebellion as the stench of burning flesh and the sound of furious screeches filled the air as though that alone would scare the dragon off. The dragon though seemed disinterested as it flew around and came back in an explosion of flames, this time directed not only at the scavengers, but Titian too, who had half got to his feet, and now dived away, sliding along the smooth crystal-like floor of this part of the world.That’s when Titian realized, the crystal lands. He had reached the crystal lands, and this was definitely both a good and terrible sign. It was good because obviously the scavengers rarely came here, and when they did, the ground was too hard for them to burrow into so you could see them coming from the distance. The bad news is, this is where the dragons lived.Dragons were a lot worse than scavengers. It was not just their size or the fire that they could burn you in moments with. No, dragons were dreadful because they were smart, could think for themselves, and the reason they lived here was for what they called their wealth. Dragons were greedy and classed these crystals as their treasure, anyone caught trying to take even the smallest part of the crystal from the floor or the sky-high structures were relentlessly attacked by the giant beasts.Titian ran and hid behind and under a crystal that floated slightly off the ground. With luck the dragon never saw him as his main efforts were against the scavengers who had started spraying an acid like substance at the sky, which landing on the crystal floor, was actually starting to have a chemical reaction.That’s when Titian remembered the green substance around the one, he killed in the hole, it was not just blood, it was acid, if it had touched him, he would likely have started to melt like this crystal was trying to fight against.The air felt cooler, and the sound of scavengers and the roar of the dragon faded away. Now in the silence, the sounds had gone from complete fear from the roars and screeches of the monsters battling each other, to an eery silence that in the aftermath reminded the hero how alone he was in the world. He wondered what Sofia and Migual would have done in this situation.  “You can come out, meat” a deep voice came from somewhere above, followed by a growl that sounded almost as though it was a satisfied sigh.Titian crawled out from the crystal, expecting to see some kind of human, maybe even one of the gods standing there ready to protect him. Perhaps it was his imagination. But as he turned, he froze in terror, all of his presumptions being incredibly wrong.Perched on the crystal he had been under, talons that were actually strong and sharp enough, they had dug themselves a grip into the crystal holding up a beast that was at least twenty feet tall. The dragon was gazing down at him, the razor-sharp teeth from the lower jaw, curled up over his upper lip at the sides. The eyes dark marks, with orange slits inside that were aimed straight down at Titian.Titian fell to his knees. The sword tapped his ankle as it repositioned itself in its sheath, though the human did not dare to reach down and touch it. Dragons had one weakness, and he was not strong, nor fast enough to jump on top of the dragon and pierce the top of its skull, not one who was this big at least.“Do not worry, I am not here to kill you” The dragon smiled, a slight billow of smoke escaping its nose, “after all, I have not had your scent before. You have not stolen from me in the past.”“You can talk?” was the only thing Titian could think of to say.“Of course, I can” the dragon sounded almost insulted, “do I look like a hatchling to you?  Do I look stupid?” it asked.“No, no!  I have just never met a dragon before, nor have I met any other beast that could speak our language” Titian said, adding, “not that I’m calling you a specifically a beast, I just mean- “A low growl echoed around the area. The dragon was actually laughing.“I know what you mean, human” the dragon smiled, which was actually scarier than its serious look from before. “We dragons were here long before humans were thought of, and we will be here long after.”Titian held onto the talons of the dragon, which held him, surprisingly gently, around his body, from his shoulders to his feet. The dragon had met members of the guild before and so had recognised the insignia on his chest. He had told Titian that the guild and the dragons were once enemies and made war on each other, as the guild saw them as monsters, the dragons seeing the guild as a threat that were just trying to steal the treasure. The war had ended long ago, both sides losing many friends, family, and homes. Now they had an uneasy peace.The ground seemed like a dark blanket beneath them, that light bounced off in small beams, illuminating the multi-coloured standing structures pointing to the sky. The dragon did have binocular vision though and could spot a puppy from higher than they were now, so Titian had no choice but to hold on and trust the dragon was really trying to help because if he released the man now, he would fall to his death, no doubts about it.They landed on a high perch atop one of the highest pillars. The side had been melted and carved into a hole the dragon walked in and laid down, there were bones lined against the wall, and crystal shards piled at the back.“Welcome to my nest” the dragon sighed, laying down and gazing at the new human friend standing in the entryway, “please don’t be shy, we have plenty of room for you, and I have already promised I was not going to hurt you, unless you try to take treasure, and dragons are known to keep their promises.It was not fear that stopped Titian entering though, it was more the heat. It was like the desert inside this giant crystal, sure the light reflected off it, but it also retained a lot of the heat as well.  It was almost like walking from a fridge, due to the cold of the air up so high, into a pre heated oven ready to cook him alive.“I would just like to get some air” Titian said and looked back outside. He felt odd turning his back on the dragon, but at the same time, he did not want to offend the dragon by showing his lack of trust in him.Night came and the crystal cave slowly cooled with it, to the point it felt like ice to the touch rather than what was probably the last thing you would feel if the mighty beast that had sat with him had decided to cook the human for lunch.The dragon had explained the crystal caves were not just good for treasure. The reason they were perfect is because of the heat of the sun. When dragons first awoke, they were very tired, due to the cold blood it took a lot of heat to warm their blood up to enable them to take flight and have a day of energy.That explained why the dragons all chose caves high up near the sun, where the rays of the sun would hit first, and the stronger and more powerful dragons, were allowed to nest higher than the smaller, and weaker dragons.Before they slept, the dragon had told Titian something that he never thought he would hear. “I saw two others from the guild, like you they came from the desert” The dragon said, “they were being held prisoner from the island folks who are much bigger than you all are.”And with that, the dragon fell asleep, leaving Titian sat up and wondering.