791.II, 12 Berelii: Hokarak, the desert's doorstep

-"Towers !" Astrid shouted.

    Her voice resonated like a magic spell. Everyone in that instant felt a profound relief of joy, for the end of the desert was now in sight. For all in the team the exhaustion, the thirst, vanished. Even the hoomas had stopped in their incessant gruntings and clatterings. Leen's pain almost disappeared and she rose, unable to sit still after hearing the news.

    She leaned over the carriage, out of the shade to grab a glimpse of the view ahead. In the distance, she could see for herself the shining domes of two spires that announced the village of Hokarak, the end of her adventure. Through the mirages of overheated air, the end of her struggle was nigh.

The wind had gained strength, as if to help push them forward, for the last stretch. In the gusts of air, Leen's hair was blowing around, dancing wildly like flames over her strained face; she was smiling like a child.

    A few more hours would pass however, before they reached over the last dune, and through the stone-built arches that marked the village entrance. Three large constructs carved in soft sandstone, the arches bore numerous symbols reminiscent of the gods and of ancient history. The crew was welcome by the rest of the caravan - they had arrived a day prior ; the noise that emanated was a cacophony of shouts and hoomas, a stark contrast to the silent breaths of the desert nights.

    As she was helped down her carriage, Leen looked back at the desert. The shadows painted by the dying light of sunset projected the silhouette of the village's minarets and roofs, like ghosts of the people's drive to conquer all savage wilderness. Atop the dunes stood the familiar silhouette of the Ryn. He bathed in the reddish light. Leen waved eagerly with her good hand at the beast, amid the bewildered and frightened looks of others, as if to tell it she was now fine, as if to tell it one last goodbye.Slowly, the ryn turned and disappeared behind the dune, right as the shadows engulfed its crests.

---

791.II, 16 Berelii

    I have stayed bedridden for three whole days. Three days during which only my close companions would come visit me. It wasn't for the absence of a nurse in the village, but they just wouldn't see me. And my wounded arm desperately needed attention. The swelling alone, in the makeshift binder that Bethon had put together made the pain unbearable, but I was above all worried by the deep scratches and cuts I got on those jagged rocks. Those needed thorough cleaning and sewing if I wanted to avoid nastiness and disease.

But rumor had spread around the village, Maham has reported to me, that I have no business being here. As if my red hair was not bad enough, to the people living here I was not supposed to be saved. People like me, who get lost in the desert are claimed by it according to local beliefs. I am owed to the desert, I am supposed to be a naturally chosen sacrifice to the gods. That is the fate that awaits those who get stranded in the sandy expanses, and fate is not to be messed with.

From the window, I could hear but not see the rumble of the crowd amassed in the temple nearby. The priests were probably preaching about an expected divine wrath. That ryn that was spotted lurking around the outside? A grim omen of incoming woe. That girl who bore the red hair as a mark of the gods? Stolen from the desert, I am a crime.

It's true that in these parts of the south, ryn encounters are not so rare, but often destructive. After all, its fellows only come out of their desert rocks for casual feeding on livestock or on people, and we offer little resistance in their paths.

In these circumstances, I owe my probation to the persistent defence from my crewmates and a handful of other caravaneers -not all of them are on my side, out of fear or faith probably. If not for them, I would already have been thrown back to the Golden Sea, Maybe my broken body would feed the ryn and make it leave the village alone. Thankfully, my friends who have been pleading for my life have finally reached some kind of agreement. They have secured a healer's promise to take care of my wounds, but I am to pay the desert back in some way, a price of blood to satiate the sands.

I await this healer any time now, I hope they will fix me up quickly.

"I've seen towers higher than the highest trees crumble like twigs under the strength of either nature, man or birds. This here village is no different, living on the edge of a giant constantly assailing it, gnawing away slowly but surely. The rock will turn to dust and feed the dunes some more. The temple will disappear in thin air, transported as far as the world stretches. But for now it's here and it provides, for just a few generations, a little measure of shelter and safety from this very giant."

Leen Latour