ARCHSPHERE

Biv and Mart's Story

Chapter 2: Arid Arrest

Heat poured down overhead. Heat sizzled up from the ground. Heat wafted through the desiccated wind. There was no escaping the natural furnace that stretched across to the surrounding flat horizon of sky and loose ground. Crawling up a steep dune were two people, a young man and a young woman. Dreadfully dehydrated, they ventured from the base of the dunes where they were momentarily resting at. The dune valleys were blanketed in shade but unfortunately the late morning gad passed as the sun nearly reached its peak of noon, dissolving away any trace of shadow.

The man reached the top of dune first, picking himself up to his feet, heaving his breaths. He patted the sand off his dirty white short sleeve shirt and brown vest. He then bent down to rub off the sand on his light brown breeches, then brushed sand from his short curly hair, sweat dripping from his forehead. The sand in his hair made it seem lighter than it actually was. “I think…I think I know where we are sis.” He said as he turned over to her.

The young woman kept to herself and didn’t reply immediately. She stood up once reaching the summit of sand. Her brown wavy hair, once nestled in a tight bun, dangled down to her shoulders, a complete mess. Her pants and white shirt were also powered with fine desert dust. What made it harder for her was that she was carrying her sheathed long-sword from the left side of her belt, not that she had the slightest notion of abandoning it. On her other side she carried a small bag of gold coins. She wore a hooded cloak that draped over her back. It was a burden with the insulated heat it bounded but it was better than having the tremendous sunlight bombarding directly through her thin white shirt. Hot, parched, exhausted, and drenched in sweat, she was not taking this event as calmly as him and every passing second in the blazing heat only made her irritation grow. But for the sake of possible humor she responded to her brother in an understated manner, “You think you know where we are? Oh please brother share with me your almighty wisdom. Where in the world are we, Mart?”

Mart overlooked the endlessness of the sun-ridden wasteland, replying as if he didn’t catch her sarcasm, “Well Biv, I think we’re dead…dead in hell,”

Rolling her eyes, Biv continued on, strolling across the top of the dune, now leading the way. It had been at least several hours since they both woke up in the middle of this wasteland. Since then they had been sauntering through the dunes making entirely no progress, as the horizon never changed. They were stranded.

Mart followed Biv as he continued his rambling, “There we were…in Cesreel, near home. We lose our balance from being poisoned, drop dead, and wake up in the middle of the desert. ”

Biv responded assertively without turning back at him, “Has it yet come to your mind that this desert is the possible location of where they deposit the exiled? No one knows where the agents take them. Once a person is deemed for exile, they are taken by the royal agents and never seen again. And for the last time Mart, we were not poisoned, we were sedated. I recognized the darts that struck us. Father and I had used them ourselves numerous times.”

Mart thought to himself before saying, “Well this isn’t a very friendly spot to drop off anyone. I mean, were just exiles, not criminals. And I can’t understand why they brought you here too. You don’t have any gifts.”

“This is most likely my punishment for attacking the agents when you ran off. And as a matter-of-fact if you want to know my gift it’s to tolerate you!”

“Oh come on, Biv. Don’t get mad at me! It was that damn old geezer! None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for him.”

Biv stopped at her tracks. Swiftly, Biv turned around towards her brother, her face infuriated. She paced firmly to Mart, “Him! Are you that simpleminded or just too much in denial to put the blame on that man! None of this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for you, brother!” She finished as she was right in front of him, stabbing his chest with her index finger on the “you.” “This is your fault!” Biv was only several centimeters shorter than her 1.8 meter tall brother.

Mart, with a completely shaken expression, put his rubbed the spot on his chest where Biv violently poked, and conditionally replied, “My fault?!”

Looking straight at his eyes centimeters from his face she retorted, “Yes, your fault! We all knew that man is a bother to us for seeing his daughter and I most certainly know you knew! But you just went on like it was nothing, a bunch of dogs in heat. And to take it to top it off, what do you do?! You actually tell her, no, show her your dangerous secret! The secret we’ve been keeping for your own safety. But you don’t think about your own safety! You showed that woman your magic, only for you to get caught!” With both hands, Biv grabbed Mart by the front of his vest and started shaking him viciously.

“Sis, get a, hold of, yours-”

“This is, all, your, fault! All this, to show off, to a damn, wench!”

Mart wasn’t infatuatedly in love with Olivia, the girl he was seeing, but he liked her enough to stick up for her. Mart managed to push Biv off of him and sternly said, “Okay Biv, now you need to get a hold of yourself! What gives you the right to call her a, ah!” Biv was beyond reasoning at the moment. With an abrupt cry she lunged her entire body into her brothers stomach, tackling him down. Between Biv’s momentum and Mart loosing his footing on the sandy surface, Mart flew back from the summit and the both of them tumbled and rolled down the slope of the monolithic dune.

Mart was the first to reach the bottom as he landed on his stomach and face. Biv landed on her right side a few meters away from Mart. They groaned as they lay in exhaustion and soreness. Mart took the initiative to get himself up, spitting sand from his mouth. He noticed he landed on a distinct bulge in his shirt below his chest. As he got up, he reached into his shirt and pulled out a small sack. Ecstatically he confirmed aloud, “I forgot I had these! Biv look, I have some Savberry-nuts.”

“You had those all along?!” She quickly rose up upon hearing him. With her manners strayed by her temper, she bitterly demanded, “Give me some!”

Mart was about to put his hand in the sack to pass her a few when he paused. He took his had away from the opening and crossed his arms with a smirk. “I’ll give you one,” he said smiling at Biv, “but I think an apology is in order first. If you say you’re sorry, then maybe I’ll consider...” In all his absentmindedness, Mart would always forget how mad Biv can get, and how mad Biv can get. His sly smirk quickly altered into a frightened shutter as he heard the sound of a sword unsheathing.

“Apology?” Biv questioned with clenched teeth. “Heheheh. Okay brother, I’ll give you…an apology.” She pointed her sword directly at Mart.

With all the fatigue that consumed Mart, he still managed to demonstrate the definition of fast in the opposite direction from Biv.

Biv wasted no time in pursuing her target, both hands clenching the hilt. “Run, run! That’s what you do best, huh?!”

Dashing up the dune, Mart cried out, “Biv this is no fair! I’m unarmed! You need to stop this!”

“Where are you going brother! I want to apologize!”

Mart made it to the top of the dune, but from there continued straight on, sprinting down the other side.

Not far behind did Biv reach the summit as well. But just as he reached the top, she stopped. Her psychotic frenzy drained completely replaced by relief. Relief…and hope that the sight she had caught was real. At that moment the tiredness from the sprint caught up to her as she breathed heavily through her dry throat. But despite the fact, she managed to yell out to Mart, who was already climbing up the smaller dune ahead.

“Mart, up ahead! I see something!” Mart stopped noticing distance in her call confirmed that it was safe for him to stop. Heaving sporadically he turned around to see Biv at the top of the last dune pointing at something ahead. Already halfway up the sandy hill, Mart continued scaling to the top. Upon arriving at the summit he gasped lightly as he looked to himself as he saw three creatures. From his view the only two distinguishable aspects of the creature were that they were quite plump and that each of them were being ridden on.

“Heeyy!” Mart yelled out at the top of his lungs, waving his arms frantically as his ran to the convoy of riders. It wasn’t until he was about 30 meters from the group when one of the riders took notice of Mart’s approach from their left side. All three party members sighted Mart’s coming with Biv catching up behind, they halted their animals, the creatures grunting in response The group simply stayed still waiting for Mart to reach them.

A verge of collapsing Mart fell to his knees. Looking up he almost flinched at the realization of the creatures’ size. Standing on broad and stout legs the creatures were just about two meters tall shoulder length. Their large heads were bizarre. A flat and wide bony plate extended from the tops of their head. From their forehead protruded a pair of straight, spiky horns. A smaller horn protruded just over their noses and beaked mouth. The rest of their body looked similar to a giant bulky lizard. Their tails were wide and short, giving them the length of about three meters.

The creatures had a light colored cloth draped over their backs, where an assortment of belongings piled on their backs. The riders each sat just behind the creatures’ wide necks. “I’m so…please…lost…exiled…hell!” Mart couldn’t think straight, his head facing the ground. Mart’s eyes then widened as one of the riders tossed him a brown closed sack landing in front of him. Hearing the sloshing sound and eyeing the rippling movements of the bag, Mart quickly realized what it was, grabbing it and opening the dark nozzle. Upon opening the leather canteen he lifted the bag over head as he drowned his throat with the thirst quenching relief, gulping loudly. After a moment of sucking the canteen dry, Mart choked his breathing, gasping for air. Not too soon after afterwards did Biv fall to her knees and elbows beside Mart, and had a canteen thrown to her. She already had her sword sheathed long before her arrival.

Once Mart caught his breath, he looked up to the riders, “Thank you so much. I could have sworn we were in hell. We’ve been lost in the desert all day!” He finally was able to get a good look at the riders. They wore white robes covering down to their knees, light beige pants, and a scarf and turban so the only exposed part of their face where there eyes. A thin white sheet wrapped around and covered their head and it ran down the back of their necks.

Two of the riders looked at each other. The one on the largest creature, who led the group, called out and ask, “Are you two members of the 4A or the R3A?” His voice was deep and firm.

Mart looked up to the top of the creature, shading his eyes with his hand, “Four-A-what?” As loud and clear as the man spoke, Mart wasn’t sure if he understood what he said.

One of the riders called out to the leader, “Commander, if I recall, based on recent documents there isn’t a site anywhere in this region, not to mention that neither the 4A nor R3A have registered any site within the passed season, at least not in this region.” It was a woman’s voice. “Plus from their clothes, they don’t look like they’re from Rylex or Appolis.

The third rider than spoke up, asking Mart, “Are the two of you on a pilgrimage to or from Golrex?” He was a man, his voice sounding much younger than the commander.

“Uh…pilgrimage? No, I know nothing of a pilgrimage or a gorex…what did you say?”

After consuming her share of water, Biv stood up, “We’re sorry for any delay and are most grateful for the water you’ve given us. As my brother hear has mentioned already, we know are not part of any group or event that has been mentioned. We are lost.” As exhausted she managed to speak fairly cool and collective.

The woman rider asked Biv suspiciously, “May I ask how you ended up in the Omalian Ocean?”

“We’re in an ocean?!” Mart asked aloud.

The other young rider replied, “An ocean of sand. Hm, you’re obviously not around here. So how did you end up so deep in this desert in the first place?” He asked the same question.

Biv wanted to avoid giving away as much detail as possible, but before Biv could attempt to stretch the truth Mart already blurted out, “Well, we basically woke up here.”

“You…woke up here?” The woman repeated in question.

“Yeah, and for a moment we…I mean, I thought my sister and I were dead. We’ve been wandering all day. We were exiled from our homeland for…” Mart paused. It was already too late for Biv to stop him, she simple sighed to herself, resting hand on her forehead.

Mart continued, “We were exiled because I have a…uh, forbidden talent.”

The commander, who was eyeing and studying the scene from above on the large animal asked, “You were exiled because of a forbidden talent? Where are you from again?”

“The Kingdom of Cesreel.”

The Fool! How stupid can he be?! Biv thought to herself. Biv and Mart still didn’t know if these people were a possible threat. They could kill Mart on the spot. They would probably kill both of them if they were enemies of Cesreel. Or if they had figured out Mart’s meaning by his talent. Just to be on the sure side Biv kept her right arm loose, ready for at any moment to pull out her sword.

The three riders were quiet. The young man simply shrugged, “Cesreel? Never heard of it.”

The woman asked Mart, “Where is this Kingdom of Cesreel?”

“Well, all I can say that it’s definitely not here,” was the only thing Mart could say, almost making it sound more like a question.

Biv was surprised by what the riders had said, how could anyone in this continent not know of the Great Kingdom of Cesreel. But then again, Biv wasn’t so sure if they were even in the same continent. How long could we have possibly been sedated?

Biv gave a studying glance at the three riders. They didn’t seem armed and their sluggish beasts were hardly equipped for any means of warfare. These people seemed to look more like simple nomads than anything else. But then again, the leader was addressed as a “commander.” Eyeing the animals Biv noticed they seemed to be getting just as reckless as she was standing still in the heat. Looking up to rider closest to her she gave an appeal, “My brother and I only seek refuge out of this desert. We would be grateful if we can join your group until then. We can pay you in gold if necessary.” She then pulled out three coins from the small sack on the left side of her belt.

As they took notice the commander asked, “You have gold? Ah, well in that case, may we see your currency warrant and receipt.”

“Excuse me?” Biv asked.

“Your currency warrant and receipt for the gold you possess. Do you have them?” The man tilted his torso forward at Biv. It was hard to see his eyes with the scarf wrapped up to his nose and the turban covering his head, but she could feel his firm gaze upon her.

Biv gave a bewildered stare, “No…I don’t have any warrant or receipt.”

“Then I must place you under arrest.”

“What?!”

“Under arrest?” Mart said aloud, “Now wait just a damn minute!” He extended his right arm out, pointing at the man, his tone was borderline threatening.

At the next moment Mart’s right arm became tense, as if his arm was being restrained. Mart let a sudden “huh” as he noticed something around his wrist. Out of nowhere a thick, coarse bracelet had appeared on his wrist, but what was more surprising was that he fighting the bracelet from having it pull his arm around his back. Then something else added to his attention as he set his sights on his left arm. There was a thick coarse bracelet on his left wrist as well. But this time he managed to get a glimpse of it forming and hardening from the sand.

“What the…whoa!” Mart’s hands were pulled to his back, where the bracelets merged into a set of cuffs. Mart uselessly struggled to pull his hands apart, but before he could do anything else, a stone stake quickly rose from the ground, sprouting two and a half meters right behind Mart. The stake merged with his cuffs solidifying around Mart‘s hand. Not a moment to soon did the ground under his feet shake. Right before his own eyes was he standing on a flat stone square platform about a meter and a half in length and width. On each side of the platform six skinny stone poles shot up just as tall as the central beam Mart was stuck onto. Then at last sand floated and condensed over Mart’s head as a roof of stone formed over him. In less than 30 seconds, a cage of stone had formed around Mart. The most intriguing feature about cage was that it was hovering centimeters off the ground.

The commander spoke to companion, “Heheh, a bit hasty there, ay, Dean?”

Dean face towards his commander in reply, “And for the best, commander, until we know of his forbidden talent.”

The commander nodded, “Can always count on your sharp sense.”

Caught in the awe of the cage’s spontaneous construction that ensnared her brother, Biv finally reacted in response, “What did you do to my brother?!” And with that said, Biv went to grab for her sword. Her hand froze just over her sword, just out of reach of the hilt. “No, damn it!” She said tightly has she tried to fight the bracelet of sand that had just wrapped around her right wrist. She looked up to the riders. The commander was shaking his finger, “Now now, none of that.”

It all happened so fast. Half a minute past and Biv was trapped in a floating stone cage, her wrists cuffed behind her by the center beam. Biv didn’t register exactly what happened until the cage had fully formed around her. Biv was speechless. She never saw this before. It was magic she had never seen. Magic? Could it be possible these people too have a gift, like Mart?