“I suppose biological preservation is still preservation. I never really thought about that side of things, but then again, I guess most things here are dead anyway so what’s there to preserve? Oh well.”
Desert once more found himself lost in thought. The interaction with Irus back at the Aavirk had perked his energy levels (and more importantly his sanity levels) but he was still desperate for water and food. His head began to ache, his stomach began to rumble, but still he walked on.
He pushed on until the murky, dusty shadow of Kalvika Ta had materialized once again. Even though he resembled an incarnation of the meaning of “shambles” with all the canteens rattling on his back and at his sides, he didn’t really mind. It wasn’t the first time he looked a bit of a mess and wouldn’t be the last.
Kalvika Ta grew taller and darker, like a living giant. With modern knowledge of the inner workings of the Earth, Kalvika Ta had lost its ancient status as a sleeping god and has become little more than a simple cliff, surrounded by smaller cliffs under the sands beneath. This place was sacred in the hearts of many tribes; some even believed the sun and the moon were born inside it. Others saw it as a divine overlord, solely responsible for the heat, the dust storms, and anything else. The largest tribes Zerca had ever seen used this monument to scatter the ash of their fallen brothers and sisters into the wind.
They would somehow climb to the top, carrying pots full of gray and blackened ash and soot, and scatter it over the edges. The meaning behind this ritual is lost to time; perhaps it was a way of setting the fallen free, or a means of guaranteeing travel even after death.
Whatever it may be, this fact was clear: when you walked through the dust of Zerca, you walked through nameless ancient souls forever destined to move and fly. Desert thought that was beautiful.
He made his way west of the cliff. He had a knack for orienting himself even with few landmarks to hint what was where. The sun was now tall above, the sky was a mix of beige, blue, and yellow, and it was as searing hot as ever. Dust and souls swirled beneath him, through his legs and away as the wind picked up sand from the tips of the dunes around him. The wind melted everything in these parts; it could tear down a dune over weeks and rebuild it miles away.
Desert knew the place Irus referred to, even if Irus thought nothing was there at all. This eagle had found one of few oases that scattered Zerca, the lifeblood of everything that lives here. Of course the eagle would have nested there; water was plentiful, and food was fairly easy to find. The only issue with these oases is that the sand had become particularly soft and unsuitable for any sort of Aavirk or even town to be based around them. Just like anywhere else on these plains.
The stallion marched on; this place wasn’t far but it sure did feel like it. Desert felt the sand under him harden, and before he knew it, he stood atop a sheer cliff. However, this one was too sharp and neat to be natural; this must be another temple. He walked to one side of it and skillfully slid down the soft sandy bank besides it. He caught himself at the bottom and looked at the drop, and indeed this was a temple. He wasn’t familiar with it, however. This “cliff” looked like it was one of its four walls, where the other three had collapsed over the years, so actually he stood inside the structure. The sandstone bricks held up a mound of sand which leaked over the top and rode the wind away.
On the inside of the structure, snapped pillars that once held up a ceiling stretched various heights into the air aimlessly. They were very carefully carved and etched with lines and dots; they likely had some meaning two-thousand years ago. He walked over the sandy surface and made care to walk over the rubble. There was some small, blackened pottery aside one of the pillars with a primitive paintbrush inside it. Desert understood this as another ritual the ancient tribes of Zerca took part in, where they painted elaborate and intricate patterns and symbols on each other. This could have been to establish rank, position in the tribe, or maybe to separate factions. Nobody really knew.
Birds cawed overhead and soared through the air. “Hmmm…we must be close.” Desert thought. Then it came into view: besides him stood the unmistakable silhouette of a tree. Zerca always found new ways of surprising Desert, how he had never found this site in all his years of passing by this oasis here he never knew. He made a mental note of this place for further explorations in the future and moved to the oasis.
Sitting next to it, one by one he plunged the canteens into the surprisingly crystal-clear pond. The tree's roots grew into the water and plunged deep into the sand. This tree looked nearly dead, but a few stubborn leaves held on tight. On the rim of the oasis there sat small bushes, and in them were berry fruits. This is the food that he would be stocking up on, and it was the only reliable source of food around Zerca. Luckily, they were bountiful in their produce, and Desert liked the taste. These fruits had the interesting property of staying ripe and eatable for long periods of time in the immense heat, but suffered in colder temperatures. He plucked some from their stalk and tucked them into his bag; enough for him, Irus, and for the Aavirk.
Desert ate some of these fruits and drank from the oasis. He felt restored, after hours of hunger and thirst. His headache began to subside.
Birds continued to caw and float around him, and he noticed that they gathered around one of the taller pillars of the structure. Weirdly, none of the other pillars had a bird on it.
“Strange…” Desert said aloud. He stood and dropped the remaining canteens, gripped his staff, and walked to it. Upon closer inspection it looked like these birds had gathered around something and were curiously running across and pecking at whatever it was.
It was a nest. The nest.
“Oh god, that’s the nest!” he shouted. “Right um, uhh, uh what do I do…”
Desert frantically searched around, before he looked over his staff. He gripped it tight and looked at the nest above. He didn’t want to hurt any animals if he could manage, but he needed those eggs to stay intact.
He pulled the staff back, aimed it carefully at the top of the pillar, and launched it fast.
It cut through the air, spinning like a bullet. The staff had no sharp edge; it just needed to frighten the birds off.
It bowed down and began to fall, but slammed and splinted against the stone pillar. The knock frightened the birds enough to shriek and scatter, and, as he saw the nest had not toppled off the pillar, Desert breathed a sigh of relief.
He emptied the fruit onto the canteens as he didn’t really know how big these eggs would be, and rushed to the pillar. The base up to the halfway mark of this particular pillar was submerged in a dune, so he cautiously climbed it. He kicked out sand from under him and balanced, eventually crawling as he got higher and higher. He still needed to be quick in case those birds came back.
He reached the nest, holding onto the pillar’s top with his hooves. He peered inside the makeshift nest, and inside were three eggs, white with a brown speckling. Most importantly however they were intact. Desert breathed another deep sigh, and carefully scooped the three eggs into his bag at his side.
But he heard a crack, and the sound of rubble crumbs escaping from the pillar.
“Oh no.”
An almighty crack split through the pillar and separated the top segment from the rest of it. Desert forgot that these structures were two-thousand years old. It moved and crumbled under his grip and began to tumble forward. Desert panicked, but before he could react to anything the snapped segment of the pillar fell forward and down, sending Desert’s front legs and chest into the hard stone below, knocking the wind out of him. He fell back from the loss of grip, clutching the bag in between his legs and his body, landing hard onto the sand below with a groan. He tumbled down the dune.
Eventually he rolled to a stop. Desert was covered in dust and sand, coughing and wheezing as he had inhaled a fair bit. “Ughh man…” His mane and tail were more sand than hair at this point too, his legs scuffed, and his chest close to agony.
He shook the sand from his eyes and opened them, slowly and anxiously peeking inside the bag to check if he had protected the eggs. He lifted them out one by one, they were unharmed.
He coughed and rested his head back in the sand. “I could just work in an office...”
---
Irus waited in the Aavirk, now about two hours had passed since Desert left. He became slightly worried, while Desert seemed like a capable man it wasn’t very hard for Zerca to swallow up the arrogant. Perhaps Irus should have gone with him, but then again pegasi and unicorns are dissuaded from going beyond the Great Compass without rigorous training and equipment, earth’s do too. However, they have a natural advantage of strength and resilience over their avian and magical counterparts.
Irus had got this far and that was hard enough for him; he wasn’t cut out for travel into the heart of this place.
He rubbed his beard and put his hat on the table. Each hour that passed made the survival of the chicks less likely. He anxiously tapped his hoof against the floor.
At that moment, the unmistakable sound of full canteens clunking against one another sounded Desert’s return. He swung the door open and met Irus’ gaze.
“I was starting to worry for you then, buddy. Did you get into trouble?” Irus stood and moved to Desert. He brushed all the sand and grit that had gathered on the traveler's shoulder.
Desert looked tired, although slightly less tired than earlier, but now with a messy mane and coat and with sand and dirt everywhere. His hoofs were scuffed, and it looked like he had acquired a graze on his chest.
“It wasn’t too bad.” Desert smiled and tumbled all the canteens to the floor, “Nothing out of the ordinary,” and then scooped up his bag and placed his staff against the wall. Irus leaned closer, and Desert pulled the leather covering back. Inside was a mix of a few handfuls of fruit and two large bird eggs.
Irus thumped his leg against the floor. “Amazing! Thank you so much, Desert. I know two doesn’t sound like much, but in these times any and all is a relief to us. This will go a long way.”
Desert nodded and exchanged with Irus a handful of fruit, the canteens he borrowed to fill, and the two eggs. Irus placed them carefully under the fruits to keep them warm and insulated, and threw the canteens over his back.
“So how does this payment work then? Not to sound too hasty about it, I’m just in need of some bits and pieces.” Desert explained to Irus, who ripped the flyer off the noticeboard.
“If you come by Ozka tomorrow and pay us a visit, we will have your stuff ready. After all I can’t imagine you’d want to trapse all the way down there now.” Irus chuckled, “You look tired enough, like you fell off the side of a mountain.”
“Suppose it does.” Desert’s eyelid twitched.
Irus moved to the door carefully with the bag at his side as he nodded once more to Desert, said “Thank you again,”, and made his way.
And with that, Desert was alone once more.
He filled the containers of the Aavirk with its respective canteens and a handful of fruit, leaving himself some in his bag. He sighed a little bit; despite knowing nothing about Irus, he was happy he could finally speak to someone. Even a stranger like him, it made him feel slightly less alone in this vast empty plain.
Oh well.
Desert packed up, gathered his things, and left.
---
Hoofprints barely lasted 2 minutes in the open desert sand as wind swallowed them up. The souls in the air here could make any trace of life disappear. The stallion was contemplating whether that was an entirely good thing today.
He walked through the shadow of Kalvika Ta and into its shade, the sun on the other side of the moving peaks of sand. Once more, he thought about his life choices. Perhaps if he moved to even just Ozka, his issues of isolation and loneliness could easily be fixed. Desert never really had trouble socializing or making friends, so there was no real reason he should be this far out from society.
He could still pursue his dreams and ambitions there, but he also loved his own space. People moving around and talking and doing stuff gradually wore him down and stressed him out, so a house separate from all that was ideal. But no-one can stay alone forever.
The wind swept through the mountains and dunes day in, day out, playing the geography like a song. The sounds the depths of Zerca made were like no other to Desert; she was like a symphony. This was nowhere to be heard in Ozka. Or anywhere else in Equestria for that matter.
Folklore whispered amongst travelers and townsfolk explained this song as the souls of the cremated ancient tribespeople, singing on the wind as they traveled upon it. Desert believed this too, but perhaps he would never admit it to anyone.
Couple all that with his longing to discover all there was to know about his home of Zerca, and he moved deep into its heart, far away from Ozka and the Kurizi forest.
Needless to say, Desert felt conflicted. Biology and mental health demands action be taken after all. His thoughts remained unresolved.
By this point Desert had passed beyond the shelter of Kalvika Ta's shade, and so the searing sun burnt through his fur. So, he reached into his bag for some of those fruit to keep him going.
“Hmm. Odd. That didn’t feel like the berries from the Oasis.”
The stallion looked confused and felt through his bag, pushing aside all the berries. There was an egg inside, white and speckled brown.
“Oh no. What, how did...” Desert eventually recalled plucking three eggs from the nest, and only handing over two. He slapped his forehead with a groan, “Damn it...what do I do, head back? I don’t know how to take care of these things...!” he exclaimed with a sigh.
But there was nothing for it; he had to head to Ozka. He turned tail back to Kalvika Ta.
“Perhaps I could swing past the oasis to make up for the water I’ll drink on the...the...” Desert’s thoughts were interrupted by the realization that he was being followed.
He wasn’t being followed by any kind of person, or anything living for that matter. No, this was worse. A lot worse. He was being followed by an almighty storm of dust and sand.
It was travelling fast, eating the dunes and clifftops behind Kalvika Ta, devouring any-and-all in its path. These things were not to be tested, especially without goggles or any sort of clothing, which Desert did not have on him.
“Oh god...I didn’t know there was a storm predicted today...or did I forget?” He thought, perhaps amidst his dehydration and hunger he had forgotten all weather predictions for the next three days.
The sun grew dark till it was red. Desert needed to move, not home though. That was way too far away, the storm would doubtless catch him. He panicked and gazed at the egg in his bag. In a way, he sort of wasn’t alone in this predicament, and thus he needed to think fast. He tucked the egg deep into his bag under fruits and other miscellaneous items to keep it as warm as possible.
His eyes darted over the features of Kalvika Ta, and spotted what looked like an opening to a cave right at the bottom, half-submerged in sand from the ever-changing dunes.
There was nothing else for it. He darted as fast as possible for the great mountain in the sand, dropping canteens in his wake but making sure he clutched the bag tight, rushing into the cave as light grew darker and darker. He threw himself against the cave wall, peering outside as he watched Zerca eat the sky.
There was quiet for a second, and then an almighty thunderous crash. The wall of dust and swept-up sand hit Kalvika Ta. He was thrown onto his front from the impact as the light was nearly wholly gone from the view of the cavern.
He panicked and crawled to the cave wall, sitting upright against it. The air quickly became thin and dusty. Desert scooped his bag in between his body and his legs to keep it warm, and he was forced to close his eyes from all the dust. Now he could only feel and hear the peril he was in: sand blowing in and filling the floor deeper and deeper, creeping up the walls and filling into its details.
Desert prayed to his gods.