Stelimus and his group were standing in front of the zaoris and his contingent, with a large conglomeration of anyubinites there as a sign of respect to their ruler, and all stood near another monolith of one of the many gods of death. It was ominous and its hollow interior glowed with a faint mint green light, as if the gods themselves were watching.
"So what is it that we need to do?" Stelimus asked.
"You will go to Saddle Arabia," ye started "and then you will leave for the north. Our own soldiers will be stationed up there, awaiting your arrival provided it takes you two weeks."
"What if we're late or early?" Copper asked.
"If you're early, then you must wait. If you're late..." Zaoris Oriyis snorted and poked Stelimus in the chest. "Then you better not be late," ye threatened.
Stelimus looked down at his finger and slowly removed it from his chest. "Don't poke me," he said sternly.
Hora walked past the right of his ruler and gestured the five to follow yis, which they did. Oriyis glared at the ponies, and the people around yis were certain they saw yis eyes glow a threatening, purple hue before ye turned around to return to the duties awaiting yis in the pyramid overlooking the whole desert like a living sentinel. Hora kept yis arms behind yis back and did not speak. Ye seemed to be contemplating something important, and it worried Stelimus a lot. In his time as a human, this usually meant that the person might care about you, but conflicted with their ideals. His sour expression added to this assumption.
"As always, you will have access to a cart full of water tanks and dried fruits and vegetables of the local region."
"Are they toxic to us?" Radivus asked.
Hora blinked slowly and stared at the deer with a tired expression.
"Right," he chuckled. "You wouldn't have given it if you hadn't known."
"No. I couldn't know. Know knowledge of your physiology. You're going to have to make bets on it, but I doubt you'll last four days of walking through the sands with no food." Ye hit the cart's side, inciting the creatures attached to it to hop out of the sand.
"What are those things?" Stelimus shouted.
"Sablysts. Four of them are needed to pull this weight."
The deer king took a long gaze at the flaps of flesh flapping about the sand like fish out of water. "They look like sand-brown, side ways H's with the limbs folded inwards."
"It's how they swim through the sand."
"Swim?" Stelimus repeated skeptically.
"Yes. How else are you going to call it? Dig? You can't truly dig through sand."
Yolumay approached one and extended her hoof to touch it, but the sablyst didn't like that and snapped at her as best as it could from the confines of its harness.
"Hmmm," she hummed. The doe punched the creature out cold, letting it rest limply on the surface of the sand.
"What did you do that for?!" Stelimus bellowed.
"What? It tried to bite me."
Hora sighed and rubbed yis temple. "They don't have teeth. They have filters to absorb the thin particles of nutrients hidden in the sand."
"Then what was that attack?"
"Sablysts snap at perceived threats, and they perceived you correctly," he growled.
The deer king shook his head in disappointment. "Right, well, aside from my sister's requirements of full-blown violence, how do we control these things?"
Hora walked to the front of the carriage and held thick, black ropes attached to the sand creatures. "You simply use these to control them. Whip it to tell them to move, pull it to get them to stop, and pull in different directions to have them turn."
"Oh. So it's almost like horse carriages. Sounds easy enough."
"I should hope so, now get going. I have other matters of advisories to attend to. Have a 'fun' trip."
Hora's last words were paired with a capricious grin that hid something sinister, the stag thought, but so far, every single one of these people seemed to do that, so the deer king brushed it off and hopped into the carriage with his wife and companions. It took a few tries of whipping the cords and a bit of water to wake up the sablyst Yolumay knocked out, but the group had finally started their trip through the hilly dunes of the vast desert. Were it not for Stelimus' frost essence keeping everyone cool, it was a certainty that they would all cook in the scalding light of the sun. The hot winds also had some effect on the group, but the essence held strong. A few dust devils and cacti would appear in the landscape every now and then, but there wasn't anything significant hiding in the brown river. Something caught Yolumay's eyes, something blue and iridescent that hid in the corner of her eyes but disappeared when she turned to face it.
"What's that?" Copper wondered aloud.
Everyone turned to face what she was pointing at to see a few large mounds of glass jutting from the sand and reflecting light in all directions. They were quite a long ways apart, but were otherwise weren't anything substantial aside from being a bizarrety in the landscape. One thing that nearly topple the wagon over was the sudden appearance of giantic, mermaid-esque creatures erupting from the sand. Their tiny, multi-eyed, insect heads rested on a layered, elongated neck attached to a large body with a long, flap of skin extending from its underbelly. They had a long, scorpion's tail and two arms ending in large appendages resembling blocks of stone. Considering their past experiences so far, the group readied themselves for defense, but the creatures didn't do as expected. They cautiously sniffed the sablysts for barely a second, looked up at the wagon's occupants, then dove back into the sand.
"What were those?" Yolumay asked excitedly.
"I don't know," Stelimus hummed. "We could ask the Saddle Arabians when we get there...provided they talk to us," Stelimus mumbled under his breath.
"I met them before," Copper said.
The four deer turned to face her, disbelief painted on their faces. "What?"
"Yeah. They came to the Crystal Kingdom." She laughed loudly. "They looked like yetis with all the coats they were wearing."
"And?" Yolumay interjected. "What does that have to do with them?"
"Oh. Um, they're actually very nice, although a bit eccentric," she frowned. "They like silk and excessively strong colors."
"Well, every nation has its appearance, so, that's not to be unexpected," Stelimus scratched his head.
The sablysts screeched without warning and started wobbling in every direction they could, forcing Stelimus to fight with them to keep the creatures under control.
"What's wrong with them?" Radivus asked.
"If I knew this wouldn't be happening."
Tenyom pointed to the north-east of the wagon, revealing a sizeable, brown golem of stone. It was humanoid in appearance and bared eyes of green, lips jagged like teeth, and a mouth with nothing in it but the rounded end carved so long ago. Its wrists were surrounded by slowly rotating cuffs whose surface was coated with ancient curved runes. The cuffs themselves were linked to the creature's wrists via multiple bars of metal that carved and destroyed the regrowing stone whose chunks would be flung everywhere when the creature swung its enormous hands, easily twice the size of Anglacite.
"Grab the reigns," Stelimus ordered his sister.
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to take care of this creature."
"My king, you cannot!" Radivus warned. "What if you are harmed?"
Stelimu shivered. "I'm still not used to be called 'my king'. Makes me feel like a douche..." he spoke quietly. The stag stepped onto the risen border of the wagon and stared at the creature trekking its way through the waist-high sand to attack. "Back then, I had no power. I was young and still getting used to my powers. When I did start getting better at controlling frost and spirit essence, the Black Snow far surpassed any of us, but now...This creature is barely thrice my size, and I'll show it not to mess with us!"
Stelimus stood proudly, his gaze filled with conviction. Copper looked at him in awe and watched his antlers glow. She didn't feel love so much as she felt amazement. The stag's antlers were slowly wrapped in a small blizzard filling with deep-blue spheres of ice, and the mass of ice was growing ever bigger. Stelimus started swinging his head around and around then launcher the creation at the golem of sand. Copper shielded her eyes from the flash that engulfed everyone briefly, tossing them into a storm of ice and snow where the 17pounder cannonballs of ice spun around the edges of the white typhoon just to be shot at the golem, destroying it after several hits. As for the storm, it gradually ceased after a minute, leaving the ice-ridden sand to thaw on its own.
Yolumay pounded on her brother's back cheerfully. "Great job, Stelimus. I didn't think you could pull something like that off," she teased.
"I didn't know you could do that," Copper added.
"I have to say I wasn't either," Radivus nodded in approval.
"Well, I've had help from my uncle and a few other...spiritual acquaintances," the deer king cringed.
"Looks like we're here, though," Yolumay interjected.
In the distance were several large buildings with shiny, red roofs and buildings that were well maintained, painted with various colors, and covered with a wide variety of tapestries all sorts of designs and shapes. There was even a large, two story water fountain complete with two levels of bowls to receive and pump back the water being sprayed in spirals above everyone.
"Seems like a waste of water," Radivus sighed.
"Yolumay, watch out for that pony," Stelimus warned.
The cart stopped just in time for the group of Saddle Arabians to walk past them with carts full of spices and creations of the city.
"AaAaAAaaaa NNHAAAAA," the foremost stallion chanted under his covers.
Stelimus narrowed his and lift a hoof. "Uhhhhhh..."
"What is it?" Copper asked.
"I don't know. I feel like hat was in bad taste."
"What was? The chanting? Saddle Arabians merchants and builders love to sing when they work. It helps pass the time in the heat."
Yolumay lifted an eyebrow. "You seem to know a lot about these people."
"Well," Copper shied away. "They did stay a long time in the Crystal Kingdom. They loved the architectures the crystals made naturally everywhere."
"So..." Yolumay started. "What now? How do we find our 'contact'?"
The group remained silent. Hora did mention the potential of a contact, unless it was the zaoris. Perhaps both. They had already forgotten, but they were still supposed to receive contact once inside.