Soulbound

It took two days to fly to the Desert Lands, no pit stops. Arkon assured me he could make it with ease, so we flew, never looking back. I was confident enough in my skills to walk along his spine to stretch or grab food from the satchel in the saddle, and Arkon caught fish as we flew over the Aborian Sea.

The flight also gave me time to think about how I’d left things. Arkon also chimed in that I was being reckless, which made me heavily reconsider everything. Despite having the people closest to me lie about my crush’s identity, I was still the storm dragon rider, wanted by the Fortys clan, and very much unequipped to deal with an ambush should someone find out who I was in the Desert Lands. Perhaps I had been a little hasty to run away.

But they had betrayed my trust. For what? To protect him? What did he ever do to gain their trust? How could my brother be so accepting of him? Sure, his family hadn’t murdered mine until after they became partners, but now? What was his excuse? Why did Jacob not avenge our family? Of course, it couldn’t all stop with Grayson--Deximus--they all had to die, the entire Fortys clan. Deximus was the start.

“Eva?” Arkon called, pulling me away from my thoughts. “I see land. What exactly are we looking for?”

I pulled the paper Commander Hargin had given me with the information we needed to find my teacher. “Mount Kilmor. Apparently that was Sasha Remoar’s last known location.”

“I can tell you for a fact she is not there anymore. I can sense her dragon, he’s southeast, not North where Mount Kilmor is.”

“How do you know he’s not just flying around?”

“If he’s experienced similar encounters with humans as I have, he’ll be close to his rider, to protect her, especially here.”

I couldn’t argue with that. “Lead the way.”

As we headed further inland, I had to shed more and more layers until I wasn’t willing to take any more off. The sun was blinding in the near-white sky, heat radiating from its merciless beams of light. Even the wind, an element I would normally take refuge in, was brutal, so hot it was hard to breathe in. I hadn’t spent half a day above the barren land and my skin had begun to blister, my lips cracking from the dry air.

True to its name, the land was desert. Endless sand dunes rolled over the terrain as soon as we hit the shores, leaving nothing in its wake. Further north-east, a rocky valley stood tall, and if I focused enough magic into my eyes, I saw tufts of green within the mountains--a hopeful sign of shade and water.

However, we weren’t going east anymore. Arkon made a sharp turn for some sand-covered hills with spiky rocks jutting out. As we neared, there were clear signs of habitation: fabric was lain over the edge of the rocks on the slopes, propped up by sticks. It only got bigger as we got closer, and I soon realised it was a small colony hiding beneath the cloth. People hurried out from the shade to see what was casting the large shadows over their tents.

Arkon didn’t appear to care that they knew we were here. It wasn’t until we landed when I saw why: there weren’t too many of them and they hardly had any weapons to fight with--a piece of cake for a dragon if things got heated.

I slid off his back, doing my best not to touch his scales; he was hot to the touch after being in the sun all day. I only hoped he didn’t feel as hot as his scales.

I pocketed my daggers and warily approached the tents, eyeing anyone that came into view. A lot of them were men over their thirties, skin darkened from the hours of exposure to the sun; what skin wasn’t covered by their clothes was blistered. I was starting to feel the effects of the sun myself, which I hadn’t realised until I was in the shade. It was still hot underneath the canopy, but, man, it felt so much better than being in direct sunlight.

“I’m looking for a woman,” I told the group, patrolling, looking for anyone who thought they might get the upper hand on me. “Her name is Sasha Remoar.”

Arkon couldn’t pinpoint an exact location of Sasha’s whereabouts, only a general area. After narrowing it down to this part of the Desert Lands, it was now up to me to find her specific location.

As if I hadn’t spoken, the men went back to whatever they were doing before I showed up; some were whittling figurines out of stone, others repairing clothing or their tents.

Scowling, I stopped in front of one man who was carving ancient sigils in a rock. “Do you know of the woman I’m looking for?”

He paused in his carving, glanced at me through his thick, greasy hair, then went back to carving.

“Hey, I’m talking-”

“We want no part in your hunt!” a scraggly man shouted from the other side of the tent. He tossed a rock at my feet in warning. “She keeps ’er distance and we keep ours. The way we like it! Be gone with ye!”

Before giving up, I watched the men carefully. They all knew her all right, but they wouldn’t give her up. I had to wonder if it was her or her dragon they feared.

Was it wise for us to seek this woman out? We didn’t know anything about her, only that she was Bound to a storm dragon like me and that she resided here.

Come, Little One, Arkon urged. Let us continue our search.

He was right, but there was something about the urgency in his tone that made me regard him carefully as I approached him; he had moved to the other side of the hill, hiding from the camp. He was panting, basically giving off steam from his scales with every breath. His kind wasn’t meant to be in this sort of heat, unprotected.

I climbed on, burning my hand on his scales. We took off into the air, but it didn’t quite have the same oomf to it.

We flew around for a few more hours, unsuccessfully finding other settlements to ask about Sasha’s whereabouts. The longer we flew, the more obvious it was to me that he was relying heavily on the air currents to keep us afloat. Then he took a heavy, wheezing breath, wings--the webbing burnt red--fluttering faintly against the wind. They gave out, folding behind him. We dropped out of the sky, crashing into a sand dune. Thankfully we weren’t flying too high, but it was high enough for me to get tossed out of the saddle as he hit the ground.

“Arkon!” I staggered to my feet, struggling to find my footing in all this sand. He groaned, sand rolling over him; the dune half buried him. “What can I do?”

He clearly wasn’t okay and had been pretending for some time that he was. Idiot.

Grunting, he tried to move, only failing and causing more sand to cover him. “It’s too hot, Eva, my wings burn. I need water. Bury me in the sand and find water before we both die.”

I didn’t like the idea of abandoning him in the heat, but he was right. Water kept both of us alive.

I grabbed my canteen from the saddle satchel and unscrewed the lid, fully prepared to give him the last of my water--only to find out it was empty. It must have evaporated in the extreme heat.

A bolt of hopelessness struck me in the chest. I staggered until I fell on my butt in the sand. What had I been thinking coming out here alone? “I’m so sorry, Arkon. I shouldn’t have brought us out here.”

Slowly, lethargically, he opened one of his sky blue eyes and looked at me. I do not blame you, Eva. Anyone in your position would have done the same. We must remain strong. Find us water.

Survive. That was our number one priority now. Sasha would have to wait.

I nodded, feeling my resolve--and maybe his--fuel my soul to keep moving on.

Ignoring the sting on my hands as I pushed the sand, I buried him, only leaving his nostrils exposed. He groaned again, trembling. I placed my hand on his muzzle, feeling the heat of his breath on my skin. “I’ll be back, Arkon, just hang in there.”

It was a promise. Nothing was going to happen to him, not on my watch.

It’d easily been two hours since I’d left Arkon. Still nothing. Just sand. Endless, merciless sand. It filled my boots, burnt my hands as I climbed dunes, and stung my eyes in the breeze. My throat was so dry I couldn’t swallow. At this point, I felt like a zombie wandering aimlessly. Though, I had a plan--follow the sun east. East was where the mountains were. I didn’t care if it was in the opposite direction of Sasha, Arkon was more important than her. However, I had yet to see the mountains I’d seen when I was on Arkon. These damn dunes were way too tall.

Dread gnawing at me, I fell to my knees and caught my breath. The sun had moved enough that there was a little shade hiding behind the dune. I relished it, enjoying the cool touch of the sand.

All right, Eva, I told myself, New tactic. Wandering east isn’t getting you anywhere.

I didn’t know what good it would do me, but I sat cross legged, palms in the sand, remembering what Annalyse had taught me. Feel the ground. Reach out to the earth. Take in my surroundings beyond sight.

At first there was nothing, but, frustrated, I pushed myself harder. It was my own damn fault we were in this mess. If I hadn’t acted out, we’d have Annalyse with us and she’d know what to do. She would have kept my morale up and managed to soldier on like this sun was nothing but a slight inconvenience. She never let anything keep her down.

Why couldn’t I be more like her? Strong, level-headed. I followed my heart far too much. It got me into trouble.

Maybe that’s the key, I thought, feeling like a lock had just been sprang open in my mind. Clear your mind. Focus.

Ignoring the blistering heat beating down on me, I stole a deep, dry breath. Then another and another, clearing my mind. For a moment I felt nothing, not the wind in my hair, not the heat, not the sand in my pants. I was surrounded by an aura of serenity.

And then I felt it. The land unfolded beneath my eyelids; everything was dark, but the dunes and rocks were highlighted by a light blue fog--including the underground cavern not too far from here. In fact, the cavern was vast, stretching further than I could see with this new sense. Surely something as big as this had water.

Keeping my eyes closed, I stood and followed the cave, searching for an entrance. With the last of my strength, I climbed over a dune and rode the sand down. I ran with the momentum, following the narrowing cavern beneath me; it was turning into a tunnel. Rocks protruded from the ground up ahead. I opened my eyes, having a better shot at avoiding all the jagged edges with my sight than with my senses.

The further I followed them around a dune, the rocks turned into boulders, and hidden amongst them, there was a small hole. I managed to squeeze through it, scraping my arms and tearing my clothes as I did so.

Eventually, the tunnel opened up, allowing me to stretch. Relieved, I breathed in as much of the moist air as I could. It felt so good, on my skin, in my lungs, on my tongue. There was water here. Now I just had to find it.

I’m so close, Arkon. How are you doing? Using my magic was much easier without having the sun’s daunting presence hovering over me.

Hurry, Eva.

I didn’t like the sound of that at all.

Pulling my lightstone out of my pocket, I held it high, filling the cavern with light. The walls glistened with moisture. I followed the tunnel. Before I knew it, I was running toward the sounds of water.

The tunnel gave way to a massive underground lake.

Almost hysterical, I threw myself into the lake. I drank and bathed and laughed. The sweet relief was like nothing I’d ever experienced. The tension that had coiled around me, released, the sting on my skin quenched. For the first time since we arrived, I didn’t feel like a lost cause without Anna’s guidance.

Now it was Arkon’s turn to experience this feeling. I filled the large satchel I’d been lugging around for Arkon. It wouldn’t be enough for tomorrow, but hopefully it’d give him enough strength to get to this cave.

While I was following the cave, I saw that the lake stretched quite a bit beneath the sand lands. If I could find a shallow enough point, he could break through the ground and fall right in.

I wiggled my way out of the cave and hurried to him. The sun was almost behind the mountains, so far in the distance, by the time I could positively sense Arkon. Up until this point, I’d been following the pull I’ve always had for him, but now I was confident I could pinpoint his location under the sand.

When I saw his bump, my heart skipped a beat. “Arkon!” I cried, desperate for him to be all right. “I’m here!”

I collapsed in front of him, brushing the sand from his muzzle. His eyes were closed, breathing laboured. Scared I was too late, I pried his lips open and poured some water over his tongue. After a moment, he groaned. More.

I poured the remaining water, watching him swallow as I did. When he opened his eyes, a huge weight left my shoulders. He was going to be okay. I hugged him, rubbing his chin. “I’m here, Arkon.”

“I’m glad for it,” he murmured. He raised his eyes to the sky, noticing the sun was gone. It was dark out, save the pale light of the crescent moon, and it was freezing. Our breath was barely visable in the space between us.

“Can you move? I’ve found an underground lake. You can bathe in it, regain your strength. I passed a good spot for you to break through.”

After a moment, he slowly stretched his body, shaking the sand off. His wings burst free, throwing sand everywhere. Coughing, I stumbled in the sand, blind. He stood tall, looking as magnificent as when I first saw him.

“I see the lake,” he said, watching me carefully. “Good eye, Eva. I’m impressed you found it. Hop on.” He lowered himself for me to climb into the saddle; thankfully, his scales had cooled down. I basically dragged myself up his body, I was so exhausted. “Hold on.”

He jumped with one powerful thrust of his wings then he glided over to the weakest spot. Homing in on it, he folded his wings and dove for it. I held on for dear life as we blasted through the ground. We hit water almost instantly and I lost my grip. Rocks crumbled from the ceiling, and I feared we’d come in a little too hard. Arkon covered me with his wings, waiting out the quake. Once everything had settled there was a massive hole in the ceiling, but the cavern hadn’t fully collapsed. I swam to a nearby rock and hauled myself up, barely having the strength left to flip onto my back and gaze up at the stars. Arkon floated on his back in the water, following my gaze to the beautiful night sky above.

We did it. We’d survived the desert. It was almost worth it to see the mist of stars streaking across the sky. Almost. There was no way I’d get caught up in the desert again.

“Thank you,” Arkon hummed, as he swished his tail in the water. “You saved my life, Eva.”

“Now we’re even,” I teased. “Do you think it’s safe enough to rest now? I’m exhausted.” Today’s adventure was catching up with me and I honestly didn’t know how I’d gone on for so long.

“Rest, Little One. We are safe.”

That was all he had to say. Not even the uncomfortable rock I lay on could stop me from sleeping.