Excerpt
Day 1: Lightune
Ducking behind the outcropping, we watched the three marauders fly east toward their dens high in the Lucimons Range. Their roaring laughter and gloating over the night’s activities resembled rolling thunder. Pain raced through me from my burns as well as guilt as we huddled, forced to listen to the vile creatures who had gained a toe hold on our beautiful planet.

In a few centuries, they had managed to take a planet filled with majikal creatures, covered with tropical foliage, and destroy it completely. Toxic sludge now slid through once crystalline rivers. Sulphur pools bubbled across miles of wasteland where sparkling lakes surrounded by pines and other evergreens once grew. Where once healthy animals roamed, Typhodics, evil-infused animal evolutions, hid in mountain passes in search of victims unaware of their poisonous bite.

The need to reach safety pressed upon me. “Stay hidden a moment,” I said to Abram. In the early morning sun, I stood atop the highest boulder and slowly surveyed each direction. There was really only one direction open to us, but I had yet to accept that fact.

I was painfully aware Laud depended on me to keep his secret safe. For five hundred years I have lived on this planet, having given up a home on Revrum Natura with the other members of the Conscientia. When Laud mentioned he needed someone on Solsyl to guard his treasure from Narciss and his Legio of demons, I volunteered. It wasn’t that I now regretted my decision, for that would be energy wasted, but I did miss my beautiful home world with the yellow sea and teal grasses; I missed the company of my brothers and sisters.

Facing away from the rising sun while forcing thoughts of home and the past aside, I made up my mind. I’d heard of another stretch of mountains to the west. They were supposed to be pleasantly treed and livable, unlike the poisoned Lucimons Range. Meanwhile, we faced traveling half-way across the planet while avoiding the demons responsible for our recent exile.

Our poor burned-down village had been built at the base of the Gravinox Mountains bordering the Vasterul Desert in Toterra. Remembering conversations with traveling salesmen, I determined our new destination was the Solomon Mountains at the western edge of the Vasterul Desert in Flumento. So as I saw it, we could cut directly across the desert, chancing extreme temperatures, unknown wildlife, not to mention Gypsies, and no shelter from dragons flying overhead. Or circle the edge of the desert traveling through the Negroc Woods, crossing whatever river systems flowed into the Pallvadum Sea.

Not much of a choice either way, but I knew what to expect in the desert. While not particularly relishing the idea of a sea of sand for the next few days, the woods were a complete unknown. I didn’t know what creatures might dwell there, or how large the woods might be.

Still standing atop the highest boulder, I took one final look east toward the village. Smoldering piles of ash and collapsed buildings greeted my sight as tears again streamed down my gritty soot covered face. As I leaped down from the boulder, Abram looked at me with questioning eyes. “Follow me.”

Shouldering the full rucksack, I turned my ruined face into the unrelenting burning sands of the Vasterul Desert. We walked in thoughtful silence.