Sam nudged Victor awake in the early morning, when the sun had not yet risen, but a fiery tinge lined the sky above the horizon. “Wake up sleepy head,” she whispered. “It’s morning, well, sort of, but it’s time to get moving.” Everyone else was already up, and were going about sorting through their supplies, making sure to leave behind everything that was unnecessary. The journey through the desert would have to be light and fast if they were going to make it with enough strength to fulfil their task. They would travel all through the night, and during the day they would only rest when they needed to.
With the mountains at their backs, waves of sand dunes spilled out in a great sea before them. The wind played and swept softly from dune to dune, and fairies of sand danced and spiralled across the skyline. The group bound each other with a rope, for in the far reaches of the night, when fatigue had almost consumed them, it was easy for one to lose their way in the sandy seas, or lag behind.
In all the time they had spent in the wilderness, they had never stopped to appreciate the stars, spectacular lights a thousand times more brilliant than any they had ever seen. The ground became more solid and the group passed through a great archway of stone splashed with moonlight. Shining meteors whizzed overhead and disappeared again into the night. Victor could not look away, he felt as though he were floating away into another world.
The next day they pressed on through a red haze that smeared the sky. The days were growing hotter and Victor found himself panting like a dog. The dry earth crunched under his feet. They were greeted by great pillars carved from the earth that stood like sentries over the desolate valley. By late afternoon the wind had picked up and red clouds of sand enveloped them as they came upon the entrance to a large canyon. Having found a pass across, without having to go under, they ventured though a narrow and dangerous road, where the earth on either size dropped suddenly in peculiar zig-zag patterns; the cavern below was unending. Before them the rocky path sloped and turned on its side, forcing the group to scramble the final leg of the journey across the canyon. They rested for a moment beneath a dead and solitary twisted tree; in the fiery haze of dusk it was lifeless and colourless, and it reminded Victor of some kind of ancient mummy.
Near the end of the journey life once again breathed through the land. Trees lined the end of the desolate valley, and they formed the gateway to the lonely mountain, which at last was within their reach. Grassy fields sprawled out from the foot of the mountains, run through by shining streams that smoked in the astounding heat of the day. The peak of the mountain was a much-desired sight, but even greater than that was the shape of dark wings sprawled against the horizon.
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