For a few seconds, I didn't move. I wasn't sure if I could. My chest rose too fast, then stalled, like my body hadn't decided whether breathing was worth the effort. The heat didn't burn yet. It pressed. Heavy and close, like something leaning over me.
I tried to listen for anything familiar. A voice. Footsteps. Wind through trees. All I heard was the sound of blood in my ears, dull and rushing, as if the world had been muted and replaced with my own pulse.
I flexed my fingers slowly, testing them one at a time. They moved, but the effort felt delayed, like my thoughts were reaching my hands a second too late. When my palms sank into the sand, the grains shifted with a soft hiss, warm and dry, clinging to my skin as if they wanted to stay there.
I leaned back for a moment, staring up at the sky. The light was wrong. Not brighter, just heavier. It flattened everything, pressing the horizon down until it felt too close.
This wasn't how waking up felt. Not after sleep. Not after a dream.
Something had already gone wrong before I opened my eyes. Heat pressed against my face, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe. I blinked hard, squinting into the light. The world around me shimmered, golden and endless.
"What the hell..." My voice cracked, thin and rough, sand on my tongue. I sat up slowly, sand clinging to my palms. "Where... where am I?"
The wind answered with a low, hollow howl, sweeping across the dunes and cutting into my skin. I lifted a hand to shield my face, the grit biting at my fingers. The air burned in my chest when I tried to take a full breath.
"This isn't real," I muttered, trying to convince myself. "It can't be."
But the sting of the sand, the weight of the heat, the empty horizon, none of it faded. It was all too real. The ground trembled faintly under the gusts, the dunes shifting like waves frozen mid-motion.
"Hello?" My voice echoed into nothing. "Is anyone out here?"
Silence. Only the wind, whistling through the barren emptiness.
I turned slowly, searching for anything, any sign of life, a tree, a shadow, a sound that wasn't my own heartbeat. Nothing. Just the endless stretch of scorched earth and sky, the kind of quiet that made the world feel like it had already ended.
Panic surged through me, tightening my chest until it hurt to breathe. The bruises from Kofi's fists still throbbed beneath my skin, a dull reminder that whatever had happened wasn't a dream. My eyes dropped to the ring on my finger, its surface glinting in the harsh light. My thoughts spun in every direction. Did it do this? I remembered it glowing, remembered the words that had slipped out of me in anger. I just wish I was anywhere but here.
My stomach turned. Had it actually listened? Had I wished myself out of existence?
Desperation clawed at my throat as I lifted my hand, staring at the ring. "Take me back," I muttered. Nothing.
I sucked in a sharp breath and tried again, louder this time. "Take me home." Still nothing.
My pulse raced as I clenched my fist, willing something, anything, to happen. I threw my arm out, shifting my stance, cycling through a series of awkward motions that would've made sense only to a kid playing hero. I sliced the air, punched forward, even pointed to the sky. "Go, teleportation! Activate! Bring me home!"
The desert gave no reply.
I stood there, panting, my shoulders heavy, heat burning against my face. Then the truth settled over me like a weight I couldn't shake. I wasn't going back. I wasn't waking up from some bad dream.
My legs gave out, and I sank to my knees.
The wind picked up, swirling around me and kicking up dust and loose sand, as if mocking my failure. The emptiness pressed in as I stared across the dunes, My fingers digging into the cracked earth. I wanted to scream, to punch the ground, to let out everything building inside me-but I forced myself to breathe instead.
I couldn't stay here. I didn't even know where here was. Pushing myself up, I brushed the sand from my clothes and squared my shoulders. If I couldn't go back, then I had to move forward.
I decided to use the sun as my guide. If I was going to survive, I needed some sense of direction. Normally, the sun rose in the east and set in the west. That was simple. That made sense.
One sun sat low ahead of me, heavy and orange, sinking toward the horizon. I watched it as I walked, waiting for the light to soften, waiting for the heat to break.
The base of it touched the sand.
I slowed.
At the same time, light crept up behind me. Not brighter all at once, just a thin line at the edge of the world. I turned, squinting, and felt my stomach tighten as another glow began to push its way over the horizon on the opposite side.
For a few seconds, the sky didn't know what it wanted to be. The first sun slid lower while the second climbed, both tugging at the light, stretching shadows in directions that made no sense.
I stopped completely.
"That's not how that works," I muttered.
By the time the first sun finally slipped out of sight, the other was already clear of the horizon, burning steady like it had always been there.
I stood there longer than I should have, staring back and forth, trying to force it into something familiar.
It didn't fit.
I looked away and kept moving.
That's when I saw it.
At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The sand shifted a few feet ahead, rising and falling in slow, uneven ripples. I squinted against the glare, blinking hard, but the movement didn't stop.
"Probably just the wind," I muttered under my breath.
Still, my heart thudded uneasily as I walked closer. The dunes looked harmless enough, quiet and still beneath the heat. I hesitated for a moment, then let out a shaky laugh. "See? Nothing."
To prove it, I lowered myself onto the spot. The sand lurched beneath me.
A sharp gasp escaped before I could react. The ground twisted and heaved, and then the surface erupted in a spray of grit as a massive shape burst out from below.
It wasn't the wind.
It was alive. The thing turned toward me, its legs scraping against the sand, but it didn't follow when I bolted. It scuttled sideways, too many legs moving at once, a hard shell flashing under the sand. I climbed onto a pile of rocks, using them as cover while it scuttled away, disappearing into the dunes.
Lucky for me, it didn't seem interested in finishing what I started.
That wasn't the only strange thing crawling in this place.
I caught sight of movement again, a scorpion, but nothing like the ones I'd seen back home. Its body was a pale yellow that blended perfectly with the sand, and instead of proper pincers, it had short, blunted claws that flexed awkwardly. The strangest part was the pair of thin wings sprouting from its back, twitching as it buzzed just above the ground like some grotesque desert insect. It wasn't very big, maybe the size of a bird, but I wasn't about to find out how deadly it could be. I gave it space, scanning the area for more as I moved.
And I walked. And walked.
After a while, my steps slowed. Not from pain. From uncertainty. Every direction looked the same, and the horizon refused to get any closer.
I changed course once, then stopped and turned back, annoyed at myself for thinking direction mattered when nothing around me made sense. The silence pressed in again, thick enough that I became aware of every sound I made. Each footstep felt louder than it should have been.
I started talking under my breath without realizing it. Just fragments. Half-sentences. My own name once. Hearing my voice echo back at me made my skin crawl, and I stopped.
Sweat rolled down my neck and dried before it reached my collar. My mouth felt tight, like the inside of it had shrunk. I swallowed and tasted nothing.
I told myself to keep moving. Standing still felt worse than exhaustion. The heat gnawed at me. My lips cracked, and the air scraped my throat every time I tried to swallow. The suns, both of them, beat down without mercy. Sweat rolled down my temples, only to dry almost instantly, leaving a film of salt on my skin. My steps grew heavier, my vision warping at the edges.
Then, I saw it.
A shape in the distance.
At first, it looked like a mirage, a shimmer twisting in the heat. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, but the figure didn't vanish. It stood there, faint and wavering, as though the desert itself was holding its breath.
I hesitated. Part of me wanted to yell, to run toward it, but another part whispered that it wasn't real. That it was just the heat playing tricks.
Still, I kept moving. Each step brought the figure into clearer focus until I realized it wasn't an illusion. It was a man.
He stood a few feet away, tall and lean, wrapped in a long, tattered cloak that billowed faintly in the wind. The cloth was worn thin at the edges, threads dancing in the dry air. His head tilted toward me, but his hood cast a heavy shadow, hiding his face completely. All I could see were the dark, dust-streaked legs beneath his cloak, the ragged pants clinging to them, and a pair of cracked, weathered shoes that looked like they had carried him across the sands for years.
Without a word, the figure turned and began to walk away.
Panic shot through me. My throat tightened as I stumbled forward, forcing the words out through the dryness.
"Wait!"
Before I could take another step, a sudden gust of wind tore through the wasteland, whipping sand into my face. I threw up an arm to shield my eyes, coughing as the grit scraped my skin. By the time I could see clearly again, the figure was already moving toward one of the massive black rock formations. With a single motion, he lifted a faded cloth draped over an opening.
A cave.
I could swear that hadn't been there before. Had I missed it? No, something about this place felt off.
My feet shifted before I decided to move. The realization came a second too late, sharp and unsettling. I froze, suddenly aware that my body had already chosen for me.
Every instinct I had screamed that following a stranger into a cave in the middle of nowhere was a bad idea. But the thought of turning away, of watching that figure disappear and being left alone again, made my chest tighten harder than fear ever had.
I told myself I could stop at the entrance. I told myself I could leave if something felt wrong.
None of that mattered.
The distance between us closed without me remembering when I started walking.
I hesitated for only a moment before following. The last thing I wanted was to be left alone out here.
Inside, the air was cooler, a small mercy after the burning heat outside. The cave walls were smooth, shaped by time and wind. Faint blue-green light pulsed from clusters of glowing plants clinging to the stone, painting eerie shadows across the walls. The only other living things were the cloaked figure, now seated on a rock, and three large black birds perched on a ledge above him.
They weren't normal birds. Ravens, maybe, but something wasn't right about them. Their beady eyes tracked my every move, unblinking, their claws digging into the stone as if they had been born from it. They belonged here. I didn't.
I took a careful step deeper inside and found a rock to sit on, keeping my distance. The figure said nothing. Instead, he reached into his cloak and drew out a small pouch, holding it toward me.
I hesitated before taking it. The weight shifted slightly in my hand, and when I gave it a gentle shake, I heard the faint slosh of liquid inside. Water?
My throat ached with thirst, but something made me pause. I glanced up at the figure, hoping for some sign that it was safe. He didn't speak, didn't move. His face remained buried in shadow.
Screw it.
I tilted the pouch back and let the liquid slide down my throat. It was bitter, almost metallic, but I didn't care. It wasn't water, not exactly, but it eased the burning dryness that was now scraping my throat raw.
The moment the relief hit, the questions poured out of me. "Hey, are you from around here?" I shouted, my chest rising and falling too fast.
No answer.
I turned, scanning the cave. Empty. Silent. The only movement came from the three birds perched above, their black eyes locked on me like judges at a trial.
"Where is everyone?! Where am I?!" My voice cracked. "Is this even Earth?!"
Still nothing. Just that same stillness.
Frustration burned through my chest, hotter than the desert outside. "I just woke up in the middle of nowhere with sand in my mouth and blood in my throat!" I yelled. "At least tell me what this place even is!"
The figure didn't move. Didn't blink. His face stayed hidden beneath the hood, calm and unbothered, like my words were nothing more than wind.
My pulse thudded in my ears. The panic. The confusion. The anger. It all started to boil over.
"You're just sitting there," I growled, stepping closer. "Watching me like I'm nothing." My voice trembled between fury and fear. "What is this? Some kind of test? A trap?"
Nothing. No flinch. No shift. Just silence.
"Say something!"
My fists curled at my sides, the veins in my arms tight. Every word came out raw, the weight of everything I'd been holding in since waking up in this nightmare.
"Answer me! Rass!"
The words tore out before I even knew what I was saying. I heard them, but they didn't sound like me. They didn't sound like something I would ever say.
The patois hit heavier than I meant it to. My hand flew to my mouth, regret settling in right after. My chest tightened, a cold weight pressing against it as I imagined my mother's face, that quiet disappointment she wore whenever I lost my temper.
"You know what's going on, don't you?" I shouted again, taking a few shaky steps forward. "Don't just sit there and look at me. Talk to me, man!"
Nothing. Not a word. Not even a breath.
"Damn it," I whispered, the words slipping out before I could stop them. "You drag me inna this, nuh true?"
The moment I swallowed, the birds moved.
A chorus of sharp caws filled the cave, each one bouncing off the walls like a warning. My grip tightened around the pouch as my heart thudded in my chest. The cave seemed to hold its breath. Even the faint glow along the walls dimmed, just slightly, like the light was listening too.
One of the birds shifted its weight. Stone scraped softly beneath its claws. When it opened its beak, the sound that came out wasn't a voice at first. It was a vibration. Low and layered, rolling through the cave and settling somewhere deep in my chest.
I felt it before I understood it. The words pressed against me, not loud, but heavy, as if they carried more than sound.
My grip tightened around the pouch without thinking.
Then the bird spoke.
It tilted its head, fixing me with an unblinking stare. Its voice was deep and layered, as if several voices spoke at once.
"A wanderer's quest to uncover the guide,
Leading him back to where he wants to reside.
Through shadowed foes, the journey's fate is fought,
For one and two, both by quest are sought."
I blinked, struggling to make sense of what I had just heard. A talking bird? A prophecy?
"What...?"
Before I could finish the thought, the second bird spoke. Its tone was sharper, colder, cutting through the air.
"Three forged in fires of legend and lore,
Hold power to shroud or seal forevermore.
In hand, the choice to darkness bind,
Or release the trapped from space and time."
The air inside the cave grew thick, pressing against my chest. The words did not just sound strange; they felt alive, like they were wrapping around me and sinking deep into my bones.
I tried to speak, to demand answers, but before I could form a single word, the third bird turned its head sharply toward me. Its gaze was piercing, almost knowing.
"Allies unknown, from day and night shall rise,
Born of light's dawn and midnight skies.
Bound by fate to face what's dire,
And halt the spread of ruin's fire."
Silence followed.
I stood there, frozen, my mouth slightly open and my heart pounding hard enough to echo in my ears.
This could not be real.
I had been through some strange things today, but this? Talking birds? A prophecy?
What the hell was going on?
The only time I had ever heard anything close to that was in a Bob Marley song. Three Little Birds, right? But this wasn't some comforting reggae tune telling me not to worry. This was something else entirely.
Had Bob Marley received a prophecy? Had I?
I stood there, staring at the birds, waiting for something else to happen. A reaction. An explanation. Anything that would make those words feel less final.
Nothing came.
A strange anger crept in, slow and quiet. Not rage. Not panic. Something colder. Like I had just been told something important without being asked whether I wanted to hear it.
"So that's it?" I muttered. "You say your piece and I'm just supposed to carry it?"
My body felt heavier now, not from the heat, but from the sense of knowing I wouldn't understand any of this until it was already too late.
I rubbed my face with both hands, grit scraping against my skin. Whatever this was, it didn't feel like help. It felt more like a warning delivered after the danger had already begun.
My head spun with questions. I turned to the cloaked figure, my throat still raw from thirst. "You heard that too, right? The birds?"
He didn't answer. He didn't even move. When he finally spoke, his voice cut through the silence, low and calm.
"If your goal is to reach back home, then the only way is for you to locate the Guardian."
I frowned. "The Guardian?" The name felt strange in my mouth, heavy with meaning I didn't yet understand.
The figure nodded. "The one who watches over this realm. He alone has the power you need to send you back home. But be warned, it may come at a cost."
My fingers curled into my palms. "How do I find him?"
Silence.
For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to answer. Then, at last, he spoke. "Follow the sun. You will reach a village."
That was it? No map, no directions, nothing? Just follow the sun?
"That's it?" I asked, frustration creeping into my voice.
His hood shifted slightly, and I could have sworn I saw a faint glimmer of something beneath the shadow. Eyes, maybe. Or my mind playing tricks on me.
"Be careful not to end up dead. This is not the world you know," he said. His voice stayed calm, but every word carried weight. "Humans are scarce here, and still tasty to some."
A cold knot twisted in my stomach. "Wait. You mean there are monsters? Other than that giant crab and the flying scorpion thing?"
"There is much about this world that you will have to discover for yourself," he said quietly. "And just as much, you will have to learn to survive on your own."
I took a sharp breath. "Alright then, tell me this. What's the chance I actually make it back home?"
He didn't answer right away. The silence stretched between us, thick and heavy. Then, finally, he murmured, "That depends solely on you."
Not exactly the reassurance I was hoping for.
I opened my mouth to speak again, but before I could form the words, something strange stirred in my head. A lightness spread through my skull, like invisible fingers pressing and tapping just behind my eyes. My thoughts blurred, my body growing heavy, every muscle sinking into a dull, numbing exhaustion.
I tried to fight it. "What the...?"
My eyelids grew heavy, my head tilting as the world around me started to fade.
"Did you drug me?" i said very sluggishly.
Then everything went dark.
I woke with a start, no longer in the cave.
Blinding light slammed against my eyes, forcing them shut. I groaned and turned my face away, but the heat still pressed down on me like a weight. My skin burned under it, and every muscle in my body ached as if I had been lying on stone for hours. When my hand brushed the ground, the rough, grainy texture confirmed it.
The cave was gone.
No figure. No birds. No flickering blue light. Just me, the wasteland, and the unbearable heat.
I sat up slowly, blinking through the glare of the suns. Had it all been real? The only proof I had was the bitter taste still clinging to the back of my tongue. My lips were cracked and dry, my throat raw, and hunger gnawed at the pit of my stomach. But none of that hit as hard as the cold truth pressing in on me.
I was alone. Again.
My fingers raked through my hair as a shaky breath escaped me. "I hate this place," I muttered.
Still, sitting around wasn't going to change anything.
I had a direction.
Follow the sun. Find the village. Find the Guardian.
And hope I didn't end up something's lunch before I got there.
The ground beneath me pulsed.
I froze.
The sand shifted, rolling in uneven waves as something massive pushed upward from below. A shape broke through the surface, slick and ridged, veins of eerie blue light pulsing beneath its pale skin.
I stumbled back, heart slamming in my chest.
The thing rose higher, the earth peeling away in chunks as its body unfolded, long and serpentine, easily larger than any creature I had ever seen. Its head split open, rows of jagged teeth catching the light as a deep glow burned in its throat.
I dropped behind the nearest rock, barely breathing.
The worm swept its head side to side. Somewhere in the distance, a smaller creature bolted across the sand.
In a blur of motion, the worm dove beneath the surface and burst up again, swallowing it whole. The crunch echoed across the dunes, wet and final.
I didn't wait.
I ran.
I threw myself to the side, diving behind the nearest rock. My body slammed hard against the rough surface, knocking the wind out of me. My heart pounded in my chest, breath ragged, hands shaking as I dared a glance over the edge.
The ground trembled again, a deep, guttural sound rumbling from beneath. I froze, watching in disbelief as thin cracks began to snake across the sand. The earth shifted like liquid, rippling outward as something massive stirred below.
Then it burst free.
The creature rose from the ground in a storm of dust and sand. It was enormous, easily the size of a bus, maybe larger. Its body stretched long and serpentine, glistening under the twin suns with a pale, translucent skin that pulsed faintly with light. Large, swollen boils bulged across its surface, glowing with a sickly blue hue that flickered in rhythm with its heartbeat.
Its head was broad and flat, ending in rows of sharp, uneven teeth that shimmered like glass. When it reared up, towering above the dunes, it let out a sound that made my stomach twist, a roar that shook the air, raw and guttural, echoing across the wasteland like thunder.
I couldn't move. Every muscle in my body locked in place. If I ran, it would see me.
The monster's head swept side to side, scanning the land. Then, in the distance, something moved-a smaller creature sprinting across the plain on four legs. The worm's eyes locked onto it.
Before I could blink, the beast dove back underground with terrifying speed, disappearing beneath the sand. The earth convulsed as it burrowed, its glowing body cutting through the ground like a wave of light.
I watched in horror as that glow rushed toward the fleeing creature. It barely had time to react before the worm exploded from below, swallowing it whole in one brutal motion. A crunch echoed through the desert, wet and final. Then, just as quickly, the monster vanished again, sinking back beneath the sand until only silence remained.
I stayed crouched behind the rock, my chest heaving, pulse pounding so hard it hurt. My mind spun, trying to make sense of what I had just witnessed.
What the hell was that?
The ground trembled again. I saw the faint glow of the creature's body moving beneath the surface, shifting away into the distance. For a moment, I just sat there, too stunned to move.
I didn't know where I was or what that thing was. But one thing was clear.
I needed to stay the hell away from it and get the hell out of here.
I sucked in a shaky breath, the echo of that creature's roar still humming in my bones. My hands trembled as I looked out over the shifting dunes. I had no idea where I was going, but staying here was a death sentence.
Heart hammering, I forced myself to move. Each step sent tiny avalanches of sand sliding down the slopes as I pushed forward, glancing back every few seconds, half expecting the ground to erupt again.
The air shimmered with heat, the horizon rippling like a mirage. I didn't know what waited beyond this wasteland, but whatever waited ahead, it couldn't be worse than staying here.