I drew in slow breaths as the heavy wind blew into the cottage through the doorway.
My eyes filled with wonder as I stared at the vast desert scape.
I got up from the ground slowly and walked silently toward the door.
“Whoa, I’ve never seen this much sand before.
Where in the goddess’s name am I?” I asked, my cloak billowing vigorously in the wind.
As I asked that question, the ground began to shake─the entire cottage began vibrating, throwing me from side to side.
The mirror that hung on the wall fell to the ground together with the cabinet it hung above, scattering shards of glass all over, and I saw the note that was left for me, land on the ground and open up.
After getting a good grip on the door frame so as not to be accidentally flung out of the house, I read through the words written on the paper again.
This time, the last sentence rung even louder in my ears; “Leave the cottage immediately.”
I raised my head again; my eyes widened as I noticed that the walls had begun to crack.
A large piece of the ceiling broke out of place, crashing onto the bed, destroying it completely.
With shock and fear in my eyes, I turned back around, and without hesitation, leaped out of the cottage.
I hadn’t even gotten to the ground when the entire building started to sink into the sand.
All the sand around the cottage moved rapidly, spiralling into a sink hole around the it.
The moment I landed; the sand began pulling me toward the sink hole.
I struggled to crawl away from the sinking ground, but my efforts were to no avail as there was nothing solid enough to hold on to.
I breathe in and out rapidly and heavily, watching as the sand slowly buried the cottage.
Knowing that I would be next, tears gathered in the corners of my eyes as my heart beat rapidly.
“Steven!!
Anyone!!
Please… HELP ME!” I yelled even knowing that no one would come to my rescue.
As I moved closer and closer to the sink point, I muttered to myself, “Please, Moon goddess, I can’t die now.
Please don’t let me die.” Afterwards, I closed my eyes, awaiting my inevitable end.
I opened my eyes again and saw the cottage had been completely buried, leaving not even a piece of wood behind.
It was either the ground was alive and its stomach was full, or the moon goddess actually heard my prayer.
I got up from the ground quickly, ran out of the sinking area as fast as I could, and stopped after I had gotten a far distance from it.
“Where do I go from here?” I asked myself between breaths looking around in random directions.
After a while, I picked one direction to go, and began walking, hoping I would stumble across civilization.
The radiant sun that hung over the desert land was scorching hot.
There wasn’t a single animal or human in sight.
With no idea where I was, no one to ask for directions, and no place to go, I marched through the heat with bare feet.
Besides my face and feet, the farmer clothes and cloak, given to me by the moonstone, shielded my body from the intense warmth of the atmosphere, but I could still feel the temperature of my body rising rapidly.
The skin on my fingers and feet had become red, and the skin bellow my feet, constantly making contact with the sand, was probably now covered in blisters.
For some reason, though, I felt no pain whatsoever; I felt the temperature of my feet rise to dangerous extents, but not the pain of the injuries I had accumulated.
It was as if my burns kept on healing themselves.
After walking in a straight line for what felt like miles, my stomach churned, signalling me that it was time to eat something.
The last thing I ate were fruits given to me by the pixies who later sought after my flesh.
Who knows if those fruits were even real?
The light from the trees had hypnotized me, so maybe I had eaten raw flesh from decaying corpse unknowingly.
I tightened my face in disgust at the thought of it and placed my hand on my stomach as it churned again.
I shut my eyes and pushed out a soft breath.
“I’m sorry, stomach, but you’re going to have to wait a little longer.
Afterwards I turned back to the road, pulled the cloak around my body and continued walking.
I walked through the sand and scorching heat for hours, until I lost the strength to lift my legs.
My vision had become too blurry for me to see where I was going, and the path from my lips to my throat had become dry.
I could barely keep my eyes open and could barely stand.
I tried to lift my right leg again, and before I knew it, I found myself rolling down a large sand dune.
My eyes shut and opened up repeatedly as I bounced on and off the ground.
The sand enveloped my body as I rolled down hill to wherever the dune lead.
A few minutes passed and I could suddenly feel the temperature of my body drop.
It was still day time, but for some reason, the sun wasn’t as hot as it was before.
I could also feel the soft prickles of grass blades on the skin of my palms and feet.
I could hear the faint voices of people; women and men, yelling and running through the field of tall grasses.
I turned to the direction of their voices, and my eyes shut completely after I had seen their misty figures moving closer and closer to me.
“You chose life, Celene.
Be prepared to pay the price,” a faint female voice sounded in my head.
It was the same voice I heard in the forest when I was at the brink of death.
Her face suddenly appeared to me again.
I could see her lips and half way up her nose, but not her eyes.
It was as if something was preventing me from raising my head.
Her lips curled into a sinister smirk, revealing her canines as they elongated into sharp fangs.
As I forcefully raised my head slowly to see her full face, my eyes met with her glowing, diamond blue eyes.
The look on her face sent chills down my spine and caused my bones to rattle.
She opened her mouth wider, revealing all four of her fangs, and launched toward me without hesitation.