Sand. Sand everywhere. Owl had teleported us to a desert. I spun around and saw miles of sand. The air was scorching and dry. I turned back to Owl in question and her facemask had already closed. She was looking at her forearm and turning slowly in a circle. I could feel my wet clothes start drying as I watched her. She eventually gave a nod then raised her hand and pointed, “We need to go that way.”
I turned and looked in the direction she pointed. It was just an endless stretch of desert, “Are you sure about that?”
Her hand dropped and she took a step forward, ignoring me. I sighed then followed. At least I wasn't getting soaked. There was no wind, what little breeze pushed through was just as hot as the rest of the desert. The sun was almost straight above us shining down on us.
As we marched forward through the sand I could feel it sinking into the gaps of my shoes. If the water didn't screw up my clothing, this would for sure. Every few minutes Owl would check her forearm. I had been following her for about a half an hour, constantly looking out at the horizon around us, when Owl spoke, “We should be getting close to where the stone is.”
“Its going to be underground then. I hope you have some way to dig it up because I won't be of much help here.” I replied.
I spun on my heel as Owl didn't answer. In front of me was nothing but sand and the horizon. At my feet was a circle of sand that was slowly draining into the center. It was like looking at the top of an hourglass. Owl must have fallen through.
I stepped forward into the circle and nothing happened, sand still poured into the hole at my feet but I didn't weight as much as Owl in her armor. I knelt down and started scooping the sand at my feet with my hands and throwing it out of the circle. Soon my fingers scraped something hard like stone.
I pulled my arm back, curled my fingers into a fist and drove it forward into the stone. A spiderweb of cracks rushed out from the impact site. The ground below me collapsed and I rode the stone and sand down with it. The underground was dark. I rode the stones until I was about halfway to the floor then pushed off, jumping away from the falling sand and stone. I landed and felt the stone crashing into the ground below my feet. The sound bounced violently around the room.
Owl was off to the side away from the new hole in the ceiling. Sand and sunlight poured inside in equal measures. Owl had her back to the opening and was looking at markings on a pillar. I slapped the extra sand off myself and walked over to her, “You weigh too much.”
“Its the armor. I stepped onto a weak seam and the ground fell out from under me.”
I looked around the room. There were pillars like the one Owl was looking at circling the room. The ceiling came to a point and there were what looked like ritual circles on the flooring under us, “What is this place?”
“From the writing on the wall? an old temple to a sorcerous king.” She raised her hand and pointed some pictures out, “They worshiped him and he was immortal or something like that.”
“Who were they?”
Owl waved her hand at the ceiling, “This used to be grassland. They were the people that lived here when it was still green. The stone is somewhere in this temple.”
“Well, let's go find it then.”
She met my eyes and gave me a nod then turned and headed for what looked like an alter. Behind it was an opening that we entered. The opening was about twenty five feet deep then it turned at a right angle leading to stairs headed down. Owls steps echoed out as she stepped on stone and we descended deeper into the temple.
The light from the hole in the roof vanished behind us. The air got staler the lower we got. Owl slowed, making me look ahead instead of at the walls surrounding us. On the floor in front of us was a dried corpse. It looked like someone took a human and sucked all the water from them instantly. Owl shifted the direction she was walking and gave it a wide berth. I decided that was a good idea and did the same.
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One corpse was bad but the deeper we got the more we started seeing, “I am starting to see a pattern.” Owls voice whispered out.
I stepped closer to her, “What pattern? All the desiccated corpses?”
She pointed at a few of them, “They all look like they are trying to crawl out of here.”
I gave her a slow nod. It was starting to get creepy. The stairs led us down and eventually opened up to what had to be a throne room. There was an invisible wall across the front of it, one side the corpses were turned away and trying to escape, the other they were inside all facing one way in rows, kneeling down.
There were more pillars but instead of in a circle they were parallel on both sides. Things were hanging from the ceiling that looked like they were made of crystal and had a subtle blue glow. On the far side of the room there was a massive throne that looked to be carves from gold and sitting in it was another corpse. Every corpse we had passed was wearing what had to be rags that decayed with time, the one on the throne's clothing looked fine. It had fancy looking robes of red and gold with a fancy crown thing. The crown extended up and outwards.
Owl pointed at it from across the room, “The stone is the centerpiece on that crown.”
I followed her finger and saw the stone sitting in the center of a mass of gems, “OK.. Do you want to wait here?”
She dropped her arm, “That is probably for the best.”
I let out a huff and stepped past the invisible line into the room then stopped. When nothing happened I continued forward towards the throne. I stared into the eyes of the corpse on the throne as I crossed the room. I was about half way to it when a blue light started forming in its eyes. It sat up and took a rasping breath, I pulled my fist back.
As soon as its eyes focused on me I took a final step with a twist of chi. Using the same technique I had though Victor I snapped across the room like a leaf flipping through the wind. I twisted chi through my fist and brought it forward using three techniques layered together. The first was called Dancing Through Trees and mimicked sunlight going through a tree canopy to reach the ground, it let me slip my blow through whatever shielding was on the throne or the corpse itself. The second was Fire Arrows Impact. It increased my punching power helping me do more damage through armor or resistances. The last was Ripples From the Pebble, it made the damage I do flood through whatever was keeping this corpse breathing.
The skull crumbled around my fist, shattering into almost dust. There was a ghastly scream and I heard from behind me the crystals hanging from the ceiling shatter. The crown dropped and I caught it before it fell too far. It was heavy so it was made of gold. I turned back to Owl and saw all the corpses in the room had turned into little dust piles.
Owl was still standing by the entrance so I crossed the room and handed her the crown. She looked from it to the throne, “Lich?”
I didn't know what that was so I shrugged, “Some kind of undead.”
“Thats what a lich is.” She said as examined the crown.
“Then it was probably a lich.”
She gave a slow nod before marching to the throne. I followed her, "What's next after this?”
She grabbed the robes from the throne and gave them a shake making the dust from them fall out, “Well, We were suppose to find one more place but I think we should put a pause on it now.”
“Why?’ I looked between the crown in her hand and the robes she was folding, “Are those important?”
She waved the crown around and then layed the robes across her arm, “These are probably enchanted and Doctor Kathor is going to want to look at them. This place is probably going to be swarming with mages soon.”
“So you're going to bring that to Doctor Kathor instead of just pulling the stone from the crown thing?”
She gave me a nod, “He will examine it then send the stone to me when he is done with it. I would rather get that done then hit the last place.”
“What was the last place we were supposed to hit then?”
She turned her forearm towards me and the wireframe of the planet showed up. She pointed at one of the glowing dots, “Swamp land.”
“Ok then.” Marching through a swamp would suck.
She stepped close and fiddled with her forearm bracer then space twisted around us. Around us was the usual alley of Swivel City. Owl hit a few more buttons then dropped her arm, “Do you want to come with to the university?”
I slowly shook my head, “I am going to go to my apartment and take a shower.” I looked down at my heavily wrinkled clothing. “And get something else to wear.”
Owls motorcycle thing turned down the alley and pulled up to us. Owl hummed then threw her leg over the side, “Thanks for the help tonight. I will message you when I head out again.”
I waved at her as she gave the bike throttle and pulled away, the crown and robe in her lap. She leaned and vanished around the alley entrance. I turned and started walking to my apartment. A flash of chi with a technique could have cleaned me but I learned I enjoy taking showers. I brought my hand up and ran it through my hair with a sigh, it was getting kind of long and I would need to cut it soon. My hair hung down to my jaw when I got here and now it was almost to my shoulders.
I filled my pipe and lit it as I marched home. Amanda was outside on the steps playing with the raccoon. She turned to me as she saw me and crunched her nose, “What the hell happened to you?”
I slapped my pipe empty as I got close. Letting out a sigh I answered, “Sand sucks, it gets everywhere. Snow melts when it reaches body temperature. It was a mess.”
I crouched down and the little raccoon came over to me and held out its paws looking for chips. I reached over and patted it on the head, “No chips on me little guy.”
Amanda let out a snort, “Get over here little guy.”
The raccoon's ears perked up and he scurried over to her, climbing into her lap. I gave her a nod then stood up and walked past her into the apartment building. I entered my apartment and pulled my pipe, bag and coiling dragon staff from my back and set them on the counter before heading to the bathroom and looking in the mirror.
Amber eyes looked back at me. My caramel skin was covered in corpse dust as was my shirt and pants. I looked at what I was wearing and came to the conclusion I could throw it out. This outfit wasn't fancy and throwing it away wouldn't hurt