Chapter 9
by moonblack
Which door do you open?
The door with the sun
After considering the options for a few brief moments your curiosity wins and you decide to try the new door. The silver key fits perfectly and with a quiet click the door unlocks. With your sword at the ready you walk through it...
...and are greeted by bright light and unbearable heat. The light here is so much brighter than in any of the previous rooms that it blinds you for several seconds, until you get used to it. Thankfully, nothing and no one takes advantage of your momentary weakness to attack you.
Once your sight gets accustomed to the bright light you start looking arond. The first thing you notice is that you are standing on some sort of rectangular orange-brown rock mostly buried in the sand. In every direction around you there's sand - lots and lots of sand. To the left of your initial location, in the distance, you notice what you believe is a large oasis, with several large palm tress around it. In the opposite direction, to your right, you spot another, smaller, oasis with some bushes and a couple of small trees around it. And ahead of you, a little to your right if you were to go in a straight line, you notice the remains of some sort of building, likely a tower. It appears to have been made from orange-brown stones, or possibly bricks - hard to tell for sure from this distance. You look down at the rock you are standing on and see that it is similar to the ruins you see - it could be the remains of another building, or the tower in the distance could be made from the same type of rock. In every other direction, including behind you, there's nothing but sand dunes, more sand dunes, and even more sand dunes as far as you can see. There's no trace of the door that led you here, so clearly this time there's no going back. And above you is a cloudless blue sky, with the sun a bit behind you and to your left. At least there's nothing flying in the sky so you are unlikely ot get attacked from above.
"A desert! Fuck!" You curse as you realize where you have ended up. You have never seen a desert before, but you have listened to the stories of bards passing through your village and have heard enough to know that remaining where you are is a terrible idea. Your throat is already dry and it's only going to get worse. Before long you will either faint from the heat, or get dehydrated to the point where you won't be able to continue. You need to find water and a place to hide from the sun. That means going left, to the large oasis, or right, to the smaller oasis, or ahead towards the ruined tower. The first two will provide you with fresh water, while the tower will hopefully allow you to hide from the sun, and maybe even climb up and scout the area. Thankfully there are no enemies you can see anywhere - but that only means that any potential foes are likely hidden from your view.
In this unbearable heat every second counts, so you must decide quickly which way to go.
Which way do you go? And do you encounter any danger?
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The Arena of Illusions
A rookie's struggles
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