"AAAAAA!" Ravon screamed, his voice completely raw.
"AAAAAA!" Lyra shrieked right behind him, gripping his fur coat for dear life.
Beneath them, the eight-foot Sandworm hit a steep, sweeping dune. Instead of banking, the beast abruptly lost its footing and violently slid sideways across the desert sand. The sudden loss of momentum launched both of them straight over the creature's head into the open air.
Ravon hit the dune first, skidding face-first into the hot, golden powder.
Before he could even groan, Lyra crashed heavily directly onto his back, driving the wind completely out of his lungs.
I am going to suffocate on sand, Ravon thought, choking as the dry grit filled his mouth.
He forced his arms under himself, pushing up to his knees. Because he didn't give Lyra a second of warning, she rolled unceremoniously off his back and tumbled into the dirt.
Ravon spat a mouthful of sand onto the dune, coughing deeply.
Lyra scrambled to her feet. She furiously dusted the sand off her black dress, her blue eyes blazing with murderous intent. "This is entirely your fault! If you do not know how to ride a subterranean beast, why in the world did you take the reins?!"
"Because riding a Sandworm is cool!" Ravon argued, wiping the grit from his tongue. "You don't get the chance to ride a giant worm every day!"
"Your sheer, childish excitement is going to get us killed someday," she seethed.
Ravon brushed the dust off his sword belt and started marching back down the dune toward where the Sandworm was calmly waiting.
Lyra stepped in front of him, planting her staff in the sand. "What exactly do you think you are doing?"
"I'm going to ride the Sandworm," Ravon said matter-of-factly. "Don't you want to get back to Arkenfall?"
"If you touch those reins again, I will physically break your hand," Lyra promised, her voice deadly calm. "How can you possibly think I am going to sit in the back seat while you steer us into a canyon?"
She is so incredibly bossy, Ravon thought, throwing his hands up. "So what are we supposed to do? Walk? Run? Crawl all the way back to the city?"
"If you want to crawl, go right ahead," Lyra sniffed, adjusting her pointed hat. "But I have a significantly better idea."
"And what is your brilliant idea, Miss Big-Brain?"
Lyra ignored the taunt. She walked directly to the front of the massive, sand-colored worm. "I am going to bind this beast with my new Tamer magic. Then I can pilot it perfectly with my mind, without needing those useless leather reins."
She pulled the small hunting knife from her boot. Without hesitating, she drew the sharp edge across the palm of her left hand. She squeezed her fist, letting a few drops of fresh blood fall into the center of her right palm.
A glowing blue circle materialized over her bloody hand. Inside the primary ring, multiple concentric circles spun in opposite directions. The spaces between the rings were filled entirely with glowing, incomprehensible ancient runes.
Lyra raised her bleeding palm toward the Sandworm's broad forehead and chanted:
"By root and fang, by breath once wild,
I, Serce Verta, call the storm beguiled.
Kneel not in chains, but bond through flame,
Beast and master now share one name."
The glowing blue spell array detached from her hand and sank seamlessly into the beast's leathery hide. The Sandworm's eyes flashed blue. A single, glowing ancient word etched itself permanently into the scales.
Ravon walked up behind her, looking at the glowing mark. "Serce Verta."
Lyra completely froze.
She slowly turned her head, staring at him with wide, shocked eyes. "What did you just say?"
"I just read what appeared on the Sandworm's body," Ravon said, pointing at the glowing mark.
She showed the magical signature, but she couldn't actually read the ancient dialect herself. How in the world can he read the ancient Language? she thought, a cold spike of suspicion hitting her chest. Who taught him that?
"Who can read that language?" she demanded.
"I don't know," Ravon answered, looking genuinely confused. "I just looked at it, and I could read it."
Lyra's eyes narrowed into slits. "You are a terrible liar. Now tell me exactly who taught you the Ancient Language."
"I swear!" Ravon held his hands up in surrender. "I only tried to read the word, and it just naturally translated to 'Serce Verta' in my head. It feels like I already know the language, I just didn't realize it until now."
Lyra stared at him, searching his red eyes for any hint of deception. She found none.
He isn't lying, she realized, her mind racing. But that stalker in Duneveil wrote 'Serce Verta' in blood. Does Ravon have a connection to them? No... he was terrified of that being. "Whatever," Lyra dismissed, masking her internal panic. "I will figure out how you can read ancient texts later."
Ravon tilted his head, staring at the mark. "By the way... who is Serce Verta?"
Lyra paused and completely ignored the question. She grabbed the leather saddle and hoisted herself up, taking the front seat directly behind the beast's head.
She's ignoring me again, Ravon thought, annoyed. He climbed up the side of the worm. "Hey! The front seat is mine!"
"First come, first served," Lyra mocked, looking over her shoulder with a triumphant smirk. "Besides, you are not steering. I am controlling it with my mind."
"But I want to sit in the front!" Ravon complained. "I know you can easily control it from the back seat."
"Sit in the back, or crawl to Arkenfall."
Ravon scowled, swinging his leg over the back of the saddle. "You really know exactly how to annoy someone."
"I do. So what?"
Ravon crossed his arms, refusing to answer.
"Good boy," Lyra teased. She turned her attention forward. Through the magical bond in her core, she issued a silent command. Move toward Arkenfall.
The Sandworm instantly responded. It surged forward, gliding smoothly and effortlessly over the top of the shifting sand, rapidly gaining momentum without a single bump.
"This is how you ride a beast," Lyra boasted proudly over the rushing wind. "Unlike you, muscle-head, I actually have the brain to think my way through a problem."
She is asking for it, Ravon thought, a mischievous grin slowly spreading across his face. "I am very angry right now. And I'm going to show you my anger."
"How?" Lyra laughed.
Ravon reached his hands forward, hovering them right over the sides of her stomach. "Like this."
He mercilessly dug his fingers into her ribs and started tickling her.
Lyra violently flinched, instantly bursting into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. "Kehehe... what are you doing?! Kehehe... stop it, you muscle-head! We are going to fall off! Kehehe!"
"Say you're sorry!" Ravon demanded, laughing as she squirmed wildly in the saddle.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Kehehe!"
Ravon pulled his hands back, deeply satisfied with his victory.
Lyra caught her breath, her laughter slowly fading. She mentally commanded the Sandworm to slow to a gentle stop. She calmly unclipped her wooden staff from her saddlebag, turned around, and brought the heavy wood down hard right on the top of Ravon's head.
Thwack.
"Ow!" Ravon yelped, grabbing his skull. A painful bump was already starting to form.
"Now," Lyra smiled sweetly. "I feel sorry."
Gorilla Ravon thought dizzily, rubbing his head as the Sandworm picked up speed once again.
By sunset, Lyra parked the Sandworm near a shallow, rocky den carved into the side of a sandstone cliff.
They both jumped down. Lyra pulled a bundle of dry firewood from her dimensional pouch and tossed it onto the dirt. "Light the campfire."
Ravon arranged the wood and snapped his fingers, summoning a tiny, concentrated fireball to instantly ignite the kindling. He turned around to watch Lyra carefully placing her glowing blue runestones in a wide arc across the entrance of the den.
He looked back at the towering Sandworm waiting patiently outside. "What about him?"
"He is far too large to fit inside this den," Lyra said, pressing the final stone into the dirt. "And his natural hide is durable enough that no basic desert monster can kill him in his sleep."
"But what if something strong does kill him?" Ravon asked, sitting down by the fire. "Can you just summon him again, like you do with your rock golems?"
Lyra pulled two thick slabs of preserved meat from her pouch, laying them on a flat, hot stone near the flames to cook. "No. Golems are constructs of pure mana and earth. This beast is a living creature. If a tamed monster dies, it dies forever."
Ravon frowned. "Then how are you going to hide him when we reach Arkenfall? You said Taming was strictly forbidden by the Churches. The city guards will arrest you."
"I can hide him easily." Lyra stood up and walked to the edge of the magical barrier. She raised her right arm toward the Sandworm. The blue, multi-ringed array glowed on her palm once more. "Return."
The colossal Sandworm instantly shattered into millions of glowing blue orbs of light. The light swirled, rushing toward Lyra and sinking directly into the skin of her forearm. A dark, intricate tattoo of a sandworm appeared on her skin for a single second before fading entirely.
Ravon's jaw dropped. "Wow! Where did he go?"
"He is resting in a suspended space inside my mana core," Lyra explained smoothly, walking back to the fire. "The meat is ready."
They ate in comfortable silence, the warmth of the fire pushing back the freezing desert chill.
"If we took the exact same shortcut through the deep woods that we used to get here," Ravon calculated between bites, "we could reach Arkenfall in just a week at this speed."
"Only if we actually took that path," Lyra corrected, taking a small bite of her meat. "But we are not. It is far too risky to cut through the untamed center of the Arora Forest now. We have to take the official, paved merchant roads."
"Ah. Because your Sandworm leaks a massive amount of ambient mana," Ravon realized. "Its mana leaks too heavily. Every predator in the forest would feel it."
Lyra stopped chewing. She stared at him over the campfire. "You are actually getting intelligent just by traveling with me."
"Hey!" Ravon protested. "I can think logically!"
"Rarely," she noted dryly. She finished her meal, wiped her hands, and pulled her thick blanket from her pouch. "Now, I am going to sleep. Do not disturb me."
Ravon laid his own blanket out on the cold stone. "Good night, Lyra."
Lyra didn't answer. She pulled the wool up to her chin, staring at the dark stone ceiling.
He didn't panic when the dragon attacked. He broke his own limits to save me. He makes sure I eat. And he let me have the front seat... eventually. A strange, unfamiliar warmth settled into her chest, entirely separate from her mana core. So... this is what it feels like to have a real friend. She closed her eyes and finally let herself sleep.
The next morning, Ravon stood outside the den, perfectly positioned.
Lyra raised her arm. The blue mark flared. "Summon, Maoa."
The blue orbs shot from her arm, rapidly expanding and solidifying into the massive Sandworm. The second the saddle materialized, Ravon leaped into the air and dropped squarely onto the front seat.
He grinned down at her. "First come, first served!"
"So childish," Lyra sighed, shaking her head as she climbed into the back seat.
For the next eleven days, the Sandworm carried them effortlessly across the sprawling dunes.
"Isn't it incredibly strange that we haven't been hit by a single sandstorm since we left the temple?" Ravon asked one afternoon, looking at the perfectly clear, blazing sky.
It isn't luck, Lyra thought. "I suspect Azhurak cleared the weather patterns on our specific path. Do not forget, he is the true ruler of the North."
Ravon remembered the sheer destruction left behind by Cryovax's ice beam. "I guess a God who fought Cryovax for decades can easily manipulate the wind."
Day after day, they traveled from sunrise to sunset, resting in small caves or makeshift runestone barriers at night. The brutal desert finally gave way to the thick timber of the Arora Forest. Following Lyra's tactical advice, they stuck exclusively to the wide, paved merchant roads.
A week later, the towering stone walls of Arkenfall appeared through the trees.
Lyra commanded the Sandworm to halt a mile outside the city gates. She jumped down from the saddle. "We walk from here."
"Okay," Ravon agreed, hopping down beside her. "We don't have a choice anyway."
"Return," Lyra commanded. The beast dissolved into light, vanishing into her arm.
As the sun began to set, they finally reached the heavily guarded North Gate of Arkenfall.
Ravon took a deep, shuddering breath of the smoggy city air. "Finally. We actually made it back alive."
"Yes," Lyra agreed. "After almost dying three separate times, I am quite happy to be in one piece."
They flashed their guild licenses to the armored guards and slipped into the bustling streets.
"What are you going to do now?" Ravon asked as they navigated the evening crowd.
"I am going to take a very long, very hot bath," Lyra said emphatically. "And then I have to write a letter."
"I'm going to do the exact same thing."
They pushed through the heavy wooden door of the Arkenfall Inn. The small brass bell chimed brightly.
Elizabeth looked up from her ledger. Her eyes widened in genuine delight. "Welcome back, Ravon! Lyra!"
"Thanks, Elizabeth," Ravon smiled, walking eagerly toward the front desk. "Our adventure was absolutely thrilling! We saw a giant—"
Elizabeth abruptly held up her hand, interrupting him. She pinched her nose tightly with her fingers, her face twisting in disgust. "We can talk about your grand adventure later, Ravon. Please, go wash yourselves immediately. You both smell like a dead goblin. I will call you when dinner is ready."
Ravon sniffed his clothes, wincing at the rancid smell of sweat, dragon blood, and desert sand. "Okay. I'll talk to you later."
They split at the top of the stairs. Ravon vanished into Room Twelve, and Lyra disappeared into Room Thirteen.
Midnight draped the city in quiet shadows.
Freshly bathed and dressed in clean clothes, Ravon sat at his small wooden desk. He held a feathered quill, staring out the open window at the clear, starry sky.
Today is Lila's birthday, he realized, a heavy, bittersweet ache settling into his chest.
He dipped the quill into the inkwell and began to write.
Dear Lila,
I hope this letter finds you well. I know today is your birthday. I also know that it will take a month for this letter to reach the Beast Forest, so please forgive me for the late wish.
I wanted to be with you today, but my life out here is getting busier and more dangerous every single day. I miss you, Mira, and Darius more than anything.
I promise you this: when you turn fifteen, I will be there. We will celebrate your birthday together, with everyone, just like a real family.
Take care of yourself.
With all my love
your brother, Ravon.
Ravon carefully folded the parchment, slipping it into a thick envelope and sealing it with wax.
I can't wait for her fifteenth birthday, he thought, a soft, hopeful smile touching his lips.
He leaned his chin on his hand, staring up at his solitary, bright star until his eyelids finally grew heavy, and he drifted off to sleep.