Small grains of sand spilled out of the darkness and there was a bright, blinding light. Then there was a grinding sound, and the one who had no name yet saw tentacles raking the sand over his face. He wiggled his arms – they barely budged. His legs didn't move.
While Raud was digging him out, the animated one came to his senses and, when his limbs were finally free, he managed to scramble to the surface himself, ending up on top of the dune. Both suns had already crossed the zenith, but the sunset was still quite a long time away. Behind him in the distance were the cliffs where the quarry had begun, and the City loomed as a dark mass. He had never seen it from a distance before, and it was a grand impression. A gigantic peak in the middle of the desert that surrounded it from all sides to the horizon. Only in the distance, to the south, could he see the mountain ranges.
The one who had no name yet lowered his gaze to the octopus, and something twitched unusually in his chest. The octopus was almost all dried out and looked extremely emaciated, the sand glistening on his body, which had taken on a sickly purple hue. He struggled to hover and, flicking his tentacles, crawled slowly under the awning he had constructed on the less sunny side of the dune from a piece of rag and a rudder. The doll came down after him and crouched beside him as he finally crawled into the shade and collapsed.
"It's your turn, Pinocchio," he gurgled and pointed a tentacle at a hand sticking out of the sand.
"You hit the right shoulder if to the right, the left shoulder if to the left," the doll replied affirmatively and headed for the hand.
When the one who had no name yet finally dug out the big guy, the sun heated his metal parts so that if he touched them with the wooden part of his hand, it would darken. He accidentally burned Snorri's ear, and the man, twisted and screamed with a muffled, coughing shriek, threw the doll several yards away.
"Why didn't you put the building down?" there was a rattling sound from a nearby dune.
"Moons down your throat! Argh!" the big guy growled. "You burned my hand! Shmaramatru khapanat!"
Continuing to swear, he tried to get up, but fell to one knee and spat out another burst of swearing. Coughing up sand and catching his breath, he looked around the desert hopelessly, threw his head skyward, and spat bitterly.
"Damn and blast it," he wheezed sadly, and turned his head toward the awning where the doll had already come and sat down.
The big guy stood up, limping heavily, walked over and sat down next to it, peeking under the awning.
"Are you all right?" he asked the octopus hoarsely.
Raud, unable to answer, waved his tentacle in the air. Snorri spat again and sighed heavily.
"Where's the bike?" he asked.
The octopus raised his tentacle and pointed south. There was another dune towering there. Growling and cursing all the moons, the big guy got up and wandered in that direction. Halfway to the dune, he stopped and turned around and shouted to the doll:
"Why are you sitting there? Hurry up!"
The doll got up unsteadily and wandered after the big guy.
The aircycle was indeed on the other side of the dune. It was sticking out of the sand with its only remaining engine, so burning hot that a haze was arising from it. Snorri drove down the dune toward it, knelt down and began shoveling the sand off with his hands without ceasing to swear. The doll came over and sat down next to him.
"What are you sitting down for?" Snorri asked menacingly. "Help me!"
The doll looked at him attentively.
YOU ARE READING
Heart's tale
FantasyA long time ago, there was a planet on the surface of which a real living Heart was beating. Each of its beat gave life to many wonderful creatures, and humans were no exception. Once, during a mountain collapse, they became afraid that something m...
