Two Worlds: Clash of the Guardians (Completed)

VIII - The Hot Sandstorm - Part I

Elli

October 3, in the year of 8845, Reminis Calendar (RC)         

The sextet hurried. They must tread past the Orange Desert before the hot sandstorm stroke. They ran for thirty minutes, and had only stopped twice to inhale lungfuls of breath. Dorris the jukebox did nothing but chanting sarcastic encouragement. The trees thinned and the bushes had gotten scarce. The croaking of toads and the cawing of crows deafened, replaced by a faint wail of wind. They stopped. In front, the Orange Desert awaited them.   

The wind whined and blew stronger the further they proceeded. Sand particles rained over Elli, screaming like poltergeists in her ears. For every mile they advanced, the sand storm grew heavier. On the horizon, several tornadoes had begun to swirl in the sky, growing larger and closer with every moment. Elli recalled Cindy warning about "a tornado", now she wondered whether Cindy had understated the problem.

Dorris' voice became hazy, disrupted by the tornadoes. "You must find shelter! You won't make it—" A zap sound broke out of the microphone, swallowing her voice.

Marko's eyes scanned across the desert. "Quick! Hide behind those rocks."

The group dashed to the shelters. Benedict the giant was the only one who had a steadier grip on the ground. He hugged the pygmy like his own infant; Elli and the Black-Borns held onto his arms. Afar, Elli saw lightning slashing out of the grey sky.

The wind attacked from every direction. It yowled as if singing an opera. Elli's eardrums twang and her scabbards kept tapping her body. The lightning slashed again and this time, she saw the tornadoes spinning right before them. She blinked. There were at least five tornadoes. Every time she finished counting, a new tornado would emerge. The scene made her feel like a massive construction was in progress, and the thought didn't improve her mood.

Their bodies shook harder; Elli clung onto Benedict's arm tighter. Lightning snapped and with a swoosh sound, her clutch loosen. The wind slapped her and the other Black-Borns up to the sky. They were tossed up and down, left and right. Sand particles and pebbles kept pelting their bodies. Throat-tearing screams filled the entire desert. Elli closed her eyes and crossed her fingers. She began to believe that her prayer wouldn't work when the shaking stopped. She opened her eyes and found the tornadoes were gone, but a more gruesome sight made her heart almost jump out of her mouth.

They were floating in mid-air, with nothing to hold them but air molecules. Elli's worst fear came true as gravity pulled them down, at a speed that could break all the bones from their necks to their legs. In lesser than fifteen seconds, they dropped to the ground. Benedict, with Rooney in his arms, ran along the desert. Stretching out his remaining free arms, he caught the falling bodies. Elli bounced off from his arm and slipped to the ground. 

The sandstorm had sent them to the other side of the desert, at the edge of a forest with a grimmer outlook. They crawled on the ground, with nasty scratches on their skin. Elli vomited pools of green bile on the ground, when a sound came from the sky. Several feet from where she stood, some other carriages from some wizards plunged so hard to the ground that the wheels went loose, and the magical horses whined.

"Thus gone two thousand Lucratz worth of carriages." The wizards wept. The damages seemed to be too prodigious that they couldn't be fixed by normal spells. The horses neighed in pain, and the wizards healed them before walking away; their shoulders dropping to the floor.

"What weirdness is this? Is this supposed to be a series of unfortunate events?" Rooney grunted as he adjusted his axe in its harness. 

Benedict comforted the pygmy and helped to stack up his falling red ironed hair.