Guardian of the Sands

Plans and Xyra

After Naasir had disappeared, Alistair wandered around the lush jungle-like forest for a little while. Then, after returning to the pool, he drank some water.

He had never had anything that tasted so good, it was fresh and clear and absolutely thirst quenching. But the minute he bit into one of the fruits, he immediately changed his mind now he had never had anything that tasted so good. It's flavor was reminiscent of a perfectly ripe, juicy melon, but it had some trace flavors of something more exotic, like mangoes. It was the perfect balance of sweetness and flavor, incredibly juicy but not mushy.

After eating three, his stomach was full and he was absolutely content. Being so, he realized how tired he was, and after finding a large patch of thick velvety moss, he soon feel into the most peaceful and deep sleep he had had in years.

He had no idea how much time had passed when he was awakened by Naasir poking his shoulder.

"Wakey, wakey! Time to do stuff."

Alistair sat up and rubbed his eyes as he yawned and stretched contentedly. "How long was I asleep?"

Naasir shrugged. "The neutral plane isn't really affected by time, you're probably the only thing that is still influenced by it. But if I'd had to guess I'd say a few hours. How do you feel?"

Alistair stood up. "Great, better than I've ever felt before."

Naasir nodded. "That sounds about right, your leg all healed up now?"

Alistair glanced down and gasped, bending low to take a closer look at his now healed calf. "How...how is that possible?"

Naasir shrugged. "Well the water from the pool is really remarkable, has some awesome healing abilities. So instead of it taking say...a couple months for your leg to completely heal, it only took about a week."

Alistair's eyes widened and he straightened up. "I've been here for a week?"

Naasir nodded. "Yup. I had you in the pool for the majority of that time. Can't exactly drown when you're not breathing, can you?" He grinned.

"I...I wasn't breathing?"

Naasir rolled his eyes and hopped up onto a stump. "I told you that you were pretty much dead, geesh, keep up will you?"

"But...how is that possible? If I wasn't breathing I should have been dead."

Naasir waved a hand idly. "Like I said, neutral plane works different, a few seconds longer in the physical realm and you would have been lost, but your heart still had a few beats left, so when I brought you here you were basically stuck right in between life and death. The pool did it's work, I helped a bit and viola! Here you are." He hopped up. "Now! Let's talk plans."

Alistair followed him to a small clearing, and then sat down opposite him. "What plans?"

Naasir nodded. "Exactly, we need one. You must have had some sort of plan when you left Ghad, or was it your intention to get lost and die in the desert? Cause in that case job well done."

Alistair shot him a glare. "I was trying to make it to one of the other cities or a small town where I could hide until I came up with some way to go and help the other boys."

Naasir nodded, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm...well, we can work with that. Although I wouldn't really recommend staying in one place for too long, don't want a repeat of what happened in Ghad."

Alistair frowned. "What do you suggest than?"

Naasir smirked. "Well, I can get you in and out of the neutral plane whenever I want, and we can travel from here to almost any part of the world you can think of! There are some limitations though...and the traveling isn't always a sure thing. Oh, and also we can only travel into or out of the neutral plane once a day. So once we arrive in the physical world, wherever we are, we're stuck there for twenty four hours."