Guardian of the Sands

Prologue to P2: Damsels and Distress

"I SAID THE LEFT!"

Alistair sat up and began dusting the sand off his clothes. "Well maybe next time you should specify if you mean my left, or your left."

Naasir stood up and shook the sand out of his hair by vigorously rubbing the tousled mass. "Well maybe next time you should just let me do the plane jumping, you know, since that is literally what I was born to do!"

Alistair scrambled to his feet and shot back. "Hey! You were the one who insisted on teaching me plane jumping in the first place! And for the record, I wasn't the one who messed up."

Naasir sniffed and crossed his arms. "Well if you're so confident in your abilities as a plane jumper, you can get back to the neutral plane on your own!"

Alistair's eyes widened. "You're just going to leave me alone in the middle of the desert?"

Naasir waved his hand dismissively. "Oh please, you're going to act like you couldn't survive one night in the desert?"

"I can survive a night in the desert, but that doesn't mean I want to! Come on, Naasir, you're seriously not going to leave me out here on my own! You know I can't make it back to the neutral plane without your help."

Naasir crossed his arms. "Say you're sorry and I won't leave you out here all alone."

"But it wasn't my fault!"

"Bye!"

Alistair lunged forward. "No! Naasir, wait!" He reached the spot where he had been standing just as he disappeared, leaving Alistair grasping at thin air. He cursed and fell back down in the sand, punching the shifting ground several times.

He could easily survive a night in the desert, but he really didn't want to. Naasir and he had fallen back to their original plan, spending every other day in the neutral plane, and popping in and out of the physical plane usually near a city where they would spend the day and night before returning to the neutral plane.

Alistair wasn't sure how long they could keep going like that, but the system had seemed to work for the past six months, so for now it was the best plan they had.

Alistair sighed and stood up, after half-heartedly dusting his clothes off, he began trekking across the sand, looking for a better place to spend the night. If he got lucky, he'd find a mountain. He didn't even think about finding an oasis, no use getting his hopes up for a one in a million chance.

As the minutes stretched into hours, he began to grow increasingly hot, tired and irritable. How dare Naasir abandon him like that! Honestly, he was such a child all the time. It hadn't even been Alistair's fault they took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of nowhere. And now Alistair was the one trudging through endless miles of shifting hot sand, while Naasir was probably basking in the soft grass by a glistening pool of water in the shade.

The thought of the crystal clear, goose bump inducing, icy water of the pool suddenly reminded Alistair of just how thirsty he actually was.

He paused and turned in a slow circle, his eyes searching for any sign of life. The only thing he saw was sand, sand, sand, and more sand. He let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead, he was going to have to do this the hard way.

He planted his feet as firmly as he could in the sand, bowed his head slightly and closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply, then let the breath out as slowly as he could. After a few moments, the world around him slowed, until the only thing he could hear was the sound of his breath entering and exiting his lungs. In, out, in, out, slower and slower.