"It's two days before the year comes to an end, we need to make that journey or the prophecy would come to pass."
"Those are just fallacies. Nobody is going to end the world."
This was me trying to make the elders of Crim see reason with me but they were blinded and deaf to reasoning.
Two months ago, a prophecy appeared via a writing on the wall of the fallen Kings. The Prophecy Read;
The Last Day Of The Year Shall Be The Last Day Of Your Lives, Unless You Wipe The Tears Of Your Gods.
For Two months now, I have been trying to convince my fellow Crims to do something about the prophecy. My grandfather has always taught me never to joke with the prophecies of the gods. Sadly, after the passing of my grandfather's generation, there was nobody left who took the ways of the gods serious.
I never knew my parents, I grew up with My grandfather. Whenever I asked about my parents, he always managed to change the topic. He taught me everything I know. He ensured that I was familiar with the ways of the gods.
"Deep in The heart of the desert of worms lies the face of the gods. It is believed that this face smiles when the people please the gods and bleeds blood when the people go astray."
The words of my grandfather kept ringing in my head. Ever since the prophecy appeared, I have never had peace of mind.
"We must travel to the desert of worms and wipe tears off the face of the gods."
Once again the elders laughed hard at me.
"There is no such thing as the face of the gods lying in the desert of worms. These are just fairy tales told to kids. No one has actually seen this acclaimed face of the gods."
The elders mocked me.
"But I can tell you for sure that the desert of Worms is real and nobody steps into the desert and comes back alive."
Another elder added.
"C'mon y'all give her some benefit of doubt, just maybe the gods speaks to her directly these days."
They all laughed hard and mocked me with several statements. I gave up on them and decided to setup a team of my own to follow me to the desert.
Unfortunately, nobody was willing to take the to risk. At first some of them were interested in the mission, but once I mention the Desert of worms, Most of them disembarked. After several hours of searching for a team, I was left with only one person. James my best friend right from childhood.
"Rita, I'm only doing this because I have known you from childhood and I know you are not crazy. Also because I don't want you to go into the desert alone and hurt yourself."
"I appreciate that James, The fate of the entire Crim lies in our hands. We must not fail."
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We gathered some weapons and headed out. Tales have it that the desert crawls with desert worms which move under the sand and creeps up on you from below. We also loaded our camel with enough water for a months journey.
We journeyed for several hours. Despite our desert attire, the scorching sun still managed to penetrate through, and it felt like my skin was melting. We got to a point where a mighty sand wave was forming. The wave was coming towards us with full force.
"Brace for impact!"
James screamed as he stuck two swords into the sand, held it tight and faced downward. I followed his lead as the sand wave hit us. The force was overwhelming, Almost blowing me away, I held as tight as I could. In a few minutes, The wave passed leaving us covered in sand. I looked up and realized that our camel was nowhere to be found. With the camel went our water and other baggage for the mission.
We continued the journey on foot, the thirst was slowly getting to me. Suddenly we noticed a strange movement in the sand behind us. Nothing could be seen, but we saw the sand rise and fall approaching towards us.
"That must be a dessert worm" I said.
"We have to make a run for it!" James replied as he pointed something that looked like a plane wreck up ahead.
"We need to make it to that wreck."
We ran as fast as we could, the sand sank into the ground as the worm approached. I was scared to death, I ran without looking back. I didn't notice that James slipped and fell. When I got on top of the wreck, I looked back to see James trying to get back on his feet with the worm closing in on him.
"C'mon James. Faster! You can do this!!."
He tried to pick up pace, he was almost at the wreck when the sand below him sank and the worm crept out below him with it's wide mouth open.
"No!! James give me your hands!" I said stretching my hands towards James.
"Keep going without me! Wipe the gods tears and save our race."
This were his last words as I watched the worm swallow him and disappear into the sand. I was shocked, I sat on the wreck for some minutes frozen. I felt like crying out my heart, but crying wouldn't solve the problem. I got up, dusted myself and continued my journey.
It was dark, I needed to find somewhere save to camp for the night, because the desert becomes more deadly at night. But then it was 2 hours to New year, I couldn't risk my mission. I lighted a stick fire and used it to light my path. I felt like I was surrounded by creatures because I heard strange noise and whispers. I walked as quietly as I could. I got to a place that looked like the entrance to the Palace of the gods.
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As I walked on, I saw the face of the gods at a distance with blood in it's eyes. I felt a great relief in my heart.
"I finally made it." I said to myself.
As I approached the face, Creatures in a sort of skeleton crept out from the sand.
"Oh no! Sand Walkers!" I screamed as I drew out my sword.
These were desert zombies, nobody has ever seen this, so it was believed to be imaginary creatures used to scare children. I hid at the back of a rock hoping that they would pass me by.
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They surrounded me in their thousand. To crown it all they were led by a desert dragon.
"Oh please let me through, I need to wipe the tears of the gods or there will be NO NEW YEAR FOR THE CRIMS!"
I said almost crying. They didn't seem to care about my problems because they kept coming closer to me with their claws out.
The face of the gods was merely a stone throw away. surrounded with Sand walkers Led by a desert dragon with only 30 minutes to midnight. Can I Still save my race?
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