Uncharted

[Caira Ayryn]

An Island and Sand Sirens

Their horses took a few moments to come to a halt. Even then, they didn’t seem to be able to escape the growing wave of glittering dunes. Whatever it was, they were closer now and the waves of light seemed to be traveling towards them. The blobs flickered with each movement and appeared as a glowing fire; the dunes themselves appeared liquid and resembled an inferno in the night.

Caira had no explanation and had never seen such chaos, however Merik on the other hand seemed to know this tragedy all too well. It had happened to him once before. He had been with Elana that night and were riding toward Coruscant to do some mafia business as well as trade his anti-assassination services when the couple had rode upon the same light in the night.

All those years ago, Merik and Elana had discovered, however beautiful it appeared to be, that it was not a sight to be seen by the living. They had learned it the hard way.

“Listen, I need you to get as far away from here as possible. If you run RIGHT NOW, you might just survive.” Merik had snapped back into reality.

“What? Why? Listen, I’m not leaving because of a little fire, we are too close to give up now.” Caira's tone was jagged and on edge.

“That’s no fire.” Merik said with despair. “It’s death. In the most tangible form possible, worse than the tar pits, worse than the bandits- Damn it, I don’t have time to explain! But I need you to do as I say."

Convincing the strong willed girl might take more than that, “No." Resolution rimmed in her voice. "That’s what you said about the Tar Pits but that turned out alright.” She pointed out in her right.

“That was just DUMB LUCK that we both made it out of that one alive.” Merik tried to persuade her.

“Luck?" Caira challenged with a raised eyebrow. "Let’s not argue. I want to know what I’m going to face.” She ended the banter. There was no convincing the girl to bow in defeat of any challenge she had yet to face.

As it grew closer, Caira could finally see that the flame in the distance was not a fire on the sandy face of the dunes, but something she couldn’t quite understand. Her eyes strained to filter the lights and pinpoint their movement in the contrasting darkness. What she could make out, was a sea of small little orbs dancing and moving in swells of currents above the sand. They looked like a swarm of fireflies and she distinguished that they were carried in their direction by the flowing of the wind.

“Those, are a nameless destruction.” Merik’s voice was shadowed with utter fear. “No one who ever sees them, lives to tell the tale.” He gulped and in his red eyes the thick fulvous light reflected as his gaze quivered. “Only Primes really survive... And they don’t always want to afterwards..”

Caira looked at the anguish woven into his creased expression. She had never seen a man so crested with pain. “Ah, so maybe it is my luck.” She attempted to take his mind off of the oncoming wave but his gaze remained unwavering from the onset of doom.

There has to be something. I’m not going to be a victim of a lifeless sea of fireflies. She told herself and caught an early glimpse of their destruction as a lizard of the night had strolled into the wrong part of the desert and the horrible 'bugs' surrounded him with the fire of their being. Caira lost sight of the lizard in the swirling orange cloud that surrounded it, but could only hear the wallows of the creature's pain. After the flurry of light was done with the reptile, they disintegrated and dispersed away from their prey, leaving only a skeleton in the sand.

The specks of glowing light seemed to whirl with the wind, resembling a party of tuna that swam on the currents of the ocean. The deadly fireflies didn't appear to take any more shape than the beacon they became when close together. Their movement continued to flicker closer.

“That’s not even the worst of it,” Merik briefed her, his eyebrows rose with dread and he appeared as though he would begin to cry, “Before you die, they torment you, not just with physical pain, but they will show you things. Horrible... Horrible.. Things that you can never possibly unsee. All in an instant until your mind overloads and you JUST can’t take it anymore.” At this point, his voice was shrill and it could be that he was panicking. “I’m so sorry Caira. If I had my pistol or a banishment circle, I would give it to you... So you would never have to know the worst thing about this world.”

With a petrified gulp, Caira quickly dismounted from her horse and disintegrated the pair into Omnillium. What was she supposed to say to that? The heat of the buzzing light source grew near and Caira charged an attack as her eyes fixed on the horizon with enraged determination.

Merik heard the whirling of noise and seemed even more distraught. “What are you doing?! You can’t attack them, it just makes them angry.” It was sad to hear the weeping in his voice, but Caira wouldn't back down simply because of his focus on defeat. They hadn't even begun, and apparently they couldn't outrun her. She hoped there was enough time to complete the charge of her forming energy.

However, the ocean of beading light was nearly upon them, suddenly Caira was shaken with trepidation as a wave of dark energy tore through her soul and threatened to eviscerate her. Howls of torment sounded from the small blobs of illumination and she lost the grip of the energy that formed in her palm.

Struck like lightning. Her stomach sunk her heart fell in her chest and shattered with every sense of hope that she had. Their last chance at defeating whatever monster or magical entity they had. And she had dropped it. Caira stood in disbelief. She never dropped it. Silently she cursed. Suddenly she knew the deepest fear in Merik’s being and tackled him as she shouted, “Hold your breath and close your eyes!”

The pair of Primes fell to the sand as the Vortex of airless suction surrounded the two hunkered beings. Their defense was just in time as the wave of enkindled droplets swarmed around the mass of air. They hissed with anger and bayed with agony as they could not battle the torrent of wind to get in, or else be smothered by the same airless stream of wind.

Their hollow cries prompted an empathetic response in Caira, however she fought against it, knowing it was simply bait and used the image of the dying lizard as pathos: A persuasion of proof in a situation that would otherwise have killed them both.

The two Primes huddled and grasped the grains of sand below them as well as each other; their grips brought them back to the present and kept them from obeying the haunting chants that cascaded into their ears and called their souls to drop their defense against the inferno of screams. Senseless temptations of fear descended within her as the casting spell of their song slowly reached her ears.

After an eternity, the screeches of the sirens dissipated and the whirling wind of Caira’s cyclone and otherwise airless vortex had dissipated as well. Caira almost forgot to breathe as the tornado had finally settled and her shirt was coated with sand. Her body shook with its remaining energy and finally, with Merik’s prodding tap on her shoulder, she gasped for breath and was brought back to her quaking senses.

He stared at her in disbelief. Confounded. Dumfounded. Caira had no way of knowing that they had just defeated his worst nightmare.

Wordlessly, her eyes fixed on the ground as she knelt in the ridged sand, regaining her composure and her eyes fell on the island they now stood on. Yes, island in the dunes. The shining beings had eaten or destroyed the sand the two had braced on, and an entire chunk had been taken from the dune so it now appeared that Caira and Merik were left on a little pillar that stood ten feet above the freshly entrenched doughnut shaped moat.

How that narrow pillar of flimsy sand was preserved into the shapely column that saved their lives, they will never know, and after that, Merik couldn't stop staring at the girl who had saved his life, again.