Zone E -- Highlands

[Strazio Rockwell]

Invisible ripples of heat formed a curtain that obscured the horizon. Red sheets of stone turned into makeshift hotplates, threatening to fry anything that touched them. Overhead the oppressive sun made itself known the only way it could -- with unrepentant heat. How cruel it was that mankind with all of its passion and intellect was still little more than a thrall dominated by that pernicious fireball. Strazio was not one to ponder the poetic nature of things, and as he walked there was but one thought on his mind. It was damned hot, almost fatally so.

The boy had hiked his cloak up over his body and used it as a shield from the sun’s rays. It helped, but he still sweat buckets and each step grew heavier than the last. His skin, largely unprotected, sang a harmony of agony. Heatwaves baked his flesh and agitated his pre-existing burns. When the pain became too much Strazio sought shelter in the form of caves. Small overhangs and caverns were in abundance and although these frequent stops slowed his travel he was grateful for them.

As he walked he came to a small pass that led to the edge of a gulley. A small lip, large enough for one person jutted out from the rock face. He stepped out onto the lip and started to walk, taking each step with measured caution. To his left the cliff face stretched several meters high and to his right was nothing but thin air. At the bottom of the ravine a river raged, frothy and white. A gust of wind battered him and he clung to the rock as if he was a babe holding its mother. His mouth was dry and he could feel his heartbeat between his temples, but he did not stop moving forward.

Moving E4 to E5