Keeper of Life - NaPoWrMo Entry

She awoke to the dreams that only the sand could create. The sun outside the canvas rippled and the barrier glimmered in the oppressing light. She couldn't see them or the city, but knew they were there, past the barrier, and past walls. 'How they think they're safe, how they think that their little world is perfect. And how they'll be safe forever. Such greed.' The heat threatened to bake the scales off her body. She counted the reflections as they jumped in the pits of sand. The dunes before her towering like mountains, it made her feel so small. This was not the flatsands of the north and their rippling plains.

'We'll never make it, we'll die before we even get in,' the sands whispered lies to her, and all she could do is grind her teeth until that was the only sound she could hear.

“Lady?” Fang inquired from inside the tent.

“Sleep,” she said in a tone that mothers would sing with. Her horn glowed softly and his eyes fluttered until his head contacted the ground again. She pulled her hood over further but the straightened fabric only let in more light.

Hot breath exited from quickening lungs. She wanted to scream to throw her fury against the barrier, she wanted to see it burn. “Patience Coal,” she told herself. “You will have your victory.” History told her otherwise, it told her how legions had thrown themselves against the barrier, how spies had tried to poison the tree, how her ancestors past had pooled their magic together in vain, and how even Queen Emerald had failed. “This time will be different,” she said, “this time it dies.”

She turned out of the sun and back into the hidden tent, the billowing sand pushing off as she entered. The order for guard was pulled down, they would all need their rest, and life here, next to the city, was barren. Even if they needed to hunt, there was nothing to be found. It made sense, of course, the closer they got.

When morning broke Talon approached her.

“Lady,” he said, “Brother Claw told me I was required.”

“You're lying to me Son Talon,” she said. “I asked for the weakest of you, and yet you came.”

He shuffled uneasily. “I know what you need Lady, and I volunteer myself,” he said with renewing pride.

“Talon, I need strength when we reach the barrier, myself and the others. You yet have life, send the other that Brother Fang choose.”

“Lady, I am the lead navigator,” he said, “my duty is done. The others, they can fight better then I and inside you will have use for fighters, but not for sandwalkers. We both know there won't be a trip back.”

She listened to his words carefully.

“Besides,” he said, “you will need strength to break the barrier walls, and I can give you that.”

A soft smile graced her, she was almost touched. “I will honor your selfless sacrifice Talon,” she said.

They both dipped their heads. “May the stars guide you home,” he said as her horn glowed.

A chill ran through his body, then bounced back up. She watched as he shifted and struggled to remain standing. Then with one sharp twist of her neck she pulled the energy from his body and let him fall limp against the sand, an impossible feat unless one is willing.

The air in her lungs felt fresh, new, her body tingled with radiance. There was no longer hunger, or thirst in her mind and she accidentally let a small moan slip. His life filled her renewing her muscles, her vision, her mind. Everything around her suddenly seemed so lucid, and her goal so much more urgent.

As she looked upon his fallen body she called Fang over. Like the others they had drug Talon's body off to be stripped of what else could sustain life. She looked to the barrier in its shimmering twilight. “They have Talon,” she said.