Instalment 2

The sky turned from black to the colour and consistency of a deep bruise. it would be wrong to say the night brought relief from the heat. Rather, the absence of the sun for six hours per night barely made travel possible. When the sun rose and hammered down on the wasted land, everything either hid or died. Even Stahler. Stahler stopped walking and sat on the bleached and lifeless sand. A small pack slid off his back and Stahler began preparing for the day.

Stahler carried very little. He quickly unpacked a blanket, some old tent poles, a large knife and a water bottle. The water bottle was almost empty and Stahler drank nothing now. He vaguely remembered thirst. The memory of it slid around the back of his mind and danced with the sister memory of clear, cold water running down his throat. But it was an old memory. Faded. Something Stahler had lost a long time ago, and mourned. He would have given anything to feel thirsty. To feel something. All that was left to Stahler now was purpose. That was enough to keep him alive and functioning.

The poles were inserted into the sand, the blanket spread over the poles to create a makeshift lean-to. The sky lightened to a mottled version of its former wounded colour. Stahler prepared to wait out the day. He had no food. He was aware that he needed sustenance. It had been many days since he had eaten anything. He resolved to snatch and eat the next beetle he saw scuttling along the sand. But it was getting close to daylight. The indigenous beetles, for lack of a better word, would be scarce, their business for the night completed long ago and shelter would have been secured for all the beetles by now. Still, Stahler watched the sand closely for an opportunity.

The sun peeked over the horizon and the sand caught fire. It began to heat up right away. Stahler’s shelter kept the direct sun off of him. Still he felt the sudden change in the environment. Much too hot for any reasonable living creature. It had been a hard adjustment for Stahler those many years ago, when first he had come to this land. He could only hope for an end some day. There had to be one. The Soothsayer had told him that if he continued toward the rising sun, he would find a way home.

Home. A thought that had virtually no meaning anymore. Stahler had no home anymore. The first few years had been desperate. He had quested and sought a way to his native land. All to no avail. There had been friends back then. Allies. Fellow stranded. Stahler picked up and looked at his knife. It had been a gift from Sage. Sage, as beautiful as her name implied wise. She had helped him. He had helped her. It was Sage who had learned of the Soothsayer in the City of Mirrors. Stahler stopped thinking of her before he remembered how she had been taken from him. All he had from her was this knife. And, of course, the gift of direction. Without Sage, Stahler would probably still be lost in the Den, fighting for the right to make an attempt at escape. Sage’s sacrifice had made this quest possible. He owed Sage everything.

There had been others. Friends, lovers, sometimes people only to be tolerated until mutual benefit was no longer in the cards. All had gone. Killed, taken, lost, abandoned... Stahler had been alone on his mission to find his way back to where he belonged for a long time. He was not sure for how long. Maybe years. Maybe hundreds of years. His frame of reference was shot. There was no way to tell.

The day played out silently. The sand sighed and wavered in the heat emanating from its surface. Nothing stirred. Stahler drank the last of his water around midday. The sky was gold here. It assaulted Stahler’s senses as it always did. The greys and blues of his youth hovered like a drug in his mind. He needed them badly. To be in sync with where he belonged. But he had no access to that level of satisfaction. So he waited the wait of a junkie in detox for the dark. So he could continue to walk toward some ephemeral gate that might not exist. A gate to take him home. A gate that would let him finally die under a cloudy grey sky threatening rain.

Stahler hoped it would be worth it.