Ling felt something tickling his cheek. He was lying on his side on what felt like a hot, sandy ground, long enough to dry his clothes. It was probably late noon by now, with the hot rays of the sun touching his exposed skin. How long had he been sleeping then?
Another poke touched his cheek, making him aware of a small shadow shading his face from the bright sun. It was soon followed by several pokes which made him grumble and squint his eyes, trying to open it. However, it looked like he couldn't move his body yet. Even just to open his mouth to complain was difficult.
As he was thinking, he realized that he could actually use his 'mist' now to shield himself from whatever was poking his face. However, they might treat him as an enemy when he finally reached a land now after all those storms in the sea.
Then, he immediately remembered that he didn't even know where Maga and the crew were so he couldn't be hostile in this new land. Suppressing his 'mist', he checked his body's status, determining when he could move.
Suddenly, a shout came from somewhere nearby, "Laki! Abe! Where are you? I told you not to go too far or we won't bring you here again!"
Nobody replied but then, there was a whisper beside Ling, "That's mom. I told you we shouldn't go here."
"But I wanna see the bodies washed here like grandpa told us," the girl replied, sounding sulky.
"Well, I don't think grandpa told us the story for us to look for it. If I remember correctly, he also never wanted us to go near here." The boy paused, then spoke again, slowly. "I think he actually wanted to scare us so we wouldn't come here."
There was another poke on Ling's cheek. "Ok," she sighed. "Looks like this wasn't the same as grandpa's story anyway. This body's still breathing."
"Then, let's go." Soon, the shadows covering Ling's face were gone. He wanted to stop them and ask where he was now but he still couldn't move. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, he could finally feel his hurting muscles, so he knew he would soon be able to move.
It was after a few hours when Ling was finally able to sit up. His muscles were still hurting, hence, after carefully getting into a sitting position, he bowed his head to rest it on his knee. Then, he had to support this posture with his hands propped on the ground so he wouldn't fall back down.
After a little rest, he noticed that the sun was already near the water's horizon. Therefore, he knew it would soon be dark. Before that, he had to find Maga and the crew then.
Looking around, there were no other people in this piece of the shore. Aside from the water, sand and rocks—some of it forming a cave—he couldn't even see any living creatures here. The children earlier probably came from the other side of that huge cluster of rocks separating this shore to the bigger piece of this land.
When Ling could finally stand up and walk, he went to the small cave-like protrusion in the rocks first. He had seen a movement in the water there earlier.
Unfortunately, even though the sun had not set yet, the light didn't reach this part of the shore. He was cautious at first, only peeking at the side of the cave entrance to see in the dark.
However, after a glimpse, Ling rushed inside. His legs skidded on the rocky ground as he hurriedly sat down. Still, the scratches on his knees and legs—which were also touching the salt water in the cave—didn't bother him.
His concern was fully on the huge creature inside the cave. As he got near, he touched the warm body beside him, then breathed a sigh of relief when he sensed that the other's breathing was stable.
Once the drumming of his heart calmed down, he could hear the slight snoring coming from the dragon. Ling smiled a little.
He remembered that Maga had an injury when they fell in the water but it looked like it had already healed. The fresh blood that he could smell together with the salt water was most probably his.
Probably sensing a familiar presence, Maga slowly opened its eyes. It raised its paw—dislodging Ling's hand that was still on its body—to rub its sleepy eyes as it yawned widely.
Afterwards, it showed its teeth to smile at Ling. Despite their misfortunes, at least they were still alive after that storm.
The silent celebration was broken by a low rumbling inside the cave.
"We have to look for food first," Ling said, still smiling. "I encountered two people earlier so maybe there's a town up ahead. I'll go ahead first and you rest here. We still don't know if we safely reached Kal'wa Island."
Maga nodded. It knew that they might encounter people not used to seeing dragons. Besides, it could fish around here if Ling couldn't find food. But Maga was still wishing it could explore around. Always remaining alone in hiding was not fun.
Soon, Ling had climbed passed the cluster of rocks. What he saw surprised him.
There was a long expanse of sandy shore where the children and adults alike were playing in the water. Beside this beach was row upon rows of stalls selling food, toys, clothes and others. Despite the slowly darkening sky, the area was bright with the lights of the stalls starting to illuminate the whole place.
Near Ling, there was even a stall with a fat lady, wearing several jewels, arguing with the stall owner. Unnoticed by her, a slender man in black clothes sneaked behind her and bumped the lady's arm before walking away.
The lady's shouting stopped, but then she ignored the slender man and argued with the stall owner again.
The man looked back after he had walked about two meters away. When he saw that the lady had ignored him, he raised his hand to look at the sparkling things he was holding.
After smiling to himself, he raised his head to walk forward again. Coincidentally, he caught a young boy's eyes. The thief just looked at this boy from his foot up to his head, then decided to ignore him. He wouldn't get anything from this one and the boy also looked dazed, probably from hunger.
Of course the boy looked poorer than this thief. He had just come from a ship wreck, and indeed he was hungry. However, that wasn't the reason he had a dazed look in his eyes.
What surprised Ling the most when he saw this view on the other side of the rocks was the dragons. Although the dragons smaller than Maga, they were freely walking and running around together with the children and the adults.
Were they finally in Kal'wa Island?
A merchant pushing his cart stopped near Ling's position. Ling then decided to voice out this question. "Excuse me, sir. Is this Kal'wa Island?"
The merchant raised his head to look at the boy. Suddenly remembering the stories of the bodies washed ashore, he laughed. "No, kid. You're in Gitna. Are you, perhaps part of a ship wreck?"
The merchant never thought he would meet an idiot trying to travel past the Limaw Sea to be sent here in Gitna afterwards, like what the stories his grandfather had told him when he was young. Poor kid—to be disillusioned at this age.