Bast leaned against Junior as she led him over the loose rocks covering the ground.
"We should come to Well's town soon boy... you got this." She muttered softly as she encouraged him, doing her best to help guide him so he didn't break a leg by a misstep over the ever-treacherous ground.
She looked up over the grassy plains stretching out.
The mountains were behind her and to the left, and all that was here was grass... and loose rock, giving way to the great splits in the earth of the Century Canyon.
It's said these splits in the earth were caused by a great battle between a form of Mythic called a "Century", a earth creature with a shell that was described as a "snail-cockroach with scythe legs", and some sort of ancient army or force, perhaps a long gone kingdom.
Finally they came upon the first bridge, a stretch of solid red-brown rock connecting the two sides some group of mages had made for transport.
Bast jumped onto Junior's back easily, and they set off across the bridge's solid ground, and as they hit the next side the earth was still solid stone until they crossed the next split, jumping small cracks, the shelves of stone causing undulations in the landscape.
Zig-zagging across the bridges, finally Bast saw a wall in the distance with tall stone spires rising above it.
The sight took her breath away.
It wasn't a massive city, nor a small village.
It was a normal town, with walls, but...
It's design was unthinkable for someone so used to the wood buildings of the forest-filled mountainous Kingdom of Revan.
Of course they were still in Revan, but towards it's upper border, coming closer to the desert.
Well's town was named as such because it was "the last place with a well" before you hit the desert.
Thoughts of the desert journey filled Bast with some anticipation, but also fear.
Junior wouldn't survive the heat, nor have easy footing on the sands...
Would she have to let go of this, the last piece of her life besides the spear and bow?
The last living thing she had from her life?
As they came closer the town came more in site.
Towers of red-brown stone, with horizontal lines of white and cream colors splitting the different shades of red and brown from one another, much like the walls of the canyon but standing as spires.
The shortest reach 30 meters high, the tallest even higher, a sight incomprehensible to Bast as not even cities boast such height on an average!
What was the point?
Each spire was a bit thinner than a normal building though...
A wall surrounded it all, but the platform the entire town was built on was surrounded by the crevices, with a raging rapid river down far below causing a mist to slowly rise around it, fading away by the time it reached ground level.
But the low-hanging mist around it made the canyons seem bottomless, and added an air of mysterious beauty as the bright sun overhead set off the mist into shimmering rainbows below!
"It's... beautiful."
What sort of town has buildings like that?
As they came closer and closer she could finally make out small holes, like arches with a flat bottom all along the spires, windows with no shutters.
And as the wind whistles over the plains... a faint note of foreboding intruded on the beauty.
Where were the people?
She couldn't hear any bustle.
It was silent.
A small stall was set outside with an overhang coming out of the wall that worked as a roof, but the wooden rack was broken, and empty.
The silence was deafening beneath the wind.
She hopped off Junior as they came to the wall, seeing a wooden gate, doubtless a hard to get material in this location, and faint golden lines made her use light vision to see the lifeforce and magic of the wood.
Ingrained into the wood of the gate was a spell constellation, except as it was placed and compressed into a 2D image rather than a 3D constellation, somehow the lines connections of it all became runes and sigils of mysterious power.
'An enchantment to preserve the wood huh?'
She stepped forward and pushed on the heavy gate... and it slowly began to shift with a groan despite usually needing a muscular and heavy lifting grown man to move, not a young adult woman who, while curvaceous, did not appear particularly muscular!
Bast looked up as the gate opened, Junior following with his ears pressed against his head as she did so.
Empty... with an actual tumble weed rolling across the street.
Wow. Just to emphasize the abandonment huh.
"Skt!"
Bast swing her head around while Junior shuffled nervously.
'...'
She looked for any lifeforces nearby, but there was nothing.
She looking up the spires, seeking for the glow through the walls, to no avail.
A thought occurred to her and she quickly looked down in panic!
Nothing.
She spun in a full circle... but no one and nothing was there.
And when she turned to face the street again...
A cloaked figure stood silently.
Her eyes widened as she instinctively crouched, a hand to her spear as she narrowed her eyes.
Light vision and fire vision both told her that... that figure didn't exist.
There was no life in it, no light. And it's temperature was exactly the same as the environment.
An edge of the ragged and large cloak hiding all its features raised up, and out of the folds came a long, gleaming blade, curving wickedly as a crescent, with the hand holding it still hidden.
Bast pulled the spear out. "Not friendly to visitors... you can never believe a Bard huh Junior?" She nervously quipped.
The blade began to dip to the ground as the cloaked figure began to move toward them...
It didn't move right.
There was no up and down flow of steps.
It just... glided forward.
"SKKKKKKKKKKKKKKTTTTT!" A screeching rang out as the blade slowly scratched a line in the hard rock beneath as it moved.
Bast gulped. That was solid fucking rock! How sharp is that blade?!
Slowly a shifting gait became apparent, as the glide became wavy, shifting side to side, but still with no up and down motion that a person ought to have.
Flames and light began to gather along the spear that Bast held.
There was no need to hold back; it was clear this was an enemy!
She charged with a sudden bound of fire fusion, rocketing forward with sheer jumping power boosting her!
Hefting try spear she charged!
"Ding!"
The blade of the spearhead collided with the strange sickle with no seen handle, hidden within the black folds!
Bast's eyes sharpened as she paused in midair.
It had resisted her might and stood strong!
However, she had not struck using fire fusion into the strike itself!
The goal here...
Light magic suddenly flowed from under fire magic covering the spear, blasting out a cone of light!
"You think I'm stupid?" Bast exclaimed!
She knew that was no cloak, but shadows!
What can hide a living thing from light magic's detection? Darkness magic!
The light ripples into the darkness, and peels all concealment away!
"SCKREESSEEEEEESSSSK!"
The hell like screech echoed throughout the empty town as the shadows hiding it were pierced and swept away!
Bast's eyes widened as she stared into the large bulbous black eyes from the sharp arrow-like head with its mandibles!
'Fuck, it's a Skolpis!'