A few hours into their trek through the desert, the sun had begun to shine on them. Curtis had a bad feeling come over him, he was sure that he had to have come near the area. He had left to scout ahead, leaving the rest of the group to trail behind him. Sure, it was unrealistic to be "familiar" with the sand, as the weather always made sure that no part of the desert looked or felt the same. Especially with ten years in between the last time he had been here.
He had followed the same path he had come from before as close as he could. The same direction from the town, the same stars above him, the same moon that had pointed the way. Curtis had remembered clearly the trek in the desert 10 years ago, it was a turning point in his life, he had made sure to note it on his mind, Curtis knew the approximate location of the tunnels, with patience, he would be able to find those tunnels.
The strange feeling in his gut grew stronger as he continued his search for the tunnels, he should have found it by now. He had hundreds of souls following his back, he would not risk their lives if there wasn't a chance that he could save them. The pressure grew on him as the tunnels were still nowhere to be found, it was not supposed to be like this he muttered underneath his breath.
Moving up another mound of sand, the feeling in his gut took a turn for the worst. In front of him, a canyon almost as grand as the one he had seen back in his previous life, in Earth, had lain in front of their group. For as far as he could see, dust, cliffs, and sand had welcomed him. Even teasing him as it stood there.
Curtis brought the horse he had borrowed to the edge of the cliff, a relatively normal horse, brown, with a black mane, but, with a relatively abnormal name. Timmy, it had been named, named by the stablehand that had looked after it, taken from his own little brother.
Looking down from the edge, it should have been 100 meters to the bottom.
"Shit." he cursed.
His plans were fucked. He had proposed the desert because he knew the tunnels would have saved them. Now with a canyon in front of them, he had no idea about what to do in this situation. He had to make backup plans, and fast. Who knew how long they had until they were found.
"This is the Himala (Miracle) Canyon, nobody knew when it appeared, this shouldn't have been here, even in the older maps there wasn't a canyon here. But, when we went to scout the desert some time back, it was just here." Silva chimed in. "Now it stands between Dierac and the old Shesari city." he finished.
How could a Canyon just appear out of nowhere? Curtis asked himself, was it possible that he had never noticed it before? No, that was unrealistic with a landmark this big. His father had taught him about the geography of the continent before, he knew of the large forest and mountain range up north, the deadly wasteland in the south, the barren desert in the east, and the impossibly high mountains in the west. But never had he mentioned anything about a canyon. Not a single note of it could have been missed by their lessons.
But the facts couldn't be disputed, especially with one this large. The canyon was real, and it was here to stay.
Wild theories appeared in his mind. What if the canyon had been put here? What if it was always here and nobody had noticed? A scene this big couldn't have been formed in just 10 years right? Or what if it was?
"I see," Curtis replied, there was nothing else that he could say for the moment. A canyon had suddenly popped up in the middle of the desert? It was a mystery, to say the least, how can it just suddenly appear out of nothing.
"Call for the others to make camp, rest for a few hours, then we'll move through the Canyon," Curtis ordered. He had to think about a few things. There had to have been a reason for the Canyon to just suddenly appear here.
The mysteries of the world continued to tease him. Questions had begun popping into his mind again, as it had done for the past years as he learned more about the world.
Half-truths.
Those were the only words he could use to describe what he had learned.
Nobody could just deduce the truth of the world. Evidence had to be presented. There had to be a basis for everything that is happening, like how a caterpillar would turn into a butterfly, at first you wouldn't expect that a creature as beautiful as that would come from an ugly little thing such as a worm. But with observation, facts had come to light. A caterpillar would turn into a butterfly, no one could deny that.
The world was the same. Truths were hidden by undiscovered evidence. How had the portals come to be? Many had presented theories, tried to deduce the reason, but no one had found the facts to support their answers. All their answers to the questions of how the portals had come to be didn't have the facts to support them. And so, they were dismissed.
"Let's go back, also go send someone to look for the riders who went south. They should have circled back by now." the desert will help hide their tracks, he even made sure to instruct those following behind to hide their traces as best as he could, Silva had added that they should send a few horses south, to lay down tracks and bait the enemy in moving away from them.
A few had volunteered to take that role, it had helped increase the chances for most of the population to survive, it was an honorable notion to sacrifice one's self for the benefit of others. If they succeeded in luring the enemy, they would have brought glory to their names. Names that Silva noted down just in case.
Silva nodded, the group was exhausted, moving a few hours in the desert was hard for them. Their feet sunk in the sand, the carriages were even harder to handle, from time to time they would get stuck, and a few men had to help push the carriage forward. They couldn't afford to leave anyone behind. Other than just leaving traces for the enemy to follow, one man was one sword in the fight against their enemies. Even the loss of one meant they would grow weaker.
The order to set up camp quickly got around. With the sun beginning to rise, he could see hundreds of souls preparing to take a breather. Somber looks weren't rare within the 500 or so people that followed him. Most had kept to themselves as they lay down tents and slept.
The loss of family members had struck the majority of the townsfolk, it wasn't rare for one in five families to have had one guard in their family, and with the number of losses they had encountered in the battle, most of those families wept for their fallen loved ones.
Moving to set up his tent, Curtis found the other leaders of their group, Silva, Carter, and Royce. The three were setting up a bigger tent, no doubt one that can be used for planning.
~~~
"So, you're telling us that you will enter the canyon yourself, and when you find something, that is when you will return and fetch us?" Carter asked, feeling livid with Curtis's decision of leaving the group.
Curtis had shared his suspicions of the Canyon's appearance. It was unnatural, the Canyon's presence hinted at something powerful at play. Chaos can infest almost anything, and the Canyon itself might be its breeding pit.
"It's dangerous Red, we don't know what's in there," Royce argued. Curtis was a powered individual, one of them was worth a thousand of their ordinary soldiers. He didn't agree with him going in alone. "At least take someone with you. If there's a situation you can't handle yourself, you might as well have someone help you," he added.
All of them had agreed that Curtis was at least as strong, or even stronger than Silva, their strongest ally. It was for the benefit of all if he could stay with them, the three didn't want him to risk his life wantonly.
Normally, Curtis wouldn't risk himself in this kind of situation. But, he had already saved the town, he was already responsible for their lives whether he liked it or not. He would go to the lengths needed to ensure that they survived.
~~~
Finishing the discussion about what to do from here on. Curtis went back to one of the carriages, moving the blinds he could see a little girl sleeping underneath a blanket. She was the little girl he had helped earlier, Tina.
He didn't know how to describe the feeling. Even with hundreds of people moving in the group, the little girl's image had caught his eyes, a little girl calling out to her mother that wasn't there. He was drawn to help her.
She is a sweet little thing, she is. Even with her eyes wet from crying as she introduced herself, she still tried her best to describe her mother. "She has black curls like me," she said, referring to her hair. "Sea eyes." she described, her deep blue eyes shining even in the dark, passed down from her mother's side, and "a pointy nose," she added, different from her cute little button nose.
"Stop crying Tina, how can we find your mother we can't look for her?" Curtis said to the little girl when he picked her up. She had tried her best to stop herself from crying after that, staying strong until the end when her little body was tired from all the searching.
They had moved from the front of the group until the end, but they couldn't find her mother, the girl's mood worsened for every minute that they weren't able to find her. "We'll try again tomorrow ok. Maybe she's just sleeping." Curtis tried to soothe the girl's spirit.
Even he himself didn't believe his words. The odds were that her mother was already gone.
Curtis had laid her down in one of the front moving carriages, telling the driver to look over her. He couldn't travel on horseback, carrying a little girl all the way. She'd just hurt herself. Plus, it wasn't comfortable for either of them, especially with the long distance that they needed to cover.
He didn't want to wake her, he was already feeling guilty as it is, leaving without telling her, if he did wake her, she might just cry even more. Curtis had decided to tell her if she was awake, but seeing as she wasn't he would just leave as is.
"I'll tell you a story about it when I get back," he whispered.