A blissful ride in the night. The soft light from the moon set against the shapeless lines that floated aimlessly. Ghosts and Demons. The air about the wagon was solemn and lonely. The darkness a pitch between grey and black, as the lights from the shinning lanterns on the front of the wagon flickered slightly in the dark wind.
I stared out at the moving landscape. At the dunes in the distance as it blurred into an unpleasant unknowing. I felt the shake of the wagon as it moved fast across the empty abyss road, the stones and pebbles flinging in its wake. I slid over to the backside of the wagon and pushed my legs out and into the open air, my feet dangling as the ground beneath me turned into a blurred line of stone and sand.
The wheels on this wagon were special, they were wider than normal, with extended points that pushed against the hard sand and rocky road, so that it would keep the whole vehicle afloat in the turbulent times of dust storms and unnatural paths. The wagon was also dynamic to the cold chilled winds. With the top cloth roof not flapping due to there being no holes on either side of it. So when I fell asleep on the cold wooden boards, I didn't hear a single sound from the wind outside, not one sound.
Even the horses were dead silent, and the wheels only hiccuped very once in a while with the passing rock or pebble. It was the most pleasant sleep I had ever had. A sleep where I could pretend and picture the world as my own. As the ruler of kingdoms. As the God of Gods. It was a pleasant dream. And I bet the others in the cart were having the same type of dream as me because they didn't make a single sound either.
---
The next morning I awoke with two eyes staring at me. The woman was leaned back on the cloth tent, watching my waking face, as I yawned into the morning sun. The thinner man had his hand lazily tucked into his blanked cloak as if it was freezing outside, which it wasn't. They then whispered silently into each other's ears as they glanced back and forth at me. I looked up with sleepy eyes, the rubbing sand falling out as we caught stares.
"What do you want?" I asked abruptly.
The non-leading nervous skinny man fell back in embarrassment as the woman kept staring, her eyes locked with mine.
The woman whispered again into her friend's ear as he nodded reluctantly. Then in an almost abrupt fashion, she got up and started wiggling across the boarded floor, until she reached my side of the wagon. Once there she leaned back on the wooden backboard, with her eyes still locked with mine.
"So where you from?" she asked trying to be smooth.
I replied with a simple rebutle, "where do you think?"
"Elisese? Yeah, same. Was born there. Raised my whole life. I'm actually from a royal family... So... Why you going to Forr? Tryinn to make money?"
She leaned forward with her legs crossed and one hand apply placed under her chin to support her gaze.
I then looked up at her plain painful eyes. I just didn't give a single crap about anything she had to say. I could tell just from one glance this girl was the type I hated the most. The apathetic type, a person who lies and fakes her way out and into conversations. I found more straightforward women more attractive.
But then before I could even finish my thought her friend leaned over tugging on her cloak, and said, "hey sis. He... I don't think he's interested..."
"Shut up. I... I got this..." She turned her curly bushy head back to me and asked, "so when we get to Forr you wanna...? Maybe...? Get something to eat?"
"Not in your life."
"Come on!"
I turned away, my short-haired head pulled back against my hood as I hid in the shadow of the morning light. She turned away pissed.
"Fine... Fine!"
She slid back over to her side of the wagon and continued to pout, as her brother looked at me and awkwardly smiled.
I feign back a smile as he sat back down next to his sister.
"It was a good try," the brother said while jokingly slapping his sister on the shoulder.
"It never works."
"You'll get one eventually."
"Eventually..."
---
Seven hours later we reached the halfway point of this ride. The ocean waves of sand blazing past as I stared out into the horizon. The two siblings started talking to each other again, with their brown cloaks fluttering in the warping wind as they leaned out the back of the wagon.
"You heard about the recent news, sis? Regarding the trades between nations? Everythings back in order after the recent terrorist attacks."
"Well, at least that's one good thing to happen in the last year. I thought it was canceled. But I'm glad, would've sucked to get to Forr with a depression happening."
"Would've sucked indeed."
They glared out at the sunset as I did the same. The nightly blues and blacks echoing off in the hilly orange distance as the rose-colored sun ducked away from my eyes. I leaned up against the other end of the wagon while watching the two siblings' backs as they talked back and forth about market prices, and trends, and other things I didn't care about. It was an odd feeling. I could tell they had their own ideas, their own goals, their own dreams, their own motivations, their own pasts. And I rode with them. Across this empty void of a forgotten world.
It was humbling and perplexing. It seems that after that morning charade, all these siblings talked about were the markets of Forr and what's going on there. They would explain things that I didn't understand, and I would just lay back and listen. Their words would bounce back and forth like a ball against two walls, never-ending until the other threw another ball against another wall. But every once and a while that ball would fall when they would walk over and talk to me, the girl's words would always be covered in a nervousness against my handsome looks. It made me feel awkward yet loved at the same time. But I've never been hit on, so I can't really tell if it's a bad or good thing.
After I widdled away at their attempts I would lean back on the wooden backboard and close my eyes to the setting sun. I would tell myself that I didn't have any time for them, but in reality, I was just a wandering buffoon in an empty desert, riding a wagon to a place I had no clue would bring me salvation. I was too caught up in my own revelations that the only goal in sight was the Trading Kingdom of Forr and the Shorebringers leader. Everything else at the time felt like a sidequest or a roadblock. And I just couldn't get that thought of that day out of my head, I just couldn't. I just needed something to stimulate that longing for freedom. Then it hit me. These two siblings in this wagon, with their stares and glances. They seem to have a lot of knowledge about Forr and their current events. I could ask them. I could ask if they any information about the Shorebringer's whereabouts.
"Um... Excuse me... You two... I have a question?"
They turned their heads to me in unison.
I spoke up, "umm... Do any of you know anything about the Shorebringers, whereabouts?"
They went silent. The skinnier boy's eyes turned into a frantic glaze of unreal confusion and fear.