Kemi led them to a bar in the middle of the desert. It was a wooden structure that seemed it could fall apart, if a monsoon came by.
"There is really a bar in the middle of the desert."
Lawhey said as the walked into the bar, where people sat with no care in the world. They all walked to the counter and the bartender poured them a drink without them asking.
Lawhey, Ryan and Shoto looked at each other and picked up the drink. Helton on the other hand analyzed it carefully. He sniffed it , then dipped a finger in it and put it in his mouth.Ryan and the others drank it before he noticed him.
The bartender stared with distress, Helton quickly drank it when he saw the look on his face.
"Another one."
Kemi said and Helton shook his head as he coughed. Lawhey tapped him on the back to easy his suffering.
" No more for me."
Helton said in a helium like voice.
Shortly they heard a bell ring and everyone in the bar ran out. Not knowing what was going on they followed them outside. Everyone had their weapons out and were on alert.
"Gim , where is it?"
A man said turning in all direction, as the rest of the people did.
He laughed as hard as he could and they all turned around.
"What just happened?"
Helton ask one of the men as they walked back into the bar.
"That was just Gimmick doing his thing. We are all Brim adventurers, we come by here anytime we have a quest in Mangoase. Gimmick likes to play pranks and of late we fall for his death worm scare. He tries to break his record every time we are here. Unfortunately we keep falling for it because of recent attacks."
The man explained to Helton whilst the others listened in. They turned and watched him as he laughed.
"Oh my God, no where is save on this desert. We should leave as soon as possible."
Lawhey said to the others.
"We should live a little, we almost died."
Shoto said looking at Ryan to get a reaction.
"That's all the reason why we should leave immediately. I love breathing and want to keep doing it as long as I can."
Lawhey said as he pulled out a scarf from his side bag. He wrapped it over his head and took a step towards the door.
"Wait!"
Helton said and Lawhey stopped.
"Is there a faster way to get out of Mangoase?"
Helton asked the bartender.
"I am not sure but I head a rumour there is a field gate in Almaladh."
The bartender said.
"Where is this Almaladh?"
Lawhey walked back to the counter and asked the bartender.
"It's a desert castle about a days walk from here."
The bartender said.
"Well, we are going to Almaladh."
Lawhey said and Shoto and Kemi looked at each other.
"Why does he get to decide where we go?"
Shoto said out loud.
"Because is it obviously the easy way out."
Lawhey said then a group walked over to them.
"Are you guys really going to Almaladh?"
A muscular man asked and Lawhey turned around.
"Ye…yes, what's it to you?"
Lawhey said and the man chuckled.
"Join us, we are also going to Almaladh."
The man said to them.
"No"
Lawhey said and tried to walk away but they were in his way.
"You cannot possibly raid the castle with your numbers. Countless have tried and failed, with ten times your numbers."
They were not fazed by his words.
"Fine, you guys get to keep anything you find in the castle. Deal?"
The man said and the others behind him looked behind his an whispered among themselves.
"We will discuss and get back to you."
Lawhey said and watched as they went back to their table.
"We should get out of here before it gets dark."
Lawhey said immediately after they left.
"What about them?"
Kemi asked looking at a table surrounded by well built men.
"What about them, we can't possibly trust them."
Lawhey said.
"You should take the deal, you guys won't survive if you go without them. "
The bartender said and they looked at him. All the while Ryan had been drinking.
"You mean we will only survive if we go with them?"
Shoto asked, hoping for another way to turn things in his favour.
"No, you might still died ."
"So either way we die when we go to Almaladh. We might die too walking to northern part of Adah Forest."
Lawhey said.
"With the you might die. There are rumours the King still live there,
protecting his treasure from raiders."
The bartender said.
Lawhey and the others walked to their table and accepted their offer. They were surprised when everyone followed them as they walked out.
"I am Armsterdam , leader of this quest. We have been trying to get inside Almaladh for weeks. No one who has gone inside has survived. So we have no information about the castle. We have been trying to gather some for weeks."
A bald black man said as sweat rolled down his body.
"By the look on your face, you guys don't know the story about the saviour. Well, Aziz the King wasn't always a king he was like any normal resident of Mangoase. The only thing that made him difficult was he wanted to change things. People were being sacrificed to the dryad to help keep the rest of the residents alive. Aziz knew one day he would be among the sacrifice. One night, he ran away to the desert. His village searched for him after three days they stopped, they assumed he was dead somewhere.
A man then told his family he was still alive and saw him at a retreat. The family disregarded the mans testimony because he was the only witness. At another retreat, another person told the family something similar. Soon Aziz started to become a legend, his story was in every village in Mangoase. When people saw he was still alive, they went to join him. He had already started building his village, with extra hands they picked up the pace. Soon they started accepting runaways.
It became a sanctuary, which became its name , Almaladh. Aziz became their King and they thrived for years.
Things don't last forever and neither did Almaladh. Aziz was struggling to care for his people. He then when back to the forest. There he searched for the Dryad, after a week she revealed herself to him.
"Dryad, my town is on the brink of collapse. Make my land fertile and I will give you an offering every year."
Aziz asked the dryad for help.
The dryad fused with one tree in the forest and appeared in another one close to Aziz. She placed her hand on his head and showed him what she wanted as her price.
"You want me to have sex with you?"
Aziz said with surprise but he was prepared to do anything. Aziz agreed to do it and a tree created a doorway which he walked through. Not long after he came out with a Lalob seed the size of a double coconut palm. Which he took back to Almaladh and planted in the middle of the town. When he woke up the next day it was a fully grown tree."
Amsterdam stopped all of sudden and so did the others. Ryan looked at his face then turned to what he was staring at. It was a city in ruins, there were some buildings still standing. Most were just partly damaged.
"Here we are, Almaladh "