The girls were all for cheering loudly when erik rode out in full armor that covered his features fully. erik looked at the group or more specifically alastair who knew what the look was looking for so he gave erik a nod and a thumbs up. to put it simply erik was trying to figure out if he should actually try to win the race. alastair basically told erik to do whatever he felt was best and that he was behind whatever he did. oddly the circus performer sylvando had apparently taken the place of one of the racers for some reason.
The horse sylvando rode on had thick purple feathers attached to the saddle which was a horrible idea in alastair's opinion. the reason he thought so was because those feathers would catch a huge amount of air which would slow the horse down greatly. the horses walked up to the line that served as the start as well as the finish and stopped. the sultan gave a speech about the pride of gallopolis and how their prince was here to prove himself before he officially had the race started by the knight at the side of the track.
The following race was surprisingly close with sylvando coming in second since erik hugged the curves of the track fairly closely leaving next to no way to surpass him. after the race was over sylvando was clearly impressed with erik's skills and made it known audibly. the rest of the party waited for erik after the real prince rode the horse out to address the crowd with a wobbly foundation that no one seemed to notice. erik caught up with the rest of the party and explained how sylvando had barged into the changing room and caught the prince red handed and then complimented erik for his riding and leaving disappointed at the prince.
"The prince didn't back out of his part of the deal after the race right?" alastair asked voicing his doubts about the prince's character. erik shook his head "he said that he still remembered our deal but i am a bit skeptical if he will actually follow through as well." erik said honestly. "suppose the only choice we have is to hope for the best." serena said cheerfully. the group then waited patiently for news from the prince at a local restaurant that served cactus cutlets.
It didn't take long for a messager had found them and informed of the prince's wish to speak to them. after paying for their food to which was a large amount due to erisa the party left the restaurant and headed to the palace. the prince was waiting at the bottom of the stairs to the throne and smiled cheerfully at the party. "welcome my friends! please follow me so a can have my father reward you." he said before swaggering up the stairs. "is it just me or does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?" alastair asked seriously.
That bad feeling was justified as before faris could get past blustering a soldier came and informed the sultan of the return of some sort of monster called the slayer of the sands. shortly afterwards the party was basically blackmailed by the prince into helping him capture this notorious monster. the expedition to the area called the celestial sands were the slayer lived was scheduled for the next day at noon. the party spent the rest of the day until nightfall idling away training or rather having alastair bully all of them with his physical prowess.
The only one who could really keep up with alastair was erisa and she soon realized that the nail that sticks out is the first to be struck. alastair went all out against erisa in their spar since she could obviously take it and it was clear that she wasn't very skilled making the following thirty minutes extremely stressful for her. the party turned in for the night an hour after nightfall with all of them glaring at alastair. the next morning everyone woke up groaning from their bruises except alastair who ignored the looks he was getting while eating breakfast.
After breakfast the party headed to the city gate where faris and his "knights" were waiting with dejected expressions. the party just managed to catch the prince promising his nervous subordinates that every thing would be fine so long as his friends helped. it was at this moment the prince noticed the party and pointed at them for his subordinates. the "knights" were easily convinced after seeing the hulking mass of force that was alastair with the rest of the skilled looking party. the price and his subordinates left with a wagon before the party since it makes them slower but the party was stopped by sylvando who appeared dramatically.
Sylvando apparently decided to tag along with the expedition since according to him he was "worried about the half-wit prince". since no one could come up with an argument against this he ended temporarily joining the group. the expedition took seven hours to travel across the regular desert and the celestial sands area. in that time alastair ,erik and erisa separated from the group to slay the monsters along the way netting a few nifty items and a good chunk of exp for alastair. the best item was three seeds of strength that were given to erik since it was pointless for the rest of the party especially for alastair.