With just a touch from Rou, a pillar of rock shattered into pieces and disappeared in one of the air currents around the vast wasteland where he stood.
The moment his hands touched the ice shard, a formless energy swept him into a deserted place, where there were only sand dunes in one direction, and in the other way, there were only pillars of different colored rocks that had no end.
"If this continues like this I won't live for long", thought Rou when he saw the scorching sun in the sky, he didn't know how many hours had passed since he arrived at that strange place, but without hesitation he decided to advance along the path of pillars, hoping to soon find a source of water to quench his thirst.
At first Rou thought he was dreaming, the sensation on his skin was the same he had every time he visited the half-naked fairies in the crystalline river, where life spread everywhere, and the dense green color made him long to return to that place.
Remembering the words of the captain, the ice shards had a magical air around them, perhaps this was the culprit that Rou was locked in that place he thought.
When the sun was at its highest point, Rou could see in the distance a large tower rising as far as the eye could see, getting lost beyond the clouds that surrounded it.
"Maybe that's where they know where I am," thought Rou, who was sweating like a pig after traversing a great many miles over the burning ground. It didn't help that he had only a loincloth covering his shame, where the soles of his feet were filled with deep black wounds that blended in with the ground.
Rou was a man who had no strength of his own, still, he never backed down when he set his mind to something, and this time getting to the tower was everything if he wanted to survive or escape that stupid place.
"Come to think of it, why do I always find myself trapped in this kind of situation," Rou didn't understand.
Moving towards the tower, Rou could see small shadows moving around him, their footsteps were faint to be heard, still, their presence did not go unnoticed by Rou.
"Get out of there damn you, why are you hiding", Rou shouted trying to scare those who were watching him, Rou didn't know if they were dangerous or not, that's why he preferred to exert fear on them before they decided to attack him.
"Cowards, don't you dare show yourselves to me," Rou said moving forward again towards the tower.
Although Rou felt hungry, his stomach did not growl and his water reserves were not depleted, he had the same strength as at the beginning, still, the wounds on his body and the burns due to the sun felt real, so Rou did not think it was a dream.
"Shaaaa!"
A faint scream reached Rou's ears who raised his hands ready to defend himself, looking straight ahead he didn't find an enemy.
"Shaaaa!"
The cry was repeated, this time Rou looked down and could see a golden feline showing its milk fangs menacingly. Rou was not frightened by the creature, the feline appeared to be just a small cub away from its parents.
"Little one, go back to your parents, if you stay here only someone like me could devour you," Rou said. Although Rou could use the feline's flesh for food, the creature was too small to satisfy its appetite.
"Shaaaa!", the feline didn't hear Rou's words, jumping up quickly it tried to bite one of Rou's legs.
"You asked for it little one!", Rou reached out his hands and caught the feline in mid-air before it reached his leg. Upon closer inspection, Rou discovered that the feline was a small tiger with a black star embedded in its forehead, it was a strange thing for him to encounter that kind of creature.
Quickly, Rou immobilized the tiger cub that was trying to bite him with its teeth. "Stay still, otherwise I will turn you into a tiger skewer," Rou said licking his lips at the sight of the little tiger's body.
The tiger stopped moving as it felt that its actions were useless, the fatty that caught it could immobilize it without giving it a chance to escape. After a few seconds the cub stood still, watching as the fatty continued on its way towards a large tower in the distance.
As he advanced towards the tower, which appeared to be built by a civilization with great knowledge in the design of colossal structures, Rou was able to identify that some birds of unknown size were flying at the top of the tower.
"Little tiger, you know this place," Rou asked.
The tiger did not understand Rou's words and continued to look around trying to escape Rou's grip.
On the way, Rou found that the tiger was not alone, other tigers of the same size came out to meet him, each one did not hesitate to try to take a piece of Rou's body.
Rou sensed that the tigers' movements were slow, and he caught them, leaving them at his side.
"Twenty-one, twenty-two...That's too many of you, I can't carry you by my side anymore," Rou said looking at the tigers playing beside him. After he caught them all, the tigers stopped attacking him and changed their attitude to that of a pet.
Rou set them free and advanced toward the tower noticing that the tigers would not attack him.
"I just hope their mother doesn't get mad at me for stealing her cubs," he thought.
Before advancing Rou had chased the tigers away, but they followed him again, taking some distance from Rou.
When the sun was about to set over the area of the sand dunes, Rou sighed in exhaustion and decided to spend the night hiding under a rock pillar that was over 40 meters high.
Rou did not understand why the pillars disappeared every time Rou touched them, so he kept his distance from the shadow of the pillar and settled near a large rock that protected him from the icy wind that began to blow in the night.
"Don't you dare lick me," Rou said to the tigers when one of the tigers looked at him with greedy eyes.
Although the tigers had no intention to attack him, nothing was safe as long as Rou slept.
"Captain...where did you send me," Rou said. It was possible that she knew why he appeared in such a place, otherwise she wouldn't have asked him to take the shard.
"ROAAAAAR!", a furious roar disturbed the silence of the night.
"What was that?", Rou stood up trembling as he felt the strong pressure that made him lose his breath.
The tiger cubs quickly approached Rou and settled beside him, each one was trembling with fear, looking in all directions, terrified that at some point a predator more dangerous than them would emerge.
Rou had no way to create a fire, when the tigers settled next to him he felt a little safer as he felt their body heat. "Rest little ones, I'll stay on guard tonight," Rou said looking outside where great currents of wind impacted on the rock pillars.
The hatchlings stopped shivering and closed their eyes at Rou's words.
Without closing an eye during the night, Rou could be sure he saw a large shadow, the size of a soccer stadium fly overhead, trailing an unbearable stench that forced him to cover his nose.
"Come on, it's time to move on," Rou said turning away from the hatchlings as the sun began to rise.
Looking again at the tower rising up to the sky, this time Rou noticed that the birds at the top of the tower had disappeared, at some point he could find large blood stains spreading over the limestone walls that had an ancient aura around them.
Along the way, Rou felt that the air was different from the day before. Every so often a putrid stench wafted to his location, where he could see at times the trail of small insects flying in the sky in the direction of the tower.
The tigers did not shy away from Rou, they seemed to have adopted him as their leader due to his own strength.
If Rou told his family about the strange behavior of the creatures following him, it was possible that none of them would have believed him.
"Let's continue, we can't fall behind," Rou said as one of the tigers broke away from the group sniffing the air.
The other tigers began to make the same movement as their companion and they all stopped on the spot.
"How much are they doing?" asked Rou raising his nose to perform the same action.
The air had a sour smell mixed with a deep rotten egg smell.
Rou tried to think back, in the past he had heard something similar to detect rotten egg smell near a desert place, but no matter how much he thought about it he did not come to any conclusion.
Looking at what seemed to be the largest tiger of the 22, Rou found that it seemed to be telling him to follow it.
All the tigers began to run towards a large hole that could serve as a temporary shelter, the tiger that called Rou was the last to enter after Rou entered inside.
"Why all the fuss...", Rou said before running out of words.
In the sky, hundreds of colossal shadows blocked the sun's rays advancing like an army in the direction of the desert dunes.
Rou tried to look at them for an instant, but every time he looked up, he felt as if his body was consumed by a sea of flames that reduced his every bone and nerve to ashes.
The tigers covered their heads with both paws, where Rou repeated his movement and hid inside the cave.
Without catching sight of the last of them, a great sandstorm swept across the sky covering everything in black.
"ROAAAAR!", the earth began to shake as thunderous roars filled the sky.