A huge caravan consisting of several thousand daredevils was moving through the desert towards the south, who decided to cross this terrible desert of death for huge money.
Guard detachments specially selected from among the mercenaries led and closed the formation of the caravan to cross this section of the desert, the most dangerous of all.
The mercenaries sat on special mounts, the size of a small horse.
These birds, somewhat similar to roosters, could move across the sand at a staggering speed, while not losing any of their maneuverability. They were ideal escort animals, even though by themselves, due to their size and hypermetabolism, they could not cross the desert.
They constantly needed food and drink, but they themselves were not able to carry such an abyss of provisions, which would be enough for the entire transition.
But there was no need for this, for there were always sand lizards of merchants next to them. Which, thanks to their massive size and incredible endurance, could carry food, people and payload at the same time.
Sand lizards were creatures with a massive, elephant-like body, but with much longer legs and a neck, which in turn ended in a muzzle somewhat reminiscent of a monitor lizard.
Birds that could only carry their rider and huge sand lizards reaching six meters at the withers complemented each other perfectly in this desert.
Yes, yes, you heard right, they perfectly complemented each other only in this desert. In any other, these overgrown roosters would not have surrendered to anyone for nothing, because of their appetite and constant thirst. But in this particular area, these birds performed one of the most important tasks ...
Distraction of attention, on themselves.
"Wait, the whole caravan should stop," shouted the commander of the mercenaries, riding on the most luxurious bird, "the worms are nearby," he said, carefully examining the medallion lit up in his hand.
"Don't make a sound to anyone or move, we'll distract them.
Separated from the caravan, three mercenaries on screaming birds ran towards the northwest.
* * *
Huge carnivorous worms, that's what this desert teemed with, that's why it was called the desert of death. And although there were not so many worms compared to the gigantic area of \u200b\u200bspreading sands, but because of their phenomenal sensitivity to vibration, they could easily hear the steps of a person for a hundred or more kilometers. After which they notified all their relatives at a distance of more than ten thousand square miles around, and together with them began to hunt.
At such a moment, the two most important abilities of screamer birds came in handy.
First, they were able to run across the sand in a very special way, making such a small sound that the worms began to consider them too small prey, for which it was not worth starting a chase.
And the second was their amazing cry, which was able to attract worms from all over the area, forcing them to drop all other targets.
It is because of these two qualities that these rather voracious creatures were taken into the desert.
By the way, no one could understand how several thousand worms scattered across the desert of death can live off a couple of hundred caravans that they eat in a year. For even to feed one worm, whose dimensions could vary from 20 to 40 meters in length, several caravans were needed.
If we imagine that they eat anything other than meat, then another question arose.
Why then do they rush in pursuit even of the prey of several people, because this is absolutely insignificant food for them, for the sake of which they will obviously burn much more energy in pursuit than they will receive when eating.
There were still many questions, but there were no answers, it was too dangerous to study these monsters.
Because of them, by the way, the scientists of the continent were never able to explore the remains of a civilization that lived in this desert several hundred thousand years ago. Which apparently died because of these worms.
But let's get back to our screamer drivers who, after driving fifty miles, pulled the reins, causing the birds to scream, attracting all the worms within a thousand miles radius.
The caravan, meanwhile, went on without waiting for the three mercenaries who had left it.
They knew perfectly well that they would make a big detour and lead the worms on a false trail and catch up with the caravan in a couple of days.
Much more important now was to find a piece of rocky soil on which to place a caravan and give rest to the sand lizards, which had been walking non-stop for a month.
Fortunately, after a few days of travel, when the mercenaries who separated to drive away the worms returned, luck smiled at the caravan. They found a great spot, an "island" of hard, rocky ground, big enough to accommodate an entire caravan.
* * *
The shadows moving underground at a wild speed didn't give a damn about the worms, which for them were nothing more than chunks of meat mixed with sand.
The shadow spirits, fulfilling their task, set by Lord Inmir himself, carefully combed the area, dividing into ten groups, and then expanding the search area and even one at a time.
And now one of them for the first time in a couple of days spotted life that is not a worm. Immediately changing direction, the shadow spirit sent out a mental signal to its brothers. So that they, firstly, scan his site instead of him, and secondly, in order to report that he remains as a spy for a group of intelligent creatures he discovered.
After signaling to the brothers, the shadow that always moved underground during daylight hours nestled quietly, as far as she could tell, in the camp's main tent.
In fact, it was hard to tell which job the shadows were better at, intelligence or espionage.
For in both cases they were real finds for any country.
What was their ability to read the impulse mental wave that precedes the thought form (word) worth?
That is, the shadow spirits could read the impulses of mental activity themselves, before they were converted into speech. Which allowed them to understand what the creature was thinking, no matter what language or dialect it spoke. In fact, the creature could not be endowed with the knowledge of speech (thought forms) at all, the shadows would still easily understand what it was thinking about.
Only powerful mental protection could become a problem for them, but no one in this group of people possessed it.