We arrived at the edge of the force field surrounding the forest.
"We're here, passing through this we'll enter a small area of the wasteland," he said. Going into some kind of preparation mode, kneeling on the ground, and starting to put together something I wasn't sure what exactly he was doing.
"Finally some monsters to kill, right?!" I said excitedly. My eyes burned with flames of passion, I was ready for some real action!
He started laughing.
"I guess that's a no, huh?"
"Sorry buddy," he stopped what he was doing and looked at me.
"This part of the wasteland only connects Tarragon Village and the forest, it's a small walk, winds might be a little bit busy today, but we should be good," he said returning to what he was making.
Finally he brought something out of his pack.
"There," he said and cracked two pieces of metal from a shiny rock he was holding. Then he put the rock into some sort of device.
"Well, I'm a little disappointed, usually by now in an RPG you fight a monster or two,"
He looked at me confused.
"What's an RPG?" he asked bewildered.
"Uh-It's like an uh- it's a game!" i said trying to get my thoughts together.
"This is not a game," he said. "This is real life," he stood and handed me a device.
"What's this?" I asked.
"That's going to prevent you from dying in the wasteland," he put the device in his mouth and crunched on it, from the device a bubble formed around his face and solidified, it made a helmet around him.
"Holy shit!" I exclaimed.
"I know right," he said muffled through the newly formed glass around him.
Quickly - I took my human form, in the blink of a hop.
I put another device that he handed me - in my mouth too and crunched on it like he did.
Promptly the bubble formed around me.
"This was so cool! I have so many questions," I said mumbling like I was underwater.
Wait - did I actually need one of these as well?
"I know, I'll answer them later, although I'm not a technaut," he said, putting on his pack around him, then he took my hand.
"I can't visit the archive," he said and then started running towards the wall. For such a big man he ran fast.
We crashed into the wall, but we went through.
Instantly, a fast wind unlike anything I'd ever felt before hit us from under our feet, we flew for a second and then finally landed.
Dragan landed on two feet, almost like a superhero.
Me?
I started flailing, my weak body pushed against the winds like it was nothing. I was flailing like a kite.
Thank god he had grabbed my hand or I would have gone flying.
"I didn't know this was gonna happen," he shouted, still holding on to me. The winds only seemed to intensify.
I felt like I was slipping and could fly away at any moment.
"THIS IS NOT OKAY!" I shouted. "What kind of weird planet is this!?" Suddenly as if the gods heard me, sand carried by a windstorm started forming around me.
Even with the helmet on, I couldn't breathe.
I was asphyxiating.
"What the hell is happening?!" I shouted, my voice was filled with instant despair.
Dragan planted his feet and held me tight with both hands.
The winds carried sand, and the sand was getting inside of my body.
Then I understood, I could feel my skin turning blue, the sand was drying me out.
My whole body was drying up because of the winds, the sand, and the impaling sun above us.
No more shade from the trees.
No more protection from the force field.
I didn't know what to do, it felt like reverse drowning.
Then I had a brilliant idea. I had no better choice.
I turned into a slime, the helmet flew of with great uproar. Then, I separated my body filled with sand, it didn't hurt - like a lizard pruning its tale.
Then I ran through in circles, through Dragan's arm, through his neck, and squished my way through to his helmet, between the small opening in his neck and the skin, through the small air gaps. I passed through,
I had to recompose my body to a molecular level to get through the small opening, just a small amount of me got through.
I took the form of slime as my cells grouped back together.
I was tiny, just enough to form bubbles.
I let out a sigh of relief, I was fine here - for now.
"That was close -" I said, Dragan's face was huge, I could see his pores, and the muck and grime all around him, I was almost at a molecular level.
"Little one, Cronus almighty, you made it!" he let out a sigh of relief. It was clear that he had suppressed some kind of anxiety. His tears started streaming down like waterfalls.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know, no one reminded me of this part!" he said.
The water washed down on me like a torrent. However it started making my body grow larger.
In a moment I was about the size of a golf ball. My body started turning white.
Oh right - tears are salty.
I remembered something he had mentioned.
Whenever you are unbound to a spirit of Zomearon you lose all memories with them, he couldn't have known. He couldn't have known the sand would be my mortal enemy.
"Hey, hey, hey," I said shushing him down. His tears ran down his face, I flew to them and started wiping them by caressing his face with my whole body.
>Notice.
>New Skill Acquired.
>Regeneration
Suddenly the words inside my head.
Dragan was too busy sobbing to hear them.
He was still crying like a little kid.
His tears entered me and reconfigured me, his tears became me.
"Woah," I said, I scooped even more of his tears and made myself bigger.
When he finished, I was a little bit chunkier than before.
Now about the size of a tennis ball.
"That was a close one!" I sat between the awkward silence, and he sniffled.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said in a weak voice.
"You couldn't have known," I said. "Please, don't worry about it."
In a moment he was back to his old self. I hugged his cheek and comforted him.
The winds calmed down - like his cries had calmed the air arround us.
Now the wasteland was quiet and warm. The desert spanned all the way through the horizon.
It was just a little bit of bad luck is all.