He immediately looked up and layed his eyes on the ferocious sun
'The….the sun hasn't set .'
It had been roughly fourteen hours since he had woken up here, and yet the sun was still looming in the sky.
'Has it even moved an inch in the last fourteen hours?'
Arlo suspiciously thought
To him it looked like the sun was stuck in place, like it was some sort of prisoner chained to the sky forever. Who could have done such a daunting thing?
The desert was so unnatural and weird.
This made Arlo want to get out of this desert even more, 'paradise' sounded so much better to him than this place.
It also helped him realised that in the last fourteen hours they hadn't slept one bit, which was quite weird. He felt weak and tired, but not sleepy.
'Is the unknown substance I drank a couple hours ago the reason my body is behaving like this'
Arlo pondered about it for a bit, it was the only sensible answer he could come with. From his past experiences, the liquid would heal you and give you a boost of energy, but that was all he knew about it.The substance was shrouded in mystery so he didn't really know all the benefits it granted, when you drank it.
However, all he could do for now was to continue walking until the group either stopped to take a break or until they reached 'paradise'.
After a very long time a voice loudly said
"We will take our final break here. Please rest and eat as much as you want to. The last stretch will be a long one so don't hold back on the food."
Arlo gladly stopped walking and took a deep breath in
'Finally time to eat'
Similar to their last break, the eleven of them sat in a circle whilst the two protectors sat further away from them. This time, Arlo picked up multiple pieces of bread without caring about anybody else, he was quite a greedy person.
Without a moment of hesitation he started to devour the bread. He was in fact so hungry that he didn't even chew the bread properly before swallowing. Every time he swallowed a piece of the bread, he was gambling that it wouldn't get stuck in his throat. Him dying from that would be quiet embarrassing.
Whilst he ate his bread, a memory kept popping up in his head which he had tried to deny ever since the trial began. The memory had to do with the message that had been ingrained into the tea table during the time he spent in the boundary.
'Never trust perfection'
He curiously thought
Arlo had many questions about the strange message. What exactly did it mean by "don't trust perfection"? Was the message some sort of clue or hint about the trial he was currently in or did it have nothing to do with it, and was the message written by makutu or by someone else.
'Does perfection even exist? And if it really exists, then what would it look like?'
His mind was clouded by questions that he had no answers to. As Arlo kept wondering he heard a voice
"What's your reason for being here?"
Said the women sitting next to him, it was the same person he had asked that question to.
Arlo looked at her for a couple of seconds before saying
"Uh..my reason?"
Arlo actually didn't have to say anything because this was a trial created by makutu, so the person he was currently having a conversation with was most likely not real. However, if he answered her question, he could keep the conversation going and possibly find out more about this desert that they were traversing and more importantly about 'paradise'. Understanding what 'paradise' exactly is might help him to know his purpose in this trial.
He had to keep his answer quite short and vague or else she might start asking him more questions which would not help him in the slightest.
He lingered for a moment, then said
"The reason I'm here is because I'm a devoted follower"
His answer had come from all the knowledge he had gathered about this trial. It was also the best answer he could come up with in such a short time. Being called a follower many times made Arlo believe that everyone in the group was a religious person, so him saying he was a very religious person as his answer wasn't suspicious at all and was also quite vague.
He looked at her for sometime and then with a curious tone he said
"So…do you know anything about this desert? It seems very creep to me"
She spared him a look before turning her head to look at the vast empty desert.
"No not much as this desert is very mysterious. You might have already noticed but the sun hasn't set."
She then turned her head to look at the sun for a couple seconds, before looking directly at him
"I don't know the exact details but from what I've heard. A long time ago the sun did something which made somebody mad, as a result it was chained to the sky."
What kind of person could imprison the sun to the sky? Arlo was really creeped out by the fact that something so strong had really existed. But that also made him wonder what the sun had done to deserve such a cruel punishment.
Looking at the sun, he asked her
"How long will it be chained up there"
She hesitated for a bit
"I don't really know, maybe a couple thousand years more or maybe for as long as it lives"
Her answered satisfied his question, but then another question popped into his head
"Do you think their is a way to free the sun from the chains that keep it stuck in the sky?"
She thought for quiet a long time, his question had made her think quite a lot.
After some time she sighed and said
"I don't really know the answer to your question, sorry."
He looked at her, then with a smile he said
"Don't worry about it, you have been a big help. I apologise if you have said this before, but could I know your name?"
He should have asked her name much sooner but with everything that was going on he forgot to, it was a stupid blunder on Arlo's part.
A small smile appeared on her face
"My name is Sasha"
He looked at her for a moment
"Nice to meet you Sasha, I'm Arlo"
The conversation died down after that, Arlo didn't know what else to say to keep the conversation going, so they both sat their in silence. Luckily it wasn't for too long, as a man stood up and asked everyone to pack up because they would start walking again.
With a sigh, Arlo stood up and brushed the sand off his clothes, then when everybody was ready he started walking along with them.
Now that he knew this long stretch will mean they would reach 'paradise' it got him thinking of what it would look like
'Something holy, so it will probably be a temple or a sculpture of the sacred being'
The more Arlo pondered about it, the more he actually wanted to know what 'paradise' looked like. He kept on guessing its real appearance, but without any information about 'paradise' he felt every answer he was coming up with was wrong.
Arlo was getting frustrated with himself, but he wanted answers. So he started to walk faster until he reached Sasha, they both walked side by side in silence for a while untill Arlo curiously said
"Sasha, do you know what this 'paradise' looks like?"
She was silent for a couple seconds, then she looked up at him
"I don't know much about it because of how difficult the journey is to get their, but from what I've heard 'paradise' has lots of tall trees surrounding it and if you go their with ill intent, then something from the trees will come out and kill you."
Arlo was completely dumbfounded
'It has tall trees? So it's some kind of place and it also has a protector to keep it safe. Now I have even more questions about it.'
Sasha's answer had puzzled him even more.
Well their was no reason to keep getting frustrated over it as they were going to reach 'paradise' soon anyway.
When they do reach 'paradise' Arlo was going to judge it himself and come up with an answer. Till then he was going to continue walking in peace.
Well that was the plan, but he couldn't help himself
"Sasha you don't have to answer my question, but is their a reason as to why you get scared when someone mentions that paradise is close?'
Sasha didn't answer his question, she kept on walking in silence. However a while later she really quietly - as if she didn't want anyone else to hear - said
"I'm not that much of a devoted follower"
Arlo was taken back, it was a interesting answer, something he hadn't consider. From the look of it she was quite scared and sad at the same time. He wanted to console her in a way, so after a couple moment passed he said
"I said I was a devoted follower, but I'm not as devoted as you might think, so their is no need to be scared, we are in the same boat. I will lend you an ear whenever something is worrying you Sasha."
Her facial expression changed to something a bit more relaxed
She softly said
"Thank you"
They both continued to walk side by side for many hours in silence. The silence felt comfortable and not awkward in any way.
This silence lasted a long time untill a man in front of them yelled
"I see paradise"
Arlo immediately focused his vision to see what was ahead of him, currently all he could see was a vast desert and a horizontal green line.
'Those must be the tall trees'
He glanced at Sasha, who had fear written all over her face and was shaking extensively, her behaviour alerted Arlo.
'There has to be something wrong with 'paradise' or else she wouldn't be this scared.'
It felt like she was going to have a meltdown at any moment
"Sasha if anything is worrying you, don't be afraid to tell me"
She glanced at him, then she showed him a faint smile
"It's nothing"
With that she kept on walking, Arlo wanted to help her calm down but it looked like he wouldn't be able to.
They walked for about 2 more hours, every minute they walked the green line started to get more clearer. The line started to take form of trees, those trees started to show it's branches.
They stopped at about 200 meters away from the tall green trees, their seemed to be thousands upon thousands of trees. The trees looked like a barrier which stretched for miles, on either side.
Arlo took a massive breath in and then calmly exhaled
They had finally reached 'paradise'