Chapter Four

Felix was dizzy. His eyes felt glued shut, sucked into a vacuum of fatigue. The ground swirled underneath him, and his eyelids burned as light tried to force itself past them. He slowly took stock of his extremities, mentally feeling out the bizarre bends of his joints. Sharp bits of… things dug into his skin. He felt as if he had been dropped from the sky. His hand twitched somewhere near his head; his palm was brushing against incredibly coarse ground. Confusion registered in his swirling mind. This was not the feel of the wooded stage in the auditorium. He wanted desperately to open his eyes, to see where he was, but he was so tired.

A groan came from next to him. Shuffling. A scream. 

Felix’s eyes snapped open and were immediately assaulted by piercing light. His body had no energy to flinch. Through squinted eyes, hardly even open to filter as much light out as possible, a shadowy figure flailed across his line of sight. After a moment, it cried out,

“What the f**k is happening?!”

Then, it lowered its head - and noticed Felix. And Felix would recognize that whiny cry from anywhere.

It was Simon.

“Augh, what are you doing here?” Simon sneered, taking a step toward Felix and peering down in disgust. Felix hated the word ‘sneer’, but it was the only word that could properly describe Simon’s awfully annoying way of talking down to people. Of all the people to be stuck with - as far as Felix could tell, they were stuck somewhere - Simon was one of the worst possibilities.

Felix mustered every ounce of spiteful energy he could to sit up and close some of the distance between them. He didn’t want to encourage Simon on a power trip, especially in a situation where he already seemed lost. 

“Oh, I thought the omnipotent Simon would know what was going on by now.” Felix huffed. Not wanting to dedicate any more of his time to looking at Simon’s irritating face, he tried to examine his surroundings. The sun beat down from slightly off-centre in a bright blue sky that faded to white at the edges. He looked out to the horizon, only to see vast stretches of nothing. As he looked around a little more, his surroundings started to move. Everything was slowly swaying around him, even the ground. But it felt too real to be all in his head.

Felix looked down at his hands and saw them planted firmly in… sand. The coarse grains pulsated under his palms, as if they were moving as one. The gentle rise and fall of the sand cradled Felix’s stare as he paused. He had never been here before, yet it felt familiar. There was no way it was conceivable, but he thought he knew where they were. A bolt of excitement shot through him. It was so impossible, yet so right.

“Listen here, geek salad, I’m not going to stand here and just-”, Simon started. But Felix was so intoxicated by this new excitement that he was not having it.

“Shut up.” he said, not even looking in Simon’s direction. Instead his eyes darted around, hungrily taking in everything he could about his barren surroundings. At this point it was certain; he wasn’t dizzy, and he wasn’t hallucinating. He was sitting on moving ground, gently rising and falling under the scorching sun of the Black Spot Desert.

He was in the Geonexus.

Simon looked at him with pure astonishment, as if he couldn’t fathom that someone like Felix would tell him to “shut up”. Even in this moment, where Felix’s wildest dreams were finally coming true, all he ended up being able to think about was socking Simon in his smug face. He desperately needed for this to not be ruined.

Felix raised a hand to silence Simon as he stood. His body trembled slightly, still unused to the swaying of the sand beneath him. Simon seemed unperturbed by the constant motion - although he was, evidently, incredibly perturbed by everything else about this situation. Felix allowed himself a small glance to savour the sour expression on Simon’s face. Then he turned to face the vast expanse of crashing sand waves that unfolded in front of him. His limbs prickled with excitement, eager to run off and begin to explore every inch of the world that he was actually in after years of playing in it. The possibilities swirled through his head as he stood entranced under the blazing sun.

“Um, excuse me”, came Simon’s grating voice, interrupting Felix’s euphoria, “I think you owe me an explanation.”

“Well, excuse me”, Felix snapped. “But this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I will not have you ruin it.”

“Maybe if you told me where the heck we are-”

“We’re in the freaking Geonexus, okay! We are in the world of my dreams, and I can't believe that of all the people in the world I could be here with, I'm stuck with the one person who is guaranteed to ruin it."

Felix was surprised to see that Simon looked genuinely offended by what he said. He watched the emotions cross Simon’s face for a few moments. Then, Simon’s focus seemed to change. He pointed to something past Felix’s shoulder.

“Look!”

Something in Simon’s voice made Felix trust him enough to turn around. Most of what he could see was sand - they must be somewhere in the centre of the desert - but there, about ten metres away, was a pile of gleaming equipment. Felix could see a helmet, a staff, some boots; there was no way that this wasn’t meant for them. If the two of them were going to survive, they needed those things. Felix took a step forward - 

The ground lurched underneath him. He hadn’t spent much time in the Black Spot Desert in his years as a player in the Geonexus, but from nearly memorizing the handbook, he knew what this was. The ground was becoming restless. They were about to be struck by a massive wave of sand.

The ground rose higher, fell lower. The wicked whips of the waves nearly knocked them off their feet. As the intensity of the rolling sand increased, so did Felix’s heartbeat. He lurched into action, scrambling to pick up the slowly scattering pieces of equipment - a gauntlet here, a scabbard there, and - oh wow, my shield!

Felix’s fingers brushed the shield as he reached for it, but his arms were too full. As it rolled away, he dropped to his knees and called out in front of him:

“Simon, pick up the rest of the stuff, as much as you can, and then get to the ground! We’re about to be hit by a huge wave of sand, and this is all we have!”

That seemed like enough of an explanation for Simon in a moment like this; by now, the sand was roiling underneath them, hungrily. Simon played goalie with the bits of metal and leather that tried to tumble past him. Felix noticed for the first time that Simon clashed and clanged as he moved. He was wearing pieces of armour. But Simon was soon wrenched from his view as the waves lurched ever closer to devouring them.

“Simon!” he screamed into the air. “You need to get down!”

Suddenly, the waves fell. The boys were in sight of one another once again. Simon was sitting on his heels, hunched over an armful of things that were hopefully worth the hassle to have fought for them. Felix could see Simon open up his mouth, but he shook his head. This was not over.

The sand started to pull back beneath them, like some horrific backwards rollercoaster incline, pooling toward the enormous wave that Felix knew would soon engulf him from behind. He did not have to turn around to know what was coming - nor did he want to.

Just as the rushing of the sand flooded his ears, and he prepared for impact, a shadow flitted across his vision. There, skittering down the waves once again - 

My shield!

Panic flooded Felix’s veins. The wave was roaring up behind him, a monstrous mound of sand and fear. And the shield was headed just within Simon’s reach. He saw it a moment after Felix did. They locked eyes. Simon must have seen something in Felix’s face that let him know just how important this shield was. Perhaps he saw the fear of death reflected in his pale cheeks. Without Felix saying a word, Simon reached for the shield. He stretched his fingers as far as they would go, closer and closer, so very slowly. His fingers brushed the edge - 

Crrrrrrrrrashhhhhhhhh.

Suddenly, Felix was whirling, reeling, pushed and pulled upside down and inside out by what felt like a glass tornado. For the second time in fifteen minutes, he swirled in a current so wild that he felt as if it was tearing him from his body. He held on desperately to the contents of his arms, curled into a tight ball to protect his mouth and nose from the sand.

Felix felt slight surprise at the realization that, as he tumbled through the waves, his mind felt comfortable enough to wander. He wondered what kinds of things might be under the sand in this area. He thought about how fast he was moving, and where the sand might carry him. He wondered if Simon would be okay.

That idiot better have the rest of our stuff.

It felt like it had been hours before Felix was carried in a direction that felt like up. The current began to slowly settle. Felix stretched out his legs and kicked, in hopes that it would help him break the surface faster.

I am swimming in sand right now. Felix thought. He would have laughed if that didn’t mean a mouthful of sand.

The current pressed around him, moving faster and faster, until -

“Ahhhhhghughughlgughglhhh!” Felix let in a huge breath of air and immediately choked. He supposed he hadn’t been as careful about breathing in sand as he thought.

Once his coughing fit was over, he wriggled back onto the surface and let the items fall from his arms. He lay on his back against the gentle waves, ones that hopefully would not betray him for a while longer. After a few seconds, he sat back up and began to take stock of what he had managed to snatch. A pair of thick gloves - meant for Simon, since with his armour he was likely a Crusader class - some small pouches meant for holding small bottles or coins, and…

Felix smacked his hand to his forehead. Sitting right there, it had been in his arms the whole time, was a bag. He piled in everything he had held, except for one thing: a small stick, decorated with ornate detailings, that looked very familiar. Just above the center of the stick was a red jewel, set into the rod with a frame of silver flourishes. Felix pressed the jewel, and the rod sprung out into a staff. He was right - it was the same staff that he designed for his Geonexus character.

Then… does that make me him? Am I Lothwren?

Felix’s musings were interrupted by a slew of cries and curses. He whirled around to see Simon, still sputtering and writhing his way above the sand. Without a thought, he rushed to help. Gripping the pauldrons on Simon’s shoulders, he dug his heels into the sand and pulled. Simon continued to make unintelligible noises as he wriggled.

“Would you please shut up, I’m trying to - “

All at once, the force of the pull was enough to send Simon flying up from the sand, the contents of his arms spilling, landing squarely chest to chest with Felix. Neither of them spoke for a moment, their faces inches from one another. Felix felt, strangely, as if he was getting warmer. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do. Thankfully, after a few seconds, Simon moved. He sat next to Felix, gathering back up some of the items that had fallen.

“You helped me.” he said. Felix sat up and turned his head away.

“I guess I did.”

“I didn’t think you would. Not for me.”

Felix got up and started to pick up the rest of the fallen items, leaving his staff in his hand. His bag seemed to be able to hold more than it should, but the storage didn’t feel endless. They would need to find some time soon to equip what they could on themselves.

“Are we… are we good now? Since you helped me?” Simon asked. Felix had never heard his voice this careful. He didn’t want to make a bigger enemy out of the person he was stuck with for the foreseeable future, but he also couldn’t forgive him entirely yet.

“Where’s my shield? Did you get it?” he asked. Simon’s face fell a little.

“Okay, so you owe me. We’re going to find it. If everything is happening how I think it is, I need that thing desperately if we’re going to survive.”

“You think you know?” Simon asked. Felix nodded tentatively.

“I think that we’re meant to represent our characters. You know, the ones we played as at school? So I’m Lothwren, the mage, and that’s why I have my staff. And you’re, ah - “

“Ero.”

“Right, Ero, the crusader. Which means, until I get my shield, you’re my protection. Mages aren’t built to withstand a lot of damage.”

Simon’s face was hard to read, but Felix thought that it looked like a mix of fear, confusion, and more fear.

This is what you get for wanting to be a hero.

“So, where do you think the shield is?” Simon asked. Felix sat back down.

“I don’t think. I know. There’s a reason why this place is called the Black Spot Desert: in the center, where every wave travels to, is a huge sort of cavity. Everything that gets swept away ends up there. So that’s where the shield will end up. Now, to get to the Black Spot, we are definitely going to need a boat. There are weird people in every corner of this world, but this place has some of the craziest; there’s a constant rivalry between a group of pirates and a gang of cowboys. If we’re lucky, we’ll find some pirates soon enough. Pirates love magic, so hopefully they’ll let us join them in exchange for some tricks. We’ll join up with them, and then make a plan to - “

Felix paused. Simon was staring at him, mouth slightly agape. Felix could see a struggle for words play out on the twitch of his lips.

“What?” Felix snapped.

“God, you really are such a nerd.” Simon whispered. Felix knocked his staff against Simon’s forehead. They had been sitting around for too long already.

“Come on, Ero. Let’s go find a stupid boat.”

Felix stood up, shouldered his bag, and took his first steps toward the beautiful horizon of home.