Equorum Arere

A journey across an eerie and utter alien landscape in search of water.

     Far off towards a dead veld horizon, where the landscape seems to scratch the purple face of God, a long dust cloud resembling a red/brown serpent emanated from a lost soul on the hoof. A damned pilgrim on a journey through obliteration and sand.

     Nat stopped to catch her breath. After what seemed a very long time, she was done running. Standing just below the rim of a razorback chain of red craggy hills, ‘This was a strange place.’ she thought. These and two other ranges behind her had sheets of crystal sticking up and out of them. ‘There was some kind of pattern to these small ranges.’ Nat was thinking as she looked over her right shoulder for any sign of her crew. This land gave her the creeps.

      Any signs of life at all would be welcome right now. She had never been afraid of being alone before but that’s because she never really was. This place was for the dead, it seemed. She gazed over the rim and across the wind swept valley to the other side. Nothing. Nat waited. She slowed her respiration and heart rate. All she could hear was her own blood roaring in her ears. A small breeze played with dust below where she stood raising a scent of nothing. It was the smell of sterile dirt. ‘There was never life here.’ she thought. ‘The others were wrong. We should have never come here.’ Nat crested the hill after a while and moved down into the valley.

       It had been four days since she had any water. That was when the harras decided to split up and look for another source. They had been living by a small river originally but over a short period of time the river had dried up. Nat looked into the purple sky as she made her way across the small round valley and wished for a good back washing rain. It had been such a long time and the very thought of it made her feel all the more drier. She quickened her trot to take her mind off it for awhile.

      Once across the valley floor she noticed another disturbing rock formation. She wondered if the others had seen them as well. There were unnaturally spaced depressions in large groups and almost always with the strange sheets of crystal. The wind made sad howling sounds as it whipped through the alien ruins. She didn’t like this place. Nat broke into a running climb and left the weird valley behind her. Black hooves pounding red brown dirt without a sound. 

This time she didn’t look back.