Bab 17: Scars and Wounds

True to its name, the Barren Desert was a land of wasteland.

Far and wide, Xuma couldn't sight a single living creature. The ground was dry, made hard by years of extreme summer and winter. There were no cracks on its rouge surface. Crimson as blood, it felt smooth to the touch.

However, this trait was a mere deception.

With every step she took, Xuma left a trail of blood behind her. A spiking pain, akin to a thousand needles pricking her skin, overwhelmed her senses. Involuntarily, a whimper escaped her lips.

"Ahh!"

Her legs shook and she fell forward. Xuma instinctively put out her hands to cushion her fall. The act sent another, more inhumane agony pricking her palms and shooting up her arms.

"Rotten Empire, and their rotten landscape!" She cursed and struggled back to her feet. Blood dripped from her hands. Though she had only fallen for a few heartbeats, it was enough for the frost to tear her skin and invade her blood.

In a matter of a few breaths, her hands had become the color of the blue moon.

'Too delicate' She thought, 'I need to become stronger, or else…'

Only Erlan knew what would become of her in this empire of cold-blooded men.

Gritting her teeth, Xuma ignored the agony from her feet and pushed forward. After her escape, no noble or Slave Trainer pursued her. This was the reason she ran into the desert.

To escape death. To escape the rule of the Stone Empire.

Once she escaped to this region, the empire would deem her dead, freeing her from the bonds of slavery.

Because like her, they knew the characteristics of this land. There were no living creatures. No water sources.

In simple words, anyone who set foot in this desert would not live to tell the tale.

However, unlike them, she was reborn.

She had the advantage of her previous life's memories.

Two years after Emperor Ghazeyh took the throne, an oasis was discovered in the depths of the desert. Away from human civilization. Far from the ferocious beasts of the wild.

In the middle of nowhere, a small tribe composed of illiterate men and women thrived around the oasis. Though small, the oasis provided them with enough water to meet their daily necessity. And if fate willed, Xuma would become one of them.

She had no power in the empire. No connections to utilize to free herself and the thousands of slaves. She didn't want to walk in her previous footsteps. Though the concubine of the Emperor, she had felt no better than a prostitute at that time.

To free herself and carry out her revenge, she had used her body, which led her to her unfortunate end.

The desert people had no concept of power. They lived in freedom, going about their lives without greed for wealth. They didn't have access to books or literary scripts.

But Xuma had confidence in herself.

As long as she made it there alive, she would find a way to acquire the knowledge she needed about the Stone Empire.

The trek seemed to go on forever.

Once or twice, she fell on her hands, leaving behind pieces of flesh as she yanked her hands and pushed to her feet. Her eyes watered from the pain, but after a while, nothing as sweet as tears deigned to slip from her dry eyes.

Her throat burned. Thirst and chill ushering in a body aching cold. Before long, every single inch of her body either ached, bled, or burned.

Xuma knew her condition wasn't good. Cold, hunger, and exhaustion were taking their toil on her. She needed rest. She needed food. Most of all, she needed a warm shelter.

However, she couldn't stop. Not now. Not here.

Stranded in the middle of nowhere, if she allowed herself to stop, she would succumb to death. She had no one to fetch her corpse. And though she didn't care if her body decomposed and returned to the elements, she…she did not want to die.

So for a chance at life. For a chance at freedom.

For a chance to change her fate, she dragged her battered body through the wasteland, continuously falling and rising back up like a walking dead.

She had no destination. No exact direction to follow.

'The depth of the desert.' That was her only goal.

To get to the depths.

If her luck turned out to be good, she might just reach her destination. If not…this wasteland would become her grave.

"Huu…huuu…the depth…"

Her head felt funny. It was light and airy, filling her with the sense of floating. The world spun, and she couldn't tell if it was her vision blurring, or her falling.

Her mind was too muddled. The hunger, the exhaustion, and the illness catching up to her.

By this point, she couldn't even remember why she was pushing herself so hard. Only the insistent urge to keep going, to never stop, had her feet shuffling forward.

"The dep…"

Lifting another foot, Xuma stepped forward. The ground seemed to rush to meet her, as her face met the crimson concrete with a resounding crash.

A strangled rasp escaped her lips. In state of delirium, she seemed to hear the sound of footsteps rushing towards her. But she couldn't be sure. As her consciousness began to fade, an eerily familiar voice echoed in her ears.

"Hurry and help her!"

He...

Her eyes flung open as shock and disbelief pumped her heart. A dark silhouette on a blue horse loomed above her. Xuma squinted her eyes and tried to focus on the features of the man.

The winter sun shone behind him, shrouding him in shadow. However, that familiar silhouette...

'No, it couldn't be him!'

This thought seared her mind with vehement denial, before the pain and exhaustion forced her to sink into the comfort of darkness.