Creatures Of Sonaria: Sands Of Time

Part 7: Fire

       Dune woke up the next morning to the smell of damp grass and morning dew. The dirt around the pond had softened, so Dune and Arche were barely sinking in the squishy mud. Arche...

       She looked over her shoulder to see Arche laying close next to her. Her warm scales radiated heat, but maybe that's just something scientific and not something only SandSwept Knarlikies can do. Arche's tail was entangled around hers, his spikes brushing against her spikes. One of his talons was wrapped around her elbow. 

       I guess he really did love me, Dune thought while she carefully detangled herself from him. Mud stuck to her rough scales. But do I really mean it? Or did I just say it because I didn't want him to be heartbroken? It's only been two days and I haven't even sorted out my feelings for him. Maybe I just like him as a friend but I just feel like it's more than that.

       She scraped a clump of mud from between her toes. She hated water, but she hated mud even less. Dune stepped carefully into the foggy, green water carefully, stepping around a bit until she found a spot where she wouldn't sink in deeper. Dune began to wash the mud off from her scales, digging her claws under her scales and scraping out the dried mud in between.

       Dune was just about finished when she heard Arche shout, "DUNE!" Not a heartbeat later did she feel claws grab her tail and pull her out of the water with brute force. Dune was hurled into Arche, and they both stumbled back and onto the itchy grass.

       "What is all the sands was that for?" Dune shouted, thumping him in the chest and standing back up. Arche grunted and pointed at the water. 

       A nymphasuchas was poking it's head above water, it's green moss soaking up the droplets. It's eyes stared hungrily at Dune and Arche before going back underwater to wait for something else to come by. She didn't notice there were other nymphasuchases until they went under along with the first one. 

       Arche coughed. "So where's my big 'Hooray, thank you oh so much for saving me!'?" He asked, growing a smirk and brushing his tail across the grass. 

       "Thank you, Arche." Dune said sarcastically. 

       "Well that wasn't as enthusiastic as I wanted it to be," Arche muttered.

       "Didn't have to be, now stop complaining." Dune sniffed the air. She could smell the gross, swamp water of the Murky Lands. That's where she was going next. "Come on, we need to get going. Gher's probably close to releasing the Sar'Hingaro, and we need to hurry." Dune didn't wait for Arche to get ready. 

       Unless they wanted to swim for hours, they had to go through the Ancient Lake territory to get to the Murky Lands. Dune really hoped that Indigo's herd had migrated along so she didn't have to conversate with him. But a small part of her did, just in case the herd did see Gher.

       They forwarded under the large arched mountain. Dune wondered how the mountain had taken that shape. She could have sworn there were some caves up there, but she was so far down that it was impossible to tell. 

       Many hours passed as they journeyed closer to the Ancient Lake. When they were just about to turn, before they could see a shine of the glowing water, a loud roar bellowed, not far from them either. Arche jumped, and Dune got into a fighting stance.

       "Dune," Arche said, coming closer to her. "Do you smell... fire?"

       Dune sniffed the air. Arche was right. There was a really clear aroma of smoke and burning flesh. She looked up to see a cloud of grey and small glowing sparks. Dune wanted to know what it was, so she started toward the source.