Xtreme Saga - Book One: The War for Rig

Chapter 8 - Strangers in the Desert

One of the worst things about the entire experience for her was the knowledge that she didn't have to be physically uncomfortable. Orb explained to her that her battle armor had the ability to regulate her body temperature. If the area was hot, her armor could cool her. If the area was cool, her armor could keep her warm. But this was always at the expense of her Ga energy. Activating her armor required Ga. Whether she was fighting or just walking around, if her armor was active, Ga was being expended. Gaia had increased the amount of Ga she could store by a great amount, but that didn't change the fact that it had its limits.

As the heat continued to wear her down, Mera wanted to use her armor to herself more and more. Nevertheless, she wouldn't allow succumb to her desires. She knew it was a waste of Ga energy. At any time, something could happen. She could be attacked or trapped by something and need her Ga to deal with the situation. To risk not having the necessary amount of energy because she wasted it in a situation that wasn't life or death was a risk she wasn't willing to take. She never wanted to end up in a scenario like the ambush in Pylon City again. She knew she couldn't rely of a goddess to rescue her every time things went wrong. So, she suffered through the heat with nothing more than the cloak Gaia had given her.

When she was hungry, she had to learn how to track, hunt, and kill prey. No longer could she afford to be picky about what she ate. Birds, rodents, and reptiles all became fair game. She thought she knew what it was like to be hungry, having grown up an orphan trying to care for another orphan. There were days where she didn't get to eat. It was a hard life, but the meals they did manage to get were at least somewhat satisfying. Hunting small animals in the desert was an entirely different experience. The time and energy it took just catch something that would barely amount to a few bites was a different kind of hunger. She wasn't working to thrive. She just trying to survive.

Time in the desert is an odd thing. A few hours can feel like days and several days can feel like a few hours. The endless sand in all directions obscures any accurate sense of distance. After a few days, one loses track of how many times the sun has passed overhead without much changing. Were it not for Orb and their ability to keep perfect track of time and distance, Mera would have thought she had been walking across the sands for months. Really, she had only been traveling for about six days. That said, surviving six days in the Pylon Desert on foot certainly wasn't easy.

Orb was crucial to Mera's survival. Not only in his ability to guide her, but also in his ability to keep her company. Mera would have probably gone insane walking for six days in the desert alone. Orb was an amazing listener. They never complained, never got bored, and never felt too tired to continue on. The robot had lived for eons and had countless stories to tell. Mera had Orb teach her so many things about the past during their journey, just to keep her sane. They were also a great motivator for Mera to keep going. She wanted to quit so many times. Had she been with Adara, or any other Rigan, they probably would have felt the same, but not Orb. They never slept, never lost their way, and never tried to deviate from their goal. Only with Orb by her side could Mera ever hope to make it to the stone basin.

"Am I hallucinating?" Mera asked as she pointed at something in the distance.

"I'm picking up three lifeforms in that direction," Orb replied.

"Maybe Gaia sent us here to find them."

Mera rushed towards the unknown lifeforms without a second thought. She was ecstatic about the fact that she would get to hear someone else's voice. After all that time with just her and Orb, she didn't really care if the people she was about to encounter were friend or foe. She just wanted proof that she hadn't already died and passed on to the next plane of existence.

As she got closer to the group, she began to make out the shapes of two humanoid individuals and a massive third figure. This should have stopped her approach, but Mera was already dead set on meeting another person. By the time she realized who she had stumbled upon, it was already too late to turn back. For they had noticed her as well.