Linus Toria

Chapter 1

Lina was bored. The sun was shining too brightly, she was sick of all the sand coating every pore on her body and the hot wind was hitting her like a whip. What she wouldn't give for a bath or just a shower at the moment.

Glaring accusingly at a cloudless sky, she huffed in displeasure. Overall she felt like a whiny fledgling today. She also couldn't remember the last time she had a pleasant talk with another living being without the conversation ending violently.

While she liked to think that it was always the other party's fault, she knew that wasn't the whole truth. Her bland and unwavering stare tended to creep people out and make them more aggressive towards her than they were usually. She had considered changing her ways but it was simply to bothersome. Leaving her with no company at all.

She continued her lonely treck through the desert and felt a little frustrated. To avoid exhaustion as long as possible she held a slow and steady pace. Giving her the illusion that she was barely moving from her spot. Sure, she could move faster but then she would have to take more breaks without anybody to chat with.

Lina loathed travelling alone as she had nobody to distract her from gory thoughts and memories and had a hard time staying rooted in the present. Therefore she would welcome almost everybody as a travelling companion. But only if they were trustworthy and wouldn't ask too many questions about herself. Tough requirements for times like these. Lina wouldn't put it beyond some people she had met in the past few years to sell out their closest friends and relatives just to survive one more day.

Her aching feet made her all too aware of the distance she had already covered that day. It didn't cease to amaze her as walking was all she had done since the end of the Great War. Which she calculated was now 29 years ago. A longer timespan than most got to spend on this wretched planet nowadays. With almost all creatures being armed in one way or another and used to violence as a daily occurrence, life expactancy was lower than ever.

Looking down at her combat boots, she marvelled at their sand-brown colour compared to the black they used to have when traded for informtion concerning the best travelling routes. Lina would love to relieve her feet by soaring through the skies instead of walking. But ever since dragons, griffons and other airborne creatures had claimed the air as theirs alone, nobody dared to challenge them about it. They were vain, territorial and had zero tolerance for any race but their own. Lina couldn't be bothered to start a quarrel over practically nothing so she kept walking.

Contemplating all her life choices that led her up to this point, she couldn't help but hate the african desert a little as it was always so dry and dusty and desolate and ... Okay, who was she kidding, compared to the seemingly endless ruins that used to be cities at one point in the history of the world, she loved the desert. More like the whole african continent as it wasn't as densely populated as Europe or Asia. Soon, she would leave Africa behind her and touch Russian ground for the first time in five years. In about two weeks she would reach the Bosporus and after that head towards Europe.

Sometimes she wondered why everybody kept using the old names for continents, countries and cities from before the war. They were obsolete and unhelpful as nothing was as it used to be. Plus, they contained zero information. Information which might be necessary for survival.

The Bosporus was the best example: while it was the only sea gate untouched by the war, a massive basilisk had taken up residence over there. And that overly large reptil with a fickle mind had made it its life goal to harass travelers. Only by offering up shiny valuables that caught the basilisk's interest, would one be granted passage. And even then said travellers had to hope that the beast didn't change its mind while still in sight.

Therefore, a name like "Bipolar Basilisk's Residence" instead of Bosporus would be more fitting. Lina had to admit that she didn't have the best naming sense. But she was sure that the human race would be able to come up with a great moniker as they had again and again proven how resourceful and ingenious they could be.

At the beginning of the war every supernatural race was sure that it was only a matter of weeks until humanity would cease to exist. Imagine their surprise, when they were suddenly assaulted by new artificial war machines in human form. They were called Homunculi and posed a real threat to everything they were ordered to attack.

Yet, all that musing did nothing to improve her current situation. The sun was low enough to start searching for a suitable place to spend the night. She was hoping for a place sheltered from wind and weather. Maybe an oasis if she got lucky.

Scanning her surroundings she saw nothing but sand and dunes and more sand leaving her unsatisfied. Since that didn't lead to her desired result, Lina untangeld her white scarf from her head and her blonde, almost white hair and freed her ears. Ever since her eye sight had deteriorated, her hearing had increased immensely. Lina wasn't exactly blind, yet compared to her normal ability she might as well be as most humans could see better than her.

Closing her eyes to focus on her best sense, she took in what she could perceive. Some sounds were very faint, some more distinct and above all the raging wind. From below clanking noises reached her ears which she accounted to mining dwarfes. A few hyenas were crying in the far distance in the southeast agitating some neighing zebras. At this distance it was impossible to tell wether they were shifters or just normal animals. In the opposite direction in about 80 kilometers groundhornbills were indulging in territorial fights.

That was actually strange since, according to her information, a shifter settlement should be located there. And shifters were, like most supernatural creatures, notorious for their terretorial behaviour. So they would never allow any other creature to stake a claim on their land. Not even birds. Had they moved?

She contemplated investigating the matter but decided against it because shifter were a proud people and would never tolerate an outsider on their land. And they were at least 20 km away and would take quite some time and effort to reach. Besides, past experiences had taught her not to meddle in the affairs of others. Not unless they asked her to. Or they tried to provocate a new war.

Then she would make it her personal mission to wipe them off the earth. She could already picture the death she would grant them. Slow. Torturous. Agonizing. Maybe she was a bit of a sadist she thought with a shrug. But who could blame her? After all she had fought enough wars to last her for a lifetime. And when she talked about a lifetime she meant a really long time.

Lina could also make out the group that had been following her all the way since she crossed the ruins of Johannesburg. Which was quite the distance considering she was now in Egypt. Sometimes the distance between them measured up to only 500 meters and sometimes they were several kilometers away, but they had yet to leave her completly alone. Today there were about 2000 meters between them.

Lina didn't mind them as long as they didn't hurt her. Not that she believed them to be able to even if they tried. Scrunching up her brows in confusion she went over their group again. But the result remained the same: they were one member short. She hadn't pecked them the type to leave a companion behind. Just in case they wanted to ambush her now after all this time, she looked around once again but still; she wasn't able to locate the missing member.

The next thing she noticed, was the magic array they were standing in. It seemed to be inactive but with these things you could never be careful enough. Lina's curiosity was piqued. Even if she hadn't seen them up close she had considered them to be quite skillful. So how had they missed the danger they were in? If the magic array got activated, hell would break loose. She didn't want to be in the vicinity when that happened.

Lina made up her mind to warn them. Redundant actions like that usually went against her lazy nature but she had been bored anyways and it was always useful to have others own her a favour. Reattaching the scarf to her head, she started trotting towards them.

Her first instinct was to sneak up on them but she refrained. They probably wouldn't be thrilled to her suddenly appearing in their midst out of nowhere.