Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

A Draken Rising; Part 11

“Rafael, how did you find the oasis?” Ellius questioned softly.

Rafael looked down at the ground, “It is a long story Ellius, and a strange one. Sometimes I do not believe it myself.”

“We have time, tell it to me.”

“Alright. I was ten years old at the time, and I had given up on everything. I wanted to get away from Caligo, I craved death, if death was the only escape. At the time, it seemed that way.

I took a satchel of gold with me to Levis, and purchased a good, strong, horse there. Then I simply pointed myself Southward, and took off. I took nothing with me, no food, water, nothing at all. I continued onward until the horse was stumbling from thirst, and I myself was feeling ill. I stopped the horse, and dismounted, before collapsing to the ground. I do not know how long I laid there, a few moments, maybe hours, but I simply laid there.

Then I heard something, the sound of trickling water. I crawled towards the sound, and fell into a deep pool of cool refreshing water. Once I quenched my thirst, I looked around me; only moments before there had been nothing but sand, now there was a great spring, surrounded with the greenest grass I had ever seen. I waited until my horse had refreshed himself, then I mounted once again, and continued south.

Again, I went on until both myself and my horse were on the verge of collapsing, and again I found myself revived at one of these small springs. At this spring, there was a large bush beside the spring, with little berries strewn throughout its branches. I drank and ate, before continuing south once more. This same thing continued to repeat itself over the next ten days.

On the eleventh morning, I mounted my horse, and rode to the top of a nearby hill, only to see this oasis. I looked back towards the spring I had just slept at, but it was no longer there. I rode into the oasis, only to meet a strange man there. I - I cannot remember him exactly, but I remember his eyes, his eyes that held every color. As he spoke with me, I began to feel like I actually had a purpose. He told me there was work for me to do, when I asked him what he meant by that, he told me that my time was still coming, but I would learn. It is that man who taught me how to create a warp panel.

I stayed at the oasis for some time before returning to Caligo, my father had not even noticed that I was gone. Weekly I traveled back to the oasis. That man told me that I needed houses, so we built them together over the next two years. Then one day he said that he was leaving, he created a warp panel, and told me that on the other side was a couple lost in the woods that needed to come here. I stepped through the panel, and found Markus and Estrella moments later. When we returned to the oasis, the man was gone. I have not seen him since.” Rafael sighed, “I wish that I could remember his name…”

Rafael shook his head, "But enough stories for now, I have more to show you. Come.

“Of course,” Ellius murmured. The two of them mounted up, and continued southward.

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