Yiwu stood in the desert with his eyelids heavy looking up at Iragur, grasping his sapling tightly and fell to his knees exasperated and sulked before speaking quietly to himself.

  “I have never turned in prayer to you yet, but here I am now kneeling in the desert, bereft and alone, taken apart from my family and God and only you are there watching me, and I need you. Please point me to the watcher Taik. Please, if only once you could turn your sight away from me and to the place I am to go. I have been walking across the desert for days without end and there is no sight of neither our friend nor my brothers. What am I to do? I am lost now. Please, once and only once, you the mighty one above all point me home.”

  Such he spoke, begging and praying with his sight set upon the watchful eye of the God of his God and in embarrassment and hopelessness he saw that he above all did not budge and remained as always still. It was a lost cause. He looked at the sapling and saw that it had begun to wither and weaken and the once happy and pointing upwards leaves have now deflected and saddened as if too, just as him, confused about their place and purpose. “We are both dying Iragur, can you not see us? Have you no mercy for your lineage?” He spoke again but the God of his God did not budge again.

  “So be it.” Yiwu swallowed his pride and bitterly looked once again at Iragur standing up from the sand in humiliation. The sapling needed water, that was sure. So Taik can wait, since it has already been made obvious that the only possibility, he had of finding him would be if he stumbled upon him at random. And so Yiwu went on, without purpose anymore, hoping now that by chance he would find either water to save the sapling, Taik to retrieve his brothers or even somehow found his way back to the Great Green North to tell the God Eish that he had failed in his quest, only to be back amongst his own. He walked across the desert in great toil and his legs felt as if they were going to collapse from under him but yet he walked. Now he was so far from Iragur that another sun was visible from a distance and so he could discern night and day, and, in the night, he laid in the sand, motionless in fear of assault or monsters like the ones that came after his own poor brother Gohola. In the day he would walk, trying not to venture too far out so that Iragur was no longer visible but also close enough to the other sun that he had an idea of how much time passed. At certain moments it felt like a lifetime. Perhaps you could say for him it was close to a lifetime considering how long he was alive before and how long it has been since he first went out into the desert by himself. It seemed hopeless. If he came closer to Iragur he would lose all hope of reviving the sapling and so he would have failed and possibly Taik would not allow for the release of his brothers considering that he would not honor their part of the deal. That is if he would even be able to find Taik. It was days of walking in the desert in each way and almost no man. In so many days of venture he met only the mighty God Vidya and his terrible array of players frozen in time and space and some lonesome travellers, traders and strangers, none of which wanted to engage with him and when they heard and saw him shouting at them from a distance, they would only look in his direction before turning and walking away. Besides unwelcoming strangers in the desert there was only ruins. Some beige bricks mounted on top of each other with collapsed ceilings of bronze that glimmered in the distant sun. There was also wood, shattered to pieces possibly doors or tables toppled over under the weight of the buildings frame that laid awkwardly over it. There were no people there and no bodies. Only bloodied rags and forsaken weapons, even one foot that was still lodged into an armor of bronze, perhaps the beasts could not get to the flesh part, so they tore at what was available. It was all perhaps, and years stood between Yiwu and the mysteries of what was left behind. Further on as he walked, he could see some of the sand was evened out at a stretch of a couple hundred foot, presumably a sign that an arm passed through there, but he could only imagine and suppose. He wondered if the good God Eish ever went on as far as he did right now, but he doubted it. If Eish saw what Yiwu saw he would have never made the Erystu in the first place. Yiwu wondered also what it was that made him apparently so alarming to strangers that they all collectively decided to avoid him, despite the fact that he was one lonesome man with no weapon, naked and exhausted. Yiwu carried his own body across the desert with his eyes closed now, walking aimlessly around in hopes of stumbling across anything at chance. The stare of Iragur was relentless and he could not make his peace with the fact that not once was he ever alone, but only accompanied by a quiet, pointless God. Stare all you want my good God, he thought to himself. Perhaps you could relay to the God Eish how his son toiled in the desert in the quest of finding his brothers and would not stop until his task was done. It’s not like he had a choice. He did have a choice, but that was days ago and in the span of these days when his mind was left to fend for itself, he developed a kind of deeper understanding and consciousness of his own self and others. After days of evaluating his position, his mission and the possible fates that could have met his brethren he was exhausted not only physically but mentally. At his lowest, when he laid in the night covered in sand and watched the still desert, he thought to himself: He could have said “no”. He could have asked Taum to come with him. He could have requested they all did. He had no obligation to go away immediately. There was no point in doing so. He thought as such, pitying himself only to come to the conclusion that it indeed had to have happened this way. The good God Eish needed protection more than he did and he had to go away as quickly as possible to make sure Rahul and Gohola were safe. So, the God Eish was right. And what good did that do? He was right yes, but he left Yiwu to be lost in the desert by himself with only his memory as guidance back to Taik. The quest he was given was unfair, he thought to himself. Well would it have been fair if it was somebody else, Yiwu? He asked himself. No, it would have not been fair then either, he decided. So better of you to take the burden upon yourself than to condemn one of your brothers to your own fate, he surmised. But what chances did he have? To find one single watcher in the endless desert. But what chances would anyone else have? Such was Yiwu’s journey across the desert. For every step he took he considered his fate and with every other step he deemed it unfair, but with the very next step he would consider the alternatives and the next step after that brought upon the confirmation that what happened had to have happened. He was lost. Spiritually and physically. He separated from his kind too soon. Too soon scattered. Before he even had the chance to grow any kind of self-belief or even strengthen his belief in others for that matter. He walked tiredly towards a sand dune, in hopes that if he climbs it, he should be able to see a horizon and perhaps any sign of what direction he was to take. He walked with his head down and putting his whole-body weight forwards as he climbed. He got to a high point and looked around across the desert. To say he saw nothing would be a lie because there were shapes far along on the horizon but mostly indiscernible and could have only been an imagining of his. He sat, exhausted on the dune, put the sapling down beside him and buried his face in his palms hopelessly when suddenly he felt a light sting on his forearm and a strange noise that startled him as he fell backwards to his back. It was a bird. The strangest little creature, red and gold with black little eyes that looked at him as intensely as he looked at it. It flew up a little and hanged in the air just in front of his face as if it expected him to recognize it.

  “Do you speak?” Yiwu spoke out loud for the first time in so long his raspy voice sounded more like the scraping of wood than speech. The bird cawed slightly.

  “I did not imagine so.” Yiwu said to himself. He was enchanted by this strange creature and somehow felt beckoned by it, as the only living thing that has not shunned or avoided him but actually attempted to make some type of contact with him. He stared at the bird as it flapped its red and golden wings and lifted itself in the air before turning away from him and flying down the dune and slightly towards East.

  “Wait!” Yiwu yelled desperately as he scrambled to get back to his feet. He grabbed the sapling and ran down the dune after the bird. He thought he would have to chase after it but to his surprise the bird stopped to look at him and then flew a couple feet towards East again before stopping and turning to look back at him.

  “Are you leading me to your master?” Yiwu spoke out loud knowing that he should not expect an answer from the bird. Yet it was leading him, as it would only fly further if he followed in its path. And so Yiwu went on, ignited now again with some newfound hope and he even smiled to himself as the bird flew side to side, keeping an eye on him. He walked on as the bird led and he saw that it was leading him away from one of the large indiscernible shapes that he saw from the dune, but he trusted in it and did not question the path that they took. In the distance he saw there was a forsaken village, tiny in size and consisting of only half a dozen wooden houses, if they could even be called that, considering that they were all destroyed and as they came closer, he noticed that the wood was black and burned

  and he concluded it must have been raided and the people within it slaughtered. The bird flew towards one of the huts and landed on one of the burned rooftops and cawed loudly in pride.

  “This is where you led me?” Yiwu did not understand. “To what end?” He spoke to the bird again and the bird knocked with its beak on the wood. Yiwu came closer and saw that in the shade of one of the huts there was some water poured into a wooden barrel, perhaps the only source of water in the desert for days. Yiwu looked at it and a gulp formed in his throat. He put the sapling in the water carefully positioning it so that it would not fall to the bottom and he too drank from it and it relieved his throat and for a second he too felt relieved and refreshed but only for a moment before collapsing to the sand. The bird flew down to him and picked at his arm, but he waved to get it off him. Only until tomorrow. Tomorrow the sapling will have rejuvenated and I will go out into the desert again, he thought to himself. I do not need birds or anybody to help me, the good God Eish entrusted me with a mission, and I shall see to its completion, he sulked to himself and thought that it was bravery that led him, but his brows flexed in a frown. He leaned against the wooden hut, grabbed a fistful of sand and treaded it and waited for the sun to come up again. Morning. It was already morning. Before he could even rest his legs, the sun came up again and he had now been closer to it than ever since the God Eish had first turned their sun into a God. Yiwu felt all hope abandon him as he laid there idly. The bird cawed gently but did not pick at him again until suddenly it took flight and flew somewhere behind him. He could not bring himself to care. He could barely even see Iragur now in the distance. The God of his God was a silent black dot in the horizon that he suddenly felt was outside of his reach. He felt as if all hope in him has been extinguished.

  “I beg you Iragur. If you can see me, if you can even sense me… I beg you bring me home. Where do I go? Please… please, I beg you to lead me home…”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  Yiwu scrambled to get to his feet but was so startled by the sudden voice behind his back that he twisted his own legs and fell backwards and as he fell, he grabbed on to whatever was closest to keep balance and tipped over the barrel of water that spilled all over him.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “I wanted to drink from that.” The voice said again. The sun blinded Yiwu and he could barely discern the silhouette of the stranger that spoke to him. Yiwu looked at the barrel.

  “There is still some left” He said weakly.

  “Good.” The stranger came closer and the sun hid behind him so that Yiwu could now see the stranger fully. It was a skinny, pale man of short stature wearing what seemed to be a great cape made of wicker that was painted in shades of indigo, deep blue and yellow and a hat made from the same material. The man smiled at Yiwu gently. He noticed that the man held a long red staff with elements of black in the middle and towards the top there was a crimson tassel and at the end a large mostly transparent crystal. The stranger stuck the staff in the sand with a vigorous stomp and grabbed the barrel to drink from it. Yiwu laid on the ground and watched him in fear.

  “Have you come to kill me?” Yiwu asked as the stranger drank from the barrel. When he finished drinking the barrel was empty and the man tossed it to the side.

  “Why would you think I would come to kill you desert child? Do you deserve to be killed?” The stranger asked.

  “No, I do not. Every other man and creature I have encountered in the desert has turned away from me and ran the other way when I shouted to them for help.” Yiwu looked at the man carefully. “Perhaps they were scared of something. Perhaps they were scared of you.”

  “Me?” The stranger laughed. “What have I to do with all this. They ran from you not me. Nobody runs away from me, desert child, believe that.” He spoke with a smile.

  “Are you a friend?” Yiwu asked

  “Perhaps of many, but to you, desert child I am a stranger.” The stranger replied.

  “Why do you have a staff then? What is the crystal? Do you use magic?” Yiwu inquired and the stranger turned around to grab his staff and he put it in front of him and turned the crystal towards Yiwu. A ray of sunlight immediately met his face and caused a burning sensation. Yiwu winced in pain and groaned angrily at the stranger.

  “Do not get mad at me, you asked” The stranger giggled excitedly.

  “For an explanation, not to be blinded.” Yiwu rubbed his eyes in annoyance.

  “Perhaps that was a misinterpretation on my part.” The stranger smiled and nodded.

  “What is your name, desert child?” The stranger now inquired.

  “I am Yiwu of the Erystu, son of the God Eish of the God Iragur.” He said proudly, feeling slightly ashamed that just before he was crying for help.

  “Iragur? Is that the name you begged would help you?” The stranger asked and Yiwu nodded in shame. There was no point denying it if the man had already heard it and for some reason Yiwu felt he could trust the man with the truth.

  “He is not, here is he?” The stranger looked around at the burned huts around them. Yiwu finally got up off his feet.

  “He is there” He pointed at the skyline to the black dot in the distance.

  “That ugly thing is your God?” The stranger said, and his tone signaled a mixture of confusion and disgust.

  “My God is a great God and I worship him loyally.” Yiwu felt offended by the stranger’s remarks and he made sure to speak with his chest forward and his voice loud, but the stranger instead of responding with the same tone only said:

  “All Gods are revered and worth it are only several.” There was a mundanity to his tone that suggested an overall dismissal of Yiwu’s feelings that confused the Erystu. As if his God was somehow tiresome to the stranger.

  “And you? Have you no God?” Yiwu asked in turn.

  “Some have called me one. I, however, refute the title.” The stranger spoke and only now did the smile disappear from his face. Yiwu hesitated.

  “You never told me your name.” He said and the stranger exhaled tiredly.

  “My name is Temeko Feu.” The stranger proclaimed and Yiwu nodded slightly as the bird that until now has remained quiet, cawed loudly and flapped his wings. Temeko looked at it but Yiwu kept on staring at the stranger carefully.

  “And you are a God?”

  “I distinctly said I refute the title” The stranger said.

  “But there is reason you have been called one.” Yiwu insisted

  “That I never refuted.” They stood in silence for a while as Yiwu looked the stranger up and down as if expecting to find out more from his stature than from the man himself.

  “So, you have powers.” Yiwu said, as if he wanted to see if the stranger would deny the claim.

  “I do.” The stranger did not deny but refused to elaborate any further than directly asked.

  “What are they?” Yiwu asked finally and the stranger exhaled tiredly again.

  “I can grant wishes. One person, one wish. That is what I can do.” He admitted with a strange sense of annoyance in his voice.

  “Any wish?” Yiwu’s eyes opened wide.

  “Any” The stranger confirmed.

  “Make me find my way to Taik and rejoice me with my brothers!” Yiwu exclaimed loudly with excitement as his eyes glimmered for the first time since he could remember. The man took a step forward with his staff and faced the glowing Erystu.

  “No. But I wish you well” The strangers smile only now returned to his face. Yiwu took a step back and frowned again.

  “I do not understand.” He admitted.

  “I can see that.”

  “Why can you not grant me my wish?” Yiwu asked confusedly.

  “I never said I cannot I just said I will not.” The stranger nodded and smiled again.

  “Why not? What is it? Do I expect to renounce my God and cherish you instead?” Yiwu became heated and the strangers eye shined for a split second.

  “Would you?” He asked and there was a cunning in his voice that Yiwu did not trust. Yiwu could not understand the man. It seemed that his intentions were not bad and that he did not mean to harm Yiwu, but he apparently took great enjoyment in bothering him, and so he hesitated, and he thought about the God Eish and how he sent him out to the desert alone and how he had toiled and walked the desert without hope of finding Taik and how he cried out to the silent Iragur, and he thought about Rahul and Gohola and he wondered where they could be now and he thought about the deadly Imtasha and he imagined Gohola lying in the desert, forlorn and weak and he imagined Rahul rushing to his side only to be stung as well and their bodies in the sand and he thought about how Taum looked at him with hope as he left and the concerned look of Nessar and the innocent shine in the eyes of Liryas.

  “No.” He replied bitterly.

  “Good. It would have made no difference.” The stranger nodded, closing his eyes.

  “Then why did you ask if I would?” Yiwu came closer now.

  “I wanted to know how badly you wanted to be rejoined with your brothers. Apparently not bad enough.” The stranger replied shrugging his shoulders slightly. He now seemed to have adapted a strange habit of closing his eyes after finishing each sentence and so he did after he spoke.

  “I wish to be with them more than anything.” Yiwu protested.

  “Apparently not. Not when the love of one outweighs the love of many.” The stranger did not smile but instead looked deeply into Yiwu’s eyes and Yiwu was frustrated because it seemed that he could not read anything from the stranger’s face and stature but when the man looked at him it was as if he was looking at his whole life collected in his eyes as one image.

  “I have a duty to my God.” He finally replied

  “I am sure he would lead you to believe so.” The stranger tilted his head slightly.

  “We all have to abide by some ideals.” Yiwu spoke through gritted teeth now, frustrated and disappointed.

  “And yours is God?” The man was relentless in challenging him.

  “Perhaps.” Yiwu chose not to elaborate and glanced at the man’s feet.

  “You don’t know.” The stranger smiled but his eyes remained serious.

  “And how do you know what I don’t know?” Yiwu grew more defensive.

  “Because you broke eye contact.” The stranger did not smile. Yiwu looked at the bird.

  “So, you refuse to help me.” He surmised instead of answering.

  “That I did not say.” Yiwu was becoming more and more annoyed by the seemingly friendly stranger who apparently was unwilling to show him any sympathy.

  “I wish to find my way to the watcher Taik.” Yiwu asked again.

  “No, I do not think I can help with that.”

  “And why not?”

  “It seems you have already found some fortune.” The stranger reached out and caressed the red and golden bird on the head.

  “The bird? He only led me to water. What kind of fortune is a bird?” Yiwu asked.

  “Greater than you can imagine and one that you will probably let go to waste” The stranger exhaled.

  “Why would you say that and not tell me what it is I’m missing.” Yiwu felt hopeless.

  “Some feet are meant to stumble before they walk upright. If you were led your whole life what would you ever learn? Would your life even be your own? Or just a collection of ill advice you have taken from others?” The man finally began speaking of his own accord but sadly not anything of value.

  “Why ill advice?”

  “From my experience desert child, I’ve come to find it is best not to take anybody’s advice, you have not the wisdom to determine good from bad because if you did you would not need advice in the first place. So, chances are you will heed to ill advice and ignore the good. And when you heed to ill advice and face consequences people will claim it was of your own accord and your decision and your responsibility, but if you take good advice and good things come of it, people will be quick to claim they were the ones you should attribute your success to and will seek rewards for their wisdom. I will not let you find your way because that is not the way of wisdom. Walk yourself, stumble and let yourself be lost. Then at least you will know which roads lead to places you don’t want to be. And believe me desert child there is a lot of places you don’t want to be.” The man’s tone sounded solemn, almost threatening. “Let yourself learn now, lest you should be forever led by others and only get lost in old age, when everyone will see it fit that you should be lost, and you will never find your way home.” He finished

  “Good, so I will not ask for guidance. But please protect my sapling, let it thrive, I need more time” Yiwu beckoned the stranger.

  “More time to do what? Weep in the middle of the desert? No, desert child, time is a scarce resource, and you will be wise not to learn that you can reverse entropy. I wish you well still.” The man replied.

  “I was not weeping.”

  “You are right, you were begging. Perhaps even worse. At least weeping is a sign of holding in sorrow that has to finally find an outlet but begging? That’s just a sign of helplessness and helplessness is just what people say to avoid admitting they are unwilling to continue trying.” The stranger closed his eyes once more.

  “You are mocking me.” Yiwu complained.

  “You are a mockery of yourself.” The stranger nodded.

  “You know nothing about me.”

  “You know nothing about yourself.” The stranger said calmly and smiled.

  “You speak in riddles.”

  “I speak clear as day but perhaps the only thing you have ever known is night, my desert child.”

  “Let me at least rest. Vidya said I would succumb to rest and so I do. I wish to rest. I cannot go any longer.” Yiwu pleaded.

  “Why would you wish for something you were promised would happen? I don’t think I will heed to your request desert child. But I do wish you well” Temeko closed his eyes and smiled.

  “And what good does wishing well do exactly?” Yiwu nearly sobbed.

  “It clears my whole conscience clean.” The stranger laughed.

  “Tell me why have the power to make wishes come true and not use it?” Yiwu felt deeply offended and hurt by the stranger’s laughter at his desperation, but he felt less like he was attacked but more mocked for his stupidity and uselessness.

  “I have used it, but scarcely. People tend to wish for things they think they want instead of things they need.” The stranger concluded.

  “So, you will not help me in any way?” Yiwu felt as if this was the definitive moment, he felt he needed guidance, any guidance whatsoever.

  “You know why you are exhausted?” Temeko asked and Yiwu stared at him with no reply except for a puzzled look.

  “Because you keep searching around the desert” Yiwu grew only more confused.

  “You keep searching and you keep thinking, and you get lost not in the desert, but in your own thought and as your thoughts circle back to the same things, so do you. And if you continue on like this you will never find your way.” The stranger said and Yiwu nodded quietly.

  “So, what am I to do?”

  “Close your eyes. Don’t think. Just walk.” The stranger said and moved to the side to let Yiwu walk forward. The bird landed on the stranger’s cape and cawed loudly.

  “Thank you, Temeko Feu, you are a strange but wise and kind God. I shall remember your good deed.” Yiwu spoke and gave a pale, tired smile to the stranger.

  “If you take my advice it will be your own decision to do so. You have no one to thank but yourself.” The man said and turned his cape on Yiwu and he walked away with the bird on his shoulder. Yiwu took a deep breath, looked ahead one last time before closing his eyes and started walking.