Wandering the Desert

She hesitates at the top of these stairs, unable to even see how far they go down. For a brief moment, she looks back, back to the stairs up and out. It's possible that she could simply leave, be done with this...

But she has nowhere to return home to. Luca knows if she tried to go home now she'd be dead either way, the clan had told her as such.

So with an almost too sad look, she descends.

The water ripples slightly as she passes it, the crystal above bathing the well in red. Silvery light from a pale moon show that escape now is impossible, unless she suddenly sprouted wings.

"I am fine, I think..." She responds almost too quietly, approaching the darkness ahead. "Though I don't know what happens now."

Despite her small frame and trembling steps, Luca has no choice.

A structure bathed in red light, a pool of water undisturbed for centuries, and a doorway leading deeper... deeper....

Luca does not respond, but the question itself makes her pause. She knows all too well this journey will lead her nowhere, after all she is Exalted. A Revenant. One touched by death, an ill-omen for her people.

Though, in her doubts, her claws make the tiniest of noises atop this dune. So close to the end, and her trial of silence is ended as this noise angers the sands and she's sent the rest of the way down in a slide. A single startled yelp escapes her, the sands swallow her staff.

The sands swallow her lantern.

The sands swallow her.

Down.

Down..

Down far below, the temple swallows her whole.

“Hush. This is Hallowed Ground. We must tread silently, such is my first trial.”

A Hum fills the air, and a hush befalls the unflinching stars above. 

A looming sense of unease fills her voice, and her answer is short.

“It is... Difficult to explain.” She inclines her head to the wisp, having just affixed a lantern to her staff to assist with the dark of the night. The warm light casts only her and the immediate sands around her in it’s glow, the rest being from the stars high above. Nevertheless, she continues. 

“The Elders say I was hatched cold and unmoving, taking my first cries hours later as they were to bury me. A Revenant they called me, and when I learned enough, I was Exalted to the Temple.”

"The Elders are far away, I must go alone." The fading light of the sun paints her in brilliant shades of pinks and purples, like the sands around her. "Worry not, little echo, I am alone out here. No harm will come to me on the way, I am prepared."

“I am Exalted.” She speaks, the whispers upon the wind asking her the questions now take form, wisps that flicker into being to speak softly before fading just as they came.

“The Temple holds my fate, so it is spoken by the Elders.” Luca doesn’t know why she bothers to respond to them, or why they choose to speak to her now. But.. deep down she is grateful for their presence, a voice that is not her own is a relief, even if brief.

The sun sets over the desert, dune over dune painted in scarlets and oranges as the temperature finally cools enough to permit travel across the sands. It’s empty out here, save for a single soul taking the trip across this arid landscape, long cloak bundled close to protect against what’s sure to be another frigid night of walking. 

A long tail, pale yellow and strange tattoos decorating it’s surface, and sharp ears that distort the hood. An Abra, alone, walks to an unknown future...