The night didn't finish - it slipped into day slow and hushed, like an animal limping off hurt. Light from early dawn crept across the ridges, washing the grains in pale amber. Wind made a faint sound, almost silent, still. Ayla caught it. She noticed stuff ahead of anyone else.
She stayed by the broken walls, toes pressing into sunlit sand, gaze locked on the sky's edge where daylight pushed through. Under that weak light, the ground hummed with a strange beat - low, steady, kind of like breathing.
Not a person. Nope… nothing close to one.
Beside her, folks started stirring one by one. Blankets rustled, dragging across cold rock where they'd slept. Kade yawned loudly, arms wide like he owned the morning. Mira mumbled angry words into the cloth, hiding from daylight. Meanwhile, Eli sat up stiff, eyes fuzzy, as though life had personally wronged him.
Typical morning.
Even so, Ayla stayed facing away. Just for now. She kept her ears open.
She squinted toward the red-tinged sky. Over there, movement - just barely. Not normal motion, nothing human or beast-like. More like a step made, then wiped away fast. Like something huge was sneaking, yet left traces behind.
"Again?" whispered a soft voice from behind.
Jalen.
Ayla didn't flinch. "You feel it too?"
He moved next to her, arms crossed tight. The shade behind him ran far out on the sand, thin and firm, stuck fast as if rooted into the rock below them.
Jalen stayed quiet at first. Usually, he did that sorta thing. Talking was something he saved for needed moments - kinda like holding onto a knife, ready but hidden till you actually had to use it.
He paused... then gave a small nod. "Okay."
Ayla exhaled - realizing only now she'd held her breath. "Okay. For a second, I honestly believed my mind was slipping."
Kade's voice echoed from the back - same cocky tone he always used - telling me stuff slips away that was never really there.
Ayla didn't bother turning. "Go back to sleep, Kade."
"No! I'm awake now, and my suffering must be shared."
Mira groaned loudly. "Kade, I swear to all the gods—old, new, and the imaginary ones you probably make up just to annoy us—if you talk before sunrise again, I will bury you."
"You threaten me daily," he said lightly.
"And yet you breathe. A cosmic oversight."
The joking eased things a little. Still, Ayla stared ahead without blinking. That nervous feeling? It stayed put - exactly where it was.
Jalen felt it. "Tell me what it's like," he asked.
Ayla paused. Though her thoughts were clear, and her gut usually knew better, now and then she wasn't sure what should actually come out of her mouth.
"It's… shifting," she said slowly. "Like sand being brushed aside. A heavy movement. But distant. Very distant."
"Direction?" he asked.
She raised her hand, aiming at the spot where sand hills touched rocky edges. "Over there." A quick stop. "Thing is..." Her voice dropped. "It's weaving instead of going straight."
Jalen frowned. "So you're saying looping?"
"Not exactly. More like… searching."
Searching.
The word felt odd, sort of icy. As if speaking it out loud made the thing stronger than it should be.
Jalen's jaw tightened.
Behind them, Eli finally spoke, voice thin but steady. "The storm last night might have uncovered more buried structures. If something was dormant beneath—"
"No," Ayla cut in. "This wasn't asleep. Whatever that thing is, it's awake. And… aware."
A hush came then - no ordinary sleepy stillness from early hours, yet thicker somehow. Not just an absence of sound but a weight pressing down. This sort happened when people sensed trouble without seeing it. A shared unease passed through them like cold air.
Jalen cracked it open before anyone else.
"Pack up. We move in ten minutes."
Mira's head jerked up. "What? We just got here!"
"Ten minutes," he said again.
Kade blinked at him. "Is this about Ayla's… sand whispering thing?"
Ayla gave him a sharp look. "That ain't quite rustling."
"I mean—" Kade gestured vaguely. "You know. Your superpowers."
"I don't have superpowers."
"You literally hear things humans don't."
Ayla stopped. "...Alright, that's reasonable."
Jalen stepped forward, voice firm. "Whatever Ayla felt, I felt too. Something is shifting out there. Moving toward us. Slowly, yes. But deliberately."
That stopped every single person from talking.
Eli shot up, tucking his bedroll tight before he'd even stood. Though Mira moaned under her breath, she pushed herself upright anyway. Kade pulled a fake frown, yet moved just like the others.
Ayla dropped to her knees, grabbing what she needed. Fast movements - routine built from repetition. Yet her mind wandered off instead. While the body worked on autopilot, ideas floated somewhere far.
Searching.
The thought stuck inside her head.
She couldn't shake it - somehow, she knew it was real. Whatever it was, it moved over the desert slowly and steadily. Not just some animal passing through or wind messing with the sand... more like a thinking thing checking everything out.
It was coming nearer.
When they were getting ready to go, Eli walked up to her.
"Ayla… can you tell how far it is?"
She shook her head. "It's hard to explain. It's like hearing thunder underground. You know it's somewhere far off, but you can't pinpoint it. But…" She hesitated again. "…It's coming faster."
Eli's eyes got big. "So...?"
"Meaning it knows something is here."
He swallowed. "Us?"
"Or whatever's on him," she added, eyeing the locked box tied to Jalen's bag.
The artifact.
The one they'd never tried to unlock.
The one that gives a soft buzz if you tap it.
The one marked with signs none could identify - but Ayla, she'd see them flicker in her sleep.
The person each group around here tried to claim for their own.
Jalen shouted, "Get going!"
They started walking.
Not moving fast, no hurry - just walking slow with clear intent. Moving ahead to the edge of the ravine, where the path fades among stone shapes and dark patches.
Yet midway over the hills, she stopped dead.
The world got quiet.
Not quite silent.
The wind halted.
The sand stilled.
Her pulse seemed to hang mid-air.
A weight pushed into her thoughts.
Found you.
The voice didn't come through speech. Not a noise at all. More like a feeling - sharp, twisting, creeping inside.
Ayla's legs almost gave out.
Jalen turned to face her fast. "Ayla!"
She grabbed her head, fingers pressing hard into her skin. "It... got close to me."
"Who?" Mira demanded.
"Not who," Ayla said weakly. "What could it be?"
The air trembled.
After a while, from way beyond - over the sand hills - a soft growl started. Not fast. More like a slow build. Growing heavier. As if some huge thing was pressing into reality, making everything notice it's there.
Kade backed away, eyes huge. "Okay… okay, nope. That's not normal!"
Eli looked at Ayla. "How close?"
Ayla stared off toward the edge of the sky.
Then she quit breathing.
The dunes - way out there, just where vision fades - kept shifting.
Still sticking with wind power instead of switching away.
Not collapsing.
Moving.
Like some huge, old thing under them was pushing up.
She said quietly, "Just nearby." But almost under her breath
Jalen froze for a sec - then shouted, "Go!"
They ran fast for the canyon, sand blasting up underfoot. Behind them, the noise got worse, shaking right down into their bodies. Ayla peeked over her shoulder - then regretted it on the spot.
A dark form grew under the hills. Something huge - too big to grasp. Sand rose, almost like water about to crash down. It moved slowly but surely.
"Faster!" Mira shouted.
Ayla drove her legs forward, faster. Inside, every gut feeling shouted at once - not panic, but pure survival.
Yet while they dashed off, that feeling pushed into her mind once more.
You cannot escape.
Ayla yelled inside - not loud, not out - but fighting anyway.
The gap in the rock appeared at last - rough, split open by time. Not far now. Hidden spot. Perhaps shelter.
They jumped in right when the sand blew up behind them - like dirt blasting from a volcano. Right then, the blast slammed them down hard.
The rumble stopped.
Silence returned.
But not relief.
Besides, Ayla caught the sound.
In the shadows of her thoughts.
A whisper:
I'll track you down.
This time... it was different somehow.