They arrived at the cities entrance. As they stepped through the stone gateway, the atmosphere shifted. Noen felt the weight of several stares—cold, suspicious, and lingering. The people here looked at him like he was a ghost from another world.
"How long have you been here, Noen? I've never seen you before," Sami asked, glancing up.
"I... I'm new here," Noen replied, his eyes scanning the narrow streets.
The people here... they looked broken. Men and women lay slumped in the slivers of shade provided by the crumbling walls. Others trudged past with heavy clay jugs of water balanced on their heads, exactly like the image Noen had seen earlier.
"Why is everyone so..." Noen stopped himself, trying to find a word that wasn't hurtful.
"Tired?" Sami suggested. He waved a cheerful hand at some of the people lying on the ground. "Well... all these people here, they'll be dead soon."
Noen froze. "Dead?"
"Yeah," the boy said, still smiling as if he were talking about the weather. "We get almost no water from above anymore, so people in the village die, one after the other."
Noen looked on in horror. Sami said it so casually, as if mass starvation and thirst were just a normal part of a Tuesday. Noen tightened his grip on his shirt, pulling the boy back slightly.
"Does it... does it almost never rain here?"
Sami stopped walking and tilted his head. "R-Rain? I've never heard of that. What is that supposed to be? You're weird." The boy let out a light, sweet laugh.
Noen found the laugh innocent, but the realization was sickening. He shook his head, trying to refocus on his mission. "Forget it. Tell me, Sami, have you ever heard of someone named Azhuron? I need to speak with him."
Sami scrunched up his nose, thinking hard. "Mhmm... Azhuron... no, doesn't ring a bell."
What exactly am I supposed to do here then? Noen thought, frustration bubbling up.
Suddenly, the entire city was plunged into a gargantuan shadow. The air grew cool, and in an instant, Sami began jumping up and down with pure, unbridled joy.
"NAHALITH! Everyone, look up! Nahalith has returned!"
Noen looked toward the sky and his knees buckled. "W-What is that?"
High above the desert city, a colossal statue made entirely of shimmering, swirling sand drifted through the air. It was the silhouette of a massive cat, its form shifting and dancing as if every grain of sand were alive. It had a neutral expression, not fitting the massive size of it.
On each of its four paws hung two blood-red bells. As the entity moved, the crimson bells collided, releasing a cascade of rhythmic, magical chimes that echoed through the stone alleys. The sound was haunting—a deep, resonant tolling that seemed to vibrate within the very air itself.
Before Noen could blink, the cat's form seemed to exhale. The sky vanished, replaced by a dense cloud of golden sand particles that engulfed the entire town. Noen went blind in the haze, coughing as the grit filled the air.
Suddenly, a small, firm hand grabbed his.
"Come, come, come, Noen! Hurry! Nahalith is here!"
Sami's grip was incredibly strong. He sprinted into the golden fog, dragging Noen behind him. Noen choked on the dust, trying to clear his lungs, but the boy was moving too fast, seemingly to stop for a break.
They burst back through the village entrance, nearly trampled by a surging tide of people. The entire population seemed to have poured out of their homes, their tired eyes now fixed with fanatical intensity on the giant sand cat drifting above.
"Wait—are we running all the way back the way we came?!" Noen shouted over the roar of the crowd and the rhythmic tolling of the red bells.
"Yes!" Sami yelled back, his chest heaving. A man in the crowd stumbled into the boy, nearly sending him under the feet of the mob.
Before Sami could hit the ground, Noen's reflexes kicked in. He reached down, hoisting the boy into the air mid-stride, holding him aloft for a split second to clear the path before skillfully setting him back on his feet so he could immediately keep running.
"Where do you think I was coming from before when i found you, Noen?" Sami asks.
"From where?" Noen says, clearing his throat from the sand.
The boy shakes his head. "Well, from the Oasis. Where we are running to right now. Just... huff... like always. Like we have been...for centuries," he says, speaking in a choppy way to express how self-evident it is for him.
"Yeah, exactly... uh," Noen says, scratching his head.
Sami: "Here! Here it is!"
They slammed into the people in front of them, who had come to an abrupt halt. The rows behind crashed into theirs, and the ones behind those followed suit, creating a chain reaction that sent nearly everyone tumbling to the ground.
Noen wheezed, pressing a hand to his chest as he tried to catch his breath. He leaned to the left to get a better look at what they had reached. What he saw left him stunned.
It was a massive oasis pit—a deep, wide crater in the earth—but it was bone dry. There wasn't a single drop of water in sight.
He looked up. The giant sand cat, Nahalith, had stopped directly above the center of the empty oasis. The falling sand had ceased, leaving the air heavy and still. Noen pointed up at the massive entity, leaning toward the boy.
"Hey... um... maybe a stupid question... but how can that thing fly?"
"It's holy," the boy answered shortly, not even looking away from the cat.
"Ok?" Noen said, dumbfounded. He wanted to press for a real answer, but the boy's bluntness made him feel like any further questions would just be embarrassing.
Suddenly, the belly of the sand cat began to slowly split open.
The atmosphere shifted instantly. As if on cue, every single person in the crowd began to pray and sing. Sami was no exception; he clasped his hands together, his face tight with a mixture of desperation and hope.
"It's happening!" the boy whispered urgently. "Please... please..."