Arrival

"And the wife, peering upon her wretched body, thanked her slayer, as from the enemy will sprout salvation, and in her rebirth, she shall be freed at last."

Nopte's eulogy, The fall, last verse

She walked. She had always walked. The dust smeared over her body made her split skin colour almost indistinguishable as her tail merged with the coarse sands. And her blade, not rusted but tainted, grated along the ground emitting a rhythmic, monotonous rattle. She was tired. Or rather her body was tired but not her mind. Her limbs may have faltered but her gaze, ever fixed onto the ever shifting but never changing landscape, expressed the desire and will to seek and find. Seek and find.

A figure appeared in the distance. Then a few more followed. Even through the sandy veil which permeated the air, she could see they were nothing like the monstrosities she encountered in her path: they were far too small. Her throat dryer than the sand she walked on; she hastened her pace to meet the strangers.

Upon witnessing the lone soul which limped towards them, the figures halted

their march and rushed to the girl's rescue. The soldiers helped her, providing some

water.

"From which domain are you?" questioned the leader of the unit, "it is rare to witness such soft skin in a place like this, you must be a foreigner."

The girl did not utter a single word. She seemed to react and understand what the stranger told her, but offered no answer, apart from a loud gurgle of the water she had just drank. Now refreshed, she looked more closely at her inquirer.

It was a tall individual, with a great pink cuirass. No… that wasn't a cuirass, it was rather a skeleton, divided into numerous different streamlined parts. Three pairs of segmented limbs emerged from his uniform, ornated with golden rings which seemed to have merged with his shell. And he stood on four more pairs of legs. All were devoid of hands or feet; it was a marvel how such a creature could carry items or even carry itself so effortlessly. Two great antennae sprouted from his face, atop two smaller ones that finished the allure of his moustache. His two eyes shone brightly over the antennas, and under, his impressive maxilla formed an intimidating but fascinating mechanism.

The girl emitted a small, high-pitched sound to show she could not speak the dialect as her tongue would not allow it.

"We will figure things out when we arrive… my name is Nomu, by the way."

She sheathed her sword, and they resumed their journey, no words exchanged.

Soon enough, the sand withered away, and glorious mat-black walls could be seen on the horizon. "Welcome to the city of sands, my kingdom: Pasmathe." Nomu had a gloomy glow in his eyes.

The walls were segmented in a similar form to the warriors. Each segment seemed independent, they could move one by one and adopt any shape. Such a clever design allowed for a flexible defence where no weak spots could be identified. No entry was in sight.

As the troupe arrived at the black border, Nomu created a rattling sound by rubbing together the golden rings attached to each of his arms. Almost immediately, a metallic tingle resonated, and an opening formed from between the palisades. Greeted by two black Pasmathans, the girl was introduced to the inside of the City of Sands, and the outer walls of the place perfectly reflected the inside.

This carefully oiled machine of a village was working on efficiency alone. The lock behind which sealed the palisades together was closed, and the girl noticed that a similar lock was found at every section of the wall. Inhabitants were moving around using a curious locomotion device which was composed of four rows of small pairs of wheels. They were powered by strange pedals on the three front wheels which had a hole right down the centre. The back wheels could turn, so Pasmathans could easily manage the direction of the craft by using their two hind legs. Many more such systems which used simple materials, but elaborate mechanisms were omnipresent, and in her awe, the girl had almost forgotten about her own situation.

The residents had started to glare at her with their high shining eyes. People were trying to understand what they saw. The fear of discovery that Nomu had completely lacked earlier was now ubiquitous in the strangers' eyes. Thankfully, Nomu stepped in:

"We found her stranded in the storm wastelands, we had to take her in, she is neither a captive nor an enemy, so back away before she mistakes us for cannibals."

Nomu took her to the side into a small hut. Now looking more closely at the houses, they were all made from giant husk shells. The girl got startled.

Nomu smiled. "No, we don't kill our kind to make our houses, we just recycle their dead shells to make a strong, homogenous polymer called poda, it would be useless to bury them and lose valuable material. All you see that is sturdy is made of this nearly unbreakable material. It only breaks with extreme heat."

Inside the hut was small amounts of furniture: a few multi-coloured chairs, a table, a second floor, and many gadgets, one of which Nomu grabbed and started fiddling with. It was a game of strength and dexterity, where you had to pull all the threads out before they merged back with the central ball. While his bottom hands exercised with it, the rest of them grabbed a large brown poda basin from another room, and he poured water into it from a reservoir which seemed to come from the roof, probably rainwater.

"Clean yourself" ordered Nomu, "nobody here will take you seriously if you look like a big grey puddle that lost its hole."

The girl let out a yap of excitement, rapidly scrubbing off all of the blood on her blade and then all of the grey sand off of her, revealing her true splendour.

"What a sight, now I found a name for you: Adei."

Adei did not protest, as she herself did not seem to have a name. She was perfectly black for the most part, except for the side of her dark eyes which had a thick streak of white moving up to her ears. The lower part of her jaw, under her razor-sharp teeth, was also white, the patch moving down and covering most of her chest. Then, under her dorsal fin could be seen a beautiful silvery-grey belt-like patch that snaked around her waist but did not connect in the front. A glorious tail which merged with her waist lay graceful on the ground, showing an immaculate black colour on the top, contrasting with the underside. This allure made her appear as a queen. Adei smiled at Nomu, and searching for answers, pointed at the absence of decoration around her with a questioning face. Somehow Nomu understood her request. "Do not let my unique pink colour amongst my mostly black and grey relatives fool you, I am a dull man. I have never loved or been loved, and from a young age I have devoted my life to combat."

He looked at his golden rings, silent for a split second too long.

"As you may have noticed, our land is filled with geniuses." His tone had softened as if now he poured things out of his heart rather than his uniform. "With our limited resources we manage to use our brains to imagine a solution. Well, I am a failure. I have never invented anything, the only thing I was ever good at was battle, and that is why I was assigned as the leader of the defence force; a soldier who has nothing but his battle skills to hold dear, the perfect man to put on the battlefield." A tear appeared on his pink face.

Nomu undid his uniform revealing an unimaginable number of scars on his body. Adei was silent. She simply observed her newfound ally, wondering if she should try to comfort him. In her moment of wonder, consciousness slipped away from her grasp.