Chapter 3: The Desert

In an effort to keep his head on his shoulders and keep his hide where he could use it, Beck decided he would get his sorry excuse for a carcass out to the Ionic Wasteland that the Folk of Swallow, good and not so good alike, referred to at The Iridescent Sea. That was a bit of sport, because as everyone knows, seas are made of water. The Iridescent Sea ain’t got no water; Just hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of rough, slightly glowing sand. And that weren’t all either.

Outside the reach of the pastures and the treated meadows where the livestock were raised, there was some kind of an oppression, a palpable terror, that hung over that desert wasteland. The drifters who lived out that way for any length of time knew it too. They started to go mad. They started to see things that no one should have to see and do things that no one should have to do in the name of survival. Beck was about to learn the things that were necessary to make it in that place, and he was about to surprise even his own jaded waste of a self.

Once Beck reached the edge of the Iridescent Sea, he was held in wonder. The horizon stretched out before him for what seemed like an eternity. For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but the pinkish sand that made up the prismatic delight. At the edge of sight, the tiniest dot drew Beck’s attention. He enhanced it with his telescopic eye. It still was too far to make out. He enhanced it again. Beck was still unable to clearly make out what was in the distance. He enhanced a third time, then the image in the distance became recognizable.

A tower of natural obsidian rock ascended from the dancing glow of the luminescent sands, as if it were erupting through the crust of the ground. Beck knew it was a trick of the light, but it seemed the tower was moving. Ever so slowly, and ever so powerfully, the tower advanced into the air around it. But everyone knows that giant obelisks of stone don’t move. So Beck didn’t pay that no never mind. Not wanting to draw too much attention, Beck chose to head off on foot toward the Obsidian Monolith.

Despite his display at the Dovetail, Beck was made for roughing it in terrain like this: The scorch of the Suns, the bluster of the win, the razor sharp sting of flying glass shards. No, in fact Beck was completely unprepared for that feature of the terrain. He wrapped his shawl around himself and kept it close to make his skin more resilient to the onslaught and marched on into the growing haze and murderous sandstorm. He toughed through and made it to the other side. If nothing else, Beck was a survivor. He had seen hard times come and go, hard times that made this time look like a cool sunny day down by the water with a pretty lady at his side. But there was no pretty lady to be found. Just waves of salt crystals finding their way to the newfound sores in Beck’s skin from the torrent of glass shards that had preceded. He kept himself focused, held his resolve. With nightfall came the Bats.

Now, the Bats on Xerxes-7 are known throughout the Xerxes system as being the biggest damn leather winged two headed chitin shell having monsters the ‘verse ever spawned. Beck heard one screech then another. They were using the screeches as locator beacons. The bats were hunting. You may have heard of Bats that feed on livestock or bats that feed on humans. Hell, you may have even heard stories about Bats that take Human Form to enact a brand of justice. But this ain’t that kind of story. This is a story about biggest damn leather winged two headed chitin clangers the world of Xerxes-7 or any other since had ever seen or heard of. Phew. Now that is a mouthful. As I was saying…

Beck heard the Bats getting a bead on his location. He waited till they got good and damn close then, he fired off a flare from his Blaster then ran off in the opposite direction. The Bats, moving under the cover of night and being Nocturnal creatures, were blinded by the light. With nowhere to go, and no hope of outrunning these winged terrors, he made a last ditch effort and went for broke. Beck ran closer to one of the disoriented Bats and waited for all seven long meters of it to swoop down and flail in his direction. One finally did, so he took his chance. Beck grabbed on by the foot and swung himself around so he was positioned on its back. Grabbing two big hunks of fur from in between the chitinous plates, Beck was able to fashion some kind of a rudimentary piloting system. Beck was starting to figure that all that time riding Lizard Hawks as a youngster may have just payed off.

The Bat made short time for the Obelisk under Beck’s madcap direction. With a spur in its, side, he dismounted. That way, the beast would skedaddle off into the Iridescent Sea and away from its recent captor. Beck had reached his destination, a destination that seemed unreachable a mere few hours ago. With the help of perseverance, elbow grease, and a little help from the fauna, Beck was able to reach his endpoint and possibly his salvation.