A Wandering Youth

Глава 52

VII. Desert Hurricane

This is a tall white horse.

I clung tightly to the horse's neck as it galloped away, with a group of people chasing after me. I could hear the deafening sound of its hooves hitting the ground.

"Hurry! Hurry! We can't let them catch up with me!" I pressed my face against the white horse's beautiful mane; its skin was warm.

Give me some sense of security.

I was wearing a long red dress with many pleats that billowed as the horse galloped.

The horse galloped at incredible speed, crossing meadows and treading through marshes, always racing at breakneck speed, no matter what lay ahead. As it crossed rivers, water splashed onto me; as it passed through forests, branches snagged my clothes…

But the pursuers were always not far behind.

I could no longer tell which way was which, and simply entrusted my life to the white horse I was riding.

"Don't worry, Alido, I'll take you to a safe place," I seemed to hear the white horse say to me.

"Mmm," I replied, clinging tightly to the white horse. During this escape, I had developed an incredibly close relationship with it, and I believed it was taking me to safety.

Suddenly, a cliff appeared not far ahead!

The white horse couldn't stop and charged straight ahead! Its front hooves had already missed the ground!

Just then, the white horse suddenly reared up! It stood in front of the cliff and neighed!

Ahead was a precipice, below which stretched an endless sea; behind me were my pursuers, their hoofbeats and shouts growing ever closer…

I woke up from a state of extreme fear, and at that moment I felt as if the person chasing me was right behind me.

I took a few breaths and saw that Shuiying was still sleeping soundly, so I got up, quietly stepped over the kerata at the entrance, lifted the low-hanging tent flap, and went outside. It was really cold outside, and I shivered.

A piece of clothing was draped over my shoulders, and when I turned around, I saw Kurada standing behind me.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

"Mmm," I replied softly.

The moonlight outside is so beautiful; it feels like I'm still in a dream.

“I also often have nightmares, and I often dream that I am buried under the sand and can’t breathe.” Kurada smiled. He actually looks really handsome when he smiles, but I would never say that to him. “I think it’s probably because I’m subconsciously afraid that one day I will die in the desert, be buried here, and never be able to go home again.”

"I also often have nightmares about suffocation."

Looking into the distance, I suddenly noticed several black dots not far away, which looked like a row of people riding horses.

“What do you see there?” I asked Kurada gently, pointing into the distance.

“They look like people on horseback, wait a minute.” As he spoke, Kurada crawled into the tent, took out a pair of binoculars, looked at the dark dots, and then handed the binoculars to me. “It’s really strange. I’ve never seen those people in the desert before, and the clothes they’re wearing aren’t local attire.”

I took the binoculars and saw a row of five people dressed in long black robes that almost completely covered the horse. Their hats were metal, domed, with two horn-like wings that flew up on either side. This reminded me of the strange man I saw outside the window on my first day at the inn; their hats were almost identical in shape, except these five men's hats weren't as tall as that strange man's, nor were they adorned with as many jewels.

“They seem to be spying on us,” I said to Kurada.

“Yes,” Kurada said. “Don’t wander off. I’m going to check on the sentries and tell them to be extra careful.”

“I’ll go with you, okay?” I grabbed Kurada’s arm, a little scared.

Kurada looked down at me and said, "Do you know that you look more like a woman right now?" He grinned silently, and my face flushed red.

When Kurada and I returned from our rounds, the five men in black in the desert were gone.

"Get some sleep, we have a long journey ahead tomorrow." Kurada pulled me into the tent. After I lay down, I quietly turned to look at him and found him watching me in the darkness. I quickly closed my eyes, and it seemed I could see Kurada grinning silently again. Does this guy really love to laugh? The next day, Kurada and his bandits set off with us.

"Which way should we go now?" Kurada asked me from his horse.

“West!” I said to Kurada with certainty.

Shuiying and I rode on camels. Apart from some necessary daily necessities and digging tools, most of the things we brought were left at the Kurada camp.

Kurada waved, and the group began to head west.

At that moment, I felt the beetle in the crystal box I was wearing around my neck stirring again.

Am I walking step by step into danger?

The further west I went, the stronger a certain feeling in my body became, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. In the darkness, I felt the calling voice growing clearer.

By afternoon, the beetle in the crystal box began to stir violently again. I held the crystal box in my hand and could feel it throbbing in my palm. "My darling, what danger might befall it?" I silently asked it.

"Look!" a robber suddenly shouted.

I slowly turned my face and was stunned by the sight before me.

The northern sky was filled with thick, dark clouds. On the horizon, a massive band of yellow dust, resembling a dragon, was rolling towards us at incredible speed! This dust column, like the reaping drum of a giant harvester, stretched endlessly to the east and west. The dark clouds seemed to spread forward with the dust band, creating a strange spectacle overhead: half the sky was clear, while the other half was shrouded in dark clouds, as if darkness had descended in an instant.

I was terrified, staring blankly as the sandstorm rolled toward us, about to engulf us.

"Run east! Quickly! The sand dune we just passed has a concave area at the bottom; everyone go there!" Kurada shouted the order.

Everyone turned and ran towards the sand dune to the east. Shuiying's camel was led by a bandit, and the camel followed behind the horse, running with all its might.

I'm still in a daze.

Kurada ran over and pulled my camel up, and the camel started running alongside Kurada's horse.

"Ah!" The camel's sudden start caught me off guard, and I wobbled and fell off the camel.

When I scrambled out of the sand, everyone had already run far away, and no one noticed that I had fallen from the camel. "Hey!" I shouted in terror at their retreating backs, but the howling of the approaching hurricane behind me drowned out my cries for help.

No one turned around.

"It's over!" I turned to look at the sandstorm, swirling in the hurricane and hurtling towards me. I collapsed to my knees on the sand, and the beetle in the crystal box seemed to be thumping against it. I could feel the creature's desire to escape.

"No! I can't just wait to die like this!" This thought popped into my head as I watched the storm getting closer and closer.

I got up from the sand and was about to turn and run east when suddenly someone grabbed my waist from behind.

"Mount up!" It's Kurada!

I turned and hugged Kurada, using the strength of his arm to leap up, my upper body looming over the horse's back. The horse didn't stop, galloping eastward. Lying on its back, I saw a hurricane from the north, whipping up sand and dust, chasing after the horse.

The sand dune that Kurada had mentioned appeared ahead, but the dust storm, like a harvester, had already caught up with the horse's tail!

"Hold on tight!" Kurada shouted, looking back at the sandstorm rushing towards us.

The howling wind was rather harsh.

I had just hugged Kurada when the hurricane and sandstorm swept us up. The sand and wind whipped at my face like a whipping, and my exposed skin felt like it had been cut by a knife.

The horse beneath him neighed, too weak to fight against the overwhelming sandstorm and hurricane, and collapsed with a thud.

When the horse fell, Kurada and I were thrown off. As we landed on the sand, I felt something hard hit me, and then I passed out. I had a headache, everything went black, and I felt suffocated.

I slowly woke up with this feeling.

I don't know when the hurricane stopped. I can't hear any sound. I just feel a heavy feeling on my body. I want to turn over, but I can't push away the heavy objects pressing on me.

I started to have difficulty breathing, and the feeling of suffocation came over me again.

I struggled for a moment, then fell into unconsciousness again.

"In the name of God!" a loud voice proclaimed. "In the name of God!" Behind it followed the voices of countless tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions. Then they began to sing, a melody I couldn't understand. The tune was strange; to me, the syllables defied all musical rules, making the sound harsh and abrupt, piercing my eardrums. The singing was brief, ending with the same voices reciting a sentence in the same tone as the singing. That sentence shook my eardrums like thunder, making me want to cover my ears immediately.

I covered my ears with my hands, and then I heard some distant yet familiar voices: "Purple Promise! Purple Promise!"

"She just moved."

"Give her some more water."

Some water got into my mouth, and my eyes felt dry, but I still tried my best to open them.

"Zi Yue! You're awake!"

"Hmm." The sunlight shone on my face, and I turned my head with difficulty, then saw Shuiying and Kurada, as well as the group of bandits led by Kurada.

I forced a smile at them.

My head still aches faintly, and my limbs feel like they're about to fall apart, both sore and numb.

"Are you alright? Is anything bothering you?" Shuiying asked anxiously.

"I'm fine, just aches all over." I moved my arms and then tried to sit up. A hand supported me, and Kurada helped me up. I gave him a grateful smile.

“If it doesn’t work out, let’s rest here for the night. The hurricane just now has changed the terrain of the desert, and I’m afraid it will be more difficult for us to find the ancient city later,” Kurada said to me.

“No, keep going west. I can feel it; the ancient city isn’t far away.” As I said this, the beetle in the crystal box jumped again.

We set off to continue westward.

The sky had completely cleared of clouds and become sunny again. I really can't understand the unpredictable desert climate.

Shuiying and I rode on one camel, while Kurada rode on my camel; his horse was dead.

I still have some headaches and tinnitus, and those voices of many people seem to be more than just in my dreams. I can always faintly hear those voices. Sometimes they sound like calls, sometimes like a jumble of noises, and sometimes they are things that I can't understand at all, but they don't sound like a language.

The beetle in the crystal box was constantly restless, and occasionally the restlessness would become more intense.

My heart was pounding. All these unusual images meant that I had chosen the right direction, and perhaps it wouldn't be long before I found the ancient city.

"Look!" a robber suddenly shouted at us, pointing into the distance.

"What's that?" We all looked in the direction the bandit was pointing. On the distant horizon, something much higher than the surrounding desert appeared, but we couldn't make out what it was. Kurada raised his binoculars.

My heart pounded even harder when I saw that strange thing. The sun was already setting behind the desert, painting it with golden-red light. That thing suddenly appeared in our sight, and instinctively, I knew that was where the ancient city was, because I heard those voices, and that voice that was always the clearest—all the voices saying the same thing: "You're finally back! Alidodona!"

“It’s a small, domed house!” Kurada reported to us. “It looks like it’s made of stone.” As he spoke, Kurada handed us the binoculars.

Shuiying took the binoculars, looked at them, and then handed them back to me.

I held the binoculars up to my eyes, and the beetles in the crystal box seemed to be jumping violently. The stone-built domed structure resembled a pavilion, but many times larger than a typical pavilion, supported by several thick stone pillars. This structure stood abruptly in the desert.

"Have you seen this before?" I asked Kurada, turning to him.

“No,” Kurada said with certainty.

"I've lived in the desert for over thirty years, watching it devour countless places, but I've never seen anything like this before," a bandit said in bewilderment.

"Could it be something that was buried under the sand before, and the sand on top was blown away by the hurricane just now, so it appeared?" another bandit chimed in.

"Hmm." I pondered for a moment. "I have a feeling that the ancient city is not far from here. I wonder if this building is related to the ancient city."

“That’s perfect, let’s rest and spend the night under that stone house,” Kurada gave the order.

All the bandits cheered and rode their horses toward the hut. I suddenly felt that the joys and sorrows of these bandits were so simple, because they would be happy just to find a place to rest. I don't know why, but my opinion of these bandits changed.

"Do you really think these people want to be robbers?" Kurada seemed to read my mind. "They used to be peaceful people, making a living by their own labor, but the desert has gradually encroached on their land." Kurada said with some sadness.