The First War Mage: City in the Sky

The next few days went by without issue, with the two of us making good time. Traveling while it was dark out so that we could avoid daily patrols on the busier roads that we continually managed to run across whilst moving south. During the day we took turns resting and keeping watch, avoiding the hunting creatures of the day.

This method of travel let us move reliably and quickly through the jungle, only taking a total of four days for us to start seeing the trees begin to gradually thin out. What had been a near impassable overgrowth was rapidly fading away into a looser forest with smaller trees and less shrubs, well trodden trails where prey animals kept the growth trimmed and pressed down gave us easy paths to move through speeding up our journey even further.

We had just woken up to what we hoped would be our last evening in the jungle. After a moment of discussion we spent some time to prepare for the desert that could already be seen coming to life under foot, as dirt slowly turned lighter into a sandy gravel covering.

"What all do we have now?" I heard Tulip ask from a small distance away as I returned with a pile of scrap wood that fell from the bushes and brambles, alongside a few larger leaves from massive ferns. There wasn't really much scavenging we could do, and I was still left rather clueless as to what she planned with them.

"Sticks, leaves, foliage... Not sure how any of this is useful but we have it." I recounted all of the items collected as I set down the remaining items in my arms into the pile.

"Alright, and we still have the rope that Helina gave us?" Tulip asked as she returned with a handful of rocks, I couldn't help but be left clueless for what she was planning.

"Yea, its still in my ring... Which is almost full now from all of this junk." I sighed, at least I wasn't carrying my bag around now thanks to the Spacial Ring Helina had given to me, Tulip had opted to do the same to save herself the energy. Of which she somehow wasn't lacking in the slightest. "Why are we gathering all of this?"

"I don't fancy laying in sand, and we didn't get any bedrolls from Helina. So we're going to be able to make some, makeshift things to lay off of the sand with. And, well we need something to burn in the desert where I'm not expecting much foliage to scavenge." Tulip answered, she placed her hand on the pile of items and started to take all of it into her ring which had remained largely unused besides her own bag.

Strangely enough with the rings, it only counted the bag as the item taking up space, and nothing that was held within the bag. Though I didn't really test if putting more things inside of the bag would help save more space since I still had enough to not be worried about it yet.

"Doesn't make much of a difference to me..." I sighed, looking up the sun was just past the horizon, casting everything in long shadows. It was time for us to start moving, though likely we would have to switch to moving during the day in the desert from the lack of guidance without the sun. "Sand is definitely more comfortable than stone."

"Yea well one of us isn't used to that, and quite honestly I don't want sand in places where it doesn't belong." Tulip replied with some snark, pushing herself to stand she started walking at an even pace, I kept up beside her, opting to stay silent. Time passed at a snails pace in the silence, only broken by the occasional dim flash of one of us pulling something from the rings, most of the time just to get a sip of water. We already knew to ration it out, which was the worst part of this entire journey so far.

It didn't take long after the sun passed the horizon for it to be utterly dark out, the blueish black tint of night covering everything in shadows that blended together, barely broken up by the luminous moon overhead, bouncing silver light down from the sky across the stony ground. The sound of wind shifting brambles and bushes around could be heard as the breeze pushed at our backs, with nothing to talk about we remained silent for practically the entire evening, until the first vestiges of sand began to show around us.

It wasn't so much of a hard shift that I had expected to see the desert, but rather a gradual change as less and less foliage sat around and the rocks grew smaller and smaller into nothing but small grains.

"What was your life like, growing up?" Tulip asked out of nowhere, her gaze remained forwards only shifting towards me for a moment when she spoke.

"What do you mean?- I grew up in a prison cell, there isn't much interesting stuff that happens there." I replied with the confusion more than audible in my voice.

"I mean before that, you did have some time outside of that before anyone found you and your dad..." Tulip asked, her tone fell lower as she spoke, as if feeling awkward over the topic.

"I don't really remember any of it... I don't remember my parents faces, I don't remember learning anything from them. I know I had to have learnt something given I can walk and talk, but pretty much other than one or two recurring memories, I don't remember anything before then." I sighed, looking down at the ground for a moment before looking forwards. "I can't really miss something I don't remember, but I know I definitely wish I could remember them. What about you? Must be something interesting happening in all those years in a castle." I continued on.

"It was just a lot of being 'Prim and Proper', can't have a princess who doesn't know how to be that... Especially when I only have one little sister, so I was raised to be an heir, while she got to be a child and enjoy her life. I just got lucky with magic, in that I was pretty good with it, and that pretty good made a lot of people convince my father to actually let me through and into Silver Sky. And now, here we are." Tulip spoke with a forced smile. "Lost half way across the world, probably being hunted by slavers still, stuck in a nation with people who hate us, and we're about to go marching across a giant desert."

"Well when you put it like that it almost sounds pleasant." I retorted with a little grin, the sun was coming up behind us, and I could feel myself barely staying awake already after so much time spent walking.

Yet, we kept going as we neared the top of a moderate hill, it ended abruptly in a massive, sand covered slope that lead downwards. A fine line where the grasslands ended, and the desert began. As far as I could see, it was nothing but featureless, golden sand, shifting around in the wind.

"I wouldn't call any part of this pleasant, running for our lives. Only lucky that we've gotten through here this far." Tulip muttered, shaking her head. "Lets get down the hill and find a spot to rest, we'll have time to rest extra so we can start practicing with the swords... Since I don't expect you can just swing it around and call it good enough." Tulip continued. "It's gonna be a long next few days, at least we're here in the winter when its less brutally hot out."

I gave her a nod, no real sense in arguing with her that I would be hopeless with a sword. With the dawn rapidly setting in we got to work setting up a little camp. Using the rope, and the branches, leaves, and other assorted items we had to work with. Pulling them together we made a sort of makeshift structure in the shape of a decently sized tent, the way it was shaped we could break it down fairly easily if it didn't just go straight into the rings.

It had been days since we had last seen another creature, or any patrols, so for the time being we decided to just both rest at the same time so we could be functioning on the same schedule properly.

Sleep was quick to greet us both, though it was far from a comfortable rest as the sun moved higher in the sky, bearing its hatred down on us from above. Even in the early vestiges of winter where we were, this desert was going to be brutally hot during the day. But even more brutally cold at night, with no way to tell where we're going it would just lead to us being utterly lost. I was thankful to have rest without being terrorized by dreams.

By midday I found myself incapable of resting still, pushing myself to stand, careful to not wake up Tulip, I left the tent, finding a spot a small ways away I sat.

I closed my eyes, feeling the dry heat assaulting my body from every direction, and even dryer wind trying to steal the moisture from my body as it blew by. With the sun direct overhead the heat was impossible to not feel, and even harder to ignore as I tried to focus inwards.

Though I was pretty quickly pulled away from trying to focus inwards as I heard Tulip shift the tent around, clearing her throat as she pushed herself to stand.

"Ugh this is miserable out." Tulip muttered, pulling a few brambles from her ring to get a fire going. She looked over to me for a moment, sighing as the dry branches kept breaking in her hands. "Could you try and light this?..."

"I don't know how successful I'll be... Only seems like I'm good at blowing things up." I shrugged, I didn't bother to stand, just shifting forwards across the sand on my knees, I looked to my hand, trying desperately to push mana towards it.

It was still hard for me to tell apart pure mana, or my seemingly 'attuned' mana. They looked near identical, and felt much the same, yet I knew they were two different parts of the same whole. I clenched my hand down as I felt a strange, tingling heat while my palm began to almost glow, exuding a soft blue hue. I pushed the energy further, yet it refused to obey. Entire minutes passed, and when my mana completely retreated back into my body I fell back with an annoyed huff.

"Ugh... This isn't working at all." I practically whined out as I shuck the still tingling feeling out of my hand. "I don't know how I managed to do that... At all..."

"And you're not precise enough with a burst to light it..." Tulip sighed, taking a stick back into her hand she continued rubbing the two together, trying her best to get something heated up. After a few more seconds I sat back up, having to shake my head a little to get the sand out of my hair.

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna give up." I said with some marginal determination in my voice. I looked back to my hand, trying to bring back the tingling sensation, it didn't take as long for my palm to start glowing this time, and I could hear a subtle, very quiet buzzing noise, not unlike that of a sizzling pan.

I didn't want to risk pushing too much out, so I shifted my hand around, placing it on the pile of brambles. A series of sizzling pops could be heard before embers started to spark off of the edges of the leaves and twigs. Pulling my hand back I couldn't help but smile as I looked at the fire.

"I actually did it. Huh." My voice betrayed the utter lack of hope I had in myself to succeed.

"Finally I don't have to keep tearing up my hands to start a fire..." Tulip sighed with relief, a thankful look spread across her face as she brought out a pan, and a few of the rations from Helina.

I let the smile sit on my face for a few moments as the fire heated up, before long we were eating. And short after that, Tulip pulled two wooden training blades from her ring.