[coronatiger]

Xipil asked Milen if he would be our guide here in the desert, paid of course. He agreed, once I promised to deliver him safely home and protect him from the ants. I told him we had found a way to trick the ants into believing we were their friends, and smeared some ant oil on him. Xipil asked him what dangers we needed to watch out for in the desert, and Milen explained that it was safest to hide during the day and be active at night. We should use fine-meshed netting to prevent insect bites.

We dug up the star box and proceeded towards the mesa. Milen’s friends had taken off with all their equipment. We sat down in the mesa’s shade and ate. Lunari tried to milk the ants like Sly had showed us, but he didn’t get the hang of it, so he ordered Xipil to do it instead. Lunari had his spear back, and was in command mode. I reburied the star box.

Xipil climbed the mesa and returned to tell us what he found. It was greener up there, but there were no plants large enough to hold the weight of climbers on a rope. He borrowed Grogg’s axe head, thinking he could fasten it in a crevice and tie the rope to that. With the rope, Lunari and I managed to get up as well, and Milen tied our packs to the end of the rope so we could get our stuff up, under Grogg’s supervision, of course. Milen didn’t want to remain below with the ants when Xipil, Lunari and I planned to remain up there for some time, so Xipil and I pulled him up. His injuries prevented him from climbing.

Lunari wasn’t too keen on having Milen for a witness, so I suggested that he should instruct Grogg to send up the needle, so we could put him to sleep. I was more interested in sharing its healing powers, but didn’t say that out loud. Anyway, Grogg refused to let the needle go unless Lunari threw down the spear first. Needless to say, Lunari didn’t let go of that voluntarily. I pitched my tent and sat down in the shade with Milen; Lunari and Xipil tried to get some sleep, as they were going to stay up all night to fill the star box. The ground up here was rocky, but I buried the box as best I could.

Milen, in his mid-twenties, told me this was his second year of hunting in the desert. Ato, the leader of his expedition, had picked him after he had excelled in the “hero games” last year. I learned that the Aldera family paid the winners of these village games generously, and that the prize money had outfitted Milen for these hunting expeditions. On a hunch, I asked Milen if he had heard of someone called “the prophet in the south”, but the title was unfamiliar to him.

Lunari was sleeping soundly when the sun approached the horizon, so I walked over and touched his spear. I didn’t feel anything, not even an urge to take it away from him. I woke Xipil and Lunari, but Milen asked if it was all right if he went to sleep. I thought that was a good idea; rest was what he needed now.

The star box was finally empty, and Xipil discussed with Lunari how to charge it. They agreed to stay with the box for half-hour shifts, alternating between charging the box and resting. I asked anxiously if there was anything I could do, and they told me to keep watch. That, I could do. Lunari also thought they might need medical treatment afterwards. My eyebrows rose with surprise, but I promised I’d patch them up if it came to that.

I walked the perimeter of the mesa, and noticed that Grogg had gone to sleep among the ants below. I stayed clear of the star box, which slowly gathered up light. After two hours, it shone as bright as a lantern. After four hours, it was nearly as bright as day up on the mesa, and Milen woke up. I told him that the magical experiment the others were performing wasn’t harmful, although it was uncomfortable to look directly at the box. Milen turned his back on the box and swore he wouldn’t tell anyone about what he’d seen. The light confused the small birds that lived up here, and some of them even seemed intoxicated. I understood Milen’s sentiment.

The entire box-filling process took eight hours, and the light grew brighter and brighter. At the end, even Grogg in the shade at the foot of the mesa was surrounded by daylight. When the box was completely filled up, though, it stopped glowing. I breathed a sigh of relief, watching Lunari put the glassy contraption into its bigger, wooden container. That container was not to be opened, he instructed. Milen, who hadn’t struck me as particularly devout, was praying fervently to Azura for protection.


4th of Rama, year 412

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

We refreshed our ant oil, but Milen still wanted me to go down first. Our equipment came next. Xipil tied the star box carefully to the end of the rope, but it slipped out of his hands and plummeted towards the ground. I tried to catch it, but I wasn’t fast enough, so the box crashed onto the rocks, exploding in a shower of wooden splinters. Astonishingly, the glass-like apparatus inside was intact, not even a scratch showed. I lifted it up carefully and placed it inside my backpack. Lunari and Milen joined me on the ground. Lunari gathered up the wooden splinters and took the apparatus from my pack, going a little distance away before repairing the wooden box with magic.

Lunari lay down to rest; he had been reeling from the exertion of charging the box, and the spellcasting he just did wasn’t effortless either. The loud crash had woken Grogg, and he walked over to Lunari and tried to take the spear. A fight ensued. Milen was scared and cowered behind me, but I could see that Lunari and Grogg weren’t really trying to kill each other. Grogg just tried to grab the spear and rip it out of Lunari’s grip; Lunari tried to trip the troll. Neither of them were successful in their attempts. I watched with interest while Xipil free-climbed down the cliff face.

The warhorse thought that Lunari was in danger, and tried to intervene, slamming Grogg to the ground and trampling his leg. Grogg got up again, anger gleaming in his eyes, but I still reassured Milen that it was just a friendly scuffle. Lunari started using the sharp end of the spear when Grogg punched the horse in the face. Grogg was still reluctant to use deadly force against Lunari, but once the troll was reeling from his wounds, Lunari ran away, causing the troll to snap. Grogg took off his helmed and hurled it at Lunari’s fleeing backside. The elf crashed to the ground, and Grogg sat down, making it clear that he was done fighting.

Lunari would be sitting gingerly for some time to come, so I asked if he wanted first aid. He declined the offer, so confident with the spear in his hands, but Grogg didn’t, so I bandaged his arms, where Lunari had stabbed him.

I winced on Lunari’s behalf, when he climbed the horse. He had decided that he wanted a break from Grogg’s company, so he ordered us to meet him in Nadder and took off. Grogg waved and called after him, “Good fight!”

The rest of us had breakfast, watching the ants devour one of those armored lizards that Milen had been hunting. Then we headed for Nadder. As both Milen and Grogg were reeling, we didn’t move very fast. Xipil lay in his cradle on one of the ants, and asked Grogg if he could borrow the magic needle. When we stopped for the night, I removed the needle from the sleeping lizard man and returned it to Grogg, who needed it more. Milen offered to stay awake to keep watch, but I didn’t trust him enough for that, so I told Xipil that he and I should split the night’s watch in two. Xipil had to take the first half, as I had stayed awake all through the experiment last night.

O Ashtar! I surrender my life to Your coils. Take me while I sleep, or grant me another day in Your service, as You will.