Luminous Ascent [Chapter One]

The harsh Sun was beating down onto the vast dunes of the Expanse, the blinding light reflecting off the crystalline sand. A party of two, clad head to toe in fire-proof wraps, are slowly trudging through the sand.   “Hey Jack, how long have we been out here?” a feminine voice asks while trying to cover her eyes from harsh rays of the sun.   “It’s been two days so far, we have around fifty days left if I can recall. Hopefully we can find the castle before the time runs out, for your sake, Cassy. We’ve found nothing so far; nothing but sand.”   “Yeah, it’d be nice if we were able to actually find something. It doesn’t help that this light is bright. At least we have these goggles.”     Three days prior in the outskirts of the sands of the Expanse a group of travellers were on their way to the town. The sand was blowing lightly when Cassy and Jack walked by them. The few travellers hailed the two over.   “Hoy there young ones,” said the travellers in unison. Each traveller donned similar fireproof wraps coated in a black and crimson pattern of paint. The pattern was alternating on each and every strip of fabric. Each one of them carried knapsacks on sticks. “Care to buy any wares?”   “What do you have?” questioned Cassy with reluctance. The travellers only speaking in unison sent shivers down the duo’s spines.   “Kick it boys! Ava, activate music!” exclaimed the travelers. As soon as they yelled, something in one of the bags began to blast a hip-hop track mixed with dubstep.   The travellers made a show of releasing their bags to the ground and setting up shop. This had Cassy and Jack staring on in awe. Accompanying the setting up of the shop, the travelers did a small break-dancing sequence.   As the music stopped, they guestered to the makeshift shop on the ground. “So you two, see anything you like? We have advanced goggles, fusion rings, a mysterious red book with a golden hand on it, severed hands, edibles, and more!”   The pair stood there looking through all the wares. They were surprised and disgusted at some of the wares.   “Hey Cassy, we should buy some severed hands,” said Jack, jokingly. He grabbed one of the hands and waved it at her.   “No, no we shouldn’t. Get that hand away from me,” said Cassy, scowling.   Before they could decide on anything, the lights on the sides of a pair of goggles began to pulse, calling out to them.   “What do these do?” questioned Cassy upon seeing the goggles.   “They’re for landscape observation among other things. One pair has a highly advanced A.I., and the other pairs only have the primitive technology,” explained the travelers, once again in unison.   Jack and Cassy looked at each other and nodded in approval under the trance of the goggles lights. They knew that they would need assistance to be able to navigate the desert ahead.   “We’ll take two pairs of goggles. One with the A.I. and one without,” said Cassy.   “Alrighty then. That’ll be 102 for the A.I and 52 for the normal goggles... So you’ll be paying around 154 in total. Just pay here,” said one of the travellers, this being the first time they didn’t speak in unison. The traveller that spoke alone pulled out a tablet and waved of one of the two to pay.   Cassy walked over to the tablet and swiped her armband over the tablet’s screen. A message verifying the purchase appeared upon the screen. As she was doing that, the remaining travellers had helped Jack load the goggles into his bag for safe keeping.   “Will that be all, you two?” asked the travelers, once again in unison.   “Well will it be Jack?”   “Yeah, unless…” Jack smirked at Cassy. “You sure you don’t want the severed hands?”   “I’m sure,” said Cassy, while grabbing Jack’s hand to begin to leave the makeshift market and travellers. “Thank you, travellers. We’ll be sure to take good care of the goggles, maybe we’ll buy some more stuff in the future if we meet again.”   “That’s unlikely, but take care you two! Ernyvgl vf oraqvat, or pnershy!” shouted the travellers.   “See ya!” shouted Jack and Cassy while walking away, confused at the sentence the travellers closed their sentences with.   “I don’t know what they meant by that last sentence they said. I don’t even know what they said, but I feel like it's important,” said Cassy in a confused manner.   “Me too, and I can’t say for sure, but I feel like we’ll find out soon enough.”     Cassy recalled trying to figure out how to activate the goggles soon after buying them, three days prior. She began to brush her hair out of her eyes and then pressed the button on the goggles.   A digital grid on the inside of the goggles’ lens had appeared, and the edges of the goggles began to emit a light glow. An electric voice spoke up, its sudden presence surprising Jack. “Hello madam Cassandra, what do you need me to do?”   “Ava, activate land-synchronization,” said Cassy.   “Land-synchronization activated. Scanning for any signs of life,” denoted Ava cheerily, her smooth exterior lights pulsing like a heartbeat. “Life signs detected!”   The group stopped walking and threw their bags onto the ground in a rush. They had to shed the weight of their bags so they could have a full range of motion. Their bags slowly started to burn, but neither party member seemed to give a care. The situation at hand needed to be assessed because there were bigger things at stake if there are life forms detected.   As Cassy looked through her goggles, she saw outlines depicting the life forms that Ava had detected. Each outline was in the shape of a squid, no bigger than a medium-sized dog, each one of the squid-like beings were floating in mid air, seemingly grouped together in some form of school. Cassy motioned for Jack to turn on his goggles.   Jack pressed the button on his goggles, causing an identical grid to appear. The edges of his goggles began to light up similarly to Ava, but no voice cried out. The goggles were silent as they had been when they were off. Jack repeated the land-synchronization command that Cassy had used, causing outlines to begin appearing on his screen.   The squid-like beings were seemingly moving in a pack, as there was an immense amount of them. They were slowly moving in circles around a massive heat signature that was hotter than anything else in this blazing desert.   “Ava, can you tell us how many beings there are?” questioned Jack and Cassy in unison.   “There are seventy-two beings. They are all moving at a pace of two meters per second in a circle.”   “Do you know what they’re moving around?” asked Cassy as she stared in the direction of the massive heat signature. As she was staring at the heat signature, both of the bags caught fire on the ground next to them. “Shit!”   Before the group could do anything, the fire lit up the crystalline sand around them, causing a blinding light. The luminosity of which was strong enough to puncture the protective light-guard on the goggles. A rumble came from deep beneath them as the sand began to melt into a cascading slide downwards off of the side of the dune.   Cassy and Jack, blinded by the light and caught off balance by the slip-slide of melted sand, toppled downwards with the sand.   Jack was dragged by the current of the slide, nearly avoiding being thrown into the quicksand-like pool at the bottom. As he hit the ground at the bottom, he fell unconscious due to the blazing heat and the trauma he endured when his motion stopped.   Cassy was not as lucky as Jack. She was pulled into the quicksand at the bottom of the dune, rapidly being pulled under, inch by inch. She struggled and tried reaching out to find Jack in a panic, but could not feel him.   “JACK, WHERE ARE YOU?” screamed Cassy at the top of her lungs, as the sand made its way around her neck. She had gotten no response to her call, and tears began forming at her eyes. Worry enveloped her mind as she started wondering if Jack was already under the sand, or worse, dead. Before she could do anything else, her head was sucked under.   She held her breath as she descended, feeling an immense amount of pressure as she was totally engulfed by the sand until complete blackness. She fell unconscious.