Chapter Text
Deep in the desert, Wanderer was accompanying Albedo on a trip with Durin happily tailing the two of them. The sun was high in the sky and the heat could make any regular person’s blood boil inside them as if they were a pot on a hot stove, but neither of these beings were truly people; Durin was a small dragon born of a book and deep feelings, Albedo was made of chalk and the Wanderer was a puppet of some kind. Who also happened to wear a large hat that coincidentally protected his body from the sun.
Durin happily flies around Wanderer’s shoulders before coming to land on his hat, resting there at the top and staring out at the vast expanse of desert dunes. “Wow! This isn’t anything like Dragonspine OR the mines!”
“It’s not supposed to be like either.” Wanderer bluntly replied, kicking up sand as he walked alongside Albedo. “For one Dragonspine is a giant ass mountain that’s a far way from here in Sumeru, and this particular area happens to have a completely different geographical climate.”
“Geographical climate?.. that word, it’s so big” the little creature snorted, hopping off of Wanderer’s hat and flying himself to Albedo, perching on his shoulder instead. “What’s a.. gee -oh grapic climate? Is that a creature that makes sand?”
Albedo chuckles at the idea of such a thing, reaching out and scratching Durin’s head as he informs; “That’s an excellent question. Really, all it means is that a desert would be the exact opposite of a snowing mountain. Where one is dry and hot, the other can be damp at times, and is always cold.”
“Heeh! I think I get it now, so it’s like different kinds of weather?”
“That’s… it has to do with weather, yes.”
Wanderer let out a sort of scoff at the notion, mostly amused by Durin’s questioning of their reality and how weather and climates work out. They’ve been traveling out here long enough that now nothing else is entertaining him. Not the vast expanse of nothingness they’ve come across, the lack of dead shrubs or natural desert life, even rock formations. No, the ominous force of dread he feels pulling him to the side isn’t even phasing him anymore.
Ominous force of dread ? Is that really what he should call it? Maybe it was more like intuition, or he was getting the feeling they were supposed find something. His body comes to a halt in the sand and he turns his head, inspecting a strange patch of sand off in the near distance. The warping of his sight caused by the heat seemed… off, at least something in Wanderer’s head was saying so. Something about it felt otherworldly, his legs beginning to move and take him a few steps in that direction.
Albedo stops and glances at him. “What’s up?”
not missing a beat, Wanderer points. “I think there’s something over there.”
Albedo steps closer to Wanderer, following his gaze and where he’s pointing with Durin even perking up at the change as well. His eyes land upon this seemingly off area and he pauses for a moment. It almost looked like the sand was being pulled in a little as if there was a hole there. Quietly he treks onward to examine this, his traveling companion following along.
As they come closer to it, Durin becomes agitated in fear looking between them. He knows what’s going on, or at least he thinks so; his human friends were putting themselves in harms way!
“Maybe we should leave it…” Durin squaks nervously, hopping off Albedo’s shoulder and flying ahead just a little. He comes to find an empty, seemingly bottomless pit, and the closer he gets the more he feels as though he’s become powerless. He could still fly, sure, but this fact was alarming. “No, no way! Let’s get away from here!” He cried out, flying back down to Wanderer and Albedo.
“It’s just a hole..” Albedo peered down out the darkness in thought as Durin attempted to guide Wanderer away from the hole by trying to lift up his hat, albeit unsuccessfully. “I really don’t see what the problem is, it looks completely normal other than… when you’re near it, it’s not that hot.”
Wanderer stepped forward holding onto his hat while Durin was still trying to steer him away. “Are you sure you’re not wrong?”
Albedo knelt beside the hole, quietly searching in its darkness to distinguish if there was anything abnormal about it. Durin gave up trying to take Wanderer’s hat and stayed stagnant, fluttering his wings above the two of them. The sand underneath Wanderer’s feet shuffled around and some more trickled into the hole.
“It’s just a deep hole-” Albedo concluded as he stood on his feet. “I don’t see what you were thinking in that head of yours.” He quipped, patting Wanderer on the shoulder.
“It doesn’t feel like just a hole.” Wanderer admits aloud. In a flash his hat dissapears and his feet lift off the ground, Durin cowers beside Albedo nervously as he flies up and above the hole.
His eyes widen. Theres no sensations of heat above the hole either. No amount of wind, no feel of the sun on his artificial skin. His vision once brimming with a sense of life and power dulls on the spot and he begins to fall freely.
“Kuni-” Albedo lunges forward to try and grab ahold of him with Durin letting out a yelp beside him.
“Hat Guy!!”
In his reaching, Albedo slips off the edge just barely managing to grab ahold of Wanderer, with Durin unable to grab for anything more than Wanderer’s hat as he watches the two fall into the darkness below…
It was clear now, not even the Archons were able to reach them wherever they would end up.