2024-07-06 - [5.3] Out in the Open

The sun is comfortable at least.

That is the only part of this strange ordeal that Xijemynth doesn’t mind… overly much. It is not sand, not the all-encompassing warmth and heat that she and the others had grown used to since their earliest days. But in the here-and-now she thinks that that is a good thing. Sand feels… dangerous now. At least the ground beneath them is solid.

But that one small comfort is outweighed by the total strangeness of the outside world. Free from the cloister of their cavern, they are exposed to so many things. An uncountable number of voices – the Great Light that comes and goes everyday, following Big Sister and Little Brother, the first touch of cold as human-riders and human-not-riders came to check on her.

At first Xijemynth hissed at them, quaking in fear. She remembered that terrifying flight, and when she had been set down there had been many of them – something was wrong with her shell she could feel it, it HURT, and then there had been so many hands – she screamed at them ”No no no no no, DON’T TOUCH ME!” But they hadn’t listened. They pressed and poked and prodded and now her shell felt weak. Fragile. She was afraid to move, to jostle too strongly or too fast lest she feel the sand beneath her paws start to sink again.

When the strange wind came she feared the earthquake had come back. Xijemynth screamed. “ITSHAPPENINGAGAIN!” She cried for Mother, for anyone to come and get her when the Different Sand hit her shell. But no-one came, only Mother’s calming presence settled over her like the weight of the world. It was solid, stable, warm like the sun. Xijemynth calmed down afterwards, lapsing into a fitful sleep. The sound of sand blowing and rasping against the earth isn’t so bad, she decides.