Path of Sun

Tallia and her new friends reach the end of the forest. The desert in front of them stretches past the horizon, and a lone tumbleweed blows past in the dry wind. They look at each other for reassurance then take their first steps into the blistering hot sun.

After walking for nearly the entire day, John ends up getting carried by Tallia while Farci, Rayn, and Clay ride on Shadow's back. All of them are exhausted and worried about if they'll even be able to find a safe place to sleep that night. Tallia spots a clump of bushes and sets John down next to Shadow. "Wait here, I'll go see if there are any creatures hiding in those bushes. If not we could set up a small tent for some shade and rest for awhile," she says patting the small boy on the head.

As she gets closer to the bushes she notices the sand had blown up into a mound next to the bush which hid the edge a crevice from her view when she was farther away. She gets down next to it and peeks inside using a bit of illuminating magic she sees it's the entrance to a large cave. It doesn't seem to be occupied by anything at the moment and the faint sound of water trickling in the distance piques Tallia's interest.

"Guys, come on over! There's a cave here and it sounds like there's a stream inside!"

The kids, forgetting for a moment how exhausted they are, jump off of Shadow and run over to see what she was talking about. Shadow slowly trots over as well and soon they're all inside of the cave relaxing and enjoying the break from the sunlight. Once inside, Tallia can hear the trickling sound more clearly and tries to figure out what direction it is coming from so she knows which of the many tunnels to go through.

"I can't figure out where the trickling is coming from," Tallia sighs. "The cave echoes too much."

"Honestly, it's probably best you don't search for it anyhow," Clay states. "Haven't you heard the riddle?"

"Yeah!" John exclaims, "There is a part that warns about a stream of awful stench and not to give into your thirst at it."

"I completely forgot about that riddle," Tallia turns to Shadow. "Someone tried telling me it was probably meaningless and that I would go crazy trying to figure it out."

Shadow snorts and turns to go lay down near the entrance. 'You never usually listen to me so it's not my fault you started at that point.'

Farci jumps up from his spot on the floor and yells, "There's BUGS in here!"

"Of course there is," Tallia says quizzically. "It's a cave in the desert."

"He hates bugs," Clay, Rayn, and John say in unison as they start laughing at the hysterical Farci jumping around and trying to make sure he doesn't have any bugs on him.

"Oh, I see. Well, we probably should get going again before one of us is tempted to find that water source again." Everyone nods in agreement and starts climbing out of the cave and then everything goes black.

They wake up in a large room made of stone and from the temperature they can tell they're still in the desert somewhere. None of them can remember anything after walking out of the cave. As they're looking each other over to make sure nobody was hurt they notice each of them has a similar marking on their upper arms. It doesn't hurt them but looks like a type of tattoo. Tallia recognizes it as a phoenix symbol but can't figure out why they suddenly appeared on their arms.

"Open this door, I wish to speak with our guests," a deep rumbling voice that rumbles the stone walls around them demands from the other side of a solid iron door. The door creaks open slowly, obviously a lack of use has made it's hinges rust and not work properly. A tall elderly man with skin like thick, dark leather and a beard long enough to nearly touch the floor had it not been in a braid walks in and slowly examines each person in front of him from head to toe. "Hello, I am Father Firebeard. Welcome to the Temple of the Suns. You have each received the mark of the phoenix as a reward for completing the trial of thirst. This mark grants you immunity to fire magic as the fire bird cannot be killed by fire. Although keep in mind that you can still be burned by fire that is not of magic origin even though it cannot kill you."

Tallia bows her head, "Father, I am Tallia Burnham. A phoenix delivered a message to me and told me to come here."

His old face lights up with a youthful glow, "Tallia! It is an honor to meet you!" He bows deeply to her. "Please accept my apologies for the accommodations we did not know it was you. We use this room for anyone who takes the journey to become a mage of Sun. We did not expect you to take the journey with others."

"I began the journey alone, but I found new friends along the way."

The old man stands straight up and smiles largely to the children standing behind her. "Your friends are our friends as well, madam. Let us get you all to proper quarters!" He claps his hands twice in the air and the room around them falls away and transforms into a beautiful garden with an archway into a huge room full of food and giant pillows. "Welcome to the Temple! Myself and the other elders would like to speak with you so please join us for dinner. I will send someone to get you all when it is ready. Until then, please enjoy your time here." He again bows deeply to them and disappears in the blink of an eye.

The children run straight into the room and jump onto the pillows to take a nap. Tallia giggles quietly to herself and looks around the garden. She walks to the giant fountain in the center and sits at the edge next to where Shadow is laying. "Shadow, are you alright?"

Shadow wakes up with a snort and looks around quickly, 'Where are we?'

"We're at the Temple of Suns. I'm assuming you weren't woken up when you got here?"

'Obviously not! How did we get here? I hardly remember walking out of the cave.'

"None of us know for sure, but I'm assuming we were teleported here because the Father we met was quite the master of teleportation." She pats his neck to sooth him. "They'll be sending someone to get us so we can have dinner with the elders and discuss things."

'I hope they remember to bring me dinner. I'm starving,' Shadow lets out a dramatic sigh and lays back down resting his head on Tallia's lap. 'I am glad we didn't have to walk through that desert anymore though. I was starting to dry up. I am originally a sea creature, you know.'

"I know, Shadow. You can relax now though, and I will be sure to mention getting you a large meal to reward you for making it all the way here." Tallia lightly pushes his head off of her lap and gets on the ground next to him. Leaning back on his side she starts to slowly drift off into a deep sleep.