The silent road.
The wagon wheels groaned under the weight of their cargo, creaking against the rough, uneven path of the Border Road. The sun hung high, an unforgiving overseer, its heat pressing down like an iron fist. The desert loomed in the distance, an ocean of endless sand where no Kink dared to tread.
Bound in chains, Leo sat among the captured young men, his eyes hollow, his lips sealed. He had lost his voice. Not from injury, but from grief so deep it swallowed his words. The execution of his mother had shattered something inside him. He had not spoken since.
The other prisoners murmured, some in fear, others in anger. But Leo only stared ahead, silent, motionless, his mind locked in its own prison.
---
The Debate Within
Inside his head, a voice sneered.
"This is your fault."
Leo flinched, his fingers curling into his palms.
"If you hadn't taken that book, she'd still be alive."
"You should have fought harder."
"You are weak."
His own mind was his worst tormentor. Every second replayed the sight of his mother collapsing to the ground, Martis wiping his blade as if her life had meant nothing.
"You promised to avenge her. But look at you—silent, shackled, pathetic."
Leo clenched his jaw. He wanted to scream, to break free, to rip Martis apart with his bare hands. But he was just a boy in chains, surrounded by Kink soldiers who laughed and joked as if they weren't marching men to their doom.
---
The Soldiers' Banter
Near the front of the convoy, a group of Nyxthorn soldiers rode lazily on horseback, their black cloaks stained with sweat and dust. Their armor clanked as they chatted.
"You ever wonder why we even bother dragging these Delians back to the capital?" one soldier, Garrik, grumbled. "Seems like a waste of time. We should just slit their throats and be done with it."
A shorter soldier, Rolf, snorted. "You just don't wanna march through this damned heat."
"Can you blame me? We're on the Border Road, right next to that cursed sand. If the Targari get any ideas, we're all doomed."
At the name, a few soldiers made warding gestures.
The Targari Clan—the desert demons.
A savage people who had never bent the knee to Kinkland, not because they were the strongest, but because they lived in a wasteland so cursed that no army could conquer it. The sands themselves were alive. Beneath the dunes slithered creatures no man had ever tamed—giant earthworms, burrowing horrors that devoured anything foolish enough to step onto their land.
"You lot believe in too many ghost stories," said Sergeant Dravik, the grizzled officer leading the convoy. "The Targari aren't demons. Just men too stubborn to die."
"Then explain the patrol that vanished last year," Rolf countered.
Garrik grinned. "Maybe the worms got 'em. Maybe the Targari skinned them and made tents out of their hides."
That earned a laugh from some of the men.
A wiry soldier named Harlan smirked. "You're all afraid of the wrong thing. It's not the Targari or the worms that scare me." He jerked his thumb back toward the prisoners. "It's those poor sods we're hauling."
"What, you think one of them's the prophecy boy?" Rolf scoffed.
Harlan shrugged. "I don't know. But if I were a Kink noble, and I heard there was a prophecy about some blood moon brat, I'd be nervous too."
"Yeah? And which of these pretty boys do you think is gonna 'liberate Delia'?" Garrik mocked, gesturing toward the prisoners. "That one?" He pointed at a thin, shaking boy who looked barely strong enough to lift a sword. "Or maybe that one?"
He pointed straight at Leo.
Leo didn't flinch. He didn't blink. He just stared ahead, empty.
Garrik smirked. "This one's broken already."
The soldiers laughed, but if they had any idea who they were really mocking, they wouldn't have been so quick to grin.
---
The Border Road – A Growing Unease
As the convoy moved closer to the desert, the mood shifted. The road was too quiet. Even the wind had stilled.
Horses began to twitch and snort, uneasy. A few soldiers cast nervous glances at the dunes, watching for movement.
Then came the first sign.
A low rumble, like distant thunder.
Leo felt it beneath him, a faint tremor in the earth. His head lifted slightly.
The soldiers noticed too.
"What was that?" Garrik muttered.
Dravik scowled. "Keep moving."
But the rumble grew louder. And then—
The sand shifted.
A massive shape slithered beneath the surface, the dunes bulging and collapsing in its wake.
Then—silence.
Every soldier held their breath. The convoy was too close to the desert's edge. Too close to Targari territory.
And something was watching them from below.
---
Leo felt something stir inside him.
Not fear.
Not despair.
But awareness.
The desert was alive. And somehow, he could feel its hunger.
His mind was silent now. The voices of guilt and grief were drowned out by the reality of the moment. This was not where he would die.
Something was coming.
Something that would change everything.
And when it did—he would be ready.