A strong jult flung him against the side if the wagon particularly hard leaving him almost less conscious than when he was sleeping. The headache didn't help but was masked by the new pain.

  Creed felt the heat crawl over his body once he woke, it also could have been fire ants but he hope for the ladder.

  He welcomed the slight bit of moisture his own blood had brought to his mouth.

  He felt like he had been eating glue and sand. His cracked lips parted slowly as he attempted to keep any other cuts from forming.

  He looked for his bag, his eyes burning slightly from the dryness. He found the half full bottle and slowly raised it to his lips. He paused panicking for a moment before remembering the water was still capped.

  He unscrewed the bottle and let a few drops wet his mouth enough to speak.

  He looked at the mountain of blankets he had been using to keep warm the passed week and a half.

  He now missed the bone braking cold, he had been wondered when he would see the sun again.

  He looked at the warped world outside. The heat waves made the barren landscape dance making the land look as if the land was covered by pillars of stone.

  He sat up an paused for a moment. The stone spikes poked up everywhere he's eyes could see. He looked to the front and looked at the woman that was sitting in the sun.

  She was giving a little dance and he could just barely hear her singing.

  He looked back out and touched the glass window making sure it was their. He felt his hand shoot back away from the heat that bit him. The rest of the workers were still sleeping, probably.

  He looked closely at a few of their cracked mouths and could see the bubbles of spit moving just enough to let him know they still had to suffer like him.

  He hobbled his way to the front of the wagon pulled by camels. He knocked on the wood near the front where she sat.

  “Hey.” She turned with a wide smile.

  “Where?” He looked around just a bit hoping he didn't have to use many more words.

  “Almost there, you sleep alright. Need some water? I got lots if you need it.” Her sharp green eyes almost seemed to shine. Her chocolate skin seemed to take the energy of the sun instead of being drained by it. Her hair was likely dark brown some time ago but the sun had undoubtedly bleached it to its pale white.

  He shook his head and placed his hand in the sun before retracting it.

  “How?”

  “Oh, I get ya. Well I grew up here, well in the Deep Black to be exact but it's kinda like here. I've been through Summers and all this is nothing. Lucky you get to be here during winter. The sun is actually pretty calm today. Don't you think?”

  He wondered how he had been here so long without feeling the ungodly heat. He pointed up slightly and felt his throat almost stick to itself as he tried to speak.

  “Oh I get ya. The storm, it was blocking out the sun for the first few days. Thing is clouds just kinda die out here. We left them about mid day so its about six right now.”

  Creed took another sip of his drink and mustered the power to speak.

  “Been here before?” He felt dread as she started laughing.

  People began waking slowly looking at what could have been the source of the noise.

  “No, but don’t be scared. Deep Black is on the North. Deep north, way past the valleys. This,” she looked up with a smile. “Might as well be a vacation.”

  Creed was at odds in his minds. As far as the academy had told them nothing but wildlife was out their. Tens of billions of years of evolution made sure that anything that wasn't from the north, especially the deep north had no chance of survival.

  “We're about to hit a rough patch so take a seat and make sure you don’t bump your head.” She had a little smirk. He tried his best to walk back as the ride became exponentially worse.

  Creed looked out the window and moved away just a bit but tried to keep his eyes on what looked like a bear. Its legs were far to long almost like it was on stilts, it blended into the background far to well let him feel uncomfortable. It would have been invisible if it hadn't been walking.

  It began following the wagons and the wagon began to slow. A spear moved so fast he hadn't seen it till the extremely lanky bear like creature had it between its eyes.

  “Ha.” he heard it come from her.

  He could only imagine what kind of a throwing arm she had.

  The wagon kept moving picking up speed again and rocking harder than before.

  He looked back to see that parts of the bear creature were missing. Something had already taken three of the four legs and most of its face.

  Creed closed his eyes after placing some more water in his mouth. Sleep was easy somehow, he wondered if it was the onset of heat stroke but didn’t think he would get so lucky.

  When his eyes opened he looked around just to make sure he was still in the wagon and hadn't been dragged of by any of the things that lived in the area.

  White trees stood as far as his eyes could see. He stood and walked to the front of the wagon.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The woman was standing over the bodies of the camels. She looked like a mechanic trying to find what was wrong with the latest automobile she had to fix.

  He looked at his bottle and took a full sip, he covered himself before stepping out into the sun.

  “What's wrong?” he looked at the camels but couldn't tell if they were dead or not, except for the ones in the front, those were in pieces.

  “I think the sun got’em. Except the one in the front those got their throats all messed up before I could kill the buggers.” She kicked the one camels closest to her lightly and shrugged.

  She looked around and gave a nod as if this was somehow a good place to stop.

  “Everyone up!” She yelled and walked to the front of the row of camels.

  About six creatures lay on the floor along the camels. The things that lay on floor were shaped like dogs, the plated skin told him they were no dogs.

  One of their mouths was hanging wide open in an almost perfectly straight line, four teeth sat at the front of its maw. The four front teeth were at least five inches.

  As he walked closer he could see that there were gaps between the plates of their so called skin. The small gaps of each of the creatures had a spear in them. Two spears were stuck in the ground snapped in half.

  “They chewed through but they should be dead sooner of later. Nothing here is gonna go easy on them because they’re injured.” People began walking out of the wagons one by one. They looked around and seemed to be looking for something more just like he had been.

  “Our rides are dead. Stop standing there and get to setting up the tents before you all end up like the cames.” Everyone began moving slowly and she kept her eye out for any scavengers.

  The group of about forty people began setting up the large white tents.

  She walked to the wagon in the far back. It was the only metal one. Creed wondered if the wagon had the food or water. She moved the massive bolt and slowly pulled open the door.

  Creed felt his stomach acid get squeezed up his throat as his body tensed.

  The first black paw fell out of the cage and claimed the land where it stood. The second foot claimed the life around it. The beast instantly sat next to the guide. It seemed wary of her, she patted its head and it body seemed to relax.

  She swirled her hand in a circle it walked away from her. It began to sprint, its body moved like a blur.

  The sound of crunching bones began to fill the air as it vanished between the innumerable trees. The pitter patter of feet seemed to come from all around them but they saw nothing.

  The beast she had in the cage made a massive circle around the area they were in. It made its way back after a few short moments. Only its paws and jaws had blood.

  Everyone had their eyes in it. That thing was undoubtedly from the deep north. It made the things outhere look harmless sheep. Creed had a memory drift into his mind.

  Back when the Academy believed they could taim this land. They even attempted to snuff out the local wildlife with foreign ones. Lions by the ship full had been placed on this land in an attempt to out compete the wildlife. They found nothing of them, not even bones.

  “You can all stop looking at Dardar now.”

  Everyone tried to pretend they weren’t terrified of the abomination she had as a pet.

  Creed pulled the tent out of one of the wagons. She had her eyes locked on the trees. She seemed to be wary of them. She walked towards him. Creed felt like he had done something wrong.

  She stopped suddenly and kept her eyes on the trees. Creed looked at the rest of the workers and looked back at the tent. He grabbed the zipper with his shirt and pulled. He could feel the heat through the shirt. Slowly but surely they had the tents up.

  “I got it!” Yelled the guide.

  She had a smile on her face as if she had found a good reason to be here.

  “They died of altitude sickness.” Creed wondered for a moment and realized this explained his headaches.

  Creed walked over to one of the trees. He stood in it's shade, he rested his head against the tree and felt his heart skip a beat.

  Creed began touching every part of the tree he could and almost couldn't help but smile.

  “It's cold,” he whispered to himself “actually cold.”

  He grabbed his water that was seemingly moments from boiling. He took a big sip and looked over at the guide.

  “It's cold.”

  She began walking over seemingly not trusting of his words. Creed smiled at her and stepped back when she walked up to his tree. She pressed her hand against the tree and her mouth dropped slightly.

  “What?”

  She touched more of the tree and paused of a second. She walked to the side that sat in the sun.

  She pressed her hand against it and pulled out what looked like a knife. The knife looked like a hole had been made in the fabric of reality. The blade seemed to simply have light fall into it and vanish. She slammed the knife into the tree and paused as the deafening ping shot through their ears.

  The blade and the tree collided and at that moment Creed knew what happened when an unstoppable force meet an immovable object.

  “What!” She seemed to be angry at the tree. “You have no idea what this means do you? Sleeping man you will understand soon.”

  She looked closely where the blade had hit the tree, her eyes held a devine scrutiny he thought was once held by the eyes of God and God alone. She reached into her pocket revealing what he knew was a stainless steel knife. She dragged her black knife over the steel blade and it looked no harder than cutting butter.

  “See sleeping man, do you understand now?” She whistled and her monster ran over.

  She tapped the tree and it placed it mouth on it. The monster moved its mouth across the tree trying to fund a soft part of the tree. Its fur sent a wave from its head to its tail, its black fur seemingly vibrating as it did so.

  “Don’t worry Dardar.” She patted it fur as it slunk away seemingly saddened by its failure.

  “What is up with the trees?” Creed wanted to know if he could be happy or worried about what he discovered.

  “This knife is made of the horn of a Rozen Skurge. The only time they ever break is when they fight bigger Rozen’s. This tree is just as hard as far as I can tell. Not to mention its not attached to a monster that can wipe out towns. Sleeping man you are very observant. I would have left these trees alone and left in the morning if you hadn't started touching them.”

  “My names Creed by the way. Sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner,” Creed paused to and took another sip of water. “what's your name if you don't mind me asking.”

  “You're funny Sleeping man you can call me Bado.” Creed nodded and sat in the shade.

  Bado walked over to the camels and waved her hand. Her monster bounded over in an instant. It opened it's massive maw and placed his mouth just passed the first hump before clamping down and making half of the camel vanish.

  Everyone was looking at Dardar again. Creed watched Bado wave her hand once more. Dardar stood on his hind legs and unraveled what he once thought was paws. What looked like clawed hands unraveled, Dardar walked over to the camels at the front of the line and dragged them back.

  Creed wondered for a moment before concluding this beast was the reason they had stories of werewolves in his homeland.

  Bado left her beast to eat the dead

  “Sleeping man, here, now.” Creed walked over and hoped to the high heavens she wasn't about feed him to the monster.

  “Yes?”

  She drew her knife without a word. She turned the hilt towards him.

  “Here, keep it. Also write a letter to the Archive telling them what we found. Also tell them we're setting up permanent residence. Name this place something cool will you, we are gonna have a lot of work collecting this stuff.”