Spit and Bonds: A Magical Nomadic Journey

The sun beat down on the desert sands and Chris was parched. He looked around at his fellow nomads, who were looking just as hot and tired as he felt. They were all carrying their water in tightly wound cloths, but he knew that it would not last long. Only a few days ago, they had stopped at an oasis, but it didn’t contain much water. The tribe wasn’t rich enough to carry more water than what was needed for short-term survival, so they didn’t carry any extra for future use.

Chris kicked himself for not bringing more water with him. He had been lucky to find a leather bladder which had been left behind by another tribe—a rare occurrence in these parts—but all he had done was put it in his pouch and forgotten about it until now. He cursed under his breath and trudged forward, annoyed at his foolishness, but also scared of what would happen if they couldn’t find water soon.

They followed the trail of a caravan through the endless dunes, hoping that they might find some extra water supplies or someone willing to trade with them. They walked for hours without seeing anything except sand. All the while, Chris kept thinking about how badly he wanted something to drink and how stupid he was for not bringing more water with him. The thought of finding a well or an oasis kept him moving forward, though, and he continued following the others.

Suddenly one of the elders called out from up ahead and pointed towards one of the dunes. “Look! There is something there!”

Chris and the others ran to catch up before realizing that there was nothing there except for a strange hole in the sand. The elder got on his knees and stuck his head into the hole, shining a light inside so that everyone could see.

“There must be something here that attracted the attention of this other tribe!” he exclaimed excitedly as he pulled out his head from the hole and wiped away some of the sand on his face. “I wonder if we can get into this place too? It looks like they were digging up a tunnel somewhere nearby!”

Chris stared at the hole again, scratching his head as he wondered why anyone would dig such a big tunnel in the middle of nowhere? And what could possibly be worth this much effort?

The elder waved everyone forward again and they began digging their way through the sand until they reached another tunnel which headed straight down through some wooden planks into thick darkness below them. They all followed him down along with several torches which were passed around until everyone had one. Chris grabbed one and held it close to his chest as he looked around down in this tunnel which seemed to go way deeper than he could see in front of him or behind him with all this darkness around them.

The elder quickly resumed his pace down through the tunnel and everyone else hurried after him with wide eyes and worried expressions as many whispered to each other about what might have drawn this other tribe here so far into these dangerous desert lands.

Chris tried to ignore these thoughts as well as thoughts about how thirsty he was getting down here in these dark tunnels below ground where no sun shone any longer but felt even thirstier than before because of this heat which surrounded them like a thick blanket made out of smoke and burning embers instead of wool or fur when suddenly he saw something weird up ahead: A bright white light coming from deep within this tunnel ahead of them where there should only be darkness instead.