Secrets of the Sahara Sun

The sun beat down on the city of Tangier as it always did, but today was a special day. Today was the day that we all met under our mutual, unspoken agreement to journey to a great desert.

We did not know what we would find there, only that it would change all of our lives. The journey went well, until we arrived at the oasis that our guides had said we should go to in order to begin our search for the treasure. Our guides had been vague about the treasure and what it meant for us, saying only that each person must find their own. They refused to tell us anything else, or even answer questions when pressed, until they left us at the oasis with a few supplies and instructions on where to go once we were ready. We were left alone in an ancient place where I could feel something stirring beneath the sands.

I wish I could say that I began my search right away, but I did not. Instead, I sat with my back against a rock at the edge of the oasis, and watched my companions break off into groups as they prepared for their own journeys. I do not know why I did this - perhaps it was because I had never been one for adventure, or maybe it was because deep down I was afraid of what lay before us. Either way, my first day in the desert was spent watching those around me prepare themselves while I simply sat there and stared into the sun. When evening came and my companions began making camp near me, my guilt finally got the better of me and I began preparing for my own journey.

As dusk fell over the sands and sentries were set up to watch over all of us as we slept, I found myself standing outside of my tent looking at nothing but sand. There was no wind that night - everything seemed to be perfectly still as if waiting for something. As if sensing something approaching from far away.

I spent hours walking through the desert with no idea where I was going or what I was supposed to be searching for until dawn broke over the horizon and suddenly everything changed. In front of me there appeared a stone archway unlike any other that I’d ever seen before - a perfect circle cut out from stone with what looked like a path carved out from within it leading up into darkness beyond sight. It almost looked like someone had taken a perfectly round chunk out of reality itself and left behind only this archway behind them, but how could such a thing have happened? What sort of magic could have done this? And why here? Why now?