Young Writers Society

Drisi was never really the one who was that interested in the dead, actually no one was. They only did their job to survive, all the tribes did. It was either that or let the cities invade and starve to death. So each tribe did their own part and took care of the dead, each day assigned to two groups and each night four people from each of the four tribes would guard The Pit.

So there she stood watch that night on her 17th Birthday (for at 17 every child must become an adult and stand guard) looking away from The Pit. As you stood watch in the night you were not allowed to look back at it. It was a bad omen for all the tribes.

Well as she stood there, bored to death, not literally of course. She thought of an old poem written by Zalandir, a prophet from the old times. No one could tell why exactly he had wrote it. Most were fretful so that's why they started putting members out to watch, but some were as bold as to leave the safety of the Mara and go to the cities.

She started to recite the poem in her head silently:

Desert Run

All that fills the air tonight

Is a deathly chill,

Waiting in a frozen fright

Up the sandy hill,

Lay the dead ones in our sight

Waiting for the kill,

Here they rise for the fight

But only for until,

Still at midnight all will bite

So I warn you with my quill,

I heed you, take flight

Stay at your own will.

Acold shiver ran through her spine, the poem had always given her the creeps, but she was always fascinated by it as well. She had an eerie feeling though also, something wasn’t right. She had never been out here on a night, it was forbidden, but even in the day it had never felt this silent or this wrong. Well it had, but that was once. Well she thought it was. She wasn’t sure if it was exactly real, but she woke up in the middle of the night at least once a month with the same dream. She always felt like boney hands were grabbing at her and she was going to drown in sand. But that was silly to think, the skeletons weren’t alive.

Though, she did remember when she was a child her father was talking hushedly to her mother about something. Her mother had threw a fit after he had told her what had happened, and after that she wasn’t allowed to go with her father to The Pit anymore until now. That was eleven years ago when her mother had come suddenly over protective of her.

Her mother had even been cautious and hesitant about letting her ride her horse even though she had had Arima since she had turned four. For some reason though, Drisi had never knew why her mother had done such strange things to keep her safe. But apparently something had happened to her as a child. Well even after her mother had died when she was 13, her father had made sure to follow her mother’s wishes. He wouldn’t want her coming back from the grave.

...Bad joke, she thought to herself. She cursed at herself for being so insensitive, but well that’s how she was. She was raised in nurture, but in a rough and harsh place. So naturally, she grew rough from the desert sand, most things would become smooth and shiny, but not her. Actually none of the people did except for a few rare occasions where there really was what they called a Desert Jewel.

She yawned from exhaustion and smiled as she watched the suns begin to rise in the violet sky. First was of course was the blue sun, Brel, the second sun to rise was Lax the yellow sun. She watched and waited in the soon to be sweltering, blistered, wasteland. But the red sun of Din, didn’t rise. Something was wrong, but she didn’t dare look back at The Pit. They weren’t allowed until the final and third sun had risen. She had a feeling of dread welling up inside of her as she stood in the open land of the Mara’s early morning.

She put her hand to the sheath of her curved blade, ready for whatever was to come. She looked up at the two suns again, their smiling gazes shining down on her, a sense of warmth washing over her. But she still felt unsafe and insecure, a piece was gone, It wasn’t right. She couldn’t take it anymore, she couldn’t wait for the last sun to rise, and it had already been way too long. She spun around, and nearly froze to death.

It was like someone had looked inside her head and had taken out her worst fears. Everywhere, parts of arms and legs and skulls were pulling themselves up. Clawing at the sides of the hard rock walls, trying to get up. She couldn’t believe it. But then, something with its little boney skeleton fingers had grabbed her ankle. She looked down and screamed. A child’s little hands had grabbed her, she shook it off. Backing away quickly. She looked around and realized the others who stood watch with her were already being overtaken by these deathly like creature. It was mayhem.

They started grabbing at her, she felt one of them take her sword out of its sheath, they started lifting her and bringing her back to The Pit. “No! No! Stop it please!” She pleaded and begged. But then they threw her in, and soon sand was being poured into the now empty hole. Tons and gallons of it, it started to fill her mouth and sting her eyes. Soon she couldn’t breathe, all she did was take in more sand. This is it, she thought, I’m going to die here, right here and become a skeleton. Never seeing my father again. I’m done for…

“Drisilia!” I sat up, my shirt plastered to my back with sweat. I put my head in my hands.

“Oh dear Cima… It was just a dream. Everything’s alright.” I pushed my sweat soaked hair back out of my face and my feet over the edge of the bed, sighing in relief.

“Drisilia! Either get up or else I won’t let you go this time!” I heard my father bellow at me. I chuckled lightly, he was always so strict.

“I’m coming! I’ll be ready in a few minutes!” I yelled back at him cheerfully. I then stripped myself of the night clothes, and pulled on my native traveling ones. This was the first time I was going to leave the Mara. We were running low on some supplies, I had begged my father to let me go, and he had finally agreed. I strapped on my belt into its sheath and stepped outside into the early morning light, it was still early enough for it to be slightly cool in the dry air. I looked at the desert sand, red with rebirth and smiled to myself.

“Finally, it takes you forever to get ready.” I rolled my eyes at Eeli’s comment. I looked over to Folion, he was only about 6 or 7 years my senior. He was mostly a silent fellow, but he was strong and sturdy, you could always count on him. My father had favored him for some time and had been hinting at something happening between us, but I always ignored it. I wasn’t interested in marriage or anything like that. It was all just another world for me. Besides, I knew that he had had a little crush on Eeli since we were kids. I wasn’t going to try and get him into liking me. Folion and I, were more like brother and sister then husband and wife. It’d be just too weird.

"So we going or not?" I grinned at them, climbing up onto Arima as I did so, I ran my fingers through her mane.

"Of course we are you fool, now let's ride!" Of course we didn't ride that second, we checked to make sure everything was loaded and then we said our goodbyes. It wasn't an important trading, but it was one to get some extra food and coins, probably from taking people across the Mara. It was a horrid job but it was our only way of life. Soon once we had enough coin we'd come back, other groups had gone just days before.

We always have to stock up before the rough months come, getting even drier and hotter. Some might even call it the Underworld. But we have to live with it. So we did.

So, we started riding fast until the suns were high in the sky, then we slowed to a nice trot. Nothing was special about the landscape. Nothing at all, I didn’t even take time to look at my surroundings. Eeli or Folion probably didn’t either. It wasn’t important, we had lived here our whole lives. We didn’t need to be sightseers.

“Wait! Drisi!” Folion called, I stopped Arima and looked back at him, a quizzical look bound to be on my face.’

“Yeah? What is it?” I didn’t get why he had stopped me, we were making excellent time already.

“Dris, we’re going towards the Pit, I think you took us the wrong direction.” I glared. As if I’d ever do that. I knew where I was going. But as I looked around, I started to see that he was right. But how was that? I hadn’t been to the Pit often, but I knew exactly where it was.

“Fol...The heck happened? I distinctly remember going the other way.” Eeli nodded in agreement with me.

“Yeah I do to.” She said, Folion looked around, looking just as confused as we were.

“Same...I don’t know what happened. But either way it’s too late to go back, we'll have to pass by it now instead of going around.” We nodded, but a little uneasily. We kept going though.

You see, the Pit isn't exactly the most visited place. Well it is, but only in the sense of duty. Nothing else though. As we rode, I saw the landscape melt from soft sand to the hard compacted rock. I had seen it many times before, but it always seemed to catch my eye. But then I saw something glint across the dusty surface. “Wait!” I screamed, I climbed off of Arima and ran towards it, I put my hand into the small puddle. It wasn’t much, only a few scoops. But water just doesn’t appear in the desert. “Guys, someone’s here.’ They had come up behind me and looked at it. Someone was here, they could also tell it wasn’t anyone with experience in the Mara. You can’t just waste water, we need it to survive and the Mara barely has any of it.

We left it there and kept heading on though, most likely the person who had done that was going to die of dehydration in a few hours. We couldn't do anything about it and it was none of our business.

And then there it was, the Pit, straight in front of us. I wanted to throw up when I saw it. Crack! I looked down, my heart pounding. But it was just a dry twig. We walked alongside it as quickly as we could, saying hi to the few tribes we passed with the occasional body.

Once we had passed through it, the uneasiness wasn't lifted off us. It grew for some reason. Then, we heard a scream.

Behind us, horses were neighing and running around without their horsemen, they...they were rising. It was really happening. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s not supposed to. Never.

“Folion! Folion!” a familiar voice called, Folion rode as fast as he could towards the rising dead, then I could clearly see it was Isaiah, one of Fol’s close friends.

“Drisi! Run!” I looked around, seeing they were coming closer, Arima was whinnying and getting nervous. I had frozen up. I grabbed my sword, I wasn’t leaving Fol or any of the others.

From my spot, I could clearly see people were being killed by these unnatural beasts, “We can’t leave yet Eel!” I started to jab and thrust at them, it didn’t do any good though. They had no skin and couldn’t die again. It just went straight through them. I felt the hands grab at me like in my dream. I couldn't move, this time it was real. I was going to die whether I wanted to or not. They were pulling me down from my horse, but then I felt them stop for some reason. I shook my head, I couldn’t be so easily distracted, they needed me. But then I saw that they had only let me go..because Eeli had taken my place.

The hands grabbed at her, she soon disappeared under there bony arms. Her horse not having the same fate, it ran scared to death. Then I got my voice back. “Eeli!” I screamed, “Eeli!” No they couldn’t take her! They couldn’t have her! I saw one of her legs under the mass heading towards the Pit “No! Let her go!” I cried but they wouldn’t let her go. I saw some were heading towards me now. I tried going towards them, but Arima pulled back. Running from the skeletons.

“No! Arima we have to save her!” But she wouldn’t listen to me, she turned away from the horror scene behind us and ran, ran like the wind. Tears started streaming down my face. I hadn’t done anything. I had just stood there like a stone statue. I had let them take Eeli and left Folion there to defend for himself. “Arima! Please!” I begged, but she wouldn’t listen to me. I put my aching head to her mane. Crying as much as I dared. Even in my crying state I couldn’t dehydrate myself. “No...No...No!” I screamed into her mane angrily. I couldn’t believe that had happened. I couldn’t cope with it.

They had taken my best friend, and the others and probably even more..They weren’t going to get away with it. I wasn’t going to let them win. I was going to have my vengeance.

In the Mara you wouldn’t normally find anything green here, nothing to give you hope, no blue, crystal, clear water here either. This place wasn’t like that, it was only red in the day and black all the time. The dead had gone too far, they had terrified us for long enough...They were going to pay. Down under the bones is what we call the Underworld. Now my friends were there dead. I wasn’t going to leave them like that. I could probably go home and forget all about this, or go on and find out how to stop them.

I choose how to slaughter and hurt them all, and I knew just where to go. To Madam Thaina. So we headed off into that direction. She was the one in our land who knew how to heal and all about Zalandir. She could tell me the things I needed to know.

On the way there I had seen about three other puddles, they were close by but I didn’t know where and who. I didn’t bother trying to find them though, I had more important things, I had seen my best friend killed. I wasn’t going to just let that go down the drain.