Chapter 2 Part 6 – The sand hag
The longer we were walking the less worried I became and the calmer I got. What the hell was going on back there? Why was everything exploding and who was following us? It couldn’t have been the rock men, nor the wood man and the hunters weren’t able to blow something up with that effect were they? Those questions disappeared after a few miles and then I saw where all the sand was coming from. There was a desert. It wasn’t really big, because you could see trees surrounding the small desert. In the distance you could see a castle made out of sand, or it just looked like sand.
Around the castle were sand figures who looked like people. I wondered why they were there.
The alpha wolf, who now was a human again, tried stepping onto the sand, but when he did, sand was thrown into his face. There a few feet in the desert was standing and old woman. She looked incredibly old and ugly. I’m sorry, but she did. There was no beauty to her, only dry warts and old frizzy hair. She was wearing some rags that covered her entire body. The alpha wolf kept trying to get past her, but she kept throwing so much sand at him, that he couldn’t get past her. I found it quite amusing to be honest.
The alpha noticed me smiling and I guess he got angry with the women so he flashed her his wolf form and tried attacking her, but all she did was burying him in sand. The dwarves had to help him out of it. She laughed and giggled. They kept saying something to her, but she just giggled and laughed. When all the dwarves and wolves tried to stop her from doing anything else she created a wall made out of spikes. I guess the fun was over for her. She sat herself on top of one and looked down on us and started giggling again. What a bitch.
All the creatures and humans grew worried and started whispering to each other. I guess this was the only way they were getting into that castle and now it was blocked by an old hag. She watched us closely and saw the desperation in the eyes of the bird men, the humans, the wolves and the dwarves. No change to her funny state though. She kept giggling and said nothing.
The group decided to eat something while the hag wasn’t letting us through. Some of the humans were cooking up tee, while the wolves gathered some meat from deers for everyone. They started cooking it and then Braid came over to me and gave me some, while also giving me those herbs that helped with my wounds. After I ate I used them on the wounds and instantly felt better.
I then caught a glimpse of the hag looking down on the food and drinks, she was looking rather sad all of a sudden. There was plenty of deer, I had no idea where they got that many, so I decided to take some and walk towards the old woman. She saw me coming and lowered herself from her high position. She stood in front of me when I offered her some meat and she looked at me for a few seconds. She smiled and took it, lowering the spikes. I guess you have to be nice to enter this desert. Only makes sense. She looked at my wounds while she was eating the meat. Once she was done she grabbed my hands and after a few seconds she grabbed my arm. The wounds where completely gone. Even the pain and the numb feeling from the herbs.
Then all of a sudden her eyes widened. She looked at me like I was a ghost. “NAES.” She said and that grabbed the attention of everyone around us. How did she know my name that I didn’t use here? That I didn’t use anywhere.