'A sandy area... very little life. I can see nothing, wait no, a small pond... no... an oasis. There is a desert in Imythess, though I have never been there. That must been that Kuya's Grace is within the Oasis... wait... darkness, I'm falling... I don't know where...'

The desert sun was merciless as it beat down it's rays upon Rothardan, causing him to sweat like he had never sweated before. The Paladin had decided not to bring his heavy plate armour with him, and he was glad that he didn't... it was hot and horrible, not to mention there was nothing but sand and more sand. Still, Rothardan kept on going... he knew that the artifact he was looking for was here somewhere. Somewhere, the artifact known as Kuya's Grace lay in the desert oasis.

But he could not see a desert oasis, Rothardan couldn't even see a single thing except the blanket of sand that seemed to be everywhere. So Rothardan used his Blur ability to move even faster, becoming nothing more than a streak in the sky. Eventually, he saw the desert oasis and he couldn't help but whoop for joy. Immediatley, Rothardan used blink to teleport to the edge of the pool and proceeded to jump in the oasis, throwing as much of the cool refreshing water over his body as possible. He may have looked like a child but who cared? Rothardan knew that this was the place he had seen in his vision... the artifact known only as Kuya's Grace. It did absoloutley nothing on it's own, but when re-united with the three other artifacts, it did what Rothardan needed it to do.

Rothardan looked around for any signs of an enterance to somewhere, or for a casket. But he could see nothing but the odd tree and the large Oasis. And so he sat down and had a rest, laying down on the sand. It was then that he heard the footsteps of someone coming closer... the sound of boots and sand was easy to hear when there was nothing else. Rothardan got up and looked at the person coming towards him.

Nyla kept her eyes tightly shut against the relentless sun, and had pulled her hair off of her neck, to keep herself as cool as possible, which wasn't very cool at all. Ears drooping, and feet dragging she found herself hoplessly lost in a dessert, with her small companion Squishy. Both were panting, side by side as they walked together, the poor baby chipicana covered in fur, was making quiet noises of what Nyla thought might be mindless chatter, as the small creature was very fond of making noise to her. Then silence.

"Squishy?!" She called out to her friend and he crawled over and grabbed her boot, and then tapped her leg, reaching down Nyla picked up the ball of fur, and sighed.

Nyla had never been to a desert before, she had been told to dress lightly and she did, her cloak packed in her bag, as well as her pants, and shirt, she had bought semi new clothes, and torn them to shreds with her dagger, to create shorts, and a nearly sleeveless shirt to wear through the dessert. The only possible down side to this solution was a sun burn, and she was feeling the pain of her now red skin.

If she could see she would have rejoiced at the sight of the oasis, but instead she came within feet of it and collapsed. Thought escaped the black world that she was in. Squishy however saw the water and made chirping noises and poked and proded his fallen master and friend. Finally he became frustrated and ran to the pool and carried water back to Nyla, though the thought was sweet, the water fell out of his hands before he reached her. Looking around for something else, that might work better, he saw a man, and jumped in glee letting out a sharp rolling chirp and rushed over to him pulling at his hand toward Nyla.

Rothardan heard a sort of 'mewwing' sound and turned around. Something was tugging on his hand, a small creature that was barely the size of The Paladin's head was trying to tug at Rothardan, pulling him towards a certain direction. Rothardan got out of the pool and let the creature pull him towards whatever had caught it's attention, which turned out to be someone who had fainted from the looks of things. Rothardan ran towards the person and checked her over, seeing if she was injured. She was fine... it must have been heatstroke, she needed water!

Rothardan took his magical pouch and opened it, tipping it upside down. Several things came tumbling out of it... two swords, plate armour chestplate, a masterwork helmet, boots and some equipment for a horse (which Rothardan was saving up for... only a few more gold to go). If anyone had seen the amount of things that had fallen out of that small pouch, they would have thought it to be impossible. But the pouch was magical, it had no limit to what it could hold... and Rothardan was going to test it out.

He ran back towards the oasis and dipped the pouch in the pool. The crystal clear water began to seep into the pouch and after a few seconds, Rothardan ran back to the fallen woman. He picked up her head, cradling it into his arms, whilst directing the pouch towards her lips... hoping she would drink the cool water. There was enough water in there to fill an entire army's belly... infact, Rothardan could swear that he had lowered the water level of the oasis...

Sputtering as the water filtered into her mouth, Nyla took a few minutes regain her bairings, then the realization that she was alone in a desert sunk in. Then who... Panicking she wiggled free of the grip and wobbled on her feet, pulling out a daggar, and ready to strike, until Squishy pushed her hand aside, as though saying give this person a chance. "Who are you?" She said still unsteady on her feet, her skin burning, espeacially where the person had touched her. As she spoke she took in the sounds her voice made, the echoeing was closer, where was she, sniffing the air she could smell water, and hear leaves in a small subtle breeze, the new smells and sounds overwhelmed her deprived senses.

Her ears were still flat on her head and she was panting, heat and activity she was learning was not a wonderful combination. Espeacially when there was someone else who's intentions she didn't know. However she was inclined to give the chipicana's judge of character a chance, after all he could see who she was faceing and she couldn't, her purple eyes shielded from the sun's relentless glare and sheen.

Waiting for the answer to her question she found her legs giving out on her and the sand against her knees was hot as she hit softly, her shirt sticking to her sweat glazed skin, and still ready for attack. Why is it so hot?!? She uttered a cursing word or two under her breath at the heat and humidity. She heard Squishy and then felt something cool and wet, the small creature had jumped into the pool, and was hugging the back of her neck to cool her down. Sighing at the welcome relief she reached back and scratched the critter's little head, much to his delieght.

The stranger began to splutter and Rothardan took the water away, but she began to panic and wiggled out of Rothardan's grip. She drew a dagger, but Rothardan simply raised his eyebrows in a sort of expression which suggested that she wasn't going to do anything too harsh. Instead, he turned around and tipped the water out of his pouch, before placing all his items back into it and returning his pouch back to his side where it belonged.

The mewwing sound came again and the small creature pushed the dagger to one side, as if trying to stop it's owner from making a drastic mistake.
"Who are you?" demanded the girl, wobbling on her feet as if they were made of jelly.

"I'm the man that just gave you water in this desolate area... but people call me Rothardan, Paladin of the Holy Order.
"I mean you no harm, I am simply here to look for an artifact called 'Kuya's Grace...'

The moment that Rothardan spoke those words, the ground began to glow. A harsh wind blew the sand away from Rothardan and the stranger, as if an invisible hand was dusting it away... trying to find something underneath. Underneath the sand was a large stone circle that both the stranger and Rothardan were standing on... it had many ancient engravings that suggested that it was older than anyone who stood upon it.

The stone circle began to glow with a sea blue light, and then it crumbled like an old wall. Rothardan fell, downwards and downwards into the unknown black maw that had appeared. Soon, he regained his senses and flapped his wings... slowing his rate of descent. But what of the girl?

Rothardan....holy order? She thought, and was confused for a moment, if he was a paladin and he wasn't going to attack? She relaxed a little, and suddenly after he finished talking she felt weightless, and had a sensation of falling, and a tugging on her backpack as Squishy tried to pull her out of her plung to the darkness. Realizing and fully appreciating the situation, Nyla called out to her dragon jewel, which began to glow white.

A roar could be heard as a great silver dragon, appeared over head, and caught her out of her fall, and pulled her upwards to the edge of the hole. Nyla bowed and thanked the great dragon. "Can you help the man, and then go back to where you came?" She said softly to the dragon, who nodded, and looked to see the man in the hole flapping his own wings, he was ok, and so the silver dragon took flight and turned to leave.

"Rothardan, are you ok?" Thinking that the dragon couldn't have helped him in that brief period of time, and her ears flattened on her head, as she leaned over the edge of the newly formed shaft. Waiting for an answer she listened to the echoe of her voice to guage how far down the hole went, but the walls of the crater just bounced and mixed the words, confusing her ears, not to mention Squishy's mewing, and fluttering as he flew around in the darkness.