The idea of magic was exhilarating. Kuzari had always dreamed of it, every power fantasy he ever had involved magic in some way and here it was in his grasp. It was mechanically still vague to him, the memories from his host still not integrating properly. He needed to explore this capability as soon as he could.

Unfortunately, right now he was covered in blood and grime, in the middle of a desert with the sun beating down his back, and possibly being pursued by so-called Ratcatchers whoever they are. He needed to move and he needed a plan, magic could wait.

He yanked the dagger out of the dead man's skull and wiped the blood off on a piece of tattered fabric. Searching the body he managed to find a leather sheath and belt to hold it and immediately attached it to his side. The dead man also had a water skin on him which Kuzari drunk from greedily. Other than that the man carried nothing else which was puzzling. He really didn't know much about desert survival but he knew there was no way anybody was going to survive off so little supplies. He remembered the satchel left on the other side of the dune and figured it was worth investigating.

To his utter disappointment, the bag seemed to be entirely writing supplies and books. Granted such books could be an absolutely invaluable source of information about the world but he couldn't eat them and they couldn't tell him where to go. The markings made his head hurt but he couldn't make out the words. Getting these stupid memories to integrate into his head so he could actually use them was another thing on his growing list of things he needed. Unfortunately as far as he could tell that required mostly time. He packed everything back into the satchel and slung it around his neck.

He took stock of himself. His brown shirt was torn where the body had been stabbed before he took control over it and it was completely covered in blood. Similarly brown thin pants covered his legs. Thankfully he also had a pair of soft moccasins that staved off the heat of the sand. He rubbed his chest where the wound should have been and felt a slight ridge of a scar over his heart. Evidently, it had healed over when his soul had been placed into the body. Suddenly curious he lift up his shirt to take a look at his left side where he had been stabbed back on Earth. Interestingly enough there were scars there too. Either that was some extreme coincidence or there was more going on with this merger than mixed memories and being resurrected. He ran his hands through his hair and confirmed that it was cut fairly short, no more than an inch or two. He plucked a hair to take a look at the color and was surprised to see it was pure white, different than the brown he sported in his original body. Looking at his arms his skin was more tan than his original, which made sense if his host lived out in a desert. He wished he had a mirror to get a good look at his face. He had always liked his eyes and hoped he kept the same green color. Beggers couldn't be choosers though.

He spun in a circle looking around. All he could make out was the endless blue sand. He needed to figure out a direction to start heading towards but there was no longer any signs of footprints, blown away by gusts of wind. He had no idea what direction he or the bandit had come from and no idea which direction either had been headed. If I don't start going somewhere though I'll just die out here

Kuzari picked a random direction and started walking hoping for the best. He kept an eye out for any more sources of water or food, knowing his meager ration of water wouldn't last very long in this heat. He walked for about an hour before he saw another sign of life. A small blue fox looking creature peered at him from the top of a nearby large dune. Kuzari normally wouldn't have noticed the creature with the way its fur blended with the sand if it wasn't for the chirping noises it made. It had long ears and short limbs. Kuzari estimated the thing would have barely stood above his ankles. It was adorable he admitted, but also potentially food, so the bloodied young man edged towards the animal. He wasn't sure how he was going to catch and cook the thing without figuring out this whole magic business, but he had to try.

He steadily climbed the dune and at the halfway point the fox jumped and dipped down the other side of the dune. Kuzari figured as much would happen but he persisted. If nothing else a dune this large should give him a vantage point to see if there were any landmarks in the area.

He reached the top, peered over, and immediately dropped the ground in a panic. On the other side was a large camp of people. He hadn't expected to run into a group of people so soon or in such large amounts. He saw at least a couple dozen people, most of them dressed blue fabrics like his run-in with the bandit. The tents were simple, more blue fabric held up sticks. In the center of the camp, there was a large gathering of sticks and logs. Kuzari idly wondered where these people got all this blue fabric from and where the hell did you get any sort of wood out here?

Kuzari debated his options. On one had people could be a godsend. Potentially a source of information, supplies, and safety. On the other hand, they were dressed like the bandit he killed and was entirely possible they were affiliated, his host had evidently been running from some group called 'the Ratcatchers' and Kuzari had no idea if these people were them or not, oh and he didn't know the language yet either. He really hoped language was one of the things he picked up from his host. Learning a brand new one from scratch when it was highly probable that anyone he ran into wouldn't be able to speak English either would be a challenge.

Still, he needed food and water, and it was becoming increasingly likely that he wasn't going to find it out here on his own. He simply didn't have the knowledge for it and was starting to suspect his host didn't either with how unprepared he seemed to be overall. He could try sneaking into the camp when it got dark and stealing what he needed, but he had no idea what sorts of guards they might prop up, and any sense of diplomacy would be gone if he was caught. He already had enough of people trying to stab him and he really didn't need to encourage more of the behavior.

As Kuzari pondered his course of action the sky grew dim until suddenly the light of day winked out. He was startled by the sudden transition into night and glanced up at where the sun was. Instead of the sun, there was a massive grey moon with visible chunks missing out of it in the shape of three large grooves. It was a frightening prospect. He had simply assumed that the day-night cycle on this planet would be similar to Earth, or at least follow a cycle that made sense for a planetary body. Evidently, that wasn't the case here as it took mere seconds transition from bright day to night. There was definitely magic and fuckery about with this but he had no other possible explanation. Not to mention he couldn't think of a single natural reason why the moon would have what almost appeared to be claw marks visible from down here. The thought of some space monster large enough to damage a moon and not be bothered by the square-cube law disturbed him. He briefly chuckled to himself, If I can barely trust physics to work the same here, what can I trust?

Kuzari peered over the dune again as stealthily as he could to watch the camp. Who knew, maybe the sudden switch to night wasn't normal? He'd have to gauge their reactions from afar.

The people in the camp seemed unperturbed by the transition and Kuzari watched as the began lighting the bundle in the center on fire, creating a decently sized bonfire. They didn't light it with a torch or anything either. A tall person in the center had waved their hand over the stack and it simply burst into flames. Kuzari clearly wasn't the only one with access to magic. If you count the one time as 'access to magic'. This person was distinguished from the others in the camp as they seemed to wear a scarlet scarf around their neck on top of a long blue robe. Unfortunately from the distance Kuzari couldn't gather much more than that or even their gender. He did note that there was a distinct absence of women in the camp as far he could tell and wondered if there was a particular cultural reason for it or something. He was still observing the camp when he felt a very light brush wash over him. He almost thought it was the wind at first except he clearly felt it deep inside his body, where that 'core' was he remembered pulling mana up from.

The roped magic user suddenly jerked towards his direction and pointed towards him. Kuzari ducked down and knew he had been caught somehow. The other magic user had some way of detecting him. Kuzari made for a mad dash down the hill to put as much distance as he could between him and the camp. There was no way he was going to be able to fight off that many people on his own. He had gotten lucky as it was that he won the last fight.

He ran as fast as he could in the night, but he was exhausted from the day's struggle and dehydrated. There was simply no way he could keep a chase up for long. He would have considered hiding somehow except periodically he would feel that same brush against his core. His pursuers might as well have radar for tracking him. Sure enough, it did not take long to get caught. Five men caught up to him and by the time they did Kuzari was on his last legs, barely able to put on foot over the other.

The man in front threw a brown net over him, tripping Kuzari up as he hit the ground hard, tasting sand once again. He weakly struggled to break free of the net but his efforts were useless. He briefly considered trying to reach down again for magic to burn the net away but a dim part of his mind told him he didn't have the energy stored up for that. Not that it would have done him much good to be honest.

The men Pinned him down, removing his satchel and retrieving the dagger he held to his side. One man bound Kuzari's hands and feet together. They barked orders at him that he simply did not understand but made his head hurt. A part of him was struggling to interpret the demands but the cohesion just was not there yet. Then he was dragged along by a rope. Sand scraped away painfully at his skin as they brought the captive back to camp.

On the positive side, they didn't kill me outright, so there's still a chance to live through this.

He was dragged into the camp and caught the gaze of several of the others glaring at him wearily. He was unceremoniously dumped into the largest of the tents.

The inside was sparsely decorated. It had a simple bed robe and in a chair sat the robed figured Kuzari spotted earlier. The figure pulled back a good and Kuzari met the first woman he had seen since coming here. She had shoulder length red hair and fiery eyes to match which unnerved him. Her skin was absolutely porcelain which seemed strange out here in the desert. Honestly, he thought she would be pretty cute if he wasn't currently terrified for his life.

The woman had a perplexed look on her face. Like she really couldn't believe what she was looking at. Then she spoke and with a flash of mental agony he knew.

"Ralin, is that really you?"