I wake up in the cart still moving. I sit up with a pounding headache. Lupa looks up at me and whimpers slightly. I pet her slightly trying to get rid of the headache. Titus is dead. That hits me more than I expected. I lost control. I over hear Alistar and Aleem talking in the front of the cart.

“Titus put me in charge of her training.” Aleem sighs

“The old man knew what he was doing. Do you?” Alistar doesn’t talk for a little bit before he answers.

“I believe that I know what I need to do.” Aleem pulls the cart over.

“We will be in the Southern Desert within a few days. I hope you can train her.” Lupa looks at me and nuzzles me for a second. She pauses for a second and bolts out of the cart. I pause confused and slowly stand up getting out. Aleem pauses seeing me. “Oh you are awake?” I slowly nod looking around. Lupa bolts into the forest out of sight. I have never been this far south before. The temperature is hotter and the trees of a different breed. Aleem starts to set up camp with Alistar. I go to a nearby tree and sit against it. Even though Titus wasn’t in my life for long, he believe in me. I reach into my pocket and feel the dampening stone. I take it out and make it back into a necklace. I put it on slightly gripping it. I won’t lose control again.

“Zona come over here. We are going to train.” I look to see Alistar and I frown shaking my head.

“I am not training with you.” He pauses and comes over to me.

“I am the only person who knows how to train you. Titus entrusted me with your training. Or do you want to lose control again?” I frown standing up.

“Fuck you.” He frowns pushing my down with some wind.

“It’s your fault that he is dead.” I stand up breathing heavily trying to stay calm.

“I know that! I.. wanted to help.” Alistar pauses slightly and leaves. I look at him glaring at him slightly. “You could have done something. You let him die too.” Alistar stops for a second and blasts me with wind sending me into the tree. I hit the tree causing me to lose my breath. He starts to march towards me.

“I was obeying his orders. You..” He stops as he gets hit with a stick from Aleem. I catch my breath glaring at Alistar. Alistar starts to rub his head as Aleem glares at both of us.

“Both of you are acting like spoiled children. Both of you are lucky to have him train you. So stop this fighting. We need to work together to save this fucking world.” Aleem finishes setting up camp. Alistar pauses and offers his hand to help me up.

“Sorry.” I frown but take his hand helping me. I hear a branch break behind me and as I turn around I get tackled by Lupa in her normal form. I pause shocked as she hugs me super tight.

“Zooooona I missed you so much!” I start laughing as I hug her tight. I then notice that she isn’t wearing any closed.

“I missed you too Lupa” Alistar seems shocked and raises his hands slightly.

“What’s going on? Who’s this?” Lupa looks up at him and stands up

“I am not a pet Alistar. Plus you really need to watch yourself around Zona. If you know what’s good for you.” He pauses and lowers his hand.

“Um.. okay..” He quickly goes to Aleem asking him a lot of questions. I look at Lupa and she seems a little different. She still looks like herself but she seems a lot happier. She does have a little scar around her neck from the teeth marks. I stand up as she looks at me. I quickly grab some extra clothes that I brought with me giving it to her.

“I am so happy to be back to normal.” I smile happy and go to Aleem and Alistar with Lupa. We sit down and eat. After this, I train with Alistar for a little bit. Ever since Titus helped me get over my fear, I am able to control my magic a lot better with the dampening stone. He runs me through a few different ways of controlling my fire. This is the first progress I have in years. I make a mental note to ask Aleem about the bird and what it meant. Alistar seems to be a lot nicer to me when Lupa is around. This causes me to laugh a little bit. Once it gets late, we all decide to head to bed. Lupa lets us all know that we will be safe under her watch. Aleem goes straight to sleep as Alistar goes to bed. I stay up as long as I can catching up with Lupa. Eventually I fall asleep next to Lupa.

I wake up in the morning to Lupa shaking me. “Aleem is doing something.” I pause trying to wake up fully. I stand up going over to Aleem. I see him digging a little grave and I pause as I see him almost crying. The sun is now starting to raise.

“Aleem?” I ask him as he pauses and looks at me. He quickly wipes his eyes and slightly glares.

“What?” He tries to say without his voice breaking.

“Want some help?” He pauses and nods. We both dig a grave. I look at him, “So how did you know Titus?” Aleem pauses for a second as he climbs out of the grave. He offers his hand for me and I take it.

“I met him early in my travels in this world. We were the best of friends. I…” He pauses wiping his eyes again. “He was the first person in all the world’s that actually noticed me. In other worlds, I would just walk in the background. He was the first to actually say something to me. There were so many words not said. I.. owe it to him to finish.” He goes to the cart and takes out the bottle he always drank from. He hops into the grave placing at the bottle. I help Aleem out of the grave. We start to fill the grave. By the time we finish filling the grave, the sun is finally in the sky. Alistar wakes up and comes over. We all say goodbye to Titus for a few minutes. Once done, we quickly make breakfast and eat tearing down the camp. Once everything is done, we start traveling to the Southern Desert.

After traveling for a few days, we finally start to see the desert. For the last few days training with Alistar is exhausting. Every chance we get, I am trying to start and put out fires. Whenever he is around Lupa, he acts weird. At least his attitude has improved. Aleem went into a nearby town to buy clothing for the desert traveling. From what I understand, we will come across the Giant Pit very soon going into the desert. Lupa didn’t need any clothing for the desert because of her being a shapeshifter. However, I made Aleem get her something more comfortable than my tight clothing. She has modified robes that cover chest and legs. She seems to enjoy them, but I catch Alistar starting sometimes. I could feel the heat but it didn’t bother me. So I decided to keep my current clothing. Both Aleem and Alistar changed into white robes. This was the first time seeing how skinny Aleem was truly. He makes me look fat. Once we enter the desert, everyone except me hated it.

I have always lived in the Green Belt. So seeing the Northern Mountains shocked me. Seeing the Southern Desert floored me. Waves of sand for miles upon miles. No life appeared anywhere. Even with Lupa’s powers, she seems sluggish and annoyed at the heat. I had to take over driving the cart. Luckily we traded out for a camel back at the town. Lupa seemed excited and named him Kevin. I smile looking back at all three of them. Aleem looks at me, “Just keep going forward until you come across it. It will be soon.”

“Alright.” We travel for some time before I notice something weird. The sand starts to look like it’s going down hill. I pause looking forward as I see a giant pit funneling to the bottom. “Um… Aleem?” Aleem looks up and pauses.

“We made it. We are here.”