I pull the cart over and get out going to the rest of the group. Aleem looks at me drinking some water. “Alright this next part is going to trouble.” Lupa gets out and stretches studying the pit. I look at him.

“Why?” He sighs getting out of the cart. He takes a bag out and starts to look through it.

“We need to go in the pit.” I pause and laugh at him a little bit. He looks at me like he is serious and I frown.

“... Um… okay? How are we supposed to get out?” He motions to Alistar.

“Alistar will have to stay here and use his magic to pull us out. I am assuming that you can do that Alistar?” He pauses and nods.

“Okay.. What about the thing that is supposed to be down there?” He looks at Lupa and then me giving me a look. I sigh, “Okay. So how are we going down it?” He pauses and looks in the cart. He pulls out three shields. I give him a look, “You have to be kidding me.”

“I am not. Now let’s go.” Aleem starts to head to the slope. I look at Alistar

“See you in a little bit I guess.” He looks at me and looks at Lupa.

“Guess so.” He goes over to Lupa and talks to her for a second. Lupa looks confused for a second and comes over to me. I look at her confused.

“What was that about?” She shrugs.

“I don’t know, but he did say he wanted to make sure I came back safe.” I pause and shoot him a look. He better not be thinking what I think he is thinking. I roll my eyes shaking my head.

“He’s an idiot. Ready to ride on some shields?” Lupa pauses getting excited.

“I use to do this all the times back home!” I laugh a little bit looking at the pit.

“Yea but this is sand. Not snow” She nods looking at the sand.

“Sand is weird.” I laugh agreeing with her. We meet up with Aleem standing near the edge of the slope. Aleem looks at both of us.

“Once we get down there, we need to find each other. I don’t know what is down there or where the thing is down there.” He looks at Lupa, “We need you to be on guard at all times. Understand?” Lupa is looking at the pit. She is staring at it with such emotion that I don’t fully understand. I nudge with my elbow and she looks at Aleem nodding. Aleem sighs mumbling something, “Let’s do this.” He gets on his shield and starts to go down the slope. Before we go to follow Aleem, Lupa stops me.

“I want you to have this.” She has me her necklace. The teardrop with metal vines wrapping around it still looks in perfect condition since the first time I saw it. I pause shocked and take it.

“Are you sure Lupa? Isn’t this connected with your god?” She nods and smiles.

“Yea.. This way I know you will always be protected. She will watch over you.” I pause for a second thinking of the irony. I smile and put it on. I adjust it to where the dampening stone is underneath it.

“Thank you Lupa..” We both follow him on our shields. As we get closer to the bottom of the pit, I notice that it’s just a hole. I look at Aleem and he looks terrified. I look toward Lupa and she looks determined. Aleem just down the hole first, then Lupa. Just before I go into the hole. I notice something moving underneath the sand. It looks like and travels in a curve. I drop into the hole falling down a couple feet. I land on a pile of sand and I look at my surrounds. I see Lupa and Aleem dusting themselves off on a old road. Surrounding them are old building as far as the eye can see. In the distance there is a large castle made out of sandstone. I climb down off the pile of sand and look at Aleem.

“What is this place?” I look at the sky and it’s completely covered in sandstone. The city itself is faintly covered in darkness. However, I can see almost everything.

“I thought this place was destroyed a long time ago. This was the Great City of the Southern Desert. I guess it was swallowed up by this sandpit all those world’s ago.” I look over the city as Lupa starts to change into her other form.

Lupa’s hair turns to a dark red and her eyes almost look black with a hint of purple. She looks at Aleem, “I sense a great evil here. Stay behind me Keeper of Knowledge and Zona Everlast.” Aleem gets behind her and I frown slightly.

“Nice to have you back Sister. We could have used you a lot of times before.” She doesn’t look at me as we slowly make our way to the castle.

“Lupa’s body was badly damaged. I would not risk my last herald over a wizard.” I pause getting pissed. Aleem slightly pauses at the comment but doesn’t say anything. We move closer to the castle. The ruins of this city looks in perfect condition. Many of the city streets have sand filling them, but otherwise the city looks fine. I look down on alleyway and notice a giant hole in a house. I stop Aleem and Lupa and point towards it. Aleem frowns as Lupa’s eyes narrow.

“What is that?” We hear laughter. This laughter is dark and evil. It sounds like blades scraping against blades. Lupa slowly has something come across her face as a giant snake travels across a nearby building. The snake is bright red with black stripes going along it’s body. It stops and looks at us. It looks like a King Cobra with bright yellow eyes staring at us.

“I am finally gifted some food. I…” He flicks his forked tongue out. “Oh.. I have a special treat today. Hello Sister.” It slowly comes to ground without breaking eye contact with us. Lupa glares at it.

“So. This was the pit that Alexander trapped you so long ago Snake.” It hisses at the name and laughs again.

“That foolish human. He was idiotic to think I wouldn’t get him back for what he did to me.” Lupa pauses and frowns.

“What do you mean Snake?” It starts laughing as it coils around itself.

“In truth, I should thank that human. For he saved me from dying in the world. However, Father took pity on me. He couldn’t believe that a human could win the heart of his daughter.. My first meal in this pit was Alexander.” Lupa pauses as tears fill her eyes. Her hair goes completely black with her eyes doing the same.

“.. He wouldn’t..” The Snake laughs again.

“He did. Oh the screams. Those were the most delicious part about him.” I frown as Lupa screams at it.

“I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Lupa charges to the snake tackling it through a building. Aleem grabs my hand and drags me away from the fight. I look like I want to help her but I know that I won’t be any help. Alem and I run to the castle as behind us we hear a few buildings start to get destroyed as the battle rages on. Out of the corner, I see Lupa get thrown through the sky and crash into a nearby building. I pause and try to go to her.

“We don’t have time. She will be fine.” Aleem shouts at me. Lupa gets up coughing up a lot of blood instantly going back to the battle. I frown at the amount of blood on the ground. Aleem yanks my arm forward following him. We get to the castle and most of it’s actually caved in. Bones litter the ground of different beast and man. Aleem runs straight the castle looking around for something. I look back to the destruction of the city. I see the snake chasing, fighting, and running away. Lupa punches it hard and sends it flying through the air landing into the building. She chases it inside the building. Aleem runs out of the building holding up a paper. “I found it.” I look at him as he starts to read it. He slowly becomes confused as I hear Lupa scream a blood curdling scream, I look towards the battle as I see Lupa slowly march to the castle. She looks frenzied, animalistic, and beyond hurt. She is covered in this thick dark blood and she seems not to notice her missing left arm. I feel beyond sad and go to her.

“Lupa! You are hurt..” I say panic in my voice. Her black eyes look at me as the slowly turn back to the dark purple. Her black hair slowly goes back to a dark red.

“Zona.. it’s dead..” She falls to her knees as I hear a building in the distance crumble. Aleem grabs me looking frightened.

“It’s not dead.” The snake bursts out of the ground surrounding us.