Chapter 4

Her first Big Spell reveals Lewd Things

And just like this, suddenly, Marta realizes the sand is burning in front of her feet, so close she must step back to not burn herself. ‘What a beauty’, she thinks. She never came that far. Dad would be proud, no doubt about it.

Quickly, she must use the light before it vanishes. Marta stretches the paper in front of her, and some plastic surface develops in front of her. It is mostly text, with an underlined note on top, that says:

“Ey Clym,

Hop a fynd yu wiel. Balou yu gav de very very autaentic secuele tu Hanga de Notti astori

Grotings,

Noke of Dissert Wrockshep”.

This follows with a text formatted more evenly, like pages on a novel, though scribbled with terrible handwriting. Marta engages in what she understands to be the sequel of the story of one Hinge the Naughty, but refuses to go past the first lines, in part because of some disturbing content in a more disturbing prose, but mainly because the flammable properties she attributed to the sand on the ground affected the neighboring desert sand as well. On her back, while she has stood raising the sheet of paper to make something of it, the flames began to spread like wildfire along the dunes, faster each time.

Her father would have stood there to understand what was going on and change the faulty spell to one of more convenience, but at moments like this we need to remember Marta was only a 14-year-old girl. So, she runs as much as she can, fearing retribution from a desert that will burn her alive, and doesn’t even dare to look back. ‘The wind… It blows from the north, I think.’ It’s where the sheet of paper came to her face.

Not that she wants to meet the source of such literature, but someone who reads this kind of stuff may well enjoy some degree of housing in the middle of the desert.

She doesn’t have to wait for long. Two glares of light in front of her, between the sand, not far. It may well be a trap, but she is being pursued by authentic hellfire right now, so falling in the hands of the Hinge the Naughty fanbase is not her main concern.

Now she has come close enough to distinguish the glares from the binoculars of a person lying prone on top of a dune.

‘Hey you!’, she screams. ‘Yeah, I did this! Can you help me? I’m Marta by the way.’

The person jumps back from the binoculars as if the fact of being seen was out of question. He is a very tall man, or something like this, as she can see when closer. The arms are too long and heavy, the face cross-shaped and goat-like eyes, a skin of deep pink undertones…

‘I am Calim’, he mumbles with shyness.

‘Calim, Calim…’, she’s just seen that someplace… Oh, no, “Clym”? ‘Hi Calim, sorry for this mess. There is fire coming. We need to run!’

He shakes as if having serious doubts about what to do, but Marta’s order overrides his indecision.

‘Come!’, he says, soft but urgent, ‘We’ll be safe in the Wreckship! Oh, that… That’s just what we call our home.’

So, the Dissert Wrockshep… Marta feels as if a child’s comic book is coming to life. But it all makes sense when not far away he points her to a metal scaffold emerging from a dune, and on top of it, a steel platform with a hatch.

‘This was our ship! We crashed.’ says Calim. ‘It won’t burn, though’.

And that much seems to be true. The crashed spaceship is buried deep below the sand from the impact, and it is surrounded by a black surface. Burnt sand shouldn’t burn again, or that’s what she hoped.

‘By the way’ she adds thankfully when on top of the scaffold, just as he opens the hatch, I think this is meant for you.

Calim takes the sheet of paper and grins joyfully.

‘So, you found it for me. Noke would kill me if she where to know I lost her artwork. This is the only entertainment around here, you know. Come in, we’ll get you something nice to eat.’

A furious blast interrupts them. Something loud and far on the desert vicinity opposite from where she came from. It’s the roaring of a brutal engine without care, a raw explosion of power.

Something bad, something very bad is coming.

‘What was…’ Calim mumbles ‘Hey! Are you all right?’

Marta barely hears him. She sees everything double down and up, as if losing the grip on the floor. Flames everywhere.

‘My bag… Please watch out-

She can’t bear the heat anymore. Not only the surrounding wall of flames, but some remains of magic burning deep inside her.

Her little body faints and all goes to black.