The drifting sand quickly coats my fur and then starts mixing with my sweat and turning into mud. Only by repeatedly using the cleaning stone on myself do I manage not to scratch myself bald. My dislike of the desert is reaching new heights with every step I take in the sand.

It is enough that I start considering trying to alter the climate even though I won't be in the desert long. My mood improves a bit once the air is clear enough for me to start flying again. As soon as I gain altitude I spot the landmark I have been looking for.

It is quite the distance away from the direction I am heading, after the storm I am off course. As I turn and fly towards it I notice it isn't like the description on the map. According to the map it is supposed to be just a white rock sticking up out of the sand.

However, what I am seeing now looks more like a tower sticking up out of the sand. It would seem that the storm temporarily exposed more of it than is normally seen. As I fly closer I see more white stones sticking out of the sand around the tower, it looks like ruins.

Since I don't know the history of the desert I can't be sure, but it looks like a lost city. When I land and take a look at the stone I am surprised to find out that it is marble. Not something I was expecting to find in the middle of a desert.

My curiosity is aroused so I start looking around, I need to move fast before the sands reclaim the ruins. Moving aside some sand I expose more of one of the stones and find it has carving on it. While that in itself isn't surprising, the fact that I recognize them is, I have seen these carvings before.

They are very faded due to the sand, but they are recognizably elven carvings. That means this is likely to be a lost elven city, although why they would build in the middle of a desert I can't guess. Then again, it is possible that back then this wasn't a desert at all, there is no way to know.

Pushing some sand aside I find the roof of a building, it isn't intact but it shows me the city is beneath me. As much as I would love to stay and investigate, I have no way to clear the sand. What's worse is soon the sand will swallow this place again, maybe in as little as a few hours.

Although there is no way I can investigate the city, I can't bring myself to leave without at least trying. Since my time is limited I decide to focus on the tower since that seems to be the center of the city. So I start digging on the downwind side of the tower, hoping to find something.

As I dig down I find that the tower gets wider, it isn't just a normal tower from the looks of it. More like a tower on top of a building, but it should still be something important. The lower I go the less the carvings have eroded, the sand has protected them from the wind.

In the city in the mountain I didn't find any signs of a religion, but these carvings look like gods. Or at least they depict the elves worshiping someone, maybe it is meant to be the first ones. There is no way for me to tell without more context, but it is certainly interesting.

After digging down around fifteen feet I find the top of an opening in the tower. Getting excited I dig even faster to clear the entrance enough for me to fit inside. The wind has picked up and there is sand trickling down on both sides of the hole I have dug.

That tells me I need to move quickly, even if I get inside I will only have a short time. That is unless I want to get buried alive, which is not on my list of things to do. However, it is worth a little risk to take a look inside and see if I can satisfy my curiosity.

As soon as there is enough room I stick my head in to look around, but the stale air drives me back. I am forced to widen the opening to allow fresh air to flow inside before I can enter. Just looking through the opening I can see that there isn't much inside the room.

Even if I don't find anything I still want to take a look around while I can. So I quickly dig out the sand to widen the opening then I sprinkle the sides with water. Then after giving the air a minute to move around I slide through the opening and into the room. The room is fairly large and other than the floor there isn't any surface that isn't crafted.

From the altar in the middle of the room I am guessing that this was some kind of temple. What draws my interest the most is the carved circle behind the altar, it looks a lot like a gate. I quickly cross the room to get a better look at it, it has complex engravings all over it, but they aren't in elven.

When I reach out to touch it I feel a response from it, it seems to be reacting to my mana. While it is probably a bad idea, I am curious so I feed some mana into it to see what happens. Unfortunately, I run out of mana before anything happens, my mana pool is still small.

Not wanting to just give up I take a look around the room, but all I see is sand and marble. There is a huge pile of sand on the side of the room that would have been in front of the altar. Probably the main entrance of the temple, where I entered would have been a side entrance.

Then I notice that there is a staircase going down on the far side of the room. So I quickly cross the room to take a look down the stairs and when I see it isn't blocked I head down. The room at the bottom of the stairs is the same size as the altar room, but shorter.

However, I am disappointed to find that the room is mostly empty, only a few piles of dust remain. Whatever used to be here in this room has long since been destroyed by time. With nothing useful I turn around and head back upstairs to the gate.

I really want to find out what the gate is or where it goes to, but time is limited. To put in enough mana to activate the gate could take me hours with just my limited mana pool. There is no way that the sand is going to give me that much time, it is already filling in the hole.

My curiosity is telling me to go for it anyway and worry about getting out later. Then again, if it is a gate then it would be a way out of here, just to an unknown destination. That in and of itself is a thrilling idea to me, but if I disappear for any length of time everyone will go nuts.

What's worse, if I'm not back on time they might even think that the lizard defeated me. There is no way that I can let the kids worry about me like that. Besides, Myria might try to kill me if I do something like that, especially since she is already pissed at me.