Two Lone Wanders: Chapter one - The encounter

It was, like most Pavian days, hot, dry, and lonesome. At least, it was lonesome to Cassandra. She was traveling the desert, making her way to the Strata Spires simply for the sake of admiring them. She dragged her feet on the sand, feeling weak. Spending six consecutive days traveling the desert would do that to you. The blazing sun was merciless, so hot it was practically forcing Cassandra to drink the last of her water. As she gulped it down, she felt an overwhelming sense of dread. She was almost certainly going to die here, wasn't she? She pushed on for just a few more yards, before she collapsed, and groaned. She was walking up a fairly large dune, when she fell at the halfway point, so she just decided to push on and make her way up. She managed to crawl up to the top of the dune just barely, before laying down on her stomach to catch he breath.

Cassandra managed to sit up, to get a look at the landscape. There had to be some sign of the Spires, right? Nope. None. Nada. There was, however, an oasis, just down at the bottom. Cassandra was convinced that this was a mirage, which is fair, I guess. She layed down on her back, getting ready to roll down the dune, assuming that she would just go through the trees or fall into a ditch. Cassandra, however, rolled a one on intelligence and rolled down straight into a tree.

"OW!" She yelled, momentarily displeased with this turn of events, but not for long, as it meant she could get some water and cool off a bit. She stood up, took off her cloak, leather protection, and kicked off her boots. She rolled up her pant legs and dipped her feet into the water, sighing with relief. Cassandra uncapped her canteen, dipped it into the water and let it fill up, but then she noticed some fairly large ripples coming from the other side of the lake. She looked up, and saw a rather large looking Chlorosaur taking a drink from the lake.

This, as you can probably imagine, startled Cassandra quite a bit, causing her to let out a small "eek" and kicking her legs up from the water and back onto land, making a splash that was itself quite startling for the Chlorosaur. It shot it's head up from the water and staggered back. The two stared at eachother for a moment, before the Chlorosaur nervously dipped it's snout back in the water. Cassandra continued staring at it, though. She's only seen a couple of these beasts on her travels throughout Pavia, but only from afar. Now, she was mere meters away from one, which made her rather nervous, as one would be with facing something like a Chlorosaur.

She watched with facination as the Chlorosaur spread its shimmering wings, and attempted to take off. It couldn't really get up though, causing it to let out a sort of ghostly moan of displeasure. Cassandra looked slightly closer, and saw that the door thing's left wing had a smaller to mid-sized hole in it. She watched as it tried again, and then again, and again, all times making it barely off the ground, if airborn at all. She pitied this quite a bit. She walked over to her backpack, opened it, and stared down at what little she had. She had four decently sized pieces of fabric, and two spools of thread. Not much, but she could work with it.

Cassandra tug around her pockets and pulled out a sewing needle she had, and put on her cloak for good luck. She couldn't explain it, but ever since she discovered her ability to manipulate clouds and electricity, she's found increasing success whenever she wears her cloak. She walked up slowly and carefull to the Chlorosaur, who started to look at her with a strong sense of curiosity. Cassandra slowly reached out to touch the injured wing, which the Chlorosaur surprisingly let her do. It almost felt like it could sense that she was going to help... Cassandra looked up at the Chlorosaur nervously, as she set down a piece of fabric on the hole. It was just big enough to cover the hole with a little extra space.

Her nerves felt wracked as she threaded the string into the needle, she felt nervous as she stitched it on, and she felt nervous as she stepped away to let the Chlorosaur try to fly. As it started to beat it's wings, she took in a sharp breath, and the Chlorosaur was suddenly airborn without issue. It felt like a miracle, almost. The shimmering beast let out a low, happy bellow and it took off into the sky. Cassandra watched it with a faint smile, and walked back to collect her things once again. After she was traveling again for a couple kilometers, she heard the beating of wings and a cloud of dust kicking up in the corners of her eyes.

She turned around, and saw the exact same Chlorosaur staring at her. Cassandra was, as you can imagine, confused. She was especially confsued when the Chlorosaur knelt down, almost as if inviting her on it's back. She narrowed her eyes suspicously, and walked up to the beast. She climbed on carefully, and was about to get off after being on there for about 30 seconds and having nothing happen. When the beast suddenly took off, Cassandra screamed and clung to it's neck with her eyes closed. She stayed like that for about ten minutes before opening them, and seeing the vast deserts of Pavia below her. She watched down in pure wonder, and when she looked ahead. she saw something she thought she would never see just a few hours ago. Just ahead were the grand Strata Spires. Finally, she's made it.

She looked at the Chlorosaur and smiled. "Gentle Giant, I think I'll name you Rivera." She said to Rivera the Chlorosaur. Two lone travellers, able to trade favors, is a remarkable thing indeed.