40 Arc 4 - Dorne Part II
Dorne is rocky, mountainous, arid and dry.
A few miles east of Yronwood the grass begins to thin out and soon the fertile green soil is replaced by hard, dry brown earth.
Ikarus moves a few kilometers away from the road and sets up camp. Instead of sleeping he starts training.
His body automatically moves between various kata that he remembers from one of Riku's memories. The memories are more and more frequent, he now rarely dreams of anything other than memories of his past lives.
Dawn came and Ikarus barely slept the whole night.
He has some oranges for breakfast and continues his journey.
As the hours pass, the temperature increases tremendously, from a hot but bearable 30 degrees Celsius to at least 40 degrees Celsius.
Soon a thick layer of sweat covers Ikarus's body. His clothes cling to his body uncomfortably and his hair is as wet as if he just dunked it in water.
`My body can withstand the cold climate of the North but not the heat of the desert` Even in spring the average temperature in the North is about 12 degrees Celsius and it can drop to minus 0 degrees at night. Ikarus had no problems in that climate but the heat of the desert...
He pulls over to the side of the road and he takes a generous sip from the barrel of water.
He is tempted to douse his head with water to cool off but he is not foolish enough to waste the precious water.
"Water is more valuable than gold in these parts."
Ikarus removes the clothes from his upper body and puts them in his backpack. He takes a clean shirt from his backpack and wraps it around his head to protect himself from the sun.
"The last thing I need is a sunstroke."
He stretches his muscles, collects his belongings, and heads back to the road.
He runs at a slower pace.
He used to move at about 50 kilometers per hour, now he runs at about 20 kilometers per hour.
The journey from the North has taken its toll on his body. After a week and a half of barely sleeping, eating little, and being constantly stressed and worried, his body is in terrible shape.
Having his torso uncovered you can see how his ribs are quite marked, he has lost weight. His paleness is even more noticeable, the circles under his eyes are darker and he has more sunken cheeks.
As if that wasn't enough, the memories of Riku and Rhaenys are influencing him and his emotional state is even more volatile.
If he doesn't find Aemon soon Ikarus might lose it completely...
***
The worst thing about the desert is not the sand or the heat. The worst thing is the mirages. You think you see something in the distance, you run towards it and you get disappointed. You discover that it is only a product of your imagination.
Several times he thought he saw a river or a lake in the distance only to be disappointed. So the fifth or sixth time he sees water in the distance he doesn't let his hope fill him.
But for his delight it is not a mirage.
He finally reached the Scourge River.
"I'm almost there Aemon."
He approaches the trees that surround the water, steps on the green grass and reaches the water.
But he doesn't let his guard down. He knows that rivers are the meeting places for many dangerous animals. Luckily for him Dorne doesn't have crocodiles or alligators. After a traumatic experience when he was a child he has been terrified of those reptiles.
`Dorne has none but the North...`
He shudders at the memories of days spent lost among the marsh infested with the demonic children of lions and crocodiles.
`Not lions, I don't know why the northerners gave them that name. Rather they seemed the unholy product of a croc and komodo dragon`
Lizard-lions were tall, standing taller than him, and their length exceeded six meters. They were fast, strong and deadly beasts.
"I hate the Neck and those fiends."
He hears a noise to the right above him, it comes from one of the branches of a nearby tree.
His hand moves to his sword and he quickly draws it.
Slash
He separates the head of a snake from the rest of his body.
He has seen several snakes since coming to Dorne but none have attacked him.
He looks at the corpse of the snake, his body is a green color almost identical to the leaves of the trees, perfect for camouflage. He winces a little as he sees the headless body still moving and examines the head.
"It is poisonous."
He watched several documentaries about snakes and remembers how to tell the difference between a non-venomous snake and a poisonous one. The most obvious feature is the front fangs, non-venomous snakes do not have them since their main function is to inject venom into the prey. Another characteristic is the shape of the scales and their quantity, non-poisonous snakes do not have many scales and their shape is not concrete, while poisonous snakes have many scales with geometric shapes.
"Of course the knowledge of Earth might not apply to a magical world like this one."
He walks away from the corpse and approaches the river, seeing several dangerous animals nearby. Giant spiders, scorpions and more snakes. He quickly cools down a bit in the river water and walks away from the river.
He runs following the current of the river a short distance from it. It would be more pleasant to run on the grass than on the sand but there are too many snakes and such in the immediate vicinity of the river.
***
After a day and a half he arrives at Godsgrace, home of House Allyrion.
The castle is very different in style from Yronwood.
"Rhoynar style." He mutters in amazement.
Its beautiful. Ikarus could only describe it as a mixture of Greek, Arabic and Egyptian architecture.
The castle is surrounded by a great wall, about 18 meters high, made of an orange material, almost the same color as the sand dunes. The castle has towers with golden colored vaulted ceilings, the main castle building also has a vaulted ceiling painted the color of the sun.
The village surrounding the castle has all the buildings made of a similar material to the wall.
"Only a fool would build wooden houses in the desert." He smiles amused, there is not the slightest doubt in his mind that in all of its history there were at least a couple of Lords who built villages and even wooden castles in Dorne.
"The First Men loved their wooden castles." Even today there are many castles in the North made of wood, Castle of House Mormont being a perfect example. "How poor are they that even after 8,000 years they haven't amassed enough gold to build themselves a stone castle?"
