I BELIEVE WE CAN HELP ONE ANOTHER

"Oh yeah? Lay it on me."

THE ITEMS WHICH YOU SEEK CAN BE FOUND EN ROUTE TO THE OIMANON CITIES

"The what... ?"

TAKE GADRIEL. THEY ARE LITERATE. THEY WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY.

"Okay then... what's in it for you?"

DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

• Cole & Ezuriel

Cole walked side by side with the bizarre and imposing creature which had appeared before him.

To be perfectly honest, Cole found this person to be... quite intimidating. Their sheer height was unlike any creature he'd really seen with his own two eyes - and it certainly didn't look like an Okochi okrung, so it didn't seem like any creature he'd heard about either.

Of course, the most puzzling thing of all was the way in which this creature communicated. It was like someone talking from the inside of their own skull, and yet it felt like it was coming from all around him simultaneously.

It was, in a word, disorienting.

"So uh..." Cole started, cautiously, "... what sorta business are you looking to talk about?"

A moment of silence followed, before an answer came from the creature.

"I DREW YOU TO THIS TEMPLE THROUGH THE EPHEMERAL POWER OF MY BELLS - THE EYES THAT SEE. HOWEVER, THOUGH I KNEW YOU WERE NOT OF THE PRIESTHOOD, I COULD NOT HAVE ANTICIPATED THAT YOU WERE NOT OF THIS LAND AS WELL. WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE, DESERT BANDIT?"

The authority with which the creature spoke was staggering, and Cole felt slightly discombobulated by the echoing sound of it's voice around him.

After a moment, he shook his head and cleared his mind, before replying with, "Looking for a purpose, I... eh, that's not true. Honestly? My dad bit the dust a year or two a go, he was in charge of the band, and when he died, y'know, I had to take over. Turns out though, he was really the guy keeping everything together."

"Next thing I know, everyone leaves and it's just me and the dunes," Cole said with finallity.

A moment passed, before Cole heard an otherworldly reply.

"COMPELLING, REALLY. THIS DOES NOT ANSWER MY QUESTION, HOWEVER."

Cole sighed and crossed his arms, before turning around and walking with the creature backwards in order to punctuate his story with hand gestures.

"Fine. My dad had a bad leg. I mean half gone kinda bad, y'know what I mean? And he always told me, he was like 'Cole, when I was your age, me and this band we went to the Dead Wastes. We were gonna go up the Stone Faces and take back the fruit, the fish, the flowers, the frogs, and bring them back to the Dunes. Show the this desert world who's really in charge."

Cole left a dramatic pause, before continuing.

"Then, when they got there? They went up the first face, and then BAM an avalanche came. Took his leg off, but he was lucky he brought the whole band with him or else he'd've died right there. They had the flairomancer and the vidamancer on deck - Intense stuff, y'know."

Cole turns back to the dunes ahead.

"I don't have a band anymore, and I don't have anything else going for me, so I figure... eh, I'll give it a shot too. If I fail, then, oh well, right?"

A long moment of silence passes, before Cole hears the creature's voice again.

"I BELIEVE WE CAN HELP ONE ANOTHER."

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