William walked for a long time before he allowed himself to stop and look back.
The crater had nearly vanished into the distance. From where he stood now, it looked less like a massive scar in the earth and more like a shallow depression lost among endless dunes. If he hadn't watched the ground collapse beneath him earlier, he might have mistaken it for a natural formation.
The desert stretched in every other direction with equal indifference.
Wind rolled across the dunes in slow, restless waves, dragging thin ribbons of sand along the surface. The sky above was pale and empty, and the sun hung high enough that the air shimmered faintly along the horizon. There were no clouds, no vegetation, and no obvious sign that anything alive existed in this place.
William turned away from the distant crater and continued walking.
The terrain gradually shifted the farther he traveled. The dunes grew steeper in some areas, forcing him to climb carefully to keep from sliding backward with each step. Other sections were wide and smooth, their surfaces marked only by faint lines where the wind had carved delicate patterns across the sand.
After some time he reached an area where the ground changed color.
The sand had hardened into dark, glass-like patches that stretched across the desert in irregular shapes. At first he assumed it was some kind of stone exposed by the shifting dunes, but when he stepped onto it the surface felt completely different from the surrounding terrain.
The ground beneath his feet was solid.
Too solid.
William crouched and ran his fingers across the surface. The material was smooth and cool despite the heat of the sun, and faint streaks of blue ran through it like thin veins trapped inside the glass.
The color immediately reminded him of the energy that had filled the sky when he fell.
He withdrew his hand slowly, studying the hardened ground for a moment before standing again. The glass-like surface continued for several meters before breaking apart into scattered fragments that gradually disappeared beneath the dunes.
Whatever had created the crater had clearly affected the surrounding desert as well.
William resumed walking.
Time passed quietly beneath the relentless sun. The wind shifted occasionally, carrying grains of sand across the landscape, but otherwise the desert remained completely still.
Then a shadow passed across the ground.
William slowed and looked upward.
At first the shapes were little more than dark specks drifting across the sky. For a moment he thought they might be distant birds, but as they circled lower their silhouettes became clearer.
The creatures had wide, leathery wings like bats, stretched between long skeletal frames that flexed as they glided through the air. Their bodies were narrow and muscular, built for speed rather than size. When one of them turned slightly, William caught a glimpse of its head.
Its mouth opened sideways instead of vertically, splitting across the creature's face in a cross-shaped seam lined with rows of thin, razor-like teeth.
There were six of them.
The pack circled lazily above the dunes, drifting on invisible currents of air. At first they seemed uninterested in the ground below, but gradually their path began tightening into a smaller loop.
William stood still as the creatures continued circling overhead.
He had no idea what they were, but the way they moved made one thing obvious.
They had noticed him.
For several moments the creatures simply observed him from above. Their wings barely made a sound as they glided through the air, adjusting their formation slightly whenever he shifted his position.
Then one of them suddenly folded its wings.
The creature dropped from the sky like a falling blade.
William reacted without thinking. He threw himself sideways just as the creature slammed into the sand where he had been standing moments earlier. Its talons tore through the dune as it attempted to grab him, sending sand spraying outward in a violent burst.
The attack lasted less than a second.
Before William could even scramble to his feet, the creature had already snapped its wings open again and climbed back into the air.
The rest of the pack continued circling.
William pushed himself upright and immediately started moving again.
The dunes shifted beneath his feet as he walked quickly across the sand, forcing himself to keep his pace steady instead of breaking into a sprint. The creatures remained overhead, their shadows sweeping slowly across the desert as they adjusted their path to follow him.
The second attack came several minutes later.
Another creature folded its wings and dove.
This time William saw the movement early enough to react. He dropped low against the sand just as the monster streaked past above him, its talons slicing through the air where his head had been moments earlier.
The creature pulled up sharply and rejoined the pack.
William didn't wait for another attempt.
He began running.
The sand made every step difficult, but he pushed forward anyway, scanning the terrain ahead for anything that might offer cover. The open dunes stretched endlessly across the desert, offering little protection from the sky.
Then he saw it.
Stone rose from the sand several hundred meters ahead, forming uneven ridges that interrupted the smooth flow of the dunes. At first the shapes looked like jagged rock formations, but something about the angles seemed wrong.
They were too straight.
Too deliberate.
William ran toward them.
Behind him the pack began circling faster.
Another creature dove, but by the time it reached the ground William had already crossed onto the stone terrain. The monster's talons scraped against the rock instead of sand, and the creature pulled back into the sky with an irritated shriek.
William climbed onto the nearest elevated section of stone and turned to face the sky.
The pack continued circling above him, but none of them attempted another dive.
The uneven terrain made their attacks more difficult.
After several tense minutes the creatures slowly widened their path again. One by one they drifted away from the area until the sky was empty once more.
Only then did William allow himself to relax.
He lowered his gaze and studied the stone beneath his feet.
Up close, the surface clearly wasn't natural rock. The slabs had sharp edges where they had once been carved into precise shapes, though time and shifting sand had worn away most of their original form.
William stepped carefully across the broken stone.
More fragments emerged from the sand around him—collapsed walls, scattered pillars, and pieces of what might once have been massive structures.
Whatever had stood here before the desert claimed it must have been enormous.
Now only the ruins remained, half-buried beneath endless dunes.
William walked deeper into the stone terrain, unaware that far beyond the horizon faint flashes of blue lightning had begun flickering across the distant sky.
Something in the desert was changing.
And whatever it was… it was slowly moving closer.