Chapter 5: The Stone Watcher
The twin suns climbed, baking the cracked earth of the Barrens. Kaelen’s thirst was a raging fire in his throat. The encounter with his own kind had left a deeper wound than the cuts on his flank. He moved like a phantom, skirting the open plains, sticking to the scant shade of mesas and rock formations. Every shadow felt like a threat.He found a narrow gully, deep enough to offer some concealment. At its end, a single, stunted tree struggled towards the sky, its roots clutching at a dark, damp patch of earth. Water. He stumbled towards it, his hooves slipping on the loose stones.A low growl rumbled through the gully, a sound so deep it vibrated in Kaelen’s chest.He froze. Crouched by the base of the tree, partially hidden behind a large boulder, was a tawny-colored lion. A plainstalker. Its muscles were coiled like springs, and its yellow eyes were fixed on him with a cold, predatory intensity. A half-eaten plains strider lay at its feet.This was not a territorial dispute. This was not prejudice or misunderstanding. This was hunger. Simple, pure, and absolute.The lion’s lips pulled back from its fangs in a silent snarl. It took a slow, deliberate step forward.Kaelen’s instincts screamed at him to run. But the gully was a dead end. The walls were too steep to climb quickly. If he turned his back, the creature would be on him in seconds.He stood his ground, a tremor running through his powerful legs. He lowered his head, mimicking a threat display he had seen in nature documentaries. He snorted, pawing at the ground. The sound that came from him was a weak imitation of the challenge he’d heard from the centaur herd.The plainstalker paused, its head tilting slightly. It assessed this large, strange creature that dared to stand its ground. It took another step, its growl deepening.Suddenly, a shower of pebbles clattered down from the gully’s rim above them.Both Kaelen and the lion flinched, their attention snapping upward.Perched on the edge of the gully, silhouetted against the bright sky, was a figure. It was made of stone, yet shaped like a massive, muscular humanoid. Its eyes glowed with a soft, blue light. An earth elemental. It made no sound. It simply watched, its stony face impassive.The plainstalker looked from Kaelen to the elemental. Its hunger warred with a deeper, older instinct. This was not its domain. The stone watcher was a part of the land itself, and its silent presence was a command.With a final, frustrated growl, the lion backed away. It snatched its kill in its jaws, gave Kaelen one last, hungry glance, and bounded up the side of the gully with an easy grace, disappearing over the rim.Kaelen stood panting, his heart hammering against his ribs. He looked up at the elemental. The blue glow of its eyes seemed to hold him for a long moment. There was no malice there. No kindness either. It was simply… awareness. Then, with a sound like grinding stones, the figure sank back into the earth from which it came, leaving no trace.Silence returned to the gully. The threat was gone. He was alive.He stumbled to the damp earth under the tree, digging frantically with his hands until a small amount of muddy water pooled in the hole. He drank, the water tasting of dirt and salvation. He had not been saved by a friend, or a hero. He had been granted a temporary reprieve by the indifferent watchfulness of the world itself. It was a cold comfort, but it was all he had. He drank, and for the first time, no one chased him away.