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I've started work on a short story and I'm looking for input on what little I've written
The desert winds whipped to and fro in a deadly whirlwind of jagged rock and sand. Clutching his tattered cloak tighter across his broad chest, the traveler grimaced slightly as he adjusted the considerable weight of the rawhide pack slung across his back. Stretched out behind him lay countless footsteps instantly dashed away by the sudden gusts. Blazing rays of sunlight began to dissipate as the orange sun vanished beneath the distant horizon.
For seven nights he had dared to walked the treacherous Muzandri Desert, far from the last bastions of civilization that dotted the outskirts of the mighty dunes. Even with his impeccable sense of direction the first tendrils of doubt had begun to creep into his mind. His waterskins had grown light, perhaps enough for three, five days if he reduced his rations even further. As it was barely enough passed through his lips to wet his parched throat. Each step deeper into the relentless furnace sapped his strength and will like a growing leach upon his chest.
And yet despite these fears he continued onward maintaining the same stride as when he had left the great obsidian walls of House Guldar. Continued steadily deeper and deeper into the dunes, as if pulled forth by an unseen force.
A short burst of laughter escaped the traveler's parched lips. I must be mad, he thought, to abandon all and vanish into these wastes. However, he was unsure as to what he had abandoned. Brow clenched in furious concentration, he struggled to recall his own childhood, to remember anything before the desert, as even the memories of Guldar seemed distant, like the shadow of a half forgotten dream. The few strands he managed to retrieve were as incohorent as they were vivid.
Blackness.
Pale moonlight stretched through endless corridors.
A piercing cry in an unknown tongue.
Blood stained sheets.
The soft voice of a woman, singing.
Elo ali elo ali nurzban,
Sheznor eri muran.
The words were foreign to him and any meaning they contained completely lost. Perhaps he would discover what the dreams meant, but for now he trudged ever onward into the darkened sands.
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