Dunes

Natalia awoke. She was on top of Will. She straddled him, slowly lifting her head. They had washed up along a rocky shoreline in an open cavern somewhere below the earth. Then Natalia realized something. She was looking at Will’s face. She was back in her own body.

“Will!” She shook him. There was no response. “Will! Will wake up, dammit!” She shook him even more violently. “Please.”

Natalia leaned downwards, her lips hovering above his own. She read about this once, how to save a drowning victim. Blowing air into their mouth. She was pretty sure that was how it worked. She hesitated, her lips almost touching.

Will coughed up water, causing Natalia to shoot her head backwards. She was as red as her hair.

“Are we alive?” He coughed.

“Yeah,” Natalia answered.

“Uhm,” Will opened his eyes and looked at her.

“What?” She asked.

Natalia realized she was still on top of him. She let out a yelp, rolling awkwardly off him and scrambling a few feet away.

“Guess we’re back in our own bodies,” he observed, running a hand across his own body. He looked at it. It was covered in blood. “We’re cut up pretty bad.”

He turned to Natalia. Her hair tie had come loose, her red locks falling freely behind her. A stray clump of wet hair clung to the side of her face, which she brushed away with an embarrassed look. Red blotches stained her white blouse where the rocks had cut her, and an empty sword scabbard hung from her side. Will caught her eyes. Beautiful emeralds. They used to annoy him, but for some reason he admired them.

“How deep do you think we are?” She asked.

“Huh?” Will was shaken from his stupor. He realized he was staring. “Uh, it seems pretty deep. This doesn’t even look like a catacomb at all anymore.”

A stray tentacle erupted suddenly behind him, forcing them both to scramble backwards. The creature emerged in full, half burnt from the force of the attack it had endured before. It was like a web of tentacles, a writhing mass of undulating limbs, a circular, saw-like mouth ridged with razor teeth at the center of the being.

“Dungeon star!” Natalia identified, grasping at a sword that wasn’t there. “Blade Ballet!”

Three glowing swords of mana appeared near her, illuminating the otherwise dark cave. The blades rang out as they soared, knocking out masses of flesh and tentacles as they plowed through the monster. Yet the beast lived, seemingly unbothered by its half cooked state and missing tentacles. The creature slammed a tentacle downwards with surprising speed.

“Dodge dammit!” Will yelled, shoving Natalia out of the way as the tentacle hit.

Natalia clicked her tongue, readying several more blades. The attacks pieced the beast, but again had little effect.

“Why won’t you die!” Natalia yelled in frustration.

The Dungeon star roared, this time flopping its body onto the shore of the water, whipping tentacles swinging out in a blur like high speed whips.

“All right, let’s run!” Will suggested grabbing Natalia by the hand and pulling her away.

The creature gave chase, slithering along the dry ground as they ran. It was fast, nearly overtaking them as they scaled a slope leading upwards. There was light at the end of the slope, a possible exit.

“It’s not giving up!” Will gasped.

“I have an idea,” Natalia perked up.

“What are you…”

Without hesitation, Natalia summoned more swords. With a quick flick, she forced the swords onto the cave roof, smashing the rocks with enormous force. The cave began to rumble as the roof fell on them.

“Excuse me,” Natalia apologized, scooping Will into her arms before speeding off out of the cave, leaping upwards just as she exited it.

A bright, sunless sky greeted them. The dunes shifted in the gentle winds, kicking up sand that cushioned their landing. The cave collapsed behind them, burying the creature underneath. The two let out a sigh of relief, Will still nestled firmly in her arms.

“Uhm, again?” Will asked.

Natalia dropped him unceremoniously onto the sand. He hit it with a thud. This time she composed herself. She reasoned she shouldn’t get so flustered at a time like this. Her face did not seem to understand that. She’d blame the redness on the sun. Despite there being no sun.

“Oh great,” Will sighed, brushing himself up and getting up. “I think we’re in the dungeon.”

“Seems that way,” Natalia noted. “The Shifting Dunes by the looks of it.”

It was perhaps another hour before they were able to reorient themselves to their original bodies. It had perhaps been a whole week since they swapped, and returning to themselves was quite jarring.

“Will,” Natalia asked as they trod along the shifting sands.

“Yeah?” He asked, trying to keep the sand out of his face.

“Hit me,” she said.

Will slapped her across the face.

“Why did you actually hit me!” She yelled. “You didn’t even hesitate!”

“You said hit you,” Will explained.

“Yeah, but not so hard!” Natalia reeled, rubbing her red cheek. “Okay, so my skill doesn’t actually work, except Blade Ballet. But when you’re in my body, the skill does work, but you can’t use Blade Ballet, interesting…”

“Speaking of the swap, do you actually remember what caused it?” Will asked. “I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

“Yeah,” she nodded slowly. “Like we met someone…”

“Maybe we can talk about it later,” Will said. “Getting out of here comes first.”

“I don’t even know if we’re going in the right direction,” Natalia sighed, wiping some sweat from her brow. The sand was sticking to her skin. “The Shifting Dunes are said to be as large as a country.”

“And we don’t have any water or supplies,” Will pointed out.

“We can always try that cave again,” Natalia said.

“That thing is still down there,” Will noted. “And there was no way we’d be able to swim against that current. We’re stuck.”

The day gradually shifted into early evening. They had been walking for perhaps three hours by the time they had found something resembling shelter. Shelter in this case was a pair of jutting rocks stacked against each other. It was the first landmark they had seen that wasn’t the cave they originally came from. There were a few dry shrubs growing around the rock formation. The withered vegetation would serve as valuable firewood in the coming evening. By the time the darkness had covered the lands, Will had a small kindling fire going.

“That’s a useful skill,” Natalia complimented. “You didn’t even have to use magic.”

“When a rooftop isn’t guaranteed,” Will explained. “You have to make do.”

Natalia sat with her back against the rock wall, warming herself by the fire. The dunes had quickly chilled when the darkness came. A few stars seemed to appear, twinkling above. Will wondered what they were; there were a few theories he had heard about.

“Shisa is going to be mad,” Natalia chuckled, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, she would be,” Will smirked.

“Weird, huh?” Natalia noted.

“What?”

“Talking together like this, outside that weird dream,” she explained, brushing away a stray hair from her face and inching herself closer to the warm fire.

“Yeah, weird,” Will nodded, also bringing himself closer to the flame. “I hope we can get back soon. They needed our strength for Kagan.”

“You know,” Natalia leaned forward, curiosity in her eyes. “You seemed to know a lot about me now, but I realize I don’t know anything about you.”

“What do you mean?” Will asked.

“Like where you’re from, why you want to be a hero, all that,” she said.

“Oh.” Will nodded.

“So?” She titled her head, inching her way around and sitting next to him.

“Well, where do I start?” Will laughed, flustering a bit.

“The beginning, if you don’t mind, we have all night,” Natalia teased.

“Alright, here we go,” he began.