The Visitors Brought by the Heat Wave (1)
Khan Ashtien spoke to Bia and Vesta.
“The caravan seems to be almost here.”
“As usual, they arrive every year without fail.”
“If it’s a caravan, then it must be a merchant train, right?”
Caravan. That was the word used for the merchant trains coming from the desert.
“Yes. They come from the desert.”
Ashtien’s land bordered the Wilderness and the desert.
It was the place where two worlds met and connected, so trade routes made perfect sense.
The caravan was probably heading toward the Khan after crossing those trade routes.
‘Desert.’
Ashtien had spoken as if it were nothing important, but Vesta didn’t think the same way.
To Vesta, the desert was an unknown land.
A world made entirely of sand was something that existed only in imagination.
“After we receive those guests, the spring season will effectively come to an end.”
They were called the bringers of the heat wave.
“They bring the summer heat from the desert.”
“I wonder if they’re very different from us.”
It must have been because they had learned so much since coming to the steppe.
A curiosity about a completely different world was beginning to peek out.
“They’re different in many ways. They raise far more camels than horses, and there are no orcs or centaurs there.”
Experiences and feelings were woven into her words. When speaking of the desert, she sounded like a traveler.
‘Did she go there herself?’
It was hard to picture Ashtien standing on that barren, sandy world.
‘How could such an unstable world be supporting Ashtien?’
One naturally looked toward what was precarious. If Vesta had been there, he would have stared at Ashtien against the desert background for a long time.
When asked if she had ever been to the desert, Khan Ashtien gave a positive answer.
“Yes. We raise camels too. We’ve ridden them several times.”
“Is the ground there completely covered in sand?”
“Yes. Not just the ground, but even the mountains and the streams flowing from them are sand.”
“Sand rivers?” Vesta’s eyes widened in amazement.
Ashtien liked how Vesta’s exclamation sounded youthful, so she continued.
“There are people-sized lizards roaming around.”
“People-sized lizards…”
“Among them, some had sails on their necks.”
Sails? Those were for ships, weren’t they? One of the most mismatched items with the desert.
Vesta thought he had misheard and asked Ashtien to clarify.
“Sails?”
“Yes. They stand on the sand dunes and unfurl the sails to catch the wind’s power, then charge forward at terrifying speeds. Those creatures are faster than horses.”
Could such creatures really exist?
Vesta’s expression grew doubtful, as if he was reluctant to believe it.
“Hmm. If you don’t want to believe it, don’t believe it.”
“I’ll believe it. So you’re saying you saw those half-flying lizard people?”
As if remembering an old story, Ashtien looked far off into the distance.
“They were like desert orcs.”
“They’re even more foolish than orcs if they attacked you.”
“Yes. Everyone who did died from my arrows.”
How could they have been so unlucky? Probably they had no idea who they were attacking and died without even having time to regret it.
“Ah, right. You don’t have centaurs you like, but there are similar ones.”
Pfft.
While sipping his tea, Vesta let out a choked laugh.
“What’s this, caught a cold?”
It was probably meaningless comment. Or perhaps not.
‘Arin…!’
“Mm. Indeed.”
“They’re similar to centaurs, but they look more like camels.”
“Oh, Cameltaurs. I’d only heard the name.”
It was listed in the Empire’s ecological encyclopedia too. The illustrations and descriptions were at a destructive level, though.
While centaurs were creatures that mixed horse and human, the Cameltaurs looked like a mix of camel and human.
“They are the core members of the caravan.”
“There are no suitable talents in the desert to compare with them.”
Khan Ashtien nodded in agreement with Bia’s words.
“In the steppe it’s horses, but in the desert it’s camels, isn’t it?”
It wasn’t strange to raise camels in the desert.
Unlike horse hooves, camel hooves were wide, so they wouldn’t sink into the snow or sand.
Their ability to store fat and water was unparalleled.
On the steppe it might have been replaceable, but in the desert it was an irreplaceable resource.
‘And if they were as clever as people too, that would be something.’
They were just as unreasonable as the centaurs of the steppe.
It wouldn’t have been strange if they formed the backbone of the desert society.
Khan Ashtien made her proposal to Bia first.
“Bia. How about you lead the caravan?”
Bia nodded lightly, as if it were no trouble at all.
“I’ll do that.”
“You can take the Baatar with you.”
At Khan Ashtien’s words, Bia’s eyes brightened.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to fill the empty spot anyway. You’re filling it so nicely.”
“It’s no less than Arin.”
Khan Ashtien readily offered Vesta. Her deep eyes turned toward Vesta.
“If you’re curious about the caravan, go see it first, Baatar.”
Every time a new experience was about to come to Vesta, Ashtien had sent him out without hesitation.
Was she hoping he would see and feel many things?
Vesta wasn’t surprised, since he knew she would do exactly that.
“I don’t think I can replace Arin, but I’ll do it.”
“Why? Not confident?”
“Because Arin is good at shooting arrows.”
Khan Ashtien and Bia laughed almost at the same time.
“Having a comrade beside you who swings a sword isn’t bad either.”
Vesta didn’t refuse Khan Ashtien’s offer.
‘Curious, too.’
To Vesta, the desert was an incomprehensible unknown space.
A place where the flames of dragons burned entire forests and jungles to ash.
A place called a graveyard of stars and wind.
He wondered what kind of people those who came from there would be.
*
Sassy. Take me too!
It was what Arin had said to the centaurs gathered in the treatment room.
Arin, her four legs tied, looked pitiful as she whined.
But it wasn’t possible to take her along either.
Aishil tried to pull Arin away while she grumbled, her lips twisting into a smile.
Was that the thing that still bothered her?
While walking, Aishil spoke.
“If you buy date palms from the caravan, Arin’s mood will improve a little.”
“That would be good. She’s a simple creature.”
Bia nodded with a much more comfortable expression, as if she liked Aishil’s opinion.
Vesta didn’t know much about date palms.
“They grow in the desert realm, and the fruit is sweet. Arin loves sweets, so she can’t stop herself.”
‘Horses like sugar too.’
Even though he knew one shouldn’t compare centaurs to horses, he couldn’t stop the thought.
“Arin’s whining is probably because of the date palms too.”
As she spoke, the tail of Bia’s words fluttered.
‘It seems she’s looking forward to it too.’
Thinking of Arin as an immature younger sister, Bia herself couldn’t hide her anticipation.
Of course, she didn’t voice the thought.
After traveling for about half a day, a dark crowd of people came into view.
Vesta thought they must be the caravan.
“I found them, but there seems to be trouble over there.”
Bia narrowed her eyes.
To Vesta, the scene looked rather noisy.
“Are those Cameltaurs?”
“Yes. They’re all gathered there.”
At first, Vesta had thought the crowd was a herd of camels, not people.
They looked like a group of camels draped in gaudy embroidered carpets.
But upon closer inspection, he realized they weren’t ordinary camels.
Human-like figures were mixed in.
It was a mysterious appearance that was hard to accept at first glance.
Roughly, he thought their bodies were made by fitting camel trunks onto centaur structures.
But their bodies were far more peculiar than he imagined. Quite different from centaurs.
The upper bodies followed the straight neck of a horse, while the Cameltaurs’ upper bodies curved like a camel’s neck, following the round arc.
It was as if a kneeling human body had its calves embedded into a camel’s torso.
Perhaps the word “neck” was more accurate than “upper body.”
Vesta had experienced everything from the Empire and the steppe, but the Cameltaurs felt completely unfamiliar.
‘So that’s a Cameltaur.’
They were exactly the guests who had brought the heat wave to the steppe.
From the other side, they seemed to have noticed Vesta too.
“Not just the caravan, but orcs and centaurs are all gathered.”
“The atmosphere is quite harsh.”
Like Aishil said, the mood was quite stiff. It was a atmosphere that would make one feel restless.
“I’ll go mediate.”
Vesta and Bia approached the crucible where the three races had come together.