Sands of Time (IC)

Nidge Darkfold wakes with a start. The noise around him is becoming increasingly loud. The air is thick with sand. He swiftly wraps a scarf around his face and dresses in the darkness as best he can. The physician searches the room in vain for his boy. Heading downstairs to the infirmary, the air is clearer and he takes a moment to compose himself. He keeps calling out, but no one responds.

As he stands alone in the dark, Nidge suddenly becomes aware of the silence. The air stirs gently. In the distance, there is a low rumbling sound. The sound begins to grow in volume. He races upstairs and searches the room for his boy; there is no sign of him. Nidge rushes back downstairs, across the infirmary and opens the doors. Sand flows in to the room as he opens the doors. Nidge is frozen to the spot for a few Ehn as he stares out at the devastation that has befallen the city. He calls out a few times, realising he is now shouting to be heard over the roar of the approaching wave of the sandstorm. There is no answer; just the sound of the driving wind.

Scrambling frantically in the sand to clear enough to allow the doors to close, Nidge then takes shelter under his sturdy desk. He curls in to a tight ball with his arms wrapped around his head. "This is it", he thinks. A few Ihn later the storm hits the city walls with a sound similar to an explosion. Outside the infirmary, the storm rages. Wind and sand batter the opulent buildings. The doors of the infirmary give way under the onslaught of the elements; the noise is deafening.

The physician of Klima crawls out from under his half buried desk once he is confident the storm is over. He walks to the doorway and looks out. If anyone was there to see him, they would see a man pale with shock. What is not buried in sand is devastated. Nidge stumbles through the city for some time, looking for any signs of life. Perhaps they fled. Perhaps they are buried. He has no way to tell. He is for all intents and purposes alone in a dead city.

Nidge returns to the remains of the infirmary and gathers some supplies; books and medical supplies. He bundles them in to a cloth before heading out to the tavern. Nidge takes whatever he can find from the tavern cupboards and adds the supplies to those in his bundle. He makes sure he has plenty of water. The journey ahead of him will be hard, but he has no choice. Nidge sets out on foot across the Tahari.