Kai stood staring at the map in his hand, one hand holding the koufa around his face to keep the wind from taking it from him, the other gripping the worn paper tightly. “I swear that if this map is correct then I am never going back to Ujan,” he mumbled to himself, tucking it back into his pack before he activated the ring on his finger. 

The air twisted and pulled around him, yanking him sharply from where he’d been standing to stand several thousand feet from where he had been before. He checked his map once again, the green dot on the map showing his location (supposedly) and the red showing where he wanted to be. He adjusted his heading once more, shifting to stand pointed a little more north and a little less east, and then twisted the ring once more.

He landed in sand again, but this time his foot caught on something hard and he fell to his knees. A black, twisted root wrapped around his leg, and he slowly lifted his head to gaze at the huge mass of black thorn bushes stretching out in front of him.

“By the gods,” he whispered in awe, stumbling back to his feet to get a better look. Everyone had heard the rumors, the old stories that their greatmothers told them when they were only children, but seeing the Thorns of Aurora stretched out for miles in front of him was an awesome sight. Supposedly some sorceress names Aurora had cursed an old Kingdom and the palace had fallen beneath the sands to die, the thorns keeping any from getting in to revive the evil of the place.

But he wasn’t here for legends, he was here for someone.

He was a wanted man, a petty thief for his whole life, and with a large price on his head now for something he hadn’t even stolen, he was ready to either get what he was after and start new, or fail and die. All or nothing, so they said. He’d been accused of stealing some crown of a long dead kingdom, but what he was here for was something way beyond crowns or kings.

“Well? Is he here?” The tall man that materialized beside him in a whirl of red sand wasn’t totally unexpected, but it still made Kai jump in surprise. He turned to glare at the stoic man, a frown on the other’s face as he stared at the thorns.

“I told your master, ZiTao, I would find what he wanted and bring it back to him.”

The man who held the price on Kai’s head currently wanted something; it was in fact, the whole reason he had decided to accuse Kai of being the thief of the ancient crown. Kai was pretty sure that Sooman himself was the thief, but he had no way to prove it and certainly no way to get the authorities to believe him. 

With a huff of disbelief, ZiTao crossed his arms and gave Kai a flat stare. “And I was sent to make sure you didn’t try to run. You know there is nowhere you can go.”

Except down, Kai’s mind supplied, and so with a sigh he nodded. Pulling the map from his pack, he lit a torch before staring at the red dot and concentrated, hoping against hope that when he teleported it wouldn’t be into some dank hole full of sand and snakes. He said a prayer to his gods and with a deep breath, twisted the ring.

Wherever he appeared was out of the blazing sun, at least, and so he tentatively opened an eye before both popped open and he looked around quickly. He stood in a large chamber, the tops of statues rising overhead as the red of the torch glinted off of the sand at his feet. It was strange, being inside an obvious building but with the ever present sand still underfoot, but as he turned a full circle he couldn’t help but to be in awe.

Gems littered the sand, sparkling from where they lay, and the walls glinted with the sheen of gold. Kai couldn’t help himself; he grabbed a few of the loose gems that lie near him and stuffed them into his pockets as he kept an eye open for what he was looking for. He found himself moving toward a large ruby set in gold plate on the wall, his fingers very nearly itching to have that red gem in his pocket, and his foot caught on something in the sand. Tripping hard, he fell on his face and the torch fell to the sand, the fire flickering out.

“Dammit!” He cursed, fumbling in the dark for a moment before he finally found his striker and relit the torch. As he began to pick himself up, though, he realized he was looking down at the form of a young man, eyes closed peacefully and clothed in rich dress. 

“What the,” Kai muttered, taking several steps back as he took in the sight. It was strange to stand beside this sleeping form; though he could see the boy’s chest raising and falling, he knew logically that there was no way someone could live in this tomb of a palace. Reaching out cautiously, he touched the boy’s hand, just to see if the body was warm and flesh, and at the contact he saw movement on the figure’s face. Kai stepped back again and watched in a mixture of fascination and fear as the young man’s eyes slowly opened.

“Uh,” he said, sounding unintelligent even to his own ears, and the boy sat up slowly, his hands touching the sand around him as a quizzical look passed over his face. “I’m Kai?” the thief ventured, knowing it came off sounding like a question but not knowing