A couple of days pass before Xin finally wakes up. It took a while to realize that despite not being cold blooded, I checked, he still suffers from a sort of hibernation from colder areas… I don’t… why? This doesn’t make any sense… the only reasoning I can think of is that his body feels cold then decides to shut down until it feels warm again?

Regardless he finally started to stir Su was at his side and sent a servant for me right away. I made my way there as quickly as possible. I wanted to be there when he woke up to make sure he’s okay… not that there is much I can really do at the moment.

Walking in I hear a raspy voice “Where am I? Did I die?” the words come out almost like getting a feel for the words trying them out. He looks around and sees Su beside his bed without her mask on. Then his gaze turns towards me… his eyes go wide and he starts hyperventilating.

“Young lord… I’m ssssorry- what? Sssssorry about- I’m trying to sssssay I’m ssssorry for failing you.” He struggles a bit with his words as his mouth naturally wants to hiss his s’s. I can’t help but chuckle a little bit much to his embarrassment.

“Ssssorry I can’t sssseem to help mysssself.” Each time he does it he cringes more until he just stops. Su is just staring at Xin with open eyes almost like she’s afraid that if she touches him, he might disappear. Finally with a tentative touch she leans in and gives him a hug. He looks around even more embarrassed now. This is probably the most… human? Thing I’ve seen either of them ever do. It’s kind of nice seeing them as just people. Even if one of them is covered in random scales and has metallic teeth…

Su finally pulls back and much like when I first woke up she finds herself again. “Well, I am glad to see you are well… you… were not looking well the last you were awake.” She looks towards me again but one of her hands remained on Xin. Almost like it reassured her that he was awake and well.

“Yessss, I had ju- fini- taken a package in from a… clan worker. I went through the normal check for giving it to the young lord when I heard a… -sigh- sssssound coming from it. I quickly threw the package into another room, but I couldn’t get out quickly enough.” He’s trying hard not to use s’s after he realized I’d tease him for it. It’s a shame because it makes him a bit more human despite being well a bit meta human.

“The next thing I knew I wassss on my back I couldn’t feel part of my body and everything wassss dimming ssssslowly… Did I die? I remember a lot of pressssssure on my chessssst before a slow darknesssss but… I alsssso remember being picked up and carried from my… no I didn’t live on a log…” Oh! He has all of wiggles memories too!

“Do you remember the boopem snoot’ms game?” I ask out of curiosity. He immediately blushes again. “I… I did not play that wigglesssss did… but why do I remember… Young lord? What did you do to me?” He seems a bit concerned but also not upset as he flexes his arm and looks at a few of the small scales around his body.

“Well you were dying… So, I used the materials I had on hand and brought you back. The cost of that was wiggles, my self-beating heart and my eyes and arms.” At the mention that I sacrificed my eyes and arms for him he loses all color in his face.

“I am not worthy my lord! Sssshall I take my life ssssso that you can function fully?” He seems… scarily willing to do it too. I shake my head.

“No no I’m fine I was also given knowledge as part of the exchange. I don’t think I can really give you back anyways. No, I just need you to get back into working shape so we can go on a bit of a trip.” He looks confused again slowly getting out of the bed. He staggers slightly from the change in balance. He seems a bit more top heavy now probably from the metal.

“Why issss my head heavy?” He seems to hold it between his hands and feels his neck and feels at that as well.

“Well, you should give yourself a look in the mirror. One of the biproducts of the revival was… metal very sharp teeth. You might even produce venom! Isn’t that neat?” He looks at me confused not surprised at the mention of producing venom almost like he was confused at the idea that he wouldn’t be able to and that he could conflicting with each other.

“I-why what issss going on?” His worried face looking almost the same to his normal face likely because of the scales and enlarged jaw reducing the amount his face can really move.

“You seem to be a mixed form of Xin and wiggles… Can I call you Wig for short or Win? Maybe Xiggles?” He doesn’t look amused at it but considers the joke for a moment.

“I remember being both… Call me Zig for now I guess… Xin is more dominant, but I can feel wigglessss too… like I remember everything from both.” He feels his head for a moment. His eyes becoming more predatory for a moment as his skin ripples with scales then goes back to its patchy texture. Another impossible thing but whatever his body is a mystery.

“Zig… will be fine.” Great… he’s likely unstable and has a hungering for flesh and I plan to cross the desert with him.

“Well, I plan on going through Xerxis into Amestris first. So, we are going to need to plan and gather supplies. I’ll let you get used to your body and as soon as Su feels you are ready, we will head out.” I turn to her, and she gives a nod. Looking at Xin for a while. I leave and start my own planning. The largest concern is the increased diet restrictions thanks to Chi manipulation… It’s been a bit stuck in level, but I’ve still continued its practice just to a lessor degree thanks to my projects. It augments my own ability to use it, so any bit of practice helps.

I’ll just pick up metabolism… I probably should have taken the skill much earlier in my life but if I’m going to need more and more food to support my body I should take this skill again to reduce my needs… Calories seem to be one of the limiting factors for growth besides strain. It should also help require less to pack for the long trip. Whatever I’ll just choose it maybe some day I’ll keep it after a life, so I won’t need it anymore. I’m definitely keeping Chi manipulation for this life. I’ll see what fusion skill I end up getting and if it’s useful.

Finalizing my choice spending the next few days fasting and spending time with my favorite little sister. Thankfully prodigy and Chi leeching all my nutrients makes metabolism level a bit faster than when Haru had it. Though not to an extreme degree only reducing the amount of food I’ll need by 10% by the time I got ready to leave. It’s enough to make a difference when trekking long distances.

The day of departure I say goodbye to Su and Li… Mom never came out to say bye. I’ve got Zig hooked up with most of the supplies since my balance isn’t the greatest at the moment. Heading west doesn’t take much time we have a carriage all the way up until the desert before we have to start walking. The first couple of hours aren’t really all that bad…

Day 4 of trekking across the sands…

I think we might be lost… I why did I think this was a good idea?

Day 7 of being lost in the sands

Okay using the constellations, I think we are going the correct direction but the heats starting to get to me. Zig just crawls under the sand for a while and feels fine the lucky bastard…

Day 11

We are running out of food… I may eat less than before but I still eat more than the average person and Zig has increased food requirements as well. I caught him staring at me last night… I hope we find some supplies soon.

Day 12

Walking up the side of a dune I’m surprised by a group of 4 men with guns… not just any guns but semiautomatic rifles… How the? How do some random desert dwellers have these?

“Hello! Nice to meet you!” I start in Xingese then try again in Amestrian before they respond.

“Stop where you are and put everything you own on the ground!” The first yells at me. He looks Amestrian but with a lot of white cloth wrapped around him in a dress tunic fashion. Makes sense…

“I’m sorry I don’t believe I can. I am currently armless.” They all look at each other confused.

“If you’re armless how the hell have you been eating up until now in the desert?” Damn it don’t remind me of that embarrassing bit. Zig acts so noble while he does it too and I have to tell him not to blow on my spoon first.

“I have my ways…” As they move closer, they see I really do lack arms and relax.

“Well, sorry but we are going to be taking all your stuff. Really it’s for the best anyways you’re just going to die out here.” I nod to him.

“Well, you can have it. But first can you point me towards Xerxis?” They look at me oddly.

“Do you mean Xerxes?” I nod somewhat embarrassed, I guess it’s pronounced a bit differently in their dialect than I thought. “Yeah, it’s about an hour the way you came and slightly due west but no one lives there anymore so you won’t be getting any handouts.” I nod again lightly tugging on my face covering to move up a little bit.

“Thank you so much for your time.” I activate the transmutation circle on my mask and let out a screech. Sound is just waves propagating in a destructive matter through air. A part of Alkahestry is comprehension, deconstruction then reconstruction. A sound wave is just like a wave of water pushing the matter in the air until it goes to the object and vibrates at a frequency that someone can understand. Thankfully it’s controlled so even though it’s extremely loud I can also negate the incoming sound from reaching my ears.

They all drop their weapons silently screaming to the noise until their eyes roll back and they fall over. I think I may have over done it a little…

“Hey Zig!” Shouting over my shoulder Zig extracts himself from the sand dune near me.

“My lord, good job dissspatching them quickly. Ssshall I remove all their gear?” Giving a small nod I rest in some sand nearby trying to readjust to have the least amount of sand inside me. I really should have made a transmutation circle for sand before coming out here…

“Here isss everything of import my lord.” Zig drops some water skins, some dried rations, their guns/ammo and most importantly of all a compass!

“Oh thank god, they had a compass.” Zig cleans off the glass before we leave the four to their fates. It’s not our fault they tried to rob a prince in the desert.

It doesn’t take us long to get to Xerxes thanks to that man’s directions. It’s just a pile of rubble… It looks almost roman in architecture. Marble columns and small diagrams of people dancing around pillars with pots over their heads…

“Sssir? What are you looking for here?” Shaking my head I move on from inspecting some of the more destroyed parts. Moving in closer to the cities center I find the first real interesting part. A transmutation circle… though it’s broken. It’s five small circles on a larger one… The scripture around it reads ‘to reach up and pull the gods down to our level and ascend to the perfect being.’ Zig looks it over as well but with far less interest, likely not understanding the words.

“Zig, can you hand me some paper and my ink glove please?” He rummages through our stuff holding it out for me. I grab it with my teeth and use it to write down the circle and what’s written around it.

What’s more interesting than the writing is that I can detect that there are people here… Just tucked away in a corner of the ruins… Did some of them survive and they are still out here slowly surviving?

Making our way towards them I quickly realize I’m mistaken. There are just more Amestrians.

“Hello!” I call out to a few of them.

“I mean no harm! I’d just like directions to Amestria!” A few of the people move towards me some more apprehensive than others. They have dark tan skin with white hair and red eyes. Interesting some form of albinism? I wonder if it has any genetic advantages here. Chi is real so it may have some sort of life force effect. Or someth-

An old lady walks out with a bandage over one eye with the support of several others.

“Hello, we do not have any extra food for hand outs I’m afraid… I understand you are hurt but food is scarce here.” I understand, they can’t exactly farm out in the middle of the desert. I noticed a pool of water earlier so it either rarely rains or there is some sort of underground reservoir.

“Okay, I’d just like instructions on how to leave. Maybe a story about how you are all here and I’ll be on my way to Amestria.” One of the men on the side with a burn scar on half of his face grinds his teeth looking at me.

“If I may ask are you Amestrian?” The lady almost casually asks.

“No, I am from Xing. I came through here to understand the history of Alkahestry.” They start to back up slightly and seem even more on guard now.

“I see your from Xing then… well, we also know that Xing has the habit of releasing their dangerous prisoners across the desert instead of killing them… how do we know you aren’t one of them?” The same scarred faced man that was glaring at me asks.

“Easy, I have no arms or eyes.” They all look at me oddly then each other. Probably realizing that I’ve been looking at them all while talking but claim to not have eyes.

“Liar, clearly you are looking at us.” He moves towards me but then sees my arms clearly lack anything inside them folded up. His approach slows to a stop as he looks at the binding over my eyes not being part of a mask but my real face.

“But… how are you out here? How did you make it this far?” He looks at me in amazement.

“My guard of course.” Zig leaps down from a nearby piller landing beside the lone man with a loud crack. He raises a sword in a more defensive matter of me.

“I-I see…” He slowly backs away from me. Eyes wide and staring at Zig.

“Well… we will tell you our story over dinner… just please don’t hurt us…” I pause awkwardly for a moment.

“I’m metaphorically rolling my eyes and gesturing to go ahead by the way. Still getting used to this situation myself.” We go inside and have a nice stew. I learned that they are not Amestrian but instead Ishvalan. Which are apparently a group of people that were oppressed by the Amestrian people and driven out of their homeland.

“Interesting… Well if you are willing to move to Xing then we will likely welcome you. I’m the prince of clan Du. As long as you have skilled workers and are willing to try I’m sure you can succeed.” The old lady seems to consider it for a moment before shaking her head.

“I’m afraid we may not survive the trip. We have many young and elderly like myself that can’t travel for that long… We also cannot abandon our homeland completely.” It’s understandable… Not the best move but still understandable.

“Well, I may one day turn this place into a pit stop on a trade route with Amestria… would that be fine with your people?” She looks frozen.

“Our kind are treated with prejudice by the Amestrian people… I’m not sure how they would feel about us being here.” Also reasonable.

“I’ll deal with that. There are certain things more important than judgement like money and materials that they would care more for than old wars and judgement. Then if they try to fight they will have to march through a desert.” The old lady sighs deeply.

“Well… if you are so dead set on this… if you are heading to Amestria I… we have a favor to ask. During the Ishvalan war we were helped by two Amestrian doctors called the rockfellows. We would like for you to carry our thanks to their family if possible… they are the reason any of us are alive here…” I nod that’s simple enough for their story and directions.

“Before I leave have any of you found anything interesting in the ruins? I’ll pay of course with supplies or Alkahestry lessons.” This piques her interest, but she sighs again.

“Unfortunately, most of everything was already picked clean by the time we got here. I doubt anything we do have would be of interest to you…” At least she’s honest.

“It was a pleasure meeting you. I’ll be leaving now. I wish the best for your people and should you ever reconsider feel free to go to clan Du in Xing.” Giving a slight bow of respect to them we head out once more with a compass this time and directions towards the nearest settlement.

Day 20

Finally green! The desert slowly fades into lush green fields and pastures of cattle… What a stark difference in environments… Interesting. I’ll look more into it later. For now, I need to find somewhere to stay and maybe ask around for where to pay for an entrance visa. I’m a prince so I should be able to get legal access.