"We have arrived?" asked Gen confused.

"Yes, we have arrived at your destination." said Andre.

"Destination?" asked Gen still confused.

"You look like you are still a little sleepy, here wash your face." said Andre, handing him a canteen of water.

Gen accepted it and washed his face with the water, then said, "Thank you Andre.", "You are welcome, but as I was saying before, we have arrived.", Gen then got out of the wagon and looked around. He then noticed that in front of the wagon the path they were following split in two. One of the paths was clearer to see, and looking straight ahead it was possible to see a city, while the other path was harder to see, and in its direction only sand could be seen.

Gen then went towards his camel, took off his backpack and put it on the ground to get something from it. After a moment, Gen took a wrapped piece of paper out of his backpack, and after closing it, he went back towards the cart. He walked over to Andre and Darren and asked as he opened the paper, "Can you show me where we are now? A map?" asked Darren, "Yes, I bought it at the camel store before I left town." said Gen, Andre stepped closer to look at the map and said, "Hmmm, according to this map, I would say we are here.", Gen looked at the map, and saw that it was pointing to one of his corners.

Andre then continued, "How are you planning to find the ruins? From what I see the map has some markings, do they have something to do with the ruins?", "Yes, each one is a location where the ruins have been seen, the number on the markings is the number of times the ruins have been seen in that location.", "Hmm got it, so you probably want to go towards the highest number, right? "Hmm I see, but if that's the case you'd better run if you still want to get there today.", "Why do you say that?", "Well, from the position of the sun I'd say you have at most another 4 hours of sun.", Gen then looked up with his hand covering his eyes and said, "That's right. Well, then I'd better run."

Darren, still holding the map, said to Gen, "From the scale of this map it will take you at least two hours to reach your destination. Why don't you go into town with us for today, and early tomorrow morning you head for the ruins, after all, the round trip time alone has already exceeded the light time you still have.", "Don't worry, I came prepared to spend the night there.

Upon hearing this the two were amazed and Andre asked, "Are you going to spend the night in the desert?", "Yes, I've done it a few times, so I'm used to it.", "Honestly Gen, at the point we are at now I don't know if you are very brave or just crazy, hahaha.", Darren then asked, "Are you sure Gen? You can always leave it for tomorrow, the city is not that far from here.", "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, hahaha.", "Well, if you're saying so I won't say anything else."

Gent then took the map from Darren and said, "Well, I better get going, it was a pleasure Darren, Andre.", "It was our pleasure, and good luck." said Darren, "In case you come back from there, and find some kind of special ore, stop by our store, I promise to make a good price for you. "Of course, that will be my first choice," said Gen, and then said as he started walking towards his camel, "Well, I'll be going," Gen then untied his camel from the cart and climbed on it.

Gen started to walk towards the path that led to the ruins area, and then turned around one last time and said, "Bye.", "Take care Gen." said Darren, " Don't get yourself killed." said Andre, Gen then said, "You got it." and then walked on.

...

Gen continued on his way for about half an hour, until he reached a point where there was no more path, he then thought, 'Well, it looks like I'm officially in ruins territory.', he then took his map from one of his pockets, found himself on it, and thought, 'Hmm, the nearest marker from here is straight ahead a little to the left, after that there are two more markers on the way to the higher numbered marker, one of them being further to the left and the other one being on the way between the previous one and the higher numbered one.

Gen then set his course and headed for the first marker. After half an hour he reached the outskirts of his destination and began to look around. After ten minutes of searching without success, Gen thought, 'No luck, hmm, well, it was to be expected that I wouldn't find it at the first mark I went to. Gen then headed towards the next mark.

When he reached the next mark and began to look for a while, Gen again found nothing, and then headed for the next mark. When he reached it, he again found nothing and thought, 'Looks like I only have the highest numbered mark left now.' Gen then looked up at the sky and saw that he had at most 20 minutes before it would be dark and thought, 'I better use this time to pitch my tent, but first I better get out of the area of this mark.

Gen then headed towards the higher numbered mark for about ten minutes and then stopped by getting off his camel and thinking, 'hmm, I think this is good,' he then took his packs and other supplies off the back of his camel to let it rest. He then gave him some food and water, and then started to put up the tent, and when he finished setting it up, Gen decided to get himself something to eat and some water from another backpack.

Gen then sat down on a cloth that he had placed on the ground and began to eat, but suddenly he heard a noise, 'Tac', Gen was startled and stood up thinking, 'What was that, is there an animal nearby? Gen waited standing for a while, and again he heard the noise, 'Tac', Gen then tried to find the direction from which it came, but could not. He then waited a moment longer and again the noise came back, 'Tac', Gen was paying close attention, but again could not identify where the noise had come from, he then remembered Lina earlier in the bar, and decided to close his eyes.

After closing his eyes Gen concentrated as much as he could on the sounds around him, and a short time later the noise came again, 'Tac', this time because he was extremely concentrated, Gen could identify where the noise was coming from, but this only made him more confused, because as far as he could tell, the noise was coming from his head. Gen then thought, 'Is the noise coming from my head? What's going on? maybe I've been getting too much sun on my head? or maybe I haven't eaten for a long time and it's causing me to hallucinate, the last time I ate was earlier today at Balkan's bar, so that could be it.

While Gen was thinking of a reason why this was happening, he again heard the noise, 'Tac', and this time he could confirm that it really was coming from his head. He then thought, 'That's strange, maybe sleeping won't solve the problem, I better get into the tent and rest, tomorrow is going to be a long day', Gen then started to walk towards the tent but just as he was about to enter he heard the noise again, 'Tac'. He was planning to ignore it, but something different happened this time.

Right after the first noise another one came next, only this time a little louder than before, 'Tac', and after that came another one, louder than the previous one, 'Tac', Gen then got a little desperate and asked himself, "What's going on, why did that noise start doing that?"

'Tac'

'Tac'

'Tac'

"What the hell, how can I sleep with that noise in my head!", Gen said extremely annoyed at the increasingly high pitch, that the noise was at.

'Tac'

'Tac'

"Why don't you stop?!", said Gen almost unable to hear himself due to the noise.

'Tac'

"STOP!!!" said Gen kneeling down, closing his eyes and putting his hands to his ears, even though he knew it would do no good.

'Tac'

Gen was about to go crazy with that noise when suddenly it stopped. He then stood up, took his hand out of his ear, opened his eyes, and said, "FINALLY! I couldn't stand the damn noise any longer. I'm going to sleep before it comes back to bother me again."

Gen then turned toward the tent, but as he looked in its direction he got a fright and said, "What happened here?!"