Anna's Oasis

Anna's Oasis 

Part I - Travelling West 

I

The dunes stretched out onward and forever. 

Anna was coming from the Eastern Sea, leaving behind the destruction of her village and the horrors she'd faced there. 

She was the only survivor. 

Now, she was a fugitive. A runaway. Desperate to escape, she fled into the only place left to go: the great desert of Harken.

II

Judging by how intensely the sun was beating down on her, Anna guessed it must have been high noon. 

But time didn't work like that anymore. 

No, time was thinning, slowing down (but in some places speeding up). You couldn't be too sure of anything anymore. 

She carried with her a knapsack that contained four large flasks of water, bread, nuts, and a few other non-perishable items she'd grabbed from the cupboards before making her daring escape. 

The desert stretched out for miles and miles, and walking into it would have surely been suicide were it not for one thing: legend told of a beautiful and magnificent oasis at the centre. Nobody had ever returned from walking into the great desert, but if they had found an oasis, a true oasis, why would they? 

She stopped about ten miles in and took a sip of water from her flask. It was warm but still refreshing, and it energized her. 

She carried on. 

III

It was about forty miles in, with two flasks down, when she first caught sight of a possible clue. There was a single palm tree standing between the dunes, about two miles out, blowing slightly in the wind. 

Anna's heart started to beat faster, and her mouth, already dry, went drier still. "This could be it," she thought. "This could be the path to the oasis."

But when she reached the tree, she was startled and dismayed to find words written on the trunk in what appeared to be dried blood. 

"THE OASIS IS A LIE."

She furrowed her brows. Anna was not pessimistic by nature, but here was something that challenged her. After walking for nearly sixty miles, this wasn't the kind of sign she wanted to see. But, where was the body of the person that had been used to write this message? Had he been buried in the sands of time? 

Or was it a just red herring?

Regardless, it was time to take a break. She leaned her back against the trunk of the tree and sat on the sand. She took another sip of water; this time on her last flask, and had some nuts. 

"I'll probably die here," she thought. But staring death in the face has a strange way of motivating people to stand until the very end, and Anna felt herself driven to continue her quest, even if it meant dying of thirst, starvation, heat, or a combination of the three. 

IV

Another twenty miles in, Anna drank the last sip of water that she had. That was it. Done. Now she was truly in trouble. 

But, twenty miles in, was also where she saw the first mirage. 

V

It appeared on the horizon like a shimmering ghost. Standing about a hundred meters tall, it looked like a castle. She couldn't tell how far away it was, but it was there, and it was mystifying. She quickened her pace and kept heading west, towards freedom. 

Nightfall was approaching, but Anna kept on her path. This was no time for resting. She was scared to fall asleep, scared that if she did, when she woke up the castle would be gone.

The sun had begun to rise when she finally reached the mirage. It shimmered, even as she stood in front of the silver gates, and she suddenly realized that this, this could be it. This could be the oasis legend told of. 

Or it could just be in her head.

VI 

She knocked at the front door, and after waiting for what seemed like an eternity, the great wooden gate began to open inward, revealing a cobblestone path that led up to a palace. On either side of the path were what looked to be like broken down and abandoned shops. 

Anna walked trepidly up the path. This looked like a ghost town. But, the gate had opened, and she felt that someone was here, watching her. Not necessarily someone rotten, but perhaps someone not benevolent either. 

She reached the front door of the palace and, again, written in blood, was: "THE OASIS IS A LIE."

So, this probably wasn't the oasis, but an abandoned way station. Nonetheless, she was out of water and nearly out of food. Anna was at the mercy of whoever was behind that door. 

VII

"Who are you?" came a voice bellowing from the top of the palace. 

"I am Anna, daughter of Gabrielle, seeking shelter and respite from the wicked conditions of the great desert of Harken," she replied. 

"This is no place for tourists," came the voice again. 

"I am no tourist," she said. "I am a refugee, coming from the village of Tol on the Eastern sea."

"Never heard of it."

"Well, you don't have to hear about it, because it's all gone now."

"What happened?" the voice asked. 

"Black Riders came and burnt it to the ground. I was the only survivor."

"Who are these 'Black Riders'?"

"Nobody knows."

There was silence. 

"Come, Anna, daughter of Gabrielle. I shall give you shelter and refreshment. And then we will palaver."

VIII

Anna sat at the head of a long table on the main floor. The palace was completely empty, save for one person: Romero, he called himself. 

"How did you come to find my palace?" he asked. 

"I walked west, past the palm tree and towards the oasis."

Romero threw his head back and laughed.

"There is no oasis out here, silly girl. Only death."

"Then what are you doing out here?" she asked. 

Silence again. 

"My palace wasn't always out in the desert," he said. 

"What do you mean?"

"We were from Norf. And then, one day, the sky lit up, and our palace was transported to this hell-hole."

"You transited?" she asked in awe. 

"Aye."

"Where are the rest of your people?"

"Dead. The transit blew their brains out."

"How did you survive then?"

He looked up at her.

"I was the one who caused it."

Part II - Transient Memories 

I 

"I don't know how I came into possession of the Fallanwood, because my memories of before the war have been muddled by time."

Anna nodded. Her memories had been muddled too. As time thinned out, it had begun to become harder to remember things. 

Romero closed his eyes. "Presence is the saviour of time," he said quietly. 

"All we have is this present moment," she agreed. 

"I don't know if Fallanwood chose me or if I chose it, but what I do know is it sent us to this place."

"And then-"

"And then everyone died."

There was a pause. 

"Can I see it?" she asked. 

"Why?" 

"Because I have a plan."

II

They walked upstairs, through winding staircases and wide corridors to one of the many rooms that lined the palace. Romero opened a closet at the back of the room, and pulled out a metal box. Inside was a silver orb, about half the size of a bowling ball.

"It's beautiful," Anna said. 

"And deadly," he replied. 

"So how does it work?"

"I have no idea."

"Well, do you remember what you were doing when it transited you?"

"I was reading a book about the Legend of the Oasis. But not the one you're looking for. This one is on another world. Suddenly, a piercing white light filled the room and enveloped everything. The next thing I knew, when I looked out my window, all I saw were dunes."

"So it seems to be some kind of psychic connection," she posited. 

"Mayhap," he said. Then: "what's your plan?"

"Maybe if I think about my oasis, it will bring me there."

A stern look came across Romero's face. 

"I'm not going to let that happen. Anna, there is no oasis. I'm sorry for what happened to your village, but there are other places you could transit to instead. And what if you did choose to go to this oasis, and Fallanwood stayed here. What then?"

She considered this, and then thought of something. 

"Why did you never transit away from here?"

"Where would I go?"

"Back to Norf."

Romero shook his head. 

"Norf is gone. It's in the past." He stood up. 

He was hiding something, she felt it. 

"I will help you, Anna, daughter of Gabrielle, but not another word about this oasis, or the desert is where you're headed next."

III

The two of them went back downstairs with Fallanwood and placed it on a small table in the centre of a large, empty room that would have once been used to host large gatherings. Now, it lay bare, and desolate. 

Anna stood with her arms crossed, studying Fallanwood intensely. 

“Where would you like to go?” Romero asked. 

Anna’s eyes glimmered. 

“Beyond the Western sea,” she said. 

“Think hard then, aye.”

And she did. But not of the sea, or the desert, or Tol, but of the oasis. And as she did, Fallanwood began to emanate a faint blue glow. 

“Anna!” Romero shouted. “Forget your damned oasis. Fallanwood will not take you to a place that exists only in a dream.”

She stared at the silver orb, mesmerized by it. 

Suddenly, she was elsewhere. 

IV 

Anna opened her eyes. There was blackness all around her. At first, she thought she was dead. Then, small specks of light began to appear. She turned her head, and looking down below her was the Earth. Dumfounded, she closed her eyes again and reopened them. The Earth was still there. 

No, this wasn’t death. This was something else. 

There was silence all around her. Then, unmistakably, the sound of hoofbeats. 

The Black Riders were coming.

V

Romero shrouded Fallanwood with a blanket. It had stopped glowing blue, and had become dormant again. His job was done. Anna, the Searcher, was locked outside of time, just as the prophecy foretold. He grinned to himself. The Black Riders would be most pleased.

VI

Romero walked back up the long, winding staircase of his palace to the communications room. He opened a grey terminal that had a display attached to a keyboard, and began typing.

>>>FALLANWOOD HAS SENT THE SEARCHER TO THE VOID>>>

Some seconds passed, then, a reply:

>>>GOOD WORK>>>

Romero typed again:

>>>WHAT NOW?>>>

Moments after he typed that, the terminal exploded, searing his face and blasting his brain right out of his broken skull.

He fell to the floor, limp and lifeless. 

Romero was dead. 

VII

Anna screamed out for help, but nobody heard her. 

Nobody could hear her. She was in the void. Between outer space and inner space, between time and presence. She was lost.

But could she be found?

The hoofbeats were growing louder, and she swore she heard a whinny. 

She had to get out of here. 

Anna began to swim through space, looking for some kind of exit. She swam through the atmosphere of Earth, looking down on the barren wastelands that were a result of nuclear warfare. She swam further and further, away from the sound of the horses, away from what would be certain death. Real death.

And just when the sound became deafening, she woke up. 

Part III - Oasis

I

Anna was sitting under a palm tree. Dazed, she slowly got up and tried to get her bearings. The tree looked the same as the one she had crossed before, but this time there was no message written on it. 

Her knapsack was lying beside the tree too, and when she looked inside it she was both horrified and elated. 

Fallanwood was in the bag.

Somehow, she had come into possession of it, just like Romero before her. 

The sound of hoofbeats and whinnies were gone. A small breeze blew through the desert.

“What happened?” She thought to herself. “Where did I go?”

To her surprise, Fallanwood’s opaque silver surface began to clear. Suddenly, it was translucent, and she could see something happening inside the orb. Peering deeper, she saw a castle way up high on a hill, with a grey palace inside. 

Suddenly, the castle disappeared. Blackness took over Fallanwood, and when it cleared, she heard a voice. 

“Anna…” it said.

“Who are you?” She screamed. 

“I am the Black Rider…well, one of them…”

“What is the oasis?”

“You’ll never know…”

She put Fallanwood back in the bag and considered her options.

She had no idea where (or when) she was, why she had Fallanwood, and whether the Black Riders were coming for her or not.

But she did know that Fallanwood could take you somewhere else. And where she wanted to go was the same: the oasis. A place of endless water, endless life, the opposite of death, the opposite of Hell. The only thing she truly cared about. 

When she opened her bag again, Fallanwood had returned to its dormant state. She closed her eyes, and thought of the oasis…

It began to glow blue.

II

She was back in Tol. The buildings were barren and charred. Smoke rose steadily from the desecrated town. 

“No!” She cried out. And then began to sob.

She was right back where she started. 

When she looked in her bag, Fallanwood was gone. 

Anna stared out to the west. The desert of Harken stretched out endlessly. 

Hoofbeats were approaching. 

There was nowhere to take cover. Nowhere to hide. 

She took a deep breath and accepted her fate.

III

There was someone approaching on a horse, but it wasn’t the Black Riders. 

It was Romero.

“Anna,” he said. “Thank god I found you.”

“What happened?” She asked.

“We toyed with magic and faced the consequences.”

He shrugged. 

She suddenly grew cold.

“You tricked me. You sent me away.”

“No. Another version of me did, mayhap, but not me.”

“Who are the Black Riders?”

He paused, still looking at her.

“They’re the citizens of my castle.”

“But you said they died-“

“In a way, they did. Their fate was worse than death.” And he looked down in shame. “I didn’t mean to do it. It was Fallanwood.”

“Is the oasis real?”

“You’re still on that…” he said.

Tears were streaming down her face. “Please. Please! Tell me it’s real.”

“It is.”

Shocked by this sudden burst of honesty, she found herself tongue tied.

“You’re lying.”

He shrugged again.

“Good luck getting there, though. Without Fallanwood-“

“I’m sick of hearing about that magic orb.”

Hoofbeats again. Loud. 

Romero looked off into the distance. Towards the East.

“They’re coming.”

“I know,” she said. “What do they want though?”

“They want you.” 

“Why?”

He sighed. 

“Because you’re the oasis.”

IV

The Black Riders stopped at the edge of Tol. There were thirteen of them in total.

The captain dismounted his horse, and opened a satchel hung over his shoulder. He pulled out Fallanwood.

“Where is she?” He asked it.

“Tol…” it said. 

He looked confused for a moment.

“Not the desert?”

“Tol…” it repeated. 

V

“How am I the oasis?” She asked. 

“The oasis refers to your inner life. The inner space within you. 

“Why do the Black Riders want me then?”

“Because they have no inner life. The thirteen of them chasing you; they’re the ones who can’t move on. The ones who died at my castle and are angry about it.”

“So your castle did transit?”

“Yes.”

“Then how are you here now?”

But before he could answer, there came a voice from across the pavilion. 

“Anna, daughter of Gabrielle, you have something we want.”

“I’m not giving you anything!” She screamed back as the Riders closed in. 

“Yes. You will.”

Suddenly, Romero produced a large revolver from under his cloak and shot the Rider square in the face, blowing his head clean off.

Anna gasped.

Fallanwood fell to the ground, and smashed.

Tol was enveloped in darkness. 

VI

Anna awoke under the palm tree again. 

This time, she was with Romero, and the body of the Black Rider.

Romero wouldn’t wake up. He was in the void. 

Dismayed, Anna wrote a message on the tree in blood:

“THE OASIS IS A LIE.”

She started to weep. There was nothing left. Fallanwood was gone, Romero was in transit, and she had no food or water left.

Time had no meaning anymore. When was she? 

That’s when she saw it. Another mirage. 

Water. 

VII

“Anna…” Romero’s voice was weak. “I…I died. The console…it blew my face off.”

He looked at her, and all she saw was fear in his eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said. “We’re almost there.”

VIII

Anna, daughter of Gabrielle, left Romero sitting against the palm tree. She staggered through the desert for what must have been ten miles before she reached the shore.

It was the Western sea. 

She looked into the horizon as the sun was setting, and sat on the beach. 

Waves crashed at her feet, and she closed her eyes. 

A brown box washed up beside her.

She opened it, and, unsurprisingly, there was Fallanwood.

The world worked in mysterious ways. 

IX

Romero got up, and looked out to the West. There, he knew Anna would find her destiny. 

Fallanwood would show her the way.

And if it didn’t, it wouldn’t matter anyways. Nothing mattered. Not the Riders, not the palace, and not even the orb. 

Time was gone. And in a timeless world, how could you go anywhere? 

He leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. 

On the beach, Anna disappeared. 

He smiled to himself. 

“Lost and found.”

X

The palm tree swayed in the wind.

It began to rain.