It could have been a mirage. The way the city glistened just on the Horizon; the way the lush green of the palm trees could be seen from a fair distance away. The spotless white of the city walls a it curled around the oasis, as if daring the desert to try and touch it. The place seemed like heaven in the vicious heat of the desert.
The sun was raised high, beating down relentlessly upon anything foolhardy enough to be out on the orange sand. The heat; it was indescribable. It was a sheer, burning solid heat that penetrated through the coolest of things. It was a barren waste land, save for the glimmering city; the only thing that wasn't part of the sweeping sand dunes were several bones; sticking up from the bottom of a pit; yellowed with age, a few fragments of long-gone clothing clung to them. It was a depressing sight.
Though one dessert traveller was seemingly uncaring; he made his was through the desert on the back of a Rathil. It's feet hitting the hot sand at a steady pace. Clearly it had been travelling for a long while. Sweat dripped down it's flanks and it's mane clung wetly to the back of it's neck. Beads of perspiration also covered the riders scarred face. A deep gash lay across his nose and down the side of his face, disfiguring it slightly. Many would call him 'horrific' if not only for the scar that tainted his face. Perhaps Taurmynt was a handsome man, beneath it all. His olive tone skin and ebony hair underling that fact. Though his eyes seemed dead; as if all life had been sucked from them, all emotion gone. There wasn't even a glimmer of something more in his eyes. They focused only on the city. Not the expanse of sand, nor the tiring beast before him.
Taurmynt didn't want to have to stop before he got there. Though; he was sure if he pushed the beast any further; he'd be on foot. "Xinechmicti." He cursed; the sarcasm evident, even if the meaning wasn't. With an irritated sigh he slowed the creature down. Letting walk at a slower pace. The rathil gave him one terrified look before continuing at a snails pace; if this was how the animal was going to walk, he's be nothing but vulture scraps by the time they reached Ver'sol. Taurmynt reached behind him; his long fingers curling around the weapon. Lacking emotion as he did so; he gave the beast a sharp prod. Despite it's tiredness it moved on quicker than before. It feared Taurmynt, as such there wasn't much chance of his command being disobeyed; despite how tired it was.
The city was a bustling mess of both the very rich, and the desperately poor. The main part of the city was lavish; fountains spurting crystal clear water; the grand Sobremesa Hotel; perfect white and stunning gold; that was what you came to see when you visited the city. The upmarket Bazaars were full of expensive trinkets and exotic pets. While the shadier areas were riddled with thieves; strange witch doctors and fake historical artefacts. While one part of the city flourished in a swirl of rich merchants, exotic personalities and bright lights; the other suffered with broken down houses, filthy water and barely enough food to feed a nemuwit. Let alone a person.
Taurmynt was used to both the city, and it's ways. He almost knew the city better than his profession; his profession being that of a hired killer. The money was good; though Taurmynt didn't ever need a motive to end something's life. Perhaps that was why he was so dangerous. Many people described him as psychotic . Though psychopathy usually had some emotion behind it; here there was none. Again; it probably made him even more dangerous; no guilt, no anger, no fear. Well, the little emotion he did have wasn't shown often, or easily. Most of the people who he had shown emotion to were buried deep in the Wilt'no dessert.
The long suffering Riopath was tried up just inside the city; he probably would never see it again. The thieves
around here didn't hang about; they would waste no time in making sure the animal was theirs. Surprisingly there were several cheesy 'wanted' posters around. Each with an artists interpretation of what Taurmynt looked like, from eye witness statements. Though; as he'd noted the population of Ver'sol's opinion of him generally labelled him as some sort of crazy hard case. Intent on killing them all. This had shown itself in the eye witness accounts; that, and the artist seemed to be someone who'd only just learned to hold a pencil. That or they'd never seen a human face before. His head was decidedly square, his nose seemed to be overly large and crooked; his eyes too were terrible; they were very small and squinty, much unlike the real Taurmynt; strangely the drawings eyes faces in slightly different directions and his mouth was down turned in an angry snarl. It looked like the under payed and slightly naive police force of Ver'sol had finally changed their tactics. Perhaps they'd realized that sending officer after officer and having none of those return was not quite the best plan they'd ever had.
Even if a brave member of the public had seen the poster he or she would have to look twice before realizing it was him. The only thing similar was the huge, somewhat horrific scar that was so distinctive of himself. Taurmynt sighed inwardly, heading down the mains street in Ver'sol, still no-one batted an eyelid. For a moment he had the childish impulse to stand next to the poster and actually see how long it took people to notice, he resisted the impulse with a small smile. He just kept walking, his walk was much slower than most, as he had a heavy limp on his left side.
Taurmynt couldn't help but take in the beauty of the main square for a moment. Even for someone such as himself it was a sight to behold. A huge golden coloured fountain sprayed jets of water high in the air; it was beautiful though it didn't quite meet the reality of Lamenolai's famous fountain. Around the base, a huge blue mosaic curled, displaying the city and dessert. In the background the Sobremesa Hotel stood to it's full glory. Floors upon floors the amazing place was like a palace fit for a king of the grandest kind. Stalls clustered around, brining a full spectrum of colour to the place, their bright merchandise trying to stand out above the neighbouring stall's
Deciding against food poisoning, Taurmynt tossed a small pouch of keystones at the freighted woman who ran the stall. She nodded frantically and handed him a small parcel of spiced dates. He did have some business to attend to here. Buisness that shouldn't wait; no matter how hungry he was. With yet another silent inward sigh Taurmynt headed past the crowing jewel of Ver'sol as he headed toward the darker area of the city. Where there were more thieves than honest folk and water was more dangerous than the snakes.
(Human form. Incase it wasn't obvious. xD)
The rathil dodged around the fat, old butcher, it's tails whipping back and fourth as his gourmet meat came more slavered upon. The overly large rathil grinned through the string of meat; in his opinion he'd won. He danced around the butcher for a moment; smug was an understatement for it. Just as it was going to turn the corner and rush of to devour it's prize; it ran, comically head long into the wall. A small crunching sound was heard. He lay on the floor dazed for a moment; blinking as everything slid back into focus. 