Oasis Springs…
Nothing but a dry wasteland as far as the untrained eye can see.
It didn’t used to be that way. It used to be a lush land, teeming with people and houses… life. And then, the unthinkable happened.
Life there… ceased.
I saw it in a dream, a powerful Vision of both the past and the future. Two towns bereft of life and prosperity and the assurance that my presence there would turn the tide and bring those things back … in time.
Who am I, you ask?
Caine… Austin Caine, at your service. I grew up on the Magic Realm, in the little village of Glimmerbrook. My parents were mages, but I? I failed every test the Sages threw at me. They deemed me untrainable.
Until the Vision came. Now, it’s become my Quest. Regardless of if I ever do real magic or just the kind normals can do with just their hands and Will, my new goal in life is to rebuild the destruction of Oasis Springs.
I begin by exploring the area, checking the waters for contamination and also life.
Checking the soil for the same.
It is long and tedious work. I wish I access to a wand or a cauldron to throw things in and let the magic tell me all I need to know. I am not a scientist. Their ways are foreign to me.
They tell of a great flying disc which came out of the sky and powerful beams of light which emanated from the disc, sucked up people and devastated the land below.
I have to say, I didn’t believe it.
At first.
I don’t really recall what happened that night. One minute I was talking with the locals and the next I being lowered to the earth in a beam of light. The others were long gone and I was alone. In the back of my mind, I heard the voices telling me about the desert and the people there. How they hadn’t meant to destroy the land, just study it. How they wanted me to fix it.
They said they would give me a Gift as a token of their faith in me.
I decided it all had to be a dream, and went about my life, making plans and collecting samples.
I didn’t know what was happening to my body, but I knew that I had to trudge onward with my work. Summer was waning and Autumn would soon be upon me. I only had a tent to live in and there was so much to be done.
I was slowly cleaning up not just own little plot of and, but the debris from old houses and buildings, and still searching for ways to purify the water and encourage local animals to return to the region.
There was so much to do… I couldn’t let the sparkles in my abdomen slow me down.