INTERWOVEN ADVENTURES | Circadian Earth: Book 1

Chapter 15

Stardust woke up first, much to her relief. It was still dark. She and 2-14 had reached the north coast of the island the evening before, and decided to take a break to sleep. What she didn't expect, however, was that the tide had resulted in the water reaching them, and as Stardust stood up, she found herself a couple of centimetres deep in the waves. 2-14 was just behind her, still asleep. The older prototype wasn't in the water, but whenever there was a wave, she'd get splashed, and there was a lot of water. Either way, Stardust wasn't sure if the water had already started receding, or was continuing to creep inland.

"Hey, 14, wake up."

2-14 didn't move. Stardust shook her, and only then did her eyes light up.

"What do you want?"

"Morning, sleepyhead. As you can probably see, we're soaked. We need to move."

2-14 sat up, and realised their current situation. "What the... How did the water reach us?"

Stardust floated out of the water, shaking the water off her feet. "I don't know. But I think it's a good time to continue heading to Azledo, or wherever you're taking me."

"Yeah, sure." 2-14 did the same, before picking up the now waterlogged bag of crystals. "Need one? I'm feeling nice for once, so take the chance while you can."

"Nah, I'm good for now. But later today I probably will."

"Just top yourself up, before I change my mind." 2-14 reached into the bag, and tossed Stardust a yellow crystal. "I can't imagine this one being too much."

Stardust took the crystal and ate it. "Thanks."

"Now, onwards!" 2-14 took off over the water.

"Wait!" Stardust called, following. "How do you know the water doesn't go on forever?"

"I know what the islands look like, idiot, I have a rough idea of where we are."

"Fine. But it's on you if this goes badly, you got that?"

"Shut up and follow me," 2-14 snapped. "I know what I'm doing. If you disagree, turn around. I'm not going to wait for indecision, either."

Stardust sighed, and kept following. "So how long will we be over water for?"

"Not long at all. Rumours say this stretch of water didn't exist before whatever happened to take out the humans, and the two islands used to be one. Some say this place was even a mountain range! Can you believe that?"

"Really? That sounds a bit far-fetched. I'm not sure if I can believe that mountains could just... disappear."

"This world is stupid. Nothing makes sense. A lot of the Trialians have these abilities that nobody's been able to properly explain. Frozen wasteland next to desert, most of the archipelago seemingly unable to have those green things Esterwood has... It's just... weird!"

"Powers in Trialians... doesn't Izzy has some too, right? Isn't the energy we run on really unique?"

"Don't bring them up," 2-14 muttered. "Ever. I don't want to have anything to do with them ever again."

Stardust chose not to continue the conversation. Instead, she kept following 2-14. And true to the older prototype's word, another coastline came into view barely ten minutes later. The sand seemed to go back a lot further on this island, though.

"Huh, there's a lot more sand here," Stardust commented.

"This island is a desert, stupid." 2-14 replied. "The whole thing. Sand everywhere. It'll only end when the island ends."

"I thought you said the north was cold!"

"I told you that the frozen island is right next to the desert island. Like I said, nothing makes sense in this world. Nothing."

"Right. So you're leading us to a desert?"

"Somewhere within the desert."

Stardust looked around, there was sand everywhere. Nothing but sand as far as she could see. "Who would want to live here though?"

"Not Trialians, not humans. You're so forgetful, you know that?"

"Robots. And hey, I'm still figuring things out! I was born today!"

2-14 nodded. "Robots indeed. There's a city in this desert, and besides Nasrica, it's Bitobia's robot capital. They don't like non-robots."

"And neither do you," Stardust said, understanding the point of the mission. "So you'd fit right in."

"Exactly!"

"Do you have an idea of what you'll do there? Like, any idea at all beyond just getting away from..." Stardust trailed off, not wanting to annoy 2-14 with the mention of Izzy's name.

"I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll find a small place to call home, maybe I'll steal someone else's. And I haven't yet figured out whether you're going to be welcome there, so you're going to have to plan for the potential that you need your own place. Got it?"

"How gracious of you," Stardust said sarcastically. "But fine. As long as I know where you are and that you're not causing trouble."

"Oh, I'm definitely going to cause trouble."

"Yeah, no. Anyway, how far away is this place?"

"An hour or two, I think."

"I can see their anti-Trialian commitment with how remote they are..," Stardust said quietly. "Rather impressive..."

"It's a lot easier when every city is built from pre-existing ruins. And I mean every city, including Skycross and Nasrica."

"Huh, so maybe in the future the other ruins we saw could become cities."

"Maybe. Makes no difference to me. Anyway, look on the left."

Stardust looked to the left, and saw another road. "Huh?"

"The only road north."

"Does anyone use it?"

"The inter-city transport, which runs once a day each way, both to Azledo and Pronio."

"Pronio? That's where we're going?" Everything made sense to Stardust now.

"Your stupid mind finally gets it. In Pronio, we'll be free to do what we want."

"Will they be friendly to us?"

"There's a tiny amount of resentment towards Nasrics, but not a lot. We'll be fine."

"I trust you."

"You're an idiot," 2-14 said, cackling. "But sure, whatever. I don't particularly like you, but you're not nearly as bad as some other people I've met."

"Does this mean you'll let me stick around?"

"Probably not."

"Wonderful..."