The Tempest-I

Early in the morning, Lord Yong and his disciples performed a special ritual in order to seek blessings from almighty.

Then they proceeded towards the Sea of the Dead. The entire folks of the town came to see them off and gave their best wishes for the attainment of their work.

In order to show respect, people of town bowed their heads on their departure.

With bundles of hopes, expectations and fear, the gentlemen headed towards their destination.

Route to the desert was so abstruse and rocky. Despite walking through an impalpable path, Lord Yong and the others somehow reached the desert.

They all stopped there for a while, observing the never-ending desert ahead of them. They all were in deep thought and were also desirous to conquer the desert.

Lord Yong was worried about his disciples therefore, before entering the desert he offered them a suggestion.

"As you all can see this is a terrible desert, the chances of getting the book is very low. Once you step forward, it will be difficult to come back alive. Therefore, if you don't want to come with me its fine, you don't have to risk your life for me."

All four of them kneeled down to Lord Yong and said,

"Master, we all were orphans. It was you, who made us your disciple, you made us literate, you gave us knowledge and it was only you who nurtured us like your own kids. Now it's our chance to do something for you and if we die here we would feel fortunate that we've given our lives for a good deed."

Lord Yong felt immense pleasure and pride surge through him hearing their words but was worried at the same time for their lives. They have made up their minds. Even he couldn't stop them now.

Determined, they all entered the desert together. They were wandering aimlessly in any direction and in that large desert; the black clouds as told by the Dark Lord were nowhere to be seen. The scorching heat of sun and the burning sand underneath their feet was trying hard to slow their pace.

After walking for about three hours, Lord Yong felt something under his feet. They all stopped there to check.

After digging some sand, what they saw was enough to scare the daylights out of them.

It was a corpse.

It is said that sandstorms were very frequent in this desert. Each storm was so powerful that it could toss the buried corpse from anywhere. That is why this desert was given the title of the Sea of the Dead. Due to the tempest, it would not be surprising to encounter corpses every single mile.

"Master why has this corpse not decayed even after being buried here for several years?" asked one of the disciples.

The dead body found was of a lady. One could see her red hair even the features of her face were visible. It was impossible to see a dead body of several years in this form. All they expected was to see lots of skeletons, bones on their way but what they encountered here was shocking.

Lord Yong examined the corpse for some time and told his disciples.

"The phenomena of this desert is quite different. The dry air of desert played a crucial role in preserving the dead bodies otherwise the condition of these corpses are too good to be several years old."

The moment when they were about to step forward they saw something more terrifying than the corpse.

The tornado of the sand was approaching them at a rapid pace.

Without wasting time, Lord Yong asked his disciples to immediately head towards the highest sand dunes.

They all ran for the highest sand dunes, but it's quite difficult to walk or run in the desert. They somehow reached the top of the sand dune but Lord Yong was still trying harder to reach there.

All of his disciples were helping him to reach the dune. Lord Yong asked them to leave him to ensure their safety.

"You all should go, that storm is looking violent. Don't waste your time here. Just go," shouted Lord Yong.

"We won't move a single step without you, master. We'll help you," said all of them by lending their hands to Lord Yong to come.

Unfortunately, it was too late for them. The moment Lord Yong raised his hands towards them in order to reach the sand dunes; the powerful tornado of sand dragged and swallowed them all in a blink of an eye.

Hours later

Lord Yong tried to open his eyes slowly. Everything was blurry nothing can be seen clearly. He gently rubbed his eyes to look around more clearly.

After his vision became clearer, he realised that he was under the layer of sand. He then recalled what actually happened to them a few hours ago.

"It must have been the tempest that swallowed all of us. Luckily I survived the storm."

He looked everywhere for his students but in the sea of endless desert they were nowhere to be found. Lord Yong prayed for their lives. He did not have ample time left, so he continued his journey to search for the book.

His body was burning from the heat of the sun and walking for hours on the scalding sand, blisters came out of his feet. Tiredness clung to his body and it was becoming more and more difficult to walk through the merciless desert.

Somehow, Lord Yong managed to keep walking despite all the hurdles but he was feeling thirsty. Walking on the sand was no less than walking on the flames, the frequent heat waves kept trying to stop him and his increasing thirst wasn't making it easy for him to continue. Lord Yong was really in dire straits.

Lord Yong continued to move, carrying all the pain but suddenly he was shocked to see water from a distance. He sighed in relief to see that but in another moment, he recognised it as it was nothing but a desert mirage and sadly continued to move.

He was wandering directionless in the desert. He looked at the sky and saw the Sun was about to submerge in the horizon and on the other hand, Lord Yong was still clueless about the book.