A light.
A substance falls from the ceiling, and a ray of light shines in.
The roof is yanked off.
A man digs up a treasure chest, found in the sandy wastes of a horrible place formerly bustling with life. “Cassia Town,” he said, “well, not necessarily you, but all destruction, your ruins contain the most beautiful things.” As he pivots the chest up and out with his spade, he cracks it open. Inside…
sandals? A pair of sandals? Out of all things, why those? Couldn’t I just buy those from the tailor? he thought to himself. As he inspected the sandals, he noticed several tassels attached to each sandal, all with wings at their ends. The sandals, they were somehow immaculately clean, despite being buried under the sand. Ah, well, he thought, at the very least, I could sell these for some good coin. He takes off his heavy boots and slips on the sandals, as if out of sheer curiosity. They felt… odd, as if he could run like never before with them on.
He started accelerating.
Faster.
Faster.
Yet faster.
Suddenly, he realized that he was off the ground. “What?!” he screamed, clearly shocked. As he looked down at the sandals, he realized that the tassels on the sandals seemed to be hovering. Not quite being the things holding them up, but hovering, as a powerful mage could. He looked at the soles of the sandals, and realized they were emitting a dark blue sort of energy with bronze undertones, hovering in the same way as the tassels. What… is this? he thought. As he started running around in the air, high above the sands of that treacherous blasted rock, he started feeling tired.
He started accelerating.
Faster.
Faster.
The man woke up in the sand. He pulled himself to his feet, clearly confused. “Huh?” he vocalized. As he looked down at his feet, he noticed that those sandals, those strange sandals, were still fastened on. His boots were surely far from him at this point, so he started looking for his ship.
Several hours later…
A man wanders through the sands of a battlefield lost to time with sandals strapped to his feet. He finds a ship which he soon determines to be his ship. His ship seems to be undamaged, despite his feelings of fear, exhaustion, and desperation. He jumps on, brings down the sails, shoves off, and sets a course to the Sailors’ Lodge.
