[i]“Fool! You'll die without knowing it, just like your master! Do you see the king here? No! So let's move! We can't find my king even if he was here if we are dead!”[/i] Gawain yelled at the mage, before being interrupted by a familiar voice. Before even being given the chance to reply smugly and wittily with a smart comeback, about how Juna was an elven whore, or how her famed leader now laid dead because he fell off his horse like a moron, she had fired her weapon. Immediately Gawain ducked down low and heard the unsoothing, fear-inducing sound of a piece of lead swooping by his head. [i]“Fucking [b]ELVES![/b] See now mage, they are firing upon us! Come! Come with m- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, SHOOTING FIRE AT THAT THING? ARE YOU MAD?”[/i]

[i]Yes. Mages are mad, Gawain. All of them.[/i] The voice in the back of his head seemed to be the only voice of reason within this debacle as it tried to explain that mages were indeed all mad. And if anyone looked at this moronic figure trying to fight a [b]bloody spider mage of hell[/b] they would be inclined to agree. The spider was there in all it's might, and it was doing.. [i]something![/i] The earth warped around it, mountains disappeared in the direction of Vicenna, it was almost like Gawain's reckoning had finally arrived. Any moment now, the Monarch would come riding down on a glorious golden steed to take Gawain to the heavens, but alas, that did not happen. Gawain shook his head, attempting to get rid of the mad-talk he was entering in in his mind. Golden steeds? The Mountainrange of Vicenna? Gawain was sure he was going mad in this place, and the only escape.. was to get away from this place.

He stepped forward in the sand which seemed to be draining downwards as if all the earth in the world had disappeared and made way for more sand to appear. It seemed like a mistake to step forwards but he needed the mage - he needed him to explain what magic this weird spider was using, he needed him to possibly ride to Areta, to explain to the nobles what was going on, and to get permission to enter full on war with Vicenna. They were no doubt the creators of these beasts and who could better prove that than this mage boy? 

He grabbed the boy in the neck, firmly, more firmly than he had grabbed his tunic earlier, and pulled him back. Perhaps he grabbed him too hard, but at least he pulled the boy out of the sand. It gave the boy a chance, perhaps, to feel some more solid sand under his feet. They would have to hurry though, or else they'd still be trapped in the sand, and perhaps in the company of more spiders.

[i]“Sorry to manhandle you like this,”[/i] Gawain mumbled as he walked backwards, headed for the horse that had been standing there, attempting to keep it's calm. It was the horse that Marcus had used to follow the elves. [i]“But I need you. [b]God,[/b] never thought I'd say that about a heretic mage like you, but it's true, I need you. And you're no use to me dead.”[/i] It seemed like Gawain was finally regaining some of his usual composure, since the lack of food, water and sleep was getting to him. 

[i]And that fucking sand. The sand, that was always in your eyes and mouth, and creaked between your teeth no matter what you did.[/i]

He pushed the boy towards the horse with a quick hard shove, before quickly mounting the horse. Without waiting for the boy to reply - whether positive or negative - he'd pull the boy onto the horse without much effort. Gawain was strong, and the mage boy, well, less strong. Evidently, mages were inferior in physique. Therefore Vicenna was inferior to Areta. It made sense to Gawain. They needed heretical magic to survive the Aretan superiority. [i]That must've been it.[/i]

And then, well, Gawain started riding, riding in a random direction with no sense for where Areta was and where Vicenna was. But Gawain sure as hell wasn't riding towards those mountains that suddenly vanished. That would be like riding your horse into the mouth of a lion. No, he headed the exact other way. 

After a few minutes of confused traveling, Gawain spotted something in the distance. [i]Is that.. a house? In the desert, alone, like this..?[/i] Gawain squinted and leaned forwards, pushing against Marcus, who he'd forgotten about by now. [i]“That's not a fucking house!”[/i] he suddenly blurted out. His noble blood seemed to take a second priority now, with the vulgarities coming out of his mouth being more like that of a peasant. But even the King could excuse him for that if he saw what Gawain saw. [i]“Those are giant ants! Oh, we best get the hell out of he- wait, that standard! Why is that standard there?!”[/i] Gawain stopped the horse on a hill that was still standing - barely. The movement in the sand far away meant that the sand here was also unstable. He took a minute to observe the standard. 

[i]“I must be mad. That standard is supposed to be in Areta. I must be going stark-raving insane. Mage, tell me, am I insane? What did your mage master do to me to make me like this? I swear.. mages.. you'll pay for this after I am done with you.”[/i] He was clearly rambling now, and it would be evident to Marcus that Gawain was slowly losing his mind. Understandable, since he had been kidnapped, mind games had been played with him by the mage, then he was kidnapped [i]again[/i] by the elves, then he was attacked by a giant spider, now there was giant [i]ants[/i] and to top it off the royal standard was in the middle of a desert. Yes, any man would lose his mind after that. 

[i]“Well, if God wants to meet me this badly that he'd place all this before me, who am I to deny him? [b]Hya![/b]”[/i] He pulled on the reins and instructed the horse to move forwards with a firm kick in it's sides. The horse whinnied as it moved forwards, possibly alerting the two knights struggling with the ants to the presence of Gawain, and his newfound companion, [i]Marcus the Mage.[/i] Or Marcus the Heretic, depending on how uptight you were. Granted, at that point Gawain was not even sure if Marcus was with him anymore. Between the insanity and the intense drought he experienced, it was entirely possible that he'd managed to hallucinate the entire thing, and that he had never even managed to get Marcus on the horse after all. God, he'd have been talking to a hallucination all that time. That'd be embarrassing.