Gradually waking up from the dark coma, Jonah's first sensation was heat, weakness, and extreme thirst, his eyelids were extremely heavy, he tried several times, but he could not open his eyes, and the sense of touch gradually returned to his body, except for the pain of unknown origin all over his body, all the exposed skin was blown by a sharp wind like a knife, and the astrologer's apprentice took a deep breath, and the hot air was sucked into his nostrils, as well as salty sand and dust, he arched his body and coughed violently,

"I ...... Where......" Jonah struggled to spit out a few words, and heard his own voice like two rough rocks rubbing against each other, making an unpleasant sound that lacked lubrication,

A jolt threw his body off the ground, and Jonah's consciousness began to dive into the unconscious depths, and dimly heard two people talking not far away,

"The cargo woke up. ”

"Yes, he's a tough guy and he needs water and food. ”

"You are a merciful and almost stupid person who wastes precious water on goods, brother, if your father is still here, he will not allow you to do this, he will say: 'The men of the sand thieves are cruel coyotes, they ......'"

"It's been three years since my father died, dear sister, you have to face up to this reality, and besides, we are no longer sand thieves, we can only do things according to the contract, and if he dies before he arrives, there will be no one left. ”

"Seeing your big-headed contract, I've said 10,000 times that you shouldn't take this thankless job...... Watch out for reef ,...... Where is the delivery location? ”

"The northwestern frontier of Tocharo, the city of Namoza, is about three to four days away, depending on the position of the postworm, and besides, I see the reef, dear sister, since you have put me at the helm, you must trust my skills, okay......"

"Namoza, I don't want to go to that place a second time...... Reef...... Very good, this chirp is going to be indigestion, thanks to your excellent skills, brother. ”

"At least you have to believe that I am constantly improving......"

In the difficult conversation between a man and a woman in the lingua franca of the West Road, the astrologer's apprentice once again fell into a coma, and after some time, suddenly a sweet trickle moistened his lips, and Jonah immediately opened his mouth and greedily sucked the precious liquid that represented life, and every sip of water swallowed down his throat could feel a sigh of satisfaction from his thirsty body, as if every dried cell was moaning and stretching, sucking every drop of water dry like a sponge,

The flow stopped, and Jonah urgently stretched out his hand: "I still want to drink, a little more, a little more......"

"People who are extremely thirsty will die from overhydration, which is not the best outcome for vital goods, and besides, we don't have much water, and you just drank two days' worth of reserves. ”

The male voice said, and Jonah slowly opened his eyes, dry grains of sand falling from his eyelids, and he blinked as hard as he could, lubricating the dry eyelids.

There was a strange man squatting in front of him, he had the usual square face and gray-green eyes of the people of the Western Continent, but his skin was dark and shiny, he was wearing a knee-length robe embroidered with white embroidered gold flowers, a thick white cloth turban was wrapped around his head, and he held a flat leather water bag in his hand.

Jonah sat up at once and reached for the water bag, his instinct for survival had made him forget his politeness and guard, and he could not see anything else at this moment, but only the rattling cowhide bag and the juice in it sweeter than all wine,

"Click. ”

The sound of the spring tensed, and a piece of cold metal against Jonah's forehead stiffened the astrologer's apprentice's movements, he didn't know what kind of weapon it was, but at the end of the rectangular metal, the buzzing, spewing white smoke steam golem power core told him that it was a weapon, an unknown, powerful weapon,

"Brother, don't you think the goods should be tied up to prevent damage. ”

"If you tie it up for a long time, your limbs will die, and your commission will be greatly reduced. The man spread his hands helplessly, "Let him move, and then I'll tie him to the mast myself, okay." ”

"Anyway, don't make any more mistakes. ”

The cold metal was retracted by its owner, and Jonah looked in horror at the woman not far away, with a long fiery red cloak covering her body, short pretty blond hair, and a healthy light brown skin, and her right hand held a rectangular weapon more than a yard long, with a deep hole in the front, and at the end was a complex machine that snorted and snorted, and the pistons rose and fell up and down, and the gray metal surface was engraved with a misty relief pattern, in which Jonah recognized a double concentric circle symbol, which represented one of the seven main gods, The emblem of Luta, the god of fertility, the highest faith in the entire southern continent,

The woman with a tall nose and long, cold, gray-green eyes pointed at Jonah with a pointed chin: "Don't do stupid things, cargo, your smartest thing to do is to be silent, don't move, don't struggle, don't speak, until your destination is reached." ”

"I ...... I'm in the Southern Continent. In a dry voice, Jonah spat out the doubts that pressed down on the bottom of his heart,

"Yes, you're in the Southern Continent. The man crouched in front of him said, "And don't you hear her, don't ask any more questions." ”

"Who are you, what is this place, have you seen my companion, a knight on a unicorn, Elliott, a dark-haired Oriental woman, her name is Long Ji, and Sibby, she is ......," muttered the astrologer's apprentice, who struggled to move his neck, and did not see a sign of a companion around,

"I've said don't ask any more questions, really. The man scratched his nose in annoyance and glanced at the woman cautiously, "There's some food here, and I'm going to tie you back when I'm done, I'm sorry." ”

The fragrant smell reached the nostrils of the astrologer's apprentice, and Jonah took the charred piece of bread and swallowed, but he put down his food, "I seem to hear you say that I am your goods." ”

"In my eyes, you are two sparkling gold coins. The corner of the man's mouth grinned, "This is an anonymous person who paid a large amount of money to receive the goods from the port of Cheorrington and deliver them to the city of Namoza, two gold coins, such a good errand is really a favor from the main god Luta......"

"Who's going to send me somewhere. Jonah was confused,

The footsteps sounded, and the two men immediately stopped their mouths together, observing the woman's movements with the corner of their eyes, and the woman in the red cloak climbed several stairs to the high platform, and the two of them breathed a sigh of relief,

"My name is Jonah, an astrologer's apprentice, a native of St. Boren. Seeing that the man's attitude was more friendly, and there seemed to be a chatting **, Jonah sat on the floor, took a small bite of wheat cake, and introduced himself,

"Danny Stewart, Zawi, that terrible young lady just now is my sister Hannah Stewart, you know by your accent that you are from the Red Clay Plains, although you have not been back to the Western Continent for more than ten years, but as soon as you hear it, you know that you are a fellow countryman from a neighboring country. The man held out his hand and shook Jonah in a friendly manner, and then showed an embarrassed look: "By the way, I heard that St. Bouron has been conquered by the Zavi Empire, if you need me to apologize......"

The astrologer apprentice waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, you said you picked me up in Sherington, that is, the ferry from Cherry Ferry has arrived safely at the port, where are the other passengers, a knight, a dark-haired lady......"

Stewart sighed: "To be honest, I don't know anything, 'Chirp' stopped at the outskirts of Sherington, a broker took you to us, paid a deposit of 50 silver coins, pointed out the place of delivery, and that's it, in fact, before I met you, I didn't even guess that the goods were actually a person, or an astrologer,,, I saw your staff and badge." ”

Jonah frowned: "I don't know if they boarded the ferry, the boat actually survived the attack of the Colombo people, and Sibi doesn't know where it is, if she wakes up and finds that the head of the room is not around......"

Stuart crouched down to him and looked at him with interest, "You're such a strange person...... No, goods, if it's me, I have to care about the situation around me when I wake up, and worry about my partner is a matter of later, isn't it? ”

Jonah took a bite of the wheat cracker: "That being said......"

His eyes glanced around, and he was immediately stunned, and he didn't even notice that the fragrant wheat cake fell to the surface of his feet.

From the moment he woke up, he felt that the air was very hot, his ears were full of rumbling unknown noises, and there were grains of sand on his face with the oncoming wind.

He was on a boat, with a towering mast and full sails, Hannah Stewart standing at the bow and holding the rudder, and Jonah and Danny Stewart sitting on the middle deck of the hull with their backs to the stout mainmast, a well-equipped three-masted galleon with auxiliary jibs at the bow and stern, and a large red lightning bolt on the mainsail, "Bactrian Gale, this is the name of our Stewart sailboat." Danny proudly explained, "It's been fourteen years since my father brought us here from the Western Continent to build this great ship and establish its name, and if you don't know about the Southern Continent, Bactria is the capital of the Tocharian Empire, a great city known as the Golden City......"

Jonah stammered, "I know it's a ship...... The question is why the ship sails in the desert. ”

As far as the eye can see, the front, back, left and right are endless yellow sand, the stretching sand dunes are endless, and the blue sky of the horizon is connected, the deep blue Quiavello shines in the sky, sprinkling the same color of the hot sun as the desert, and the clipper ship they are in, "Bactrian Wind", is riding the wind and waves in the middle of the desert, moving at high speed, leaving behind thousands of yards of billowing dust and smoke.