8.

They wandered, small and lost, through the strange stone city.

"I'm thirsty," Luz said. Nowar realized that he was thirsty too, his mouth was as dry as dust. "I know where we can get a drink of water," Luz continued. "Follow me."

She led Nowar around a corner, and down a long narrow street, past a row of tall, blank, faceless buildings that looked sort of like office towers. "It's just past this bridge." Luz said. A dizzying arch spanning the street high above them joined two buildings on opposite sides of the street. Just past the bridge, the street did in fact open up into a square, almost a small park, with low benches and cobblestones, and a little well with a bucket and rope at it's center.

The water was clear, sweet, quenching, and impossibly cold. They drank until their heads hurt from the cold, and then they paused and drank some more. Nowar hadn't realized just how thirsty he was. Finally, they both had enough.

"What's that?!" Luz exclaimed. Nowar looked in the direction she was pointing. He saw a flash of movement in the entryway to one of the tall, narrow building on the edge of the square; a glimpse of something red: his very own backpack.

The deep-down throbbing rumble had been building in intensity while they sat and drank. It suddenly surged, booming so loud that it shook Nowar's teeth and made his eyes hurt and his ears feel thick and tender. He felt the mechanical vibrations all the way through his bones. Then there was a different noise, crashing sound and the sudden acrid smell like fireworks, and a large section of the high bridge fell off, exploding when it hit the street, raising an enormous cloud of dust and pulverized rock.

When the dust had mostly cleared, Nowar saw a small creature pinned under a large piece of rubble in the street. It was a little smaller than a human child, but it was clearly not human. It had short stalks on it's head holding big eyes, grey rubbery skin, and long flexible tentacles where a human's arms and legs would have been. A heavy stone was pressed down on one tentacle, keeping it from escaping. Nearby, on the street, was Nowar's red backpack.