Panic and confusion quickly rippled through Alden''s being as his eyes swept over a sandy, golden brown desert, seeing with eyes that felt like they were his, but he didn''t seem to have any control over them. They moved back and forth over the horizon, a vast empty landscape of dunes and despair, and settled on a large plateau a short distance away, his right arm slowly rose and gestured towards the empty desert before him, but he wasn''t doing it.
He didn''t know why his body wasn''t responding to him and moving on its own, or why he couldn''t control his eyes, or his arm, which he noticed didn''t look anything like what he knew it should. It was smaller, the hand little, and covered in jewels and rings. And the skin was a lot darker than his own. The panic only increased as Alden heard the shouts and cheers of thousands of human beings behind him, and then he heard his voice as he spoke one word, a word he had no idea how to say or what it meant, a word he spoke in a soft, feminine voice that sounded nothing like him, in a voice that was his but wasn''t. The shouts and cheers died out behind him and several unfamiliar words were yelled out in succession and then the thousands of humans at his back could be heard marching forward through the sands and towards the large outcrop of rock before them.
What he was seeing changed again, this time he was inside a poorly lit cavern with two laborers who were chipping away at a stone wall. He could feel it, and after months of digging, he was close, he knew it. There was a startled shout from one of the laborers as he swung his tool against the wall and broke through into another chamber, one that was significantly smaller. Alden ushered the laborers away as he grabbed a torch with a hand that wasn''t his own and moved towards the opening, shoving the torch inside, revealing what he had hoped would be there. He felt elation and a sense of vindication. He reached into the chamber with his free hand and pulled free a thin stone box. The outside was covered in strange carvings he had never seen before, completely unlike any symbols he was familiar with.
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