A man sat amongst a vast desert landscape, his hands running through the fine sand all around him. It was hot. Unbearably so – Alphere had been searching for days for a scroll. A new spell. An exciting adventure! At least, that’s how he thought it would go. But the desert was a vast, all-encompassing entity. The idea of finding a scroll on a very obscure spell, in a very specific portion of sand, among a very large desert landscape just didn’t seem as likely as when it first occurred. What Alphere needed was some water. Water from a spring sounded nice. “That’s a fantastic idea!” he exclaimed, bolting upright. Sand poured off his clothes and back into the desert.
Excitedly, Alphere lifted his hands in front of him, envisioning the lake. The beautiful trees. The quick rush of water out from the ground. The variety of exotic fish swirling in schools throughout the waters. "Tele-" He paused midsentence. No, no, a teleport wouldn’t do. He’d been out there for days, and he wasn’t about to lose his spot. A way to return, exactly to this very specific spot, was needed. Alphere reached to his side, pulling out a small, brown handbook and flipped through it. Squinting, he focused intently on a particular page. "-portal? To the spring of-"
A burst of light sprung in front of the man, swirling in on itself much like a whirlpool. It quickly grew, reaching his height and continuing beyond. A loose leaf of paper flew from the book into the portal. Then a second one. Soon, there was a small stream of papers being torn from the book and thrown into the portal. Wait... I can't lose those! Alphere rushed to grab the various pages, reaching for ones closest to disappearing into the portal. And with some assistance from the unstable sands, he plummeted straight in.
A blinding light, a feeling of weightlessness, and a significantly lighter feeling book of notes. Alphere stuffed the pages he managed to retrieve beneath the belts to his side. Soon, the light faded and the ground felt significantly more stable. Through the variety of black and gray spots filling his vision, Alphere glanced around. No portal in sight. Looks like that scroll is long gone. Outside of the lack of a return trip, there was a building. Not a lake. But it seemed warm and inviting. And not a desert, which was definitely a refreshing change. There's probably water… somewhere in there. And maybe a few pages from the book have fallen around here. Alphere dusted off some sand from his clothing, and made for the building.
Upon entering, he found it to be a tavern of sorts. Only a few patrons, but perhaps the night was young. Patrons that were... not all quite the same. Alphere noticed what appeared to be a small bar, and behind it was likely water. "Pardon my interruption. Do you happen to have-" Alphere coughed, some sand fluttering down from his shirt and sprinkling across the bar surface. "... water?"
