The Gauntlet of Thirst
You've been banished for failing your village—now win the race that can save it, or die of thirst trying.
Banished from your village for a crime of desperation, you're given one chance at redemption: win the Prince's Duel, a brutal race across the sun-scorched flats. The prize is the Rain Crown, an artifact that can summon the rains and save your dying home. But the race is rigged, the other racers are killers, and the true cost of the crown may be more than your life. Can you outrun, outsmart, and outlast them all?
The story begins
The starter's horn ripped through the dawn air, a raw bronze note that sent a hundred bodies surging forward. Dust bloomed around you, stinging your eyes, but you'd expected that. You'd expected the crush of elbows and the thunder of boots on packed earth. What you hadn't expected was the heat—already a living thing, pressing down from a sky the color of bone.
Your pack slapped against your spine, heavier than it should be. One waterskin, half-full. A length of rope. A rusted knife. The last of your village's charity, pressed into your hands by elders who wouldn't meet your eyes.
The Gauntlet opened before you, a wide throat of stone and shadow. To your left, a man in faded armor stumbled, his throat a ruin of scar tissue. He didn't get up. The crowd swallowed him.
Ahead, the ruins rose: broken pillars, shattered arches, the bones of a civilization that had also failed to find water. The first hazard zone. The Warden's enforcers watched from the ridge above, their crossbows gleaming like promises.
You ran.
What happens next is up to you.
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