Avel offered a hopeful smile and looked back at the trailer. “Speaking of the global wind angels, I need to head back to the trailer to listen in for any of them coming by.”

I nodded in understanding and shielded my eyes in the direction of the trailer. From where we stood, it felt like I could see the whole world. Behind us, Alma’s vibrant city skyline was just a silver line in the horizon. To the northwest however, a new element that I hadn’t considered came to view. A desert? 

“Avel, before you go? Is that a desert behind us?” 

“Oh yes, Madame President. You didn’t know? The Arabah Desert is growing.” 

I looked down at the grass below us. It was bone dry. Perfect for wildfires. “The Arabah Desert?” 

“That’s right.  The very one in Sherah. It’s already taken over much of Alma’s pasture lands and now its starting to encroach on Ruha’s grasslands. Many of the northern Sheronite tribes like the Digerire, the Riruyna, and the Pmitchlay Tribes are used to desert dwelling, and even thriving in those environments…but most other tribes and all Almites are suffering. Ruhans that haven’t practiced dry breathing really suffer the most.” 

“Dry breathing?” 

“Exactly what it sounds like. Breathing in dry weather. When it’s dusty and there’s no water to quench your thirst or clear your lines.  Or lets say you cover your face as most desert-dwellers do. How do you reach your optimal intake with your face covered? How do you not lose water? Wind breath doesn’t work very well in desert areas because it almost always expels water…and the water, you know, the rains, they’re much needed, but we need frequent water to overcome the desert winds. Or we need to request that the UKH send us some wind angels that have trained for and were built for the desert. So they can keep blowing dry winds without choking. Right now, the wind angels we have were moreso built for the sea than anything.” 

I thought about what he was suggesting. I guess we could put in a formal request that the UKH send us some desert wind angels. “But if we request desert wind angels, wouldn’t that spread the desert even more? What impact would that have on current ecosystem of the island already?” 

Avel shrugged. “Honestly, I’m only an expert in wind and breathwork. But I’d imagine it would spread the desert even more.” 

“It would be catastrophic to the current ecosystem.” I heard Angel’s grave voice behind me. “Avel’s correct. You could request that the UKH send over angels that can blow desert winds, but their breath would destroy the current systems of the Ruhan grasslands and lush Almite pasturelands (which are nearly gone already without the help of the desert wind angels). Not to mention, their breath would destroy the current desert ecosystem.” 

I turned to face Angel. “The desert has an ecosystem?” 

Angel looked at me as if I’d never gone to grade school. “But of course, Madame President. Just look over there for instance.” Angel walked up and turned me in the direction of Alma. He then crouched and pointed a little further northwest toward a tiny spec that blended in with the vast desert.

“Your glasses are still on your face. Miraculously, you didn’t lose them in the reservoir,” he said right beside my right ear in a near whisper. “Why don’t you turn them on again to zoom in on where I’m pointing?” 

Right! They were still on my face. They were fitted so well, I honestly forgot they were even there. I double-tapped the frames and swiped my right finger on the top of the right lens to zoom in, 2x…3x…10x…30x

There, in the fine red powder, was a tiny rocky mountain range. Off one of the rocky mountains was…a waterfall? And small lake? “An oasis?”

“Yes!” Angel exclaimed. “You’re looking into Sherah from Ruha right now with those glasses, but those desert-dwelling tribes survive and heavily rely on those little oases. They’re very small and life in the desert is tough, but the people know the land like the back of your hand. If you were to ask the UKH to release their desert wind angels, the dust would clog up the watering holes and oases like those, and really make life difficult not just for the people but the wildlife that’s made a home there too. There would be serious consequences. Not to mention that all of Alma and Ruha would suffer even more anyway because the people do not know how to handle and adjust to desert life.” 

This was all a lot to think about. So if I did call for the desert wind angels, we would have our wind back and the electricity would be restored, but it could decimate all of USAR in the process. But if I do nothing, we’re back where we started with no electricity, very sick wind angels (whom I just found out were sea wind angels), and a growing desert anyway. Internally, I could feel the panic and overwhelm engulfing me at the speed of the desert growth. 

I looked around in frustration. “So does anyone here know what’s making this desert grow so fast?” 

Avel shrugged again. Clueless. He scratched his head and said, “I dunno… maybe an ecologist would help? I sometimes have to talk to them because they’re always complaining that the global wind angels sometimes blow their winds in the wrong directions or that they’re blowing so much wind it’s carving out whole canyons and such. So I have to radio back that whatever global angel is passing by needs to stay on course and such. Next time I call, I could maybe have them complain to you instead? They seem to always know whose fault it was for why the land changed and such.” 

I burst out in laughter at Avel’s suggestion. Pneuma and Angel joined me. Avel looked at both of us in confusion, unsure how what he said was funny, but he eventually joined the group laugh. “Avel,” I said. “You’re a genius. Did anyone tell you that? Once we start righting this ship, I’ll ask Mr. Voltaire to promote you. Alright? You keep at it.” 

I turned to Pneuma who had already whipped out her phone to be one step ahead of me. “Pneuma, set up an appointment in the next few days with one of these complaining ecologists.” 

---

Angel held me back at our spot on the plateau as Avel and Pneuma walked back to the trailer and SUV. Frank and his team continued their vigilant watch from a modest distance. “Brittany, stay here an extra moment with me.” 

“Hm? What is it?” 

“Take another look around. What do you see?” 

It was the same thing we just observed with Avel and the team. “I see the desert over there,” I pointed to the northwest and north. “Really dry grass over here,” pointed directly in front of me. “The black sands and sea over here,” my right hand pointed to the eastern shoreline. “This massive mountain behind me,” I thumbed to my back. “And we’ve got itty bitty Alma over that way,” I pointed my left index finger toward the west where Alma supposedly while keeping my eyes on Angel. “Why? Do you see something different?”

Angel pulled up the sleeves on his white dress shirt, faced the grasslands to the north and raised both of his arms to the sky. He was right. The artwork on his arms was very detailed. Impressive. He stood there in silence on the edge of the plateau with his arms raised for almost two minutes before I broke the silence.

“Angel, what are you doing?” 

“Seeing,” he continued to focus on the north with his arms raised. They didn’t shake, nor did they show any indication of heaviness. Also impressive. 

“You need to raise your arms to see?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why?” 

Angel did not answer my question right away. He stood as still as a statue, yet looked captivated by whatever he saw. “Change the frequency on your glasses, and turn up the volume,” he said eventually. 

I did as he asked and swiped the arms of the glasses on the left and right sides until I passed the frequency where I could see words. “Hello? Hello? Hello?” I said as I watched puffs of smoke from my breath in the universal spirit script or whatever that he had mentioned before. “Alright, I looked back up at Angel. I see the words.” 

“Cool,” his words flowed more like water than like puffs of smoke. “Go a little higher in frequency.” 

“This thing goes high…er…?” I said as I swiped on the right side again a little more. I paused mid-word as I looked at Angels arms. “Wait!” my words were now like little lightning bolts. “Those aren’t tattoos! Those are… ACTUALLY EYES!” 

He wasn’t lying. His whole body was covered in eyes. The eyes on his neck looked directly at me while the eyes on his arms and hands looked in every direction around him. The two eyes on his face remained locked on the northern skyline in the distance. The eyes were terrifying, yet captivating. So many! And this was just on his arms and neck. I could only imagine what it looked like all over the rest of him. The other incredible part about him was his head tattoos. They weren’t tattoos either, but actual 3D faces made of…”Black smoke? The lion, eagle, and ox on your face are smoke?”

He didn’t answer my question. Just kept looking in the distance. I walked around him, trying to make sense of what he was. My human brain was having the hardest time with it, because if I actually had trypophobia, I don’t think I could handle looking at him. But because I knew him and I trusted him, something inside me compelled me to stay put and just try to take it all in.

So many blinking eyes were on him of all different colors and shapes. Most eyes looked like human eyes of every eye color that humans could potentially possess, but many were of other animals as well—goats, fish, insects, birds…if you could think of it, I’m sure he had an eye for it. There were tiny luminescent spots on his arms that looked like freckles. I pointed at one of them on his elbow. It blinked and twinkled. “Star-eyes…” he mumbled as I gawked like a young child at his arms. He sighed and shifted his stance, but kept his arms raised. “Yes. I have many eyes to see. They only appear as tattoos for you because with your natural eyes, that’s how you can best see and understand me. Adjust the frequency higher once more.”

I walked back to my original spot on the left side of him facing the northern sky and held my breath as I slid my finger once more on the glasses. Instantly, the entire world shifted.

Angel’s voice broke through, “What do you see now, Brittany?” 

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