The wind over Betas Plain carried the scent of the sea as it brushed gently past, while the distant river bend shimmered in the sunlight.
Dana stood at the edge of the cliff, gazing over the vast landscape with a somewhat absent look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Ang put away the map, noticing that something was off about his expression.
"Nothing. I just got a little lost looking at the plain." Dana came back to himself, his voice carrying a trace of barely noticeable melancholy.
Ang chuckled. "I thought you were homesick."
"I am." Dana raised a hand to stroke his horns, his voice tinged with nostalgia.
"Ever since I was little, I'd never left the volcanic region, let alone Chief and Bebe. Now that I have left, I find myself thinking of them all the time."
Ang patted his arm and comforted him. "It's normal to miss home. They're your happiest memories. But remember, they also want you to see a different world and have a broader future."
Dana fell silent for a moment, then nodded, his expression gradually firming.
Three days later, Ang and Dana arrived at the mouth of the Dingdar River.
Below the cliff, the rushing river poured into the sea in a turbulent surge, with accumulated silt forming small islands.
"Ang, is all that down there the sea?" Dana asked doubtfully as he stood at the cliff's edge and looked over the distant waters.
"This is the mouth of the Dingdar River." Ang pointed at the muddy islands in the river bend. "Those are sandbars formed by the river's long-term erosion."
Just as the two were preparing to move on, Dana suddenly frowned and pointed toward the distant plain. "Ang, look over there! Are those lizardmen?"
Ang immediately pulled a telescope from his pouch