The prompt used: A man with 3 arms, a girl with 9 toes, and a horse that can only walk backwards. by SarcasticCupcake5 (Year 2017) (grabbed from the new 2009-2022 prompt generator).
This is a continuation to FFM 2023 23: The Road to Freedom – Take VIII.
He was flicking in and out of unconsciousness. Bereth was quite sure of that. He was pretty sure that Merlina was asking him at some point if he could hear her — he did not remember responding — and chatter around him. There was something under his arm at some point.
At some point, the sun rose, or so Bereth thought. They were met with a man with 3 arms — all of them fully formed somehow — a girl with 9 toes — she must have been using magic to keep the desert sand from scorching her soles just like they were — and… a horse that was walking backwards. That made Bereth question whether or not he was having a dream… but if he was, that had to mean that he was dying. The others must have forsaken him in the sand, probably with promises to his unconscious body that they would come back for him with help soon.
The girl looked like her mentor did in the pictures of her childhood. How had she described her own mentor, a man who had wound up forsaking honor before Bereth had been born? Had he had three arms?
The trio reached them. The man lifted him on the horse, which then pivoted and started walking the same direction as them, the man and the girl pivoting and joining as well.
Bereth turned his head to the girl. The eyes were his mentor’s, he was sure about it. He had looked into those eyes so many — and in the end so very few — times growing up. The amber in them had watched over his sleep in the tumultuous nights, a sheen that had pierced the darkness time and time again until Bereth had become strong enough to ward off the haunting things himself.
With a hoarse voice, he asked, “Are you here to take me away?”
The girl smiled, the same sly look that Bereth had seen in photographs of her mentor’s mischievous years. “And what if we are?”
“…I wouldn’t mind,” Bereth found himself saying even though he did not want to. He had the ring to protect still.
The girl jumped up, landing on the back of the horse, balancing herself lightly on Bereth’s shoulders. “You and I both know that’s not true.” Then she was gone.
Bereth knew, in some way, that this had to be a dream, but his mind was too tired to properly process and highlight it. The three-armed man was humming something that sounded like what Nedyom had hummed when he had rested… a soothing melody that was… pulling him under… into the dark…
Bereth knew he was forgetting something. The ring was with him, he could feel it dig into his finger… so what was he… forget…ting…?
WindySilver 
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