The Ash
A Sea of Soot
Many moons had passed and I still wandered. They had all given me up for dead at this point, but I still lingered--somewhere beyond the Great Mountains. Food wasn't a problem this far out here, and I had even come across several tribal villages among the grasslands. I had much trouble communicating with the locals to try to get any information on the Ash at all. None of them, not even their wisest elders had ever seen or heard of the Ash. They all said I should turn around and go back to where I came from. I didn't listen.
Many more moons passed and I saw it on the horizon. The Ash. It was real. It was there, and I could see it with my own eyes. A great charred and blackened landscape with a stench most like burning coal. Clouds there were blackened and soot-smeared and I began to wonder whether they were clouds at all. As I trekked through it, my boots smeared themselves in soot. There was not a single soul around. Not even plants could thrive. The largest fern I saw was nothing but a twig on the ground, half-covered in dust.
"A sea of soot" is a great, evocative subtitle - such a good hook to reel readers in :D
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.