Tales Within the Sand intro

This interlude is played when the player enters the Tales Within the Sand menu for the first time and can be replayed in the main menu.

Characters
Doctor Eunectes Tuye Injured Traveler Village Elder
Backgrounds
1 2

<Background 1>
Doctor	*huff*... *huff*...
Eunectes	Are you overheating? You're sweating all over.
Tuye	At this rate, we're going to have a whole oasis under your feet in no time.
Doctor	There's no end to the desert. / Grains of sand strike the wheel hubs.
Eunectes	If we're lucky, we'll reach the clearing near the legendary Eclumui Oasis by nightfall. If we're not...
Tuye	If we're not lucky, we might be swallowed up by the wind and sand and never find it at all.
Eunectes	Enough downer talk. That clearing is the very best place in Arsalan to serve as the Rhodes Island branch office and Foehn Hotlands observation point. If we don't manage to find it, then we just need to try harder. Assuming our intel is correct, we don't have much time left.
Tuye	*sigh*... Even though there clearly aren't any Originium industrial facilities in this area, why do the number of Oripathy cases increase each year?
Eunectes	The raging sandstorms might be able to answer that for you.
Doctor	...
Eunectes	Hey, what are you staring out the window for?
Doctor	Look. What is that...?
Eunectes	Tuye, stop the car
Through the sandy haze, you see the vague outlines of several enraged needleflies attacking some wobbly person.
<Background fades out and in>
Tuye	Effendi, needleflies make their nests in this desolate desert. It's extremely dangerous, why are you out here alone?
Injured Traveler	Th-Thank you so much... I, I got caught in a sandstorm while out hunting, and ended up losing my way.
Eunectes	Where do you live? We might be able to take you back home.
Injured Traveler	My tribe and I fled to these parts, and we're still not familiar with the desert. All I know is that my home was near a jungle.
Eunectes	Rabum-Arakeeshtu Jungle?
Injured Traveler	What...? There are so many jungles around here. How am I supposed to know which one you're talking about?
Tuye	Whether or not it's the same one, we should get going before the next sandstorm kicks up.
<Background 2>
Village Elder	Thank you for back the lost man, young ones. Had it not been for you, he could've spent his entire life wandering out there. But this isn't exactly the promised land. What brings you here?
Eunectes	We're looking to establish a branch office in the Szubat-Arsalan region, as well as a site for observing the Foehn Hotlands.
Village Elder	Szubat-Arsalan? That's a long-defunct name. But yes, this would be the place you people call Arsalan. However, very few people ever mention the glorious name of the "Lionpride's Ancient Throne".
Eunectes	What about now?
Village Elder	Now? It's exactly as you see. We once lived along the shores of the Narotabati River to the south, but the Foehn Hotlands gradually cut off the river's flow, turning the coast into salt flats. Our homeland was buried in a sandstorm, my predecessor lost his ameeri title, and conquest continued to eat away at his territory. Our autonomy was supposed to be the last thing we had left, but in recent years, rumors started going around that Arsalan still hid a treasure of some sort, prompting the nearby lords ameer to return with their troops. They pillaged and looted everywhere they went, forcing our people into their mining camps to the south, where many of them contracted deadly diseases. *sigh*... We were forced to move north, and here we are. There is no such thing as the "Lionpride's Ancient Throne". It is nothing more than a place where a bunch of refugees have gathered.
Eunectes	Figures... So that's why so many Oripathy patients have been showing up around here.
Tuye	On top of the fact that it's hard enough to stay alive in this place, it seems that the lords ameer spell serious trouble for our operational objective.
Eunectes	There has to be a solution.
Village Elder	Let's set that aside. The location you marked isn't too far from us. It's in the vicinity of this part of the jungle and the oasis. We won't get in the way of your work. If there's anything you need, come and find me.
Doctor	We can help you as well. / We can also fight against the ameeri army.
Village Elder	We'd truly appreciate if you're willing to help us, but we have nothing to give you in return.
Tuye	As long as you share some local wisdom with us, that's payment enough.
Village Elder	In that case... you might be here a long time, young ones.