(After this will be another chapter with the POv of this person. Afterwards we will go back to Xeres and what he thought about the situation and what happened between him and Teressa. I hope you guys enjoy this somewhat lengthy chapter and please excuse my grammar and spelling mistakes, I am getting kinda tired atm. 

Please comment down below as I would truly appreciate any kind of repsonse, positive or negative.

Enjoy! :D )

The heat was unbearable, excruciating.

I can't remember anymore. For how long have we been wandering these endless plains. For how long have we been marching; we are dead and dying but we keep moving as the memories haunt us. Their shadows loom behind us, those unspeakable terrors hunt us down to the edge of this world.

My legs are heavy, my flesh haggard and my eyes parched; the sky blurries into the ground. The young and elderly have all but perished, their remains torn into silt by whipping winds and searing air. Now they are naught save part of the desert we flee through, assimilated into the meandering dunes with golden mounds reaching into the clouds.

But we couldn't mourn, we could only step forward as more of us succumbed to the sweet lullaby of death. 

Some stayed behind to accompany the dying in their demise, they gave their own life to soothe the forlorness of another. 'Foolishness!' I screamed but they didn't listen. One hour, in one hour they too will be nothing more than ash and bones.

I shock my head.

Too many died already. Maybe it was time to embrace it all?

Nonetheless I ushered my retinue onwards, a final mountain of sand towering into the sky. The gilden giant, a structure of monumental scale, lampooned over our attempts to cross its sabulous scarp. Our bodies traveled on energies so wisp, so thinned out, that each step hurt, each step made us bleed and we could only fall to our knees and beg to the gods.

As always no answer came.

But even if we crossed this hulking hill who told us that it was the last of its kind? Who told us that beyond this horizon smothering dune salvation awaited? Yes, who am I even kidding? There would follow hundreds upon hundreds of its ilk before we reached the next signs of civilisation, but could I tell this my people? Of course not. If we die, then I wish we die with hope blistering in our hearts.

We rested on the burning ground, drew on the last provisions we had stashed onto long dead mules. I wonder what abominations hidden in the sands feasted on their carasses.

I scrapped dried leather chips from my greaves and worn boots. Unlike the convoy I had durable equipement, weatherized against all forces of nature. But it won't take long before I too will meet my untimely death.

Callous eyes wandered my direction, the travelers didn't take lightly that I brought them into this situation. I saw the spite in their eyes but they didn't dare to step up. I was their only safeguard, albeit a weak one, but at least I gave them a sliver of a chance for survival.

Sweaty strands of hair glued onto my brow and only sparse breaches left room for sight. But even with my vision impaired by raven hairs I saw them at the waved horizon. A cloud of dust, upset by voracious creatures and their weaved muscles.

The heat cocooned us in its torrid bossom but a cold sweat managed to crawl up my spine. Half a fortnight we were already on the run. Through freezing chills at night and tempesting storm at day, but those monsters not once left us out of their reach.

Caçadors, hunters of the dunes. I could only curse our luck. 

It should have been all so simple, guard merchant convoy X from A to B. A fat bounty for those that guard them on the way back. And even better, those fellows had their own guards already. Yeah... had.

It was on the first night.

A tremble in the ground, a sliver of a quake in the distance. It evolved into a steady thrumming, a rumble that streaked through the all-encompassing wasteland. My ears perked and honed to higher levels I couldn't get a wink of sleep. Being not my first job I couldn't reason the background noise as simple nervousness. My fidgeting alerted the others.

Soon the thrumming stopped, where it was once at least a mile away it now errupted right below our nose. We were sweeped from our feet, the ground heaved with earthen groans and then it collapsed in on itself.

Left shocked and surprised we waited and seconds ticked away. Cries of the wounded echoed around me but at the time my eyes were solely focused on the monstrosity that was writhing its head high up. Clicking its tongue through the air the sightless creature gave a -and I swear to all the Gods- sardonic grin as it picked up our scents. Corrosive slobber dripping from its agape mouth eked out the image of an harrowing abomination.

Nostrils flaring up, grunts of rapacity dinning from its brown-mottled throat and its iron clad tail waving to and fro it set for the first strike.

Fiersome claws with obsidian sheen made short work of the trained guards. Swords clashed against steeled flesh but alas the latter prevailed. In a flurry of swipes the Caçador vanished in clouds of red mist. I did not fight, I retreated.

Screaming for those that survived I corraled them up and commanded them for a retreat, there was no way we could beat that thing.

As we ran past the despairing guards I began to brooding over the transpiring situation. How did this creature manage to sneak up on us, on me, an elf nonetheless?! And then it hit me, in the literal sense.

Another clunk, snap, deep underground. My sight blurried -from tears, sweat or fear, I don't know anymore- before the ground buckled up below us. Another sand-coloured arm tearing through an unfortunate man.

The rest of my memories turned fuzzy. The Caçdors could have easily wiped us out but in the second moment they began hunting each other down. Maybe it was a display of dominance or they knew, deep down, that their prey couldn't flee no more.

We turned for the desert and sprinted until our legs gave in. In the distance they still fought, between riven corpses and shattered stone.

And now they were back at our heels, once again.

Packing up the little scraps of dried meat I fiddled from my bristled pouch I stood up despite my exhaustion. Gesturing for the dozen survivors I picked up the pace again to mount the bluff dune. Now or never.

It took a handful of hours until we summited the towering dune. The sun now nuzzled against the horizon, just a sharp glimpse of it peeking over the boundary between sky and earth. I was unable to enjoy the breathtaking vista as our all doom approached rapidly from behind.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sapped from our resources and energy we stood stock still, our backs upright although we shouldn't have the power to do so.

As it did on our first encounter the ground ruptured and the abyss retched out its dreadful abominations.

Whereas once was slick, leathery skin with sharp spines were now legion wounds oozing with profane stench. Those two beasts took their sweet time, knowing all too well that we won't escape.

I shared a careful gaze with those around me, my eyes darting behind me. I couldn't run anymore, so why make it difficult?

I unsheathed my sword -fragile and unsuited to trade blows with creatures of such magnitude- and took a stance.

The first blow came down like a moutain.

I had no hopes of blocking this tyrannical strike that left afterimages in the blazing air and so I tried to at roll out of harm's way.

The balled claw crashed down onto the ground and the sand split to make way. The sheer force of this single blow, propelled by pumping flesh and volatile blood, send me skittering over the burning sand. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a dark caudate, able to cleave a grown man in two, whipping over the sand. I positioned my sword between the plated and my own flesh.

As the whipping tail made contact with my flank it forcefully expelled the air out of my lungs. My vision blurred and my head cocked to the side. My mind was rattled and serveral bones certainly broken like twigs intwine. The Caçador licked the wind in delight as I came flying out of the yet to settle wave of dust.

I rolled over the ground in agony, feeling my legs break from the constant tumbling. Sand had entered all the orifices I could think off and it burned its way only deeper with the passing of each second. I tried to cough but apart from the few bits of flesh and blood I felt no relieve. My eyes watered, my senses reached the lowest point yet.

Fearfully I watched as the Caçador snaked forward with its monstrous apendages hoisted into the air. The last vestiges of sunlight glimmered between the obsidian claws and like guillotines they shone back in their metallic luster.

Behind me the fearful cries of those that were hunted down by the second Caçador echoed out. None of them will survive, not even the last one.

Whatever motive I had I clawed over the ground towards my bent sword. It had been sent flying over the dune for a few meters and it took me at least a few seconds to reach but the Caçador simply stood unmoving with its perpetual grin of a true victor.

I fumbled with the swords in my hands before I got a good grip on it. I was not going to give this beast a satisfying hunt.

Pressing the hilt into the ground I tried to postion the glowing shiv upright. My thoughts were calm as I reared my body back. A violent and wrathful scream left the cracked lips of the Caçador as it realized what I was about to do.

I combined gravity and the last reserves of energy for this desperate sucicide attempt. At the last moment I would at least be able to choose how I died.

The frantic shifting of sands behind me conjured a rare smile on my face. 'This dumb creature!', I laughed sardonic before my body stood plumb to the blade.

With nothing to lose I plunged my body straight into the sharp but weathered blade, hoping that a swift pierce through the heart would end my life effortlessly.

I felt each instant pass by as if it were hours.

I felt the blade penetrate my flimsy leather attire, break through the thin metal enforcements and then reach the linen clothing underneath.

I felt the fibers loosen as the blade tore onwards.

I felt the cool metal meet my skin in an intimate moment that lasted not a single breath. How I felt the days of adventure through the sword....

I felt it dig even through this last protective layer, and then sink even deeper into my flesh. Pain surged from my chest but I choose to ignore it. The screams at my back became even more dire and so did the will to pull through with my last wish.

As the sword deftly moved past the bones, moments apart from my heart, I felt a slight tug at my shoulder.

I cursed my luck, the creature had gotten to me before I fulfilled what I had begun.

My body was pulled upwards -but it was by no means in a wild and uncontrolled fashion; in a display of raging power- but more so... I was lifted gently. What had stopped my body, what had stopped me from ending my self, was not the overbearing claw of the Caçador but a hand. I felt it on my bruised and burnt skin. It was a hand, a calloused but warm hand.

The touch sent a tingle of comfort through my fatigued body and before I knew it I felt reinvigorated. My spirit felt lifted and my hands had their grip back.

I gazed up, ignoring the wildly trashing Caçador at my back, and saw a man, definitely a man, standing above me. An umbral shadow blotched his face but I could tell his features were sharp and battle seasoned.

I marvled at the man but a sudden scream shock me awake.

The Caçador went in for a final swipe, all four clawed limbs crisscrossing the air.

"Watch out!", I screamed with a voice I didn't know I had but the man, instead of running or trying to block, only grinned. I saw it behind the masking shadow. A wide, despotic grin of a truly powerful being.

The claws reach his back but then stopped, stopped as if time itself had barred their next move.

The grin only widened on the man's face.

The skin of the Caçador quivered, its body started to spasm, before it was set alight by horrendous flames; flames so dark that I could have mistaken them for the night.

"Tsk, tsk!", the man clicked his tongue and snarled. "Don't you even dare... 'Ignis'", he muttered and let actions speak for him.

The writhing and burning Caçador suddenly began deforming, crumpling into a mess of ashen crust, before it exploded with light abundant. 

A second sun took the unfortunate creature's place.

"Laughable.", I managed to pick up the hardly audible whisper of the man that had obliterated the monster I dreaded so much without even as much as turning back.

"Why, hello there!", he said in a jolly voice before offering me his broad hand. With his voice lingering in the air all other noise came to a close. The second Caçador burrowed down in a hurry before it scurried away with its tail between its legs.

Somehow I felt safe.