Micheal was confused. He had only ever been in bigger cities, where it was easier to hide from people. The sights and sounds of the field were utterly foreign to him. He slowly tried to follow the train into the distance until he heard something behind him. It didn’t sound like the cyborg from before. He didn’t recognize it. The two voices were chatting loudly, and they seemed to be arguing. He listened in, still entranced by the sights and smells of the field.

“C’mon, you bonehead. The boss told us it didn’t matter what we did to the kid as long we got the artifact. This is why I like to ‘ave us take the artifact contracts instead of the people ones,” said a voice that seemed supernaturally deep.

“That doesn’t mean you eat the kid that we’re after. He probably has a life somewhere to get back to, Teddy,” an ethereal voice replied, “And I’m the one who picks the contracts, not you.”

“Skulls, even if ‘e ‘as a life to get back to, ‘e probably doesn’t have a way to get back to it. I’d be doin’ ‘im a favor,” the deep voice said.

The land around Micheal began to shift. The grassland’s soil disappeared, and desert sands appeared before him as he watched the mist disappear completely. Trees fell and were devoured by the sand as Micheal listened to the two voices approaching him from behind. The sudden heat shocked him back to his reality as he realized he was the one they were after.

“If he made it here, then he can get back,” the one called Skulls sternly replied.

“C'mon, does it really matter if I eat ‘im? Human flesh tastes so good,” the other, deeper voice whined.

Micheal turned around so he could see the two figures that were approaching him. The first of the figures he noticed was a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs, just over 9 feet tall. Its right paw had a steel gauntlet, clearly fitted for that paw, but Micheal didn’t understand its need. The other, who he assumed was Skulls, was a skeleton. Skulls was about 5’10”, and the sun had clearly bleached his bones a yellowy color instead of the white Micheal thought it should have been. He wore a black leather jacket, a band shirt that looked like it was from the 90s, tinted sunglasses, and torn jeans.

"Teddy, I think the kid’s been listening to the conversation the whole time,” The voice he knew as Skulls came from the skeleton, assuring his previous assumption.

“I don’t think that’s any good Skulls. We’ll probably ‘ave to wipe ‘bout fifteen minutes of ‘is memory. That’s not safe, so you should let me eat ‘im,” Teddy, the owner of the deep voice, said.

“Teddy, we don’t need to wipe his mind. And besides, I let you eat the last three people we went after. Let this one kid live,” Skulls told Teddy. He began speaking to Micheal, “Hey, kid. Has anyone else come after you?”

Skulls shifted his position in response to Micheal's unsure reply. “Okay, should I list the bounty hunters I know of? There might be some new ones since I last went to a bounty hunters’ meeting,” Skulls asked.

“No,” Micheal replied, “I want you to leave me alone. I want whatever this is to be over. I don’t know how I got here or where I am, but a weird mist was involved.”

“Why did I even ask? Doesn’t matter,” Skulls interjected.

“I dunno. But Skulls, the kid barely knows ‘ow ‘e got here. That means ‘e probably can’t get ‘imself ‘ome. So can I eat ‘im?” Teddy asked.

“Teddy. I need you to stop trying to get me to let you eat him. We have to take the sword before he tries to run away,” Skulls said softly as Micheal started running across the hot desert sands.

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“Skulls, he already started running,” Teddy told him.

“See Teddy, this is why we talk about if you can eat the target after we get what we’re after. It’s hard enough to get them onto this desert world, let alone find them when they get here,” Skulls said.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m a bear, and there’s barely any food out here. I can’t help wanting to eat our targets, especially ‘cause cactus tastes horrible. You haven’t needed food for a long time, so you don’t really understand anymore. We should probably go after him now,” Teddy said sincerely as he got onto all fours.

“Let’s go,” Skulls said as he hopped onto Teddy’s back, “And I used to eat too, so I understand a little.” As soon as Skulls was on his back, Teddy started galloping after Micheal.

* * *

Micheal hadn’t made it very far before the heat tired him out. He looked around, trying to find somewhere nice to rest. Looking around, he thought he saw the two from earlier running towards him. He pulled on the hilt of his sword, tugging it out of its sheath. With his inexperience with sword fighting, he got into a fighting stance, or as close to a fighting stance as possible. He felt a surge of new energy as he pulled it out, something coursing through his veins. He began to glow softly, barely noticeable under the hot desert sun. Teddy stopped when he saw the glow. Skulls pulled up his sunglasses out of concern, showing the voids that were his eye sockets.

“Hey, kid, I don’t think you want to mess with that thing. It's very dangerous,” yelled Skulls.

“Yeah,” Teddy yelled, “You should give that sword to us, and then you should let me eat you.”

“Shut up about that Teddy!!” Skulls and Micheal yelled in unison.

“I need you to stop trying to eat this kid for 15 minutes while we get the sword,” Skulls continued, softer.

“Fine,” Teddy said, demotivated, and sat down abruptly.

Micheal stood, sword drawn, waiting for them to approach. His soft glow scared them, but he didn’t even realize it was there. Skulls took a hesitant step towards Micheal before stepping back and motioning for Teddy to go. Teddy got up on all fours and slowly approached Micheal. Micheal backed up, a little scared of the furry behemoth. Teddy sat down with a thump, seeing Micheal’s fear. That’s when Micheal noticed Teddy’s right eye. It was a milky orb, and a scar was slightly visible under his fur, leading down to his right arm and disappearing under the gauntlet. More gray lines, which Micheal assumed were scars, streaked his right arm, barely visible in the spaces between his arm’s ragged tufts of fur. Teddy removed his gauntlet, his paw almost entirely covered by the gray lines. The lines continued flowing up his wrist, joining those on his arm.

“Kid, you don’t want to mess with that thing,” Teddy said solemnly, “It’s the Divine Blade, right? It holds within it great power. Nobody should use it. It’s too dangerous. You can see my arm and my eye. One wrong move, and you could end up like this. I was struck with this gauntlet, not your blade, but anything the Blacksmith creates will end in the same way. Endless destruction. It may seem like it was meant to be used by people like you and me, but it wasn’t,” Teddy’s voice changed to a lighter tone before becoming solemn again, “It wasn’t created for people like us. The Blacksmith created it to screw with us. To watch the destruction like a movie. Give it to us, and we can hand it off to the authorities. They’ll destroy it, as all the artifacts should be.”

“Who are the authorities? Tell me,” Micheal yelled at them, scared.

“You ever heard of MATM, kid? We’re gonna give it to them,” Skulls answered from a distance. “They’ll do the right thing. They will destroy it.”

Teddy put his gauntlet back on and reached out to Micheal with his now gauntleted paw. Micheal sheathed what remained of the sword, and the soft glow he had emitted disappeared. He took the sheath of his belt and held it out for Teddy to take. Teddy reached his paw further out and was about to snatch it from Micheal when the sand suddenly collapsed. The Great Desert swallowed Micheal and the sheath right before Teddy could take it.

“Oh shit. Boss ain’t gonna be happy ‘bout this,” Teddy said.

“Hey. What did I tell you about swearing?” Skulls said, his voice becoming more brotherly.

“Sorry, Skulls. They slip out sometimes,” Teddy said, using his one and only excuse.