Running for a long long while, soon noon turn to dusk, and soon the sun hide behind the endless row of sand, leaving it to the cold wind drift through the desert.
With the sky turning pitch-black, with only stars and the headlight illuminating the way, they have no choice but to stop, and take a rest as a nearby oasis.
In order to save on the battery, Terry turn off his engine, and go outside to collect dry wood for a campfire. After he dump them all on the spot near the car, he drench them with gasoline from his spare can, before lighting it on fire with a match.
“Well, that should be enough. Come on out.”
Per his call, everyone else come out of the car, and go sitting around the blazing campfire, relaxing, chatting and warming themselves, as they slowly look up from the smoke, to the stars…
Meanwhile, from the darkness, far beyond their view, a group of thug was watching them silently from behind a dunes, as they finally spot them.
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--Thug’s POV--
“Ugh...finally we found them! Let just attack them already.”
The young rookie, who was looking at them through a sniper scope, complained. His hand, which lay on the trigger, tremble impatiently.
“Not yet, sonny. We must wait for the signal.”
In respond, a middle-aged man, holding a binocular, responded calmly, though his eyes never escaped looking at them as well.
“But we’re finally have them in our sight! Just one shot through their temple and we…”
“Our order isn’t to kill them, sonny, but to capture them alive. Especially the princess, Boss said to not let even a hair drop from her head, so we must be extra carefu-”
“The princess!? Isn’t she the one who insulted us!? We cannot just let them treat the name of The Rolling Storms as mere sand scattering in the wind! I don’t care how strong she is, there’s no way that she could stop a-”
“Sonny.”
Before the impatient youngster could ramble on more and more, a calm but stern voice reflected back at him, his cold stare silently scold him. His finger, that’s tremblingly close to pulling, froze out of it wit.
“The Boss said that, “We Are Hunting A Big One.” “
Seeing that the youngster is listening to him, his body stopped shivering from excitement, he continued.
“Not “A Small One”, not “A Medium One”, but “A Big One”. Rookie, repeat to me again what size of our gang do we need to collect for each one, as devised by our Boss?”
“Um...for “Small One”, we only need a group of thugs, no more than 5, and maximum of 10. For “Medium One”, we only need a single platoon, no more than 15, and maximum of 100...But for a “Big One” we need multiple platoon, minimum of 300...and all of our gang, if needed.”
“That’s correct. This tenet, made by our Boss’s infinite wisdom, is devised so that us weakling don’t charge our head more than necessary against other, even weaker weakling. More over, for target that are way beyond the reach of us individually, it’s also for us to collect enough of our number, the one thing we have going for us, so that we can fight on the same stage as Boss is…”
“I know all that! What I don’t understand is why she’s supposed to be a “Big One”, looking as small and scrawny like that! There must have been a mis-”
* SCREECHH *
Before he could finished his sentence, a loud screech come from behind, jolting him. As he looked back in surprise, he saw a man sporting a crew cut, in the same spiked jacket as he is, sharpening his knife loudly.
“ ‘Mis’? Is it ‘mistake’ I heard?”
* TAK *
Next to him, another man, with a spiked hair, is tightening his rope, checking to see if there’s any loosening point.
“Don’t tell me you’re implying that the boss made a mistake in his evaluation?”
* CLACK *
Finally, a man with a mohawk is clacking up his pistol, while doing a light maintenance on it.
“Boss, with his infinite wisdom and impeccable intuition, which have never betrayed us before, is wrong about anything at all?...You must have a screw loose in your head that need a little tightening.”
As all of them simultaneously reveal a slasher smile, while making loud noise with their tools, scare him out of his wit, and making him shut up like a clam. However, his eyes is still filled with indignant, not accepting this kind of logic easily.
“Hah...you know, this night remind me of an old story…”
Overlooking all of this, the middle age man sigh inwardly inside, before slowly and calmly talking to everyone, recounting a story.
“Huh? Isn’t this a bad time for a sto-”
* SCREECH *
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Hiee!”
“Sigh...that night was the same as any other night...”
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We were looking for a particular monster back then, and since it’s only active at night, we have to spend many night, combing through the desert.
It have been the fifth night in the row, without any luck, so now most of us is both tired, frustrated, and honestly pissed off as hell. Most of us then was cursing loudly at the monster we haven’t even seen even a shadow of.
“Ugh, where the heck is the fucking monster! That fucking coward, slithering from us for days on end already!”
One of the rookies, who was hot on his head, finally blow a fuse, and cursed the hell out of his breath. In a sense, it’s pretty admirable that he still have strength to complain.
“Oi rookie, save your breath. You might scare away the monster we’re supposed to look for.”
“Like it hasn’t been running beneath our nose for the last 5 days! When will it show up, some that I can personally socket it right between the eyes!”
“Yeah, fuck that bastard! I’m going to smash it shin up with a crowbar!”
“And I’m going smash it right in the dick with a metal bat! Just you wait, the darn prick!”
As the frustration finally exploded among all of them, the rookies complain against the monster one after another, as they make a racket visible enough to make the entire cargo truck shake.
“You goddamn idiot, stop with all the racket!”
The veteran, who was on the other card, yelled at them, before ramming his own truck onto their, rocking them shut. As the rookies rolled over each other inside the cargo space, the veteran continued to yell.
“If you have strength to complain, peel your goddamn eyes open and look for that thing! The sooner we find that piece of shit, the sooner we can all come home!”
“But sir, we have been scouring this place over and over, and still haven’t found even a trail!”
“Not my goddamn problem! If Boss said we can find it in here, then we will flip this entire desert to find it here! Now get to it you complete useless bunch of nuts, before I flip you over!”
“! Yes, sir!”
Under his threat, the bunch of rookies swerve off, and gone to another direction, actively using their searchlight to look for every single piece of sand. Still though, even after many hours, they still haven’t found it. With the search turning fruitless once again, the useless nuts began to complain all over again.
“Shit, where the fuck it is! At this rate we would spend another shitty night without even seeing it again!”
“Do we even know what it look like at this point...Boss just said that ‘we will know it when we see it’…”
“In fact, is it even here in the first place. Maybe Boss is wrong…”
“Idiot! It’s Boss word, so of course he’s correct! Not like he have ever been wrong before.”
“But at this rate, we’re going to spend another week sniffing dust in this place again and again! That else can we do now…”
As the bunch was getting disheartened, as they still haven’t find it despite constant effort, suddenly one of the rookies up top found something, as he move the searchlight toward it. Being shine upon, it reveal a glittering pile of gold in the middle of the oasis.
“Woohoo! Jackpot!”
“A pile of gold in the middle of the desert? Who the hell would be dumb enough to do so?”
“Who care? Those gold belong to us now! Those idiot can eat shit!”
As they got excited, the rookies steer the truck toward the pile of gold that, despite not being shined on, still glistening brightly in front of their eyes.
“Wait, isn’t it really suspicious that there’s a glowing pile of gold just conveniently place right in front of us? What if it’s that monster that Boss said?”
“Pff, you’re worrying too much!”
“So what if it’s from that monster? We have many people around here, that monster never stand a chance!”
“With it hiding all the times, it must be a small fry at best. No way we can get beaten by it!”
Even as one of them feel that something is wrong, the group ignore his opinion, and immediately charge into the gold pile without any caution. Upon coming close, all of them then dropped down on their feet, and practically climbing over each other, trying to be the first to take the pile back home.
Inevitably, that was never a pile of gold.
It was a shiny head of that very monster.
And inevitably after, a giant mouth come from right beneath them, and swallow them whole.
...A loud, crunching sound, reverberate between it teeth; The quelching screech of meats and gut and bones, rubbing, crushing, and spilling echo clearly in the empty desert, as bloods drizzle beneath it gaping maw.
A large eyes, place just behind it giant mouth, stare silently at the prey that got away; Standing just 6 feet before the pool of blood seeping into the sands, the hapless rookie petrify in place, frozen in between the deep empty voids, suffocating within it pupils.
It was sneering.
It was mocking.
It treat all of us like a fool.
Like mere moth to the flame, we’re all worm climb silently into it opened maw, and all it have to do was to silently close it down, chomping on the hapless fool driven by greed and recklessness.
Now all it have to do was to silently chewing it main meal slowly, as it looking down on the desserts.
As such, even when the remaining rookie slowly turn it back and ran away...Even when the remaining rookie ran back to his truck and drive it as fast as possible, far away from it...The monster never move.
It’s only a small meal that get away.
While it was chewing such a large meal within it’s clanging teeth, why should it waste it strength chasing down the small fry, when it can instead enjoy the main dish.
What it was going to do anyway? It was clear that there’s nothing the little worm can do anything about it...against it giant maw.
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“I was the only one surviving that day, just by standing by far enough to watch over the truck...The terror of facing that very monster haunt me to this very day, and also a valuable sense of danger.”
“Now and always, whether it’s these starry night like this, and whether a shiny thing glow in the middle of the dark, there’s a lesson I want you to learn: The shiny thing could be a vulnerable pile of gold, prime for taking...or they could be the very head of a giant monster, glaring at us as a prey, waiting to open it jaw the moment when we’re careless.”
The story was crude, the lesson was obvious, and the wording was...rough, to said the least.
However, he was overwhelmed by the cold, stern voice of the man, the silent of the people around him...
...And the way his cold, stern eyes silently trembling.
Trembling like a lamb before the chopping block, he continuously glance over the fire from afar over and over. As if the fire itself is going to consume him, if he even taken off his eyes...As if that very monster reappear again and open it jaw.
As if it have already notice them, and was baiting them with the image of vulnerability..As if, once it lower it guard even a little bit, their head would be eaten, and their body minced into paste.
Having seen such fear so visible from such a calm man before, the rookie can only stay silent in confusion, as dread silently creep upon him, upon realization. Seeing such, the middle-aged man quickly concluded his story.
“So anyway, this is why you shouldn’t just charge in recklessly onto the spot, and first have to check it out properly if it dangerous or not. And since Boss said that they’re very dangerous, all we can do here is wait and watch until we get enough person…”
So he finished talking, and return to watch over the princess group, but the awkward feeling beside him doesn’t disappear. While the men below him already return back to their business, the rookie beside him is still being silent, having become a nervous wreck.
(Good grief, getting scared just by this much already...)
Sighing inwardly, he turn toward the rookie again, and give him a pat on the shoulder, calming him down. As he turn toward and look at him, he continued
“Hey...do you know how we beat that monster?”
“...How?”
Looking incredulously, he stare at him in disbelief. However, he now pay attention to him once again.
“Well, quite awhile after…”
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The monster with the big giant maw, after seeing it favorite meal coming from afar, once again lie down and preparing to open it jaw, waiting to have it tasty grub.
It eyes so happy, so arrogant, that it grin upward, looking down toward the “dumb” prey, even as it was hiding within the sand.
Did you know, that this monster can “shut off” it body as will?
To make sure that it body stay still, and not disturbing the sand, it can put the body into sleep, kinda like how human experience sleep paralysis, moving only their head as needed. When it prey come close enough to it chomping range, it will wake it body up, and lunge forward.
With it body on sleep mode, and unable to feel any disturbance, it can then concentrate it mind onto the prey that come ahead, thinking about how it prey will come forward, oblivious to it presence underneath?; What kind of angle should it aim, so that it could get the best and juiciest bite?; What kind of eyes should it look toward it prey to strike fear and cowardice for it own amusement?
So arrogant, it can get so caught up in it own thought, that when the thunderous sound of a thousand cannons all came down upon it, that it literally could not have seen it coming, it eyes and mind too concentrated to even notice that it head have already been removed from it body.
And since it never felt it body in the first place, it won’t ever notice that anything is wrong with it body, and even as it life slowly fade from his eyes, the only thought left in it head, is still how it’s going to enjoy it current meal, it’s grinning eyes froze as it gone into eternal sleep.
Seeing that, after processing what’s left of it body, we basically pickled the thing, put it in the jar, and keep it in the boss room as trophy. Each day, as we come over to wipe the jar clean, it serve as a constant reminder...
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“ ‘The prideful beast dreamed of it’s own victory, before it ever realized it’s own defeat.’...As such, the more it’s sure to be superior, the less it can handle unexpected thing outside of it visions.”
“And as such, the more we can keep it looking at here, the less it will look at somewhere else, and realize our true plan.”
“!”
Seeing that he is slowly realizing, by the widening of his eyes, the middle-aged man concluded.
“We’re not here as a scout, or as someone who will be charging in and sacrifice ourselves to the beast.”
“We’re here as “weakling”, in order to hunt it down, and subdue it.”
Under his word, the night keep darkening, and the light from afar kept shining brighter and brighter. The light seemingly keep beckoning them to come closer.
...And as the flame from the campfire burn more intense, the winds slowly grown stronger and stronger, as the night gale swoop in the sands.