Alright, so when I started, I had no idea what should happen next. It wasn't coming out. I hit the keyboard randomly, and it said "noon." So here you go,

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Noon.

The middle of the day.

When the sun is at its highest point.

Usually occurring fairly near, but not actually at, twelve o’clock.

But noon meant something else in the desert.

In the desert, noon meant the hottest part of the day.

The time the sun beat down even the strongest men.

But there was man the sun did not beat down.

He was the Sand-Drinker.

The story of the Sand-Drinker was an odd one, and he had never told it to anyone.

He was, of course, a player.

He had been hoping to be some sort of mage in Royal Road.

He had spawned in the desert after allowing the game to choose for him.

The desert cities were more like small towns surrounded by large areas with no monsters.

He abandoned his plan on the very first day.

He abandoned his plan for the woman who looked like the sun.

He saw her in passing, and knew that he loved her.

He saw her and knew she was the sun.

He chased after her, hoping to start up a conversation, ask her name, anything.

It was his first day in the desert.

It was high noon.

Before too long he fell to the ground, burning.

He fainted a moment later.

When he awoke, he was inside a house.

“You had heatstroke lad.”

He opened his mouth, but the blurry figure before him stopped him.

“Don’t speak. You need to drink this.”

The figure handed him a bowl filled with water.

It was warm, but he drank it greedily.

It hurt his throat, but it was the best water he had ever had.

A few days later he had regained his strength.

He was finally ready to leave.

He would return to his journey, his search for his sun.

“Terrible, isn’t it?”

He was snapped out of his revelry and looked at the man who saved him.

“The desert. The heat.”

He nodded.

He had only been there for a little while, but he understood the harshness of desert, at least to some extent.

“The sun’s not your friend in the desert,” the man continued, “The light, the heat, everything people seem to find so pleasant elsewhere is a hated danger here.”

He froze.

“You don’t like the sun?” he asked the man.

“Of course not,” the man replied, “I would-”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

He stood up and walked to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“And to think I agreed with you.”

“What?”

“To be hated for what makes her beauty…”

“What are you talking about?”

He left the man’s house, saying as he did, “I cannot hide from the sun’s beauty, even if it kills me.”

[p=center]* * *[/p]

He drank.

As he regained consciousness, he slowly pushed away the water.

“You were half dead in the desert.”

His mind cleared slowly.

The man continued.

“Again.”

He pushed his way up and staggered out of the door.

The man sighed.

[p=center]* * *[/p]

He tasted something foul in his mouth and spat.

The shapes in front of his eyes resolved themselves, and he saw the man in whose house he had woken up consistently for the last month.

He had made it almost to the city limits that time.

[p=center]* * *[/p]

He fell to the ground, and something sweet and salty found its way into his mouth.

He swallowed his saliva, and felt something tear at his throat.

He was far outside the city limits now.

The man would not be coming to save him this time.

He had been lucky, in a sense.

He had seen many monsters on his trek, but none of them had attacked him, or even seemed to notice him.

His throat burned even worse, the tearing continuing.

’Why does it hurt so much’

He tried to figure out why the pain was getting worse.

The sun had moved even higher by the time he managed to translate the signals his body was giving him into coherent concepts.

’I’m still swallowing.’

He tried to stop, but nothing happened.

He kept gulping down the sand.

He felt it in his stomach weighing him down.

His vision began to fade.

’Why? Even this time, I can only see darkness. Why can’t it be light instead? I keep searching, but when I need her most, where is she? Where is my light? My sun?’

But the darkness stayed dark, and after a moment, he stopped swallowing.

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