foamed and howled to her left as she headed north, the waft of cool energy from her sword keeping the worst of the heat from her flesh.
For hours she walked with no change to the world around her; the sand continued its reign. She’d drifted further from the water as it grew increasingly fitful, casting burning spray at her feet. The sound had become infuriating. She stayed just close enough so that its roar was a gentle moan in the distance, but it was little more than that.
Her limbs cried out for rest and at long last she ran out of excuses to ignore it. She dropped to the earth with a groan. Once down, she feared she might not get back to her feet.
Her breath ragged in her chest, she lay back with her face turned from the sun, and rested her head against a pile of soft sand she gathered together. She pulled her blade out, which she had strung to the inside of her cloak as she walked, and laid it bare across her chest. Its insistent cold was felt first by her breasts, their tips hardening in surprised rebellion against the rough material of her tunic, but its cool touch was a pleasure. She stretched her arms away from her sides, luxuriating in the surprising comfort of the sand.
The weariness of her journey having caught up to her, she lay in the sand’s embrace as the gray haze of sleep threatened to steal over her. Her vision swam and the ground beneath her seemed to sway as if she were still aboard the deck of her ship. The distant rumble of the ocean was a quiet song that lulled her toward the darkness, which crept from the corners of her eyes.
Braelyn’s eyes flickered, having closed without her notice, then opened into tiny slits as her sword tumbled from her chest. She lay staring at it, the sand appearing to shift beneath its blue blade. Her head filled with the thick clouds of exhaustion, it took her a moment to notice her sword appeared to be sinking.
Her thoughts slow, she slid her arm across the ground and grasped the pommel, feeling the tinge of familiar cold pierce the thickness of her leather glove. She gripped it tight to keep it from sliding into the sand as puffs of gold showered her arm.
The ground trembled and a gentle vibration skittered along her back like phantom ants. She blinked her eyes clear of sleep and focused them on her breasts, noticing them rising out of sync with her breath.
Awareness flooded her veins with adrenaline.
Braelyn rolled away from the explosions of sand and leapt to her feet, surprise and fear dulling her pain to a tolerable level. Her blue blade held before her, she drew her second sword with her left hand. The brightness of the day seemed to dim as the obsidian blade cleared its sheath.
Her eyes locked on the desert floor, the small puffs of sand came to a sudden halt. For several minutes she stood poised, no sound reaching her ears but the distant call of the ocean. Her breath slow, each exhalation eased out to be silent, she wondered after a while if she’d simply imagined the motion. Nothing marred the surface of the sand where she had lain, save for the slight impression where her body had nestled into the golden earth.
After several more minutes, she drew a deep breath and let the muscles of her arms relax, her swords drooping to his sides. She looked about to get her bearings, having lost track during her rest, when she felt another vibration at her feet. Its tremble shifted the sand beneath her boots.
She leapt to the side just as the ground beneath her burst upward in a great volcano of golden dust.
Her balance challenged by the shifting sand, she landed awkward, wasting a precious moment to stay on her feet before spinning to face back the direction she’d come. Her pulse thudded in her throat at what she saw.
Right where she had just stood, a motley brown creature that vaguely resembled a snake, rose from the sand. Its squirming body drew itself up, what was visible writhing to hover nearly ten feet above her. Six bulbous eyes extended three feet from its head on spindly stalks. They swiveled to lock their rheumy gaze upon her. Another eye set in the center, three times the size of the others and filled with a putrid green slime that sloshed within its circled depths as it moved, twisted so that it too came to rest its sight on her.
Multiple mouths ran down its length on all sides of it, each filled with sharpened teeth of black. Each maw opened and closed in what seemed random order, the motion and clack of its teeth mesmerizing. The air was filled with its chittering voices, a chorus of ear-rattling screeches.
Braelyn cast a quick glance about to assure herself no more of the beasts had sprung up behind her while she’d been distracted, before backing away. She kept her blades at the ready as the creature continued to emerge from the sand, its snapping body coiling over itself as foot after foot of it continued to emerge from the ground, swirling dirt stirred to a small maelstrom in its wake.
Its serpentine length loose of the dirt, it turned its attention to Braelyn. The green glow of its central eye shifted back and forth as though daring her to run, its stalks swaying about its head. All of its mouths flew open at once and it loosed a horrid wall of shrieks. The sound assailed her ears, so piercing that it nearly drove the sight from her eyes.
She stumbled back as her head swam under the sonic assault, fighting the urge to drop her swords and cover her ears. She blinked away the sudden tears that blurred her starred vision, just in time to see the creature lunging toward her.
She dove to the side as a handful of the beast’s slashing mouths crashed into the stand where she had just stood. She rolled away and jumped to her feet, turning to face her opponent. She squeezed the tears from her eyes as the creature’s shrieks became muffled, its mouths spitting out the dirt it had bitten down upon in place of her flesh.
Braelyn moved forward, hoping to take advantage of the creature’s distraction, but its stalked eyes swiveled to glare at her. Its tail lashed out like a screaming whip, sharpened teeth snapping just inches before her face as she retreated. The scent of rotten flesh struck her full in the face, her stomach churning, as she scrambled to put some distance between her and the beast.
It had no intention of letting her flee.
The creature reared up and struck at her, using its length like a coiled spring to speed its approach. Her hands trembling, Braelyn pushed her full weight into her feet, assuring her footing was stable. She held her ground as the creature neared, waiting until the very last moment before springing away. Her blue blade flashed in an arc behind her.
Committed to its charge, the beast’s central eye closed and crashed into the sand, throwing up a cloud as it burrowed deep. Braelyn’s blade sunk into the open gape of one of its mouths as it passed, jagged teeth shattering against steel.
The beast shrieked as its tail lashed out frantic in an attempt to strike her down. Its head, and all its eyes, still buried in the sand, Braelyn dodged the snapping lengths of its tail as it slashed about without direction and closed the distance. No more than a foot from its thrashing torso, she spun her sword in her hand to reverse her grip, and drove the tip of her obsidian blade into the maw nearest the head. Her downward thrust pierced the gaping mouth and skewered the flapping black tongue that wavered inside, sinking into the depths of its throat.
The serpent went rigid at the dark blade’s touch, before its other mouths exploded in agonized wails. Her ears under assault once more, Braelyn clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes, tearing the blade free of the creature’s flesh. Yellowed pus and blood spewed from the wound to splatter her chest in its putrid warmth. Its smell brought more tears to her eyes as the beast began to burrow.
Braelyn could feel vomit rising in her throat and choked it back as she was showered by an upheaval of sand. She closed her eyes against it, blocked out any thought of the odors that gnawed at her nose, and lashed out with both of her sword.
So close, both blades bit deep. She felt more of the thick warmth splash against her hands and arms, but ignored it as he pulled her swords free to keep them from being wrenched loose by the serpent’s efforts to return to the sand.
Fearful the creature might rise to come at her again should she not do enough to discourage it, Braelyn continued to lash out at its passing body. Each strike drew more screams and gallons of the sickening fluid until she whipped her swords before her to feel nothing but air.
Her eyes still closed against the taint that had covered her from head to toe, she darted sideways, keeping her position affixed in her mind. Ten feet from where the creature had gone under the ground, she sheathed her blades and pulled the cloak from her shoulders. She used the part that had hung directly behind her back to wipe her eyes clean, opening them once she was sure they were free of the viscous nastiness.
A dark burrow sat but a short distance from her, fluid-stained sand piled about is abysmal entrance. She could neither see nor hear any sign of the serpent from within its depths, though that brought her no relief.
