Uncharted

[Caira Ayryn]

From Bounty Hunter to Bandit, De-evolution?

Merik hadn’t realized how crazy his companion was. She was practically playing Russian Roulette with her own destiny. And he was merely a variable in her strategy. Luckily, they were nearly there and he could finally get rid of her and be on his merry way..

Mid-day had approached with a tremendous and treacherous heat. “This heat is hotter than Diablo himself!” Merik exclaimed looking for distraction and words seemed to be an easy avenue, “So what are you going to do when you leave the Endless Dunes?” He inquired hoping to get his mind on any other verse but this one.

“Well, I'm going to find Omni. Even if I have to travel the ten verses to get there!” Caira spoke with a resounding determination that sprung from a hidden well of willpower.

“Twelve.” Merik mentioned.

“Hm?" There was a slight tilt of her head.

“There are twelve verses, maybe even more, though it depends on which ones you count-”

A rock suddenly whistled through the air, deployed by a slingshot the size of a crossbow. In a flash, Merik was hit with this hurtling rock on the back of the head and quickly doubled over on his knees in agony as the bloodied crimson stone rolled to the sand.

When Caira’s eyes descended on the varmint that had deployed it, she couldn’t help but to stare at the bald, buff and pink-skinned man wearing only a small dingy tarp around his waist. The troglodyte made a screeching bellow that acted as a stomach-curtling war cry. The horde of heathens tumbled from their advantageous crests among the peaks and charged at the Primes with masculine adrenaline as an arch of spears began to fall in a single surge from the sky.

She didn't have to ask, she knew these were no bandits. The cannibals had come.

Caira had unsheathed her blade as the battle ensued as she cut and batted away a few of the imposing spears while swatting at the beings who stunk of decaying blood and seemed to have crimson stains, each around their mouths.

As their pack members began to fall, despite their seemingly endless numbers, a single whistle pierced her ears as deployed from the chief followed by a strange sort of scowling and disparate grunts. The siege was halted. The largest, and their leader, cocked his head to the side as he sized the pair up.

Merik was no longer keeled over on the ground and had found himself in a half kneeling position, fending those who swarmed him away with air, however the gash in his head didn’t want to stop leaking as an endless trickle seemed to drive the beastly men rabid with growling hunger.

The leader approached and Caira’s sword aimed to decapitate his head. The amused cannibal grasped the edges of the sword in his fist with as though he would turn her weapon to dust. All this while keeping a maintaining a challenging eye contact between the two Primes. One a dignified swordsman, the other a reprehensible cretin.

Disgust filled her as she looked into the vacant eyes of the almost-man.

Their eyes dueled in the glinting of the sun. A wordless confrontation of dominance and power slung forth with each unmatched gaze. Destruction crackled in their wake as the presence of the horde faded into the back round and the abrasive sound became nothing more than an indignant hum. It was only the two enemies hashed in the cull of cannibal men. When the forthright male grew ready to speak it was as though he had derived the knowledge he had sought from her eyes, her stance, and her refusal to concede defeat. As the fueling heat from his gaze began to dissolve into the desert air, a bullet whizzed into the side of her head.

THWACK!

And just like that, the emblazoned light of the desert went out.