The Odd Couple

[Jim Raynor]

Swann swiped his forehead with his glove. As he predicted, the morning sun barely waited to blast away the cool chill of the night, and blasted heat intensely as if it were already midday. He squeezed water out of the bottle, warm and unpleasant, but it was still water and he needed it badly. Even the drops that missed and ran down his chin were quickly snared by his questing tongue.

"Water?" Swann asked, shaking the bottle.

<I am fine for the moment, Rory Swann,> Karax said, his long strides leaving far fewer footprints in the sand than his terran companion. <There is little water in the air, but I am able to sustain myself on it.>

Swann dropped the water bottle back in his bag and cinched it up. "Well, it's there if you need it. Not hopin' we'll refill it anytime soon, unless we come upon an oasis or somethin'."

<I highly doubt that we will.>

As initially stunning as the golden sands and pure, unblemished blue sky were when they first departed the Town With No Name, it was starting to work Rory's nerves. Maybe it was the lack of food and water as well, coupled with a terrible night's rest, but Swann clenched his teeth as they traipsed through the desert, following the invisible compass in the protoss phase-smith's head.

"I don't think we can keep searchin' much longer," Swann said as the hot wind brushed over his face, adding to the stinging sun rays. "I got maybe one more day's worth of food and water, two if I'm stretchin' it a bit. And I don't think we'll find a shop out here in the middle of the damn desert."

<I understand,> Karax said. < But I do not believe it will be long before we reach the beacon.>

Swann perked up at that. "That right? You think we're not far, eh?"

Karax shook his head. <Quite close indeed. In fact, the beacon is travelling towards us.>

"Huh, kinda like yesterday when it was travellin' away from us," Swann said. "You don't think it's runnin' away?"

<No. It's heading towards us, so it either doesn't know of our presence, or it's simply moving in irregular, randomised patterns.>

The sands shook.

"You feel that?" Swann said, his heart in his stomach.

<Indeed I did,> Karax said. <And there is a strange correlation.>

Another quake of the dune almost brought Swann to his knees.

"What?"

<The beacon signal is getting stronger.>

"You mean ... whatever we're followin' is makin' that quake?" Swann said.

<It's highly possible,> Karax said.

Swann ran to the protoss and spread out his arms. "But the last time we felt somethin' movin' beneath us, we almost got smothered by sand! Plus that factory ... what else coulda ripped it in two like that?" He paced away rigidly. "No, no this doesn't sound good at all! Whatever we're chasin' is gonna kill us, by accident or on purpose! We gotta go!"

The ground vibrated and threw Rory flat on his chest. Karax kneeled to the force himself.

The sands beneath Swann's fingers danced in a steady rumbling. "Oh no ... it's too late, isn't it?"

An eruption of sand exploded into the air, the shockwave flooring both the human and protoss. Swann rose his arms over his head as the groaning of sand filled his ears, but it failed to plaster him. Peeking out of an eye, he saw in the distance a deadly wall of gold flaring up and crashing back to the ground in a terrible wave, but far enough to avoid rushing over him and Karax.

His eyes settled on the creature emerging from the explosion, and his sunburnt skin went cold. A worm of monstrous proportions burst forth, its four-sectioned mouth split open, four hideous hooks hanging from the edge of each flap. Its entire body was segmented in thick pink flesh. Swann was sure that only a portion of the leviathan subterranean was visible above the surface, but arcing up and shrieking as it was, it had to have stood over thirty metres long.

"Oh cripes, what the hell is that?!" Swann shouted, pointing a frantic finger at the worm.

<A megafauna local to these deserts,> Karax said, his voice calm as he apprised the new addition to the landscape. <Amazing that such a creature could find enough sustenance to sustain its massive girth.>

"Yeah, and I'm guessin' I know how it sustains itself!" Swann said. "We gotta get movin'!"

Karax stood up as the beast flailed its head around, screeching. <I have some unfortunate news, Rory Swann.>

"You gonna tell me that thing is a protoss?"

<Far from it. Rory Swann ... the distress beacon is emanating from the worm.>

Swann shrugged. "So? That's a good thing, right? Well, for us I mean. There's no protoss in danger. That ugly thing just ate a beacon! No harm, no foul. We can head home now."

Karax shook his oval head. <No. The distress beacon is still transmitting. I came out to find the beacon and halt its signal.>

Swann's face fell, his eyes wide as it dawned on him what the protoss was propositioning. "Oh no. No! We've done enough. We are not fightin' a giant sand worm! Besides, what would we fight it with? My sarcasm?"

<I am not going to fight it,> Karax said.

"I was really hopin' you weren't gonna say that."

<I have to go into its stomach and disable the beacon.>

"OK, this is where the madness has to end," Swann said, shaking a finger.

<The threat still exists,> Karax said, as the worm twisted in the air. <Another of my kind could stumble into its jaws, thinking its->

"Yeah yeah, I get your altruism streak. Really, it's wonderful," Swann said, scowling. "But if we don't get outta here and back to the town, we will be the next ones stumblin' into its jaws. I mean, how are we supposed to get out of it once we're in? Did you think that far head?"

<Rory Swann,> Karax pointed to the horizon, <the worm is gone.>

Swann spun, bug eyed. A gaping hole in the dunes greedily ate the falling sand that cascaded into its depths, but no worm thrashed about in it any more.

The dunes shook.

"Oh no!" Swann yelled, running. "I ain't bein' no worm food! You're on your own now, Karax!"

A massive blast of sand burst from behind them, scattering to the sides like a curtain as the giant worm sheared through it. Its mouth flaps spread open, and a terrible stench of decayed meat washed over them as it shrieked in an impossibly high register. The wind blew backwards, sucking in thin trails of sand. Swann sprinted against the current, but found himself stuck in place. Worse, every terrified step dislodged more sand, vacuuming it backwards and giving him less to stand on. He was slowly losing the battle.

Karax, either resigned to his fate or intent on finishing his suicidal mission, went limp and flew past Swann, vanishing into the black abyss of the worm's throat.

"Karax!"

Swann's feet slipped from under him. He dug fingers and claw into the sands, but he was inexorably rolling towards the monstrous beast. He struggled and kicked and screamed the whole way until the worm's mouth flaps closed in around him and everything went dark.