Adventure

I still glance at Dalyva occasionally, making sure she’s truly okay. She seems to be just shaken, but you can never be too careful. We all have our weapons out now, and are on alert.

Suddenly Shankhe collapses, just like Dalyva did. Dalyva immediately looks at him, and quickly rushes over. “Shankhe?” She says in a worried tone. “Don’t worry.” I say. “We’ll give him a couple minutes, see if he can beat the hag, and then we’ll wake him.” She looks confused, so I explain to her.

“When a nightmare hag attacks, they use your deepest fears, but if you acknowledge all of your fears, it then becomes useless to the hag, and they can no longer attack you.” I explained. she nods. “Oh yeah, I get it.” We then both turn to Shankhe who is shaking, but seems a bit calm. But then he starts to shiver, and his composure is gone. I shake him gently, then harder. “Wake up.” I say. “It’s just a nightmare.” He then wakes up as I speak into his ear. Sweat is streaming down his face. I smirk. “Seen your fears?” I ask. He shivers. “Yep.” I could see that he was shaken, like Dalyva, but knew he’d be fine in the long run.

We continued walking, and suddenly I felt the attack as well. I’m walking back on the battlefield at Mara-Ni.“Oh.” I say. “Couldn’t be more creative, could you?” I say out loud, directing at the nightmare hag, who doesn’t respond. I sit there, sure I know what’s going to happen, but then it differs.

“Taegan!” Says a man, rushing up to me. My eyes widen as everything around me changes. No more battlefield, just a field. He hugs me, his incorporeal arms somehow wrapping around me. “Catri.” I say, shaking with feelings. “Why are you here?” I ask, but he doesn’t reply. Suddenly monsters pop out of the bushes, surrounding us. Catri stands in front of me, and I still feel like that little kid, being protected by what was basically like my own father.

He stands in front of me, trying to fend off the monsters, but it's hard, and I can see him struggling. “Run, Taegan!” He yells. “I-i can’t leave you..” I hear the ghost of myself say.

“GO!” He yells, and I can see a ghost of myself, tears streaming down my face from under my eye mask to my cheeks and on my chin. My ghost, still crying, runs away. However, I watch nearby on a hill, seeing the monsters brutally mauling him to death. Just as he’s about to die, I hear his final words. “I’m sorry, Taegan!” He yells, and my ghost replies. “It’s not your fault Catri.” It says in tears quietly. I smirk. “I’m sorry, nightmare hag, but I’ve had years to get over this.” I say, snapping the illusion. “That’s not my deepest fear.”

I wake up with Shankhe and Dalyva staring down at me. “You did it!” She said surprised. “Does that mean the hag can’t attack you any more?” She asks. I shake my head. “No, the hag has to go through all of your fears first.” I answer. “Does that mean that fears don’t repeat?” Shankhe asks. I nod. “Yep, that’s right.”

We continued walking, but then i black out again. Just before i black out, i notice both Shankhe and Dalyva were knocked out as well.

I return to the dreamscape, and notice that I'm in a black room. It’s familiar. Soon, it becomes sand, and people form around me. I shiver, and shake with trepidation. Eyes welling with tears, i-i try to stop it. The tears soon fall down my cheeks as monsters seem to appear from every angle. I look at the people beside me. “Stop.” I say, panicking as my voice starts to crack. “Please.” My breaths are big, and obvious as I fall to my knees, blood splashing on my face from my comrade who has stepped in front of me. “Stop, stop, stop.” I’m trembling, my hands go on my head as I try to block out the desperate cries of my companions. Tears flow and flow down my cheeks, as I blend down, putting my head to the ground as I cry. “No, no, no, no, no.” My voice slowly degrades, but I continue, panicking and sobbing. “No, no, no, no, no, no.” I continue to mutter softly, unable to put my head up to encounter the horrors that are my friend’s remains.

It’s like something gently suffocating me, slowly killing me, as I realise what it is. All this time, I've used my magic, making a tornado of sand to defend from the monsters who killed my friends. A soft hand landed on my shoulder, and a gruff voice spoke. “Ya good lad?” He asked in a gruff, yet concerned voice. I gently raise my tear stained face. “O-oh.” I say, my voice still hurting from my cries. “Nno.” I say, my voice cracking again, as I cry again, sniffling and hiccuping. But as I look up, there is nothing. Maybe it was just my imagination, or maybe I passed out and was hallucinating, but the figure seemed to have disappeared.

As I notice one of my other friends, I look over to them. “Garu.” I say, walking over to him as he holds his boyfriend’s dead bleeding body. “Garu..” I repeat, softer. However, as he turns and looks at me, his eyes are pained and blank at the same time. “Sorry Taegan.” His chin trembles. “I can't. I can't return to them. I can't face their stupid rules, or faces of pity as they look at me and my lover.” He hugs his boyfriend tight. “I’m truly sorry, Taegan.” He hangs his head as he just sits there.

Regret and understanding flows through me, and I just shuffle off, heading towards the town with eyes blank, my emotions wrapped up tight in my mind. “Goodbye, Garu.” I say, as the wind departs my last words to him. As I head to a town, the guard yells out. “Devil of the Sands.”

As I stand in the illusion, I break the nightmare hags vision. With anger, I launched myself towards it. “You dare use that against me!?” I angrily slice at it, which it blocks with its staff.

It’s weak though. A nightmare hag without the use of its nightmares is merely a very weak monster. I slash towards it using my two Jambiyas, and land a decent hit. Suddenly the stone panels all around us raise, and monsters flood the room. I fight harder, wanting Shankhe and Dalyva to be awake before the monsters reach them. One good thrust, and the nightmare hag flops, dead. I quickly rushed to where Shankhe and Dalyva were on the ground.

Shankhe is the first to wake up. He snaps up, alert and ready. He notices the monsters around us, and quickly draws his blade, popping the top off his bottle and letting the water coat his blade.

“Help me fend them off while Dalyva wakes up.” I say, and he nods. He goes one side and I take the other as we fend off a mixture of hounds, cats and even a couple scarecrows. At first, it's easy, for we have lots of strength to spare, and as Dalyva joins, it becomes even easier, but as we defeat them, it becomes harder, our strength is wearing down, there’s still a lot of monsters left, and I think they’re increasing in strength.

Soon we’re down to 12 left. I use my little trick, swinging at a monster, this time a cat, that thinks it has heaps of time to dodge, but as soon as I shoot out my sand, it’s too late, and it dies.

10 left. Shankhe had defeated one. I came into the thick of it, my blades whirling as I defended, attacked and managed to injure several of the monsters, even slicing the necks of a couple hounds.

7 to go. Dalyva widens her stance, and holds her halberd ready as she chops at one of the hounds, killing it, and then impaling a cat as well. Shankhe covers his blade, and rushes to a scarecrow with his sword raised, chopping its head off in a swift downwards motion.

5 left. A hound jumps at me, and I block it with my dagger, but then another hound jumps me from behind. Luckily Shankhe was near, and intercepted the hound, pressing his shoulder blades to mine as we fought back to back. I smirk. “Nice save.” He nods. “Thanks.” I look down at my hound, who has my dagger in its teeth. Using my other dagger in my other hand, I stab it in the neck. Shankhe manages to get his sword out of the hounds mouth, by pushing it through its skull, freeing his katana.

3 left. Dalyva seems overwhelmed by the three that are attacking her, so i go over to help, just as a swordsman emerges from in front of Shankhe. “Swordsman, I’ll take him.” He yells, just so we don’t worry. He intercepts the blade, and that's all I notice as I run over to help Dalyva.

The last three monsters are like the bosses of them; one cat, one hound and one scarecrow, all more purple than their others and seemingly way more powerful. I take the scarecrow, who just so happens to have a sword. Rusted and bad, sure, but it’s definitely more powerful than the ones we’ve faced before. The cat is almost up to my shoulder in height, and the scarecrow is just barely shorter than me. The hound was as tall as the cat, maybe even a bit more.

“No splitting, we’ll fight together.” I say, as she seems to focus on just one of the monsters. She nods, and turns towards all of the monsters at once. The scarecrow comes in for a hit, but I deflect it expertly with my two daggers, crossed over each other in order not to break. Once it starts to apply left pressure as it tries to get its sword back to attack, I remove the bottom dagger on my cross, and slash at its arm. My sand is currently around me in a circle, defending me against attacks from the other monsters. Dalyva comes from behind the scarecrow, striking down on its head. However, its resiliency lets it keep standing as it disengages from me, and whirls around to face Dalyva, who's now weaponless due to it being stuck in the scarecrow's head.

It, having turned its back to me, was vulnerable, and I chopped its head off, just in time for Dalyva to grab her weapon, before the hound attacked her.

She instinctively stuck out her hand, letting go of her weapon and instantly regretted it as it bit into her arm, drawing a pained scream from her, as it was right where the last bite was, not only hurting kin, but a scab as well, doubling the pain. I wince as I see it, but take no time in stabbing its head as Dalyva held it still with her arm. As she gently pried her arm out of the hounds mouth, and its teeth out of her arm, the cat pounced. My sand deflected it, and it was thrown to the side. I turned to it with determination.

A yell rang out, and I realised I had completely forgotten about Shankhe, who was getting beaten to a pulp by the skilled swordsman.

Anger fueled me as I looked at the monster in front of me, time to get down to business.

I rushed it, intending on stabbing its eye, which it narrowly avoided by an inch as it dodged to the side. I see Shankhe fall from one of the attacks and try to get up only as he gets beaten down again by the swordsman. He’s on his knees, weapon out of his reach as he tries to get to his feet, the glint of the swordsman’s blade above his neck. My heart rate quickened, and my pace fastened as I rushed to save him. Everything in my body was tired, but I pushed through as I thought of one thing, saving Shankhe. Finally I felt my blade press against the swordsman’s, just as it swung downwards, the ringing of steel on steel a familiar, and comforting, sound.

The cat bounced after me, following me intently. My knees are bending from the pressure, but I know it's better than Shankhe being dead. I push against the blade, and manage to stand up properly, just as the swordsman quickly redirected his blade, sending it into my neck. My eyes widen in pain, and I grimace. He pulls it out as I manage to get my jambiyas onto his blade and push it away. He managed to nick my neck again though, a slit on the last cut.

“Taegan!” Shankhe yells out worriedly. I spit a glob of blood from my mouth as I reply. “I’m fine, quick, grab your blade.”

Shankhe instantly obeys, quickly scrambling to his blade, picking it up and racing towards the cat, knowing i’m going to deal with the swordsman. As if an illusion had been cut, something that was shielding my eyes, I saw the swordsman‘s self. A skeleton. But his bones weren’t white. They were purple. I smell the familiarity of the rainbow mist, as Shankhe comes to my aid. I have the swordsman in a tight lock of weapons, his back exposed to Shankhe. Shankhe quickly thrusts through the skeleton's back, piercing something as we hear a loud crack, like he was stabbing stone or something, and the skeleton collapsing.

I drop my weapons, and flop onto my back in exhaustion. Shankhe too collapses. I was covered in minor scratches and bruises, and Shankhe was covered in mini cuts all over. “Time out.” I say, breathing hard. “Agreed.” Said Shankhe, and soon after I passed out. When I woke up, I noticed that everything had been collected and sorted. “Thanks Dalyva.” I say as I get up, sheathe my daggers and approach the piles, putting them into the dimensional bag. She grins. “No problem.” She has bandages around her injured arm, though I reckon from the way she’s using it she’s not too troubled by it, and did some healing.

Shankhe rises from the ground like a zombie, and I chuckle as I see it. “You’re not an undead yet.” I tease, and he just groans. “Says the one who didn’t hold off an insanely strong skeleton for ages.” I just smirk. “Oh you poor person, having to fight a monster.” Dalyva chuckles, as i go over to the medicine pile and grab some bandages, wrapping them around my cut on my neck.

Suddenly I spotted a floating chest in the middle of the room. “Hell yeah!” I say as I walk over to it, breaking off the rest of the roll of bandage, and using one of the clips to keep the end of the bandages secure. “Loot time!” I say, and both of them run over to me.

I open the chest with eagerness. Met with a bright light in our eyes, we close our eyes, and when we open them, we find in the box a pile of silver coins, as well as numerous other things. I start to pull them out, starting with the silver coins, finding some copper coins under them.

After taking out the coins, I rummage deeper, finding lots.