Setting
Mak reckoned they were around 40 feet in height, but over such far distance, and having nothing to compare their size too, his gaze could hardly generate accurate values.
Mak was standing idle too. The phyn lost his attention and he tilted his head skyward and sniffed repeatedly, smelling for scents.
The sky was relentlessly blue the clouds nonexistent, the sun intensely radiant. The scent he had picked up on this morning was now more distinct. A carcass. He continued his march, lead by his nose. Sand was slipping into his boots, how annoying.
Mak hadnât eaten in 9 days. This had him starving, but thats not right. He shouldâve be more than starving, he shouldâve been collapsed in hunger, being a former biologist Mak knew this. On top of the hunger abnormality, he had not drank anything for two days. In the scorching deserts heâd treated, that shoud be enough to kill a man, but Mak was merely extremely thirsty.
Something was obviously up.
Consume the brains of beasts to absorb their traits. What's up with thisâŠ
Ever since waking up in the desert nine days ago, this thought had been haunting Mak. It had come from nowhere and, despite Mak being a justly sceptical person, he could not question it. Somehow, he just knew it to be true. This along with the thirst and hunger, What's up with this⊠But where had this thought come from? Not knowing annoyed him.
Mak was the lone figure treading the desert plane. Wearing a circular black hat, with a moderately flat tip and a broad disc, and ragged dark gray brown trenchcoat that had a high collar and was from under the hip half missing, torn off in a halfoval shape. The shape of a jaw.
It troubled him, the coat. Should he really wear it? It shielded him from the suns rays, but it was damn hot and sweaty.
What ever. Itâs an heirloom.
He was getting closer to the Phyn. The closer he got, the more he realized how wrong his estimation of their size had been. From this distance they looked more 70 feet then 40. A quite common size, nothing to behold. Perhaps he should change his course not to cross them in his path? Nah not necessary yet.
A slight gust. The sweat on his face blown upon by the gust generated a cooling sensation, pleasurable enough to make Mak abruptly stop in his track and be amazed. Some of the wind found itâs way into his coat and clothes, it was refreshing fresh.
Too bad it didnât last. A subsequent gust of wind lashed out powerfully, casting sand into Maks face. Some of it stuck onto the sweaty skin, some found itâs way into his mouth, some into his nose and some poured down in under his clothes.
FUCK! Was Maks immediate reaction.
The winds gradually picked up in speed. The little gust, had been the periphery of a tornado, a very broad and massive, landscape spanning tornado. As soon as he saw the things bulkier, visible sand carrying winds rise above the horizon he began looking for someplace to shelter himself. But it was useless, the plane was dead flat.
Soon the phyn up ahead were no longer visible, swallowed by the incoming sandstorm. But they were fine, mere winds would mean nothing to them. Mak on the other handâŠ
But there was nowhere to run, and the tornado was closing in fast, raging across the plain.
He was going to have to sit this one out it seemed. Mak grabbed his hat, tilted it forward and buttoned the collar of his trenchcoat. His face was now more or less protected.
In came the sand carrying winds. The initial contact almost blew Mak off his feet, but he managed to brace himself and adjust position to stabilize. Sand was being flung at him in enormous amounts, weighing down his clothes, scraping and cutting into any exposed skin. Everything in sight was yellow and grey.
Except for a split second. When the winds were at their strongest and Mak was positioned right next to the very centre of the tornado, in the corner of his eye, he saw a huge, no, an absolutely enormous, black silhouette. Aside from the violent noise of the wind, he could hear thumps followed by the sound of swelling and scraping of sand, as though huge amounts of sand, like avalanches, was being shifted. The thumps had a set rhythm to them, they sounded like some sort of... footsteps?!
But the black silhouet was gone in the blink of an eye, and the sounds were soon indistinguishable in the noise of the wind.
Eventually the tornado had passed and Mak was left standing. His clothes were stuffed with sand, his hands burning from being razed and cut, but all this was rather insignificant in comparison to the sight that was before him. The three phyn that had been swallowed by their sandstorm, where on the ground bleeding from their necks. Because they were missing their heads.
Mak had seen something in the storm, heard something in the storm, but damn.
He turned and gazed at the passed sandstorm. It was landscape encompassing, and moving away at an astonishing speed. In a storm of that size, what was it he had seen?
Winds didnât do this to the phyn, something is following that sandstorm...no... no perhaps thatâs not it. That sandstorm, itâs following something?
Setting
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In this herd, it looks like every member was covered in a plate, a pair of tentacles jutting from under their plates. They weren't too big and they seemed docile for the most part so Zander kept the silencer off, "no harm in a little noise." He went through his motions, doping the scope, checking wind, doing everything by the book. It was all pointless when hunting but four years as a sniper tends to start habits. Besides Xander didn't wanna take chances on a rogue gust from the distant sandstorm blowing the shot wide.
Xander took the shot, and a millisecond later the Phyn he had been studying fell. Xander smiles as he began to search for a new target, "Ill eat great tonight if this keeps up." Suddenly a chill nearly freezes Xander's neck, "cold, out here in the desert. what the fuck.." he looked up as the cold chill went away and realized that it wasn't cold. The cold chill meant Xander was scared, he just didn't know it yet.
He looked up at the sandstom and noticed it seemingly stop. He zeroed in with his rifle, noticing a dark figure in the sandstorm, turning to him, like it knew he was there. Xander gasped, he knew that wasn't a sandstorm. Something was IN that storm, causing it. It began to move toward him and Xander finally realized what his body was telling him. He was scared, deathly afraid of what might be in that sand.
Xander's hands began to shake as he reached for the cartridges beside him, trying to load one into the rifle as the storm drew closer. His hands shook as he began to feel the wind now, blowing the cartridges away. He now had only the one he palmed in his hand. He looked down at the Phyn herd being swallowed up in the storm. As the sand began to smack what bare skin was on his body he pulled pack the bolt. Xander finally managed to calm his shaking hands enough to load the rifle but it was too late. The sand sucked his up and everything went dark.
Xander's eyes opened to the sky, he saw he was laying on the ground, He could see the rock formation he had been hidden on in front of him, and he was no longer on it. The sharp pain in his back indicated that whatever was in that storm threw him from the formation. Xander stood up to look around, but found a disturbing detail. He was in the middle of the herd he'd been tracking, but it was no longer a herd. He looked around at the mauled bodies, some ripped to pieces others whole but surely dead. But for ever dead Phyn he could see dead, he could find none alive.
Xander looked over and spied his rifle. Gasping for joy he barreled to it and picked it up. He checked the chamber to find the round he'd loaded was still there and the gun was not jammed up in sand as he was. He looked around, "no use finding any more rounds here, the sand had to have blown them all over the desert." He shouldered his rifle and looked around, "I guess there's no harm in seeing if any of the meat hasn't been tainted." Xander pulled the field knife he kept to skin and dress. He began to cut into the dead Phyn.
Drake stopped walking, for the first time in many hours and looked up into the bright blue sky, without a cloud in sight. His thoughts returned to his family, he had lost them during the attack and was worrying endlessly for them. Are they safe?... Are they dead? These thoughts racked his head, He probably would have began to cry a little if it was not for the fact he was dehydrated. "No" he yelled to himself "THEY ARE ALIVE AND I WILL FIND THEM"! His voice rang out loudly and he though his fist in the air to give himself confidence. He slowly lowered his fist and looked down I say that but..... I have not even see another human much less anyone I know Before he could progress with his thought's further he heard the loud sound of a gun being fired off in the distance
It was loud but Drake could not make out where it came from, in the large flat land where he stood it could be anywhere. Drake began to look around and drew one of his cooking knives the cold steel reflected the sunlight. As Drake looked around to his despair he saw a sand storm heading his way. Normal Drake feared nothing and would dive head first into the fire if he had good cause but there was something off about the sand storm. The way the sand moved and at the speed it was moving was unnatural.
Drake knew he could not get away from the storm. Looking around there was no cover. In books he had read he knew that sandstorms were not to be underestimated, the rages grains of sand could kill a person by casing them to chock to death. Using the keen blade of the knife he cut off a strip of cloth from his ragged shirt, it was to big for him anyways, he thought as the knife cut though the clothing with no problems. He wrapped the cloth around his mouth, hopping to help protect himself. With no cover to be seen he dug a hole in the sand and half buried himself. It was hot but he knew he would be better if he stayed in his little fort. Keeping his knife at the ready, Drake prepared himself for whatever would come this way.
It was about 3 meters tall and ran on all fours. On each foot of the creature were 3 razor sharp nails that were about a foot long each. It had the look of something like a cougar though it was completely hairless. It shared the sandy color of the desert, most likely to help it hunt Phyn when it didnât have taste for human. Sadly for Karyudo the beast did not seem to have as much problems traversing the desert as he had, as it stepped onto the sand its feet seemed to expand out to form some sort of natural snow shoe, of course this was in the desert so a sand shoe perhaps. Karyudo had stumbled upon it sunbathing, he wasnât paying attention when he happened to step on top of it. In his defense it was pretty well camouflaged with its grainy looking skin.
Karyudo had a head start but it wasnât long before it had caught up to him, it lunged to bite but Karyudo quickly changed directions causing the Predator to lose its footing for a second before continuing on with its chase. It was too fast for him to outrun so maybe he would have to fight it. He gritted his teeth and continued to run, he had never went up against a predator and was actually quite afraid of them given the extinction of most of the human population on that planet and all.
âAlrightâ he said quickly turning to the monster drawing his knife. Despite his fear of the predator he stopped, not only because he knew he couldnât outrun the monster but because he was tired as well, this was quite obvious by how heavily he was breathing whilst facing the monster. Of course the predator did not stop, it kept charging at him lowering its head closer to the ground and opening its mouth. Karyudo jumped out of the way just in time to dodge the razor sharp teeth but also fell into the sand on his side, sand quickly found its way into his clothing making the situation even more uncomfortable than it already was. The monster however was able to quickly make a U-turn right back towards him before he even had the chance to get upâŠ
The predator rushed back and put its massive foot on Karyudo, forcing him to turn onto his back. The sand indented as the predator put even more pressure on him, though it did not seem as if it wanted to crush him rather keep him in place. It slowly leaned its head down for Karyudoâs head all the while opening his mouth wider and wider. The force being exerted on him by the predator made it impossible for him to breathe or move so he was at the mercy of the 9 foot tall beast. Karyudo tried his best to move out but it was of no use.
âShitâ He said wasting the little breath he had left. His vision was becoming more and more blurry and also becoming obscured by the predator before him untilâŠ
The predator assaulting Karyudo had been forced off by yet another, this one a bit bigger than the first. This one was 4 meters not much taller but it was much more muscular. It had the same color skin as the first one only this one had various black streaks in different places. It kind of looked like a bigger version of it somewhat but you could tell by the look on the smaller ones face that they were not family, or if they were, they were having a really bad family dispute. The 3 meter managed to push the other one off, it got up with a very scared look in its black eyes before attempting to run off, the 4 meter didnât allow this however as it immediately pounced atop it again.
All the while this was happening Karyudo was slowly getting up bringing himself back from the brink of unconsciousness and refilling his lungs with air. The circulation that had been cut off from being pinned to the floor had begun flowing as normal again, or as Karyudo would say âThe pins and needles were goneâ. He looked at the fight that was taking place almost unaware of the sand tornado behind him. His clothes began to ruffle abnormally as his ears finally tuned the rest of his environment back in after being solely focused on the predator. He turned around to the great tornado, way to massive to run from. âAre you kidding me?!â Karyudo yelled into the storm.
The next thing he knew he was on is back in the sand again. A mound of sand found itself resting in his jacket. We wiped some of the sand that got into his eyes before slowly turning his head to his right. The two big predators that were once having a battle lay there with their heads cut off and bleeding. He wanted to jump out of the sand at the sight but he realized that he was too tired to. Instead he attempted to shrug off the horror and lay there in the sand for a while.
Xander kept himself calm by studying the phyn's body. He'd studied quite a bit about their behavioral habits, but he'd only dabbled in their anatomy. He studied their vitals, ensuring he'd always aim and hit the kill shot. This was the first time he'd really seen one, and he knew this was only one in a larger amount of shapes and sizes. As he'd observed before, these had tentacles, green, and long. The tentacles had long budded ends, as if they were to bloom into flowers. Xander contemplated this possibility, there was no plant life on this planet at all. Suddenly the image of the brain had flashed in his head again, "dammit, I need to eat soon, and find water." He took a deep breath, he felt what he'd assumed was adrenaline kicking in. He was tired at first, he'd hit his head somewhere during the fall that'd knock the energy right out of him. But now suddenly his energy was back and he no longer felt tired.
Xander finally finished his last Phyn, "I'm not even gonna attempt to look for more." He'd put the meat into his pack, and stood up. He recalled where the Phyn were headed, they'd made their way east so water had to be that way, and possibly shelter. The sandstorm had also made it's way east, so Xander contemplated this a moment, "I need water, I guess I need to risk it." Xander took a moment to think to himself, "I wonder how many more survived the attack." he looked east, "I guess they'd be searching for water to."
Xander sighed and started east, but before he could leave the image returned. This time however it flashed, and his head began to hurt. Xander tried to fight it but he knew the image was telling him something. He looked over to find a Phyn, head half torn off, revealing a small brain inside the skull. Xander wasted no time, he scooped it up and put into his pack with the meat. Xander would worry about what to do with it later, right now he needed to walk. So he walked.
Taking his eyes of the tornado heâd been gazing at in some amount of amazement, Mak undressed his trenchcoat and took it in a steady grip, proceeding to flapp it around some. Sand sprinkled and spread, the trenchcoat was now effectively lighter, however, Makâs skin was still tormented by a layer of sand, clinging onto his sweat.
But cursing the sand would have to wait, there was no time for such. Ahead were the dead phyn and they were bound to attract scavenging predators.
Such as myself
The three phyn were nice and big carcasses, indeed, an elephant would be dwarfed in their presence. Armored, dead creatures, the kind of dead creature one might find difficult to scavenge, though, fortunately, their heads were torn off, so flesh and blood was easily accessible.
Mak approached one of the dead phyn. It had been standing on four feet over 20 meters tall, now it wasnât standing since it was dead, but it was still big. The diameter of the severed neck was larger than Mak was tall.
The flesh was red, and blood was gushing out of the wound, sinking into the sand. But it was pouring at a rate higher than sand could absorbe, and spread ever further outward, shaping in the sand a red half circle.
Mak treaded across the red sand. Later his boots would leave red footsteps, but he didnât care. Well, initially.
Wait, what if they, smell?...fuck!
Predators do not regularly have a keen sense of smell, but among predators when concerning anything, there are exceptions for everything. Having stepped onto the red sand, Mak would now smell of phyn blood. However!
Oh riiight, right. Mmmh yeah. No matter.
He was going to cut a large piece of flesh out of the Phyn neck and fill his bottle with phyn blood anyway.
He got too it.
When finished gathering red materia, Mak walked through a path in between the bodies of two of the three dead phyn.
Mak couldnât help smiling during this experience, after all, he had become a field scientist out of passion, and seeing any creature this large, this close was rare. But heâd have to settle with seeing, inevitable predators would swarm the dead phyn.
I canât stay here though. It canât be helped.
He would not risk time for examining the creatures.
After having walked in between the phyn for a minute or so, Mak emerged on the tail side of the one heâd taken meat from.
Hmm? The tail!
Mak spotted strands of hair, thick and long as tree branches, sprouting in line along the spine of down the lower sections of the phyn tail. He stared at the hair with intensely tired eyes, evaluating, thinking.
Hm. Hair bruns does it not? Yes, im pretty sure it does. It is settled then.
He took out a long shiny knife with a single, for the most part straight, edge, being curved, increasingly so, at about â of its length till the tip.
He cut the hair with the knife, curiously investigating its texture. It was hard, similar to wood, but a little less flexible and more crumbling. It would sever with enough effort.
Done cutting, Mak strapped the hair under a belt around his waist. He had the blood in a bottle and the meat in a pale beige yellow textile bag, hanging beyond sight under his trenchcoat
Four strands of hair, a liter blood and⊠He wiggled his shoulder, feeling the bag weight. 7 kilos of meat? Successes.
Now all mak needed was shelter. Before he had been following his nose, heading toward the wherever the smell of dead meat lead him, but shelter he did not know how to find.
Unsure of where to, Mak headed in a random direction. He was still mad at the sand, and now was the time to curse it.
After a few more seconds the foot steeps walked away. Staying there for a few more minutes the sand storm progressively became weaker. Finlay the winds grew week enough to Drake to lift himself out ofi the sand. The hot Grains pored out of his hair and his clothes almost like he was a fountain. The air was cool, at least it was in comparison to what it was within the vortex.
"God dammit, that was not fun" he said to himself. He stood up and more sand fell out of his......everywhere. He was about to clean himself further when he noised something 40 feet away from him. It was a large bird of some sort, it had four leg's and one very large wing. Were there was to be a second wing there was a bleeding stump. It skin looked dry and scaly and feathers only covered parts of its body. Drake could not tell if it was because the storm had taken them off or it was shedding the feathers. It had a tail with a large cubed end and was stumbling along for its left foremost leg was clearly broken.
Drake now looking at this large beast was quite puzzled what to do with this find. Drake was Hungary. Drake was thirsty. and the thing in front of him was clearly at its weakest. Now the problem was that drake was also week right now, although his constitution had surprised him up to this point he was by no means in prime shape. The other problem being that this phyn was still large, 3 meters long and 2 high. it may be even bigger seeing how is was hunching over its snapped limb.
screw it ....why not Looking back at the storm that was not in the distance Drake drew his knifes. His two blades were a long knife with a serrated edge meant for tearing though flesh, with a tip that was good for stabbing. The second knife he had was a cleaver meant for hacking though bone. When drake was first learning to become a cook he believed the knives were ill suited for the task but he soon learned that with all the phyn that he had to cut up for meals he soon came to believe that anything else and they would never have had any good meals except for ones witch they could boil the meet off of.
Treading as lightly as he could Drake began to run around the beast to get to its blind spot. with almost no sound being made he began to approach his prey, the two blades as the ready to kill the beast. From looking at its anatomy a kill kill was almost impossible, its heart was almost defiantly located in its chest and the serrated knife was not able to find its way in deep enough to find the mark so, the safest way for Drake to secure the kill would be to cripple it with his opening attack. It had wings so a lot of its muscles would be on its back. With its left front leg broken if he could cut enough muscles to make it so it cant use its right it would be easy pickings. "Lets do this!" He yelled as he jumped onto the beast back sinking his cleaver into its flesh.
He unsheathed his knife from its holder on his side and walked up to the belly side of the predator that had tried to eat. âEye for an eye I guessâ he said trying to draw some humor out of the situation, though he was hardly laughing or even smiling for that matter. He plunged his knife into the animalâs gut quite haphazardly, he had never had to do such a thing before even though he had learned how to. He managed to cut some meat out before he backed away in disgust dropping the meat he worked so hard to get out. âOkay, no I really canât do thisâ he said sounding like he was about to throw up. He looked down at the big chunk of flesh now covered in sand and quickly turned away. His hands were now covered in blood, his first reaction was to wipe it on his pants. He slowly brought his hands down towards them but mid motion he had a realization of the fact he was going to wipe blood all over his pants and immediately stopped. He walked back over to the creature and wiped his hands on its hide, taking most of the blood off his hands but leaving some in-between his fingers un-knowingly.
Karyudo thought it may be a better plan to find some water first. He was more thirsty than hungry anyways. The last time he had drunken anything was four days ago when he decided to drink the one water bottle that he had managed to take from the rubble of the now destroyed base. He didnât think much about how he was able to go so long in a desert with no water but he didnât really care as long as he wasnât dying. He thought maybe he was just more amazing than a regular person. Somewhere in the back of his head however, he knew something was abnormal about his situation. âWhere would water even be?â Karyudo said in a confused tone, turning around in circles maybe thinking with enough luck he would be able to see water from his current position. He stopped his turning and subconsciously settled on a direction not facing the sun. He looked off into the distance once again to see if he could see some sign, but with no luck he began to walk.
Xander stumbled over to the pool. He stuck is head into the pool and took a big drink. Falling back in relief Xander took a big breath. He stood up and looked around. It was a clear basin. Only one way in and out as far as Xander could see. Xander put his back to a wall and laid his head back. "Ill wait for someone to come here, then I'll figure this out."
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