I took a deep breath. The night air was cool inside my lungs. It stung just a little. The sting of championship. When Castro won on that night, this was the air he breathed. Now I breathe it for something insignificant. For something that didn't even change the world. It seems almost wrong.
I go to sleep, knowing that whatever creature that lies in the night. My dreams seemed to move with unparalleled speed, they were not entirely mine anymore.
The sun beat down on me as I awoke. The sky above swam with heat, huge streams of 'something' ran around on the clouds. I see everything now, not just the sun and the desert but now I see some sort of energy. It's beautiful and also frightening.
I start to walk, my legs strain at each step but as I go, as I walk more my legs are almost perfect. The muscles work in perfect synchronicity, I walk like a deity. The Man inside of me walks as I do and we walk for days.
Days passed, no longer do I feel thirsty, all that seems to sate me anymore is the energy. Sometimes I feel hungry but yet my body keeps on moving. There are no more storms and no more creatures.
Not a single thing, for days and days and days. The horizon line grows steadier and steadier as I walk. My thoughts turn to what men's thoughts always turn to. Politics. Did it even really matter? All those kings, and queens, emperors and presidents, all of them did not matter. I hate them.
As I crest a dune I see it. Something black, it spirals and spirals into the desert sun. It almost seems like black smoke. Wait, it is black smoke. Black smoke could only mean one thing, civilization. I run. My legs start moving faster. Faster and faster, breaking out into a sprint. I'm close to the end of the dune, if I go one more step, I'll be there.
I see it up ahead. It's small, maybe three houses, four if you count what seemed to be a storage shed. They were made out of sandstone and stood about the size of a very large man. Not a single person lay outside but smoke flew out of one of the chimneys of the buildings. I ran. My feet couldn't go any faster but it seemed like hours before I got there.
I breathe in and out as I stop in front of one of the houses.
"Back off, I don't know why you are here but please, please do not do anything. We don't get many of your kind around here." The voice came from behind me. I turn. A stout man with olive-colored skin stares back at me. His legs shake as I turn to look at him.
"I don't care why. Please just leave, you have already taken enough from poor old Winfrom. Oh, it was back when I was a lad…" All that left his mouth after that was incoherent. Odd too, he was speaking Spanish and yet this was supposed to be another world. Another mystery to investigate. He wasn't carrying anything and his clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in probably centuries.
"I'm not here to harm you, friend, I just need to know where we are. Maybe some food, I hate to impose" Winfrom's shoulders fell at that. I've seen that shoulder drop before, this man thought I would kill him. But why? I'm not dangerous? It's strange to see a man in the middle of the desert but it's not impossible. Something about me must've triggered him.
"I-i-i oh seventh Lord. Bless you. I thought I was a goner. You must be one of the good ones right." I can see him better now. He's broad-shouldered but fat, his muscles are stringy and loose. His fingers are long and thin, like that of a ballerina and they appear odd with the rest of his body.
"So, why are you here. Have you come to laugh at an old cooger as he nears his end. The Dust takes him again. Ay, it's a horrible fate to be me. I must constantly fight the tides of fate and yet you…" Again he descends into inaneness, I lose track of what the conversation was about.
"I don't know sir… I just woke up and well this is all so confusing to me" I've learned that in life, it's sometimes better to act stupid. It's been a while since I've been able to become an idiot, what with all the worldwide fame, revolutionary iconography. At my words, Winfrom smiled. A real grimace, all of his teeth showed.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh… Well, we should get some food in you. How about it bud. Come follow me I'll fix you up something delicious." At that, he got up and dusted himself off. I got up too. He leads me into one of the houses. The door is a little too shallow for me, but I stoop and make it in. The room itself is covered in pots and pans and all sorts of cooking utensils. Winfrom is huddled over something in the back as I walk in.
"If I can ask you, where are we?" Winfrom pauses, his back bends over and he looks at me. All I can see on his face is a violent grimace.
"Well we are in The Dust, aren't we. Where else. But here specifically? The Stormfathers Wastes, it's horrible, but it's home." He says the word Dust in a strange accent. Almost like listening to a small whisper through a pinhole. He says it like he doesn't want me to hear it.
He continues fiddling with whatever is in the back of the room and I sit down on a rock that I assume is a chair, or at least I hope it is, for it surely cannot be a bed. The smell of meats and spices fills the air. Also just a tinge of some other flavor, one that I have never smelled before.
Windfrom turns around and for a second I see the looks of a large fire in the metal box that he was fiddling with, however, it disappears at that. In his hands is a huge plate of what I can only assume is some form of meat. It's speckled and long but I see that it is so juicy that the meat seems half water.
"Grilled Ashbeast, it's my specialty, everyone says that my dishes… pop." At the word pop, he mouths a small explosion. He hands me the plate, it's quite heavy even though it's made out of sand. Should I eat? I don't know if I can stop myself.
"How did you cook this? It's nothing like we have in my own country." Windfrom looks at me again.
"Just have a taste. It's truly life-changing. You'll never be the same." I put the food on my lips. I raise my mouth to bite it. Windfrom's eyes go bigger, he's obvious, idiots just never learn. I throw it to the floor. I rush at him, he doesn't expect it, his eyes go wide. He thought that I wouldn't know? I push him to the ground and get on top of him. He struggles his arms try to reach for my neck, but I am stronger than he. And I know how to fight.
"Do you know how many people I've killed in my life?" My arms are around his neck but I loosen up just to let him speak. The Monster in my mind stirs.
"No." He gives out a sputtering pathetic cough.
"And why should I know that you Vestin. I should've known you were all murderers." I look into his eyes. He looks back at me, I don't think he can kill. But yet the dish? The secrecy? The smell of poison, he must've meant. I knew this look though. When I looked into the eyes of the poor, the destitute, the people of the land. When I saw someone take their food right in front of their eyes. Or steal away their last check. Or take their daughter to be married and they had this look.
I cannot kill this man. They, whoever it is, has taken something from him. He is a victim and I am just another man set to kill him. I let him go.
"I am sorry. I am not used to innocent men trying to kill me." He backs away from me as I talk. He's frightened like a scared goat. I showed him too much, too much blood, too much vengeance. I never would've done that before. Something has changed. I sit down.
"Get-get-get away from me." He shouts it. I look at him, sweat pours down his right cheek. He's breathing hard.
"I won't hurt you, I promise, I just smelled the poison. I'm sorry." He looks confused, nobody has ever spared him before.
"It's alright. I'm sorry for trying to poison you. I think old Winfrom has lost his mind. All this Ash, and the beasts aren't any better. I'd like to make it better to ye, friends?" He stutters through the sentence. He's smiling but it's not a happy smile.
"That's fine. I've been shot at, attacked, and almost killed my entire life. A little poison never hurt anyone. Of course, we shall be friends." I smile at that. Friends, it's always a good word.
"However, I need to know what the hell is going on. And what, in all of time, is going on in this world."