Ceauli leaned forward and asked over the fire, "Mr. Tusk... Where did you come from?"
"Why do you ask?" he asked back, his black cloak wrapped around the nape of his neck as the fire basked against the monster blood coating his face.
She looked at all the flopping limbs behind him, "well, you seem very skilled and you look tough."
He smirked, "I traveled a lot as a kid. I don't have a home. I was in many armies, and many groups but..." He thought about telling her about the Shorebringers but stopped himself, "I was and am just a simple vagrant. A man with no home or Kingdom to fall back to. "
He looked out over the sand. He looked out at the limbs, the death, he looked further back, eyes of red, a new monster, a-
An image of a crawling fetus strung itself across the darkness. It cried out in shrieks of pain as its small floppy hands flung back and forth while dragging itself across the dunes. I turned around to the sounds of more monsters appearing behind the fetus, their eyes red like the ones before, except instead of being possessed humans, they were...
"There's more!" cried out Ceauli as she leaned up against me, her back against mine as the crowd of monsters approached Tusk.
"Why are there so many? Are the Badlands really that dangerous?" I asked Tusk.
Tusk looked at the new wave of monsters as they slowly passed over their fallen comrades, the small fetus taking the charge.
"No... This must be the work of a Monster Gate nearby..."
Ceauli turned to me and explained, "in the Badlands, Monster Gates appear very frequently. The less frequent they are the better the land is and therefore Kingdoms take hold in those grounds. There's a reason why it's called Holyland, cause no monster can step foot on their soil."
"And I'm guessing the Outerland is the border between Holyland and Badlands."
"Yup..."
"I see... So then what do we do? Are we going to fight them wave after wave? The last Monster Gate had like over one hundred Monsters. Are we going to fight or are we going to try to find this Holy-"
Tusk picked up his sword and stood up. He cracked his knuckles, wrists, and neck before readying himself to fight.
"Don't tell me..."
He turned around and looked at us with his red bleeding eyes, "you two stay close to the fire and close to each other. Cover yourselves in your cloaks and try not to move around so much. The less you move the safer you are..."
Tusk stepped out into the darkness as the red-eyed demonic monsters approached.
"Wait Tusk can you... You've been nonstop on the run since Forr. Your also injured, you can't-"
He disappeared. Ceauli then quickly grabbed her cloak and wrapped herself around it. I did the same. She huddled up next to the fire as I did the same. We looked at each other, our shoulders touching, as the monsters followed Tusk into the darkness, screeching and screaming out into an echoed distance.
Ceauli turned to me.
"Hoefen... Who is that man?" she asked as she looked at me right in the eyes, our shoulders still touching.
I looked at the fire, then back at her, and said, "he's... He's a Shorebringer."
Her eyes lit up, before turning back to normal. She looked across the darkness and then back at me.
"I see," she said simply before holding out her hand and placing her cold fingers against the flickering flame. "I thought so... But... You know I don't hate the Shorebringers. I was never affected by their actions or anything like that... It's just... The way people talk about them. It always sends a shiver down my spine."
"How so?" I asked while simultaneously copying her and placing my hands on the warm fire.
"It was mainly Mirda. She would talk about how they were as strong as armies. Able to take out Kingdoms on their own. They say in the Hell War that they took out more than three Kingdoms, gaining them the right of Knighthood in the Seven Kingdom alliance."
"But they lost that title right?"
"Yeah, after Stofentall was destroyed they just disappeared. Their presence fading out with the legends of their good and bad deed circulating across the Kingdoms."
"But..."
I waited for Ceauli to finish but her words just turned to a silent stare.
"Wait that's it?" I asked.
"Yup. But I don't want to talk about the... The, you know... The bad stuff... I think he can explain it."
BOOM!
A loud burst of thunder struck across the skies sending a shock wave toward us. We covered our ears as the wave of sound boomed past us.
I turned to Ceauli and asked, "But do you at least know why Tusk wants to kill Sariel so bad?"
She shook her head no as I turned back to my questions.
"So then I wonder why? This destiny of mine, I wonder why it's all connected to him, to Sariel, to these Shorebringers..."
"And to me..."
She looked at me. I looked at her. I can't. She smiled as I turned away.
She's so cute. Her face is so perfectly symmetrical, those soft brown eyes reflecting the fire. I can't... I can't... I can't fall in love. I...
"Why?" she asked in a soft moan as she dusted off her eyes and drifted away.
"Why?" I repeated back confused.
I looked at her face, her eyes, her look of sadness as she slowly drifted off into sleep. Damn, why does she like me so much? Why does she wanna go on this journey with us so bad? But... But at least she's trying. Compared to how she was last week when we met, she's changed. She's more attractive now, and it's not just her looks, it's her personality too. I'd say...
I stared out straight, my tired eyes blazed by the roaring fire in front of us. Ceuali softly leaned back and placed her head on my shoulder. I looked at her sleeping eyes, her slightly open mouth, and wiggling small nose as she took short burst breaths.
I think I may be-
BOOM!
An explosion of lighting vibrated across the dunes. A wave of sand blasted out into the silent distance as the midnight morning sky parted with the setting moon.
Hours passed as we sat in front of this dwindling fire. I was awake every second, my sharp golden dagger held close to my chest as the monster cries echoed across my head.
Then morning came, with that orange horizon turning the fire to ash.
I looked up as footsteps paced in front of me. I held out my dagger anxiously as a Tusk appeared from a hill. His body covered in blood, his breath a cold chill as he slightly shivered against his thick wet clothes. He sat down in front of the fire as I wiped my crusted black-rimmed eyes.
He pointed at my face, "this is how it will be... Every night, every morning, every waking moment." He pointed to Ceauli, "now look at her face."
I looked at her face, her soundly sleeping face, her cute face.
"It is your job to protect her, and my job to protect you. You understand?" he asked.
"Yes."