"Hey you fucker, watch where you're going", a man spoke sleezily.
He reeked of alcohol and sang as though he had not a care in the world, as if all he knew were pretty daisies and the soft chirping of little birds. Maybe that's all he wish he knew.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?", the man who he had bumped into questioned, aggressively pushing him away. "You wanna fight you drunken bastard?"
"Haha, tough guy huh? I could wipe the floor with-".
A swift knee came to his groin, followed by a gasp of air and spit that escaped from his mouth. Another punch came to his face, his feet fighting to keep himself upright.
However, he did not simply take the punches without retaliation, throwing a punch of his own right back. Though the alcohol seemed to be his downfall, as he had aimed in a completely different direction.
Confused, the man hesitated for a second, but in the end had been the one to end the fight. Charging, he pushed the drunken man to the ground, punching him incessantly, one hook after the next. Soon his once unbruised face, was covered in nicks and blemishes.
- - - - -
The drunken man, now sober and suffering a nasty hangover, climbed to his feet.
Barely walking straight, he used bricks on the walls and wooden crates to support himself.
Somehow carrying himself far enough, he reached the doors of a tavern.
Its wooden doors creaked open as he entered.
He sat across a bartender at the bar, watching him wipe a glass clean.
"A beer".
One large glass of beer was set in front of him. He drank, gulping it down as some escaped his lips and wet his overgrown and scruffy beard.
"I'll take the Gigant Sandworms subjugation quest".
"Alright, and will that be all, Hunter?".
"Yeah..".
The man walked along the roads of Gevenar, sand and dust clouding the air as he walked.
Although he looked like a random beggar found in every corner of this wretched place, he hadn't let himself fall too far.
While he had almost lost his purpose, he still desired to be alive, something absent in their minds.
"Fuck this rotten sun".
He was already feeling thirsty from walking this far from the city.
He gazed upon long stretches of sand dunes that ran far into the distance. The sands were multicoloured, mainly showing off blues and purples that subtlety glowed like fluorescent lights.
*SCREEEECH*
"I better get this done before nightfall… Come at me you fucking long ass noodles".
A gigantic worm with dozens of teeth lining it's mouth, emerged from the sand. A testament to the Gigant in its name. The man stood tall, his ragged cloak fluttering in the wind as the creature dived down towards him.
With a swift side step, he pulled out his sword, leaving it hanging in the air— waiting. The Sandworm was already committed to its dive, unable to pull back or change direction.
His sword cut through the creature's skin, black blood flying as the worms body fell deeper and deeper into the sand.
"This is why I hate these fucking things".
The Sandworm was travelling beneath the sand, waiting to emerge from its dry, grainy cage.
"There we are, come to daddy".
The man widened his stance, awaiting the monster's next move.
It was right beneath him.
Finally out in the open, the Sandworm swallowed the man whole. At least it wished to have done that.
Rather the man was standing on top of its mouth, his legs positioned wide enough to stand on its 'supposed' lips.
"Open wide~".
The man lit a flame on the thread of a small circular object. Dropping it down into its mouth.
*BOOM*
Though still quite stupid, seeing as he was still on the worm, 3 metres in the air, "I should've thought this throughhhh".
He fell down onto one of the dunes, rolling even further till he reached the bottom.
"Ahahahah, get fucked you son of bitch! Those bombs were a good purchase. Only 9 more to go".
With each kill, his prowess at using explosives grew, now making quick work of each worm he came across.
It didn't take much longer for him to kill them all.
Returning to the tavern, he lay out a bag of 10 Sandworm cores as proof of completion before he found himself drowning in booze for the rest of that night.
"Ford, you know I told you to cut down on the beer…".
…
A man in his late twenties looked down to the pitiful existence that was Ford len Twoir. He was but a husk of the man he once was. Merely getting by off of what was left to him by Scott; a sack of silver coins and a red locket.
"Sam… come have a drink with me".
"I don't need a drink, and what you need is some sleep, sigh, since when did I have to start acting like an adult", he remembered the face of someone who's face had by now blurred. Only leaving the memories of his voice and name, Ben Gordam.
"Come on, here we go.. huup", he lifted Ford, dragging his feet across the floor and up the inn stairs. "You really should cut down on the beer before I break my back one of these days".
Laying him down in his room, Sam looked at the scruffy appearance of a boy who had given up.
Though, it's not like he had lost his way from the moment Scott had left him…
"When did it get this bad Ford? Perhaps it was from that time".
He lifted his hand to one of his eyes, feeling the touch of black cloth that covered it, as well as scars that ran down from behind, across his face.
7 months after Scott left…
"Sam, come on, you're gonna get left behind at this rate".
"Slow down, where did you get that much energy? I'm not even an old man yet and I can't keep up".
"This is your fault for agreeing to Scott to look after me", I slowed down my pace to match Sam's.
"You're right, I was wrong, I'm going back. Also, I don't think this is what Scott had in mind when he told me to watch over you".
"Ohh, don't be like that. We're almost there at the summit. It won't be much longer till we get there, we just need to keep walking and walking…".
"Come on, let me rest for just a little bit, we've been walking for hours, you need some rest too".
"Come on, just keep walking, it's only a little further".
I didn't want to stop walking, or maybe it was just that I couldn't stop waking. If I let go for too long I might just fall apart. I just need to keep up the progress, I need to keep pushing myself.
"If you're lying to me, I'm throwing you down the mountain", Sam moaned, but I simply smiled back.
Here we are, they were greeted by trees as tall as the sky and as wide a city houses. With flowers that decorated the grassy floor, and flowery vines that tangled themselves around tree after tree. You could describe this place in one word, "Paradise".
"It's beautiful…"
"Isn't it?".
"But the city we're headed to is still quite far, so if we want to make it by nightfall, we'd better hurry".
"What, we're still not there yet?".
"No…".
"That's it, prepare to get thrown".
"Wait no, stop, get away from me", the two laughed and talked a bit before heading off to sleep.
It wasn't till Ford was on the floor did he realise how much his feet ached. Though the pain helped in a way.