Sozin wakes Hi up. "Hey, you ready to go?" Sozin asks. " What? Already ? Alright let me put on my armor and get my gear ready!" Hi tells him as he jumps out of bed. "I´m not sure if you want to put on that black armor. We´re going into Nafud-country into the deserts to hunt!" Sozin tells him. "Desert?" Hi asks putting on some light clothes and a cloak as well as his shortsword and longsword with a large bag of water. "Yes, Desert!" Sozin answers. "Alright lead the way! And don´t forget my breakfast!" Hi tells him. "I got that covered! Let´s go then!" Sozin says grabbing Hi´s shoulder. They teleport to a town in an oasis.
Nafud-country is a big country mostly covered in deserts with big sandy dunes, soft sand and big spires and cliffs. In the deserts not many people live except natives, Hunters and Explorers. The natives are mostly beastmen and humans acclimated to the conditions. Almost all of the inhabitants live in the jungle region further south that is full with plantlife and very good for growing fruit and other plants. The majority of the population are beastmen humanlike beasts, half-beast half-human beastmen and humans. This one of the few countries where beastmen can live a good live whitout prejudice and limited options and rights. Due to this factor the holy kingdom of live fought with it for centuries until they settled for friendly relations in the form of trade with the help of the independent trading city Zilad. It served as a gateway for trade. Hi and Sozin arrive and immedeatly feel the warmth and see sandy ground and palm trees and bushes. "It´s quite warm here!" Hi comments. "This is just inside of an oasis the water and buildings cool down this area. Outside it´s more hot!" Sozin tells him. "I want breakfast before we get out there!" Hi tell him. "Alright let´s buy some fresh fruit to eat!" Sozin tells Hi and leads him further into the town to a the market. "This fruit here!" Sozin tells the vendor pointing at a big green fruit and a red one. He gives him some coins. "Thank you!" he answers and gives him the fruit. Sozin cuts the fruit in half and gives it to Hi. "This is quite the big fruit!" Hi says eating it. "Oh, it´s juicy inside and nice and cold." Hi says afterwards he tries the red fruit. "And this one has more flavor and is quite chewy!" Hi says. "We ate let´s go then!" Sozin tells him leading him out of the town. On the way Hi catches some looks by the natives. A Man as tall and built as beastmen with red hair is quite the eyecatcher.
As they leave the town the heat and sandy wind hits them. "It´s hot out here!" Hi says putting on a hat. Sozin puts on a hood. "Let´s go our target lies back there! See the rocks back there? That is our destination and after those dunes is our other target sand worms, they have been causing trouble as well." Sozin explains to him and gets going. "What are we hunting except sand worms?" Hi asks. "Bandits. There is an outpost of a bandit gang that lives there!" Sozin tells him. "Bandits. So are we like bounty hunters?" Hi asks him. "Yeah, like that we are hunters after all be it man, monster or demon we´ll hunt them all!" Sozin tells him. "Now that sounds like a fun time!" Hi tells him. They continue on through the sand the sun up high shining down on them. The sand flies through the wind and there is an occasional vibration far off. On their way they don´t see any life forms except the occasional desert lizard or mouse. Sometimes even some plants like cacti. They hike up the large dunes and see a change in sand color. Hi sees their destination in the distance and drinks some water and passes it onto Sozin who drinks as well. "You sweating already?" Sozin asks him. "Of course i´m not used to the heat. Our metal equipment absorbs the heat as well it´s a good thing i didn´t come in armor or else i´d have died of heat." Hi tells him. They slowly descend from the dunes into the darker sand. The darker sand is softer and more grainy than the sand on the dunes and is alomst fluid. "This sand is weird and it´s hard to walk!" Hi complains. "Shh! Quiet! Do you feel that?" Sozin asks Hi as they walk furhter. "Yes. The ground is slightly vibrating." Hi tells him. "That´s right. Sand worms are very sensitive to them and to move through the sand their hard hide and massive size create vibrations underground. This sand is very deep and like a large sea. Luckily for the people that live here the sandworms can only live in that sand." Sozin explains. The vibrations get stronger they are close. "It feels as if there´s two of them coming at us!" Hi tells Sozin. "Yes i know." Sozin tells him. The sand worms jump out the sand with their mouths open. They dodge it easily. Sozin unleashes his fiery aura and melts the sand into glass and creates solid ground. "I see ya!" Hi says grabbing some sand and tossing it up and melting it into glass creating glass spears. "Quick thinking!" Sozin tells him. The sandworms fall onto the spiky class ground and get impaled. Hi quickly charges in and slits the sand worms hide open and let´s them bleed out. "That was easy!" Hi says. "They weren´t prepared for that!" Sozin says and burns the sandworms into dust leaving only their teeth and hide. "Let´s pack that up!" he says putting it into his bag. "Let´s go further on!" Hi says drinking water. "It isn´t far now!" Sozin says turning the sand ahead into glass with his fire to create a path. "We can go now and faster too!" Sozin says running ahead Hi follows him right away. Having saved some time they arrive at the rocks with the bandits hideout.
They climb up the rocks and scout the area. They see the camp on top in a big cave. "It´s back there!" Hi points out. "I think they have seen us already!" Sozin says pointing at the bandits drawing their bows and shooting at them. The bandits are dressed in light black clothes a mask and a hood covering their faces. Hi and Sozin charge in dodging the arrows on the way. Surprised the bandits throw away their bows and draw scimitars with strong curves. They engage in close combat. Hi and Sozin split up not to get in each other´s way and unsheathe their longswords. Hi keeps the bandits at a distance by using both edges to his advantage waving his sword around and asserting a defensive stance. The bandits keep their distance and wait for a opening pressuring him with numbers and some light attacks which Hi parries. One jumps in quickly from behind him and attacks him. He cuts Hi´s hat. "They´re sure fast and they look experienced" Hi thinks to himself. Others join in attacking quickly one after another. Hi parries and dodges their aggresive attacks. "I need a plan i can´t keep my defense up for long" he thinks to himself. He jumps over them onto a rock on a higher area. They follow quickly running up the wall. "You fell for it!" Hi tells them smashing his sword into the rock and forcing it to crack and fall down with his explosive fire. They are caught under the rubble. Sozin beats each bandit one after the other whitout much trouble he can focus on one whitout having to worry about the others, because of his superior speed. "Let´s go further in!" Sozin tells Hi running ahead into the cave. They are ambushed by more bandits and on a pillar there is a wolf-beastman with a big sword. He jumps down as they fight. "Uninvited guests i see. Be prepared to be devoured!" he says charging at Sozin with his big sword. Sozin intimidates him with his aura. He quickly turns around to attack Hi who is dealing with the bandits. He swings it at the unsuspecting Hi. But the sword is stopped in it´s tracks by a round shield. "What, who are you!?" he asks surprised. "You should know who i am criminal!" the person with the shield tells him. "Impossible! Could you be the black panther, the legendary bounty hunter!?" he asks. "That´s right! In the flesh. T´chal the black panther at your service!" the person answers. He backs up out of fear. The person is half-man, half-panther. He is slightly smaller than Hi and has black hair up to his shoulders, green eyes with a slit pupil, cat ears, claws and a tail. He´s wearing middle eastern armor decorated with black fur. He also wears black pants and black fur wrapped around his waist. He wields a scimitar and a round shield decorated with gold and ruby. To top it off he wears a headband and a black cape with a panther embroidered on it. "Let me deal with that dog!" he tells Hi. He sees Sozin sitting on top of a pillar observing them. "Guess he doesn´t need my help after all!" T´chal says. He fights with him "Are you compensating for something with that big sword of yours?" T´chall taunts him. "I´m not!" he answers swinging his blade at him and missing. "So you are comensating for something!" T´chall says. T´chal runs up the sword and cuts his head off with a clean strike. "Wanted dead or alive for murder and theft! A crime punished with death!" T´chal says. "Awesome!" Hi says done with his bandits. "Good job you two! You can leave the rest to me! I´ll take them into prison for you!" T´chall says tying them up with rope and drawing a teleportation circle on the ground. He puts them on it and uses a teleportation medal to teleport them away into the main prison in Nafud-country. "That was cool just now you saved my ass back there!" Hi tells him. "Just doing my job! Now that that´s done, care for a drink i´ll pay!" T´chal says. "Let´s do it!" Hi says. "I´m impressed that you dealt with him in such a short time!" Sozin says now next to them. "You smell weird. It feels so familiar but is yet so different!" T´chal says. "He´s dragonkin, probably smells like a lizard to you!" Hi says. "We dragonkin have a similar ancestor but we are not the same as those lizard beastmen!" Sozin explains. "So the legends are true there are dragonkin the last remains of the dragons!" T´chal says impressed. "Let´s go! I know a good place!" T´chal says grabbing their shoulders teleporting them to the capital city of Nafud-country.