#this place is empty

...

Wake Up.

Come on, wake up!

There you are!

Huh? It’s 2:16 in the morning.

Do you know what that means?

Yes! It’s your birthday!

There’s that smile that I love so much.

...Ten years ago I was gifted with that beautiful smile.

But now you’re all grown up.

And you get to start hunting with me.

Are you excited? I can tell that you are!

You know I was supposed to wait until sunrise to give you this but I just can’t wait.

Here...Be careful...And take good of it.  It’s my gift to you

Oh, don’t worry about me, I can defend myself just fine.

Now remember, this sword has been passed down for 8 generations

And it is made from something very special, so be careful using it.

Do you like it?

Oh...Your hugs are the only thing better than your smile. I can see those black eyes twinkling so beautifully like they always do.

...I love you so much

My darling little....

...

My eyes open slowly and painfully. I feel a sensation of thousands of pins the size of pencils stabbing at my body. I wake up holding my sword to my chest and in intense pain. I can barely move my arms. My head is is a shell that has been fractured into irremediable pieces.

In other words, I feel like every bone in my body has been split in half.

I make an attempt to look outside my cave; a challenge since the mouth of the cave has been blocked off by the rocks that now cut off my field of vision Even if I could see outside, it wouldn't matter. I have no clue what time it is, what day it is, or even what years it is. I only knew my own age until I was 10 and that was only because my mother told me. After that, I simply traveled this earth without any concept of time. All I know now is that I was born, I was once young, I’m still a bit young, and that I will keep traveling until death finds me and takes whatever time I had away, and I die.

It’s why I always think death and time go together so well.

I start violently coughing up blood as pain suddenly encompasses lungs and stomach. I feel like vomiting, but there is nothing inside my stomach. The memories of the fight between me and the bulls are brought to the forefront and I remember the reason all of this occurred: food.

I'm so hungry.

I still have the 4 pieces of meat I collected from the infant bull I killed, and I eat one as it is. A tinge of guilt and disgust hit me as I eat the meat raw.

Weren't there two other bulls?

Oh yeah, I crushed them. There they are, on my left. I should at least be a bit agitated that they broke my spine and my arm; be happy at my victory against those who brought me all this intense pain. But I can’t. They were just trying to protect their kid…

I guess I should come up with a new plan.

Alright then, get out of this cave, walk back to my hut, pick up my stuff, and then…

I don’t know.

The first obstacle to my plan: My ribs are still broken. If I had some sort of healing elixir, I could heal instantly. But I have no potions, so it could take months to heal.

Ah, it doesn’t matter. Might as well start climbing.

So much of my strength is needed just to climb up a set of rocks only several meters tall. As soon as I get over I allow myself to just tumble down the other side out of exhaustion. As I hit the ground I fall on my back and the wind gets knocked out of me, which only adds to the pain my broken spine is bringing me. I probably shouldn't have done that.

The day is pleasant enough. Some patches of clouds momentarily block the sun, giving me a few seconds of shade. I simply look up at the sky and relax, my sword in its scabbard next to me. I look over at my hair and realize it’s a complete mess. I use my sword as a mirror and chuckle a bit. I look like a disaster. There are dark rings forming under my eyes and I’m covered in bruises. I look like I haven’t slept in weeks. At least I can still see my obsidian eyes shining profoundly, much like my mother used to tell me. I brush my hair with my hand, wipe some dirt and sand off my face, and wipe sand of my cloak (a bit pointless, as it’s covered in blood from my earlier injury). Looking around I realize that the young bull is gone. Damn scavengers must have taken the whole carcass. Hopefully whatever took it isn't around anymore.

I try getting up, but I can't get up like I did inside the cave. The fall must have injured my spine more. I guess I'm gonna have to crawl for a little bit.

...

Crawling for about an hour now. Quite tedious it is. Hopefully, I'll start walking in an hour, or else I'll have to deal with whatever comes out at night practically crippled. Thankfully I haven't encountered a Pagan...

...

Another hour has passed. I’m starting to walk a bit. Have to use my sword as a cane but still, making progress. Though I can only use one arm since the other one’s broken, so I’m not really going any faster than before.

A couple of clouds are amalgamating a mile or so away from me. If I'm lucky it'll rain a bit and I can get some water. I’ve always liked the rain. It’s so serene and comforting. When it rains I like to stand outside and just let it fall on my face so it can hide my sorrows...I’ve been living in solitude for an extensive amount of time.

Oh, look, birds. They fly so freely...Sometimes I wish I could fly.

...

It looks like two more hours have come and gone. Wait...

What the hell is this? Something buried in the sand.

Oh, it's an old car. It's paint chipped off a long time ago to reveal an ugly rust. The wheels and doors and the engine were taken quite a while ago. Maybe something's inside. Just a cursory look. Looks like some other nomads were here before. The glove compartment hasn't been touched. Odd. They probably weren't very smart noma-

Chips.

OOHHH.

My Mom gave me this once. THEY WERE SO GOOD. They don't sell this for hundreds of miles. I can’t imagine how many people would want this.

I should probably just hold onto it and sell it to someone else. It would be worth a lot of money, and I could use that to buy some equipment. It would be the right thing to do.

Nah, I’m just kidding. I already ate it. It was old and stale and salty, but still good.

Actually, the chips made me realized how little water I’ve had. I’ve been walking around for roughly 4 hours and honestly, I haven’t had anything to drink. The clouds that were forming before haven’t allowed a single drop of water to hit the sand. My lips are becoming chapped and my face feels like the skin is slowly melting right off it. My sensations and emotions have been numb up to this point, but it has now turned into anger. The food gave me momentarily relief, and now I feel frustrated and angry. I’m going to walk this soulless sandtrap for the rest of my life. Mostly because this desert is so large. My mother told me this desert covers the entire continent, and only a quarter of it is habitable and capable of civilization. Everywhere else villages live by the skin of their teeth or there are no villages.  Everywhere else it’s nothing more than beasts, megastorms, and sand. It rains an inch every six months. I remember my mom giving this area a nickname, but I can’t remember.

...

After another 3 hours pass, nightfall arrives, much to my dismay. It was already hard enough to survive the night in my cave,  but now I’m out in the open, where the temperature will fall to -35 degrees celsius. I have to think of something quick. I spot a nearby boulder the size of a house with a hole large enough for me to crawl into, and I crawl in and try to fall asleep. For once the night is surprisingly peaceful. Usually, the cry of eldritch abominations can be heard for miles, but now it is quiet, and the quiet perturbs me more than the horrific cries I usually hear. I want to crawl back out and maybe scout the area really quick, but I’m dehydrated and too tired to bother. In a few minutes I drifting into a deep sleep.

That night, deep into my slumber, I dream a dream more vivid than anything I had had before. It’s impossible to forget. I was still walking the barren desert, yet now the land was perfectly flat. There were no hills or craters, only sand. The air around me felt uncanny and paralyzed. The sky above me was riddled with storm clouds that were covered in red and black blotches. I hear thunder yet see no lightning. Everything felt undeniably off. It was extremely humid and fog had surrounded me. In haste and panic, I run as fast as I can in a random direction, only to be met by giant steel bars that towered over me and touched each end of the horizon, seemingly going on forever. Suddenly the clouds that looked as if they were ready to burst began spilling water down to the ground. At first, it came in heavy rain, but soon it seemed that thousands of gallons of water were being dropped on the earth. I soon realized that the water was reaching my legs, then my chest, then my neck. Before it could begin to drown me the water stopped rising and soon began to drain away to an unknown location. Suddenly I felt intense heat behind me and saw that an enormous fire began rising a few feet away. The fire burned brighter than anything I had ever seen. The fire’s intensity takes me back and I fall to the ground. I see someone coming out of the fire. It was a figure wearing a hoodless cloak much like mine. I could not make out any of the figure’s, he/she was completely shadowed by the fire. I felt like the figure knew who I was. The figure stood behind the fire staring at me for a few seconds as I realized the air was getting heavier and heavier, and the figure began to breathe heavily. He/she begins to slowly rise into the air as the wind begins to blow fiercely and the heaviness begins to weigh down with insane force as the world around me shakes violently and sporadically. I feel like I’m staring at death, or horsemen of the apocalypse, or perhaps, the end itself. Finally, the figure looks directly at me and speaks, a mix of pain and anger in its voice, and with and unmatched coldness.

No one saved me

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Edit: wait almost forgot

part 1 here

part 2 here