ACT II - The unexplored lands
Titian collapsed onto the bed. Every muscle in his body protested. The whole day had been spent training, from sunrise to sunset all the members of the guild did is train. Most were paired up into groups of three to five, though the more experienced ones were able to work alone. Some had entered before the guild was established as what it was today, and had just grown up used to working alone, others had lost their comrades in some battle or against some monster, or an ambush in unknown territory.The day usually started out with a ten-mile run, followed by a light, but protein rich breakfast. Then it was sparring, then sword work, then another run before lunch. The afternoon was obstacle course, team building such as watching others fight, so you could determine their strengths and weaknesses so you know how they could help you or you could help them in situations you were both in danger. Before dinner they would work on their core strength then after a large feast for a dinner, they would spend two hours reading books about various monsters, learning their weaknesses, their numbers, everything that could help out if they were called to face one or more of them.Migual, Titian’s closest friend and the first partner in combat he had found, was already laying on his bed breathing slowly. Titian pulled out his drawings and studied them. The world was bigger than he had been led to believe. He had always known the land he had been born into, the land where the guild was, where all human kind were living. It was the largest part of the world, taking up almost half of the map, though this too was divided a little. While humans lived in and thrived in an inner quarter of the grassland part of the continent, the other three quarters, which were a past what was deemed as the past the edge of the world was where he had learned another race of beings, known as the elves, lived. He had never seen any elf, though he had learned that they were secret and enjoyed hiding away in their thick forests.To the south of the map Grasslands, which extended out was the desert land. It was a place of dread, heat, and death. Only the most hardened people lived in the desert, there was little water, and the climate was unforgiving. Extremely hot days that could play tricks and kill a person in hours during the day, followed by temperatures that plummeted down to almost freezing during the night.The final part of the mainland came from the north of west of the grasslands. It was known as the crystal land. While the idea of treasure and riches was enticing, Titian had been warned not to go there unless it was absolutely necessary, it was the worst part of the continent, it was beautiful and shone with all the colours of the rainbow and a whole lot more, but it was also defended by monsters that had no mercy or time for mortal beings.The small island was so far mostly undiscovered. The guild master, Heiland, had called it Iceland. An island in the far north, where it was always full of snow and ice, and monsters that were at constant war with the monsters in the Crystal lands. Few had seen these monsters and lived to tell the tale, they just mysteriously ended up dead floating in the middle of the ocean, or dragged from the depths by fishermen, half eaten by fish.The next morning, Titian and Migual were ordered to get to the guild masters’ office. There was an emergency and he wanted to give them the details. When they arrived there, Sofia, one of the female members was already sat in the hard plastic seat outside the door. She glared at them as they approached for a moment then looked away. Titian had no idea what was wrong with Sofia, she had been incredibly hard on Migual, himself, and the other new recruits since they had joined the guild. The story was she had lost her mother to a monster, then her brother and father to guild missions. She had joined to find out what had happened, only to then realize she could not leave the guild, once in the guild, you were a member until you died, and she hated the guild, blaming them for the deaths of her family.Sofia was not all bad though. She was intelligent, witty and despite her default glares and sarcastic attitude, she occasionally had a sense of humour, if only for her one friend, Jessica, who usually never left her side, but seemed to not be at this meeting. Sofia brushed a lock of her cherry hair behind her ear, her icy blue eyes reflected the light of the gas lamps, almost appearing as though the iris’ had vanished, leaving just the whites of her eyes. She wore her usual kneel her boots, and leather one piece which seemed to show all the curves of her body, perfectly though she threatened to kill any man who tried to look at her.The door opened and the guild master stood at the door, eyes roaming over all three of the students beneath him, and nodded, with a sigh. His beard seemed to be tangled and his balding head was scarred from his past fights with various monsters, some human, though who said all monsters were not human? Titian had found some humans could be more monstrous than what they called monsters.“Enter” the guild master croaked, his deep voice always sounded as though he were going to lose it any moment.Titian and Migual started walking toward the door, but Sofia stood up and cut right in front of them, causing them to stop, almost tripping over her and each other.“Guild master” Sofia said as she stormed into the office, followed by the irritated men behind her now, “why do you pair me with these? I’m sure I can deal with whatever it is by myself, or they can take care of it together. There hasn’t been a real danger for years.”“Everyone must work in pairs of three to five” the guild master pointed at the rule board, which was too small for any of them to actually read from where they stood in a line in front of the desk. “Plus, these are fresh bloods, this will be their first mission since they swore their oath, four months ago, they need somebody experienced to guide them. And you are the last of your family, I would never forgive myself for sending you out alone and losing another light in the guild.”The journey was long and boring. The two men chatted and joked occasionally to Sofia’s annoyance, though most of the time they travelled in silence. The urgent mission was to go into the desert where it was mostly humans living in small caravan camps, but lately monsters had been raiding their supplies and killing or injuring their citizens. These were a tougher species of human though. They were not as helpless as those at home, they were born and lived in a landscape that could potentially kill them on a daily basis, then there were the monsters that hid behind dunes, or in storms and for now, the guild master had said he had held off because they were killing or fending off the monsters for the past several months alone.It was in the evening, around a campfire in the middle of a boring repetitive landscape when the first incident happened. A large cloud of dust blew toward their makeshift camp. Migual was the first to notice and stood up pointing. Sofia recognising the danger drew her scarf around her face, Titian though dived into the tent and shut it. Although instinctive, it was an act he would soon regret. A claw tore through the fabric of the tent on one side, then one the other. Titian screamed and froze again. Suddenly a shadow loomed over the tent, it looked about twenty foot tall, before it screeched and it’s held fell onto the tent, bouncing off again and there was a light thud a few feet away. Titian scrambled out of the tent and looked around.Migual and Sofia were standing back-to-back fighting off giant creatures. Raised up on two hind legs and two other sets of arms coming out of its body, each tipped with large claws and the hairs razor sharp and incredibly sensitive to the environment around them. Large pincer like jaws extruding from the angular head.Scavengers. Scavengers were attacking them.This was enough to get Titian to react, his training kicking in as he avoided a claw coming down on his head with a roll before unsheathing his sword as he stood up, slicing the arm off from just above the claw. The creature screeched and lunged, pincers wide and shut, but Titian was too fast again, he spun and brought his sword down and the creatures head rolled off to one side.There were too many for the group though and it was getting darker. Scavengers were better at ambushing prey. They spent most of the day buried in the sand, in large groups that waited for prey to stumble on the softer sand and fall into their jaws. At night though, is when they had their main strength, they had amazing night vision and twinned with the hairs on their arms, could pinpoint movement up to a mile away.“We are doomed” Migual shouted, stumbling away from the jaws of another scavenger, and almost getting impaled by the slice by the claw of another.“Don’t give up yet, take as many down as you can” Sofia demanded, “We are here to do a job, we either go back with all of them dead, or we die taking out as many as we can.”“I don’t think you’re sane” Migual shouted stabbing one in the torso, before looking over his shoulder at her.Suddenly the scavengers scrambled, many falling dead with arrows protruding from their bodies, a couple of them twitching or their pincers opening and closing as though in a silent prayer or beg for help.In the distance another wall of sand was moving toward them. This time it was accompanied by a sound like thunder that echoed across the sand. The trio sighed, exhausted, still fighting the monsters still swiping at them as they ran from whatever was approaching them now.“What now?” Migual complained.“I don’t know but I don’t like these running away from it, it must be bad” Titian said, already feeling defeated. His arms were aching, his legs felt heavy, and the cold air was causing the sweat running down his brow to feel like ice.Suddenly the wall of sand dissipated and, in its wake, just feet away but still incredibly hard to see, despite the torches of fire many held was a group of people, light coloured scarves and hoods, covered in dark, thick leather armour that some had holes or scratches on it.They were sat in the caravan; they were given camels to ride and led back by this unique group of people. They hard darker skins than those at the main cities in the field lands, they were also a little larger, and more organised.“Thank you for coming out” the leader of the group of settlers said, offering them a plate of food. “It has been so long; we thought the guild was disbanded or had forgotten about us” he pointed to a small group of people around another fire. “These are the last of the warriors we have, that can defend us.”There were no more than eight or nine in the group. They looked upset, sitting quietly, one was sharpening his sword, a couple more were working on making arrows and restringing their bows.“I have to say though, after all this time, I had expected the guild to send in more warriors than you, did you have a lot of trouble?” The leader asked, thoughtfully.“No, we were deemed enough, and you should be grateful we are here” Sofia snapped, “the guild does not forget anyone, nor does it send more than necessary judging from the situation they are given. Now why are there more scavengers than in your report?”The four of them spoke for hours, the leader of the group apologized and said the monster problem was increasing, it was not just the Scavengers though, there were other monsters, beasts they had not seen before. Terrors that existed only in the legends of their ancestors and were supposed to be no more than bedtime stories for their children.By the time they woke up the next day, they were rested, well fed, and washed. Sand burned Titians’ feet as he stepped barefoot from the tent, causing Sofia to laugh. Of course, she was awake first, she was sitting with the leader, pointing to points on a piece of parchment, laid on the floor between them, probably a map.“First time here?” She called teasingly, “go put your boots up and arm up, we are heading out before the sun gets too high in the sky.”“Okay” Titian called and turned to go back into the tent.Titian felt his face burn up and not because of the heat of the tent with the morning sign shining through. He had never really heard his female companion laugh or smile, or even heard her joke with a male before. It was one of the most beautiful sounds he had heard in a long time, it reminded him of his late wife who had died a few years ago during the plague that had devoured the land. She was the one who had gifted him with this need to be kind, and thoughtful. She had made him a better man, and as much as he hated her for it since the time he froze in the field, he loved her for it too, because now he was on the path of becoming the man, he always dreamed of becoming.“And wake that lazy idiot of a friend you keep” she called after, normal sarcastic, snappy tone back to normal.“Sofia said – “Titian started“I heard” Migual grumbled, pulling the sheets off, “one day someone is going to pull that stick from her butt and hit her round the head with it.”Suddenly there were screams. Men and women were rushing around outside the tent, Migual already dressed and armed ran out and joined the heard of people. Titian wanting to protect his friend, and hopefully head home soon, followed. But as soon as he left the tent, something heavy struck his head, he paused momentarily, knowing he should be moving, but his legs would not obey. Then everything went black.
Titian collapsed onto the bed. Every muscle in his body protested. The whole day had been spent training, from sunrise to sunset all the members of the guild did is train. Most were paired up into groups of three to five, though the more experienced ones were able to work alone. Some had entered before the guild was established as what it was today, and had just grown up used to working alone, others had lost their comrades in some battle or against some monster, or an ambush in unknown territory.The day usually started out with a ten-mile run, followed by a light, but protein rich breakfast. Then it was sparring, then sword work, then another run before lunch. The afternoon was obstacle course, team building such as watching others fight, so you could determine their strengths and weaknesses so you know how they could help you or you could help them in situations you were both in danger. Before dinner they would work on their core strength then after a large feast for a dinner, they would spend two hours reading books about various monsters, learning their weaknesses, their numbers, everything that could help out if they were called to face one or more of them.Migual, Titian’s closest friend and the first partner in combat he had found, was already laying on his bed breathing slowly. Titian pulled out his drawings and studied them. The world was bigger than he had been led to believe. He had always known the land he had been born into, the land where the guild was, where all human kind were living. It was the largest part of the world, taking up almost half of the map, though this too was divided a little. While humans lived in and thrived in an inner quarter of the grassland part of the continent, the other three quarters, which were a past what was deemed as the past the edge of the world was where he had learned another race of beings, known as the elves, lived. He had never seen any elf, though he had learned that they were secret and enjoyed hiding away in their thick forests.To the south of the map Grasslands, which extended out was the desert land. It was a place of dread, heat, and death. Only the most hardened people lived in the desert, there was little water, and the climate was unforgiving. Extremely hot days that could play tricks and kill a person in hours during the day, followed by temperatures that plummeted down to almost freezing during the night.The final part of the mainland came from the north of west of the grasslands. It was known as the crystal land. While the idea of treasure and riches was enticing, Titian had been warned not to go there unless it was absolutely necessary, it was the worst part of the continent, it was beautiful and shone with all the colours of the rainbow and a whole lot more, but it was also defended by monsters that had no mercy or time for mortal beings.The small island was so far mostly undiscovered. The guild master, Heiland, had called it Iceland. An island in the far north, where it was always full of snow and ice, and monsters that were at constant war with the monsters in the Crystal lands. Few had seen these monsters and lived to tell the tale, they just mysteriously ended up dead floating in the middle of the ocean, or dragged from the depths by fishermen, half eaten by fish.The next morning, Titian and Migual were ordered to get to the guild masters’ office. There was an emergency and he wanted to give them the details. When they arrived there, Sofia, one of the female members was already sat in the hard plastic seat outside the door. She glared at them as they approached for a moment then looked away. Titian had no idea what was wrong with Sofia, she had been incredibly hard on Migual, himself, and the other new recruits since they had joined the guild. The story was she had lost her mother to a monster, then her brother and father to guild missions. She had joined to find out what had happened, only to then realize she could not leave the guild, once in the guild, you were a member until you died, and she hated the guild, blaming them for the deaths of her family.Sofia was not all bad though. She was intelligent, witty and despite her default glares and sarcastic attitude, she occasionally had a sense of humour, if only for her one friend, Jessica, who usually never left her side, but seemed to not be at this meeting. Sofia brushed a lock of her cherry hair behind her ear, her icy blue eyes reflected the light of the gas lamps, almost appearing as though the iris’ had vanished, leaving just the whites of her eyes. She wore her usual kneel her boots, and leather one piece which seemed to show all the curves of her body, perfectly though she threatened to kill any man who tried to look at her.The door opened and the guild master stood at the door, eyes roaming over all three of the students beneath him, and nodded, with a sigh. His beard seemed to be tangled and his balding head was scarred from his past fights with various monsters, some human, though who said all monsters were not human? Titian had found some humans could be more monstrous than what they called monsters.“Enter” the guild master croaked, his deep voice always sounded as though he were going to lose it any moment.Titian and Migual started walking toward the door, but Sofia stood up and cut right in front of them, causing them to stop, almost tripping over her and each other.“Guild master” Sofia said as she stormed into the office, followed by the irritated men behind her now, “why do you pair me with these? I’m sure I can deal with whatever it is by myself, or they can take care of it together. There hasn’t been a real danger for years.”“Everyone must work in pairs of three to five” the guild master pointed at the rule board, which was too small for any of them to actually read from where they stood in a line in front of the desk. “Plus, these are fresh bloods, this will be their first mission since they swore their oath, four months ago, they need somebody experienced to guide them. And you are the last of your family, I would never forgive myself for sending you out alone and losing another light in the guild.”The journey was long and boring. The two men chatted and joked occasionally to Sofia’s annoyance, though most of the time they travelled in silence. The urgent mission was to go into the desert where it was mostly humans living in small caravan camps, but lately monsters had been raiding their supplies and killing or injuring their citizens. These were a tougher species of human though. They were not as helpless as those at home, they were born and lived in a landscape that could potentially kill them on a daily basis, then there were the monsters that hid behind dunes, or in storms and for now, the guild master had said he had held off because they were killing or fending off the monsters for the past several months alone.It was in the evening, around a campfire in the middle of a boring repetitive landscape when the first incident happened. A large cloud of dust blew toward their makeshift camp. Migual was the first to notice and stood up pointing. Sofia recognising the danger drew her scarf around her face, Titian though dived into the tent and shut it. Although instinctive, it was an act he would soon regret. A claw tore through the fabric of the tent on one side, then one the other. Titian screamed and froze again. Suddenly a shadow loomed over the tent, it looked about twenty foot tall, before it screeched and it’s held fell onto the tent, bouncing off again and there was a light thud a few feet away. Titian scrambled out of the tent and looked around.Migual and Sofia were standing back-to-back fighting off giant creatures. Raised up on two hind legs and two other sets of arms coming out of its body, each tipped with large claws and the hairs razor sharp and incredibly sensitive to the environment around them. Large pincer like jaws extruding from the angular head.Scavengers. Scavengers were attacking them.This was enough to get Titian to react, his training kicking in as he avoided a claw coming down on his head with a roll before unsheathing his sword as he stood up, slicing the arm off from just above the claw. The creature screeched and lunged, pincers wide and shut, but Titian was too fast again, he spun and brought his sword down and the creatures head rolled off to one side.There were too many for the group though and it was getting darker. Scavengers were better at ambushing prey. They spent most of the day buried in the sand, in large groups that waited for prey to stumble on the softer sand and fall into their jaws. At night though, is when they had their main strength, they had amazing night vision and twinned with the hairs on their arms, could pinpoint movement up to a mile away.“We are doomed” Migual shouted, stumbling away from the jaws of another scavenger, and almost getting impaled by the slice by the claw of another.“Don’t give up yet, take as many down as you can” Sofia demanded, “We are here to do a job, we either go back with all of them dead, or we die taking out as many as we can.”“I don’t think you’re sane” Migual shouted stabbing one in the torso, before looking over his shoulder at her.Suddenly the scavengers scrambled, many falling dead with arrows protruding from their bodies, a couple of them twitching or their pincers opening and closing as though in a silent prayer or beg for help.In the distance another wall of sand was moving toward them. This time it was accompanied by a sound like thunder that echoed across the sand. The trio sighed, exhausted, still fighting the monsters still swiping at them as they ran from whatever was approaching them now.“What now?” Migual complained.“I don’t know but I don’t like these running away from it, it must be bad” Titian said, already feeling defeated. His arms were aching, his legs felt heavy, and the cold air was causing the sweat running down his brow to feel like ice.Suddenly the wall of sand dissipated and, in its wake, just feet away but still incredibly hard to see, despite the torches of fire many held was a group of people, light coloured scarves and hoods, covered in dark, thick leather armour that some had holes or scratches on it.They were sat in the caravan; they were given camels to ride and led back by this unique group of people. They hard darker skins than those at the main cities in the field lands, they were also a little larger, and more organised.“Thank you for coming out” the leader of the group of settlers said, offering them a plate of food. “It has been so long; we thought the guild was disbanded or had forgotten about us” he pointed to a small group of people around another fire. “These are the last of the warriors we have, that can defend us.”There were no more than eight or nine in the group. They looked upset, sitting quietly, one was sharpening his sword, a couple more were working on making arrows and restringing their bows.“I have to say though, after all this time, I had expected the guild to send in more warriors than you, did you have a lot of trouble?” The leader asked, thoughtfully.“No, we were deemed enough, and you should be grateful we are here” Sofia snapped, “the guild does not forget anyone, nor does it send more than necessary judging from the situation they are given. Now why are there more scavengers than in your report?”The four of them spoke for hours, the leader of the group apologized and said the monster problem was increasing, it was not just the Scavengers though, there were other monsters, beasts they had not seen before. Terrors that existed only in the legends of their ancestors and were supposed to be no more than bedtime stories for their children.By the time they woke up the next day, they were rested, well fed, and washed. Sand burned Titians’ feet as he stepped barefoot from the tent, causing Sofia to laugh. Of course, she was awake first, she was sitting with the leader, pointing to points on a piece of parchment, laid on the floor between them, probably a map.“First time here?” She called teasingly, “go put your boots up and arm up, we are heading out before the sun gets too high in the sky.”“Okay” Titian called and turned to go back into the tent.Titian felt his face burn up and not because of the heat of the tent with the morning sign shining through. He had never really heard his female companion laugh or smile, or even heard her joke with a male before. It was one of the most beautiful sounds he had heard in a long time, it reminded him of his late wife who had died a few years ago during the plague that had devoured the land. She was the one who had gifted him with this need to be kind, and thoughtful. She had made him a better man, and as much as he hated her for it since the time he froze in the field, he loved her for it too, because now he was on the path of becoming the man, he always dreamed of becoming.“And wake that lazy idiot of a friend you keep” she called after, normal sarcastic, snappy tone back to normal.“Sofia said – “Titian started“I heard” Migual grumbled, pulling the sheets off, “one day someone is going to pull that stick from her butt and hit her round the head with it.”Suddenly there were screams. Men and women were rushing around outside the tent, Migual already dressed and armed ran out and joined the heard of people. Titian wanting to protect his friend, and hopefully head home soon, followed. But as soon as he left the tent, something heavy struck his head, he paused momentarily, knowing he should be moving, but his legs would not obey. Then everything went black.
ACT II
The unexplored
lands
Titian collapsed onto the bed. Every muscle in his body protested. The whole day had been spent training, from sunrise to sunset all the members of the guild did is train. Most were paired up into groups of three to five, though the more experienced ones were able to work alone. Some had entered before the guild was established as what it was today, and had just grown up used to working alone, others had lost their comrades in some battle or against some monster, or an ambush in unknown territory.The day usually started out with a ten-mile run, followed by a light, but protein rich breakfast. Then it was sparring, then sword work, then another run before lunch. The afternoon was obstacle course, team building such as watching others fight, so you could determine their strengths and weaknesses so you know how they could help you or you could help them in situations you were both in danger. Before dinner they would work on their core strength then after a large feast for a dinner, they would spend two hours reading books about various monsters, learning their weaknesses, their numbers, everything that could help out if they were called to face one or more of them.Migual, Titian’s closest friend and the first partner in combat he had found, was already laying on his bed breathing slowly. Titian pulled out his drawings and studied them. The world was bigger than he had been led to believe. He had always known the land he had been born into, the land where the guild was, where all human kind were living. It was the largest part of the world, taking up almost half of the map, though this too was divided a little. While humans lived in and thrived in an inner quarter of the grassland part of the continent, the other three quarters, which were a past what was deemed as the past the edge of the world was where he had learned another race of beings, known as the elves, lived. He had never seen any elf, though he had learned that they were secret and enjoyed hiding away in their thick forests.To the south of the map Grasslands, which extended out was the desert land. It was a place of dread, heat, and death. Only the most hardened people lived in the desert, there was little water, and the climate was unforgiving. Extremely hot days that could play tricks and kill a person in hours during the day, followed by temperatures that plummeted down to almost freezing during the night.The final part of the mainland came from the north of west of the grasslands. It was known as the crystal land. While the idea of treasure and riches was enticing, Titian had been warned not to go there unless it was absolutely necessary, it was the worst part of the continent, it was beautiful and shone with all the colours of the rainbow and a whole lot more, but it was also defended by monsters that had no mercy or time for mortal beings.The small island was so far mostly undiscovered. The guild master, Heiland, had called it Iceland. An island in the far north, where it was always full of snow and ice, and monsters that were at constant war with the monsters in the Crystal lands. Few had seen these monsters and lived to tell the tale, they just mysteriously ended up dead floating in the middle of the ocean, or dragged from the depths by fishermen, half eaten by fish.The next morning, Titian and Migual were ordered to get to the guild masters’ office. There was an emergency and he wanted to give them the details. When they arrived there, Sofia, one of the female members was already sat in the hard plastic seat outside the door. She glared at them as they approached for a moment then looked away. Titian had no idea what was wrong with Sofia, she had been incredibly hard on Migual, himself, and the other new recruits since they had joined the guild. The story was she had lost her mother to a monster, then her brother and father to guild missions. She had joined to find out what had happened, only to then realize she could not leave the guild, once in the guild, you were a member until you died, and she hated the guild, blaming them for the deaths of her family.Sofia was not all bad though. She was intelligent, witty and despite her default glares and sarcastic attitude, she occasionally had a sense of humour, if only for her one friend, Jessica, who usually never left her side, but seemed to not be at this meeting. Sofia brushed a lock of her cherry hair behind her ear, her icy blue eyes reflected the light of the gas lamps, almost appearing as though the iris’ had vanished, leaving just the whites of her eyes. She wore her usual kneel her boots, and leather one piece which seemed to show all the curves of her body, perfectly though she threatened to kill any man who tried to look at her.The door opened and the guild master stood at the door, eyes roaming over all three of the students beneath him, and nodded, with a sigh. His beard seemed to be tangled and his balding head was scarred from his past fights with various monsters, some human, though who said all monsters were not human? Titian had found some humans could be more monstrous than what they called monsters.“Enter” the guild master croaked, his deep voice always sounded as though he were going to lose it any moment.Titian and Migual started walking toward the door, but Sofia stood up and cut right in front of them, causing them to stop, almost tripping over her and each other.“Guild master” Sofia said as she stormed into the office, followed by the irritated men behind her now, “why do you pair me with these? I’m sure I can deal with whatever it is by myself, or they can take care of it together. There hasn’t been a real danger for years.”“Everyone must work in pairs of three to five” the guild master pointed at the rule board, which was too small for any of them to actually read from where they stood in a line in front of the desk. “Plus, these are fresh bloods, this will be their first mission since they swore their oath, four months ago, they need somebody experienced to guide them. And you are the last of your family, I would never forgive myself for sending you out alone and losing another light in the guild.”The journey was long and boring. The two men chatted and joked occasionally to Sofia’s annoyance, though most of the time they travelled in silence. The urgent mission was to go into the desert where it was mostly humans living in small caravan camps, but lately monsters had been raiding their supplies and killing or injuring their citizens. These were a tougher species of human though. They were not as helpless as those at home, they were born and lived in a landscape that could potentially kill them on a daily basis, then there were the monsters that hid behind dunes, or in storms and for now, the guild master had said he had held off because they were killing or fending off the monsters for the past several months alone.It was in the evening, around a campfire in the middle of a boring repetitive landscape when the first incident happened. A large cloud of dust blew toward their makeshift camp. Migual was the first to notice and stood up pointing. Sofia recognising the danger drew her scarf around her face, Titian though dived into the tent and shut it. Although instinctive, it was an act he would soon regret. A claw tore through the fabric of the tent on one side, then one the other. Titian screamed and froze again. Suddenly a shadow loomed over the tent, it looked about twenty foot tall, before it screeched and it’s held fell onto the tent, bouncing off again and there was a light thud a few feet away. Titian scrambled out of the tent and looked around.Migual and Sofia were standing back-to-back fighting off giant creatures. Raised up on two hind legs and two other sets of arms coming out of its body, each tipped with large claws and the hairs razor sharp and incredibly sensitive to the environment around them. Large pincer like jaws extruding from the angular head.Scavengers. Scavengers were attacking them.This was enough to get Titian to react, his training kicking in as he avoided a claw coming down on his head with a roll before unsheathing his sword as he stood up, slicing the arm off from just above the claw. The creature screeched and lunged, pincers wide and shut, but Titian was too fast again, he spun and brought his sword down and the creatures head rolled off to one side.There were too many for the group though and it was getting darker. Scavengers were better at ambushing prey. They spent most of the day buried in the sand, in large groups that waited for prey to stumble on the softer sand and fall into their jaws. At night though, is when they had their main strength, they had amazing night vision and twinned with the hairs on their arms, could pinpoint movement up to a mile away.“We are doomed” Migual shouted, stumbling away from the jaws of another scavenger, and almost getting impaled by the slice by the claw of another.“Don’t give up yet, take as many down as you can” Sofia demanded, “We are here to do a job, we either go back with all of them dead, or we die taking out as many as we can.”“I don’t think you’re sane” Migual shouted stabbing one in the torso, before looking over his shoulder at her.Suddenly the scavengers scrambled, many falling dead with arrows protruding from their bodies, a couple of them twitching or their pincers opening and closing as though in a silent prayer or beg for help.In the distance another wall of sand was moving toward them. This time it was accompanied by a sound like thunder that echoed across the sand. The trio sighed, exhausted, still fighting the monsters still swiping at them as they ran from whatever was approaching them now.“What now?” Migual complained.“I don’t know but I don’t like these running away from it, it must be bad” Titian said, already feeling defeated. His arms were aching, his legs felt heavy, and the cold air was causing the sweat running down his brow to feel like ice.Suddenly the wall of sand dissipated and, in its wake, just feet away but still incredibly hard to see, despite the torches of fire many held was a group of people, light coloured scarves and hoods, covered in dark, thick leather armour that some had holes or scratches on it.They were sat in the caravan; they were given camels to ride and led back by this unique group of people. They hard darker skins than those at the main cities in the field lands, they were also a little larger, and more organised.“Thank you for coming out” the leader of the group of settlers said, offering them a plate of food. “It has been so long; we thought the guild was disbanded or had forgotten about us” he pointed to a small group of people around another fire. “These are the last of the warriors we have, that can defend us.”There were no more than eight or nine in the group. They looked upset, sitting quietly, one was sharpening his sword, a couple more were working on making arrows and restringing their bows.“I have to say though, after all this time, I had expected the guild to send in more warriors than you, did you have a lot of trouble?” The leader asked, thoughtfully.“No, we were deemed enough, and you should be grateful we are here” Sofia snapped, “the guild does not forget anyone, nor does it send more than necessary judging from the situation they are given. Now why are there more scavengers than in your report?”The four of them spoke for hours, the leader of the group apologized and said the monster problem was increasing, it was not just the Scavengers though, there were other monsters, beasts they had not seen before. Terrors that existed only in the legends of their ancestors and were supposed to be no more than bedtime stories for their children.By the time they woke up the next day, they were rested, well fed, and washed. Sand burned Titians’ feet as he stepped barefoot from the tent, causing Sofia to laugh. Of course, she was awake first, she was sitting with the leader, pointing to points on a piece of parchment, laid on the floor between them, probably a map.“First time here?” She called teasingly, “go put your boots up and arm up, we are heading out before the sun gets too high in the sky.”“Okay” Titian called and turned to go back into the tent.Titian felt his face burn up and not because of the heat of the tent with the morning sign shining through. He had never really heard his female companion laugh or smile, or even heard her joke with a male before. It was one of the most beautiful sounds he had heard in a long time, it reminded him of his late wife who had died a few years ago during the plague that had devoured the land. She was the one who had gifted him with this need to be kind, and thoughtful. She had made him a better man, and as much as he hated her for it since the time he froze in the field, he loved her for it too, because now he was on the path of becoming the man, he always dreamed of becoming.“And wake that lazy idiot of a friend you keep” she called after, normal sarcastic, snappy tone back to normal.“Sofia said – “Titian started“I heard” Migual grumbled, pulling the sheets off, “one day someone is going to pull that stick from her butt and hit her round the head with it.”Suddenly there were screams. Men and women were rushing around outside the tent, Migual already dressed and armed ran out and joined the heard of people. Titian wanting to protect his friend, and hopefully head home soon, followed. But as soon as he left the tent, something heavy struck his head, he paused momentarily, knowing he should be moving, but his legs would not obey. Then everything went black.