Tale of Death

Chapter 13 - Why It's Dangerous

As Shi lay floating on top of the surface of the cool water, truly enjoying the bliss it brought her, she felt something odd, a slight tremble, it wasn't much, maybe just the water shifting? She didn't think much of it, and simply enjoyed the water further, why wouldn't she, it felt great on her skin.

But as she continued to enjoy herself, she noticed that the tremble was getting stronger, and soon enough she felt the trembling constantly, it shook the water to the point where she had to get out before it got dangerous.

Quickly, getting out of the water she stood up and looked around, trying to pinpoint where the trembling was coming from. Thankfully she jumped in with her clothing, otherwise it would've been problematic to get them on right now, not that she had the time to think about her clothing.

Her eyes were busy glancing from side to side, like an eagle hunting for prey, however, this eagle didn't find prey. For miles around her there was nothing, not as far as the eye can see.

"What is going on?" She asked herself aloud, unsure if anyone could hear her, but that thought never crossed her mind. "I'm not sure I want to know." With that thought in mind, she turned around and started to run down the hill, and back towards her horse which was still tied to the tree, albeit, it seemed he was spooked out, and trying to burst the rope.

"Calm down girl, come on, no reason to panic, it's me." She said in a soft and calm voice, trying to soothe the horse into calming down enough to allow her to get onto it, and leave this place.

'Shit, the water!' She noticed that when she ran out of the pond, and just bolted it down the hill, she didn't grab the leather pouch with water she laid down, that would be bad to leave behind. So even if she didn't want to, she had no choice but to turn back around and grab it.

She quickly made her way up the hill, but before she could even reach the top, suddenly from behind her, the earth burst outward, sand and stone flying in every direction to reveal the abomination that came out from the very ground.

A faint worm-like creature, that looked like it was made from leather, without a single inch of hair on its body. It looked, wrinkled like it was wet and left to dry out for days, the very look of it instantly made Shi revolt at the creature. When the creature moved to go back into the dirt, Shi had a good look at the face, or rather, lack thereof.

Its head, if you could even call it that, was like a thumb, it lacked any eyes or facial features aside from a slit going across it, a slit she soon find out to be a mouth.

This mouth opened up, revealing rows upon rows of jagged teeth, aiding its body in drilling into the ground and out of sight once more. Out of sight it may be, gone it was not. Shi instantly knew what that creature was, a Sandworm.

The dwarf had explained to her before entering the desert that the place was plagued with them, they filled the grounds of the desert and hunted anything on the surface with deathly stealth. They weren't common, which made it easier for merchants to travel through, but they also weren't rare, so meeting one if you're unlucky was highly likely.

And Shi was unlucky.

Now, the main issue with Sandworms was their ability to hunt from underground and sneak up on prey, thankfully this one lost that ability by accidentally aiming for her horse instead of her, 'Rest in peace boy, but thank you for the sacrifice.'

This didn't mean it was easier to get away from though, only that she knew it was here. That leaves the second issue, they were annoyingly persistent if they were hungry, so Shi could only hope this one wasn't hungry.

It didn't seem like the Sandworm was done yet though, because as Shi turned to make a run for it, horseless, the rumbling returned, bursting out just below her as she barely manage to jump backward and avoid it.

'This is bad, I can't outrun it on foot like this.' She barely had time to think, because as soon as that thought crossed her mind, the worm came slamming down in her direction, hitting her into the ground.

She could hear the bones cracking upon impact with the ground, the ground even physically took a shape to accommodate her body. "Ack!" She yelled out in pain, blood dripping down her mouth from what she coughed up. Her body was intense pain, she could barely move it, but even so, she wasn't going to let herself fall here, passing out would be bad.

With that thought in mind, and her willpower holding onto her consciousness, she pulled herself to her feet, barely being able to stand from all the broken bones and intense pain. The worm came crashing down again, but this time, Shi was ready and managed to stumble back and out of the way.

'Damn that thing is fast.' She thought to herself, watching the worm crawl out of the hole it created only to crawl back into another it made right away. The worm was too fast for her to deal with currently.

Maybe if she was how she was when she fought the bandits she might be able to keep up with its speed, or even go faster, however she was weakened now. The bones weren't the only issue, she had been traveling an entire day in the hot sun, without any water and barely any food. If she had enough energy, she would be better off.

'No use thinking about what-ifs now, I need to find a way around this.' Clicking her tongue, her eyes glanced around the area looking for any things she could get to use. The pond, it was still on top of the hill untouched from the attacks of the worm, when her eyes fell on it an idea came to mind.

'Maybe i can use it to avoid the worm, it doesn't seem to be going near it.' With a plan now formulated, or at least the outlines of one, she made her way towards the pond. She had to thank whatever she was because with the injuries she had, running like this shouldn't be possible, yet for her, it was, granted she doubt she could do this for long.

She was barely able to avoid any of the incoming attacks from the worm, the last one almost got her, if not for her jumping forward and into the water at the very last second, she would've been crushed. Thankfully, she was now in the pond, hiding underneath the water surface, the rest of her plan? Wait till it left, which she hoped wouldn't be long.

It seemed like things just didn't want to go her way though because while she was right about the worm not wanting to go near the water, she was also right about the worm never leaving a prey once it was hungry, and this worm was starving. It came digging up from underneath the pond, lunging up at her from below.

It missed, and Shi didn't even need to move much, it seems there was a reason why they didn't go near the water, they couldn't sense her in it, making it harder for it to hunt her. This information would have been great, if not for the large hole the worm made underneath the pond when it dug out, causing the sand to give way, and everything to go caving in. Including the water, and her in it.

"Ah shit." Was the last thing she thought, as her body was sucked into the watery hole below, and her mind fell into the darkness from inhaling the water, hitting multiple passageways on the way down.