A Fire In The Night

Chapter 8

Upon hearing Ander's name Nathan's brows formed into a frown.

"Ander Velez? You know him?"

"Yes." She nodded. "He let me sleep in his tent on my first night here."
"Of course he did."

Nathan rolled his eyes, just a touch of frustration in his voice. Ila arched a brow at him in a cocky confusion.

"In how many tents did you sleep, Ila?"

There was something different in his voice and Ila felt amused by his impatience. Did he forget that a couple of hours ago she didn't even know his name, nor he hers. She knew this kind of attitude guys sometimes had. This kind of laughable demand that she sometimes encountered. Ila allowed herself to satisfy herself with the thought that maybe he was just a little bit jealous that he wasn't the only one willing to help her.

She shrugged.

"Did you think I slept out in the cold?"

Just as he was about to say something back, their little discussion was interrupted by a loud cry outside the tent. They exchanged a quick look of concern before Nathan pushed with his forearm the hot cloth that served as the tent's door and stood at its entrance. Ila took a step closer to him in order to see what was happening outside. Although her vision was partially blocked by his back and the tents that were surrounding Nathan's, she could still see a tall muscular figure stabbing desperately the sand a couple of miles away from the camp. He was screaming uncontrollably, his cries a mix of anger and fear. A cloud of sand was forming around him as he continued stomping it. At first Ila thought that the mass of sand floating in the air around him was caused by his frenetical punching, but as everybody continued to stay still, watching, she realised that the sand was moving on it's own. No, the sand was attacking the guy who was obviously starting to get tired of battling the irregular piles that were rising and falling around him. Ila's eyes widened in fear as she realised that the sand was slowly starting to swallow him. As the man tried to battle this irrational entity, the whole camp starred at the scene in shock. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? Without really thinking of what she was about to do, Ila's feet started to move on it's own. She had to help him somehow, to drag him out of there. After a couple of steps, however, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She looked back in disbelief at Nathan.

"We have to do something!"

The desperation in her voice was clear as she cried the words to Nathan face, who, even with his hand still on her shoulder, was not watching her. His eyes were fixed on the man in the sand, who's cries were now painful to hear. She took another glance at the scene and yelled Nathan's name at him, as if trying to wake him up from a trance. His grip only tightened on her shoulder.

"Look closer." He hissed.

With her mouth open in disbelief, Ila turned again to face the cloud of sand. She let out a sharp breath as she squinted her eyes in order to see clearer what was happening. She realised that he was not battling the sand, but something living bellow it. Something that moved so quickly that it looked as if the sand itself came alive. The man was turning in circles trying to hit it, but he was too slow, all his punches hitting the air. Under the man's panting and cursing was a light hiss to be heard. Almost serpent like. Ila thought for a moment that perhaps he was battling an enraged cobra, but in the same second an enormous black circular head erupted from behind the man. Even from this distance Ila could see it's open large mouth filled with countless sharp teeth, ready to bite into his body. He didn't manage to turn and dodge in time and the oversized worm buried his teeth into the man's neck, making him fall with an unimaginably loud cry to the ground. For a second Ila thought that he was dead, but as the serpent started dragging him back to the whole where it came from, she saw the man's arm rising and stabbing the creature with a sharp dagger sideways in it's neck. The monster hissed in pain, letting go of the soldier and disappearing into the sand.