The crevice was close, ten feet, five feet. The scavengers were almost on him, their hot, rancid breath grazing his back.
"Shit!" he spat, diving headfirst into the crevice. "Oooof!"
He hit the ground hard, pain exploding in his shoulder and back as his bare skin scraped against the rough stone.
The horde of scavengers spilled across the mouth of the crevice, their snarling forms slamming right in front of Kael.
He had never been more afraid of death at that moment. Or rather, what scared him was the pain and anguish of being chewed away bit by bit, by the little abominations.
Maybe he would rather have the worm swallow him whole.
But it seemed he was safe, at least for now. The scavengers were small, yes, but he was even smaller.
His body was wedged between the rocks, and the gap was too narrow for the scavengers.
Chit! chit! chit chit! chit!
They slammed into the entrance, their claws scrabbling furiously, their needle-teeth gnashing inches from his feet.
Sweat beaded along Kael's brow, and his jaw quivered like it might shatter from holding back a scream.
As much as he wanted to scream right now, or breathe, or make a sound, he could not bring himself to open his mouth.
Chit! chit! chit chit! chit!
The scavengers were far from pleased that they could not get to him. The eyeless heads thrashed, spewing guttural hisses as they tried to force their way in, their oily bodies slipping against the stone.
Maybe sensing that the titans were getting closer, the swarm of scavengers gave up and skittered away.
The sound of numerous, clattering limbs was grating on Kael's ears.
"Too damn close," Kael panted, his chest heaving.
His body was a map of pain, cuts and bruises from his desperate run, a raw scrape across his back from the dive, and the ever-present burn of his sunburned skin.
"Feels like the whole damn world's out for my blood."
He curled into the crevice, his heart still racing, while listening to the chaos outside.
The titans' battle raged on, each clash sending tremors that shook dust from the crevice's walls.
The ground groaned, the vibrations pulsing through his bones.
The scavengers' chittering faded as they scattered, their frantic scurrying muffled by the distance, but Kael knew they were still out there somewhere, lurking in the shadows of the dunes.
"Hope nothing's small enough to crawl in here," he muttered, his voice barely audible over the distant roars of the behemoth and the sandworm's thrashing.
His stomach growled, and his throat was parched. "Dying of thirst or hunger in this hole would be a hell of a way to go."
Sigh...
Hours dragged by, and the tremors from the titans' clash were a constant reminder of the chaos just beyond his safe spot.
Growl!
Over time, it seemed his body's condition only grew worse. Kael's body ached, his throat burned, and his stomach twisted with hunger, even more irritating than before.
But he stayed still, clinging to the faint hope that these desert's horrors would pass.
Morning was coming soon, and he was eager to make some progress the next day, if he could survive the night.
Outside the crevice, the desert was a battlefield of primal fury.
The behemoth's grotesque abdominal maw, lined with jagged, bone-like teeth, tore into the sandworm's flesh, ripping away glistening chunks of chitin and oozing tissue.
Dark, viscous blood, black as tar, sprayed across the sands, painting a gruesome mosaic that shimmered under the cyan moon.
The sandworm retaliated with a hiss, its circular maw dripping acidic saliva that sizzled as it burned through the behemoth's matted, reddish-brown fur.
Flesh melted in grotesque patches, exposing raw muscle and sinew that glistened wetly in the eerie light.
Both titans bore grievous wounds.
The behemoth's fur was singed and clotted with blood, its once-powerful limbs trembling with exhaustion, each step slower, heavier, as it staggered under the weight of its injuries.
The sandworm's segmented body was a ruin, torn plates oozing ichor, its coils sluggish, lacking their earlier ferocity.
Yet neither relented. Driven by raw instinct and unrelenting rage, they clashed with earth-shattering force, their roars and screeches splitting the night.
Each collision sent seismic shockwaves rippling through the desert, the ground buckling and groaning as if the earth itself were crying out in pain.
Kael, huddled in his cramped crevice, over a kilometer away, felt every tremor as if it were a personal assault.
The stone walls vibrated, dust sifting down onto his bruised, sunburned skin.
The cacophony of the battle, booms of impact, bangs of collapsing rock, and the guttural cries of the beasts reached him with relentless clarity.
"I don't like this one bit," he muttered, peering up through the narrow gap above.
"What an odd color..."
The cyan moon hung high, its unnatural hue casting an otherworldly glow over the wasteland.
"If there's a god out there, this isn't funny. One thing, just one thing, could go right today. I need to rest, damn it."
He was right about the moon.
On Earth, it was a familiar gray, shifting with subtle silvers or golds depending on the atmosphere. But cyan?
That was wrong, alien, a sign that this world, or whatever it had become, wasn't the one he'd known.
The cold bit at his bare skin, not freezing but sharp enough to make him shiver in his exposed state.
"How much longer do I have to parade around naked?" he grumbled. "Hoping to find people, but maybe it's a blessing I haven't. That furry beast's hide looked thick, though. If the worm wins, I'm carving myself something warm."
Time crawled by, each minute marked by the relentless tremors and roars.
Kael guessed dawn was near, the horizon hinting at a faint glow.
He'd seen no creatures during the day, leading him to hope these abominations were nocturnal.
"If I'm wrong, I might have to be hiding and running all day, every day," he said, exhaustion tugging at his eyelids.
"Maybe I should sleep. My eyelids feel like lead." But sleep wouldn't come. His mind stayed sharp, ears straining for any shift in the chaos outside, every nerve on edge.
Then, a change. The sounds grew distant, the tremors less violent.
Kael risked a peek, heart pounding as he edged toward the crevice's mouth.
"Oh, yes!" he whispered, relief flooding him. The beasts were moving away, their massive forms shifting in the opposite direction of the mountains, toward the barren expanse he'd fled from.
The sandworm was pushing the behemoth back, its coils lashing with fading strength.
But hope was a cruel tease.
As if mocking him, the titans veered, their path swinging back toward him with terrifying speed.
"Urgh! Why did I jinx it?" Kael growled, scrambling out of the crevice. He did not want to take his chances. He would cover some ground while they were farther away right now.
The ground quaked harder now, each tremor a hammer blow that nearly threw him off his feet.
He ran towards the mountain range, his bare feet pounding the cracked earth, pain shooting through his blistered soles.
The mountains were his only goal, but the beasts' battle was keeping pace, their roars growing louder, the ground shaking with each devastating clash.
The titans were closing in, their path of destruction mirroring his own, as if the desert itself conspired to crush him.
Kael looked back for a second.
The sandworm lunged, its maw snapping shut inches from the behemoth's flank, sending a shockwave that split a nearby dune.
The behemoth roared, tusks goring the worm's side, and another tremor rocked the earth, forcing Kael to stumble.
"Can't a guy get a break?" he panted, lungs burning.
In the midst of running, he spotted another crevice he could hide himself in, this one was bigger.
As soon as he got to it, Kael dove straight in, ignoring the jolt of pain that shot through his body, rattling his bones.
He was heaving and hacking for breath by now.
The air around him was thick with dust and the acrid stench of blood and acid, the battle's din deafening.
Then, another shift happened.
The tremors softened bit by bit, the titans' roars growing faint.
Kael waited, listening as the ground stilled, the battle's cacophony fading.
An hour after the noises died down, Kael cautiously peeked out. The desert was bathed in the cyan glow of the moon, an eerie calm settling over the wasteland.
The titans had stopped, their massive forms locked in a final grapple, motionless in the distance. "Are they… dead?" he whispered, hope flickering. "Please, let them be dead."
He emerged, keeping low, his body screaming with every movement. The mountains loomed closer now, and it gave him a bit of hope, if anything.
Glancing back, he saw the titans' carcasses, lumps of flesh and chitin barely visible in the fading night. "If they're dead, that fur's mine," he muttered. "Need something to keep me warm."
The trek back was agonizing, his blistered feet protesting each step.
Dawn was breaking as he reached the carcasses, the sun's first rays casting long shadows over the gruesome scene.
The behemoth and sandworm lay still, their bodies torn and lifeless, blood pooling in viscous lakes.
The air reeked of acid and decay, the sand stained with their ichor. Smaller scavengers hadn't arrived yet, but Kael knew they'd come soon.
"Perfect..." Kael was practically gleaming. This was the break he was hoping for.
"Let's carve out some clothing and a waterskin. Are these things edible, though? Oh, I hope so."
He set to work, driven by necessity.
Using a sharp bone shard from the behemoth's shattered ribcage, he sliced into its matted hide, selecting patches that were still supple despite the burns.
The sandworm's chitin was too tough, but its softer tendons provided sinew for thread.
He scraped away flesh and fat, and the stench made his stomach churn. He also stretched the hides to dry in the rising sun. His hands shook slightly from weakness and exhaustion.
With the sinew, he stitched a crude tunic and leggings, the fur rough but warm against his battered skin.
He molded the remaining hide into sandals, wrapping them tightly to protect his blistered feet.
"Not bad," he muttered, inspecting his work. "Better than naked." His stomach growled, a hollow ache.
He eyed the behemoth's flesh, hesitating. "Should I try to eat it? Hope it doesn't kill me."
Using the bone shard, he carved off chunks of muscle, setting them to dry into jerky. The meat was tough, gamey, but it was sustenance.
"It's almost sunset again. Okay, I got what I need to make my journey easier. Let's get out of here before more trouble comes. I can make the rest from this spare hide some other time."
He moved away from the carcasses, wary of scavengers.
By his estimation, the sun would set in about two more hours. "Let's cover some ground till then."
...
Kael spotted a pair of rocks forming a tent-like shelter. Even though it was not dark out yet, it was better if he used this space to camp at night than wait till trouble found him.
He hung a hide over the openings in the rock formation, creating a shaded refuge for himself.
"Perfect," he said, settling in. He crafted a small bag and a waterskin from the remaining hide, his fingers raw from the work.
"Need water soon, or this is pointless," he muttered. He chewed a piece of jerky, grimacing. "Tastes like death. Needs salt." Eating this much without drinking any water didn't help him either.
As he rested, the desert stirred.
He could hear the distant chit chit chit sounds of clattering scavengers. They were headed in the direction he had left, most likely drawn to the carcasses, like flies.
"I'm glad I left before things got bad."
Peeking out from a tiny hole, he spotted countless scavengers, their chittering forms scuttling across the dunes, claws glinting, and teeth snapping.
He held his breath when one skittered near, slowing his heartbeat to avoid detection.
Soon enough, the next day came, and that meant more walking. Each day, he moved toward the mountains during the cooler hours, resting in the shade when the sun peaked.
He had been lucky enough to find a water source, which gave him the chance to rehydrate and fill the containers he had made.
The meat sustained him, and strangely, his body recovered faster than it should have. Bruises faded, strength returned, as if the flesh held some unnatural vitality.
"This stuff's weird," he muttered, chewing another piece. "But it's working." Over time, he was kind of getting used to being a desert dweller, if you could call him that.
After all, a lot of time had passed by now. Days blended into nights. Roughly a month had passed since encountering the titans.
The mountains grew closer every day, their jagged peaks were like a promise of answers, or more danger.
He was never guaranteed to find anything in the mountains, but it was all he could do to go there and hope he found something.
He was checking on his supplies when he realised, "I'm almost out of water, even though I've been drinking it sparingly."