"Wake up branded."
Leon awoke to the sharp pain of a thorny whip on his back, yet with his remaining strength he barely managed to even open his eyes. Standing in front of him was The Jailer as well as another red robed guard who he caught looking at his back with disgust. The guard spit on the floor when he caught Leon glancing at him.
Clank
A set of chains were quickly put on leons hands and ankles as he was dragged out of his cell. He caught a quick glance of his surroundings before he was ushered out of the door. The hallway was seemingly never ending, with various dark black iron doors lining the walls. Who knew how many prisoners were kept here, one? Ten? Hundreds?
Leon decided to stop wasting his time on pointless thoughts, he knew his end was near. The Black Sands was not something just anyone could return from. The endless hordes of beasts that lurked within them were always a threat to the small city that resided outside of them. The beasts were known to run rampant and rush out when they ran out of food so it had become a habit of the city to send any offenders out to their death in the Black Sands.
Finally, the red moon laid it's eyes upon Leon, in the horizon tall black city walls could be seen towering over the hills. The Miners didn't get the privilege to reside inside the city, they merely got to live in tents and the lucky ones in run down shacks. In fact, Leon came out of the only stone building in the outskirts of the city. The Cage. It would be more accurate to call it a prison, but everyone called it The Cage.
'At least I got to spend my last night in the only stone structure in these boonies.'
Leon was escorted onto a wooden cart that was drawn by two boar wolves. Their silver fur was majestic, if only it wasn't ruined by the giant white ivory tusks that grew out from their mouths.
Leon was quickly shoved into the back of the rickety cart before a man came towards the boar wolves and gave them a smack on the back with a whip. The whip used on the boar wolves noticeably had no thorns, showing how some animals were worth more than the lives of men. The wolves quickly began to run down a gravel path that was empty as far as the eye could see.
"Bastards, they don't even dare take me there myself." Leon chuckled a little to himself over this fact.
The cart continued for miles and miles. Leon, alone and without quota for the first time in a while decided to enjoy his last view of scenery. The tall hills covered in deep black rock and jagged ash colored trees that sprouted no leaves was quite a bit better than his usual view of the dark and cramped mines.
"Might as well enjoy my last moments." Leon commented to himself on the scenery as the cart continued down the uninhabited path.
At some point Leon once more drifted off into a slumber. This time he didn't dream of anything, his body and mind were too tired to even be awake in his dreams. He was only awoken by the cart bumping around.
When Leon opened his eyes he saw that the pathway had come to an end, just a few hundred paces in front of him he saw an endless expanse of deep black sand. The red moonlight was seemingly absorbed by the sea of black sand, not even a reflection of light could be caught from the sand. The boar wolves continued to run, even once he reached the endless rolling hills of sand, they continued.
Leon reckoned that the boar wolves wouldn't stop until they were all eaten by the beasts that lived in and around the sands.
The wolves continued to run for hours, or maybe even days. It was impossible to tell without a dayglass, as the red moon stayed static in its position at the apex of the red sky. Leon would occasionally hear something off in the distance, the sounds of beasts howling and growling, or of a raging battle. He wasn't too sure himself. In fact it could have been a hallucination as he hadn't eaten or drank anything in at least a day.
At some point the Boar Wolves finally tired out, from a sprint, to a jog, to a walk, and finally to dropping dead on the black sand. Exhaustion had taken them into the hands of the Red Moon. Leon, still with chains around his ankles and wrists, tried to climb out of the cart, which ended with a mouthful of black sand that he quickly spat out.
"Gross." Leon spat
Rumble
Leon noticed out in the distance a cloud of black dust was rolling towards him.
"Ah. Finally." Leon merely closed his eyes and opened up his arms as if he was welcoming home a loved one after a long day.
Rumble
The beast was getting closer and closer to Leon by each passing second. Finally, merely a hundred or so paces in front of him, the sand broke and a monster resembling a slug shot its ugly head out from the sand. Green mucus dripped from its body, as it opened its mouth to show hundreds of razor sharp teeth in rows. Its brown body jumping up from the sand and soaring towards Leon.
Leon opened one of his eyes to get a glance at what was going to kill him, before he cringed, and sprung into action.
"Fuck that! I'm not dying to an ugly slug like you!"
Leon began running as fast as his small body could take him, but that was merely a few steps before the slug was upon him. Quickly rolling to the side Leon barely managed to dodge the slug as it landed on the sand next to him leaving a crater the size of a small pond.
"Fuck! Maybe I should just get it over with!" Leon shouted, but continued to run. The Slug, momentarily confused at the fact that there was no puddle of young man below it, glanced around before once more finding Leon running.
The Slug once more sprung into action, this time gliding across the sand leaving a trail of mucus and wet sand behind it.
"Shit! Shit!" Leon shouted, his head looking up at the Red Moon, the slug was gaining on him fast. A small, malnutritioned boy could never hope to outrun, or outslide this 3 meter tall giant.
Leon once more barely avoided a body slam as he dodged to the side again, this time however, luck wasn't on his side, his left foot slid in the loose sand causing him to lose his balance and fall face first. Another fist of sand finding its way into his mouth.
Leon, with a face full of regret, couldn't help but think to himself.
'Sorry Mother, I wanted to die but not to this ugly thing. I guess I'll join you in the Blue Sky now.'
Leon closed his eyes, lamenting his fate at the hands of the giant booger.
Poor child.
A soothing ethereal voice seemed to find its way into his ears.
'Ah, Mother, I can even hear your voice. I guess I am dying.'
No… Your fate is not to end here…
'Mother? Tell me about the blue sky again.'
For you… are.. Marked
The slug finally found its way to Leon, jumping into the air, it crashed onto his body. His frail bones almost turning to dust from the force. Blood spilt out from his orifices, and dyed the Black Sand an unnatural color. He could no longer hear the warm voice of who he believed to be his mother, his gray eyes slowly turning white as his heart was already squashed. No hope to ever beat again.
Poor child… show them… why they fear you so much…
Suddenly, the blood that had pooled around him suddenly started to flow back towards his skewered body, gaining an unnatural black tinge. His bones that had been ground to dust, began to piece themselves back together, and the exploded flesh of his heart seemingly stitched itself back.
Badump
Badump
Badump
"HUHHH" Leon gasped for air, he felt his lungs on fire, his bones ached, and his heart felt as if it had just… exploded.
His eyes gained back their color, but the whites of his eyes seemed to have turned a deep shade of gray, almost black.
'What… What just happened…'
'That voice… my mother… no, it was different'
Leon was lost in his thoughts, but he had seemingly forgotten about the giant slug that was still laying on top of him, looking down on him with its ferocious maw opened, the red glow of the moon reflecting off the sharp teeth that lined it.
'Damn! This is the end!' Leon thought, but then a sudden realization seem to come to him,
'How am I not being crushed to bits?'
Leon didn't have time to ponder the question that seemed to linger in his mind as the ferocious jaws of the slug came crashing down upon him. Leon placed both of his hands into the black sand, pushing with all the might his small body could muster. For some reason, it seemed to be a little effective as he came loose from under the slug.
The slug's jaws quickly ate up a large amount of sand where Leon used to have been laying trapped under its immense body weight. But, he was no longer to be found. Leon quickly found his feet,
'I feel… Refreshed.' Leon thought as he clenched his fist.
The slug didn't take long to recover from the shock of missing its target again; it quickly launched itself at Leon, licking its sand-covered lips. Leon quickly took a step to the left of the slug, and whether out of pure desperation or instinct, sent a hook from his right hand into the lower body of the slug.
POW!
The slug merely shrugged off the attempt at harming it, quickly turning around and gliding back towards Leon. This time, its tongue touched the top of its grotesque mouth before it lowered it, a bulge was noticeable in its thick throat as it let out retching sounds.
GAH
'Shit!' Leon had no time to think, he knew that whatever the slug was about to send out of its mouth was lethally dangerous to him. Luckily, in the endless black sand, Leon had no worries about being impeded by the environment; quickly dodging once more.
The slug spat out a glob of mucus the size of Leon's head where he was once standing, the sand around quickly letting out a deep green colored mist that seemed to cling to the ground, refusing to float up and into the air to disperse.
'Poison! Bastard!'
Leon's eyes dimmed, seemingly lost on what to do to this ugly slug.
"Hahaha! I guess the Holy Maiden wishes for my death!" Leon shouted to the blood colored heavens, full of indignation. Somewhere, during this fight, Leon had realized that he didn't truly wish for his own demise.
"I will see the Blue Sky! The Silver Moon! Even the Holy Maiden must watch me!"
It would have been a comical sight for anyone else to see, a young man, no taller than a boy entering his pre-teens shouting up at the sky. His sunken eyes looked manically at the Red Moon that cast its light down upon the world. Luckily or not, the only ones to witness this event were Leon, the slug, and the Blood Red Moon.
The slug quickly sent out another glob of miasma that passed by Leon, a small amount catching his right shoulder. Black mist rose from his skin as the miasma dug into his flesh turning it a deep purple color.
Leon gritted his teeth, a cringe appearing on his face as he endured the pain of the poison on his skin.
"Compared to the whip this is nothing." He comforted himself, giving him a small sense of confidence as he continued to dodge the relentless attacks of the slug.
'I need to do something! I really will die at this rate.' Leon came to terms with the cold reality, after talking so much about the Blue Sky to the slug, he really had no strength to match his big words. However, he did seemingly have a relentless determination.
The slug shot itself towards Leon, its throat seemingly opening up into a deep pit of nothingness.
'Fuck its worth a shot!'
Leon steeled his resolve as he looked back at the abyss of the slugs stomach. Shutting his eyes hard once more, and with one more thought of encouragement to himself, he jumped into the maw of the slug.
Leon's body was quickly covered in long cuts and slices from the hundreds of teeth that laid in the slug's mouth; somehow, he managed to avoid cutting open his head or a major artery, landing in the back of the throat of the slug.
'Its trying to swallow me.'
Leon could feel the muscles that lined its throat convulsing in an attempt to swallow him whole. Avoiding being chewed up had saved him quite a bit, clearly the slug was having trouble swallowing him whole.
Leon looked around, knowing that his time was limited before the slug decided to secrete its miasma into its own mouth. His gaze wandered around, teeth, no, tongue, no. Finally, his gaze looked above him; a pocket of tissue hung from the top of the slugs throat filled with a deep green liquid.
'There!'
Leon quickly jumped into action, using the little strength he had left in his legs to jump and grasp the gland filled with poison using his still chained hands. All that happened though was Leon was now hanging from a green sack at the top of the slugs mouth. He didn't have the strength to tear it apart.
"Dammit!" Leon's voice was raspy, his tongue tasting the blood from his dry throat, but more so filled with the taste of his unwillingness to meet his end here.
Feel… The… Myst…
Suddenly, Leon felt a surge of strength. It was as if someone had injected his veins with cool water; from his heart, to his lungs, and quickly to his brain the cool sensation continued to spread. Finally, the sensation reached his limbs, the chains that were around his wrist quickly snapped. With one final tug, Leon ripped the gland from the slugs throat allowing all of the liquid to coat its own tongue and throat.
"RAHHH!" The slug began to convulse, quickly spitting Leon out of its gullet.
"Hah… hah…" Leon lay on the black sand, curled into a ball as the holes began to appear in the side of the slug, a deep green liquid flowing out from them along with a black smoke that smelled of burnt flesh.
The slug continued to roar and scream in agony before finally collapsing into the sand. The monster slug was dead.
Leon caught a glance of the slug as it collapsed, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly as his eyes rolled back into his head; fainting from exhaustion.