Karth groaned as he lifted his sweaty body off the tough leather strips that made up his bed and rolled out of bed. He didn't need to see the sun to know that it was early in the morning. Groggily he read over the mission scroll that was left on his trunk sometime through the night. The assassin knew his way around Trelos but the city of Grunden would be the furthest that he ever traveled.
It would be a two-day travel to Grunden and the assassin knew it would not be an easy journey. Karth was to meet with a rebel assassin who knew the area and was on Solitude's payroll. Karth didn't know how far Miken's reach was in Trelos but he did seem to know what was going on at all times and in all cities. He stretched before strapping his weapons to his body.
Karth grabbed a small knapsack that he carried with him during longer missions before making his way toward the pantry. There he grabbed a few flasks of water and some rat meat that he shoved into the knapsack. He saw that the barracks were empty and Karth knew that meant one of two things; either the recruits were among the dead or they were training.
Turning a corner, the assassin saw that he was right about the recruits. In the cavern he spotted two training on wooden dummies made of dry driftwood that had found its way through the drainage tunnels. The last recruit was thrown into a corner where rats were starting to nibble on his body. There would be no ceremony for the lost recruit.
Karth made his way into the tunnels and out of the drain. The city of Calgarra was peaceful as the sun started to awake over the hills in the east. He saw a few homeless curled up under the boarded-up windows of a building as the assassin made his way east. Calgarra seemed like two different cities between sun cycles. During the day, Karth almost forgot that thieves and beggars ran rampant and people were trying to make honest money with running their shops. Once the sun dropped, it seemed like all sense of humanity disappeared as corrupt merchants set up shops and the taverns were overrun.
It didn't take him long to be out of the city major of Calgarra and soon he was following a narrow dirt road that ran parallel to a group of small green fields. Farmers were tending to their fields well before the sun awoke. In a few hours' time, they would take their pickings and try their luck at the city market hoping for decent coinage.
Passing the fields, the landscape changed drastically as sharp rock formations jutted aggressively out of the land. Trees and other foliage tried desperately to grow and flourish but to no avail as the jagged rocks cast long shadows. Karth pressed his body flat as he wedged himself between two rock cliffs that blocked the narrow foot path.
What seemed like minutes but was probably just seconds, Karth made his way through the narrow gap in the rock face and made it to the other side. He took a few minutes and took in what be saw. He had never been on this side of the cliff gap.
Swirling sands greeted him as if he was a long lost friend. Karth covered his face with his hands as he tried to become aware of his surroundings but the tiny grains of death scratched his skin. The rocky cliffs did their job in holding back the swirling sands from the city.
Rotted wood buildings creaked as a breeze blew through them. Out of the shadow of one of them, a giant sand scorpion hurried across the heated desert sand. Sandstorms blew across the scorpion's body, halting him momentarily. Once the sandstorms seized, the sun blazed against the scorpion's shell-like body. Needlelike legs dug deep into the shifting sand, as the scorpion continued its quest for water.
Pushing itself hard, the scorpion could smell water in the air and knew he was nearby. Sandstorms continued to disrupt his progress as visibility started to become an issue. Using his strong legs he continued across the scorching sand.
Within seconds the sand gave out beneath him as force started to drag him down. The scorpion twitched his tail into the air but connected with the sand around him. Faster and faster, a vortex surrounded the scorpion as he was pulled beneath the sand. In less than a minute, the nearly five-foot monster was buried.
The Wastelands were a desolate desert located between the menacing Shadow Mountains of the West and the abandoned town of Farfield.
"I have to get out of here before I die," the assassin had no idea why he was talking to himself but what else was there to do out here in the Wasteland. He couldn't imagine the Wastelands as anything but a desolate place but the abandoned buildings told him it used to be so much more.
"You're going to die alright."
Karth whirled at the voice that he could barely hear over the deafening winds. He saw nobody as the sands of death cut his skin again. The assassin felt blood start to trickle down his face. He reached up and felt the smooth edges of the cut and knew that wasn't done by sand but by a blade.
He didn't have time to dodge before he saw a shimmer of metal pierce through the sand veil and land another cut, this time across his right arm. Fuck! He didn't have time to die out here.
"You are not as good an assassin as you think Karth," the unknown voice was filled with laughter.
"Then come out and show yourself you little chickenshit," annoyance seeped out of Karth's words. "Show me your face so I can add it to my death tally."
The sands seemed to stop swirling around him as a figure walked toward him, red cloak wrapped tightly around his body. Karth recognized those dark emerald eyes staring intently at him. The same eyes that looked down on him during his time of training as an assassin. The same eyes that were always quick to judge him when he made a mistake.
"Fuck off Rytan," Karth didn't take his eyes off his fellow assassin. "I don't know what you think you're up to out here but kindly fuck off."
Rytan kept walking his slow steady pace toward Karth. "You don't understand anything that goes on from Solitude. I have been sent to kill you so no I wont kindly fuck off. Instead I will very much fuck on."
"I'm not going down with a fight," Karth withdrew a dagger and held it at the ready. "For too long you have looked down on me and that changes now."
Rytan responded with a sharp laugh. "No, I don't think anything will change Karth.
Before Karth could respond he felt a sharp pain hit his neck. He reached up and felt no blood but found a tiny pinpoint needle. He knew right away what this was as he had used it on many of his difficult targets.
"Bastard," Karth mumbled before the poison started taking control of him. He fell to his knees as his body tried fighting the foreign substance now in his bloodstream. Tried but it was failing miserably as Karth quickly lost his strength. Bytan advanced on him and brought a dagger across Karth's heaving chest.
Karth gritted his teeth in pain and annoyance. "This is the only way that you could defeat me by using cheap tricks and tactics."
Rytan smiled. "It's not the only way trust me but it is the most fun. This conversation and little dance have gone on for long enough and frankly Karth it has been long overdue that you leave Solitude. Since you weren't willing to do it willingly, I had to help coax you to quit."
Karth could say nothing as stared up at Rytan wide-eyed. The poison was spreading faster than even he knew how. Something wasn't right. This was a different breed of poison as his limbs became paralyzed and he fell flat on his face.
"I do love watching you suffer and because of that than I wont kill you out here," Rytan stood directly over Karth. "Instead, I will let the elements and various beasts have fun destroying your body."
Karth coughed up a mouthful of sand as his only response before his eyes closed and his body became fully limp. The eternal sand storm continued again as Rytan turned away and walked off.
"You really are pathetic did you know that," Rytan seemed to whisper into the roaring sandstorm. "What will Miken think when I tell him that you died here in the Wasteland with nothing to show for your mission. He had high hopes for you but I made sure that my position is safe within Solitude."
As if part of the swirling sands themselves, Rytan disappeared. Immediately the sands started covering Karth's unmoving body as the sands shifted and moved around the body and sweltering heat started to encroach on the Wastelands as animals ran from the sun's explosive heat. Karth was left alone to die.