2. Wildlife encounter

It had been half a day since a man had been spat out by the mysterious yet deadly sandstorm, currently the temperature was over 110 degrees Celsius and the heat had caused the air to warp. It was a clear day and the large sun shone down onto the desert making the sand glitter and sparkle.

A few kilometers south of the sandstorm area a strange lizard covered in rocks with a rocky outcrop on its back was busy sunbathing and was lying comfortably in the hot sands. It didn't seem to realize that a shadow was slowly heading over in its direction.

The man had been walking in the baking heat for most of the morning and a few hours into the afternoon, he left droplets of blood and sweat that slightly sizzled when it fell to the floor. Even with the natural cooling mechanism the man still felt quite hot.

The man's shadow had soon reached the basking lizard and it suddenly opened its eyes and looked at the man before it ran away. The man's name was Gareth and he had long seen the rock covered lizard but couldn't be bothered attacking it as he currently had no weapons plus it would be difficult to separate the hard rocky skin from the lizard to get to the flesh. He just went towards it as it was the first living organism he had seen so he wanted some activity to keep his mind focused.

Gareth continued his journey south, every so often a hot wind would blow through the area ruffling his clothes and throwing specks of sand onto him. He didn't have a compass with him and could only rely on the direction the sun was moving for direction. He didn't have much experience with the planets fauna and flora and from prior experience he was taught that dark colored plants and animals tend to have poison in them in desert areas.

Encountering an edible plant or animal in this barren place could be considered lucky more often than not the ones he did find were traps. For instance, Gareth had discovered a short tree that had a delicious sweet smelling red fruit hanging from a vine and when Gareth threw a rock at the fruit a large pair of jaws emerged from the sand and swallowed the rock. If the food wasn't part of the organism then it would be used as bait for unwary prey, quite a few times Gareth fell victim to their traps and had to escape with his life.

When night finally fell he only gathered a few bugs and edible weeds and was only enough for two mouthfuls, after eating he was about to continue walking when he felt the sand beneath beneath him began shaking. He immediately laid prone on the ground and stayed still, soon a huge creature emerged from the sand just a few meters away from him. He was instantly buried in sand but he didn't move. Not long after the desert began to continuously rumble as various behemoths began emerging from beneath the sand to begin hunting. When the vibrations had subsided and after waiting for a short while Gareth began to slowly wiggle to the surface, he only left part of his head above the sand.

Gareth slept lightly after the disturbance, waking up if he heard any disturbance nearby ready to run if he was discovered. When morning came he felt the desert sands shake as the multitude of predators began diving into the sand their hunt over.

Once the shaking had subsided, Gareth shook the rest of the sand covering his body and looked around, if it weren't for the vibrations he felt, he would have thought last night was a dream as the desert had looked the same as it was a day ago.

Brushing the sand off his blood caked clothes, Gareth concluded that the predators only come out at night.

Gareth continued on his journey through the vast unforgiving desert, if it weren't the heat during the day trying to bake him alive it was the predators at night trying to eat him.

Every few days he would encounter skeletons of once impressive living organisms not all the skeletons were huge or animal, there were a scarce few that were made of plants or earth. However the mere sight of any of them would have given Gareth involuntary goosebumps if he weren't skinless and its domineering aura made it hard to breathe.

No sane organism dared venture close to the skeletons despite being dead and for a long time. It was after being chased by a group of vultures, that he headed to one of the skeletons. he noticed that the birds didn't approach him when he was near the bones. After discovering this peculiarity he decided to camp under these skeletons at night, even though its domineering aura made it hard to breathe, Gareth could sleep easier knowing the predators at night wouldn't approach the skeletons.

On the morning of the sixth day, while Gareth was still sleeping, a shuffling of footsteps woke him up. Peering out of the corner of his eye he saw a strange creature that looked like a camel. It was as big as a large dog and had sacs on its back. This creature seemed to be attracted to Gareth, more specifically the small pool of blood that had leaked out of his wounds during the night. Gareth watched as the strange creature called a Limel sneaked quietly towards him and then used its tail and plunged it into the ground.

The next second, Gareth saw its sacs on its back began to fill and by the time it was finished one of the sacs was full. This sack was as large as a basketball and was full of filtered water, Gareth however didn't know until he accidentally scared it causing it to detach its full sac before running away.

Gareth examined the dropped sac and heard the sound of a liquid inside, squeezing out some he noticed it was water. Delighted Gareth drank a bit of water from the sac just enough to quench his thirst, he hadn't had water in a few days and he almost couldn't resist drinking all the water in the sac.

Seeing as it was almost morning, he decided to continue his journey, not knowing what the future might hold.