Black rock

Gen rubbed his eyes to make sure that what he was seeing was real, "Where is my stuff?", he said.

Right in front of him, where his tent was supposed to be, there was nothing, and his tent was gone. In fact, not only the tent but his camel and the supplies he had brought with him were all gone. The only things he had left were what he was carrying on his body and the spears on his back.

Gen then looked around but couldn't find them and said, "Maybe they are under the sand."

He then started to move the sand from where his things were, but after a few minutes of digging without finding anything, he gave up and sat down on the ground to rest.

Gen then took the canteen he carried with him and took a sip of water. He then thought, 'It seems that my things are gone. Does the noise have something to do with it? Could it be that without realizing it, I walked through the desert while listening to that noise and ended up losing my things? Yeah, that must have been it. I'm probably not that far away. I must not have walked much.'

Gen then started to walk around the place looking for his things again. After walking for a long time, he picked up his canteen again and took a sip, thinking, 'Whew, this heat never changes. In fact, it seems to get worse every day.'

He then started to walk in another direction, but just after taking a step, he stopped and thought, 'What? Wait a minute, heat?'

Gen then looked around him and realized that it was daylight, and then said, "What? The day was about to end. How can it already be day again? Could it be that more time had passed than I thought while I was hearing that noise? Well, whatever happened, I'd better keep looking. I don't know how long I can last in the desert without supplies. Even if I don't find them, I need to find a town at least."

Gen then chose a direction based on the position of the sun and thought, 'The town that Andre and Darren went to is probably in that direction.', and then moved on.

After a few minutes of walking, Gen spotted a black dot in the distance. He then thought, 'What is that? Could it be a building? It doesn't seem to be moving. I guess it wouldn't hurt to check it out. At least, if it is a building site, I can get some rest without the sun on my head.'

It took Gen a little while to get close, and as he got closer, he noticed that the area around this black spot was full of other such spots, so he kept going until he got close enough to see what it was, and when he saw, he said, "A rock?"

Gen then walked closer to it until he was standing next to it and then said, "What kind of rock is this? I've never seen anything like it in the desert, and I don't remember seeing anything like it in Brim either.", the stone was tall, it must have been around two meters high, and the same in width.

He then came closer and put his hand on it. As he touched the stone, Gen thought, 'It looks like a normal stone. I will take a piece with me to show Andre and Darren. They will probably know what it is.'

Gen then took his hand off the stone and turned to get the tools to break the stone, but as he turned around, he remembered that he had lost his things and said, 'I forgot, I don't have my things. How can I get a piece of this stone now-', but was interrupted by a loud noise, 'CRACK!', 'What was that?!' Gen turned in the direction of the noise.

Turning around, Gen realized that the rock he had touched had a massive crack in it now, and then thought, 'That must be what made the noise. That's strange. Did I cause that by touching it? If that's what it is, this stone probably won't be worth much being so fragile.'

Gen then approached the stone again to touch it, but suddenly more cracks appeared in the stone, 'CRACK, CRACK!'

Gen saw this and thought, 'What is happening to this stone?! Have I caused a chain reaction in it, and it's going to shatter all over?!', and then the noise came again, 'CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK', the stone was now totally cracked, and it seemed that any touch could knock it to the ground.

Gen saw this and thought, 'Well, I've already broken it, now I better get some pieces to show them.', and then he started to approach it, intending to touch it again, but was interrupted after only one step, as the stone that was all cracked exploded, 'CRACK!'

Seeing this, Gen quickly threw himself to the ground and covered his head with his arms to prevent pieces of the stone from hitting him there.

Fortunately, no pieces hit him, and Gen then got up from the ground and shook the sand from his body.

He then took out a scarf from his pocket and used it to cover his mouth and nose and a pair of glasses to protect his eyes because the explosion had lifted a lot of sand, and the area around him had practically a fog of sand in the air.

After that, Gen began to walk in a direction to get out of the sand fog while thinking, 'What the hell was that?! Why did that rock decide to explode out of nowhere? I don't know what's going on, but if these black rocks are always going to explode, I'd better stay well away from them.'

Gen was still walking straight in one direction when suddenly he heard a loud noise, 'ROAR'. Upon hearing this sound, Gen thought, 'What was that noise? It sounds like it came from an animal, but there were no animals around when the explosion occurred. Did the explosion alert it?'

Gen then continued trying to get out of the sand cloud when suddenly a gust of wind came at him and nearly knocked him to the ground. The gust blew the sand cloud away, making Gen's life easier. He then put away his scarf and hung his glasses around his neck, with the strap that held them on his head.

Gen then turned to see what had happened at the place where the rock had exploded, but as he turned, he ducked down, thinking, 'Why the hell is there a lion in the desert?!'

Near where the rock had exploded was standing a lion, all black, looking from one side to the other and sometimes stopping to sniff the ground as if looking for something.

Gen saw it and made a point of standing as still as possible while thinking, 'Damn! The noise must have caught its attention. I'll stand here. He'll probably leave after he sees that there's nothing around.'

Gen then stood as still as possible and continued to watch it. The lion began to sniff the ground a little more and started to walk in the opposite direction of Gen. When Gen saw this, he cheered, 'Yeah, shoo shoo, get out of here. I can't stand lying in this hot sand anymore.', but before the lion got far enough away for him to try to escape, Gen saw it stop in front of an object.

The object was black and had a strange shape. Gen then thought, 'It must be a piece of rock that flew away.', the lion continued to sniff the rock until, at one point, it stopped, raised its head, and looked in Gen's direction. Gen then thought, 'Why is it looking in my direction? It must be a coincidence, right? That's right, that's got to be it. He was much closer to me and didn't find me. There's no way he could have found me from that distance just by sniffing a piece of rock.', but then, still looking in his direction, the lion gave another roar, this time much louder than the other, 'ROARRRRRRRR!!!'.

Just after the roar, another gust of wind came in Gen's direction, only much stronger than the previous one. It came, bringing a wave of sand with it, and when Gen saw this, he quickly put on his glasses and put his arms over his head so that they also covered his ears.

The wave then passed over Gen, filling him with sand, and he then took his arms off his head and wiped as much sand off his face as he could. He then looked in the direction of the lion and saw that the lion was looking at him.

It then started walking towards Gen, and he got up as fast as he could, for there was something inside him that kept shouting, 'RUN!'