A drop of sweat fell from Brutus's head. His heart was thumping loudly in his chest.
Brutus gazed tensely at the Bone Warden. Certainly a veteran, like Alicia had said, with scars carved into his face and thick, chiselled arms. Blood dripping from a haunting sword, drowning out all other sounds.
The man's white hair fell loose, stark against his tanned shoulders and battle-worn skin. Cold blue eyes stared back at Brutus, unblinking. And despite his age, the man's sheer size seemed to shrink the cottage around him.
Brutus swallowed.
'This... is her uncle?'
"Would you..." The raspy voice spoke.
Brutus flinched.
"...Like some tea?"
Brutus blinked. "Huh?"
"I said, would you like some tea?"
Brutus looked at Alicia. "I... yes, I would..."
"And you, neice?" He turned.
Alicia sighed. "I'm fine, uncle."
He looked away. "So be it." He set the sword down. And his boots thumped as he walked toward the fire. "I just figured you'd want to drink something at least, before you die."
Brutus choked on his spit. "Before I-?!"
"From dehydration," the Warden clarified, already ladling tea.
"You look like a half-dead corpse," He said, handing him a cup of soothing tea. "Drink."
Alicia groaned. "Uncle, stop scaring him."
"What? I'm being hospitable." He said deadpan. "And if this much scares him, then you must have brought me a weak one."
Alicia sighed. "He may be weak, but he's got a lot of potential."
Brutus britsled. "Hey! weak-?"
"How can a twig like him have potential?" He scoffed.
"Twig-?!" Brutus sputtered.
Alicia crossed her arms. "Uncle, how do you kill Misalligned?"
"Howelse?" he grunted. "Predict where they'll go and crush them." He turned to tend to the soup.
"Well, this 'twig'-"
"Oh come on-"
"-Found out their weakness"
The Warden paused mid-stir. "And what's that?"
"It's their shadow." She said. "Their shadow shows you where they really are"
He froze.
Turned.
And stared at Brutus.
"That's it?" He turned back to the soup.
Alicia blinked "What? What do you mean, 'that's it'?"
"Who needs some special weakness to kill weaklings like the Misaligned?" He stirred the pot.
Alicia stood frozen, mouth agape. "You do realise that you're just stupidly strong...right?"
He stopped stirring, looked at her.
And back at the soup.
Grunted. "Mhh"
"Anyway, what im saying is that the guy's got potential." She looked at Brutus. "And he's not all that weak either." And smiled softly.
Brutus flashed a frail smile as he felt the Warden's gaze crushing him.
His knees wobbled.
The Warden ladled some hot soup into two bowls. "Here, eat." He stood up, handed the bowl to Alicia and slammed the other into Brutus' chest.
Brutus wheezed.
He trudged over to the entrance and hoisted the bloody sword up off the wall. "You can eat on the way."
Brutus and Alicia looked at each other.
"Sorry, but where are we going? Sir Warden?" Brutus muttered.
The warden froze in the doorway, sword over his shoulder, and looked back. "To kill a basilisk."
Brutus and Alicia looked at each other again.
This time. Mortified.
They hurried after him
"S-Sorry, sir Warden?" he stammered ", I thought you already killed whatever was out there."
The Warden grunted. "No, I didn't kill it"
Brutus' face paled. 'If a sword expert like the Warden can't kill the basilisk... then what use are we?!'
He continued. "I got thirsty."
Brutus blinked. "Oh... I see..."
He looked at Alicia, but she simply shrugged. Like, this was totally normal.
Brutus looked back. "Uh, sir Warden, can I ask what that mountain of bones in your backyard is...?"
The Warden didn't even look back.
"Those were just the ones that annoyed me"
Brutus quickly quieted down. "Ah... of course."
He sheepishly followed the Warden.
After a while of traversing the silent orange dunes, Brutus turned to Alicia.
"Hey, what is a basilisk anyway?" He whispered.
"Hmm? You know what snakes are, right?"
Brutus thought. "I think so, yeah... why?"
Alicia smirked.
"Well, imagine a snake"
Brutus nodded slowly.
"Now make it a thousand times bigger."
Brutus froze mid-step.
Alicia added cheerfully. "Oh! And don't forget the venom. Strong enough to melt steel plate."
Brutus' bowl nearly slipped out of his hand.
...
Step, step, another step.
The usually soft orange sand hardened into coarse lumps of dirt. And the once smooth dunes have now warped, jagged mounds clawed open by violence. Bottomless holes gaping randomly across the landscape, and colossal crates littered the ground like huge scars.
Brutus slowed, eyes widening.
The further they walked, the more the sand turned to stone, and the more the ground looked destroyed.
He swallowed.
"Did... the basilisk do all this?"
The Warden didn't answer, just kept walking.
But Brutus understood all the same.
They kept walking. And more sand turned to stone.
And eventually, all that was around the three was stone.
Brutus looked around tensely, laying his eyes on the occasional claw mark and ripped open earth.
He felt the dried earth crack under his feet.
Brutus opened his mouth to speak-
But the ground trembled.
It was soft at first, like a heartbeat pulsing through the sand.
Then the second tremor.
Stronger.
closer.
A shadow slid beneath the dunes.
"Brutus", Alicia Stiffened.
"Yeah?"
"Stop walking."
But it was too late
The sand ahead exploded into a litany of dry clay, stone and sand.
Behind it, a twisting shadow could be seen unfolding.
One of an unending snake. A basilisk.
A blood-curdling shriek pierced through the air and permeated throughout the Wild-Lands.
Brutus attempted to protect his ears, but the sound reverberated throughout his skull.
As quick as the basilisk appeared, the Warden had already unsheathed his sword and begun charging at the monster. His deep blue eyes reflected a cold, merciless determination.
The Warden collided with the monster's tail before Brutus could even catch his breath. Steel met with scale in a crack of sparks.
The basilisk recoiled, its massive body pushed back by the impact, shaking the earth hard enough to shake dust off distant dunes.
Brutus stumbled backwards, nearly falling.
"What's the plan?!" He shouted over the chaos.
Alicia drew her blade. "We stay alive! That's the first step!"
The snake lunged, with fangs as tall as the Warden himself, who slid beneath the strike and carved a large arc on the underside of the basilisk, sparks screaming off his blade.
Brutus' legs locked for a heartbeat— instinct, not choice. His body screamed danger, but his mind scrambled for any opening.
"Brutus!" Alicia roared.
He looked over. "Yeah?!"
"Move!" She hissed.
Turning back, Brutus instinctively rolled out of the way. The basilisk's tail crashed into the ground where he just stood, grinding it to dust as if it were chalk.
Alicia swiftly hooked her hands on his shoulders and shoved him behind a cracked boulder.
A deafening crash rang out as the Warden was launched into the air, landing in a roll and charging straight back at the basilisk again.
"Hey!" Alicia barked.
He snapped to her.
"Focus! You're good at this, just focus!" she commanded.
Another thunderous boom echoed.
"A weakness!" She panted.
"All you need to find is a weakness! It's what you do best, isn't it?"
Brutus peered from behind the stone; the basilisk's form veered and contorted...
But he managed to fix his eyes on it.
Brutus swallowed hard. "Right. Right..."
Alicia smirked, "You think you can do that?!"
He turned to her. "I can!"
Alicia pulled him onto his feet. "Then prove it!"
Brutus steadied his breathing.
Unsheathed his sword.
And for the first time...
He stepped forward.