Author's Note:

So I know its been forever since I've posted, but I'm still writing. It's just taking me a bit. As always, review, favorite, follow, and enjoy.

Chapter 22: "Danger"

Habib wasn't kidding when he said that there were killer worms out her in the desert. As we made our way tripping left and right over the dunes of sand, we pushed forward to the farthest cliffside, but it was not easy task. Aside from the landscape being covered in dunes and the killer worms hunting us down, the heat was nearly killing us.

Of course, when it came to the worms, I had to deal with them, but what Habib was actually both shocking and hilarious; whenever he saw a worm coming at us, he'd jump up and start chunking clumps of sand at it. Although, this became a problem at times due to the fact that the sand would become a cloud and linger near the ground, which in turn would blind my vision.

We made it a good ways into the desert before Habib begged for us to stop and have a water break; I happily obliged. I took a single drink of water then handed it to Habib, who foolishly started gulping it down like he was dying. I quickly yelled at him,

"Don't do that! Stop drinking!"

He stopped and wiped his mouth, followed by heavy breathing,

"What?"

"You do realize that is all the water we have to last us this trip,"

He looked at the canteen then handed it to me,

"Sorry. If you wanted another drink, you could've just asked,"

I slapped my forehead,

"No! I don't want another drink! You've probably already wasted it all!"

He started to get annoyed,

"Listen, just calm down, I brought my own water canteen,"

This loosened my up considerably,

"Alright, fine. Just drink out of yours from now on,"

He nodded.

We proceeded further across the desert, climbing over dunes and fending off worms. The sun began to set and fall behind the mountains, bringing cooler air to the desert, but a unwanted factor to nightfall was that more creatures began to emerge. Along with the worms, there were scorpions, snakes, bugs, and the fabled sand giants.

I had heard legends of these sand giants. They said that the sand giant would come at you from where you'd least and attempt to pull you underground and suffocate you to death, although, I didn't even dare to think about what happened after that.

It was later into the night by the time we finally managed to cross the desert and reach the cliffside we were aiming for, but there was still a problem; there was no clear way as to getting up the cliff.

The Prophet made it clear that the temple would not be located on the sand, but on solid ground, which left the most reasonable place to the cliffside. Habib only stared at me as I inspected the cliff for a way up, but he soon lost interest and laid down on the sand; I didn't notice this.

I successfully found a manageable climbing spot and tried to get up from there. Luckily, I was able to get up onto the cliff. As I turned around to tell Habib to follow me up, I was met with a dilemma: Habib was fast asleep and there was a shaking pile of sand moving towards him. I judged it had to be a sand giant and that Habib was in a life or death situation. I called out to him,

"Habib! Wake up!"

He stirred, but didn't wake up. The giant was closing in,

"HABIB! WAKE UP!"

He jumped up at the sound of my screaming, but fell back down. I heard him let out a deafening yelp and watched as he ran as fast as his feet could carry him towards me. It was a close call, but I think he was running faster then the giant following. When he reached the cliffside, he started jumping towards me and yelling.

"Get me up! Get me up!"

I stretched my arm out as far as I could in order to reach Habib, but I wasn't able to reach him. He continued to jump higher and higher before I was finally able to grab his fingers; It was all for naught.

The giant, by this time, had finally reached Habib and was pulling him under the sand. My adrenaline was pumping at this point and I focused all my strength on combating the pull of the giant. It got harder and harder to keep hold on him, and the screams that blasted into my ear from Habib made it much worse.

I strained to hold on, but it was worthless. The giant's strength overcame my own and ended with Habib letting out one last scream before being pulled under the sand. He was gone.

I got back up the cliff and laid down. I failed in protecting him, and know he is dead. It's was my fault. I laid and stared out at the stars, crying. I felt as if I couldn't go on, at least, not after what happened.

I heard a soft rumble, but ignored it. It gradually became louder as time past, until the point where it began to shake the earth. I sat up, and stopped crying. The rumbling was caused by something in the sand. Eventually the rumble reached its climax and a figure shot right out of the sand and landed back down on top of a dune.

I immediately jumped down from the cliff and ran after the figure, and to my relief, it was Habib; however, he was unconscious. I picked him and laid him over my shoulder and went back to the cliff. With a great deal of effort involved, I boosted him up onto the cliff and got up myself. I went and knelt down and set my head on his chest; his hear was beating. I said a prayer of thanksgiving to the Goddess and started feeling his throat. I was glad to find out he didn't have any sand in his mouth, so I pulled out my canteen and started pouring water on his face.

He stirred and finally woke up coughing heavily. I was so happy,

"Habib! Your alive!"

He finally ceased coughing and looked at me funny, then held his head,

"What in the name of Hyrule happened?"

I raised an eyebrow,

"You don't remember?"

He shook his head. I sighed,

"A sand giant got a hold of you. I thought you were killed!"

He scratched his head,

"Well, I'm here,"

"Maybe the giant didn't like the taste of you?"

He laughed,

"Yeah, sure. I guess I just got lucky, but I'm deathly tired right now,"

I looked up, I guess we can call it a night,"