The Serpent in the Sands

[Lord Vader]

The Sahara Desert, 12:43 PM, 150 Miles Southwest of Sabha, Libya

Sweat ran down the side of his face like a sheet of water as the broiling Sahara sun rose high into the sky and beat down upon his tiny form. Blindly, with no regard to where he was going or what he was doing, the young boy of only eleven ran for his life. Every ounce of energy in his body was focused into keeping him going as he ran faster and harder than never before in his life. His veins were on fire and his lungs scorched as he ran deeper and deeper into the desert.

Trailing behind the boy were two more. Both of them had the same look of dread on their faces. Both of them could feel every inch of their body aching and begging to rest. And yet the three of them all ran on until they could run no more and they collapsed, falling off the side of steep dune and tumbling to the sands below.

During their exodus, the boy in the lead had clutched the battered body of a chicken in his hands. Wrung by the neck and covered in botched feathers, the lifeless piece of poultry was the sole reason for their fleeing. The two boys turned to the lead, a mix of fear and anger in their eyes. Aziz looked to his brothers-in-arms, still clutching the chicken by the neck.

"You think he'll follow us this far out?" Aziz panted, looking to the two.

"Are you kidding? Old man Omar has never let a thief get away. I told you not to steal the chicken from him!" one of the boys, named Zarin, hissed out.

"Aziz, you've really screwed us over this time. If Omar doesn't kill us, the desert will. And for what? A mangled up chicken?!" the third boy, Ahmed, blurted out with a glare.

"Relax you guys." Aziz began, slowly recovering his breath. "Omar'll never find us. By the time him and his old camel get out here, we'll already be back in town having a chicken dinner. We just gotta wait it out a bit longer. Let's make for those rocks, we'll lose him in there."

Begrudgingly, the other two followed and three now calmly walked for a pair of spiraling rocks. The trio hailed from a tiny village south of Sabha and lucky for them were well acclimated to the rigors of the Sahara. A set of tricksters and thiefs, the trio had decided to steal what would be considered the golden prize of robbery in their tiny village, one of Mr. Omar's chickens. Everyone else who tried had found themselves shot by a highly protective Omar. These boys, however, were determined to break the record.

The pair of spires signalled the entrance to a small valley, made mostly of high sand dunes and rock formations. There looked to be only one out, through the main set of spires and indeed it made for a handsome little natural fortress. If Omar did follow them this far, at least they could maybe ambush him and use his gun against him. Settling into the shade and resting against a dune, the tree waited.

"We shouldn't be here." Zarin sighed as he glanced around the tiny valley worriedly.

"Yeah? And why not?" Aziz hissed, still clutching his victory prize by the neck.

"I've heard of this place. They say it's haunted. People go in, but they don't come back out. The sands eats them up or something." Zarin whispered, growing steadily nervous with each passing minute.

"You still believe in that garbage? How could the sand just eat people up? I mean if you said there was some kind of monster here, maybe I wouldn't think you're a total baby. Even then, you're an idiot." Aziz hissed.

"Well what if it is a monster, hiding in the sands?" Zarin cried out, growing angry from Aziz's angry reaction.

"If a monster lived out here, he'd starve because nothing comes in here often. No monster could survive without anything to eat." Aziz snapped back.

"You're just ignorant! You know there's a chance!" Zarin hissed back, rising to his feet.

Aziz threw the chicken to the ground as he rose up, fists already curled. Ahmed just sat back, smirking, willing to let the other two kill themselves over such a petty argument. Without a warning, the two went at it. Kicks and punches landed every which way as one tried to throw the other to the ground, the pair steadily fighting into the center of the tiny valley.

Ahmed merely chuckled, glancing to the two as he began to pluck the feathers off of the chicken. All the more for me to eat, he thought, not minding the new entertainment either. Suddenly, the sands beneath him shifted slightly and Ahmed turned quickly. Nothing. Maybe just a bit of wind, the boy thought before going back to his chicken. Seconds later, the ground disappeared beneath him and turned into a terrible mouth. Without a sound, the boy was swallowed up.

Aziz and Zarin ducked it out for another minute before they noticed Ahmed was gone. Ceasing their fight instantly, the two began to glance about the valley when the same felt beheld them. Both screamed as they managed to catch on quicker than Ahmed, Zarin trying to run up the sands as Aziz had already fallen in. The boy could still hear his friend screaming in terror and agony as swallowed down by the mouth. With no traction from the sands, Zarin could only whimper in terror as the mouth swallowed him up as well. For a moment, their screams echoed in the valley before dying away.


Hours later, Mr. Omar did indeed show up. Rifle in hand - one of the old combustion kind - and camel underneath him, the old merchant was a good desert tracker. The set of tracks ended in the valley and there was no sign that the trio had made any way out. Confused, Omar hopped down from his camel and walked about the valley, looking over the tracks. His old eyes weren't keen enough to the sand underneath him shift before a monstrous mouth enclosed around him and his camel.

Rising out of the sands, a monstrous snake like head pepped over the side of the valley and released a low hiss. Glancing up to the bright sun and giving a hiss of satisfaction, the monstrous serpent slithered over the side of the valley and made his way towards the village the boys and Omar hailed from.

Anunon would have himself a feast to celebrate his return to the world.

[Lord Vader]

The sun slowly began to set on the Sahara, its brilliant rays warming the sand as much more as they could before being tucked away into the dark horizon. The vast expanse of the dune sea was dark, though a small set of fires burned that could be seen for miles. Aziz and the others' home town was nothing more than rubble and ash with a few fires burning here and there.

Anunon hissed to himself as he slithered his way north. Lights from Sabha could just be seen over the horizon and its denizens would make for the serpent's next meal. Within an hour, he had crossed the distance entered Sabha relatively unopposed. A minute military force tried to stop him, but in the depths of the Sahara desert, its was hard to call reinforcements to such a surprise attack.

Sabha met the same fate as the town, Anunon eating as many people as he could before heading towards the Libyan coast. After all this food and all this time buried in the sands, a nice long swim would do him good. Maybe he could catch himself a real meal at the same time.

[Lord Vader]

The skies of Libya were alight with aircraft as a massive search was organized for Anunon. Three more towns had fallen to the serpent before the world was able to get out. The African Concord scrambled what air force they could for the search as the sudden string of attacks came as a terrific shock.

The search was fruitless though as the massive snake had seemingly disappeared from the face of earth as quickly he had come. The search continued for a full day with most of the Sahara being covered. Any town located in or near the Sahara was placed on high alert for the possibility of attack.

Only Anunon was no longer in the Sahara. Hearing the jets coming over the desert sands, the massive serpent burrowed deep underground and continued his trek to the Mediterannean. Indeed, hours later Anunon burst through a wall of sand and earth and found himself in the waters of the Mediterannean. It was night now and luckily noone had seen him.

Anunon began to slowly cruise West, his body just meters under the surface as he looked for any possible boats to attack.

[Lord Vader]

Anunon smirked as he submerged deep into the Mediterannean, leaving the hulking shell of the fishing barge behind him to rot and sink. As he dove deep, his belly full of fish and men, his mind replayed the little event for his own enjoyment.

As he swam west along the North African coast, the serpent managed to come across a massive fishing barge. The captain of the barge had seen the serpent on his radar however and already had his fishermen on deck. He had mistaken Anunon for a school of massive fish, thinking he could make a big return on the catch. His fishermen stood on the deck, spears and harpoons in hand. Unlike the days of old, these were laser guided with a rocket.

Anunon was no school of fish however. Seeing the barge, he swam past it once to get a good assessment of the target. In the process, a series of harpoons and spears slammed into his back from the deck of the barge. Though they caused more of an agitation than pain, the hulking serpent was enraged from the attack. He dove deep, gearing himself for battle.

"Let's get the hell out of here. That's a monster, not a school of fish!" the first mated yelled as he slammed down on the throttle of the barge. Its motors churned to life, pushing the lumbering craft ahead. It was a sitting duck if there ever was one, its measly twelve knots nothing compared to Anunon's two hundred and fifty.

Rising up from the depths, the massive serpent proceeded to wrap itself around the barge from below. What it lacked in speed, the barge made up for in hull integrity - which meant nothing to Anunon. With a single pull, the massive snake crushed the ship's support beams folding it almost in half. Thousands of fish tumbled out of their bins and into the center of the boat along with the crew as Anunon placed his head at the bottom of the ship. Lifting the barge out of the water, the snake hissed in delight as it poured the fish and crew into its mouth.

Dehinging his jaw, Anunon took the massive load of food in a single bite, swallowing it down with ease. Effortlessly, he tossed the battered barge aside, watching as it drifted towards shore. He then rehinged his jaw before diving deep again into the depths of the Mediterannean, continuing his course west.

Hours later, the battered and crushed hull of a fishing barge washed shore on a Moroccan beach. The beach goers were stunned to discover they had a problem far worse than any shark.

[Lord Vader]

A pale moon rested over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean as Anunon, the mighty serpent, broke the waves. Just a few miles off the western coast of Africa, the mighty serpent had spent the past few days cruising about the waters. He had eaten his fill of fish and whales and now looked for something to do, a challenge as it were. But even as he submerged to the darkest depths in the area, he found no beast awaiting him ready to fight.

This distraught Anunon, the mighty serpent growing restless with each passing day. Perhaps it was because of this that he crushed another fishing tanker without eating any of the fish. He was already full and the last thing he needed was to be stuffed. Gliding through the midnight waves, his eyes pierced the darkness. Hopefully something would rear its head so he could bite it off.

[King of Slackers]

Miles away, on a deserted shore of the Western Sahara...

The glittering moonlight danced across the waves of the beach, water crashing and receding against the shoreline. However, the quiet beach was soon to have an unusual visitor, for slowly, ever so slowy, a huge form began to rise up onto the beach. The form of the crocidiliod daikaiju, Sobek.
With ponderous intent, the bulky monster trundled up onto the sand, it's tail dragging behind it. Water ran off it's scales like hundreds of small waterfalls. After marching a ways up the beach and into the grassline, Sobek reared up on it's hind legs and sat back on his haunches. After a cursory survey of his surroundings, which only revealed the distant lights of Layoun, he decided this spot was just as good as any, and promptly lowered himself back down to the ground. Turning his body parallel to the beautifull shore, he began to sleep, though he kept his eyes open, for he was still a wary kaiju, even at rest. In the light of the night, the massive monster appeared to be nothing more than a hill rising out of the grass.

[Trik]

King Cobra watched the giant crocodile land in anticipation, a meal this side could tide him over for weeks. This snake slid through the sand quietly positioning himself several hundred meters behind the crocodile before bursting out of the ground and spraying his glue at the reptile with the hope of ensuring a quick kill.

[King of Slackers]

Hissing in surprise, Sobek started forward, the glue doing little to keep him in place as he wrenched himself free. After a few lumbering paces forward, he began to slowly turn himself around.

[Trik]

OOC: I'd say the glue would have been more of a problem for him, but whatever.


Before Sobek could turn around however King Cobra burst forward wrapping himself around Sobek squeezing the main body tighter with every passing while keeping the beasts jaws shut as well. This seemed almost too easy.

[King of Slackers]

OOC: Well, it's tough to anchor something into sand.

Surprised, Sobek grunted and shook, rearing himself up on his hind legs. He couldn't seem to pry the beast off of his mouth, and it seemed to be trying to choke him, though his bulky frame was doing a fine job of slowing down that proccess.
In retaliation, he brought his short arms into play, gripping the thinner snake by digging his talons into his scaly hide and tugging powerfully.

[Trik]

OOC: True enough.... I guess I'll just have to the strategy real snakes use when hunting crocs

King Cobra hissed as Sobek's small arms tried to dig into his skin. The Giant snake bit deeply into one of the arms and began to pump his venom into it, as the limb fell limp King Cobra began to apply more pressure on the crocodile's body, even if the croc had armor he was still vulnerable to internal damage through his squeeze.

[King of Slackers]

OOC: It takes a daring snake indeed to even attempt to take down a larger foe like a crocodile. But even then, it usually doesn't go too well.

Sobek grunted as he felt his arm go numb. Fighting through it, he desperately tried to move the limb again. However, thinking quickly, he used his other hand to lash out and catch King Cobra's head, his taloned hand gripping firmly around the giant snake's skull while he bit into the crocodile's arm. Shaking his head side to side, he started to put pressure on the insiduous' Kaiju's head in an effort to get him to stop his infernal squeezing.

OOC: Now, two things are going to happen. One is you let me go, with no guarantee that I'm going to do the same to you. Or I'm going to make a mess. You did good in getting my arm (by the by, I don't quite think it should have been so instananeous, but I'll let it slide), but I have you in checkmate.

[Lord Vader]

Just a few miles away in the waves, Anunon slightly sat just below the surface watching the unfolding battle. While any impulsive creature would charge in head first and attempt to win the day, the massive serpent was wiser than that. Silently, he bidded his time and waited. Surely, there would be a victor and a loser and Anunon was clever enough to wait for the decision to be made before he launched his attack.

Thus, the massive serpent sat just below the surface as he watched the titans rage on. Things looked bad for his fellow serpent, yet Anunon felt no compassion to go and assist him.

[Trik]

OOC: In case anyone was wondering Croc's have an excellent sense of smell that increases

As King Cobra unwrapped himself from Sobek and positioned himself so that he was infront of the croc he unleashed a thick cloud of gas from the holes on his neck that enveloped both combatants in less than a second. As the gas cloud reached his nostrils Sobek found himself inhaling the most wretched smelling thing ever smelt...probably. King Cobra trying to take advantage of Sobek's surprise and started thrashing with all his might to try and escape.

[King of Slackers]

The foul smelling odor managed to waft in through Sobek's small nostrils, and as soon as the electrical impulses to his brain were able to proccess the horrifying aroma, his reaction was clear: a disgust so murderous and vehement, that sent a shudder so strong through his body that he was able, for a split second, to open his constricted jaws and hiss loudly in revulsion.
Swaying dangerously about in his attempt to escape the vile smell, when King Cobra began to writhe and churn around his body, the massive Kaiju croc had had enough. With Cobra's head still in his hand, Sobek wrenched his arm with all his might and slammed the snake's head against the ground with terrible force. The impact sent up a cloud of sand and jagged rock, and when the dust settled King Cobra was still, his eyes whitened: he was in shock.
Panting heavily and lumbering further up the beach, Sobek sloughed off the coils of his deadly foe. With his adrenal rush slowly wearing off and feeling gradually returning to his arm, the victorious Kaiju stomped his way northwards.