After the orcs and trolls left the battlefield, the place returned to its tranquil state as silence reigned over it except for the occasional howling of the passing wind. The place was like a graveyard, a graveyard for the giant scorpions whose corpses were strewn all over the place.

Tails, pincers, and bits of carapace were all over the place including the unsalvageable weapons that slew them. The tranquility of the place was soon disturbed by huge rolling waves of sands that were headed towards the corpses of the slain.

The huge waves of sands stopped a few paces away from where the corpses were at. It was eerily silent but anyone who would have witnessed the size of the sands rolling would have their scalps tingling, only a creature of an enormous size could move that much sand as it moved.

It didn’t take long before something burst out from the sands, it was long and thick and covered in spikes on its thinner end. Seconds after the first one came out, it was followed by another one then another one till there were six of those spike-covered things wriggling around. They didn’t emerge out from the sands entirely as most of their length was still hidden beneath the endless sands.

Like a responsible cleaner, the spike-covered things began coiling themselves on the corpses and proceeded to drag them down. Every single one of the corpses was being taken by the wriggling things and dragged them underneath the sands. The creatures began their retreat and disappeared under the sands once again and huge swats of sands began rolling off once again.

The place was dug up as sands from underneath went up and the ones atop were sent down. Whatever was moving underneath the sands headed to the south after cleaning the place. No one would suspect that the place was a battlefield before and filled with corpses everywhere after the clean-up.

*****

To the east, Baron Husani was beginning to become impatient. He was pacing back and forth inside his carriage and waiting for reports with a glass of wine in his hands. All his women were left behind in the camp since he can longer enjoy them and the sight of them would just remind him of his incomplete self.

The Ereians were busy scouring their surroundings but they didn’t even caught sight of the figures snooping around where they were at. It was still pretty dark as it was still early morning and the primary light giver still hasn’t risen yet.

“How are we supposed to find our enemies like this… It’s so dark that I can’t even make out anything in front of me without this torch.” an Ereian soldier grumbled as he waved the torch in his hand around to light up where he was headed to.

“Go ask the Baron if you have the guts…” the one to his left replied with his voice filled with annoyance. They were deprived of sleep the past days and they were all exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually. Some of them are now easily irritated with the slightest things and brawls would have been rampant if they didn’t fear being executed on the spot by their high and mighty commanders due to causing some disturbances and delaying the command of their Lord.

“Am just saying…” the one holding the torch replied as he continued in his search. They are all on the edge and just the slightest conflicts would surely spark a brawl among them if not kept in check.

“Keep moving… Continue the search and clam your mouths if you don’t have anything important to say.” a booming voice sounded behind them from the one overseeing their group. Their overseer was a middle-aged man wearing an almost complete set of plate armor like that of the Ereian Royal Army. He was a silent person but very strict and will not hesitate to kill anyone under him who disobeys orders.

“Easy for you to say…” the man on the right of the one leading their way grumbled softly. “It’s not like we get to enjoy the luxuries that you enjoy…” he continued to grumble.

“One more word from you and my blade will find its way to your neck.” their overseer gave a stern warning as he moved his hand towards the hilt of his sword. He stared at the one who was grumbling and if stare could kill, the man would have been long dead.

“Should we mess with them…” a soft whisper from someone in the shadow suggested before chuckling softly as they watched the humans who are unaware of their presence. They are hiding almost in plain sight with just the sands covering them, they would be easily spotted if their enemies would just look more carefully around them.

“Not yet… We should wait for the chief and the other to arrive first before we cause some trouble.” a deeper voice responded to the suggestion and his eyes carefully watching the movements of the humans in front of them just a few feet away from where they are hiding.

The Verakhs had no idea that their chieftain and the rest of their comrades were ambushed along the way as they moved ahead of them. And those that ambushed their allies didn’t make use of normal means to reach their comrades and eluded their detection.

“The sun is almost up and we will be exposed for all of them to see. I don’t want to be surrounded from all sides when that happens and I still don’t trust the trolls to watch our backs.” the one who made the suggestion spoke once again as he pointed a finger at where the sun would be at when it rises.

“Let’s just wait for a few more moments. If the chief and the others will still not arrive then we can cause some disturbances in their camp.” the deeper voice came once again. He too was puzzled by the reason why their chieftain and the others are still not here.

“Search thoroughly… Forget about your rations if you can’t report anything good.” the overseer of the Ereians muttered like dropping a death sentence as he raised his bag of water to have some drink and quench his thirst

Murmurs of complaints began to take over the group of Ereians as they stared at their overseer with stares filled with anger. They have been deprived of sleep, exhausted and now even their rations will be taken away.

“You have some problems with that!” their overseer shouted with a loud voice and making his authority be felt as soldiers that were loyal to him because of how he treats them surrounded the others.. His hand moved towards the hilt of his sword once again as he gave those who are grumbling a threatening glare.