We hiked up and down the long mountain range as we got closer to the Ocean. In Acoda oceans were to far away and took months to get to. The oceans though were not the most spectacular sight during the day and it was only at dawn or dusk that it was the most beautiful and made the journey worth it. I went with my family before the fire, I was about 5 but the memory was still clear as day in my head and was one of the few good memories I had left.

The sea glittered with the suns reflection like diamonds dancing on top the seas surface. It was royal blue and stretched out for miles undisturbed. There were no waves and there wasn't even a hint of a ripple in the vast blue desert. Sangius Ignis slightly rotated his head as if to give her a silent message to stop.

"We're here."

Beyond where he was standing was bench parked next to a flight of stairs which headed down to the sandy shore. I rose my eyebrow as if to say to continue and finish his sentence.

"You are going to go down to the beach while I watch you from up here where it is safe and I have a good view of whats going on."

"What about when I am under water?"

"I can see through water."

"Liar."

"Keep saying that when your under."

I rolled my eyes and and looked behind him again.

"Your not going to go with me?"

He gave me a faintly amused look. "Your dreaming if you think I am going out there with you of all people. No I am just going to observe your pain and suffering."

He gave a cruel smile and walked over to the seat. "You can go out to the beach now if you wish."

I lifted an eye brow at him as he lounged on the bench and looked me over one more time. "You know how to swim right?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

I had learnt to swim years ago but it was never my most 'preferred' skill.

His face went blank giving no hint of any emotion as if he had none. "You'll need the skill. I will also chuck you a weapon when you call for it but I will only give one and you can only use your call once so make it count."

With that he he looked towards the sea. He made a hand gesture to hurry up and go. I took off my boots and slowly moved my feet to the golden sand. Before I stepped on the beach I monitored it for any signs of danger as Ignis obviously did not bring me here so I make sand castles and ride on waves. 

No I am here to do some painful shit that will almost get me killed. Sounds relaxing and simple enough. The beach was calm but it felt as if it was dead and all the life had been drained from it. There wasn't even the slightest sound and nothing stirred the sand and the Royal blue ocean.

I looked back at Ignis who was just observing me and it felt like he was a hawk watching his next meal. I turned to look at the golden sand which was a mere step away. I stepped onto the feather soft sand which just fell off my feet as I them and it felt absolutely perfect. I faintly smiled but didn't let my guard down.

I continued walking towards the ocean and saw a flicker of movement through the corner of my eye. I frowned and looked straight where I saw the movement and watched as the movements grew bigger and bigger. Then something jumped out of the sand. A Sand Lion.  It had the face of a sand cat and the body of a lioness, well honed and potentially lethal. It was about as high as my knees, it's canine teeth were razor sharp and as long as my pointer finger.

It looked anything but friendly. I noticed more movements as more of these things crawled out of the sand and I quickly realised I was their next meal. I turned around to observe my surroundings. I knew I was probably suppose to save my weapon choice until I was about to die but i was running out of options here. "Hey Ignis I could use a sword and shield if it wouldn't be to much bloody trouble!" I basically screamed it at him. 

He looked me over and a sharp silver sword glittered in response to the suns reflection with a black leather handle and next to it lied a matching silver shield. I quickly strapped the shield on my left hand and yielded the sword on my right. The sand lion pounced. I put my shield up to block the attack but the sound of her claws scraping against the shield could probably have been heard from miles away.

One after the other they came up and each time I evaded their attacks but i knew my luck wouldn't last much longer as they started to get their act together and came at once. I finally put that blade in my hand to use. As I deflected one attack I killed the other lion which ran up behind me. I beheaded the Lion in front of me and pivoted to stab the air born lion which was virtually on top of me. 

I killed it but didn't avoid the slashing of the dead lions claws on my leg. I was losing blood. Too much blood. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer as I was backing towards the ocean which lied a few meters away but even I knew I wouldn't be much safer there, though it was better than dying on the blood drenched sand. A wall of sand lions quickly lined up in formation to block my path to the water. 

 Clever little beasts. So all I needed to do now was to slaughter all of these rutting wild beasts to get to the water and to get the hell out of here after I defeated whatever the devil kept in there. Sadly my will to live is stronger than my bloody common sense (that's if I had any), so I charge at 20 full grown, wild sand lions with an over sized knife, a circular shield to protect me and a bleeding leg that is completely useless. Sounds pretty accurate to what I was doing right now. So here I am half running half limping towards the wall of Sand Lions with a sword and shield.

The odds were anything but in my favour. One by one i hacked away at the Lions my attacks growing weaker and weaker with every swing of my sword. I desperately needed to stop the bleeding in my leg before I bleed to death. Through the few of the remaining lions I saw a small newborn cub only about a day or two old and wandering around wondering where his mother had gone. As I noticed this the other lions stopped attacking me and fed leaving the cub behind, I the distance I saw a strange bird with a snakes head approach hard and fast for the lone cub.

Save the cub and die or make my way to the water and die there. Either way I was gonna die so why not do something I will probably regret until I go insane? So I dragged my useless, bloody, dying body over to the young cub. I slowly stood up and got my sword ready to rip off the things head. It was something that was hideous.

It had a jade scaly snake like head with a bony body and dirt brown feathers covering it's skeletal body.  It's mouth had two black fangs sticking down it's mouth dripping with deadly black venom, it's talons were an old yellow and sharper than the edge of my blade. My blade compared to the size of this thing was like me putting a thorn in it's body, small, irritating and anything but lethal. It was as if it grew bigger with every snap of it's hideous mouth, flicking it's blood red tongue out every once in a while.

It came in for the fatal swoop, talons in front of it as it came in faster than I could see. I blindly swung my sword as the talons ripped through my vulnerable left arm, blood sprayed everywhere as I winced at the blinding pain, I kept standing though my body was still dripping with blood. I kept swinging helplessly and the beast. The next time it dived it buried it's fangs deep into my throat and I choked on the venom. I fell to my knees and my vision blurred. My blood making a pool around my small body.  

The beast made the final swoop for the cub. I lifted my sword with what was left of my shredded arm and threw as hard as I could for that beasts head. It struck home as it dropped in mid fight and the echo of it's head falling on the ground could have probably been heard for miles. The cub blinked and looked at me. It's brilliant blue eyes looked into my dying brown ones, His golden fur danced in the flaming sun. He prodded over to me and stopped at the temple of my back. 

He opened his mouth, showing off his jaws and the darkness consumed me once again.