His face paled, and his eyes grew large. He lifted his hands, the fingers thin as claws as he swiped at me, but I had already moved out of the way. What had been a normal face elongated and opened, showing row upon row of dagger teeth.
I ran.
I knew I couldn't go far. My mouth had filled with white dust, and my legs began to cramp. I had only a small reserve of magic and felt no link back to my friends.
It would have had me if it hadn't laughed.
The sound brought me up short, and I tripped over my own legs. I hate when an enemy laughs at me. In a moment of Shosha-like rage, I spun to go after him.
The monster tripped over me.
"Nooooooo!"
It hit the ground in slow motion and dissolved into white dust.
He didn't reform. I stared for a long time, fighting the urge to laugh. That would hardly be appropriate considering my reaction to his laughter.
Besides, except for his disappearance, nothing had changed. White dust hung in the still air where not even a slight breeze gave respite from the sun and heat. The most I could hear was my own breathing.
Colin would be looking for me. So would Dorian, and even Luna in her own way. I only had to wait. And survive.
No, not wait. Sitting still was the best way to make myself a target. Other things might lurk not far away, white and invisible in this overwhelming light. If I sat still, I might hear them. When I tried that, all I could hear was My own breathing, which sounded like a roaring wind. I got up and started walking again, following my own footsteps back to where we began. I hoped it would be easier for Colin to find me if I was near where I'd been dropped in the first place. That started me wondering why he had not shown up yet. After all, he was getting a lot of practice at this work.
I found the end of the footsteps and saw nothing but my own prints. There was no sign of the creature with all the teeth. I tried to make myself believe that it wasn't real.
"Colin?"
Something moved, but it wasn't my fae friend. I saw something about the size of my hand stand up from the sand. It was a miniature of Mr. Teeth. When it came closer, I slapped it hard enough that it disintegrated back into the sand. That pleased me, so I did the same when a couple more appeared. Then, a few more seemed to join together and make a bigger version.
I wasn't quite so pleased now, but I could still get them hard enough to send them back into their sand base. Fortunately, there were not many of them, but some were getting large. Despite that I'd still had no relief from the heat and white dust, I managed to get to my feet and dash -- no, stager -- into them. It helped that they were coming at me, so I didn't have to move much. They annoyed me. None of them was the size that would scare me, so I took advantage of this stage as I danced around the little area, slapping, kicking, and biting. I didn't do that one again since it got me a mouthful of dust. Slap. That one didn't work, and it showed me they were getting stronger as they got larger. A distant part of my mind still hoped for rescue, but I had turned my own status to survival.
Plop.
Colin arrived. "What the hell?" he demanded and scrambled to his feet. "Ow!"
He shook one of the creatures free of his hand, and it disintegrated as it hit the ground.
"Well, that's better. The thing bit me. How many teeth does it have?"
"Welcome to my nightmare." I coughed, my voice ragged. "You don't want ... want to meet the full version. Get me out of here."
"If we leave now, we'll have to come back and deal with this later." Colin grabbed up one by the arm and shook some sand from it. "You are a frightful little monster, aren't you? More of an annoyance than a danger, though."
"You haven't met the larger version."
Colin finally picked me up. I could feel his magic, which made me feel better -- until I saw the sand men joining into a form larger than the one that had faced me.
I expected Colin to take us away. Instead, he stared at the creature stomping its way to us.
"Can we go now, Colin?"
"We need information. If you were made of sand, what would you fear?"
"Wind," I replied. "But that doesn't bother him. He just reforms. I might try rain."
"Water," Colin said with a nod. He knelt and put me down. "Don't panic. This won't take long."
Fae, being as old as the world and immortal, have an odd idea of time. Sometimes, I err in that way, too. This was not the time with my enemy only a few steps away. Could I bury myself in the sand?
I made one sad little hissing sound as the thing reached toward me --
Then, it pulled away in shock. My eyes blurred as I scrambled backward, but my legs didn't want to work. The ground pulled at me. I shivered --
Not fear. I was suddenly cool and unexpectedly found myself splashing in water.
Mister Teeth had begun splashing as well, but not with the joy I felt. The water was up to his knees, and he was not disintegrating. In fact, he looked more solid.
This was supposed to help?
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