When Steven awoke, the first thing he noticed was the searing, scorching heat. The second thing was the smell of salt. A caw rang out, and something began to peck at Steven's feet. He blinked his eyes open slowly, squinting at the bright sun which hung above him. His skull pounded, and he felt nauseous. Steven groaned, leaning up and looking at the perpetrator which accosted his feet. Instead of a seagull, which he was expecting (perhaps somewhat foolishly), it was something that could only be described as a kola bear mixed with a lizard. Two, small bone-white horns poked out from its furry head, and a scaly tail protruded from its likewise furry backside. Leathery wings flapped against the hot and dry wind. The creature, which Steven had never seen before (so far having not ventured from Anaxian) picked at Steven's boots, seemingly trying to pry them off. Steven gave a slight kick, not too hard, and the creature took a few steps back, eyeing Steven. A low growl began to emit from its stomach, and it opened its mouth wide, a red, burning furnace igniting in its belly. Steven's eyes went wide.

  "Holy shit", Steven spat, quickly staggering up and running right as the creature unleashed a stream of fire. Steven ran for a good dozen feet more, before stopping and turning around. The creature huffed and puffed, pacing back and forth on its legs and fists as it eyed Steven. The low growl began again, and it prepared for another attack.

  "Zef! Netur-da!", a rough, male voice shouted. Atop a grassy hill stood a small figure, donned in a tattered, black cloak with vintage, metallic goggles and a wooden staff.

  The koala-lizard turned for the figure, releasing a snake like hiss. It flapped its wings, lifting off the sand and flying for the figure with its claws outstretched. The rumble in its stomach began again. Like a cowboy in an old western, the figure flung back its cloak, a belt lined with weapons on their waist. The figure removed a pistol from its holster, aiming for the creature which was now only several feet away and firing. A beam of blue energy fired out, hitting the koala-lizard midair. The koala-lizard crashed into the sand with a thud, tumbling for several feet before finally coming to a stop. It stumbled up like a drunkard, swaying back and forth before rising its fist to the figure as if in curses and flying away.

  Steven approached the figure.

  "Thanks."

  "Zef! Kim-luffar!", the figure shouted out, aiming their gun for Steven.

  "Whoa", Steven said, putting his hands up and stepping back. "I mean no harm. I'm just..."

  Steven looked around, a blue ocean behind him, and sand ahead of him, beyond that grassy hills.

  "I think I'm lost", Steven said.

  "Kemar Jundti!", the figure said, approaching Steven. Two other figures came over the hilltop, one wearing an ashen colored robotic suit of some sort, which seemed too large for his body. Over it was likewise draped a tattered, black cloak. The other was a tall and lanky figure, wearing a flight suit much like Steven's, except obsidian black, the material worn and weathered. The figure stopped a few feet from Steven, observing him for a brief moment.

  "Zay effar?", the figure said.

  "Um...what?", Steven replied.

  The figure reached into the satchel that hung from its belt, rummaging for a moment, gun still aimed at Steven, before removing a small tube. The figure threw the tube on the ground, cracking it. Black liquid spilled out, and a withering, twitching worm of some kind began to crawl away. The figure quickly picked it up before it could become lost in the sand, walking to Steven. They outstretched their hand.

  "Kep feude far."

  "Um...", Steven said, eyeing the worm with barely disguised disgust. "D-do you want me to eat that or something? Cause I'm not that hungry, I actually just ate-"

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Kep feude far!", the figure shouted, stepping to Steven and slamming the worm in his ear. The creature quickly burrowed its way into Steven's earlobe, a moment later Steven feeling a pinch somewhere deep within his skull.

  "Ah! Fuck!", Steven spat, putting a hand to his ear as he stumbled backwards.

  "Kep Etar keper-fucking idiot is probably useless to us anyways. Wait, look at his face..can you understand me now?"

  Steven groaned, looking up at the figure.

  "W-what the fuck was that?"

  "What do you mean? It's a translation worm. Duh. Are you such an idiot that you don't even have one?"

  "A what?"

  "Translation worm", the figure sighed, taking off their helmet. A young girl was revealed to be the source of the gruff voice. The sun reflected on her coffee hued face, dusky eyes that reminded Steven somewhat of Sarah. "It's a worm, man made. It goes to the cerebral cortex part of the brain that's mainly responsible for understanding speech and attaches itself there. Permanently. It literally thrives off translating languages. Also gets extreme sexual gratification from it as well. Some theorize its in a constant state of orgasm."

  Steven considered this a moment, realizing that since he never left Anaxian, which had a global translation system via the satellites which hung in orbit, he never had need for a translation device. He also thought of the worm burrowed deep within his brain now, permanently there and constantly orgasaming. That part could have been a joke, though. At least that's what Steven chose to believe.

  "Um...okay. Thanks for the help...I guess", he finally said. "W-where am I? This isn't Anaxian, right?"

  The girl laughed, a mean scoff departing her mouth.

  "No, this isn't Anaxian. Far from it. This is Hin-ful, in the Outer Rims."

  The other two figures approached, pulling back their cloaks and removing weapons.

  "And we didn't come to help you", the girl said, putting her helmet back on.

  "We came to rob you", she said, the gruff voice now returned.

  Steven's eyes went wide, and right as began to turn and run, the man in the obsidian flight suit aimed his pistol at him and fired, Steven being blown back by a blue energy beam and landing with a thud on the sand. The girl approached, standing over him. Steven looked up at her with bleary eyes, half-unconscious.

  "Load this dumbass up", the girl said, lifting up her boot and stomping on Steven's head, Steven going unconscious.

  ***

  When Steven was unconscious, he experienced a strange dream. He lay alone, naked, in a large, white room. The room so large, no ceiling, no walls, no nothing except the all encompassing white could be seen. He turned his face left, then, like a blink, when he turned his gaze back forward there sat a gargantuan, ashen gate. Steven inhaled a sharp breath, pushing himself backwards across the white floor, which was cold against his skin. A metallic groan rang out, though the space had no apparent walls, seeming to reverberate. It was deafening. Steven threw his hands over his ears, groaning in pain. After a moment, it ceased, silence returning. The sound of a lock turning emitted, and the gate doors began to open, the sound of which was like the moving of oceans. Opposite of the doors was a moving, almost liquid black, which never passed the edge of the gate. Steven gazed at the sight before him, and he was filled with fear.

  "...are you a dreamer?", said a child's voice. A boys, soft like silk.

  Steven gazed at the dancing obsidian.

  "...a dreamer? I...I don't know. W-what's a dreamer?"

  Silence followed Steven's question.

  "Someone like you. Someone like me. The wanderers...the lost. The doomed. Doomed. Like everything will be. Like everything always has been. Dammed and doomed."

  Steven stared at the endless, shifting black, and his fear slowly left, strange sympathy replacing it.

  "D-don't say that. Sure, things may be bad, but they can always get better."

  Steven's brows furrowed at his last sentence, shameful hypocrisy feeling him like air does a balloon.

  "...no...there is no better. There is no change. There is only the eternal, unstoppable wave. The entropy."

  A massive, reverberating roar was emitted from inside the black, a moment later something emerging out.

  Steven would struggle to remember what he saw for years, only, when the moment was right, and true annihilation threatened all, would he remember. But for now Steven's eyes went blinding white, as if his eyeballs were replaced by mini suns, and he seized and convulsed, screaming before going unconscious.

  ***

  When Steven awoke, he found himself tied to a chair aboard a spacecraft. He seemed to be in a storage room of some kind.

  "He's awake", said a voice. Steven turned his head to the left, the figure in the oversized and mismatched metal suit leaning against the wall.

  "Roger that, just a sec", said the girls voice from his belt radio. A moment later, the door slid open, the girl coming it. She smiled, approaching Steven and stopping just a foot away from him.

  "Now that you're up and bright-eyed, I thought we might ask you a couple of burning questions we have. Starting with: are you an Annaxian solider?"

  Steven began to open his mouth, before sighing, his head rolling back.

  "I would've just taken my chances with the goddamn koala."