Unwelcomed Rescue but a Welcomed Company

In the cruel silence of the scalding dry heat in the middle of Africa, near the borders of the West. The ground was covered in cracks from the lack of moisture that would have been a blessing from the skies.

Skulls of various animals which had fallen to the natural beast of the Earth's scalding surface of its crust. From the distance of the rocky terrain, the wind was anhydrous.

Yearning for the sweet moisture of the dust clouds with the false hope of bountiful rainfall. Though the continent of Africa was rich in culture, it was also rich with problems.

People who were once revered as gods were put into hiding or death. Not many mortals could've survived the conditions when they were perceived as such, even with the ability to help with crops and provide water to the lands were all but gone.

They escaped from the villagers long ago, fighting for new religions that followed that isolated and ostracized the beings. Including their children from certain death.

Only one person seemed to survive the last nearly millennia. The shadow struggled through the dunes nearby, and they ended up unconscious.

Drained from spending most of the energy and willpower they had endured until then. But the creature heard the thundering and the screeching of dying crows that would question their destination.

The heat might've brought them into a manic state that would succumb to nothing and soon would become part of the dead. A jeep was driven through the flat grounds, and nearby the being reached out a hand towards the moving vehicle.

Hoping that they would notice them and save them, a pendant used the sun's rays to make a reflection towards the jeep slightly. It caught the driver's attention, which caused them to change direction from the road to the dune nearby.

He figured it was a lost treasure that he would sell into the markets for an acceptable price. But he made a peculiar discovery.

The creature in the distance was a woman, barely breathing, covered with tattered clothing, and matted hair. Her skin burnt from the sun's harmful rays with slight blistering with clusters of pustules and patches of peeled skin.

An enormous man got out of the vehicle, adorned with flowing garments of white and bright blue. He witnessed the woman in the sand and dashed to her aid.

"Are you alright child?" he questioned the young lady.

She looked up at the man with heavy eyelids, and her voice was rasping from the dehydration. Her pearlescent, pink skin and raven-greyed hair began flowing from the desert wind.

But the hefty man looked into her eyes pale in crimson. The man hurriedly gave the woman some water from his bottle.

She chugged the entire bottle with such veracity that it almost made her choke from the crisp fresh water going down her throat like a river.

She drank without taking a breath, tired from the journey that had piqued the man's curiosity.

"Where is she?!" She asked, grabbing the man by his neck, and lifting him from the ground.

"Where is my love?!" She begged with tears flowing down that shimmered like diamonds.

"I don't…" the man struggled to speak while being choked by the woman's inhuman grasp.

The hulky man began losing consciousness. The woman's eyes were flaring but dimmed when her rage had subsided, and she started feeling remorse for her actions towards a stranger.

"Ugh! Mierde!!" She exclaimed and threw the fat man into the dunes.

The body was then rolled down along the tall walls of sand, with slightly increased inertia coming from the man's physique, and landed on his posterior. Soft groans would come from the man, and then a glint caught the young woman's pale red eyes.

It was a necklace with a simple design made of gold in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. The woman started crying away what little moisture her body could spare. Anguish and despair came from her croaking parched wails.

"My desert flower, why have you left me in this life? To proceed and witness the horrors of humanity's greed through twisted justice once more. J'taime! J'taime mon fleur du desert! S'il vous plaît! < I love you! I love you my desert flower! Please!>" The French woman cried desperately for her love.

Her screams continued echoing throughout the barren lands with no ears lent to this grieving soul. She descended towards the unconscious man, who was curious about the secrets from the golden fleur-de-lis.

Holding what little hope she could to find her love, she didn't drink human blood for the past couple of centuries.

The big man awoke, disoriented. "Ugh, what happened?" he groaned while getting back on his feet.

He looked up and saw the woman over his body, wide-eyed, drooling like a hungry coyote.

"Monsieur, pardon moi. I am hungry and lost." the woman begged and her eyes glowed.

The man's eyes glossed over like he was under the woman's spell.

"Budruwa <young Lady>,." He stated clearly and led the woman to his car.

She held onto what remained of her hood and climbed into the jeep's front seat as the sun's rays glared down upon her slightly sunburnt skin. Relieved to be given a ride after wandering around throughout West Africa.

The man handed her the pendant with the letters Z plus C with a star engraved on the flat side of the fleur-de-lis. Evidence of slight scratches with a specific date, '01-21-1803'.

"I understand what it was like to lose someone you love." Said the man and looked at her with a sorrowful smile.

"You could never understand what it was like." said the hooded woman, clutching the pendant close to her chest.

Her tattered clothes looked as if the sandstorms tore them.

The stranger stared at the woman and asked, "H-how long have you been in the desert?"

Her eyes widened back to reality.

"I guess I could not hypnotize you, but it's better to have someone to talk to for the last 600 years than a drooling ghoul." She said, smiling slightly.

"600 years, hm. Seems like you have seen a lot then," the man chuckled in amusement at hearing the unique answer coming from the woman.

The jeep's engine revved and then sped through the dunes onto their first destination; a gas station.