PROMPT: A man stumbles through the desert and is aided in some way by a headless monkey.
The man slowly crawled through the blistering sands, the raw heat of the inferno known as the sun beating him down with his every aching move. His skin was dried and cracked; soon his withered form would seem like another wasted feature of the hellish
Sea of The Dead. Yet, he continued to move with the a stoic determination beyond that of a normal man. He was the last hope of his people; the last of the band of heroes that set out from the village so long ago. The others had fallen many long miles behind him, their bones claimed by the desiccating sands. He had to go on or his entire tribe would vanish with him. Despite this ever present knowledge, he knew that his will could not continue to fuel his disobedient frame. He knew his time, and that of his tribe, was coming to a bitter end.
Jarrak, for that was his name, lifted his head for the fist time in the long months of traversing the desert. Long ago, soon after his last companion fell, he had determined to never look ahead. He knew that if he could see the vast, unending waste before him, he could never continue. But now, after all the time spent resisting, he had finally given in to the call of the desert sirens, the strange voices singing songs of respite from the long journey. All travelers of the desert heard their song eventually, but Jarrak knew they lied with every breath. It was not respite, but the repose of death that they lulled men to. At last, their sensuous song had penetrated into his deepest being and crushed the last remnants of his will - determined though it was - between their steely grip.
Yet, when he looked up to embrace his doom, he saw in the waves of the unending sea of sand… a figure.
The small being was swaying from side to side as it came closer to him. Jarrak thought he was seeing a ghost image. He had seen them before, they all had. Several times he and his companions had ran to a shimmering oasis, only to find the image fading as they came near, a trick of the demons of the desert. But this was different. The closer the figure came, the clearer in was. But, as it came into view, Jarrak wished it had been the trick of a demon.
The monkey had no head. It was a normal, lively monkey in all other respects, it only lacked a head. Jarrak had seen many monkeys as they played in the jungles of Gathar. And he tried to remember if he had ever seen one without a head. He tried hard to remember, but, no, all of the monkeys in his mind definitely had heads on their shoulders.
As he stared at the bouncing creature, he heard a strange noise. It was a steady, repeating beeping noise. It corresponded to the flashing light that was now coming from the neck of the headless monkey. For where the head would normally join with the torso, was a metal plate with a series of circuits and wires running across it. Among these were a series of colored lights that flashed on and off. At the beeping, the monkey jumped several times and then proceeded to take off the leather satchel that it was carrying. Jarrak had not noticed the satchel before, as his attention was consumed by the headlessness of the monkey.
Soon, the monkey was ministering to Jarrak’s wounds. Jarrak thought to himself that the
headless one, as he now thought of it, had produced the food, water, and medicine from the leather pouch as easily as a monkey who still had a head. No… better than a head-ed monkey.
After several hours, Jarrak was well enough to travel. The monkey, though voiceless, made it clear by his gestures that Jarrak was to follow him. “Who am I to argue with a headless monkey?” he said out loud. It had been so long since he had talked that Jarrak was surprised that he still could.
And so, Jarrak and the headless monkey began to walk, the harsh heat of the setting sun giving way to the cool of the evening. Jarrak wondered who it was that had sent the monkey to rescue him.
Was it someone from the Temple of Light? Has my journey finally come to an end? -------------------------------------------------------
The journey of Jarrak had indeed come to an end as the sandy waves of the Sea of The Dead washed over his lifeless body, covering any trace that he had traversed its blistering torrents.
The End?
PS What do you think of
Jordo the Tech-Monkey as a name for the little headless guy?
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