NOTES: Here's the first entry of this fanfic, looking at the point of views from every main character that appears on Menahat, except from Rallen & Jeena. I thought this would be interesting. A lot of the ideas I had are written in script-form, so I've tried to convert it into third-person (probably my most challenging writing style). To be honest, I'm not sure if this should all be in third-person, or if I should change between different writing styles to fit certain parts of the narrative better (i.e. third-person, first-person diary/journal entries, script form, etc.). Guess I'll think about it.
Chapter 1
PTCHOOO…
CRAAAASH!!!
Cough..! Cough!
“Ow…”
Neal laid strapped to a broken chair. Everywhere he could feel, there pulsed aches and stings, and for minutes he refused to move in fear that the pain would get worse. The impact must’ve been so strong that he swore he was seeing stars. For a moment, he was even afraid he’d lost his legs since he could hardly feel them. Thankfully, they were both still attached to his body, and thankfully the pain didn’t hurt any more than it did in checking so.
Power down, windshield shattered, cold coffee over the cockpit floor… The whole thing was a mess – maybe even a disaster (which it was, but Neal would argue otherwise).
A moment ago, he was just another human being who decided to take a visit to planet Menahat. Then, he was plummeting down from the sky. To most life forms nearby, he was never noticed, but to the very few that did, he was a peculiar shooting star.
For Neal, however, it was another day.
And so, he decided it was time to get up.
Anyone who saw Neal for the first time wouldn’t think he’d be very strong, and they’d be right. But here, after only a few hard kicks, he managed to push away the heavy pieces of what was once his little spaceship. He stumbled on his way out, and then with him, he dragged along his giant backpack tumbling down.
THUD!
Compared to the crash, this was nothing.
Neal just stood up and dusted himself off.
Wiping his goggles, he observed the wreckage.
There were obviously the large heaps of metal that was Neal’s ship, but aside from that, an assortment of smaller scraps scattered nearby across the rocky floor. He then saw, from where the ship’s engine should be, fogs of white smoke floating to the sky. Having stared at the broken vehicle for long enough, he also caught sight of, even if only for a second, some bolts of energy dancing on its surface. Neal winced.
How in the world was he going to make up for all that damage? But there was nothing he could afford to do at the moment, so he shook his head and shrugged the whole accident off.
Later then, he thought.
Now that he had landed on Menahat, Neal’s next move was for the Great Desert. An empty, barren wasteland which, in his research, he learnt held a magnificent secret… At least, that was according to the legends he read and what he alone was able to decipher from ancient texts. It was a quest based on a hunch and a quest set in an enormous, merciless desert, but this being the nature of his many, many self-assigned missions, none of that scared him. Instead, there was another kind of danger – the gluttonous kind that lurked at any time, any place.
Neal didn’t keep up with the news often, but he knew about the resurgence of frequent Krawl swarms appearing across the Kaio system. If he encountered even one Krawl alone, the chances of him seeing the next day would reduce to near zero. Neal was unfortunately never a good fighter, surrendering easily to anyone or anything that was looking for trouble, so it was important that he made an effort to pay attention and tread on carefully (as much as he struggled to). He supposed the best he could rely on was his luck. Luck was all he could afford.
Looking at Neal’s paper maps, surely the Great Desert was somewhere not too far away. Good news was that it wasn’t — at least region-wise — because if Neal had a motor, the drive there would be roughly ten to fifteen minutes. On foot, however, the journey would take him at least an hour-thirty. He huffed out a disappointed sigh. How else was he supposed to get there?
Oh well, he thought.
If the Great Desert was only possible to reach by walking alone, then he would have to do so with vigour.
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