I stared into the cauldron as I stirred it slowly, crickets playing their song around is in the grass. "Stew ready yet?" said Salvador, my childhood friend. " I reckon it'll be done soon. I'm hungry too, don't worry." I replied. We remained silent a while. " Do you think Don is okay?" said Sal awkwardly, breaking the silence. I hesitated, then replied " Well, he IS in the dunes... Maybe we'll find 'em..." I forced a hollow smile. Don was Sal's brother, although not from blood. One day a few years ago when Sal was hunting in the woods outside the empire, he found the white tail of a dear he had been tracking behind a bush, so he silently chased after the prey into a small crator where he found a bundle of blankets. He started unfolding the blankets to find a boy around the age of 10, shivering in fear. Sal tried comforting the boy and took him to his mother. They raised him, and called him Don, after Sal's father. He was an adventurous boy. Only a year ago we were out hunting, when we spotted a patch of Shrivles. They were hunchbacked ugly creatures. A face only a mother could love. They would eat flesh, and sometimes each other. They were known to be sneaky little Jockeys. We were close enough to see the flesh in their teeth and the blood oozing down their fronts. Savages. We froze to the sight. We ducked down to think we could escape, but a goblin snatched Don from behind, alerting the Shrivles! To think seeing Shrivles and goblins in one area. We didn't care the savages were jumping at us, grinding their teeth, me and Sal focused on Don. We charged, but the Shrivles had already gotten to us, and the goblins just sank into the forest. Sal and I ran after them, swords slashing at the Shrivles but it was too late. Gone. Sal and I managed to loose the Jockeys but we had lost ourselves. At dawn we headed back were we thought to have came, and we eventually reached the empire. We talked to Sal's mother, both Sal and she horror stricken. We tried getting searches but nobody believed we saw Shrivles and goblins in the forest. We made to becoming scouts for the warden, swearing that one day we would find Don. We didn't even know if he was alive. A year later we were sent on transport. We took that chance to look for Don, we didn't care about home, or the warden anymore. That brings us here. We were just outside the woods. " Alright, time for grub." I said pulling my bag closer and pulling out bowls. " Ahh, starvin'!" he replied. I pored the bowls full of the stew, thinking of what was yet to come. I handed the bowl to Sal, and we drank. I slowly gulped my stew staring west. 'The direction of danger' people said. They said that because that was the way to everything dangerous. That was were we were heading. Before I knew it I was suckling on the end of my empty bowl. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, the glint from the fire in my Kukri catching my eyes. I used a Kukri, Sal used a fencing sword. I had a tough pull bow and Sal had a crossbow. I pulled a blanket over my lap and lied down, sweating.                      
I felt the push of Sal's hand on my chest, making me wake up startled. "Ready? We have got another set of woods ahead." he said. I grunted in return, leaning forward to see the cauldron gone, same with the bowls. "It's packed, I thought I 'ought to start getting ready early." he explained. I smiled to him in thanks. I packed my blanket and kicked out the Sparks remaining in the fire wood. We started up the hill and away from the tree we slept by. "Ever wondered what's ahead? As far as I can see is those woods ahead." said Sal pointing to the distant thicket of trees, " Well, we know the Dunes. The legends at least. I just hope that's were Don is, if those goblins haven't already- huh..." I said hesitently. We kept walking, the walk seeming much longer then it looked.
As we approached the forest, I noticed something brushing leaves around in the back of the path leading into the woods. I stared curiously into the darkness ahead, not mentioning the brushing, as it seemed Sal saw it too. He was staring to the dark. " It's a good thing we aren't kids anymore because this place is way to dark for my comfort..." said Sal. We proceeded to the entrance of the forest. " Hope we don't run into any spiders!" said Sal sarcastically, "Heh! Yeah... Think we'll find any werewolves?" I said, Sal chuckling. As we entered, and I pulled out a stick from the brush nearby, I swear I saw eyes, beading at us, shining liquid under them, like they were crying. "Wh-who-hey! Did you see that? I swear to god there were eyes." I said, trying to keep silent. "Yeah...Ok..." Said Sal disapprovingly. We headed on causiously, hearing twigs snapping all around us. We stopped to see if it was just us being crazy, when it went silent. We looked all around us, our blades out. As we span around, I saw the eyes again, seconds before a Shrivle hurled at us! It was inches from ripping me open from the mouth when Sal clubbed it out of the air! " You ugly hunchbacked bastards!" I growled. The hideous creature stared up at me, blood leaking from its wide twisted eyes, like its unblinking eyes had no eyelids... It had flesh wedged in its teeth, and it's jaw was split open, making you able to see its rotted gums. It's twisted smile grew broader, as it saw it had 2x the meat of a human. 1 human being a lucky load. It ducked closer to the ground about to leap, making us able to see blades of his spines splitting out of its back. It lunged at me, but I was ready, I held out my hand, grabbing its boney foot, and slamming it against the ground, then dropped my blade on it. It gave a howl, an inhuman physcopathic shriek. Out of no where we heard a much bigger shuffle behind us. We turned around to see a giant shadow, 3x the size bear, an ungodly beast. It was too large to see any details at first site. We heard hundreds of rushing movments right out the brush we couldn't see, as if we were being watched buy everything vicious in the woods. The beast suddenly swiftly wipped around us and ground slammed faster than any dear they hunted. It launched them back, the ground shaking...

If enough people like this I will make another chapter. Trust me there is much more to come. I will try to get atleast 1,000 words each story, some more than that. Don't forget to follow! I will also be writing funny stories.