"AAAAAAAAAAA" Paul screamed as the pain rushed his mind.
"FUCK, FUCK AAAAAAA" he continued screaming as he fell down, his leg was beaming with pain as the blood gushed out, his mind was completely blanked with pain, he was on the ground groaning, he needed to stop the bleeding but his mind was not working and the sphinx was still flying high up, with the pain still slamming his mind he pulled his shirt out from the under his suit and teared it up , after that he tightened it around his shin, the blood seemed to stop flowing or its not flowing as much.
Paul tried to crawl away but he was not making any progress because of the wound on his leg, the pain was unbearable but he didn't want to die, with the little adrenalin his body had he started to crawl away from the sphinx flying above using his hands, he was making progress, a slow one but progress none of the less, the sphinx tried to attack him couple of times while he was crawling away but Paul managed to evade them or at least he tried to. He crawled for what felt like eternity with each of his crawl not only the pain from his wound would rush his mind the sphinx would dive down to attack him, well not to really attack him as much as to play with him. As he continued to crawl the sand around him started to become less dense , of course Paul didn't notice this because that's the least of his problem, he could feel his consciousness fading out because of his blood loss but he couldn't stop he had to crawl and crawl he did, as the sand below him became less and less dense Paul lost his consciousness, and then regained it a moment later, it felt like those micro sleeps he would experience when he was tired and sleepy but kept looking at his phone back home, he kept fading on and off each time the time it took him to awaken lengthening, but he couldn't do… any…thing…
He woke up after god knows how long still in the same spot he was, with the same pain and same environment, it looked like he blacked out for a 5 minutes or so, he felt hope rising in his stomach thinking that the sphinx left him alone, with much effort he put his hands on the sand and he felt as if the sand was shifting away from his weight but he ignored it and flipped from his stomach to his back and there it was still circling above, he wanted to cry but he couldn't, no moisture could come out of his eyes, he turned to his stomach and… waited, for it all to be over and get him out of misery , he didn't want to feel pain anymore but as he waited death refused to answer he felt bleak, worthless, angry, pain but he couldn't do anything about it because even breathing was much demanding now.
With each breath feeling like pushing a mountain he let his mind wander off.
"What do you want to do when you grow up?" An adult women asked.
"I am gonna be a hero" a kid declared
"heroes are not real stupid." Another kid shouted
"they are, aren't they miss" The kid turned his head back to the adult women.
"Indeed they are." The women said with a smile
Paul couldn't exactly remember with who this conversation happened or even if he was one of the participants or the watcher of this conversation but he still couldn't help but wonder. He didn't know how much time had passed but he knew that it hasn't been that long, then he saw the shadow of the beast on the ground was getting larger and larger, the beast was descending this was it he will die now, as he accepted this fact the beast touched the ground, and started to walk towards him, and then he felt the sand beneath him shift before he can process anything the sand beneath them turned into a sink hole, the beasts leg got pulled inside as its wings stated to flap, Paul didn't know what was happening but he could feel his body falling down, at that moment he felt… happy because he knew that this beast would not deliver the last blow to his life.
As the beast tried to fly while it was falling down the cave the sand that was flowing inside poured on it and pulled it down without its consent.
He thought he would splatter down to the bottom of a hidden cave but to his surprise he plunged down to a massive body of water, he tried to swim by turning around and as he struggled to the surface then he felt a land under one of his hands and caught it and he pulled himself up to the piece of land he held as he got out of the water he looked around he was in what looked like a massive cave with a lake in the middle of it and in the far side of this lake was a structure or a statue to be precise and on the piece of land this statue was standing on was a beast none other than the sphinx which looked like it was buried under sand it had suffered the fall, was this a sign did a deity favour him to survive or what he thought all of the pessimism from before living his mind and being replaced with hope maybe he could survive, the beast was buried in sand and probably disoriented but Paul doubted that this would stop the beast from getting up so he turned around to look behind him to see if there is any place he could hide to and he saw what looked like a campsite to his left facing the wall of the cave… no it wasn't just a natural formation the wall looked artificial there was a crack on it enough to let an adult human pass through but anything big didn't have a chance so he decided his destination and with this found energy and hope he crawled to the crack.
As Paul guessed the beast didn't stay dormant it began moving the sand on top of it around by then Paul was already halfway to reach the crack as the beast Shaked of its disorientation Paul was closing in on the crack the sphinx suddenly remembering its pray looked franticly around the room and then it saw him and it understood what Paul was thinking as quickly as it could it tried to use its wings but one of them was battered and broken but this wont stop the beast it took a couple of steps back and started running to the edge of the lake and when it reached the tip of the land it jumped high up and used its wings to glide to the other side, it may not help it fly but it will definitely help it glide.
Paul fastened up his pace as he heard sounds coming from behind him. As the sphinx glided across the lake Paul continued crawling, and then just as Paul heard the beast land near him, he pushed the ground with his hands to his side and sure enough he evaded one of the paws of the beast he got close to the wall as the other paw descended upon him he couldn't doge this one but he kept pushing with the las ounce of strength he had he pushed himself through the crack on the wall to the other side. The beast let out inhumane screech as it tried to send its paws inside the crack to no avail Paul already crawled out of reach.
Paul took in his new environment, it looked like a meeting room that is combined with a library and in the middle of this room was a table with 5 seats surrounding it with 4 of them empty and one having a corpse sitting on it and there was a tree on the table that looked like it was dead for ages but it looked to be quite alive at the same time and in one of its branches there was a fruit a brightly golden fruit that hanged low , Paul's hunger overtook him as he pushed himself up one of the chairs and grabbed the fruit, he salivated before taking a huge bite everything stied still as he swallowed it in one big gulp, suddenly his mind felt like it was getting battered with a metal bat his body shuddered his very soul shook as he collapsed on the ground and blacked out.