Unending - a Sword Art Online Fanfic (being rewritten)

Part 1: Sands of Change - Chapter 1: Shifting Sands of the Endless Waste

Ok. Hope you enjoyed the prologue, now let's get into this. Enjoy!

Kirito's POV:

Kirito and the others had been walking for what must've been a day and a bit. They had yet to find a village, or manmade structures of any kind. All they had seen was sand, sand dunes, and more sand. The longer they walked, the more Kirito wondered if they might be lost and walking in circles.

"Someone place down a marker." Kirito said to the others.

"What for?" Agil asks, looking up at Kirito questioningly.

"We might be going in circles. We need to be sure. If we place markers down ever so often, then we guarantee that we won't go in circles without someone noticing."

"Yeah, ok." Agil says.

Kirito pulls out a shirt and rips it into strips. Someone passes Agil a pole and Kirito ties a strip of cloth to the top before setting it standing up in the sand in front of him.

They begin to walk again, having stopped when Kirito put the first marker down. Every fifteen minutes or so, Kirito ties a strip of cloth to another pole or stick and plants it in the ground. They continue walking, and it is as the desert sun is setting that Kirito sees something in the distance.

"Asuna." Kirito said. "Look up and tell me what you see." He points in the direction of whatever he is seeing.

Asuna looks up and gasps. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that is an oasis." She said. Then her eyes widened when she realized that she actually was seeing one.

"Hey everyone look up ahead." Kirito said to the others before sprinting off in the direction the oasis was.

The other players looked up and saw the palm trees and bushes sticking up out of the sand. They all let out a yell of triumph, and all ran for the shade of the oasis.

The oasis looked like it was about fifty feet from one side of the water to the other, and looked to have about twenty feet worth of trees and small patches of soft grass and bushes scattered about in between.

Asuna reached it first and was gulping water up with a cup from her inventory a moment later. Kirito didn't even bother and simply leapt into the pool of water, splashing Asuna in the process.

"Hey!" She said. "Knock it off or you will dirty up the water before everyone else gets a drink."

Kirito smirked at her before climbing out. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Asuna kissed back, but stopped as she heard cheers and whistles coming from behind her.

"Alright boys." Liz says waving her hands in the air to get their attention. He about we go and refresh ourselves and leave the two of them to do their business." She starts leading the others away towards the far side of the oasis, where there are some fruit trees and berry bushes.

Asuna blushes at Liz's statement but doesn't hesitate when Kirito kisses her again and takes her in his arms. They both lie down together on his black leather coat and fall asleep with Asuna lying in Kirito's arms.

<Timeskip> (The next morning)

Everyone is up and about filling up their canteens and drinking skins with water and their inventories with fruit and berries when they hear a scream coming from the edge of the oasis. Kirito, Asuna and the others all rushed over only to just arrive in time for the screaming player to reach out his arms before being pulled under the sand, the rest of him already under when they got there.

The players drew their weapons and looked carefully for any sign of enemies. They were just putting up their weapons when someone screamed and collapsed, beating at something attached to his leg with his sword. It looked like a giant worm-like creature.