A storm of sand and blaze (Gaara fanfiction and The Love Story He Deserves)

Chapter 3: The Devil of the Desert

The woman laying on the sand was still young, perhaps in her late twenties. She had white skin but quite tanned by the sun and her long hair was shiny like black amber. Her old shirt and short pants seemed old aged just as her leather boots, with some holes here and there. She was breathing slowly and after the blast, she just seemed to be sleeping a soothing dream.

Gaara noticed that some meters away a lavender color band had fallen to the floor. He assumed it belonged to her, so he brought it back with his sand and kept it in his pocket. After some seconds he just couldn't decide how to wake her up so he tried just by calling her name.

"Feza-san...Feza..."

However, more than his voice, he heard the noise of the ground rumble under his feet. A pause. And then the whole sand under their feet began to move in a centric pattern. Not just Gaara, but all the giant creatures who lived inside the Demon Desert became aware of this earthquake. Huge spiders and scorpions got out from their caves to escape from whatever was going to come out from under the sand.

The woman opened her eyes widely at that moment as she gave a jump. Gaara stepped back. Both of them shared a look for a second and then a terrible and deadly roar came from under their feet.

"Oh, shit!" She screamed. "Run, run, RUN!"

Gaara took her from the wrist and with his last reserve of chakra, he raised both of them to the sky with a column of sand. A thousand sharp teeth came out from under the ground like cutting swords and chopped everything that was still inside its ratio. Gaara could barely believe what he was just seeing. Its name was the Devil of the Desert, a giant centipede who could devour a complete town with just one bite. It was a legend all the kids from the Hidden Village of the Sand knew but nothing more than that. A monster to scare the little children before going to bed. However, the monster was coming all the way for them. His head was at least fifty meters long and his mouth, which emanated a smell of old rotten corpses, was now so close to them.

"We are not gonna make it with the speed of the sand!" She said agitatedly.

"We have to!"

"When I jump hold my ankle!"

"?"

Kaji Feza opened her arms and with strength yelled her last breath of chakra. The long wings of fire covered her arms and she got ready to jump. Gaara sent the last amount of sand to the inside of the mouth of the centipede to gain impulse and with that, both of them jumped to the sky. The Devil of the Desert closed his jaws leaving a horrid echo in the night. Then, it went down again, removing the sand as if it were waves in the sea.

Gaara didn't ask where they were moving and just kept looking to the Fortress that had just been destroyed. Feza kept flying through the dark sky until they reached a high sand dune several kilometers away. Gaara jumped to the surface and caught her carefully when her fire feathers vanished while still being a couple of meters up in the sky.

"I'm grateful for what you have done". Gaara tried to say quickly while she was still conscient.

"It was Shukaku's chakra" she replied in a very low voice. "I had to seal him inside me".

The Kazekage looked at her perplexed.

"Just take care of us while we recover, please. I promise I will explain everything when I wake up again".

She closed her eyes and her neck muscles lost their force. The rest of the night he took care of her gently while being also reflecting on past events.