The sand beneath Paul and Jessica sinks and shivers, indicating the worm getting closer. "Run." Paul says, taking off with his mother. It was almost impossible to run in the sand even before the worm disrupted it, so the two didn't get very far before tripping and being knocked over. They seemed to be trapped in the sinking sand. Paul, using what little energy he had left, manages to crawl out. However, his mother didn't have that strength. "Shit!" Paul yells, seeing that his mother was still in the sinking sand hole. He tries to think of something, anything to do in order to help her. He desperately looks around, hoping he'd find a rope, but he doesn't. There was only one option. Paul jogs back into the hole, immediately being knocked over. He grabs his mother and drags her through the sand, basically swimming in it. Once he reached the edge of the hole, he gives his mother one final push to lift her into the stable sand. "Go!" He says through gritted teeth as he tries to lift himself out, but he had no strength left.
Sand gets everywhere as it begins to cover Paul's face, his body falling deeper into the pit. He can feel something beneath him; the sand worm was starting to open its mouth. Paul takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, preparing for what's about to happen. The sand below him collapses and he starts to slide down, hearing a yell before he suddenly stops. He can feel himself dangling above the air from the large worm before being pulled onto the stable sand. Opening his eyes, he sees that someone was holding him by his arm. His mother was right next to this person, helping them pull him out. A thumping sound can be heard in the distance, drawing the sand worm away from them and leaving them laying in the sand, breathing heavily and trying to comprehend what had just happened. Paul wipes some sand from his face and looks to the person that had saved him. It was.. a girl. She had bright blue eyes, and- wait a minute, he knew this girl. It was the same girl from his vision.
Paul fumbles around a bit but eventually finds his balance and gets back on his feet. His hands were shaking from adrenaline, his heart pounding and he was still panting from the incident. "Are you okay?" His mother asks, wiping a few grimes of sand from his cheek. He looks to her with soft eyes, nodding. "Who.." he starts to ask, still catching his breath as he motions to the girl. "Oh, I'm Y/N." The girl says, "saw you two struggling with Shai-Hulud and thought you needed some help. It's not everyday we see other people that aren't one of us out in the deep desert. I'm interested. What brings you here?" She asks. "Our ship crashed, we've been trying to find the Fr-" Jessica begins, but Paul was insistent on finishing. "The Fremen," he says. "You're Fremen, aren't you?" He questions Y/N, but he knew the answer. Y/N nods, grinning. "I'd say we found you instead of you finding us, but that doesn't matter. Why did you want to find us? Usually when people try to find us, it's so they can kill us." She tells them, giving Paul a bit of a side eye. "You were our best bet at survival, as my father was killed. We have the same enemies: the Harkonnens. We're willing to help you, if you'd be so kind and help us." Paul said. "There's a few things we'd have to go over before that can happen, but tell you what. I'll bring you back to our camp and ask Stilgar his opinion, and we will go from there. Come on." Says Y/N, and she leads Paul and Jessica to the other Fremen.
"By the way, your sand walking was terrible." Y/N says as they approach the Fremen's camp. "Not only that, but the majority of the time you weren't even in worm territory." She chuckles. "How long were you watching us..?" Jessica asks. Y/N simply grins, shrugging. "Could you teach us how to sand walk properly?" Asks Paul, not being able to take his eyes off of this girl. He wanted to know everything about her and the Fremen. "Depends," she says, calling over her leader. "Stilgar! We have some guests!" Stilgar was in the midst of a conversation with his lead warrior, Jamarcus, when Y/N calls him over. "Y/N, what did I tell you about bringing in foreigners?" Stilgar complains. "These two say they're willing to help us get rid of the Harkonnens, they want to learn our ways." Y/N said, and Stilgar immediately shook his head. "You're almost worse than your sister." He sighs. "Chani?" Y/N laughs, "at least I brought in someone who actually has a chance." She motions to Paul, "he's young." She then looks to Jessica, "oh, no offense.." she mumbles. "None taken," Jessica sighs, "what exactly does he have to do?"
"In order to become Fremen, you must trade a life for a life. In other words, defeat one of our warriors in battle." Stilgar tells both Paul and Jessica. "That could be a possibility for the young man here, however, I fear the woman is too old to learn our ways." He said. "My mother could be of a useful asset. She's pregnant." Paul says, and his mother quickly goes wide eyed, turning all her attention to him. "How..?" She fumbles for words. "Just a feeling I've had for awhile," Paul admits, "a baby girl?" He felt confident that the dreams he's had on having a baby sister were true. "Yes.." Jessica whispers, still shocked. She had barely known herself that she was pregnant, yet alone that it was a girl. She didn't know whether to be frightened or to admire her son's ability to find that out on his own. Stilgar huffs, thinking. "Let's see if the boy can win a fight before we decide on anything." He decided on that option, calling Jamarcus over to the group of the two Fremen and two foreigners.
"What is he to do? Kill this man?" Asks Jessica, looking at the heavily built man called Jamarcus. "Yes, kill him or he kills you." Stilgar says, patting Paul's shoulder. "Take this blade," he hands Paul a newly forged crysknife. "You will die in honor with this blade in your hand." He grins. "Go on now." Jamarcus whips out his own blade from its sheath and stands in a ready position. Paul looks down at the blade in his hand, gulps, then turns to where his mother and Y/N were standing. His mother looked worried, and Y/N, well.. she looked like she believed in him. So he believed in himself as well. He had never killed a man, but he had been trained to. Gurney had taught him well, and Paul was confident those trainings would pay off now. However, part of him was still scared. He knew how good Fremen warriors were, and Jamarcus no doubt fit the definition of a good Fedaykin warrior, and he seemed confident as well. In fact, he saw no fear in Jamarcus's face.
The Fremen gather around in a circle, Paul and Jamarcus standing in the middle with their blades at the ready. Paul takes a deep breath just before Jamarcus lunges at him. Paul swiftly dodges the blow, lifting his own blade and directing it toward Jamarcus's chest, in which it is easily blocked. Their blades interlock, along with their eyes. Paul grunts, keeping the other blade from slipping before he takes a few steps backwards. Jamarcus lunges again, moving quickly and this time landing a blow of his fist into Paul's face. Paul stumbles, but remains standing. He shakes off the pain and thrusts his body forward, putting all of his weight into the opposing man, knocking him over. Jamarcus hoists his blade up, pointing it at Paul's throat. Paul is quick to grip onto Jamarcus's wrist, using both his hands to keep the knife from puncturing his throat. His hands shake as he holds the weapon in place; Jamarcus was strong but he wasn't giving up so easily.
Paul was so focused on his opponents right hand, he had forgotten about the left. Jamarcus propels his left fist into Paul's face again, causing Paul to fall backward and take his hands off of his right wrist, freeing the blade. Paul gets an unusual metallic taste in his mouth, and can feel the red substance flowing down from his nose. But he wastes no more time, rapidly regaining his balance before making another attack. Jamarcus had been ready, though, ducking beneath the soaring blade and simply lifting his leg to deliver a powerful kick to Paul's chest. Paul grunts at the impact and, again, is forced backwards and loses his footing, hitting the ground with a deep thump that everyone around could feel below them. Paul gasps for air as the wind had been knocked out of him, staying down on the ground and feeling too weak to get back up. Jamarcus stands over him, knife raised and aimed at his neck. The audience gasps. Paul's eyes glance at the blade above him, then travel to his mother, who wasn't even watching anymore, then to Y/N, whom was completely locked in on him, her blue eyes meeting his darker eyes for a quick moment.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Paul got a sudden burst of energy, and a determination to live. He glances at Y/N one more time, a tiny smile forming on his bloody lips, one so small he didn't even realize he had done it. He did notice the feeling, though. He wanted to live. No, he had to live. There were things he needed to know still, so much to learn. But most of all, in this moment, he just wanted to talk to Y/N again. Paul, with no more hesitation, turns all of his attention and his energy back into the current duel. Just as Jamarcus was about to make the final blow, Paul uplifts his leg, striking the hand the knife of his opponent was in, knocking it from his grasp. He sits up, snatches the other weapon from the sand, and plunges both blades into Jamarcus's chest, twisting them until they went in as deep as they could possibly go. Blood flows from the man's mouth and wounds as his body begins to shut down. It was a quick death for the Fremen warrior, as Paul had hit his major organs as he had been trained to do. The Boy from the Outer World heaves the crysknives out from the limp body, it falling into the sand. The blades were stained red with blood, and as Paul slowly stands, he drops both of the weapons and lets them fall in the sand besides the Fremen body.
He stands still in the middle of the circle, breathing heavily and wiping his bloody nose. He hears a small round of applause, soon finding out that Y/N was the one clapping for him. Was she proud? He had just killed one of her own. Paul finds himself being surrounded by a booming round of applause from the entire group of Fremen. Was he one of them now? Why did everyone, especially Stilgar, look so shocked? Was Y/N the only one that had believed in him? He wanted to know the answer to those questions, and he hoped since he had prevailed in battle, that he would soon find out.