Chapter 4

- PRESENT -

The desert was vast. I made the obvious decision of heading toward the sand pyramid almost instantaneously.

Even as excited as I was, it's obvious from my condition that any extended stay in this biome without proper resources was not going to end well.

With that in mind, I set off towards the pyramid mountain thing with a spring in my step.

What is wrong with this world?

Ok. Maybe that's a bit harsh towards this unknown planet, I mean, Earth has awful deserts too, I'm sure they're at least half this bad, but even still.

Feet sinking in with every step, violent winds shredding my face with upturned sand. Constant stress, watching the sand and horizon for any sight of a possible enemy, ally, or venomous critter.

Each step chipped away at what I thought was an infinite supply of "new world enthusiasm."

It only got worse. When I arrived, it was early morning dusk, a somewhat chilly but ultimately extremely livable hour for the desert. With each passing minute, that chill made way for the scorching sun.

The heat was surprisingly the less difficult part of the sun to deal with, while the overwhelming power of the sun weighed on my back like training weights straight out of HxH, the real pain came from the burn.

The past few years of laying low inside had done nothing for my already pale complexion and I could feel each and every inch of my skin sizzling from the sand reflected sun.

My clothes weren't doing much for me either, having come straight from the funeral, I showed up outfitted with a (now torn) freshly minted black suit.

It only took a few seconds for me to realize just how underprepared I was, regardless, I felt I was making the best of it. I had removed my undershirt and torn it up into a sort of makeshift turban and was using my pocket square as an intermittent handkerchief.

At this point, I was just complaining for the sake of it. Something, anything to fill the hours and occupy my time.

I wasn't prepared for how lifeless and boring this trek would be. Just because this is a different world, doesn't mean it's always gonna be interesting.

Other than the towering objective that lay ahead of me, all that I could see for miles were infinite rolling hills of sand.

…

One foot in front of the other.

I'm not really sure what heat stroke is supposed to feel like, but I assume this is it.

Sweat pooled in my vision, but the singe on my pupils was a nice distraction from the burns I didn't want to think about.

My back had progressed from bad to worse after ditching my suit jacket. It was something I had to do to stay conscious but… It wasn't going to be pretty.

On the upside, I was having trouble putting together a good string of coherent thoughts, meaning I was able to trudge forward in relative silence.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Right foo- wait shi-

Phuushhhh.

…

Phyuck.

I spat out sand.

I had face-planted in the sand, taking a ride down a world-famous dune slide.

White particles spun in my vision.

Not good.

I could see darkness encroaching on my periphery.

Very not good.

I need to get up and keep moving.

I put my hands on the sand like I was posturing for a push-up and forced myself off the sand. It took every ounce of strength I had left in my arms to try and force myself out of that position.

It wasn't enough. Just about 3 inches off the ground, my violently shaking arms gave way to gravity.

The scorching sand felt like concrete as I collapsed back onto it, confirming what I had already known for quite some while.

This hellish dream of mine was going to be over much earlier than expected.

Darkness encroached on my vision.

Ow. Aliyah, stop poking me, that hurts.

Seriously Aliyah, what the hell? You're literally doing it harder now.

Holy crap Aliyah stop that really hurts!

Aliyah, Seriously stop I'm-

"Gonna die" I gasped the words into the sand.

At some point, I passed out in that same spot in the sand, for what I honestly thought was the last time.

Now, something sharp was protruding into my stomach.

My eyes widened, it wasn't my imagination, there was literally something stabbing me in the stomach.

I grabbed at the phantom pain below me. I found more pain, my hands felt as though they had just punched a cactus.

Wait, no. My hands had just punched a cactus.

What the hell? Why was a cactus-

Water.

Cacti have water inside of them.

Like a Russian spy's trigger phrase, the thought of water activated an instinctual energy I didn't know I had left.

I flipped my body to the side, freeing myself from the stabbing pain.

In front of me was a single small pillar of cacti, slowly emerging out of the sand.

Actually, it wasn't just the one, all over the desert, small plants were making their way out from under the cover of the sand.

Having been safely tucked away in the sand, the surface of the Cactus was scraped smooth, covered in a thin and filmy frame, needles easily picked free.

This allowed me to use my sand-packed nails to tear away at the skin, easily ripping a piece away.

Water. Directly beneath the skin of the cactus was a pool of glowing, ultraviolet blue water.

Heaven on earth, well, unknown planet. That's what it felt like as I took that first sip.

Imagine the thirstiest you've been in your life.

Now imagine if that water was laced with cocaine, that was the sensation I thought I was feeling, not that I had ever done cocaine.

Each gulp filled my body with energy, the moment the first cactus had been depleted I was pouncing on the next.

I felt like a MMO player, camping enemy spawns for every possible little morsel of loot.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

"Ahhhhh..."

I felt refreshed as I drew my head away from the god-gifted plant. I had drank so much water that even my tongue was throbbing.

I could taste a hint of iron.

Wow, I had drunk so much my mouth was bleeding, that's how you know you just had a good meal, huh?

No, it isn't.

A good meal of "water" and "more water" is definitely not the type to leave your tongue throbbing and mouth bleeding. I had recovered enough brain cells to at least have that thought.

Concerned, I looked down at the cactus I was drinking from. I couldn't see anything of note, other than the questionable color of the liquid itself.

I set the cactus down, intent on finding another to deplete.

As I was stepping away from the bowl in question, a small flash of purple hit my periphery for just a moment... I double took at the bowl.

Out from under the slime green edge of the hole I made, peeked out a tiny speck of magenta.

A tiny, magenta stinger.