"WHY DOES THE SUN HATE ME!?" JohnWillStab cried while slowly trudging through the sand.

"We never should have touched the magic stone!" cried Alex.

"I told you it was a teleport stone," Thal said.

"Guys... I... I think I'm going to die..." Jordan cried, his face sunburned and his mouth as dry as the desert they walked on.

"Can... we drink your blood when you die?" Alex asked not looking back.

"Screw... that... it's my... blood..." he sighed.

JohnWillStab didn't need water to survive, but the heat was hellish, every breath felt like breathing air from a hot oven.

"Guys... I think... I see water..." said Alex pointing into the horizon.

JohnWillStab looked at where he pointed.

"I-it is! It's water!" he exclaimed.

JohnWillStab sped up, tripping up on the sand and rolling down the hill, rolling in the sand laying in the shadow of a massive sand dune.

"What the hell?" he looked down and saw a dried-out looking humanoid, their skin blood-red.

"Ah! A corpse!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, that's right - I'm a corpse too." he laughed internally.

"Guys! There's a body here!" JohnWillStab called out.

"Oh, shit!... do you think we could eat it?" asked Alex.

Jordan stumbled down the hill and landed next to the body.

"It's what they would have wanted..." JohnWillStab said taking out his dagger.

"LIKE HELL I WOULD!" cried out the body, jumping to their feet and running away from them for a solid three seconds before passing out again.

"Is it dead, yet?" asked Alex.

"Nope, just passed out," Thal replied.

"Great..." Alex said non-enthusiastically.

JohnWillStab walked up to the body and slowly dragged them towards the distant body of water.

"We're taking them with us?" asked Jordan crawling behind them.

"I can't leave them in the desert..." JohnWillStab replied.

It took them almost twenty agonizing minutes to reach the large body of water, it was crystal clear and had a blue-green hue.

Around the edges of the water grew a few tufts of grass and a few palm trees.

Stolen novel; please report.

JohnWillStab tossed the red-skinned person into the water and followed into the water, fully-clothed.

"I think I've reached heaven..." he said submerging his face below the water, feeling the sharp temperature shift on his forehead.

Alex dragged Jordan towards the water, dropping him off at the edge of the water so he could drink some before going into the water himself.

"WATER!" Exclaimed the red-skinned person taking a large gulp of it before almost choking.

"I found the water! It only cost me... five lives..." they sighed.

"Yo, sun-burn-person, you wanna let us know what you were doing tempting starving wanderers in the desert?" asked Alex, after getting in the water he removed his shirt and trousers, tossing them onto a distant rock.

Thal too was placed in the water.

"This wasn't necessary..." Thal thought.

"The water is nice though..."

"Are you the three who tried to eat me?!" demanded the stranger.

"We considered it." JohnWillStab shrugged.

"Ahh, all better!" Jordan exclaimed standing up, looking no worse for wear than usual.

"Eambr is my name! I have been sent on a quest to discover a source of food for our village!" she exclaimed taking her hood off and showing off long white hair and dark horns.

"Oh damn, a demon!" JohnWillStab exclaimed.

"Yeah, we came from all around Ajuan in hopes of finding a place to settle down where people wouldn't bother us..." she began.

"Since we didn't need water we assumed the desert would be a decent place to settle... but we forgot about the whole food thing... plus the heat is still really exhausting..."

"Our village is called Phiartown..." she replied.

JohnWillStab used the five bottles of booze he still had on him and filled them with the water from the lake.

"Alright... make sure to stock up on water!" JohnWillStab advised.

"We'll start travelling in the night so we don't die of heatstroke..." he continued.

"Or heat syncope..." Alex added.

"Right..."

JohnWillStab looked around and noticed that the palm trees around them had round fruits on them.

They looked like giant, orange raspberries.

JohnWillStab walked up to one of the trees and tossed his knife at the exact spot where the fruit stuck out causing it to fall down into his hand.

"It feels more firm than I expected..." noted JohnWillStab twisting off a single ball of the giant raspberry, they tasted like a mix between a peach and carrot juice textured like a harder grape.

"You guys want some food?" asked JohnWillStab looking to his two party members.

"Hah! I am always interested in tropical fruit!" Alex exclaimed making his way up to JohnWillstab who broke off half of the fruit and tossed it at him.

Alex caught it and took a small bite, "Mm, not bad... a little sour." he noted.

"What about you guys, what are you doing in the middle of Ajuan?" asked the demon making her way out of the water.

"We're actually from Arlepia, we accidentally teleported here," JohnWillStab replied.

"Interesting... are you players or NPCs?" asked the demon.

"Players." replied JohnWillStab, "What about you?"

"I'm actually an NPC, I used to give out quests in the south so I assumed it wouldn't be too hard to survive in the desert..." she sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you guys are kind of screwed," said JohnWillStab dismissively.

"That's an understatement, south Ajuan is kind of sort of in a little bit of a constant state of war," she replied sombrely.

"War? Like between NPCs?" asked John.

"No, the two faction leaders, HaremHarry and YTyeop are fighting for dominance over the zone."

"They all have different... ideologies... YTyeop wants to make the whole continents be ruled by them alone, like Kearudown!" she explained.

"Alright..." JohnWillStab replied beckoning her to continue.

"And HaremHarry... well... how do I put this in a way that won't get us banned of RoyalRoad... ehh... supports large non-consensual harms."

"I see that both of these arguments are equally balanced," replied JohnWillStab sarcastically.

"Laugh all you want, YTyeop is only in the lead by a little bit."

"Allegedly Harry has a level one-hundred alchemist, they're poisoning the water with aphrodisiacs," she explained.

"With a level one-hundred alchemist... maybe he can make a dick-returning potion!" John thought.

"Well! That settles it! Our next adventure should be in the south!" exclaimed JohnWillStab.

"You're either a massive pervert or deaf, I told you shit's weird in the south!"

"At least we're pretty safe there, right Jordan?" asked Alex looking over to Jordan.

The demon looked at the Alex.

"Hm... how should I put this... the people aren't very picky..." she replied making and circle with her thumb and index finger before placing her index finger in it.

Alex clenched every orifice he had.

"I'm scared..." he thought immediately.

"So where can we find this warzone?" asked JohnWillStab,

"I mean... if you really want to find it..." she pointed in the direction they came from.

"Two days walk and you'll be there," she replied.

JohnWillStab looked back and processed what she said.

"All in favour of ignoring the civil war in Ajuan, raise your hands," JohnWillStab instructed, raising his hand.

Alex and Jordan did the same.

Eambr smiled before crossing her arms.

"If you help my town figure out a source of food, I would be able to give you guys three desert mounts." she offered,

"It would cut your journey down to under a day." she added.

JohnWillStab squinted.

"How far away is jour town?" he asked.

"About two hours in that direction," she replied pointing a few degrees off from where they came.

"Alright... I think I can make a journey that long." JohnWillStab sighed, "But I'm not going until it's dark." he added to which all of his party nodded in agreement.

"Lazy humans..." she sighed.

JohnWillStab gathered a few more fruits to eat.

"I'll just plant the seeds from whatever this is and tell them to walk out here and water it." he thought.

And so, for the next two hours, JohnWillStab sat around, eating fruit, petting arachnophobia and cooling off in the water.