This was a fresh start; this was a new me, after all. I now had refreshing water coming out of my hands. There was nothing I couldn’t do. Now was the time for action.

“Rock, I need rocks….. So that I can excavate well. But why do I need to excavate?”

I had to make sure that what I was doing was intelligent or at the very least sensible so I had decided to return to talking to myself aloud, “If I excavate, maybe I could find more things.”

As it turned out, the shock of almost dying seemed to have made me forget why exactly I was digging; I could practically feel the grinding gears in my head causing me to overheat.

“Dang, I’m thinking too hard! But it’s okay!”

Heat was no longer going to be a problem for me, after all, what threat is heat when one has the means to cool down. Triumphantly and proudly, I let cold water pour out of my palm, from above my head.

“Ahah! I remember! I wanted cups! To hold water in!” The sudden cold water pouring over my head seemed to have jogged my memory, “But, do I really need cups anymore when I have water coming out of my hands?”

I stared at the ground as I pondered the necessity of cups until I just decided to go for the next logical step beyond cups.

“Furniture, I’ll just make furniture, out of clay and rocks or something. That’s worthwhile, and it gives me something to do.”

The way that I was approaching my situation right now was that, because it was nighttime and it wasn’t freezing, and there was nothing for miles; I could afford to work on small projects. While furniture wasn’t essential, it would at least make me comfortable, and who knows, maybe I would be able to find something else while working on my project.

Ready to return to my humble cactus, I turned around and was immediately shocked. Turns out, I lied when I said there was nothing for my miles because now, right behind my cactus, there was the mouth of a cave.

“I-I guess I didn’t really turn around when I crawled out here.”

I quickly reviewed my memories of when I almost died that I was mostly looking at the sky when I came out; I never once looked back at my cactus. But why would I?!

“In what world does a cave suddenly appear after you nap?!”

I fell silent and the wind blew audibly for a moment reminding me of my situation.

“I guess, in the afterlife, anything is possible.”

Weird things happen is what I told myself, and I put myself back in order. Cave suddenly appears? I wasn’t going to question it. Who knows, maybe it was revealed because of the raging winds or maybe the Lord of the afterlife just has a weird sense of humor. Whatever the reason, a cave just means more resources for me to dig up, and a shelter for me to live in.

Thanking my cactus silently, I walked around it and went up to the mouth of the cave. It was a bit of a strange formation on closer inspection; I wasn’t really sure if I could even call it a cave. It seemed more like a random outcropping of rock. I walked around the perimeter as I estimated the dimensions of this strange cave. Imagine a boulder some nine feet wide, about twelve feet long and, I would estimate eight feet high at its highest point. Now imagine that someone bore into that boulder to make some space in the interior, and that would be a good enough image of what was in front of me. Speaking of the interior, I walked into the cave to get an idea of how much space was inside. The highest point was the entrance, and from there it sloped downwards. I could walk about ten feet in without having to crouch or contort my body in any way with the last two feet or so being where the slope suddenly became sharper and hurried to the floor. Width wise, the slope from the highest point was gentle, effectively having the curvature you would expect from a hemisphere. It was a strange cave, especially considering its sudden appearance but the dimensions made it comfortable enough to walk around in and the walls seemed sturdy and hard enough to believe in.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I guess…. This cave might have been buried under sand and just got exposed during the sandstorm. Does that make sense?” I tried to recall facts and trivia about the deserts in my world but I wasn’t drawing any significant detail.

My well of ideas seemingly ran as dry as the desert. I eventually relented and just accepted my previous proposition that these things just happen in the afterlife.

While inspecting the cave I happened to find some rocks sticking out of the sand near the back wall. Thankfully they were separate from the cave wall and were easy to pull out of the sand after a little bit of digging.

“Okay, so this was a lucky break! I’ve got the rock I need to keep digging in the cactus but... do I actually want to devote resources to the cactus?”

I had my eyes trained on the cactus, so much so it would blush if it could notice me evaluating its cramped interior. There was no doubt about it; it was going to be more comfortable to dig around in here and stock supplies. I thought back to what I need the most right now.

“I need a way to stay warm, and stay comfortable…… and a bathroom!”

The sudden realization of the necessity of plumbing struck me like a waterfall and rather sadistically, the thought seemed to remind my body of basic human necessities. A familiar urge was gradually overtaking my body.

I looked around the cave quickly for a good spot before reprimanding myself, “Wait! I can’t use the cave! There’s a whole desert out there!”

What was a desert if not a giant litter box? Animals probably use the desert as their litter without even having a second thought, why would I try to go against the natural order? It was much too late to change course now, even if I changed my mind. While I was equating a desert to a toilet in my head, I had already ran out a bit beyond the cactus, rock in tow of course, and was returning to a nice urgeless state.

“I guess the bathroom problem is already solved given all this sand everywhere. Heh, well that’s one necessity taken care of.”

The triumph of answering and properly handling one of nature’s most common calls was visible in the way I pulled my pants back together.

“I’ll need to make sure, I just bury whatever I leave behind so I don’t have a gross accident later. I should also leave some sort of mark for extra surety.”

Dropping the rock I brought with me near my spot, I nodded and turned around, towards the cave. I could still only see about forty feet in front of me, but I wasn’t so far from the cave and sand cactus that I couldn’t make them out under the faint silvery light.

My return to the cave was slower than my exit, as I was watching the sky above me, trying to peer through the ambient sand. I was sure I could see twinkles of light every so often, when the sand seemed to leave an area for a moment.

Before I knew it, I was back at my cave; if I hadn’t looked down to verify my direction I may have even walked right into the wall. Safely inside, I returned to my line of thought. Tonight was a warm-enough night; I wasn’t shivering or anything of the sort, but there was no guarantee that blessing would visit me tomorrow. The obvious answer to stave off the cold would be to have a fire. Unfortunately for me, I had yet to come across anything I could use for fuel, much less anything I could use to get a spark or even some generate some heat. It was all sand after all.

Thinking back to the rock that I’d carried outside during my excursion and left, I wondered if it had some component that sparked easily. I went next to a cave wall, with another rock in hand and struck the two pieces of earth together but nothing happened. For a moment I feared I might have made a crack in my new cave but the fear quickly subsided as I continued wondering. With a nice view of my cactus, I sat down in the center of the cave and returned to my pondering.

“So far, I just have my clothes, sand and rocks. What can I do with that?”

A thought came to mind after I aired my question. I didn’t have just have those items. I had the water that poured forth from my palms!

“I wonder if I can pour out hot water?”

I quickly stuck out my hand and thought of what I wanted, trying my best to imagine the sting on the skin of water of water that you would quickly pull your hand out of when testing the shower. I wasn’t sure if hot water would actually improve anything in the long run but it was worth knowing as much about the magic water as I could. Responding to the thought water began flowing from my palm.

“Whoa, no way.”

The water that I tested with my free hand surprised me. It wasn’t hot enough to make one pull their hand away out of reflex but it was noticeably warmer than the water I drank earlier. Thinking of the hot sensation did in fact change the water that was produced! That was an incredible discovery! It didn’t help my current situation, but it was exciting all the same. So many possibilities were now crossing my mind, so many things I wanted to try out, it was like I was a kid at christmas again; I was so giddy.

But I had to keep my eye on the prize and compose myself. There would be time to experiment passively while remaining focused on the problem at hand. I needed to solve the issue of warmth and by extension fire. The only thought I had at the moment was that I could work on digging inside the cave. If I dug enough, maybe I could find more rocks and maybe, if I was lucky, I could dig up some old wood.

“Maybe I could even find some kind of afterlife exclusive heat stone? Or maybe I could just dig my way to lava.” I snickered at the little joke I made to myself but a sliver of my mind thought it could be possible.

After all, I hadn’t been conscious for many hours, but I had already encountered many strange things such as the sudden temperature spike, the cactus, the sudden cave, and of course my water pouring palms. Heat stones or lava would not seem strange at this stage.

Renewed with curiosity, and a trusty rock in hand, I started digging near the inner right wall of the cave. Even if I couldn’t find any wood, if I found more rocks, I could use them to close up the mouth of the cave a tad to give myself more protection. Maybe there were rocks that could be used to make some sparks further down as well.

So my current plan was set, dig around now, go to sleep when I get sleepy, and explore the area tomorrow. As I dug for the unknown , I couldn’t help but wear a genuine and ecstatic smile.