The desert of salt wasn’t a very apt description.
Why?
Because it also came with water.
I was really, really glad it wasn’t summer right now. It wasn’t winter but at least it was chilly enough so I didn’t feel like killing myself from the intense heat.
There was water here, and the water was salty. The salt below my feet were somewhat coarse and often just sucked my feet in like snow but that was about it; water only came slightly above my ankle. Normally this would be just annoying and we’d cross this place in a few hours and just leave.
But sadly… it wasn’t like that at all. The water evaporated and increased humidity to the point where even this 25ish degree temperature felt like over forty. I was sweating, I was panting, I was dying.
And the lady wasn’t doing that much better either. So no, I wasn’t just being a dramatic pampered little brat. We really were dying.
Maybe I should have listened to her and spent the noon in shade.
Last night we walked till midnight and slept till early morning. And then we kept walking for an hour before we reached this place. But at first there were some trees and she proposed we rest till late noon since it was already kind of hot even back then. But my dumb ass just wanted to hurry and hurry and sigh.
ARGHH!!!
I couldn’t even take a dive on the water because it was so shallow. And I couldn’t drink it either since it was so fucking salty. If ordinary sea water was enough to kill me from drinking a glass. This was enough to kill me by just taking a gulp.
But can’t I just make water. It’s super humid here and the salt can’t just evaporate, so. So, I tried that and formed water over our head and slowly let it drip.
“What in the,” the lady mumbled. “Why haven’t you done this sooner?”
“I’m sorry my brain wasn’t working that well,” I said. I hadn’t even thought about magic to be honest. I was busy thinking about other things and being an idiot.
The condensed water wasn’t necessarily cold, but it was colder than the perceived heat of the area, so felt refreshing. And what’s more, we could collect and just drink it. My nose and lungs were screaming because of just how salty the air was. My throat was dry as fuck too. So, drinking the water was so sweet. Seriously, this water was sweet!
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I sighed in relief. “If only life could always be relaxing.”
“You wouldn’t call this relaxing if you hadn’t experienced hell since morning. Think about it, if you’d done this just after we started, you wouldn’t have felt the heat and you wouldn’t know just how much you liked this.”
“True, but sometimes you really don’t need extra grief just to feel happiness.”
“Of course.”
The conversation died. I expected her to argue and I was probably going to argue my own case but she didn’t. She just accepted that either case was valid and that was that.
Oh well.
Fuck, I want to argue though.
***
Two hours later we got out of the salty hell. We were soaked and needed to dry off before the cold night settled in.
Luckily, the moment we crossed the salty desert (more like a lake) we saw lots of palm trees. Particularly in the form of coconuts.
“I can produce embers and even small fires,” I said.
“You’re really talented for your age,” she said.
“Not really. Even after all this, I’m near the bottom tier of talent back home.” Because frankly my mana source was my bracelet, not me.
“Really? Must be tough in that world; everyone’s strong and talented.”
“Yeah. Kids like me are usually discarded and only the strong are allowed to live.”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean. They murder children?” All of a sudden, her face darkened and she nearly blew a hole in me with that gaze.
“Yes. They murder children. I was slated to be murdered myself. To save me, my parents pulled some things and set out on a journey. And then got shipwrecked and I felt obliged to come find them.”
“I see…” Hilda sighed and finished gathering dry things. While the ground was mostly dry, it was still a bit damp. And the ground here was more or less just salt and some sand. I couldn’t imagine anything living here. But I was of course wrong. I saw some crabs and lots and lots of coconuts.
Just like there was absurdly shit places in this world, life too found absurd ways to adapt. Or maybe I was just being too dramatic about this.
I set the small portion of the dry leaves on fire; the rest burned. She collected and chopped some big dried leaves and bark and other woody stuff and it all burned strong. I sometimes had to blow and use some mana to keep the fire going but it was going fine.
“We should get changed,” she said.
I didn’t have extra clothes so I mostly just dried by the fire in my half pants while my clothes were stuck to poles over the fire.
Meanwhile the lady stripped to her innerwear and dried those first. She didn’t seem conscious of me staring from time to time. I suppose she didn’t care since I was a child. I should really act my age. At this point though, sigh….
Sometimes later she broke open a coconut and made coconut soup with some bread and dried vegetables and small chunks of meat. Sufficed to say, it was my first real meal in forever. And one that actually didn’t suck or make me feel weird shit.
So much so that I cried.
Sniffles!