“I’m glad to see the three of you have survived your foolishness to return, and seemingly victorious no less.” Auntie Ta said, the warmth in her voice as she greeted them at the edge of the oasis belied by the sudden coldness in her next words. She indicated Longbeard’s readily sweating frame with the tip of her staff, where a floof stared up at the giant, its expressionless gaze somehow transmitting malevolence. “I suppose you have an explanation prepared to keep me from using this one as water for my grass, do you?”

“We do.” Gel said quickly, and Sean was relieved that the powerful druid hadn’t gone full palm-tree on the old dune giant at the first opportunity. The pair of them had given it 50/50 odds Longbeard didn’t survive the journey, assuming he made it into the oasis at all. Gel had also called dibs on the one-time-chief’s corpse ahead of time, just in case. The slime continued, translating the words Sean had asked him to on the way over and giving them a formal air that he hadn’t.

“There is much we have learned that you should know, and plenty more we would like to ask of you… but I believe our first order of business is here.”

On cue Sean gestured at Warabe and the turtle-man stepped forward immediately, leaning back to reveal the tightly wrapped bundle of aquamarine leaves still cradled in his arms. Creases eased at the corner of Auntie Ta’s eyes, and the gelaton watched her expression relax by several fractions.

“They are unharmed, Lady Tlachta.” Warabe said formally, and the druid’s stiff posture seemed to sink slightly in relief. “Your prize remains untouched as well, to the best of my knowledge.”

Her prize? Sean wondered. They had only been told about Warabe’s clutch. He felt Gel’s attention sharpen on the conversation alongside his own.

“Good.” Auntie Ta breathed out slowly. “That is… good.”

She nodded, more to herself than anyone else, and briefly closed her eyes in relief as she did. When they opened again, Sean literally watched her pulse measurably slow itself down. Another intake and exhale, and it was almost back to the calm, steady beat it had been when they had first met. Auntie Ta extended a hand back towards the oasis.

“Come in then, boys. I will hear you– Stop.” Longbeard had begun to take a step forward, but had frozen the moment the tip of Auntie Ta’s staff had flashed with an emerald hue. The druid was forced to tilt her head back to meet the giant’s eyes, though Longbeard’s tense reaction made it easy to think the height differential ran the other way. “Not you. You stay. Right. Here… While I hear out what these three have to say. If they cannot change my mind, then it won’t matter where you go anyway.”

Longbeard’s grey skin paled a few shades despite the sun high above, and Auntie Ta turned back towards the oasis. She followed Warabe in, the turtle-man having spared no time heading towards the water. Sean watched the branches of a berry bush point themselves first at the giant, then at their own shaking berries, then back to the giant all while the nearby vegetation angled slightly in his direction.

The meaning was clear, both to the dune giant and the gelaton. The oasis was watching Longbeard… and it did not care for him. Sean patted the big guy on the knee.

“Don’t worry bud, we’ll plead your case.” Sean had Gel translate for him as they headed in, and Longbeard nodded his thanks before lumbering into a seated position. “Best do as she says, though.”

“If she wipes out our new tribe, I vote we stock the hilltop with camels next.” Gel commented through their private mental bond.

“Camels?” That one caught Sean off-guard. “You don’t want something more… vicious? More combat-oriented, maybe?”

“Combat is great and all, but camels store a ridiculous amount of water and mana inside those humps of theirs.” Gel explained, and Sean wasn’t sure if the slime sounded hungry or impressed. “They eat everything they can to keep it up, and then they just roam around the desert without a care in the world! Picture it: Just wandering around, devouring whatever you can before moving on to the next place... It’s glorious, and I have major respect for their life choices. Also? Dry Run had specific patrols in place to watch out for them.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh-ho-ho, yeah. Now, tell me that doesn’t sound like our kind of tribe.” Gel said confidently. “Because it absolutely does.”

Sean shook his head, trying to reconcile what Gel was describing with the camels he knew back on Earth as well as the ones he had seen here. The ones here are bigger, I guess. Though we really haven’t interacted with them much. The ones who survived all dipped out after that big battle. I wonder how much mana a single one is worth? If they’ve got it stockpiled in them…

Visions of a home base filled with walking mana-balloons playing the ‘yard’ flickered through his mind before Sean got back on track.

“I’ll admit, that does sound like us. Tell you what, if Auntie Ta wipes the giants out - then we’ll go with camels next.”

“Deal.” Gel said immediately. “Though I am hoping she doesn’t. These guys are huge. Imagine the look on Bancroft’s face when we smash his stupid stone wall to pieces with one of them!”

Sean laughed his silent, clattering laugh as they made their way to the water’s edge. Warabe and Auntie Ta were each seated halfway in the water, talking quietly. The mood sombered, and Sean took up a position opposite the other two. This left him partially submerged in the water as well, but given the oasis’s mana restoration properties… the gelaton had no complaints there.

Well, one complaint. There was a slight itch where his bones remained in the water, but not one that was too distracting. Sean resolved to move if it became an issue.

“Alright.” Auntie Ta said once they were settled and Gel began surreptitiously sampling the oasis through Sean’s legs. “Now, tell me what happened.”

So, they did. Sean made sure Gel left nothing out, starting with their initial assault and even including their fall into the giant’s boiling stew-pot – an incident that got a rumbling snort out of the wounded Rastegar, still covered in palm leaves nearby. Auntie Ta remained silent for his retelling, not interrupting at all save for a nod of approval at the slaying of Big Smash and a raised eyebrow when he revealed he and Gel were now the chieftains of the dune giant tribe. The desert druid seemed to already understand what that meant, and merely pursed her lips thoughtfully at the rest of the story.

By then, a small crowd of floofs had encircled them all. They bobbed up and down in the relatively still water, floating along and staring at the pair of them during Gel’s entire retelling. Then, it was Warabe’s turn. As with most of the turtle-man’s speeches, it was relatively short and to the point. Free of the admittedly amusing embellishments Gel had been purposefully adding throughout his own tale.

“With the sand blessing you bestowed, the retrieval went smoothly. None were aware of my presence until it was too late, and few were alerted by the deaths of their comrades.” Warabe recounted, remarkably relaxed as he described a stealth assassination mission he himself had carried out not a few hours before. The turtle-man stroked the bundle in his arms, now submerged, as he spoke. “They were keeping the clutch in… adequate, if crude conditions. Once I had it, the wurms could smell me… so I blew their den to pieces. In the disarray that followed, escape was trivial.”

Sean winced internally at that, having hoped more of the sand wurms had survived now that the obscenely toothy creatures were now technically on his side.

“I met up with the noble creaker here afterwards, and seeing as the situation was well in hand...” Warabe indicated Sean & Gel respectfully with his head. “We returned with all due haste.”

“I see.” Auntie Ta was silent for several moments, her expression distant as she absently scooped oasis water with one hand and dipped it over the tightly wrapped bundle in Warabe’s arms.

“It sounds like the ones responsible for the attack have all been dealt with, then. If the one you call Longbeard is to be believed.” She said finally, and a metaphorical knot inside Sean’s chest loosened a bit as she spoke. Her gaze returned from wherever it had gone, and she looked over at Gel. “What of the memories from those you consumed at the hilltop? Were you able to glean any further insights into who I have to thank for all of this?”

“I’m still working on digesting most of them.” Gel admitted, a pang of regret in his voice. “Honestly, I’m still working on the memories from all of them. There’s a lot to go through there, but I did come across a few from Big Tasty that I’m confident are related.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Go on.” Auntie Ta gestured, and Sean’s own attention sharpened. He hadn’t heard this yet.

“He had two contacts in Dervash that he met with a few times before taking over Longbeard’s tribe. Apparently his own clan, the one you mentioned before, those… Wasteland Giants?”

“Giganto Baldio.”

“Yeah, them.” Gel sounded confused for a second, before he seemed to figure out whatever was puzzling him. “They don’t go by that name anymore, it’s ‘Giganto Bosqui’ or… something. I guess there was a fight over the name. Anyway, whatever they’re called, they sent him out here on the words of those contacts I mentioned. That’s how the clan found out there were powerful sources of mana in the area. He was supposed to find at least one and bring it back. Some kind of ‘proving’ ritual? Not sure what that means yet.”

“It’s a warrior ascension rite for giant kind, at least within that clan.” Auntie Ta said off-handedly, as easily as if she were reading the words right off an open book. “Members are tasked with retrieving something of value from the wastes, and the more valuable or rare whatever they find is - the more prestige it brings them. Bonus consideration is given the further away they were forced to travel to find it, as such items are invariably harder to protect on the return journey.”

“Explains why he came all the way out here, then.” Sean pointed out to Gel, unable to resist not being a part of the conversation. The slime helpfully translating his addition without being asked.

“Yes, but not why he targeted the oasis itself.” Warabe countered. “Unless we were simply the closest target. I doubt his contacts knew of only one such source.”

“Can you recall anything about them?” Auntie Ta asked. “A name, perhaps? A particular feature?”

“Their boots!” Gel said immediately, and with such unreserved fervor that the whole group just sort of stared at him. “One was wearing the most hideously off-season brown leather clasp boots that I have ever seen in my entire life! Even the clasps were painted with some sort of pointlessly bland mud-stain. The straps I can forgive, sure. Most common straps are brown, everyone knows that, but the clasps? And don’t even get me started on his socks! I refuse. They. Were. Horrendous. The other one was a woman, and at least she had some degree of taste. Snake-skin blue high tops with hazel accents on the side and a delicate triple-weave knot to tie it all together. The shades were off for the rest of her outfit, but the primary colors were there. At least she tried. I can give her credit for that much.”

“I… see.” Auntie Ta said after a long, drawn out second or two. Sean and Warabe both staring openly at Gel in soundless surprise. The druid hurried the conversation along before either could comment. “So you could recognize them by their attire, if you saw them in it again?”

“Absolutely.” Gel asserted with his usual dose of full confidence. “They kept their faces concealed, but I would recognize their shoes anywhere! The rest of their wardrobes weren’t necessarily bad, mind you. The man looked like he routinely paid for someone else to dress him, only that person has hated him since birth and is slowly grinding out their long-sworn revenge via his sock choice. The woman looked like she spent just enough to stay adjacent to current trends, but never actually in them. Like she looks in the store, but never looks in the store, if you know what I mean.”

Sean one-hundred-percent did not, and from the looks on the other two’s faces, he had a feeling they didn’t either. Not wishing to derail the conversation any further however, he got them back on track.

“Gel and I were already planning on visiting Dervash for our own reasons.” Sean added, speaking through Gel who helpfully translated once more as he went in what the gelaton was beginning to recognize as the slime’s ‘Sean voice’. “Originally, that was just going to be outside of the city. But now we’re hoping to make our way in. If we can, then I have no qualms trying to track down these two contacts for you and seeing what we can get out of them.”

Sean held Auntie Ta’s gaze as Gel spoke, trying to gauge her reaction to the news as he continued. Instead of alarm, anger, or suspicion, all Sean saw in the druid’s eyes as the slime continued was surprise. Maybe even a touch of concern.

“You would risk that?” She sounded more shocked than she had when they had announced their intention to go raid the giants. “Undead are never allowed in large settlements. Not without strict regulation and oversight - neither of which you have, nor are you going to be able to fake. Not at your level. Some types of monsters are allowed in the city, sure. Same as anywhere else. Others are simply able to make their way in without being obvious about it, and so they are usually ignored unless they cause trouble or run afoul of one of the guilds but…”

She shook her head. “They will kill you if you’re caught, you know that. Right? There won’t be any questions, and the pair of you are not powerful enough to blind-luck your way out of an encounter like that. You’d be hunted down after, even if you did survive… There would be bounties, and I can’t shield you from something like that here. Not even for a favor like this.”

One of Sean’s backup plans died in his non-existent throat as she spoke. He had actually hoped they could at least retreat to the oasis if the city came after them for some reason. Now it seemed that option wasn’t on the table. Which meant they could use more options…

“We… are willing to regardless, yes.” Gel said, speaking for the both of them. Their resolve was firm on this point. Both of them wanted to explore this new world, to see the strange, novel fruits it had to offer– and, where Gel was concerned, to feed on them.

It still cut Sean deeply that he was yet unable to experience any of this world’s dishes for himself, but the gelaton remained hopeful that would one day no longer be the case. He was sort-of immortal after all.

If you don’t count death-by-giant. Or anything else with a desire to jump my thick bones.

“If you are certain, noble creaker.” Warabe interjected, notably dropping the chief creaker title the turtle-man had used not long before. “Then I may be able to aid you in your endeavor somewhat.”

All eyes and orbs turned to him, and Warabe continued.

“There is a tunnel system used both for removing the city’s waste and connecting it to underground reserves of water. I made use of that same system when I left Dervash behind for good. I cannot promise it is still in the state I recall it being in, but if you can find an entrance to it, then the old passages should still lead to similar places. It could get you in the city without alerting the authorities.”

“Now that sounds like a plan I could get behind.” Gel said brightly. “Tell me more about this ‘waste’. Is it edible?”

“It… was.” Warabe said, in a tone that made it entirely clear to Sean what the turtle-man meant by ‘waste’. “I am not certain you would be interested in its contents, if they are as I recall.”

“I will be the judge of that.” Gel said, sounding just as delighted by the project as Sean felt suddenly, irrationally ill. Even if he wasn’t going to eat any of it, the thought was… unsavory.

Then again, maybe it’s similar to being boiled in mystery-soup. I imagine both are similarly chunky.

Suppressing both a shudder and a laugh at the thought, Sean volleyed his own suggestion to the conversation through his ever-omnivorous stomach.

“If you can point us towards those tunnels, or draw us a map or something we can follow once we’re in them then I’d appreciate it. That’ll get us halfway there.”

“And what about the other half?” Auntie Ta asked pointedly, though not harshly. “What will you do to prepare for when you emerge, the townsfolk begin screaming, and the guards reach for their weapons?”

“... That’s still a work in progress!” Gel admitted brightly after a quick conferral with Sean. “But I have nothing if not confidence in our abilities to figure it out!”

Especially once we evolve. Sean added to himself, though the utter lack of an evolution prompt waiting on him after they had reached level 15 was still a mystery to him. He had been counting on that as a way to reset his health. Now, it seemed, they still had a ways to go. Knowing just how far we have left is important. I wonder if we can barter that information out of her? Or if she’ll just tell us for free…

Sean passed that idea over to Gel through their mental connection, and the slime readily agreed to barter for the knowledge if it came down to that.

“If you say so.” Auntie Ta said, that same hint of concern still in her voice. “I will, of course, pay for that information as we agreed upon earlier. But that will have to wait for now, I believe the clutch is ready to be returned. Warabe?”

The turtle-man stared down at the bundle of aquamarine leaves in his hands for a few seconds, before nodding his assent.

“I believe you are right, Lady Tlachta.” Warabe said formally, as he sank deeper into the oasis. “I will return them to the proper place.”

“And I will meet you there.” Auntie Ta intoned, before turning back to the pair of them. “As for you two, if you wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on old Rastegar here for me. I shall return in about an hour or two. Feel free to drink some if you wish, but do try to restrain yourself to an appropriate amount.”

The druid’s gaze lingered pointedly on Gel as she said that, and Sean suppressed a smirk at his friend having been caught sipping throughout the conversation. Gel had managed to drink more of it than he had expected.

“Will do.” Sean affirmed, though he noticed Gel refused to translate that part so he added a bit of mock threat to his mental voice as he spoke again. “I’ll see if I can’t squeeze some back out of him.”

“You will not!” Gel harrumphed. “I am many things, but squeezable is not one of them.”

“You can’t be serious. Squeezable is definitely one of them.” Sean insisted. “What do you think you’re doing whenever you go through my ribs? You’re literally squeezing through!”

The pair were still bickering back and forth good-naturedly when Auntie Ta left the open glade, a small smile gracing the older woman’s lips for the first time in what felt like much longer than it had been.