Past the Indigo Oasis, west-by-northwest, there's this massive field of glass and iron spires. Sniv went over the directions repeatedly in her head to keep herself from forgetting. Shen then nudged her brother to follow her as they made a cautious loop around the room to distance themselves from the elves so as not to draw too much suspicion. Rudd grabbed his sister's arm just before they could tiptoe out of the Lounge.

"I'm having second thoughts about this," he whispered. "Shouldn't we try to convince Merrow to come with us?"

"We already have a hard time convincing her to let us travel to Aravenda most of the time anyway. Saying she doesn't like the locals around here—pfft—beats constantly wallowing in the sand. Like I said before, just let her sleep—maybe a long nap would make her less crabby."

"She's only crabby because you like picking fights and arguing with her," Rudd explained.

Sniv rolled her eyes as she pulled away from her brother's grasp. "I'm going. I just... I just want to check it out and see if it's real."

"Can you keep a boat sailing and steer the skimmer's rudder at the same time?" Rudd asked.

She pushed her pointer finger against his nose, ready to counter his argument, but quickly realized she wasn't quite that capable. She sheepishly pulled her finger away and broke eye contact with her brother.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." His sister glanced back at him, leading to him giving out one last sigh. "Fine. Fine, I'll go with you—"

Sniv hugged her brother, "—I knew you couldn't turn down a thirst for adventure—"

"I'll give you three hours. If it turns out these directions lead us nowhere, and it's just another story—we turn back. If we find this mythical spot, we loot it quickly and come back just as fast."

"...what about four or five hours?"

"Three hours is usually the limit on how long Merrow naps. If she wakes up and we make her wait until sunset, she may just end up killing us before we try to plead our cases," Rudd explained.

Sniv yanked on her brother's hand, leading him to the dock. "Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's ride like the wind!"

They hopped into their boat, where Rudd took Merrow's spot at the tailpiece, and Sniv positioned herself ready to set sail. She readied her stance and invoked Godspeak: Wind. The familiar gusts from earlier coiled around the ship's hull and blasted against the sail, letting the two goblin siblings cruise away from Aravenda.

"Where are we supposed to be going exactly?" Rudd asked.

Sniv yelled back, "We have to go to the Indigo Oasis first!"

"We're going all the way out there?! A round trip'll take hours—we won't get back until sundown—wait, that's why you asked for a longer time limit!"

"All the more reason to hurry it up then!"

The two siblings bickered as they traveled west from Aravenda deep into the Great Wasteland. Their back-and-forth was their only entertainment as they didn't encounter any other scavengers or see any animals scurrying about. They had a small handful of landmarks to help readjust their positioning toward the oasis, but their main accompaniment for the trip was the harsh and unrelenting sun beating down on them.

After two hours of traveling, they finally arrived at the Indigo Oasis. They parked their sand skimmer beneath the shade of a grouping of palm trees and stumbled toward the central water feature. Although their grandmother had warned them when they were little hatchlings about drinking too much water since they had to share it with all the other goblins traveling the desert, Sniv and Rudd couldn't help themselves by dunking their heads in. It wasn't as cold as the Lounge's water, and the taste was certainly too metallic, but it was refreshing nonetheless.

They pulled their heads out and laid back on the solid ground, letting out deep sighs. They hadn't done any strenuous activities for a couple of hours and were already exhausted from the heat alone. Rudd looked around at the somewhat more vibrant plants hugging the water's edge for dear life. This place seemed so peaceful, especially with all the little jerboas hopping around. They'd scatter at any sudden movements made by the two goblins, so they weren't typically worth the chase—that and Rudd had a fondness for what he called the 'funny-looking fellas.'"

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Apart from the water, the prickly pear cactuses were the only edible things around them. While hardly a snack, and because there wasn't much to split between the two goblins, their meal from the Lounge would have to carry them for the rest of the day. They'd gone much longer without eating—sometimes days at a time when they couldn't find enough scrap to sell.

"Why are you so set on doing these little side trips? You know it only pisses off Grandma Merrow."

"It's just boring doing the same thing over and over again," Sniv replied.

"Well, we're doing the same thing: scavenging. We're just doing it at a place Merrow wouldn't want us to be. So, what's the actual reason?"

Sniv took in a deep breath and sighed. "Look, Grandma only has us search through very specific areas, and then we constantly make loops between them. Every year that goes by, we keep finding less and less because of her stubbornness. I hate it. I hate her—"

"—Sniv, you don't mean that."

She didn't meet her brother's gaze. "I don't want to waste my whole life constantly feeling hungry or working my fingers to the bone to scrape by. I feel small... and insignificant. I want to matter in this world and not have to constantly earn the right to live in it. I want to see the world outside the desert before I die, y'know."

Rudd rested his head on her shoulder. "I don't think you're insignificant. I promise things'll get better."

Sniv didn't respond and only hollowly stared at her reflection in the indigo water. Faded yellow eyes that reminded her of embers in a dying fire and a shaggy, tattered wig that she inherited from her mother; she pitied the reflection. She shook her head, knocking off her goggles and nearly knocking off her her wig.

Rudd continued, "But do you have to check out these places as soon as you hear about them? We have time, Snivvy."

"It doesn't feel like we do," Sniv replied, "Most days, there isn't time for us to explore. If we don't look at them now, then we'll never get to them. I don't want to wake up one day and be like Merrow: be full of regrets while I watch over two kids who I hate—"

"Grandma Merrow doesn't hate us. I know she doesn't," Rudd firmly stated.

Sniv slowly stood up, strapping her canteen to her side. "Well, of course, she loves you—it's me she can't stand."

"Sniv..."

"Let's just get going before it gets too late," she said, returning to the sand skimmer.

Rudd knew words seldom eased or changed Sniv's mind, so he let her enjoy the trip as much as possible without bringing up their grandmother again and indulge in her fantasy of being a globe-trotting explorer. If it made her happy, then all was well.

"What will you call this little trip, Captain Snivvy?"

At the mention of her alter-ego, Sniv's personality shifted to be loud, proud, and gregarious. "This'll be our finest moment!" She'd adopted the gruff speech pattern of one of the Lounge regulars. "This shall be... hmm... The Journey to Storm Crater!"

Rudd was relieved that Sniv could put herself in good spirits. The older twin commanded the wind again, and the duo was off toward the supposedly destroyed military base west-by-northwest of the oasis. Just as they approached the time limit imposed by Rudd, they caught their first glimpses of objects jutting out far-off dunes at strange angles.

They stopped by the closest one and examined it; the mineral resembled tektite, a common type of glass found in some regions of the desert, but this single piece was massive, well over ten feet tall. They also reasoned that it had to be even longer since it was heavily anchored into the sand.

"Hey, Sniv, look at all this little glass around the base. I think this stuff commands a decent price. Honestly, if we shattered this whole column, a boat full of glass wouldn't be a bad haul."

"I didn't come all the way out here for glass. We can snag some on the way back, but I want to see more of this strange place. Hey, check this one out." Another spire captured Sniv's attention, but this was made entirely out of metal. As she approached, she noticed little sparks and faint electric arcs moving across the column's surface. Once close enough, an arc formed and jumped onto Sniv. She yelped and skittered back, exiting the column's range and causing the streak of electricity to cease.

Rudd rushed to his sister, "Sniv, are you alright?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine." She was more startled than hurt from the electricity, although some of the fabric on her shirt was singed.

"Still think we should keep going?" Rudd asked.

"Of course—uhm, well, we just need to give these guys a wide berth," Sniv replied, leading her brother back to the boat. They cautiously continued further to their goal, avoiding the iron spires. Those, along with the tektite columns, didn't seem to have a clear pattern in their formation, as they seemingly spawned randomly. They had a clearer view of the whole area once they reached the crest of the tallest nearby dune.

They found the remains of a military outpost, which looked much worse in person. One massive object stood out: the supposed axe used to destroy the facility. From afar, one could mistake it for an axe, but as the two goblins approached, they couldn't even tell if it was an actual weapon. To them, it just looked like a massive shard of red glass. Imprinted on the glass were odd shapes and a tangled mess of lines; none of it looked like writing or anything discernable. Witnessing the giant shard only filled them with a deep sense of dread that neither could understand.

They also noticed that the number of spires increased drastically the closer they approached the epicenter. From their initial vantage point on the dune, Rudd assumed that this field of spires had to reach out at least a mile in all directions.

"What do you think happened here?" Sniv asked looking around. "Do you think that came from a human?" She pointed at the shard.

"I don't know," Rudd replied, "But if humans can make stuff that big and cause this much destruction... I don't want to see what their homeland looks like."

They came to a natural stopping point as the sands around the epicenter were littered with wood and metallic debris from the destroyed base. They'd have to continue on foot.