Several hours passed as Max made his way along the cobblestone road. The stone trees slowly turned to fields of metal grass, dotted with patches of gemstone flowers. Nothing happened during this time, but after a year of traveling through an empty desert, Max was more than satisfied with just having things to look at again.
It was about noon, with the pulsating sun hanging high above him, when he heard it.
The sound of stone colliding with stone. It was coming from behind him and getting closer.
For a moment, Max thought he might be in some kind of danger, but then turned around and saw that it was just a normal animal drawn carriage .
Or at least, what he assumed passed for a normal carriage .
The carriage itself looked like one of those tarp covered carriages you would see in old cowboy movies, as long as you ignored the fact that it was carved from stone and the fabric was metal. The beast pulling it looked like someone just stuck legs on a boulder and called it a day. It was longer than it was wide, with two gemstones on the tip of it that Max assumed were the beasts eyes. It’s legs extended out from the body, the stone bending and moving like flesh as it stomped along the road at a slow but steady pace.
Lastly was the woman sitting at the front of the carriage holding the beast’s reigns. She looked almost completely human, a rather attractive one at that, and her mineral body only added to her beauty. Her hair and eyes were a deep red gemstone, and her clothing, while rather basic in design, was woven from a silvery metal that mad it look very luxurious to Max. Her skin was some kind of polished granite, with black, grey, and white lines running through it and a few rough patches on her elbows.
Her expression was calm while watching the road, but then she glanced at Max and she quickly did a double take. Her eyes wide and her mouth parted in shock for a moment. Then she shook her head, her hair dazzling as it reflected the light of the sun, before donning a more comfortable expression.
Max was much calmer, a bit more jaded from recent events as well as centuries of life in this strange world. He raised his hand in the hopes of appearing non-threatening, before realizing that there was little chance that she would see him as a threat.
As they approached, Max realized that the boulder beast, the carriage , and the woman were all just as enormous as the plant life he had seen so far. The beast showed some interest in him once he was close enough, lowering its head to get a closer look at him while prodding him with its forward leg.
Max backed up nervously. He couldn’t see a mouth on the boulder beast, but he wasn’t about to take any chances.
“Eyi!” she shouted at the beast, pulling its reigns to make it back off.
“T-thanks,” Max thought, mentally chiding himself for the stutter. Even after a thousand years he still struggled with speaking to others. “Um, is there a town nearby?”
The woman’s expression shifted to one of confusion. “Hatx ide ouz ayt?”
“...Damn it.” Max hadn’t been expecting to run into a language barrier. He wasn’t sure how to ask his question without words, so just waved at the woman and started to walk away. “Sorry for bothering you.”
“Oldi np!”
He looked up at her. The woman pointed in the direction they were both heading. “Fj ou’rez ookingm org b ownu, t’llj ec b eekx yc ootg. Heu exto ownu sj b ewg ayse wayb yc arriaged.”
“D-did you understand my question?”
She didn’t answer, but leaned over and offered a calloused hand to him, smiling gently.
Max thought about it for a moment, before sighing and taking her hand. He still had no idea what was going on, but traveling with a local would at least give him a better chance of finding civilization.
She effortlessly pulled him up to the carriage’s bench, scooting over to let him sit next to her. He felt a little awkward next to her, as he could now tell that she was easily three times taller than him.
“Et’sm oh!” she said, ordering the beast forward.
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Max sat quietly next to her, looking at his hand. Despite being made of stone and being as rough as it looked, it actually felt about as soft as he would expect normal skin to be.
“Yn ameo sj Yrn.”
Max turned to the woman, who was now looking at him expectantly while pointing to herself.
“Is that your name?”
“Yrn.”
“Yrn?” He pointed at her, causing her to frown.
“Oto Rnz. Yrn.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Yrn.”
The woman, Yrn(?), rolled her eyes and pointed at him.
“My name is Max.”
“Axn?”
His brow furrowed. “No, it’s Max.”
“Axn.”
“...”
“...”
The two sighed and returned their attention to the road.
~~~~~~
The two were silent as they traveled along the cobblestone road, sneaking glances at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. Max might be the one trapped in a strange world, but that also made him a complete oddity by this world’s standards, leaving both of them deeply curious about each other.
*GRUMBLE*
After about an hour, the silence was disturbed by a loud growl from Yrn’s stomach, made more audible to Max due to the size difference between them.
Max looked over to her. “Hungry?”
Her expression shifted slightly, and Max assumed that if she had human skin then she would probably be blushing right now. Hastily shoving the reigns into his hands, Yrn turned around and started moving things around within the carriage.
Max was a little concerned about suddenly being the one driving, but the road was currently very straight so he should be fine as long as nothing unexpected happens.
A moment later, Yrn returned to her sitting position, holding what looked like a crystal apple, cut and polished until it practically shimmered under the sun.
Yrn bit into the apple, making a sound like the crunch of a crisp apple crossed with crushed glass.
Max stared at the apple, at the crystalline edges that he was almost certain would easily slice through his soft flesh. When Yrn noticed his staring, she pulled out a knife that had been hidden on her belt and sliced off a piece of the apple before handing it to him.
Trading the apple slice for the reigns, Max stared at it for a moment, debating if it was worth the risk. He wasn’t even entirely sure if he could eat it, as it felt like solid crystal, and he wasn’t about to break his teeth trying to eat a ruby. Then he recalled how Yrn’s hands had felt almost as soft as normal human skin, just with a stone-like tecture, and decided that if she could handle the apple then he would probably be fine.
Taking a small bite from the edge, Max was pleasantly surprised to feel the hard crystal giveaway easily under his teeth, and mercifully there was a lack of blood and pain as well, so it seemed pretty good so far.
Then the taste hit him, and that was where he was disappointed.
The taste of apple was certainly there, and it was very sweet as well, but something about it just felt…off. Something about the taste was mildly but indescribably unpleasant. It certainly didn’t help that the crystal had no liquid to it, after all it was solid crystal. After a second of chewing Max felt like he had a mouth full of sand. Apple-flavored sand, but sand nonetheless.
“On’te ikem tj?”
His dislike for the crystal fruit must have shown on his face. He still couldn’t understand her, but her tone wasn’t too hard to decipher.
Max shrugged before continuing to eat the apple. It didn’t taste bad, so he hoped that he could just get used to the peculiar taste and texture. Once he was finished, the flavor was more tolerable but stayed in his mouth, along with many tiny bits of crystal stuck between his teeth and under his tongue. Reaching for his vine, he pulled off a bushel of grapes and popped a few into his mouth, the refreshing liquid washing away the grains of apple.
He glanced at Yrn, who was staring curiously at the grapes in his hand. He offered them to her, and she took them with a mix of interest and mild disgust. The crystal fruit had seemed inedible to Max, but to Yrn the soft plant matter looked almost rotten, even in a world where the concept of ‘rot’ didn’t exist.
Still, Max had tried her food, so she decided to respond in kind, popping the handful of grapes into her mouth.
Yrn’s eyes widened as she felt the juices burst through her mouth. She knew what water was, she had seen the ocean and rivers of this world, but those were the only places you could find it. To not only find a food that had water in it, but also had flavored water, it was so unexpected as to be completely outside the realm of conception to her.
She enjoyed the taste, but the gritty after texture that accompanied most foods was absent and made her a bit more uncomfortable than she thought it would.
Overall, the two decided to just stick to their own food supplies, and the next leg of the journey was spent in silence, save for the sounds of eating.