You mentioned my utilization of Sora into my fighting style. Why is that strange?

// It's not strange you're using Sora, it's strange that your primary fighting style is melee. Every iteration of Druid classes in my… admittedly limited database has been a caster. Using earth, sand, wind, fire... the elements of nature and even nature itself, to attack. But then again, magic isn’t what it was back in my day, and even if I knew the answers, I couldn't explain in detail why. I’m very limited in what I can share until you figure things out on your own. I am a created thing, with rules ingrained into me that are unassailable. They are for your own good, though, honestly. You’re doing your own thing, and I wasn’t joking when I said you’re doing well. Adding in elements of Dragoon fighting style? It’s kind of genius. I need a nap, but you keep it up! //

His PUB was getting better and better at dropping less relevant things and sharing only important information in his display. It was learning Oskar's likes and dislikes when it came to notifications. Most of the time, even things like the temperature in the top left of his vision only showed when he looked for it. The PUB was customizing it for him without him even needing to ask.

Instead of a distracting blinking dot for notifications, there was now a very slow blue pulsing line across the bottom of the Goggles. It would change color to yellow or red for more important notifications. The way the PUB interacted with him was changing, too. Previously, a notification popped up, and when he triggered it, information appeared in sentence form across the bottom of his vision. Words now passed in front of his eyes like transparent outlines at his exact reading speed. They faded completely out a word or two after they scrolled by. The PUB had experimented with a few different fonts but doing that was more distracting to Oskar than irritating- especially one that was suspiciously similar to comic sans- so the PUB had simplified his interactions accordingly.

His Mind stat growth had increased his ability to parse information without distraction, and he dreaded to think what the PUB would do as his mind stay increased further.

Probably dancing ascii characters or something, Oskar thought wryly.

A green pulse of agreement from the PUB.

His ability to process and his quick decision-making had grown by leaps and bounds, though. Previously, concepts he’d only had a general working grasp of, like air pressure and the way all elements affected the world over time now made sense to him instinctively, if not quite intellectually.

Oskar had no clue what would happen when had his breakthrough into D Rank spirit, but he hoped it would unlock some Insight into what the third realm of magic was capable of. The water thing with Gramm was something born out of inspiration and need.

That and being under pressure makes my brain turn on. Fighting Gramm with spear alone would have given him every advantage.

Oskar was a Druid. Nature was supposed to be at his command, and nothing in this world was more natural than the Waysprings.

He looked over at Erik, hollow-eyed and weak but walking, and Oskar’s heart ached for his brother. He was trying his best not to dwell on how weak he looked, though. His brother’s haunted look reminded him of everything his brother had been through. Things that were so bad that even dreaming them was more than enough for Oskar. And Erik had lived it.

Erik gave off an aura of fragility that Oskar never thought he could associate with his big brother, but he had to admit that weakened or not, Erik looked like he would be willing to walk all the way to his grave.

He'd woken up to Erik's screams for months, and being helpless to do anything about it broke his heart. On top of that, he'd had trouble reconciling how real they'd felt versus it being impossible that he was hearing his dead brother actually calling for him.

He was sure he'd lost his mind, and all of that had stacked on top of a lot of unprocessed war fighting, loss of fellow Marines, and his own injury. It made his chest hurt to think about those hellish months.

Pressure built in the back of his head, and Oskar felt his old fear of being utterly alone creeping back in for a moment before he was able to squash it. Oskar entire being shivered as he swore he could feel the something the size of a planet sigh as the feeling of abandonment passed. It was like reality was on the very edge of warping and changed its mind.

That felt like the devil himself just walked across my grave.

When he opened his eyes, he saw blank spots in his vision that took a few seconds to shake off.

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It gets worse and worse, but I’m not alone anymore. If I can get Erik better, he might be able to help me.

Oskar was unsure about Erik’s own path to recovery, but he was determined to do everything in his power to make it happen. Despite his reservations, Erik kept walking.

Fox walked near enough to Erik to be there to help if he stumbled, but so far hadn’t needed to intervene. Touwon was pulling things out of his bag and tinkering around with them, appearing oblivious, but by now Oskar knew better. Over the last hour, Penny had closed the distance. He'd warned Erik, who'd simply nodded that he'd heard the warning, and focused again on walking. The Pangolor was cautiously moving closer to the group, poking up and looking at Oskar to make sure everything was okay.

He gave her a nod, and wished he had the energy to hold her, but she didn’t know Erik and wasn’t approaching the group until she could get a feel for him herself. She came fully out of the sand near the group, watching them cautiously, but not yet approaching.

Erik looked over at him questioningly, and Oskar smiled and said, "Her name's Penny." He had to stop himself from telling Erik she was the best girl. She didn't need to hear it, and Erik would figure it out on his own.

She eventually started preening and showing off to get a reaction from Erik. She was prancing about ten paces ahead, keeping moving to show off how pretty her scales were in the suns light, looking back periodically.

For a while, Oskar worried Erik was too out of it to even notice Penny’s antics. He then caught the little half smile on his brother’s tired face when Penny was looking away and realized his brother was playing hard to get. Probably because Penny was getting more and more ridiculous, and admittedly adorable by the minute.

Finally, Eric broke into a tired chuckle when she turned around to see if he was watching her shenanigans and somehow tripped over herself as she was slinging a copper scaled hip sideways. She tried to turn it into a dive into the sand, but with no momentum, her little back feet clawed at the in vain for a few seconds before she finally made it fully under the sand. Both Erik and Touwon were grinning, but Oskar and Fox were still doubled over laughing when she came up half a minute later as if nothing had happened.

Penny had stolen all their momentum because of her antics, and Oskar was thankful they were close to the Wayspring by now, which was just on the other side of the next dune. They chose to go around rather than over, which cost them a few hundred yards, but silhouetting themselves by walking over the top was a good way to have a bad day.

They closed the distance to the Wayspring. Fox went on watch, and Touwon threw up a quick tent for Erik to rest under.

Erik watched through his heavy-lidded eye with interest as Oskar pointed out the Wayspring. Penny took the leather siphon hose down to the spring below them. Erik stood, gently swaying in his white robe.

"What is this cloth made of? I've barely seen any plants at all, much less anything like what we'd use back on earth for clothing."

"The material is from a plant that grows along the Dead Sand River; a long winding dune valley between massive cliffs of rock that spans across the low desert, far to the north," Fox said. She described the plant, which sounded similar to an aloe plant, but it was dried and then stripped into small threads to make material for cloth. She refilled her waterskin, and headed back up the dune to keep a lookout while Oskar thought. He was trying to give Erik time to rest before telling him everything he'd been through, and it took a great deal of effort to do so. He distracted himself by focusing on other things. Like plants.

Oskar was interested in seeing what else this world had to offer. The almost all brown landscape he'd traveled in so far was in stark contrast to the colorful red, purple, and blue sky. The scarcely dotted tiny blue grains of sand and the light green bulbs of rounded, spikey cactus were the only thing that broke their constant view. The same cactus whose moisture tasted exactly like bug spray to Oskar. Even so, the bulbs of the cacti were barely visible, almost entirely concealed by the sand. He heard Erik's breath deepen, and so he went up the dune to talk to Fox, sitting beside her a moment before asking her about the Dead Sand River.

"You know how the dunes slowly roll across the desert, pushed by the strength of the winds?"

He’d noticed that on some level, but it was nice that Fox confirmed it. He nodded for her to continue.

"Because the wind is steady, the dunes and valleys themselves stay largely the same shape, rolling across the desert a few claw widths a day. People have learned to navigate cardinally opposed to using the limited landmarks. Along the Dead Sand River, things are different. Rocky embankment persists alongside it. There, the wind flows through the valley instead of far overhead. So, the sand flows down the valley in a slow, steady roll. The Dead Sand River-bed is like a sluggish quicksand deathtrap."

"I've been training for quicksand my entire life! Thanks, Saturday morning cartoons."

Oskar was determined to see it one day. The whole description didn’t quite make sense to Oskar, so he guessed there must be magic tomfoolery afoot.

After a quick nap, Erik woke and sat up just in time to see Penny come up from the Wayspring. She shook off the Wayspring water on her coppery scales that would probably have evaporated in a matter of moments anyhow.

Erik refilled his single waterskin halfway before stopping to drink. Touwon absentmindedly pulled another waterskin from his bag and tossed it to Erik, whose slowed reaction time made him jerk. He splashed a slosh of comparatively freezing water onto his lap with a gasp, which pulled a good-natured chuckle out of Oskar. Oskar was being careful not to treat his brother like the broken man he looked to be, but to trust Erik to dictate what he needed from his little brother. Erik smiled at Oskar, but his eyes showed little of it.

The sky was slowly gaining a purple hue as the red sun slowly dipped behind the dune walls.

Erik sipped the chilled, healing waters of the Wayspring and shivered as the red burn from the suns’ exposure healed. Oskar sat with Erik, and they stared out at the darkening purple sky in silence and listened to the wind overhead until Fox spoke gently behind him, translating a comment from Touwon.

“Touwon says he likes your brother more than you, Oskar. He says Erik talks less,” Fox said.