Chapter 16: Plump, promising, and pleasant

The coarse sand scratched her back and chafed in the joints of her wings. For a second, she thought the blur of the past hours had all been a bad ale-induced nightmare and she was about to wake up coiled up in her comfy sheets with a warm blanket on top. Her limbs were as splayed out as they were after drinking, too. They were just kinda somewhere in her body’s vicinity, and she had to collect her hurting legs and tail to a comfortable position near her stomach.

She opened her eyes, and the sun pierced into her skull with the precision of a needle and ignited a dreadful headache. She turned to the side and waited for her head to stop throbbing.

It was then, with sand tingling her ear, that she noticed how the sunlight burned hot on her belly. “Eek!” she yelled out and twisted around. The world exploded into flashes of white and she dropped her head back down, cradling it in her pfods.

The pain subsided to a manageable level eventually and was replaced with the rising heat of shame crawling up her scales. Showing your stomach was a sign of submission and she had not given in to the desert just yet. It was also rather indecent. Hopefully, Brandon had not seen her like that. She carefully looked around as to not rekindle her headache. Where was Brandon?

His backpack stood silent and alone on the sand. The top opened. Flasks of chemicals lay scattered all around. A few of them uncorked and spilled. A sick feeling filled her stomach and closed up her throat. Her gaze wandered further. Had something happened while she was asleep? She focused on her ears but heard nothing, so she forced herself to stand. First she let herself get jumped on the airship and now he was gone, she could not fail him again. Her gaze drifted around once more, but this time, a mass of something mushy and green caught her attention.

With slow and deliberate steps, she made her way to the pile. Another smaller pile of thorns lay right next to it. “Cacti? Cactussies?” She picked up one of the larger stems. The frayed bottom of the arm long piece showed someone had broken it off a larger stem. The flesh between the remaining thorns was dented and mushy with clear imprints of fingers. A thick white sap oozed from the bottom.

“Genius”, she said and lifted the stem upwards. Brandon had pressed the liquid out of them. She made a fresh cut with her claw, large enough to fit a single digit inside. The last remaining drops of moisture raced through the plants internals and into Sylph’s digit as soon as her scales touched the wet flesh. The sap coursed through her arm like a sticky vine, wound itself around once, then dropped to the sand in gooey drops at the end of her underarm.

Clearly, she had not just fallen asleep yesterday, but her mind came up with nothing. She remembered walking and resting and then emptiness. She raised the backside of her pfod to her forehead. It was blazing hot. That little bug, whose taste still hung in her mouth, had to be at fault. That, or the lack of water. Or both combined.

She rummaged through the pile of discarded cactus, scouring it for every drop of liquid she could get. It amounted to less than expected, a few mouthfuls, but those felt incredible to her dry throat.

Her ears perked up at the sound of footsteps in the distance. She recognized the familiar pattern immediately, laid back down to calm her headache, and waited.

Brandon’s head peeked over the dune, and their gazes met. He dripped with sweat, his face was covered in dust and tense like a drawn bowstring. “Sylph, say something.”

“Something,” Sylph barked. The tension vanished. A grin stretched over his face and he shook his head. He approached with his arms slightly raised in a very dangerous, hug-like movement, not only because he carried a large piece of cactus. Brandon stopped right in front of her, the smile never leaving his face. His arms swayed back and forth in a struggle not to touch her, even if he wanted to. “Thank Myria, you are back with the sane.” He dropped a large piece of cactus at her feet. It fell to the ground with a quiet thud.

“The sane? What exactly happened?” She tried to scour her memory, but came up with nothing.

His smile faded. “You were pretty dehydrated, started to be delusional and talked a bunch of nonsense. And if I hadn’t found this cactus-” He wiped his face and turned away to stare into the desert. “Yeah,” he sniveled.

The realization that she had bumped wings with death was slow to set in. Brandon’s reaction made it all the more clear, and she swallowed hard. She never suspected that it could sneak up on her like that. Not a spear or claw, but simply not having enough to drink. It all happened so fast and unnoticeable. She had felt bad, laid down to rest and then this.

“You were in no condition to walk. I would’ve had to carry you all the way to the next town.”

“Carry me?” Sylph could not help but snort. “I’ve seen you struggle with crates. I know I’m not supposed to say this, but do you realize how much I weigh? You wouldn’t be able to.”

He mumbled under his breath and answered with a shaking voice that gripped her heart. “Please, do not say that. Don’t joke about your death. It’s not funny.”

Brandon turned to his scattered supplies without a word, and Sylph reconsidered her words. “I mean, I’m glad that you’d try to do that, but we’d probably both die at that point.” Brandon didn’t turn back to her. She cursed herself as the silence hit her on the head like a brick. She could have died. Brandon could have seen her die. He thought she was about to die. And she made jokes about her weight and his noodle arms. What was she supposed to say now?

“Thankfully, we are still breathing.” Sylph stepped up to help Brandon. He picked up the scattered bottles and placed them back inside his backpack. With no order, as usual. Sylph joined in, pushing the bottles into the open spaces between tunics and other vials. “I hope I did nothing too weird being that out of it.”

“You talked about tiny skeletons. You also threatened to beat up the sun like a fire in a back alley. I didn’t know what that meant, but it was the most coherent thing you said. I am just glad you are back.”

Sylph snorted in laughter. She knew what she spoke about. “I remember that night, Sol and sun do sound similar, I guess. It was in the alley behind Poisoned Drinks. They really ganged up on that fire, took a real beating. My money was on the fire though.”

Brandon let out a chuckle and finished packing. “What? Why were you watching a bunch of drunk Sol beat up a fire in an alley? And why wasn’t I there?”

“Well, I went to that back alley because my tail started to float. And there they were, punching a fire. Not sure why or what happened afterwards, or who won. I had a horrible hangover the next day.” She recalled more snippets of that night. “I think it was your last birthday, actually. I was the only dragon invited among your friends, so that’s probably why it never came up.”

Brandon sighed. “Guess some Sol partied too hard and had a fiery accident. I was also pretty drunk, so I might not remember.” He turned to look at her. “How do you feel now?”

“Besides the throbbing headache and insatiable thirst and blistering sun on my back?” She stretched and stopped as every inch of her body protested with twinges of pain. “I am hurting all over. Where do I get more water?” She grinned.

He pointed towards his shallow tracks in the sand. “The cacti, I was pretty sure they are poisonous, so I didn’t dare try to drink it, but with your ability I was certain that you could.” His voice sounded exhausted, but in a good way. Like the way you proclaimed victory, standing above a defeated opponent and feel the heat inside of you dropping.

Water. The mere mention invigorated her body with a certain eager. Her head throbbed, mouth was dry, and mind burned with fever, but the promise of the sweet liquid gold saw it ignite with new strength.

“I’m getting a headache too,” Brandon added.

“I suppose humans can go more than a day without water?”

“Three days, I think.” He stepped past her to follow in his footsteps, stopped, then took a step backwards. “We don’t have a dragonheart to fuel.” His answer trailed off as he leaned forward and regarded the side of her face with curiosity.

Sylph retracted her head. “What exactly are you doing?”

“Your eyes are normally blue, right?”

“Yes, light-blue.”

“Because they have a yellow tinge at the edges.”

Her thoughts were sluggish and could not quite make their way to where they were supposed to go. “My dragonheart ran out of water.” The realization struck her and her heartbeat quickened. “It started to poison me. I really need more water.”

Brandon hurried ahead, gesturing for her to follow. A few dunes later, the sand grew coarser between her digits. She had not noticed before, but the sand was rougher and the dunes smaller. Only a few minutes afterward, the initial fire inside faded, and she fell into a dull jog. Her steps grew tired and painful as they finally reached the edge of a small valley.

Sylph could not believe her eyes as she crossed the tip. “Well, tie me up and call me princess.”

“Excuse me?”

“It is beautiful. Cactussies.” She felt a dry tear crawling to the occasion. Brandon really found water in the desert.

“Cacti,” he corrected.

A massive patch of cacti, bigger than a fully grown dragon and with thorns longer than her teeth, grew at the bottom of the valley. It must be able to reach water somehow, as the plants were plump and bulging, nearly bursting with watery goodness.

“I think we went far enough south to leave the worst part of the desert behind. There may be even more vegetation when we go further. Meaning, we’ll be okay with your ability. And I reckon this is where people would settle too.”

Sylph wanted to hug the prickly plants. She hopped forward and slid down the dune immediately. The sand carried her downwards with the speed of an avalanche.

A flash of white-hot pain raced up from the fins of her tail, grabbed hold of her insides and pulled them apart like a jaw ripping out a throat. Sylph twisted around in pain and shock. Her feet buried themselves in the dune as she struggled to a standstill. Her movement was swift and more a reflex than a conscious decision. She whipped her tail past her with the rest of her momentum and ripped it free from the painful grip.

Brandon flew down the slope. He landed face first in the sand next to her and slid a few more feet before coming to a halt.

“DO. NOT. DO. THAT!” she snarled. The tail tip was as sensitive as it gets and even without her condition, that would have been a massive faux pas.

Brandon slowly propped himself back up and faced her.

“You better explain yourself,” she snapped and stared him down with bared teeth.

His face was bruised, parts torn open by the harsh trip through the coarse sand. He spat out a mixture of sand and blood, staring at the blob in disbelief. “I’m very sorry.” He wiped away the dust. She expected him to make a face, twist in pain, but instead he smiled faintly. “I probably deserve this. But I just know you wouldn’t have listened otherwise and your safety is important to me.”

Most people would have backed away from the dragon snarling at them, but Brandon merely patted the sand off his clothes and talked a little faster.

“What could be SO important that you would do THIS!” she hissed and her tail whipped through the sand.

“You can’t absorb it all at once. I’m pretty sure the shock of so much water will kill you. And I am pretty confident you would’ve done precisely that since moderation is not a word in your vocabulary.”

Sylph closed her mouth with a smack and her tail went limp. “Right.” Brandon knew exactly what she was about to do. In her head, she had already smashed the whole cactus and bloated up as far as possible. On second thought, maybe that was not the greatest idea. “I think I can forgive pulling my tail this time. But only this once. I mean it.”

Sylph walked the rest of the way. She should be mad at him. Grabbing anyone’s tail was wrong. He could have grabbed anything else. Although seeing how she stormed ahead, it was probably the only thing still in his reach to stop her from being an idiot.

The cacti grew larger and more plump with every step she took. The biggest stem was more than triple her height. She carved away the thorns on a small stem right in front of her, slashed it open, and left three deep claw marks. She struck once more, vertical this time, and then rammed her pfod deep into the sap oozing flesh.

Soft, meaty tissue enclosed her digits. The innards were slippery and spongy to the touch. She sighed and drew in water. A pleasant dull sensation slowly crawled up her arm, and the plant shriveled up like a dead branch until the insides grew hard and dry. She removed her pfod and shook off the remaining sticky white sap.

Her gaze went to the other stems as she felt the water disperse throughout her body. Judging from what a small stem gave her, the whole patch of cacti was comparable to a drawn bath, several hundred liters. She felt tempted to draw in a lot more all at once, as the water did nothing to quench her thirst this quickly. It barely did anything. Her head still hurt, the dizziness stayed and her muscles burned.

But, to be careful, she spent several hours slowly absorbing cactus water until her tongue worked again and the cotton feel vanished from her mouth. The symptoms slowly retreated and her body rejoiced, but her movements remained sluggish and a dull nausea grew stronger deep inside of her. When she stood up to grab another stem, a sharp sting of pain in her lower abdomen made her wince.

Brandon sat with legs crossed in the slimming shadow of the cactus. A contempt smile on his face. “We should rest tonight. You look awful.”

“That obvious?” She tried to seem well, but evidently her body betrayed her.

He nodded. “I never knew that not having access to water is so much more dangerous to a dragon. But I suppose it makes sense if your dragonheart depends on it.”

She turned her attention inwards. All the water absorbed by her ability rested in a thin layer beneath her skin until her body reclaimed it on its own. But as often as her ability had helped her reclaim her own water, she still lost enough to sweat and evaporation, as well as her dragonheart keeping her alive. “I did all I could. Maybe I would’ve broken down even earlier if I hadn’t. Maybe the saying that dragons run on water and dreams holds more truth than we realize. It’s just not something you usually think about. You drink when thirsty and eat when hungry. This was pretty scary.”

“But for now, we are fine.” Brandon smiled, and his bruised lips opened up and started to bleed. That had been his own fault. Not that she could offer to help lick his wounds.

Brandon rested his head in the slim shadow of the cactus hanging ever so slightly overhead. “I am pretty sure things will go back to being normal tomorrow.” He picked up one of the many broken cactus thorns and rolled it between his fingers. “Only thing we are missing is food, but I can go for a few days without and I know dragons can.”

Dragons could supposedly go two months without food and two days without water. But as any fact with supposedly in front, it had to be taken with a huge grain of salt. She raised a piece of cactus and admired its spongy texture. It looked very much like a fruit. A single look from Brandon let her know that she had a terrible idea. Of course she would not eat them, but maybe. No. She could not purify food and after that beetle, her curiosity was more than sated. Quenching her thirst had also quenched her hunger for now.

She dropped the cacti and closed her eyes and let her head droop to the floor. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“A thank you is more than enough,” Brandon said. His backpack rustled as he turned on his side.

“You saved me from death. A thank you won’t do. I am in your debt. I feel like I should swear a vow to be in your service, to save you from mortal peril or something,” Sylph wildly gestured into the air. She opened her eyes to see Brandon facing her.

“I don’t need an oath. I know you would do the same for me. And, considering that we are stuck in a desert, searching for a town of slavers, maybe that moment will come.” He turned to look upwards. “I never thought I would be caught in a desert one day. In fact, I believed I would stay in the shop for the rest of my life, never leaving Halfhill again.”

“Your entire life in the small shop?”

“Compared to our old village, our business is booming and Halfhill is an interesting place. I’m sure we will be one of the better alchemy shops in a few years. That is what I’m striving towards. At some point I’m going to run it after all.”

Sylph would not describe their business as booming. “At least you have ideas about your future.” She was not exactly employed. She helped Oasis in her shop from time to time, but nothing more. Her mothers had never told her to get a job or forced her to work. She did not know what it would be like to stock up shelves for the rest of her life and why she was supposed to want that besides having money. “At some point you should call it something more interesting than alchemical supplies, though,” Sylph noted.

“Can’t call ourselves Embers’ embers anymore. That damn artist corrupted our good family name.”

Sylph broke into a quiet chuckle. Human families identified with their last name. It was not a place like a dragon’s. You even called them by their last name in a more formal setting. So bearing the dreaded Embers as a last name by sheer accident was kind of funny to her. She bore the name Saagtann like her mothers despite never seeing the mountain range herself. Sylph van Saagtann. It didn’t quite roll off her tongue, but very little situations called for your full name.

Minutes passed and the shadow of the cactus grew slimmer as the sun rose and she had to use her wing as a sun sail once again.

As they quieted down, her ears picked up insects buzzing and tiny animals scurrying around. This small oasis was home to quite a few little critters. She wished they could stay like this for a while. Just resting and talking for a few hours, not having to worry about water or the heat. But at some point, they had to move forward again and back into uncertainty.