Inside the box, the tortoise was isolated. It was too dark to see anything and there were no sounds coming from outside. Things were eerily quiet as the boat and the humans manning it stayed silent. The other two boats were either far ahead, leaving this one in the dust, or were stopped like this one. This silence continued until the peak of the day struck a few moments later, accompanied by a flash of light.

This light could not infiltrate the box, only leaking through the lid and seeping through the wood grain to illuminate the inside. While it did sting a little, it helped the tortoise get its bearings and saw a few features of the box. Like how it was made of wood and was brown in color. There was also a few darker spots on the walls of the box that could be stains or knots in the wood grain. Whatever they were, they were slightly red in color.

As the light faded and things returned to normal, the boat set off. It made a low rumbling noise as it moved and the entire boat shook violently with each pulse and groan. Combined with the dark, warm, and damp environment within the box, the tortoise felt like it was in the belly of a beast. Not far off with the plans the humans had in store for it, or rather what they stored it for.

Food. One of the most important things for day to day life was enough food to get by. In areas like the wasteland, food was a scarce resource and ways to preserve foodstuffs for long periods of time was a lifesaver. Salting and drying food was nice, but there was a better way of preserving food, keeping it alive until it was to be eaten. Tortoises made for perfect travel rations as they could go for years without eating or drinking, making them very low maintenance and last for a long time.

If the demon was still an ordinary tortoise, it would be helpless in such a situation and fall prey to the humans with little resistance. No, even if it was still a normal tortoise, it would still try to escape. Being a demon simply gave it the necessary tools to escape properly. Long and sharp claws proved to be a strong asset in this kind of situation. It clawed away at the wall, leaving behind scratches that slowly built up and got deeper.

After about an hour of work scraping away at the wall, a small gap was made, granting a glimpse outside of the box. The reason why it took so long was that the boat was constantly shaking and bumping around, knocking the box and the tortoise inside around and making it hard to keep at the wall for longer than a few seconds. Not to mention, the box was surprisingly thick.

Outside was a wall of smoke and dust kicked up by the boat. This was to be expected as the box was at the back of the boat and the hole was facing off to the side. This was not to last long as the boat slowed down and came to a stop. After a few moments, the dust cleared and the destination was revealed. It was the oasis.

The tortoise's trip off into the unknown wastes had gone full circle. Yet, the oasis was strangely unfamiliar at this time. The positioning of landmarks such as the lone tree was on the other side of the lake while the lake itself felt distorted somehow. The only thing that was familiar was a swarm of locusts consuming everything in sight including themselves.

The humans disembarked from the boat while carrying bundles of thick cloth and some grass. They laid out the cloth on the ground then placed some grass on top of it as bait. These simple traps worked and locusts quickly swarmed around the cloth, allowing the humans to pick up the cloth by their corners and wrap the bugs up. Bag after bag full of locusts were caught and loaded onto the ship.

At this point, it was hard to tell which species was more destructive. Insects that swarmed in the hundreds and consumed everything in sight or intelligent mammals that traveled miles and used devious traps to capture all the locusts whether they were in sight or not. Such a sight improved the demon's opinion of them yet did little to damper its aspirations.

Meanwhile, the tortoise whittled away at the hole, widening it until it could fit its head through while it could. Given more time, it could make the gap large enough to fit its entire body through and leave the boat. Unfortunately, there was no time for that as the humans loaded up the last of the locusts and got back on the boat. Before setting off, there was some hesitation and arguments with the humans.

They had spotted the trail of destruction left behind by the storm, craters and scars upon the land. Without any strong winds in the oasis as of recent, there wasn't enough erosion to smooth out the lands. Without erosion, even something as fragile as a footprint could last years without change.

There were two options open for them. Follow the trail of destruction or continue the path made before by their boats to a known location.