The waning moon hung low in the sky as darkness slowly consumed it more and more. Every night, the moon would become darker and darker as a shadow was cast upon it until it was completely gone. Then the reverse would happen, brightening until it was full of light once again. An endless cycle that lasted just under a month. Ironically the basis a month was founded upon, yet shorter than an actual month.

The night seemed to stretch on endlessly and the moon's position remained fixed no matter how fast the boat went. The scenery went by in a blur as if time had sped up dramatically but time ticked by as per the usual. It could not escape the confines of time. Not that these confines were natural.

To the tortoise, it did not matter if the night ended or went on longer by a few seconds. The only thing that mattered was that the sky was dark and the moon was out instead of the sun. And there was the fact that the moon was starting to set so it was a new day. An in-between of last night and this morning.

These were mental barriers that things bounded themselves to out of convenience. At this speed, it felt like time was going by faster therefore it was. At one point, to a creature as long lived as a tortoise, days and nights will pass with as much of a care as these passing seconds. A timespan of such brevity that it would not care if it was wasted.

A few more trails lined up in the sands beside the ones they were following. The humanoid demon kicked a piece of metal at the base of the steering mechanism, locking it in place before standing at the bow of the ship. It was just a stick jutting out of the floor that when pushed in a certain direction made the boat steer to the inversion. A simple mechanism to offset the complex machinery below that could be mistaken for magic. Unlike magic, there was a distinct logic behind how it could move, but not why.

The tortoise kept to the stern of the ship, unmoving. There was no reason to move now that it teamed up with this demon that handled everything. Guided by the boat to a destination, not of its choosing. A sense of reliance that was more of over-dependence. Not that the tortoise has ever gone somewhere out of its volition since it was born.

Another set of paths lined up, doubling the amount and scarring the earth. They were all heading in the same direction, congregating in one spot. The place where all paths ended and began, a central hub. Already visible in the distance.

As clear as day did the settlement stand. It was completely lit up and glowed in the surrounding darkness. The center of the town standing out the most as if it was a bonfire with scattered embers. Ablaze the town was in both light and activity; boats similar to the one they stood upon entered and exited and the lights inside fluctuated.

Some of these boats headed directly towards theirs, a welcoming party bearing weapons and suspicion. A necessary measure considering how suspicious the boat was; damaged by the battle and manned by only one who was no longer a man. In response, the humanoid demon removed the lock from the steering rod and pushed it forward, slowing things down to a halt.

Two boats lined up beside theirs while the rest headed outwards to who knows where. After the resulting dust storm, a conversation began. One that the tortoise did not partake in for it could not speak nor could it understand the contents of what was being spoken. The humanoid demon, however, maintained their knowledge from before they became a demon. After a few minutes, the demon had explained that the damage was from a storm and that his two friends had passed away from the damage.

Apparently, this wasn't the first time this happened as the explanation was accepted. Even then, one of them boarded the boat and looked around. The destroyed boxes, bags full of locusts, and damages to the deck attested to their story. The only outlier was the tortoise that started walking towards the boarder to attack them. Unfortunately, they walked away and their pace was far longer than the tortoise's. As for the tortoise's presence, it was passed off as something picked up at random along the path and was to be sold inside the settlement.

With the end of the conversation, the boarder hopped back onto their boat and the two boats left, going off into the desert wastes. Turning around or going towards the storm to investigate, the demons would never find out. Not that they cared in the first place as the boat resumed its path to the heart of town before them. Or rather, the outskirts as boats weren't allowed within and ten meter high walls attested to this.

A sandport lied just ahead, a grid of interlocking trenches and well-maintained stone walkways. An endless sea of shifting sands and the vessels that shifted them. Within a few moments, the humanoid steered the boat up next to one of the stone paths and hopped out. Within a few minutes, the tortoise dragged itself to the side of the boat and dragged itself over to the path. While it could have gone ahead and left the tortoise to the elements, the humanoid decided to patiently wait for the tortoise to tag along.

The sands on either side of the path were so unsettled that a casual step could sink a person several meters deep and only the path they stood on kept them from a slow and painful doom. The boat was left behind without a care in the world. It was not tied to the walkway. None of the luggage was taken out or sorted. No effort was delegated towards repairing this boat or keeping it. Left out to dry in the morning sun and easy pickings for a thief.