Submission (#2413) Approved

The sand burned against the pads of her feet, the sunlight harsh overhead, as Kal lead their little expedition out into the deserts surrounding the small Azhan village they were staying out. Kal, Kalea Solveiga actually, but that was a mouthful just call her Kal thanks, and her little brother ( 10 minutes older still counts!) Sumarlidi Kaleo, or Lidi were heading out to the small oasis that lay at the edge of where their mother, Evenne, would let them wander.

Kal was in the lead, panting as she trudged through the sand, and after a second motioned Lidi over to a small outcropping of rock, a few scraggly plants clinging to the top. She and Lidi flop to ground in the small patch of. Kal flicks her head and her hair drifts out of her field of vision, allowing her to see the expanse of burning sand stretched out before them, dotted with large cacti here and there. In the far distances there’s a dark jumble of shapes jutting above the horizon, the oasis that she and her brother were seeking.

Sighing, Kal murmurs to Lidi. “Geez, it’s hot today.”

She sits back on her haunches and unstraps the waterskin from her back, and quickly takes a sip. The blue kittom next to her huffs a little. 

“It’s always hot out here, Kal. we’re in the middle of Azha. It’s the desert.”

Kal rolls her eyes at Lidi.

"I know that Li, but I swear it's hotter than normal." She rolls her eyes at him, and eyes the distance between then and the oasis in the distance. The sand under her paws is cool, refreshing after the scorching earth they had spent the last 15 minutes trudging through. She's tired, but gosh, does she want to take a dip in that cool water. She can't wait.

Kal refastens her water and climbs back to her feet. She turns to Lidi and quirks her head, sending him a mischievous grin.

"You ready for the last stretch?"

Lidi sighs and rolls to his feet from where he had sprawled out in the sand, shaking the dirt loose before shooting her a smile.

" Yep. I'm good."

Kal takes a deep breath and bounds out back into the sun, faltering for a second as the heat slams into her like a wall. Geez it's so frickin hot. The hot sands shift under her feet as she takes her first step, just shy of painful. 

Maybe she should have wrapped her feet, she thinks ruefully. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches sight of Lidi's wrappings. She'd made fun of him for it, but now she was regretting it. Still. They were only like 10 minutes away from the oasis. She could do this.

So she trudged forward,  occasionally summoning the energy to playfully tease Lidi Bput keeping up, who just shakes his head and teases back. She knows he could easily keep up, just preferred to let her lead.

It seems to take forever until they reach the oasis, Kal immediately dropping her water and small pack under the shade of a small palm before barreling off a rocky ledge into the water with a gleeful shout. Distantly she can hear Lidi call out to her, but she's underwater before she can determine what exactly he said.

The water is warm, but still cooler than the air above, and feels super nice. She bobs up to the surface, the water being a little above her head, and treads over to the sand edge of the small spring. Lidi pads around to the edge of the water, and makes a face at the way the sand seems to suck his paws into it as he takes a step into the water. 

"I told you to wait for me Kal." He pauses and looks down at his paws, wriggling in the sand. He looks contemplative, so Kal takes a cue from him, and buries her own paws into the sand at the edge of the pool.

Something wriggles.

Kal jumps, surprised, but immediately digs back into the sand, searching for whatever made that movement, curiosity trumping everything else. It takes a moment, but eventually she digs out a small wriggling… thing.

It's brown and spotted, looking a lot like the sand Kal had pulled it out of. Kind of like a tadpole, it had a long tail and little stubs for arms and legs, big googly eyes staring around. She was fascinated to find that parts of the little critter were transparent, giving her a glimpse into the tiny thing’s insides.

Kal peers at it closely. “What is it?”

She hears Lidi’s voice next to her. “It’s a sand worm I think?”

Kal blinks and glances at him. “A sand WORM? It doesn’t look like a worm to me.”

Lidi laughs. “ I think it was originally wyrm, but over time it ended up becoming worm? At least that’s what the old man at the village told me. Apparently, the adult looks kinda like a small serpentine dragon-like eel… thing. I dunno I’ve never seen one. We might want to clear out though.”

“Why?” Kal asks.

Lidi eyes the water nervously. “They are supposed to be very territorial, Guarding their watering holes jealously. I don’t want to stick around to find out if that’s true.”

Kal pouts. “But we just got here! And I wanna swim!”

Lidi raises an eyebrow. “Would you rather get bitten by an angry momma lizard?”

Kal is silent, then she puts the little sand worm back into the water, and watches as it burrows back into the sand. Afterwards, she slowly walks the next few steps onto dry land, and pouts at Lidi. “...No.”

Lidi tries to cheer her up. “You did get to cool off at least?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Kal eyes the sandy expanse in front of her grumpily. Now she had to walk all the way back. 

What a bummer.