Submission (#6389) Approved

The first leg of DE001’s journey through Ahza goes as smoothly as one might expect. Nono, of course, has a wealth of knowledge of the region and on survival trips in general, which helps. However, not even the most seasoned Elnin can predict a heard of locusts coming through and completely devouring everything they can get their mouths on.

They strike in the day, when the sun is high and both ‘nins have escaped into the relative shade of their tents for a siesta. DE001 is teetering between sleep and awareness, the intense heat of the desert making his brain melt into a puddle of mud. He thinks he’s hallucinating for a second. That, or he’s too mesmerized by the shimmer of hot air forming a mirage against the dunes.

“What the—” DE001 mutters. There’s a scurrying sensation on his paw, and he blinks to clear the haze from his eyes. Then he sees the scourge of bugs encroaching on their camp. “Ah!”

His screech wakes Nono from his own nap. The Elnin is immediately on edge, fist coming forward with a butterfly knife in hand. Had he stashed that beneath his pillow before he laid down?

DE001 doesn’t have much time to think about that, because bugs! The jumping, swarming locusts cover their camp in all but a minute, biting and chewing everything in sight. The kittom’s arms pinwheel as he slaps the ones that are unlucky enough to land on his body.

Though the majority of their supplies aren’t bug food, the pests certainly try to eat everything. Holes quickly form in their tent, backpacks, sheets—it’s a complete and utter mess.

Thankfully the food is being kept in glass jars to preserve it; the locusts can’t get through that! Light starts streaming in from the pinholes, the bright Ahza sun beaming into their hiding spot. After a couple minutes of the two ‘nin scrambling around, pushing bugs off their belongings in a futile effort to salvage what they can, the locusts realize there’s nothing there for them to consume.

And just like that, the swarm absconds.

DE001 watches them leave, listening to the soft sound of Nono panting next to him. The tent had been knocked down sometime during the struggle, so the two of them are completely baking in the heat.

“Well,” Nono begins, but stops. He reaches out to pick a water flask up and steal a large swig from it. “That sucked.”

DE001 doesn’t want to move. He just wants to melt into a puddle of sweat and body odor on the sand, evaporating in seconds. Nono probably feels the same way, but he has more strength than DE001.

The two of them wordlessly set about patching the holes. There’s enough spare fabric from their extra clothes to set aside, although there might be a couple inches missing from DE001’s khakis…

By the time Nono has given up filling out his pillow, DE001 is just finishing up on their tent. The sun is still high in the sky and reflecting off the dunes, so DE001 focuses on the horizon instead. Ahza’s Eldertree watches from the skyline, its individual roots visible even from miles and miles away.

The massive, milky skull entangled in the banyan roots is also in plain view, as well. DE001 doesn’t like focusing on it despite it’s size, but it gives him something to think about that isn’t a litany of, it’s so aggressively hot and I am roasting.

DE001 props the tent back up with a defeated sigh. Nono unwilts a bit, taking one last sip of water before corking it back up.

“Nothing quite like a swarm of insects from hell to make an adventure worse!”

“Just get in the tent,” DE001 exhales. “There’s still a couple hours until nightfall.”

And so Nono goes back to his half-eaten pillow, stashing the small knife back under his pillow with a huff. DE001 watches him do so while his mind starts returning back to its unthinking state. His scarf hangs off his neck in a thankfully in-tact state, and the kittom shrugs it off so he can bundle it under his head.

A pinprick of light from a spot he’d missed during the patch job filters in. Annoyingly, it falls right between his eyes. DE001 groans.

Flipping over onto his side, he thinks of their next checkpoint instead of his growing frustrations. This portion of the journey ends in a well-traveled oasis town, where they’ll have access to proper beds, fresh food, and actual bathrooms. The thought of the watery paradise and its refreshing wonders fills his head as he starts to nod off.

DE001 pictures himself tucked up against the water’s edge, feet pushing and pulling the current along lazily. Wind tousles his hair and pulls sand through his curly locks. A paw touches his own, and he looks down at it.

Traveling the length of the extended arm, DE001 pulls his gaze up to rest solely on Zephyrus’ lovely, smiling face. The kittom’s gaze is soft and demure, especially with DE001’s scarf wrapped around his partner’s neck. Zephyrus opens his lips to say something, and DE001 leans forward and strains to hear the words being uttered, but he can’t make anything out beyond—

“—wake up! Gee, if I knew you were going to crash this hard I wouldn’t have let you enter a full sleep cycle.”

DE001 is pulled out of his nap with ruthless efficiency. He blinks a couple times, trying to clear the grit from his mind.

Nono has already pulled the tent down from around them, coiling and stuffing it into his backpack. The sky is turning dark around them. With the moon pulling up between a couple roots of the Eldertree, it illuminates the skull from behind. It’s utterly terrifying.

Shivering, DE001 starts pulling himself up, and silently prays that the rest of the journey will be better.