“We’ve beached,” Sylas croaked out. Helianna groaned weakly and turned her head slightly to him.


    “Helianna, we’ve beached.”


    “I heard you,” Helianna groaned out, her words barely audible.


    “Come on,” he urged but Helianna barely moved. “Come on,” he insisted once more before slowly walking up to her. Slinging her over his shoulder, he helped her off the raft and up on the sand, away from the waves. He released her to stand on her own, but she almost immediately toppled over, Sylas’ grip the only reason she didn’t collapse. He laid her down on the sand, finally realizing how bad of shape she was in.


    “I’m going to get the others, then… fuck, then I guess I’m searching for water on my own, aren’t I?”


    He left for the raft, not expecting an answer from Helianna, who lay helpless on the sand. He slowly dragged both Ruusaan and Lesin over to Helianna, neither of which woke up. Realizing he was the only one capable of anything at this point, he looked around, feeling a bit hopeless. Everywhere he looked, he saw only sand and a plant he was pretty sure was called raff. They stuck up from the sand, waving in the wind like fans and it was obvious that he’d gain nothing he needed from them.


    He stepped further away from the ocean, climbing a small dune to try and get some height, and a touch of hope sparked in his chest.  In the far distance along the beach, he saw movement, likely other survivors. He knew they might be in just as bad of shape, but he didn’t see any other chance. Leaving the others behind and defenseless on the sand was obviously a bad idea as well, but as far as he saw it, he had no choice.


    He looked back over the group anxiously before leaving, anxiety building inside him. He started out walking but the prospect of water quickly brought him to a jog, which he swiftly regretted. Within only a couple hundred meters, he was gasping and spots appeared across his vision. He took the time to catch his breath, something that seemed to take inordinately long. By the time he felt recovered enough to start walking again, he was certain he had lost just as much, if not more time by running than if he had just walked.


    That wasn’t to say walking was easy either. The sand was soft and with how weak he was, he found himself stumbling along, grumbling to himself about how drunk he must look. He had to stop a couple times to regain his breath, but nothing like when he tried to run. By the time he got close, it had been almost two hours since he started. Unfortunately, the view in front of him was not a good one. There were almost a dozen people, many of them in the same state his own team was in. To make matters worse, he recognized some of them. A couple were passengers of his ship, but one of the unconscious ones was one of the ithrax. Only two people looked capable, and they both stood up as he approached.


    “You… you’re one of them! You caused this!”


    “First of all, we didn’t. But it doesn’t matter right now. We’re just trying-”


    “It does!” the second one yelled.


    “We’re just trying to survive, now,” Sylas said, doing his best to ignore the accusation no matter how much the lie stung him.


    “Yeah, right! She told us what you guys are trying to do! You deserve to wander for eternity!” Sylas blinked. He hadn’t expected that.


    The enemy ithrax must have been slandering his team without his team there to defend themselves. Of course, since they were with The Academy, the ithrax’s words would be treated as gospel by the Alarians aboard the ship. The explosion of the ship was probably easily pinned on them as well. He started to wonder what exactly she had claimed they were doing, but his thoughts were interrupted when a woman stepped forward, fury clear in her countenance.


    “Get the fuck out of here before we make you.”


    Sylas wasn’t sure how capable they were with the heat and dehydration, but he knew he had to be doing better. He was kinuze. There were none better at surviving the desert than his people. While he knew he was weak, he couldn’t imagine a world where two non-kinuze civilians could beat him after two days of dehydration. It didn’t occur to him that this fight would gain nothing, and could possibly end with him injured.


    “Yeah, right. You couldn’t if you tried.” Already angry, the comment only enraged her and she swung a wild hook at Sylas. Sylas, surprised at the speed of her attack, stumbled back slightly to avoid it. Unused to fighting, the woman overextended, and Sylas was able to step forward, pulling her past him as he tripped her. This move would normally be easy for Sylas, but on soft sand with a poor sense of balance, they collided and knocked himself over in the process.


    Both of them scrambled to their feet as the other young man charged Sylas. Seeing the man go for a tackle, Sylas sidestepped, almost avoiding the man’s charge. The man’s hand nailed Sylas in the gut, jamming the man’s fingers and making him howl in pain while winding Sylas. The woman reached Sylas as he was recovering his breath and took another wild swing. More prepared this time, Sylas managed to avoid it without looking like a stumbling drunk and retaliated with a punch right in her gut.


    She stumbled with a grunt and Sylas turned to the man who had tried to tackle him. The man was still standing back up from his missed tackle, cradling his hand. Sylas charged this time, sending a lumbering kick at the man, who only managed enough of a dodge to make it miss his face. Instead, it hit the young man in the chest, sending him sprawling, with Sylas stumbling after him. Sylas turned his head just in time to see another haymaker coming his way, seemingly the only attack the woman knew how to do. Sylas couldn’t react in time due to his poor positioning, receiving a solid punch to the face that he was sure would give him a black eye. The woman, never having punched someone before, cried out as she cradled her hand. Sylas stomped forward and pushed her hard, causing her hard down onto the sand.


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    “Stop! I’m stronger than both of you. And I didn’t even use my magic,” Sylas bluffed. “Don’t make me.”


    The woman glared at him, but didn’t respond. Satisfied that she wouldn’t attack again, Sylas turned and looked at the rest of their group. He looked to see if they had any water, knowing that he wouldn’t take it even if they did. Unlike Helianna, he wouldn’t doom innocent people to die to save his own.


    Realizing it had been a fruitless endeavor, Sylas sighed as he turned and walked back down the beach. He wanted to groan but wouldn’t dare let them see any weakness, especially after his announcement just a moment before. He had no clue what to do. He didn’t know how to find water and they were at the edge of the desert. The only thing he could think of was possibly finding at least a little greenery within the desert. Or an oasis? That sounded like a wild dream. His thoughts continued, blinding him to his surroundings as he walked.


    “I thought you abandoned us,” croaked out a voice, which startled him out of his thoughts. He had apparently walked all the way back and Ruusaan was looking straight at him.


    “No. Trying to find water.”


    “You went the wrong way.”


    Sylas scoffed and splayed out his arms indignantly. “No shit.”


    “We need to go inland. If we can find a forested part of the desert, that’ll help us survive,” Ruusaan informed.


    “Forested? How can a desert be forested?”


    “It’s just a term… but there are plants. We should go, while we still have strength.”


    “Why? How will that help? The others will be along the beach. If someone managed to salvage our fresh water, that would be our best chance.”


    Ruusaan groaned. “No, it won’t. Finding people is hard, assuming they managed to even salvage any. And they’ll have probably drunk it already. We need to find some stonewood trees, or ideally an ibotchi, but that’s unlikely.”


    “I’m sorry, what?”


    “I know what to look for. And as much as I hate you guys, I might need you to survive.”


    Sylas sighed and thought for a few moments. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.” He turned towards Helianna and Lesin, who were both lying on the ground. “How are we going to do this? Your leg is injured, Lesin is unconscious and Helianna’s in and out.”


    “Seriously? I’m not liking our odds” Hearing that, Sylas had an idea, instantly hating it. In any other situation, he would have instantly disregarded it, even if it was more efficient.


    “Fuck,” he cursed, knowing it his survival might come down to it so he couldn’t ignore it.


    “What now?”


    “I have an idea.” She stayed silent, waiting for him to elaborate. “First, how well do you know what you’re looking for?”


    “I know exactly what I’m looking for,” Ruusaan stated confidently. “I was taught how to survive no matter where in the world we might crash.”


    “Wow,” Sylas thought for a moment before he continued, clearly unhappy about his own idea. “Well, in that case you should go on ahead. Find water. If it’s a long ways away, it would make more sense for you to go on your own instead of wandering around helping carry these two. Then you can come back.”


    She looked at him in surprise. “You’re not wrong. But what’s stopping me from just leaving you guys?” Sylas took a deep breath, hating having to trust her.


    “Nothing. But it’s our best chance. I’d rather go myself…” Sylas didn’t continue, not wanting to admit that he didn’t know what he was looking for.


    “But it makes more sense for me to go.” Sylas didn’t look at her, taking the excuse of wanting to look over Helianna. As he shifted her to get a look at her wound, she groaned.


    “I’ll see you guys later. Once I have water.” Sylas nodded and didn’t respond, paying more attention to Helianna while Ruusaan walked away. The wound looked like it could be infected, but Sylas had no medical training so he really wasn’t sure. By the time the fog of unconsciousness lifted from Helianna’s mind due to his prodding, Ruusaan was already gone.


    “Water.” Helianna croaked out.


    “We’re working on it.”


    “We?”


    “Ruusaan. She was trained to survive in this.”


    “Can’t… trust… stranger,” Helianna got out as she struggled to sit up. She found it phenomenally hard to speak, tongue feeling swollen and her mouth feeling like sandpaper.


    “We don’t have a choice.” Sylas countered


    She laid back down and let out a miserable “Fuck.”


    “You said it,” Sylas agreed, sitting down next to her. Not wanting to exert themselves, the two of them lay there, Helianna drifting in and out of consciousness. Sylas wanted to make a shelter, but their only resources were the piece of the ship they floated in on which was too big, and the raff, which he would need to braid for way too long to be useful. Assuming he even could braid it without it falling apart. It looked too weak for that in his opinion.


    He tried to get some rest while waiting, but found himself unable to. Just his thirst and the worry about lack of water was enough, but the hot sand and heat from the blazing sun certainly didn’t help. He knew it was even more miserable for the others, but it was unbearably hot even for him. Hours passed and Sylas was starting to consider getting up and searching on his own. Before he could move however, he heard one of the best things he’d ever heard in his life.


    “I’m back! And I’ve got water!”