Sylas’s head snapped up at the mention of water, not even able to register how that could be possible before his eyes landed on Ruusaan. In her good arm was a small bundle of… rocks? Sylas sat up.


    “What are you carrying?”


    “Stonefruit!” Ruusaan replied cheerfully. “They taste like runoff from a toilet, but they’ve got water in them!”


    “I… what?”


    Ruusaan dropped the bundle to the ground and handed one to him. “Eat it!”


    Sylas hesitantly took the stonefruit and looked at it. Even up close, it looked like a rock and had the consistency of one. Combined with her disgusting claim, he was not particularly interested. He watched her for a moment, both apprehensive and perplexed. She had picked up one of the fruits she dropped and stood over Helianna. She then started gnawing on the stonefruit, not making much headway. She noticed him watching and stopped.


    “What? They’re tough as fuck to bite through. Get working!” Sylas didn’t move, simply watching her as she continued to gnaw on her own stonefruit. After a solid ten seconds, she finally bit through, the juice from the fruit splattering over her chin. She immediately pulled the stonefruit away, a frown of disgust crossing her features. She then held the fruit over Helianna and opened Helianna’s mouth. She started squeezing the fruit, and the visual did no wonders for Sylas stomach. The insides of the ‘fruit’ came out as a viscous slime that dropped into Helianna’s mouth.


    He immediately saw Heliannas mouth and throat working as she reflexively swallowed. She barely gulped it down before her eyes shot open and she started coughing aggressively, the motion overtaking her whole body. She agonizingly rolled over to her stomach, retching.


    “What the fuck?!” she rasped.


    “It’s water,” Ruusaan offered with just a little too much joy in her voice.


    “That was NOT water,” Helianna countered.


    “What? Got a little more flavor than you’re used to?”


    “Flavor?!” Helianna demanded incredulously.


    “Yeah, just a little flavor of the desert.” Helianna looked up, horror on her face. It took everything Ruusaan had to keep herself from laughing and Sylas even found himself grinning.


    “Here, have another sip,” Ruusaan offered, holding out a completely fresh stonefruit with no sign of the liquid she had been fed. Helianna looked at what appeared to be a simple stone before looking at Ruusaan’s eager face.


    “I’ve gone insane,” Helianna said to herself. Ruusaan couldn’t help herself anymore and started laughing, prompting Helianna to amend her statement.


    “No. You’ve gone insane.”


    Ruusaan started laughing even harder, completely unable to help herself. By the time she managed to calm down, Helianna was sitting up, albeit weakly.


    “Neither of us have gone insane. These are stonefruit. They have a decent water content, but taste like absolute shit. Hard to bite through too. Go ahead.”


    She handed the one that she had already bitten through to Helianna before standing up and turning to Sylas, mirth in her eyes.


    “I’m far from feeling good again, but trust me. Get some in your system. You’ll feel so much better. I certainly do.” Sylas looked at her, stunned at what he was hearing and seeing. She was burned and peeling off from the sun and salt. Her arm was a gruesome mess and yet she was somehow energetic and happy. Despite knowing he was the best off, Sylas couldn’t help the bitterness and complaints he voiced about their situation. He scoffed at himself.


    “How?” was all Sylas could ask.


    “How, what?” When Sylas didn’t respond, simply shaking his head in bewilderment, she continued. “Just drink up, already!”


    Not sure what to say, Sylas turned his attention toward the stonefruit apprehensively. With a deep sigh, he hesitantly brought it towards his mouth and bit down. While his teeth were slightly sharper than a human’s, it was still tough to bite through. The skin of the fruit wasn’t quite as hard as a rock, and it reminded him almost of bone. It flexed slightly as he bit down harder, the pressure making his teeth ache slightly. He suddenly burst through and a glob of the fruit’s interior shot into his mouth.


    Despite hearing how bad it was and seeing Helianna’s reaction, he was still unprepared for the flavor. He didn’t know how to describe the flavor aside from it being the worst thing he’d ever tasted. It took significant effort to swallow, after which he gagged intensely. There was a strange metallic aftertaste that lingered, nearly making him gag again. He gave an accusatory glare at the rest of the stonefruit, which was mostly full of the slimy liquid.


    “This is what we have to drink?”


    “Yep!” Ruusaan said cheerily as she took a loud slurp from her own stonefruit.


    “How are you not retching?”


    She shrugged. “I’m a sailor. I’m used to having to do what’s necessary.”


    “That means eating shit like this?!”


    “If necessary. Now eat. We all need the strength. We can try to force-feed this guy,” she said, gesturing to Lesin.


    “Right…”


    Gagging echoed across the sand, punctuated by Helianna''s whispered curses and Sylas''s strangled groans, as they forced down the viscous stonefruit. Ruusaan, still smiling at their misery, was slowly feeding some to Lesin, who remained unconscious but alive. Eventually, they finished and Sylas turned to Ruusaan, while Helianna gingerly laid back down.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    “Are there more?”


    “Yes, it’s actually fairly close. We got lucky. I think it’s only like an hour walk.”


    “Well then let’s go.”


    “Wait,” Ruusaan and Helianna said at the same time. Ruusaan looked over at Helianna, who had her eyes closed so Ruusaan continued. “The desert gets cold at night. That’s going to be true here at the beach, but it’ll be worse further inland.”


    “Good. We’ve been boiling alive,” Sylas complained.


    “No, you don’t understand. I’m talking about possibly in ranges where we could get hypothermia.”


    “You’re kidding me.”


    “No. We’ll probably need each other to survive. But for now, let’s take advantage of the beach.”


    “We’re going to have to carry them,” Sylas said as he gestured to Helianna, who was already asleep again. “She’s not doing well and Lesin…”


    “He got hit in the head, didn’t he?”


    “Yeah.”


    “And Helianna?”


    “I think it’s ‘cause of the stab wound?” Sylas guessed. “She lost a decent amount of blood. I doubt that’s a good combination with getting this dehydrated.”


    “Right…”


    Silence reigned once more and they both lay down on the sand. Even with a bit of water in their bodies, they were still incredibly dehydrated and it was hard not to be aware of it. The constant dizziness and exhaustion made it easier than expected to simply lay there despite the thirst. In contrast, falling asleep was quite difficult and night fell as they lay there. The temperature dropped and both found themselves shifting towards each other to retain body heat. As awkward as it was, they lay with their backs towards each other, the small amount of heat greatly valued. They eventually fell asleep, later joined by a shivering Helianna who was woken up by the cold.


    The next morning, Sylas was the first to wake up, his mind instantly kicking into overdrive as he felt movement. It took a long few moments for his memory of the situation to come back, but the tension didn’t leave his body. He was currently in between two sleeping women and alarm bells were ringing through his head. He started slightly trying to extricate himself from them, desperately hoping neither woke up. He did not want anything weird happening. It was only a matter of survival. That didn’t change him feeling incredibly awkward or remove the fear that one of the others might take something the wrong way, whether it be a movement in his sleep or him trying to get out of the two of them.


    Eventually making it out, he swore to himself that he would not let himself be caught between the two of them again. Survival was going to be hard enough. He didn’t need their… or his reactions to anything making things harder. Now that he was out of the tangle though, he could breathe a sigh of relief, less worried about the others’ reactions when waking up. He first tried waking up Helianna, but without much luck. He confirmed that she was alive, but he wasn’t sure how much longer she could last. He was able to wake Ruusaan without incident, although she was fairly grumpy about it.


    The next few minutes were spent trying to get Lesin into a solid carry that Sylas could manage. It took some help from Ruusaan due to Sylas’ inexperience carrying people and Lesin’s unconscious form. Only having one good arm also limited Ruusaan’s ability to help. Ruusaan then managed to get Helianna to respond, even if she was barely conscious. Ruusaan then half carried her along as they set off. Helianna barely kept her feet moving, requiring Ruusaan to partially drag her at times. And with Sylas weakened, Lesin felt like a boulder weighing down his shoulders.


    To make it worse for Sylas, Lesin started to stir, eliciting quiet curses from Sylas as he stumbled each time. Sylas wasn’t sure if it was purely because he was being carried or if it had anything to do with the freezing cold over the night, but Lesin bounced in and out of consciousness, frequently making nonsensical comments. Many of his words were complete gibberish, and those that were understandable made little to no sense.


    The morning passed and the blazing sun beat down on them as the hour-long walk extended into several hours. Their surroundings were bleak, the sand dotted only by raff, almost seeming to taunt them as it waved in their faces. As they crested another dune however, the monotony was broken by the strangest looking plant Sylas had ever seen. It looked like someone had taken a bush and removed all the leaves. However, instead of the familiar brown, the branches of the bush were a bright green and seemed just a little too thick, reminding him uncomfortably of giant green earthworms. In the center of the bush, several of the ‘branches’ were intertwined around what looked like a rock, which he suspected was a stonefruit.


    “The fuck?” Sylas muttered, unable to help himself.


    “This…” Ruusaan panted out, “is a stonewood tree.”


    Sylas practically collapsed as he laid Lesin down. Ruusaan managed to be a bit gentler with Helianna a moment later.


    “Seriously?” was all he managed to ask. For something called a stonewood tree, what he saw made no sense. It couldn’t be called a tree in his opinion, reaching only up to his thigh. And it was called stonewood! Not stonefruit, which would make sense. Instead, it was called stonewood despite the ‘branches’ of the tree reminding him more of long thin cactuses like could be found in the polar deserts. The worst part was that on the entire tree, there was only one stonefruit, which was cradled in the center.


    He looked around, desperately hoping there were more ‘trees’, but only saw one. He really hoped there were more nearby that were just hidden by the dunes. The other stonewood tree fortunately had two stonefruits, but the three fruits were still far from enough. As Sylas’ mind started spiraling, Ruusaan stepped up to the tree and started harvesting the fruit. Sylas slowly followed, watching her as he attempted the same on the second tree. The first thing he noticed was the smell. The tree was pungent, and while similar to the taste of its fruit, it was distinctly different. It contained the same base smell of sewage and metal, but had a sour vinegary smell that only made it more rancid. Once he got past the smell, it was surprisingly easy to pull the stonefruits out of the trees, the branches giving way without difficulty.


    Realizing he was doing the best out of the three of them, he took one of the fruits and fed it to Lesin, grumbling the whole time. Ruusaan did the same for Helianna, who was partially conscious. Ruusaan had the last fruit and they picked up their companions once more.


    “How common are these?” Sylas asked as they started moving again.


    “In this area, enough to keep us alive. The fruits grow really slow though so it’s not sustainable. We need to keep moving.”


    “This area? You know where we are?”


    “Not really. But we’re in eastern Prakanai. The stonewood trees are here pretty much along the whole east coast.”


    “So we just follow the coast then,” Sylas stated.


    “Right. We should head south. That’s going to be our best chance to find civilization and stay alive.”


    “I figured that out already,” Sylas said, despite panting a bit between words. “How… how do you know about the trees?”


    “I was taught to survive no matter where I could get stranded. Now let’s shut up. Carrying these two is hard enough as is.” Sylas growled, unhappy at being commanded like that, but relented. He couldn’t disagree with her.


    Silently, they continued their journey, continuing to head inland for the rest of the day. Lesin’s inane ramblings abated, but the heat of the sun dashed any hopes of the trek getting any easier. They found several more stonewood trees, but only one of them had a fruit, which was given to Sylas. When night fell, Sylas couldn’t be more grateful, his aching muscles trembling. A month ago, he could probably have handled this without much issue, but now, after days of dehydration and starvation? Now, it was a struggle.


    Their exhaustion hung heavy in the air, keeping the silence as they prepared to sleep. Sylas put Lesin in the middle this time, not bothering to tell Ruusaan why, who didn’t ask. It had been cold the previous night and now it was only going to get colder. Sylas fell asleep shivering and dreading the future. Surviving this desert was going to be awful.