As the hot desert sun beat down, the dry winds provided no relief. Just the occasional mouthful of sand and leaning on En’mat. Daikon and Enoki tried to keep the talks upbeat as their feet left deep imprints on the soft sand dunes. All of them did their best to keep close together, Enoki lagging behind every so often as ze would notice something moving in the distant sands. 

After a few short hours, Enoki looked up to see En’mat’s ears and face gaining more gold and silver cracks. Biting hir lip, ze looked around for any amount of shade. 

“Hey, over there, let’s take a fast break for some water ok?” Enoki started quickening hir pace towards a nearby Hoodoo. Hir dear fairnot noticed the formation as well and galloped right alongside hir. It was still a ways off, but its misshapen shadow stretched across the hot sands. 

Daikon looked and gave a quick nod before gently taking En’mat’s arm. “Sounds good. There are a few plants there. I’ll see if we can’t get any information from them. Come on, elf.”

“I-” En’mat let out a small gasp as she tried to get some moisture to stay in her mouth. “I can make it myself.”

“Of course you can. But what is the point of me being shorter than you if you cannot use me to lean upon?” Daikon gave a goofy grin, blinking the sweat out of his eyes as he carefully led her to the shadow.

Enoki looked back at the two, worried, as Noodles kept running towards the looming shadow. Granted, ze didn’t know anything about the biology of the different races, but En’mat’s skin looked so dry... If elves were really that heat sensitive then she was probably very dehydrated. Maybe even about to suffer from heatstroke. 

Or, worst case? She already was but the glamor was mostly hiding it. The thing almost seemed more trouble than it was worth. Ze looked to the gloves and let out a breath. “A pot and ladle guys. She probably needs a nice soup.”

Without a moment wasted, Bob quickly became a pot while McStabby became a ladle.. The ground in the shadow was free of sand for the moment, being covered by a hard slab of stone. As the two items sorted themselves into a suitable shape, ze pulled out the fire stone. It only took a moment to set up now that ze knew how to handle it.  Resting those together, Enoki carefully laid down the yellow curtain and started the awkward slide into the room.

Enoki went right to everything ze’d need for something like a carrot soup. There was no milk, but oils and plenty of water. Not to mention something that looked like a purple carrot, but more round. Ze broke off the tip of one and tasted. Where carrots had a sweet but earthy flavor, this red root had a bit more of a salty sweet taste. Like kettle corn. This would be the perfect choice. Grabbing those, Enoki turned to the mir and broke off several cloves of the blue not-garlic. The erikins , the sweet and sour potatoes, were quickly scooped up as well.

Grabbing a few more key ingredients and oil as ze walked, Enoki made hir way back to the entrance. Ze only paused to grow an extra two arms for grabbing the various waterskins as well.

Ze popped back out with some food just in time to see Daikon gently pull away from En’mat. The elf, who failed to find a graceful way to flop down onto the stone, put her hands on said stone and seemed tempted to put her cheek on it as well. “Thank the cycle this stone is so much cooler than the sands.”

As if to encourage her, Noodles spread itself out on the stone and used its paw to push down on En’mat’s hand. The elf smiled weakly to the fairnot as she started to lower herself further.

“It’s probably a good 20 degrees cooler the way we measure it back home. Just lay there a moment.” Enoki plopped onto hir butt, laying all the ingredients in the second set of arms as ze put the pot on the fire. “I’ll have lunch soon.”

“Soup? Surely a cold dish would be better.” Daikon leaned into the entrance to the yellow storage himself, grabbing a waterskin Enoki left by the entrance. “It is too hot for such things.”

“She’s probably getting heat stroke. That means water and salt need to be replenished. Soup is the best bet. And we can have her eat her own in the room to recover.” Enoki rapidly minced the various root vegetables as ze spoke. Things that smelled and tasted vaguely of carrots, onions, and potatoes. Normally ze’d consider peeling them, but the nutrients would be needed. “Have her drink water before you… talk to plants, I guess?”

Daikon nodded as he walked to En’mat. The elf was now laying face down on the stone, her cheek against it and some of the gold starting to retreat. “Thank you, Enoki. You may be mad at times, but you certainly are kind.”

“You’re only out here because of me. I can’t let something bad happen to you, can I?” Ze looked into the pot, poured in the oil, and quickly shook McStabby into a small knife. “You rest. Drink up. Soup soon, ok?”

The elf gave a small mumble before taking the waterskin from Daikon and pouring the contents into her mouth. All pretense of grace and manners were gone in the goal of cooling off.

The bandit squatted down, watching her and helping her to sit up a bit more before looking back to the pot. “You think the soup will be best?”

“Positive.” A sizzle was heard as the various chopped bulbs fell into the oil, releasing a greasing and slightly spicy scent into the air. “Just give me a little bit alright?”

With a nod Daikon got up and started walking to a cactus, just outside the shadow. Well, it looked like a cactus to Enoki. A bright, almost neon green one, with spikes going out as far as a foot in places and a dark blue flower on the top. Its petals were knocked off on occasion by the slowly picking up winds. It almost hurt more to look at it in the sunlight than it did the actual sun. In either case he and Noodles were both going up to it, Noodles’ large mouth almost visible as the fairnot looked at the possibly spikey meal.

As much as ze wanted to watch him commune with the thing, some of the bulbs were starting to scorch. That was the hard part of all this. Enoki knew how long ze could leave onions and garlic in oil before they might burn. Not to mention, at home the electric stove top was easy to control But here? Over a fire? No idea of the sugar content of the different plants ze was cooking with? It was easier to make rookie mistakes. That was one big fear ze had with all of this. What if ze somehow messed up a very limited very required ingredient?

There was no telling what might happen. And entire races were at risk here. 

Well.

All ze could do was try hir best at making the soup without it tasting too bad. Which at the moment meant quickly throwing in the erikins and red not-carrots, letting them brown a tad before adding in the water and salt. It would be better with milk or stock, but sometimes, you made do. 

Daikon eventually came back with some cuts of the cactus flesh, and got out his knife to clean off the skin of it. “We can eat these raw. The cactus said that the elves have eaten of it without becoming sick or dying, so it should be fine.”

“Ok good, give me some too. I am so thirsty.” Enoki’s third arm reached out, waiting patiently for its prize. 

The bandit simply gave a small glance before handing a cleaned piece over with one hand, trying in vain to keep the fairnot from licking the needles off the ground. “Try not to shift too much. It will use up calories. You need to conserve as much as you can.”

“...right, that’s a thing.” Enoki let out a small sigh. “I wish I had more time to practice before ending up here. I’m not even sure how much I’ve been shifting and not realized.”

“Enough that you stopped sweating as much a while ago. I said nothing because you showed no other signs of heatstroke. I assumed it was your nature as either a human or shapeshifter.” He carefully handed a piece to En’mat, who half bit into it before sucking on the gel inside.

“Guess that means I’ll be the one doing most of the walking. It’ll be safer, right?” Ze looked in the direction they had been hiking. “And we’re probably halfway to the trading post by now. So as soon as the soup is done I’ll eat and you guys get inside.”

“I don’t know.” Daikon frowned as he finished cleaning his own piece, his voice heavy with concern. “Are you sure you won't get lost?”

“Unless we get a full storm I should be fine. If one does come I can keep the pack and you two safe. I’ll hunker down somewhere. I promise.”

En’mat carefully spoke up. “We don’t have a choice, Daikon. This isn’t even the hottest part of the day. At least we will be where there is food and water if we are trapped for a while.”

Thoughtfully chewing on his own cactus piece, Daikon seemed to be thinking over the options. The soft hiss of steam as Enoki added the water to the pot joined the sound of the wind. “Alright. One condition. Put us in the grey one. Time will stop there. En’mat won’t be able to fully cool off in there but it means time will be frozen for us yes? That’s better.”

Enoki shifted around. Ze didn’t like the idea, but it was probably the smarter option. 

“Alright. But food and water first. And En’mat? Get in the yellow one for now. You wanted to check the Melomel anyway.”

“That sounds like a lovely idea.”