The wind had begun to pick up as Enoki cooked. As the root vegetables softened, ze had mashed the soup to make it more of a creamy paste. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best ze could do without an immersion blender. By the time it was ready, En’mat looked better. Her skin was almost flawless again, with only the tiniest bit of silver flush to it.

Daikon was also starting to look better. Enoki hadn’t noticed how pale he had been getting, going from his normal azure color to a soft baby blue while in the heat. After eating the cactus and drinking some water, he seemed like himself again.

“Well, my boiling passion,” He spoke with a smile upon his face, showing his tusks as he was wont to do when grinning. “Are you ready to make us warm up again?”

“Yeah, but trust me. This will be good in the long run. Lots of stuff in it that our bodies need” Ze tapped McStabby who shifted from masher to ladle. With quick movements, Enoki divided the soup amongst the four of them, Noodles’ portion staying in the pot. 

The largest portion was handed over to En’mat. The elf looked at the steaming reddish soup before carefully drinking it right from the bowl. Satisfied with the elf eating, Enoki took hir own bowl and started drinking it quickly. Ze wasn’t going to make the same mistake as that morning. The mix of spicy and sweet hit hir first. It filled hir mouth and chest with a satisfying warmth. Some of the pieces still required some slight chewing, but overall the mixture had been made smooth enough to drink. Just as ze swallowed hir third gulp, a salty and sour aftertaste hit. It wasn’t bad but the flavor almost reminded Enoki of that red powder hir friends at school would put on fruit. Taking another gulp just intensified the feeling of eating something similar to a warm, spicy, salty mango with lime juice on it. It was more refreshing than ze had expected.

Even trying to finish it up quickly, Enoki was so lost in the flavors that Daikon had to shake hir to bring hir back to reality.

“Enoki! The sandstorm!” He was already shouting. The wind had gotten louder in the few brief minutes ze took to enjoy hir food.

En’mat was already getting up, picking up the yellow curtain, and closing up the fire. Enoki looked into the distance. There was  a solid line of brown clouds rolling across the desert towards them. 

“Shit.” Enoki spoke so softly even ze could barely hear hir own voice. In an instant ze was at hir bag and pulling out the grey curtain. A quick shake and the three of them had it spread out and slapped onto the ground. “Everyone in!”

“Be careful, Enoki.” En’mat put her hand on the side of Enoki’s face for a lingering moment. 

One that was quickly interrupted when Daikon grabbed her by the arm. “Now, holy brewer!” 

He jumped in and pulled her inside. Noodles, who had looked like it was going to bolt, started scampering around the hole. It wasn’t sure it liked the hole after last time. Enoki didn’t blame it but there wasn’t time to argue. And ze wasn’t about to lose it today.

“Noodles! Food! Go get food!” Ze grabbed a piece of cactus that had rolled over from the incoming winds. Sand was already threatening to start pouring into the time stop storage room. Enoki threw and Noodles opened its big mouth, splitting its body in half as it dived down.

Enoki looked back. The clouds looked maybe only 600 yards away now. And coming fast. Ze pulled up the curtain and shoved it into hir backpack. After a moment of hesitation, ze put the pack on backwards and sprouted a second set of arms to hold onto it tightly. Enoki hoped this would make it easier to keep the pack safe. The fear of losing the contents of the pack to the brutal winds and sand filled hir mind. Maybe it was unlikely, but why take the chance? 

“Threads! Mask!” Enoki screamed as the clouds were now only seconds away from covering the area.

Ze turned away just in time for the blast of sand to hit hir back. Threads rapidly made a scarf that covered Enoki’s face as a world of browns and yellows took over. As the grains quickly started cutting Enoki’s skin, ze could feel hir body shifting to protect the exposed areas. The sand was whipping around hir. The beating from it too much for hir. It was a struggle to even take a few stumbling steps forward. The scarf gave relief from breathing in the sand, but hir eyes just wanted to stay closed as the brown landscape became next to impossible to see. 

Another gust of wind hit the back of hir head, now hitting the hardened skin, and Enoki tried to remember anything that was helpful from back in school. There had been an ecosystems lesson. How animals survived in the desert, how they handled sandstorms and kept the vital organs that were the eyes safe. All ze could think of was the second eyelids some animals had. Enoki could feel them form as soon as the thought entered hir mind. Very carefully ze opened hir eyes and felt a semi transparent set close. Sand was hitting them but not hurting hir .

That was one problem down. Now the next one. Ze hoped Threads the sentient not underwear could feel what Enoki was trying to do. Ze focused on using the second set of arms to hold the pack close and closed as ze got on all fours. Enoki was still hungry from earlier, but there wouldn’t be a way to eat anything later if ze didn’t get to the outpost. And that meant moving, and not getting buried in the sand. Ze focused on making the arms and legs the same size and making hir feet wider and flatter. Even in the yellow and brown world, the blue and silver of the cloth could be seen shifting around to help keep everything together. 

More importantly, Threads was now extending straps and fabric around the pack. It seemed to get the idea that the pack was the most important thing to keep safe. 

Good.

With that, Enoki started trying to move forward. Easier said than done. Between not being able to see the next geological feature and the wind changing the very sand dunes every few moments, Enoki felt like ze was wandering in circles. Not to mention the hunger from the constant shifting and healing was starting to make it hard to think. When ze saw what felt like the same cactus for the third time, ze was so frustrated. So hungry. 

Well. No one was there to tell hir NOT to take a bite. 

Just as Enoki opened hir mouth to take a nice big bite, something wrapped itself around hir throat. 

“Wha-” Enoki choked out, barely able to breathe. Ze tried to grasp the rope or whatever was wrapped around hir to try and loosen it, but hir hands were too big and ze was too tired to shift hir fingers into something more helpful.

As ze started to try and walk forward and wrap the maybe rope around the cactus, a low rumbling moo-like sound could be heard over the wind . As some spikes pierced it, it suddenly retracted and disappeared into the sands. 

Food. Ze needed food. Ignoring the long, sharp needles on the plant, ze pushed the cactus down and ripped off a chunk with hir teeth. Ze was desperately trying to get some bites in as the now more obvious vines started whipping out at hir. Even a few extra calories might make the difference for shifting right now. 

Enoki quickly dove down, getting some sand in hir mouth as ze landed. Ze spat it out as more vines kept shooting out around hir, trying to grab at hir. More of the low rumbling notes overcame the screaming winds. Only now ze was starting to hear the sound move clearly.

“Moooooooooooooove. Moooooooooooooove.” was all ze could make out. The other words were lost to the sands.

Someone was giving orders. Or someones. Enoki’s mind raced at what they could be as ze rolled out of the way of some more vines, hir body starting to shift into more familiar forms so ze could react properly. The cactus in hir stomach faded to nothing as ze did. 

As ze got up, there was a blast of water that suddenly knocked hir back on hir butt. It was a long steady stream. With hir clothes soaked, sand was now caking to hir body, slowing the shapeshifter’s movements. Making the now barely visible assailants faster as several vines grabbed a hold of hir.  The rumbling voices speaking up again.

“Mooooove to the caaaaart. Moooooove to the caaaaaart.”

As Enoki began to be dragged forward, ze tried digging hir heels into the wet sand trail. “Oh hell no!”

“Seafoam and coral, you must have been really heat hit.” Came a voice from behind.

Enoki turned, only to see another jet of water slam into hir face and send hir flying into the air. Within moments, ze landed inside a wooden cart, soaked and wrapped in vines. Enoki coughed, trying to get the water out of hir lungs as the vines around hir went slack.

Ze looked up,blinking, to see the curved toothy grin that half spiraled on the face before hir. It was similar to Tear’s reflection, the true elven smile. But the features were wrong for the glamour being off. The teeth still looked straight and perfect despite the curving grin. Their human-like eyes were wide open but with a soft red glow coming from the pupil. The not an elf’s hair shifted from strands of hair to clumps of vines and tentacles like a bad AI art image, hiding any sign of ears that Enoki could see. The not elf’s arms were made up of wiggling vine-like structures melting into copper skin. Plus the person was smaller. Maybe 6 and a half feet tall.

As the doors of the covered wagon closed and it began to move, the person with the vine arms slowly pulled the extensions off Enoki’s arms and waist. “I didn’t think I’d meet a being like you… a multi generational maybe?”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to almost drown in the desert while starving.” Enoki was fighting to keep the sass down, hir throat hurting from the water and sand that had mixed and traveled to hir stomach. “Speaking of, can I at least get a sandwich?”

“You’re in luck. You’re about to become one.”