A scorching light covered the entire barren land, and everything it touched was made either out of sand, brittle rocks or a purple crystal. Except for a single spot, one that reflected the rays to the sky, a small puddle which, just a few minutes before, wasn’t there. And even more surprising was a figure sitting in the middle of it, that of a disheveled girl who was trying, without luck, to pull herself back on her feet. Unfortunately, her thin legs could barely hold her up straight, and her knees were shaking, almost ready to give out, while her head was pounding from a headache, and the land was spinning around like a wild tumbleweed.

It took her some time, and slowly but surely, her body pushed down the internal shaking from maximum to a manageable level. After several attempts, she found a stable standing position, using her scratched hands to balance herself. Her eyes stopped whirling frantically, and the girl could finally fixate her gaze on something. Unfortunately for her, the land had a selection of only dunes, cracked lands, crystal constructs and the puddle she was in. 

 A single attempt to step forward was enough to make her lose any small tie she had with the ground and her surroundings; enough to make her topple forward and just as she was about to plant face-first into the murky soil, the water moved on its own. It turned into clay-like hands and caught the girl at the last moment. It jiggled and waved all over while trying to hold the girl steady. The rest of the body gathered from all around the puddle, slowly building a shape. 

 Liquid tendrils spiraled around the girl, and they slowly started to solidify while they coiled upwards. It took only a few seconds, but it swiftly towered over the girl’s height, being almost twice as big as her. After it formed what seemed like a grey skeleton, made out of clay, the water started to replicate more parts of the body.

From the bottom, clay and liquid wrapped around the skeleton, with two short, stubby legs materializing first, followed by a broad torso and chest. Two people side by side could almost cover the wide body of the creature. As soon as the hands started to form, its back hunched forward, and its upper limbs didn’t stop growing until they almost touched the ground. The creature could stay only arch forward from the base of the neck as if dragged down by the oversized arms, which grew larger and larger as it got to the palms. 

 After it achieved its transformation, the creature took a few steps backwards, trying to put some distance between itself and the girl, while hiding where its head should be with its right hand. All the remaining water gathered and travelled up to piece together the last part of the being. A neckless, hairless head, with elongated bumps to each side, and a yellow eye, shaped almost like a diamond, covering half of the face.  

 The girl froze on the spot at the sight of the being, unable to comprehend what it was or what was happening.  Before her mind could understand the situation, her body responded without input, and she broke the tension by asking a question.

Strange girl- “Og…Ogda?” 

The creature she called Ogda continues to stare at her, without blinking or maybe unable to blink, standing in its reformed position for a bit, before showing any other type of movement. The girl, then, starts to ponder if her memory of the creature could be trusted, but then another tidbit about it hits.

 Whatever it was, the girl knew its name, but not what it was, only that they had common history. Ogda was a being made of water, that at least she knew, but he could do much more than that. Which he seems to have forgotten, as his sudden movement tipped off his poor balance, and the creature was trying to stay on top of his feet, while a muffled sound was coming from his head. 

“Is he saying something?”, thought the girl while she was trying to calm down Ogda, who started to panic and flail his arms around. That, combined with his lack of balance in his body, made the creature wave his arms around more wildly than before. 

He was getting closer and closer to one of the crystals, which he destroyed when he accidentally hit it with his left hand. However, there were droplets of water and wet ground among the rubble, which seemed to have come from Ogda. Noticing that the girl understood that something wasn’t right with Ogda as well, as he never displayed such a lack of basic control of his power. “At least not at this stage in his lifespan”, she thought as a smaller version of Ogda blinked in her mind.  

 Strange girl- “You’ve lost control of the rigidification process, Ogda! Listen, we can solve this, but I need to stop moving for a second, ok?”

Ogda could only hear from the left side, but his partner's voice brought him an immediate sense of nostalgia and discipline, which moved his attention back to her. He didn’t know or need to know why, but his gut feeling was telling him that whatever she said, he was to follow as the girl was always right.

“ Good, good”, she gently said, to both praise and calm him down at the same time. “Now stop moving and reconstructing your body. Can you focus on just one part?”

He nodded in agreement.

Strange girl- “Focus on your head then, part by part, try to reverse the solidified parts a few steps backwards, ok. Think of a wave, of how it hits the shore, then it slowly drags itself back into the ocean”. The metaphor hit close to home for Ogda, who could imagine the scenario and implement it easily towards his predicament.

Just as she asked, he started to modify his body structure, starting from the top and without feeling like he was chased, slowly to the tip of his hove-like legs. Now that he could use his gaze without panicked fear, Ogda’s immediate next thought was to sweep the surrounding area, checking for any kind of danger that might hurt his partner. To him, the main drive of his being was to keep her safe and sound, a command he felt throughout his entire body.

Ogda- “Liandan…you are not hurt, are you?”, he could ask, even though a mouth wasn’t visible. As soon as both of them heard the question, bits and pieces of the answer came flooding into their minds, as if prepared when a trigger word or sentence was uttered. Three pieces of things were made clear to both.

They’ve known each other for years now.

Ogda’s appearance has changed somehow from how he was before they got here.

This was not their world.

“There were others”, added Lian with a dazed look on her face. “ I don’t know if they were humans or beings like you.”

“Human? So you are a human?... Right”, Ogda asked, as if trying to sort it out for himself. A few seconds of silence later, he asks, just to clear his mind of it; “ And I am not a human, correct?”

Lian- “I…don’t think so. Humans aren’t made out of water”, she added before realizing her mistake and swiftly snapped a correction,” Just out of water!... Huh, let’s leave it at I’m the human and you’re still a mystery, ok? And I do remember something else, though, you being bigger.”

At which Ogda pondered for a bit, pointed towards Liandan, and brought up how he already was bigger than her. 

Lian- “Well, bigger than the current you”. 

The creature stretched his head to have a closer look at his body, feeling more inquisitive about it than what happened to them. Until a familiar snap of the fingers brought his attention back to the girl. While his memories lay dormant, his attachment and loyalty to his companion appeared as if they were imprinted into his being.

-” Right”, replied Ogda in a confused tone. “ So…what do we do now?”

None of them had any clue about the barren wasteland they seemed to have appeared into. The mystery about the land was even weirder, as both had recollections about a world they lived in, but it was so much different from the one they found themselves in. 

“Everything is not just different, but feels wrong”, remarked Liadan. She scoured the horizon and investigated the cloudy, blue sky and it just gave her shivers down her spine. It was alien, everything about the place felt out of place.

…

The first hypothesis was that they either appeared out of nowhere or fell from the sky. From where exactly, neither could tell or why even they felt from the sky. Liadan guessed that maybe Ogda could fly, he could technically turn into vapours, perhaps some cloud form. But the creature wasn’t thrilled to test out the theory- ” Truth be told, I’m still having trouble keeping this form. I didn’t want to say, but I lost a leg a minute ago…It got too solid and cracked from my body…I’m still trying to connect it back..”

The second hypothesis was that something forced them to leave their world to this one, “or an explosion thrust us here!” The girl was racking her head with countless scenarios, trying to remember anything about the last few hours, days or even months at least. But nothing; ” I mean, look at it”, Liadan cried in fury, “the sky isn’t even right. It’s blue and it has flying things, clouds, and three moons.”

 -” Actually it’s two moons and a submoon”, interjected Ogda.

 Lian -” Submoon…what are you talking about?”

He used his second, middle finger to properly point towards his observation-” Yes, if you look closely, it has two big moons and the little one is the submoon of the right one. It’s also called a moonmoon.”

Liadan’s irritation gradually came to a lower level, and she managed to calm down a bit-” Oh…a moonmoon”, she remarked quietly. “That's kinda cute. I remember our world having something similar, right?”

Ogda was unsure about that and asked her if she was sure about it. Liadan, a bit disappointed by the discrepancy that seems to exist between their memories, shrugged the issue away for the time being. The first two birds they saw went west, “Maybe towards a drinking source”, added Laidan. So, for now, the two decided to pick that direction and move towards it. “Well, maybe we’ll also find someone that could help us…hopefully”, said the girl with dry enthusiasm.