Author's Note: This is only my second fanfic longer than a drabble and my first chapter fic, so any feedback, good or bad, would be greatly appreciated.
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PROLOGUE
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Des-ert: (Dez' ert; n) A region so arid that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all... A dry, barren, treeless region, usually sandy. (Excerpt from Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language)
Desert: An arid biome occupying approximately 20 of the land surface of the earth in which water loss due to evaporation and transpiration by plants exceeds precipitation during most of the year. (Molles, Ecology: Concepts and Applications)
Desert: A general term for an extremely dry habitat, especially one where water is unavailable for plant growth most of the year; in particular, a habitat with long periods of water stress and sparse coverage by plants, often with perennials covering less that 10 of the total area. (Brown and Lomolino, Biogeography)
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The desert, by definition a dry desolate area, lacking in life, an environment of threat and inhospitality, a place to avoid. Perceived as a constant, eternally dry, hot, barren area; but in reality an ever-changing landscape, predictable only in its unpredictability. Dry shifting to wet, hot to cold, barren to blooming, and back again. Shifting, changing, in the blink of an eye, in the course of a day.
Water. Lifeblood to the desert. So fickle. Winter rains fall gently, seeping into the land, coaxing life from the seeds lying dormant in the sand, and the desert blooms. Barren waste is transformed into a glorious riot of colour and smell. Local rains create heterogeneity, patches of desert team with life as birds, insects, and a multitude of other creatures flock to the newly growing bounty; but the patches between these oases remain dry and desolate, seemingly devoid of life.
Summer monsoons fall heavily, bringing lightning and fire to the desert. Water pounds down on the desiccated earth, compacting the sand, creating a barrier to absorption, running over the surface of the land, erosion unstopped by the roots of life that have yet to grow. Water gathers momentum and volume as it cascades from higher areas, pouring off hills and mountains, ripping through the desert, stripping rocks and trees in a muddy slide, carrying anything in its path to their death. Water, which should bring life, flows away, leaving behind a wasteland even more desolate than before. As the sun and heat return, what little water remains behind is baked from the land, wind carrying the moisture away, releasing grains of sand. The land reverts to desert.
And Las Vegas grew up in the middle of the desert... An oasis on the trail through the arid Southwest.
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TBC