They got their start hours before dawn to ensure they would be able to get as much travel in as possible before they would have to stop during the hottest hours of the day. Yuri shook the others from their sleeping bags and they rose to pack with minimal complaint and only one or two fireballs aimed at his head. He pushed them onward until almost noon, when they took a long break. He fixed a simple, light meal that wouldn't cause them to complain further from the heat and they took turns napping.
As much as he complained about nearly everything else, Yuri didn't get a single complaint out of Raven for the heat or otherwise. He almost seemed to be enjoying the blistering heat and the suffocating desert air. Yuri wanted to slap him for it.
They took a second break in the middle of the afternoon as their canteens were running low on water, and he and Flynn and Estelle took the lot of them to a bunch of nearby cacti, where he showed the two of them how to get water from the plants. Careful to avoid the spines, he chopped off the top of the plant, revealing a slick green interior with a chamber of water housed there. He dipped in each canteen to fill it, passing them back before taking a long swig out of his own and refilling it a second time. He had given most of his water to Karol earlier, and the word 'parched' was not even beginning to describe how his mouth and throat felt.
The water was warm and viscous like syrup without managing to be nearly as sweet or tolerable. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Estelle took a sip and stifled a gag. She must not have found the sensation too pleasant either.
"It's not great, but it'll keep us from dying of thirst."
They continued for two more days. They alternated between walking and resting, night and day, trying to cross as much of the sands as they could during the cooler hours of the day and leaving the hotter ones for resting. The desert seemed endless, heat and fatigue plaguing them with each step. They passed through an area with large depressions in the dunes, sides lined with bits of gold-green glass that glittered in the sun. They were strange and out of place and the group took a break beside one of them. Rather than stick to the shade for the time, Yuri stood at the edge of one of the pits, observing the slight flow of sand against the sharp, glass-lined basin.
In all his travels, he had never heard of something like this. The bottoms of the basins were scorched and he had a sinking feeling that it wasn't simply from the heat of the desert sun. Rita took a sample of the sand and glass in a tube, examining it through her goggles.
"What do you make of it?"
"I won't really know until I can get to a lab. There's only so many field tests I can perform. I do know that deposits like this don't occur naturally, even in heat like this. Glass is created when extreme heat is applied to a substance like sand. Even my fire magic attacks don't reach a temperature that high."
"It's a very interesting occurrence indeed." Judith stepped up beside them leaning a bit over the pit.
"Aren't you hot?" Rita wiped sweat from her face with a greasy rag that she tucked back into her breast pocket.
"Not really."
"Well, dressed like that, I can't say I'm surprised."
"Oh? What do you mean, Rita? Don't you like my outfit?"
"T-That's not what I mean!" The mage flushed. "Don't put words into my mouth!"
Judith only smiled slyly and watched as Rita turned an even brighter shade of red before turning sharply and heading back to their modest camp. She giggled a bit and turned to Yuri.
"Maybe you shouldn't tease her so much."
"But it's really such fun." She grew somber after a moment and continued. "I've seen these before."
"What? Where?"
"To the north of here is a place call Mt. Temza. If you get a chance, you should head up there someday. It may prove insightful."
"What caused them there?"
"I don't know. But they're there."
"How much further to Phaeroh's?"
"It's the huge black crag looming in the distance there." She pointed at it. "Phaeroh lives there, although he won't be too happy to see us."
"Figured as much, but this is what Estelle wanted."
"Why is someone who hates the Empire so interested in helping its princess?"
Yuri shrugged. "I just feel like it."
"Hm. You're very strange, you know."
"I could say the same about you."
"Really? I don't think I'm strange at all."
"Of course you wouldn't."
He returned to camp after staring out at the strange formations a little longer, and tried to take a nap. The heat was suffocating even in the shade of a nearby cliff. The cactus water was sitting sickeningly on his stomach, a warmth that sloshed around uncomfortably. After days of drinking it, it seemed only marginally better than dying of thirst.
"The pooch and I are gonna scout ahead a bit." Raven's shadow over him did little to ease the heat either.
"It's unnatural." He still wanted to hit the old man for being so chipper, but didn't waste the strength. "Okay. Don't get lost."
Repede whined and panted. It had to be hotter through a fur coat than even being dressed all in black.
"Keep the Old Man out of trouble, Repede."
The shadow faded as Raven and Repede wandered off into the dunes, leaving Yuri to think of how hot it was once more. He took another sip from his canteen in the hopes that it would help with the sweat rolling down his form, but as soon as the canteen reached his lips, he realized how stupid that was. For a while, he faded in and out of sleep, the heat making him so uncomfortable and so tired.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he heard Raven's voice once more as Repede barked at him and Karol chimed in excitedly.
"Yuri! Yuri! Raven and Repede found water! Real water!"
"What...?" The heat was making him groggy.
Raven hoisted him up with a hand under his arm. "Come on. Found a little oasis not too far from here. It'll be better if we rest there."
Hearing it a second time helped him shake off the heat and the fatigue and he helped the others pack up camp quickly. After a short trek under the blistering sun, they found what Raven and Repede had told them about. Against another cliff was a flowing spring of cool, clear water surrounded by a ring of green plants. Karol and Rita had plopped down in the water before everyone else could drop their packs.
For the first time all day, there were more than a dozen words spoken between them all. The older members of the group didn't hold off much more from wading into the water to cool off. It was at Yuri's knees at its deepest by the cliff and the small fountain flowing there gave him ample water to wash the sweat off himself with. He pushed back his hair and let the cool water trickle against his scalp and neck and down his back and, for a moment, he couldn't remember ever thinking so highly of this simple necessity.
They all sat around for an hour or so, chatting and cooling off in the shade provided by the plants. They drank their fill and filled their canteens again, glad to be rid of the cactus water that had been sustaining them. For a while at least, everything was calm and serene.
They all felt alive once more and grateful for it. He was the first on his feet once the most sweltering hours of the day had passed, and urged the others on. They needed to press on at least a little further before they stopped for the night and a few more hours' rest. He was just as tired as they were, only the feeling was better hidden. He had powered through worse than scorching heat and endless sand dunes. He couldn't let this get to him. If they kept moving, if he kept moving, it would be fine. He always told himself that and it had never failed him in the past. As long as he kept moving, his path would have to take him somewhere eventually. Whether or not that somewhere happened to be a place he wanted to go remained to be seen.
The heat of the afternoon was worse as they neared the heart of the desert and that black crag that had been so distant became closer. It was still a while away, another day maybe. The terrain became harder to traverse than the easy sandy dunes. Rocky outcroppings and steep hills made them exert more energy and in turn use more of their precious water. The monsters in this area were less scarce and better adapted than humans to this environment. They were tougher, and the strain that the group was feeling bore down heavier.
The path dropped them into an area of shallow canyons, tightly formed between the cliff sides. After a long time and with only a few hours until sundown, the path began to widen once more, into the open flat of dunes.
"Is it time to stop yet?
"Not yet. Just a bit further."
"We're making a remarkably good pace."
"Just so long as we keep it up and nothing happens-"
A screech split the silence of the desert and forced their eyes upward to a descending figure. Yuri half hoped it was Phaeroh, but this dark, fish-like gelatinous form was far different.
"What is that?!"
"I don't know, but here it comes!" He had his sword drawn in a flash, ready to face this creature.
It shrieked again and seemed to swim toward them through the air, its long flat wings rippling as it moved. It had no discernible face, only a hole surrounded by tendrils and from which it continued its series of horrible, blood-curdling noises. It glided quickly, and through its semi-transparent, dark blue-black exterior, he could see an orb of glowing light. Out of all the monsters he had faced, he had never seen anything like this before.
The creature dove at them, scattering their ranks and focusing its aggression to the right, where it had knocked Estelle, Raven, and Rita.
Yuri and Repede double teamed it, each attacking from a different side, and Karol moved in underneath it. It flailed, trying to draw its mass backward and up into the air to evade them. His sword cut through it slowly, deterred by its gel-like flesh, and when he completed the follow through of the strike, the injury mended itself easily. He hadn't managed to cause a grievous wound, but he had pulled its attention away from the others long enough to let Rita cast a rain of fire down on it that sizzled and scorched its form. It retaliated, dropping down in a long, swift swoop to attempt to crush them and they all somehow managed to dodge.
Attacking the exterior of this creature with physical attacks seemed largely useless. Magic was effective, so he gave a quick order to Karol to protect Rita and Estelle so they could keep casting. Even ineffective, Yuri still struck it in an attempt to drive it back and corner it against one of the cliffs. His artes seemed to be doing just enough damage to keep it in check, and Judith and Flynn came in from the side to do the same. Every little bit would help.
After a few seconds of the sword and spell onslaught, the fish monster curled into a ball, still floating, and at its center, a bright white core began to glow. They paused long enough to try and discern what it was doing, but before it was clear, the creature unfurled quickly, its jelly flesh spiking out like spears against them. A second layer flared higher, catching his right arm and piercing it.
He winced as the sharp pressure pulled back, but the adrenaline bursting like flashes of lighting in him kept him from feeling enough of the pain that he continued his attack instantly. A little injury like that wouldn't make him back off.
The monster pulled back once more and swooped in to try and crush them. Judith leapt up and dove with her spear in mid air, dropping down onto the back of the creature and impaling it. It shrieked and flailed, but she only pinned it down harder. Being temporarily grounded gave the others the opportunity to return to their assault. They cut into it as fast and as hard as they could, chipping into its jelly flesh. Yuri could feel his movements start to slow, his feet feeling so strangely heavy and his head blurry. He tried to tighten his grip on his sword, but his fingers felt weak. Had he already lost that much blood that his consciousness was threatening to slip? He urged his body onward still. He could shake this off. This was nothing.
A shout of 'First Aid' and a flash of green brought him quick relief, renewing the energy in his body and closing the wound on his arm. It hadn't been Estelle, but Flynn who had come to his aid, and moved from a temporary support role back into his fighter's motions. He wouldn't let the effort go to waste. Yuri threw himself back into the heat of the fight and in spite of the blazing desert around him, he felt more energetic than he had in days of traversing. Yuri was in his element after all.
The creature bucked Judith off, sending her flying into Rita who had paused to catch her breath from the continuous casting. They got up quickly enough that Yuri didn't worry about it and through the noise of swords and attacks, he heard Estelle heal them and then turn her potent artes back to supporting them against the creature. Her casting made his feet feel faster and his blade sharper. The monster didn't heal itself as quickly anymore through the brutal onslaught they kept up. It shrieked and balled up again, but they knew what was coming this time. Yuri didn't give it a chance to spike out a second time and as soon as the orb of light within it started to pulse and glow, he struck forward as hard as as fast he could, his sword tore through its exterior and pierced the light.
It grew blindingly bright and the sheer force of the blast that followed threw them all back into the sand. Its core destroyed, it dissipated into nothingness.
He pulled himself and Karol out of the sand and Repede dug Flynn out a few feet away. Judith pulled Rita and Estelle up and Karol moved on to help Raven where he was almost buried head first.
"What the hell was that?"
"I'm not sure. In all my travels, I'd never seen anything quite like that," Judith said, looking up into the bright sky where the creature had come from.
"Well, whatever it was, we know how to take care of them now." Yuri made it sound like that last battle had been trivial, but the fatigue was settling in him much faster now.
A few thuds in the sand caused him to turn. Karol had fallen, passed out, and Estelle beside him. Rita wobbled a second before Judith could make it to her aid. One by one the others too collapsed in the hot desert sand until he was the only still standing. His knees buckled weakly and threatened to give way, but he had to fight on. He couldn't give up. He struggled to remain standing, to maintain consciousness.
Off in the distance, he spotted something. Maybe a mile or two, another oasis, a spot of green dotted with buildings. It was so close. Just over the dunes. He could drag the others. Their weight wouldn't be that heavy. He could do it, then they'd be safe. If there were buildings, there had to be people, but he didn't know of any settlements this far into the desert. Maybe he was hallucinating, but he couldn't give out hope.
His legs gave way and he dropped to one knee, propping himself up. If he just kept moving, everything would be fine. His other leg folded underneath him, plopping him flat on his face in the scorching sand. Darkness tried to overcome him, but he fought it off, wriggling as hard as he could. Yuri was only able to make it onto his back, but it was a start. If he was still conscious, there was still a small hope.
A shadow passed over the sun, a temporary relief until he spotted what cast the shadow. The dragon from the Weasand of Cados was descending on them and he couldn't even hold his sword. Darkness washed over him and all he could think to say to deter the creature was, "I hope you choke on my bones..."
Foolish humans.
Like a dune in the wind, his consciousness washed away.