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Our heroes soon found themselves wandering around the Nihal Desert, going nowhere fast.

"Man, my head really hurts!" Kalas complained, clutching his forehead.

"Well, if you hadn't decided to drink all that Desert Fire and get completely wasted last night, you wouldn't have that problem," Savyna pointed out. "I don't feel sorry for you."

"I don't even remember last night. What happened? And why does my nose hurt, too?"

Lyude held up a hand and began counting the previous day's events on his fingers. "First, you insisted on going into a bar full of Imperial soldiers. As if that wasn't asking for trouble, you apparently drank a few too many shots of Desert Fire. Then you tried to hit on my sister, and she punched you in the face. After your nose stopped bleeding, you and Folon gave what was possibly the world's worst-ever musical performance in the middle of the street. Then you ate dog food."

"Actually, we all ate the dog food," Gibari reminded him. "I still get sick thinking about it."

Lyude considered this point for a moment. "True, but Kalas was the only one who kept eating it after we found out what it was."

"Kalas was stupid yesterday," Mizuti agreed.

"I still don't remember any of this," he insisted. "Anyway, that doesn't explain why we're wandering around the middle of a desert."

Xelha decided she needed to fill him in on the current situation. "Lyude's brother and sister caught up with us. They chased us out of the city with guns."

"Heh, I guess that explains it how we got here, but what are we doing wandering aimlessly?"

"We're looking for Magnus. We need better cards to defeat Malpercio, remember?" Savyna asked sarcastically. "Or did you forget that while you were drunk, too?"

"Would you lay off me already?" Kalas snapped. "I did something dumb, okay? It's not like you've never done anything stupid in your life."

Savyna raised an eyebrow at him as a warning. "Don't get snippy with me. You don't want to make me mad."

Gibari interrupted suddenly with a yell. "Hey, look! An oasis!"

"This better be a real oasis, Gibari," Savyna shook her head. "The last three you've seen were mirages."

"Hey, it's not my fault the heat is getting to me," Gibari said defensively. "I'm sure this one is real!"

"I see it, too!" Xelha exclaimed. "We should refill our Blank Magnus."

Lyude scanned their decks quickly. "She's right. We're low on pristine water."

"We should eat as long as we're here, too," Kalas added.

The group plopped themselves down on the sand near the water. Big mistake.

"Ow! My butt! That sand is HOT!" Kalas shouted.

"What does Kalas expect? This be a desert." Mizuti hadn't bothered to sit down; she just continued floating in her normal fashion. "Perhaps you should sit on a blanket. That would be smart. The sensible thing to do."

"Heh, not like we're using 'em to keep warm," Gibari shrugged, tossing a few blankets on the sand. The others (except Mizuti, who kept floating) sat down, this time not burning their backsides.

"Whew, I'm sweating like a...what animal sweats a lot?" Kalas looked sort of confused.

"Geldoblame jogging up and down a staircase?" Lyude suggested, then regretted it. "Ugh, I don't want to picture that." He shrugged off his jacket, immediately attracting Meemai's attention.

"Squeak?" The Greythorne poked the jacket with his nose, then crawled inside. Everyone could hear a muffled "squeak squeak" coming from inside the sleeve.

"Why is that greythorne so fascinated with my clothes?" Lyude poked at the creature that was inside his jacket. "Come out, Meemai. We don't need another biting incident."

"Come on out," Xelha coaxed. "I have a cookie, Meemai." With an excited squeak, Meemai hopped out of Lyude's jacket and onto Xelha's lap. He snatched the cookie, gulped it down, then jumped into the pool of water, where he began hopping up and down, squeaking happily.

"That looks like a good idea," Kalas commented. "I'm burning up." He grabbed the nearest object and wiped his sweaty face on it. Unfortunately, that nearest object was Lyude's jacket.

"Gross! Kalas, wipe your sweaty face on your own clothes!"

"Heh heh, sorry Lyude. It's too late for that. I'll wash it for you." Kalas flung the jacket into the water, where it landed next to a puzzled Meemai.

"Great, that just makes it worse." Lyude threw up his hands in exasperation, then waded out into the pool to retrieve his soggy jacket. Stuffing his arms back into the sleeves, he noticed he felt a lot cooler. "Kalas, you should toss your cape in here. Wet clothes might help you cool off a little."

Before anyone could respond or jump in the water, Gibari let out a shout. "Over there! Iron Beetle!"

"Gibari, I swear, if this is another mirage..."Savyna started, but stopped in mid-sentence. "There is an Iron Beetle. Everyone, prepare yourselves for battle."

The group readied their weapons, waiting. The Iron Beetle continued to advance, then suddenly, it stopped. A moment later, Folon jumped out, followed by an irate-looking Ayme.

"Woo-hoo!" Folon shouted. "That was GREAT!"

"Folon, I just don't understand you. We would have been in Azha a long time ago if we'd taken a faster vehicle."

"But I wanted to drive an Iron Beetle. You never let me drive one."

"That's because the one time you tried, you had the thing in reverse and backed into the Imperial Fortress...six times."

Folon grinned. "Accidents happen, Ayme. Besides, nothing bad happened this time, right?"

"What do you mean 'nothing bad happened?" Ayme demanded. "We're lost in the middle of a desert!" Turning toward Kalas and the others, she changed to a less threatening tone. "Would any of you happen to know which way Azha is from here? We were supposed to rendevous with Commander Azdar, but SOMEBODY got us lost." With the last comment, she glared murderously at Folon.

Folon tried to look innocent. "Why do you have to blame me? You don't know where we are either."

Ayme was seething with rage at this point. "Well, neither of us would have gotten lost if you'd been paying attention to where we were going instead of playing "I Spy" with your imaginary friends!"

"Pardon me for asking," Lyude interjected, "but why are you heading towards Azha with an Iron Beetle? Wouldn't that make the citizens think you were planning an attack? If you don't mind me saying so, it's not the most practical vehicle for your purpose, either. It's a tank, not a transport vehicle."

Ayme sighed disgustedly. "Because Blue Boy over there wouldn't stop whining at me until I let him drive an Iron Beetle. Now we're lost and late for our meeting with the commander. And in case you're wondering, no, we're not going to attack the village. We were supposed to come in and clear the area of any monsters that may still be roaming around."

"Like that monster over there?" Xelha gestured over her shoulder.

"Don't be silly, Xelha." Savyna chided. "That's not a monster. It's just a giant lizard. Wait a minute, giant lizard!"

"There are no giant lizards in Alfard." Lyude reminded her.

"Then what's that thing doing here?" Xelha started backing away slowly. "Nice lizard, nice lizard..."

"Oh," Folon grinned idiotically. "That's not a monster. That's my pet lizard. I got him in Anuenue. His name is Slithers. Come here, Slithers!" Folon called to him as if he was calling a dog. "Here, Slithers! Here boy!" Slithers just sat there, ignoring Folon and flicking his tongue every so often.

Mizuti chuckled from behind her mask. "The Great Mizuti doesn't think the lizard be listening."

"Come on, Slithers," Folon urged the lizard. "You're making me look stupid. Come here right now!"

Ayme rolled her eyes disgustedly."Folon, it's not that hard to make you look stupid, especially if a lizard can do it."

Folon wasn't listening, though. Something else had caught his attetntion, and that something was a small metal device with a large red button in the center.

"Folon, what are you doing?" Ayme asked, worried. "That doesn't look like such a good idea."

Folon ignored her and proceeded to press the red button. With a loud BOOM, the Iron Beetle exploded into a million pieces. When the smoke cleared and everyone had finished coughing, Ayme was fuming.

"Folon, you idiot! Why did you destroy our one means of transportation?"

He was staring at the site of the explosion with a dopey grin on his face. "I always wanted to blow up an Iron Beetle!" he replied enthusiastically. "Wasn't that cool?"

"No, it's not cool!" Ayme snapped. "Now we have to walk to Azha. Do you realize that?"

Folon was silent for a moment, considering her point. "Oops..."

"Hey, I have an idea!" piped up Xelha cheerfully. "We can take the White Dragon to Azha!"

"But Xel, we left her in Mintaka, remember?" Kalas reminded her.

"That's okay. No matter where she is, if I whistle, she'll come. We share a special bond." Xelha put her fingers to her lips and blew shrilly. The others covered their ears.

"Did you have to make it so high-pitched?" Lyude whined, grimacing like he'd been punched in the gut. "I think you may have ruptured my eardrum."

"Quit yer dramatics, boy. It's not that bad." Yet as he spoke these words, Gibari was removing his fingers from his own ears. "Now what do we do?"

"We wait." Xelha said simply. "Now, what should we do until the White Dragon arrives?"

"Let's play I Spy!" cried Folon. "I spy something kind of a brownish color."

"Sand!" everybody shouted at once, annoyed with Folon's stupidity.

"This is a freaking desert, Folon. Sand is all you'll be spying!" Kalas glared at him.

"If you don't like that idea, let's go swimming!" Folon wasted no time jumping into the pool of water beside Meemai, splashing twice as much as the greythorne. "This is fun! I'm a duck. Quack quack!"

Savyna gave Folon a disapproving look. "Ayme, how do you put up with him? I never understood that."

Ayme shrugged. "Sometimes I don't either."

After what seemed like forever, the White Dragon finally appeared overhead. No sooner had she placed her enormous feet on the ground, eight heat-strained people hopped onto her back at once. "Take us to Azha," Xelha gently instructed the giant flying reptile.

As the dragon lifted off, Folon squealed with delight. "We're flying!"

"Retard, we've flown before," Ayme reminded him. "Don't get so excited."

"But we've never flown on a dragon! Look, Slithers! It looks like you, but with wings!" He gripped the lizard tightly. "Isn't this fun?"

Ayme sighed. "Folon, are you high again?"

"I forget."

"You're impossible."

"Let's sing!" Folon cried jubilantly.

"NO!" chorused seven other voices in unison.

Folon ignored them. "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and THIS IS HOW IT GOES!"

Ayme smacked him upside his thick two-toned head."YOU'RE getting on everybody's nerves. If you don't stop that, I'll toss you right off this flying lizard."

"This going to be a long trip," Mizuti observed. The others nodded in agreement.