I'm cooked meat.

I might have laughed at my own pun if it hadn't been a reality.

My name is Alisa Tully.

I'm dying of dehydration.

In the middle of no where.

Dressed like a man.

Things were pretty bad.

Goodbye everyone.

Goodbye adventure.

Goodbye world.

These were the types of thoughts I was having when I heard it. At first it was distant and I couldn't make it out. But as the noise grew louder, it began to sound like a big animal and something dragging along the sand. An ox-cart maybe?

I opened my eyes a little to check. Sure enough there was an ox-cart, coming straight towards me. But I was to drained to do anything about it.

Don't move Alisa, some voice in my head informed me, your hallucinating.

The ox-cart stopped a few feet away, and a person appeared from it. They were coming for me, I assumed.

I was hallucinating though, so it didn't really matter.

"Are you still concious?" The stranger called out. He was male. Young by the sound of it.

"I need some water." I managed to croak, although all you could really make out was "need" and "water". My voice was completely dry.

"Right, two seconds." said the stranger.

He really did only take two seconds. Before I realized he was gone, he was standing over me with a flask.

I tried to sit up, without much luck. He seemed to notice I was pretty beat, so he politely knelt down, held me up a little, and tipped the content of the flask into my mouth.

This was no hallucination. The water was as real as real could be. At first I only had the strength to swallow, but the more I drank, the stronger I became. It wasn't long before I was grabbing at the flask with both hands, sitting up on my own and greedily gulping down what little was left.

"That was quick." Commented the stranger. For the first time, I got a good look at him.

He looked weird, to be frank. It wasn't that he was ugly. On the contrary, he was beautiful. Olive skin, though it seemed pale. Dark eyes and brown hair that shone in the sunlight. A strong jaw line and a nose that was slightly crooked at the tip, but perfect nonetheless.

I think this was what seemed so strange about his appearence. His fairly ordinary features came off as almost glorious, and trust me, I wasn't the type to find guys "glorious". Loud, obnoxious and grubby maybe, but not glorious.

He wasn't tall, a little taller than I was perhaps. He had a normal stature, and his face was kind of elfin.

"Is there any more?" What I meant to say was rather along the lines of "could I please have more water?". Instead it came out sounding blunt and aggressive.

But he just smiled and nodded.

"It might be a good idea to get out of the sun, though. You're pretty burnt." His eyes travelled down to my forearms. He was right. Other than my face and neck, they were the only part of of my body that wern't covered in some kind of fabric. They'd turned about four shades darker than the rest of me.

" Why don't you travel with us in the cart for a while? We're headed west."

That sounded nice. Even an ox-cart seemed exponentially better than travelling on foot in this weather.

"Sure. Umm, thanks." I replied awkwardly.

" Do you need help walking?" He asked. I had a feeling he was making fun of me.

"No. I'm pretty good at walking."

"Ok." And then he smiled again. Why did he keep on smiling so much?

The inside of the cart was fairly spacious. We were shaded by a tarp hanging above us. I was just about to make myself comfortable on a mat when I notice an unconscious man, lying across a bunch of hay. I froze.

Was this all a trap? Some guy travelling across the desert collecting thirsty victims, luring them in and cooking them for dinner? My parents had always told me to never get into a stranger's ox-cart.

"Relax, he's just sleeping." The voice came from right behing me. I jumped and spun around. The stranger was standing about a foot from me. At first he seemed to be suppressing a smile, but then he began to laughed out loud.

"Jeez, you're high-strung. I just saved you, I'm not going to kill you."

I didn't like that one bit. Did he really think he had saved me? I could have managed just fine without him. That is, if it had started raining or something.

"What do you mean you saved me?" I asked rudely, my voice a little less dry than before, "You just offered me some water... What's you're name anyway?"

His face became completely serious again. Well, almost completely serious.

"Sorry. You've oubviously just been through something very unpleasant. I shouldn't be poking fun at you." He said, while searching through a box, "My name's Teivel. What's yours?"

"I'm Alis-" I had almost forgotten that I was dressed up as a boy, but I caught myself before I could finish, "My name is Alister."

"Alister... that's interesting." He said questioningly. Had he seen right though my disguise?

Before I could blink, he had finished shuffling through the box and was handing me another flask of water.

"Here you are."

I took it from him cautiously.

"You're fast, arn't you?" I pointed out.

For a second, he stopped dead in his tracks, his expression completely blank. Then he grinned from ear to ear.

"I guess I am."

This made me suspicious. There was something about him that wasn't quite right. I looked over to the unconscious man again.

"Don't worry about him. I'm giving him a ride to Napolis." So we were headed to the same place, "He's just very tired. You must be too."

It was true, I was exhausted. I drank some more water before screwing the cap back on and handing him the flask. Even if Teivel was dangerous, he couldn't be any more deadly than the desert. I might as well take my chances.

"Do you mind?" I nodded towards the mat, "I'm probably really dirty."

He looked up, in what seemed to be exaggerated slowness.

"Oh, no, not at all. Make yourself at home."

I took off my pack and shuffled through it for my quilt. I spread it across the mat and lay down on it. I could actually feel my muscles unwinding. It was great.

I was beginning to nod off when I heard Teivel whisper something.

"Just one question." I opened my eyes slightly. He was sitting on the floor, a couple of feet across, eyeing me curiously. He really was beautiful. I might of felt embarassed about the fact that I was filthy, and most likely smelled bad, but I was tired to care.

"Why were you travelling across the desert, alone?"

It was quiet for a moment.

"I was looking for an adventure." I murmured, before closing my eyes again, and letting the steady swaying of the ox-cart lull me to sleep.