The hot sun shined brightly in the yellow sky, beating down on the orange sandy ground below without mercy. Nothing but sand, rock, and a few red and pink cacti could be seen for miles. At first glance there seemed to be almost no life in this dry desert area, aside from the human and frog that were currently passing through.

After a couple days of being trapped on the floating island, Anne and Sprig were finally able to escape by hitching a ride on a large flying animal and riding it back down to the ground. From there they continued their travels through the various biomes, including one with zero gravity, a soundscape biome that literally functioned off of sound waves and vibrations, and a metallic land where everything was made out of metal, and had an overall heavy metal atmosphere, until eventually hitchhiking with a metal person and ending up here.

This was not an easy place to travel though. And it was quickly taking its toll on them.

Sprig suddenly found himself not so happy to be warm blooded. His body's natural heat, combined with the already almost unbearable heat of the air around him, made him feel like he was being baked alive. It was also making him sweat profusely, which only served to make him feel even more dehydrated than he already was in the hot, dry air.

Unfortunately as he pulled out his canteen for the tenth time he found it to be empty.

Anne wasn't doing so well either. It was hot, so hot that even her cold blooded body felt like it was overheating. She was absolutely sure that if she could sweat, she would be drenched in it. Her normally moist, slimy skin was starting to dry out too. Anne never thought that having dry skin could feel this bad, but as the dry heat continued to sap the moisture out of her skin, it started to turn pale and wrinkly. She felt weak and very dehydrated.

She needed water.

But she knew there was no point in pulling out her canteen. She had already exhausted her water supply within the short period of time since arriving in this arid desert.

She glanced over at Sprig, wondering if he would perhaps be willing to share whatever water he had left, only to see him trying to tap out the remaining droplets from his empty bottle onto his tongue.

This was bad. They were now completely out of water in a place where water may not even exist! As they continued on, things only grew worse. Sprig was quickly beginning to tire, the intense heat and dehydration taking its toll on him. His skin was turning red under the baking sun and the hot sand was burning the bottoms of his feet.

He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. Anne was in no better condition than him though, if anything, it might be worse. He looked at his best friend to see her normally vibrant blue skin had turned pale and her body was shriveled and wrinkled, like his fingers had been the day they went swimming in the lake.

Anne herself, was honestly beginning to feel like if they didn't find water soon, she could shrivel up and die out there.

Sprig knew just how real a possibility that could be, and wondered also just how much longer he could survive out there too.

They both collapsed to the ground, overheated, panting, dehydrated, and weak.

"I'm not so sure I can take much more of this, we need to find water." Anne rasped out.

Sprig agreed, but had no idea where they could possibly find any water out there. Suddenly he spotted something up ahead. "Wh-what's that?"

"What's what?"

"That, up ahead…it looks like a building." The boy said, pointing in front of them.

The blue frog looked where he was pointing and saw…..nothing. "…..Sprig I don't see anything."

Sprig looked to see that she was right, what he'd seen was now gone. "…B-but it…it was there,…I saw it." He replied between pants.

"Are you sure you're not just seeing things?" Anne asked.

"I…I don't know…I thought….wait, there it is again!"

Anne looked, expecting to see nothing again, but then saw what did appear to be some kind of building off in the distance.

"Okay, this time I see it, which means one of two things, either it's real, or we're both having some sort of shared hallucination." She rasped.

"Either way we should probably check it out." Sprig said.

"Given that our only other option is to die out here, yes I think we should go check it out." Anne agreed.

They half walked, half crawled to the place they were seeing. As they came up to it, they saw what it actually was. An old western looking saloon.

As they entered they both breathed sighs of relief. It was still hot in the saloon, but nowhere near as bad as outside. At least inside they had shelter from the scorching sun, and the ceiling fans created a nice breeze.

They walked up to the counter where the bar tender was. On any other day, they may have been concerned that the bar tender was a rattlesnake, but right now they had far more important things to worry about.

When the snake noticed their approach, he spoke. "Woah, you two ain't lookin' so good, or is that the way you're supposed to look? Sometimes it's hard to tell in this world."

Anne gave him a somewhat annoyed look but was honestly too weak and dehydrated to care. "Do you have any water?" She asked, voice still very raspy and dry.

"Of course we do! That's why this place exists after all, to provide refreshment to weary travelers. The tap is over there." He said, pointing with his tail to what in Anne's mind looked like a frozen yogurt machine.

The two friends both went over to it and grabbed a cup. There were two dispensers on the machine so they didn't even need to take turns, they both just went ahead and filled up their cups to the brim, then downed the fresh, cold water immediately.

It was more than refreshing, it was life giving. Or at the very least life saving. Sprig had drank his entire cup within seconds and was already refilling it. Anne on the other hand, had drank her's in one gulp and had abandoned her cup entirely in favor of standing underneath the dispenser and dowsing herself in the water.

Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have done that, especially with the other people in the room staring at her, but her circumstances were far from normal and right now she didn't care. It felt so good, the cool water running over her skin. Just from that alone she could tell she was starting to feel better.

"I see you're looking a bit better now." The bar tender said as he slithered up to them.

After her impromptu shower, Anne glanced down at herself to see her skin looked brighter and smoother, and her body had filled out again a bit more. It was true, she looked and felt better now than before.

"Yeah, I am, thanks." She replied.

"Good, that'll be seventy shards."

"What!?" The frog and human exclaimed.

"Wait, you're seriously going to charge us for using tap water!?" Anne yelled.

"Yeah, you never said anything about it costing money!" Sprig backed her up.

"Didn't you see the sign?" The rattlesnake said, pointing at a small sign on the counter.

They saw the sign but whatever it said was written in alien scribbles they did not understand.

"Umm, sorry but we're not fluent in…whatever that is." Anne replied.

"But still, you're going to charge us seventy shards for water!?" Sprig exclaimed.

"The sign says one cup of water costs ten shards. You refilled your cup which means you drank two cups, and your friend here definitely used more than one cup worth of water." The serpent explained.

"But that's not fair! We were literally dying of thirst and besides, we don't have any money!" Anne exclaimed.

"Hmm, no money, eh? Well in that case you'll just have to work off your debt. Welcome to the job." The reptile said, handing them each an apron with his tail.

"You've got to be kidding me." Anne said.

"Aw, c'mon Anne, maybe it won't be so bad." Sprig said, trying to be optimistic.

The guy came back and handed the former frog some cleaning supplies and a plunger. "Here, you can start with cleaning the toilets. It hasn't been done in a while so they're getting pretty filthy. Oh, and if you use one that's another ten shards coming out of your salary."

"I take it back." Sprig said, grimacing down at the plunger in his hand.

"Wait a minute, who says we have to work for you anyway? I mean, what happens if we just walk out of here?" Anne questioned.

"And what makes you think you can just walk out of here?" The venomous snake replied, opening his mouth and hissing while baring his fangs, rattle shaking threateningly. "If you can't pay me and you can't work for me then perhaps you can serve as tonights main course!"

"You know what, on second thought working here doesn't sound so bad. Right Sprig?" Anne said, slowly backing away from the angry rattlesnake and holding up her hands placatingly.

"Yeah, totally." The frog turned human replied nervously.

"Good, now get to work!" The bar tender yelled.

Well, there wasn't much arguing with that, so under the serpent's watchful eye they both got started on their new jobs.

While Sprig had been assigned to about the grossest job imaginable, Anne had been assigned to wait tables. She didn't mind really, she'd waited tables many times before back home at the restaurant, so she at least knew what she was doing.

On top of that business was kinda slow. Not very many people were coming in which didn't surprise her in the least. I mean, who would walk miles through a scorching desert just to come to this dump!?

She did notice that the majority of people coming in appeared to maybe be desert dwellers themselves? Or at least maybe had a higher heat tolerance. I mean, one dude that came in was literally made of fire! FIRE! How is that even possible!?

Unfortunately just being near that guy made her feel hotter than she already was, and dried her skin a bit too. She very badly wanted to take another drink of water, but she knew she'd get charged for it, so she refrained.

She tried to take her mind off of it by bustling tables when she noticed another new customer coming in. It was a flower person, the flower head seeming to serve as their actual head with one vertical slitted eye peeking between the florets and no visible mouth or nose. The blossom's stem served as their body, and they had two vines with leaves that acted as arms, as well as roots at the base of their stem that they seemingly used to move around like tentacles on an octopus.

But what struck Anne the most about this person's appearance was how they were hunched over, head hanging low. The pink petals around their head were wilted, and their leaves curled and withered. They looked awful.

Anne glanced over at the counter, her new boss wasn't around. Without giving it another thought, she set down her cleaning supplies and walked over to the water dispenser.

"Here."

The flower lifted a tired eye and looked at the blue frog standing before them, holding out a cup of water. They blinked, then extended one of their roots, sticking it into the cup. Anne watched as the root sucked the water out of the cup until there was nothing left. Once it was all gone, the plant person lifted their root out of the cup and returned it to the floor with the rest of them.

But as Anne looked at the flower again she could tell already that they were doing better. They were standing up a little taller, their leaves and petals were looking just a little bit brighter and less wilted. She didn't know if this person could speak but she could just tell from the look in their eye that they were grateful.

Anne shot another quick glance at the counter before filling the cup up again and handing it to the floral being.

"Now go, hurry." She whispered, ushering them out the door. As much as she didn't want to kick them out in the brutal heat, she also didn't want them falling into the same trap that she had.

She watched as the person left with cup in…vine I guess? Hopefully that would be enough to sustain them for a little while longer.

"Ahem!"

The sound of a clearing throat directly behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin. She quickly turned around and came face to face with a none too pleased looking reptile.

"And just what do you think you're doing little missy? You just gave that customer two cups of water for free!" Pistachio, as she had learned his name was, hissed.

"They were literally dying from dehydration!" Anne exclaimed.

"Well someone's going to have to pay for it!" The snake exclaimed.

Anne sighed frustratedly. "Fine, just take it off of my tab."

The bartender seemed satisfied with doing that but decided he no longer wanted Anne to wait tables. Instead he put her to work in the kitchen. Initially he was just going to have her do the dishes but decided to give her the simple task of chopping up some vegetables first, which she did so, much quicker than he thought she would and perhaps even did a better job than him too. And it wasn't just because she had hands and he didn't.

After that he had her take on few more things food wise, stirring pots, slicing fruit, measuring ingredients, etc. So far, he was pretty impressed with how well the girl was doing her job, if only he could find more suckers like her that actually had skill.

When the evening dinner rush came around, he decided to let Anne take over cooking one of the orders while he dealt with customers. He gave her the recipe and told her to follow it exactly. Problem was, unbeknownst to him, Anne couldn't read the recipe as it was once again written in that unfamiliar language.

Still, she had an idea of what she was supposed to be making based on the picture in the book and the ingredients laid out on the table. She decided to wing it, preparing everything in whatever way felt right to her or made the most sense based on her own cooking knowledge. Even adding a few extra things here and there because she thought it needed it.

She wasn't careless though, she paid close attention to what customers ordered what, in order to make sure she didn't add anything to their meals that could be potentially harmful to them.

She was taking a quick break when Sprig walked up to her, looking miserable and smelling like an old latrine. He plopped down on the bar stool next to her and breathed an exhausted sigh. "Well that was traumatizing."

"Ew, what's that smell?" Anne asked, covering her nostrils.

"You don't want to know." Sprig replied with a haunted look in his eyes.

"Well I'd suggest you take a shower, but I don't think we'd ever be able to afford that." Anne said.

"I just hope we can pay off our debt soon so we can get outta here." Sprig said.

That was just it though, Anne wasn't so sure they would be getting out of there anytime soon. Every time one of them needed a drink of water they would be charged more money for it. As it was they'd both been refraining from drinking any more water, but they could only go on like that for so long, especially in this dry air and heat.

At the moment they were both feeling dehydrated again and knew it wouldn't be long before they caved. And that was exactly the trap that Pistachio had them in, he knew they needed water to survive, and would charge them every time they drank some. That way they would never be able to pay him back, and would have to continue working for him or risk death by venomous bite by trying to escape.

And even if they did escape there was no guarantee they'd survive the harsh desert without any water.

They needed to figure a way out of this, but how? As Anne tried to think up possible solutions they all came up short. She sighed and glanced over at her best friend. It wasn't until just then that she noticed how red the skin on his arms and face was.

"Yeesh, that looks like a pretty bad sunburn, dude. You doing okay?"

"Hm?" Sprig mumbled, before looking down at his arms. "Sun burn? I'm not really sure what you mean by that, but ever since we were outside earlier my skin's been kinda red, and it's sore when I touch it."

"That's a sunburn." Anne explained.

"Oh…is it dangerous? Cause if a frog turns red it's usually a bad sign."

Anne almost had to stop herself from chuckling. "It's not that serious, it'll go away probably in a few days, but until then it's gonna be pretty sore. I'd say put some ointment on it but I have absolutely no idea where we would find any."

The boy nodded, then looked up as he saw Pistachio approaching.

"You!" The rattlesnake said, pointing his tail at Anne. "You haven't been following my recipes."

"Okay, so what are you gonna do, fire me?" The blue frog asked, secretly hoping he'd say yes.

"Fire you? Are you kidding me? People love it! I'm not sure what exactly you've been doing in there but they just can't get enough! From now on I'm promoting you to head chef!" Pistachio exclaimed enthusiastically.

Anne didn't share in his enthusiasm. She wanted to get out of here, not get promoted!

"Now uh, any chance you could let me in on a few of your tricks of the trade?" He asked, leaning towards her with a sly grin on his face.

A lightbulb suddenly lit up in the frog girl's mind. "I'll do you one better Pistachio, I'll teach you everything I know about cooking if you let us off the hook."

The serpent took a long moment to consider this. "What happens if I say no?"

"Then I guess I'll just go back to fixing your regular, boring old recipes." Anne replied.

"Hmm…fine, deal! Now, where do we start?"

Anne held up her end of the deal and taught the reptile everything she could think to teach him about how she cooked and prepared food. She was honestly surprised that he didn't already know some of this stuff, but maybe cooking norms were different in whatever world he was from. Or maybe he just wasn't very knowledgeable about cooking, considering he made most of his money by selling drinks and swindling parched, dehydrated travelers.

Regardless he still held up his end of the deal and let them go. Anne even talked him into letting them fill up their canteens with water for free, in exchange for teaching him a few "special" recipes.

By the time they left the saloon, the sun had already set and the clear night sky was alight with stars and galaxies. It was thankfully a lot cooler than it had been hours earlier, though still bone dry. But traveling through the harsh desert was definitely easier with a full canteen of water and without the brutal hot sun beating down on them.