D-135: Desert Oasis Town
It was hot, smoldering, and uncomfortable. It was such an awful place to be, there was no water nearby and the plants that could be seen were very unwelcoming. The critters that ran through the sand and around their weary feet didn’t look like much to eat if caught. The wanderer stopped, nearly panting in the blazing sun. Why were they here? Wandering in this hellscape of a place? They were so tired and thirsty and hot, they couldn’t think of a good answer. They had brought water, lots of water and yet it truly wasn’t enough because now they had no water and were STILL wandering through what could be called hell on earth. Step after shaky step the stranger debated turning around and just heading back the way they came and forgeting about what they were searching for.
Just when the wanderer was about to give up for perhaps the first time in their life a creature appeared by their side, crouching down and letting the stranger climb atop its broad back and rest their head between its shoulders. The smaller of the two creatures sighed, eyes slowly closing before snapping back open. There was no time to sleep, no time at all. But the low humming that filtered into the riders brain and through their body easily convinced them otherwise. A small nap wouldn’t hurt.
It turned out to be much more than a small nap and if the creature couldn’t feel the rider's heartbeat and breath against their back they might have been worried but they weren’t. The red brown dragon had walked slowly, careful to not jostle the feline atop their back. Even when they spotted what they had been searching for, the pace never picked up. What awoke the rider was the sudden change in temperature, they went from overly hot and humid to somewhat cool.
“We…made it?”
The stranger lifted their head up off their dragon to look around. YES! They had in fact made it. It was a special oasis in the desert that they had been traveling. What made it different from any other oasis was that it seemed to be in a bubble of itself. You could not feel the heat from the desert around it and it was as if the temperature was always the way you wanted it to be.
Hazel had heard it being spoken about as she traveled around, looking for a decent place to call home. It had been a tall tale but it sounded so perfect to the feline that they had set off to search for it. She had almost given up hope but she didn’t and here they were, home.