Between the fire witch and the giant beast man with his even bigger pet, the man was eager to comply with Kamille's request. He didn’t even try to run away, though it was clear the possibility crossed his mind; but that was before he looked to the side to witness Beist trying to take a whole person out of Pretzels mouth, not unlike one would try to make a cute dog spit out a bug they weren’t supposed to eat.

With a gesture, Kamille dismissed the earth binding around the man, which had him fall to the ground. From him she retrieved all of their belongings, satchels and purses and everything they were quickly stripped off during their quick captivity.

It didn’t take much probing and poking to find out the man did, in fact, knew where to find what they were looking for. There was a small oasis that would come and go depending on the time of the year, not ever completely vanishing from the map. According to him, such melons they were looking for could be found there, and it turns out they weren’t really far. He knew of a route that might've been a bit dangerous for the average person due to the possible encounter with sandworms, but nothing Kamille and Beist couldn’t handle for themselves.

Just to be sure, Kamille cast a spell on him while searching him for weapons [1], just to make sure the information was correct. The man had only a few daggers Kamille took for herself, and as far as she found out, their hideout was far enough from the oasis that, even if they were to try and coordinate an attack to them, it would take a while and both Kamille and Beist would be out of there already.

The man led them both up until part of the way, but seemed fearful of continuing, apparently wary of the presence of sandworms. Beist would know there were no sandworms at the moment, none he couldn’t feel with his seismic vibrations, but the man didn’t need to know it. Kamille hesitated for a moment, and then searched her satchel. She didn’t give him his weapons back, but she did give him a couple solars for collaborating and showing them the way.

"Your group doesn’t need to know where we are. I wonder it would be very tragic if they did, to be fair."

He understood. He was to keep his mouth shut and leave them alone.

[1]Reveal Truth 

As they walked along, the magic keeping Pretzels larger faded within the hour, just as Beist had said. The snake shrunk back down to its tiny form and flitted up onto Beist's shoulder to hide in the fluff around his neck. Beist just gave the little serpent a smile. A sand worm showed up, and ate Kamille, but everything was fine. She blew it up from the inside just like the frog. Beist did wonder why she kept getting eaten by large creatures, but he kept the thought to himself. Other than that, it was a rather uneventful trip.

Soon enough, they finally arrived at a gleaming pool of water in the middle of some grasses, shrubs, and palm trees. A picturesque oasis complete with some desert foxes and camels drinking from the pool of refreshing water. Beist reached down and scooped up some water with his hands before splashing it on himself and letting out a great sigh of relief. The water cooled him greatly and washed away a few lingering bits of sand worm. The desert was far too hot and he sorely needed this!

"Finally!" he called out and looked around.

There, he spotted the cactus known to contain the dust melons they were searching for. He walked over to it and pulled the cactus open with his hands and extracted the melon from within cheerfully. He turned to Kamille and held the melon up for her to see.

"Mission accomplished! Now I'd say we deserve to take a rest, wouldn't you?"

He pulled the tiny pumpkin from his belt pouch and tossed it into the sand. After a moment, the sand was pushed away as the giant pumpkin grew, the large door forming, and windows opening up across the bright orange surface. A pumpkin-shaped house for them to rest after such an exhausting day.

---

Pumpkin Cottage

Mischief was already waiting at the oasis, happily splashing on the water, where there was no danger. After provoking their capture, he seemed quite proud of himself.........

Kamille was substantially more unhappy when she was eaten by a giant beast, but everything was okay, because at the end of their journey, there was an oasis. Once again, just like on the pond before the giant frog, Kamille promptly stripped and jumped to the water to wash out the bits of sandworm that remained stuck to her clothes, caking up with sand and adding to her misery. She was either really shameless or trusted Beist being chilvarous enough; both were probably true. Once she washed and quickly washed her clothes, she finally turned her attention to the cactus Beist was showing her.

Kamille had never gotten the opportunity to see them like that, only heard about them. The look of fascination on her face was bordering the childish, as she started to compare the melon to the notes she had and how to know if it was good already or not. But all of that could also wait. When Beist pulled up his pumpkin little house, Kamille let out a sigh of relief.

"We definitely deserve it... Sorry for bringing you so much trouble along, Beist... Let's go rest for a while, I'll bake you some cookies..."