Hot...
The burning sun was hot. The searing sands were hot. The unmoving air was hot.
And now, every arduous movement he made was also hot.

This overpowering heat steeped through Staccato's entire being, steadily robbing him of his coherence and vitality. He'd started out the journey on two legs, a full canteen of water, and a great, shining smile broadcasting his newfound hopes. How could he not be excited at the thought of a whole other world within walking distance??

...Or so he foolishly thought. Maps were awfully deceiving. A mile/kilometer was so much longer than he could've ever predicted. How far had he walked? 5? 15?
And how was he supposed to pinpoint his direction when every direction looked exactly the same??

It was all sand and only sand, blinding, gritty sand.

He didn't even know he hated it until today...

Yet Staccato trudged on, head down, eyes shut (the two big ones at least). He no longer knew where he was heading, but he couldn't bear to stare at the endless sand for any longer. His skin weeped. His hair slickened. The dark carapaces could cook an egg by now. 

He crawled on all eights as his legs no longer supported him on their own. Even now, they trembled with ever-growing fatigue. At least the cramp had faded...

. . .

Time passed. How much time, he had no clue. It felt long enough. Surely he'd made some notable progress by now!
Slowly he lifted his head and opened his eyes, vision adjusting to see-

Still. More. Sand.


"I can't..."

This crushing defeat did him in, all limbs giving out simultaneously. He fell face-first and sprawled out into the sands.

And there he stayed, a mere black speck on the white sea...

Marion was trekking his way through the long stretch of the white sand sea.

To be honest, he could have flown over it on the back of the dragoonfly, but he was only here for the flora and fauna- and there are quite a lot to spot despite common impression of the lone and level sand. Even the desert was teeming with life- but everyone is quite reasonably hiding from the sun in this blazing midsummer day. Marion, however, is not nocturnal, so he donned his hat and went along. It is not particularly pleasant, of course, but not excruciating either, and the elf considered it all part of the experience.

That was when Kweh who have been flying ahead returned to him, and Dolo- who have been riding on the mount with a piece of tarp pretty much wrapped around him, called out to Marion- which led up to now, when the little entourage was gathered around the black speck in the sand which turned out to be some sort of spider-person.

Marion immediately went to work, planting Idun down in the sand and unrolled his tarp canopy, tying one end to his staff and the other being weighed down on the ground, creating a shade, and from his trusty picnic basket, retrieved quite a large bowl of ice. Which he applied to the more obvious armpits after removing the top clothing from the other. Dolo, on the other hand, was assigned to blow on the pinwheel to generate wind once in a while to fan and stimulate sweating… can this person-spider- creature even sweat? Marion honestly couldn’t know,

Thankfully the top wasn’t hard to get off, being a one-strap garment much like a toga.
And to answer Marion’s question, this stranger did sweat. It currently beaded around his hairline and occasionally dripped down his face.

What a strange face they saw. Four of those six eyes lacked eyelids to close. Wide lips slightly open from a slack jaw, exhaling in soft pants. Two fangs peeked out the top lip.
Normally, his skin was a ghostly pale. This heat however, now flushed a hot salmon hue.

As Marion cooled him down, Staccato’s eyelids peeled back slightly.

---

A gentle laugh echoed nearby, almost inaudible.

The spidery beast searched for its source, finding nothing at first.

Then it laughed again, a little louder, and a vaguely human figure appeared in front of him.
He couldn’t see much besides a blurred visage of strawberry blonde hair and white teeth.

Staccato reached out, with five fingers instead of three…

---

He moved.

One hand shifted and weakly hovered off the sand before immediately falling again.
His lips moved, but no sound came out besides a breathy mumble.

“Th…m..?”

”Oh, thank goodness- wait, don't get up just yet."

The person that was up in his face was no other than Marion- who have been dabbing him with cold water, observing where he sweated most profusely- legs (all eight) slightly elevated on rocks that they've place around him to prevent pooling. It was an odd sight, but odder still is this spider like stranger.

Marion reached over to the side and retrieved a glass from the basket- not chilled with ice, that would be quite a shock- but still cool, the drink was abit lemony, exactly like a sports drink.

"Have some water- no rush, now, and we have as much as you need."

Of course, this is no time for questions- not that Dolo knows that. The mer-elf have sort of wiggled his way over, cautious of being scolded by Marion for bothering the patient, but also deathly curious about what this black thing is. His latter half is still wrapped in the tarp as he scooted up and sort of... prodded at the extra legs, and Marion chuffed and shooed his hands off, retrieving the pinwheel from him (which Dolo had eventually forgotten to blow on) as well.

"Why don't you get us something to eat, while we're here? Don't be wasteful, though."

This seemed to promptly cheer up the fish, and he waited till Marion have taken out a large jug of drink from it, before going ham of messing with the basket.

As dream morphed into reality, the sunset blonde hair became gold, and the voice- while still gentle- seemed to lose some inflection.
Soon Marion replaced that hazy image, leaving the disoriented beast even more confused.

“ᴹʰˀ ʸᵒᵘ’ʳᵉ ⁿᵒᵗ…”

His main eyes opened just a bit more, trying to focus on the elf in front of him. Yes, a light elf, radiant as the very sun in the sky~
…Okay, maybe he was dead and this guy was a god because even pretty people didn’t appear divine-

“ᴬᵐ ᴵ ᵈᵉᵃᵈ…ˀ”

Again he tried to move with marginally better results, able to lift his head for a few seconds before dizziness took over.

Of course he knew Dolo was there too, as two of the small eyes faced him. Sadly, they were too simple to perceive the Merfolk beyond a dark shape. Had he not poked the spiderfolk, Staccato likely would’ve remain oblivious.

So his attention mostly stayed on Marion, dazedly staring up at him until the water was presented. The moment he felt some touch his lip, he tried to suck it down and nearly choked himself as a result.


Marion quickly helped him up and thumped on his back when he choked, and made sure the other won't down water into his lungs (does he have them? or does he have book lungs like spiders?) instead of his stomach.

"There, there, take it slow- "

The little elf have white, velvety flowers woven in his hair, and was dressed in a short gown of soft linen- well, he does look like how an angel would dress, if one'd ignore the tentacled monstrosity that Dolo was pulling out of the picnic basket in the background, everything seemed perfectly serene.

"You are very much alive- we're still in the desert, not the afterlife. How are you feeling right now? Are there any discomfort anywhere?"

He asked, still quite concerned about the other's wellbeing.

Meanwhile, Dolo had pulled out a whole raw octopus and is now wrangling it's tentacles- while it is really quite dead, these tentacles still have a latent reflex in them and is wrapping around the mer's arm. He growled at the seafood and bit down on it's mantle in retaliation, pulling it back in his jaw in an attempt to get it off his arm- and with that force instead succeeded in ripping it, the releasing force sending himself to topple onto his back.

Though sitting up made him woozy, Staccato did not complain. He drank the water- slowly this time- and gave a relieved sigh.

“…I think I’m better?” He shyly answered, “I still feel hot and dizzy, but it’s not as bad now.”

Compared to Marion’s pure appearance, the beast could be considered downright horrifying.
Pale skin (though it looked pink right now), multiple eyes with no iris, nose scrunched to fit the larger mouth, limbs and torso elongated beyond typical humanoid proportions…
Yet he acted like a lost child. He squinted at Marion, tilting his head slightly.

“You look-“

Right then, the bit of commotion from Dolo finally drew the spider’s attention to him, turning his head to see him better.

“No legs…?” He murmured to himself, leaning over a bit to peer closer.

Marion also turned to look behind him- and seemed exasperated at the fish's antics, the tarp that is used to layer the floor of the temporary little shelter was overrun by the jug of drink which Dolo's tail had knocked over while he was fighting his snack- while Dolo only blinked at Marion quite innocently, a bit of raw octopi tentacle sticking out of his mouth before he slurped it back in.

Well, what else could you do about that? You just couldn't be mad at him- just look at him!

"- no, he's part merfolk, not Tritions, so no legs."
He sighed.

Dolo did fix the small situation at hand though, by turning promptly into a puddle- which slithered around and collected all the spilled drink into itself, before becoming a mer-elf again, with the drink probably in his belly now, while Marion continued to use icy water to cool the spider-humanoid down, applying it to his skin as well as keeping good ventilation (the pinwheel was abit too much and they resolved to have Kweh, the dragoonfly that had been just sunbathing to fan them with it's large wings), and pulling out as many drinks he would drink from the magic picnic basket.

Marion wasn't so quick to start talking with him, mostly just because of not wanting to stress him out before he is able to recover fully and the dizziness would go away with enough fluids being replenished and the temperature goes down- and he made some light banter with Dolo, who dosen't seem to really speak, but makes noises and gestures but Marion seemed to be able to understand him all the same.

All Marion got in return was a perplexed look.


…The heck was a Trition? Or merfolk for that matter?
He understood neither, but at least with merfolk, he had that weird sense of familiarity.
As was the case with most things, it seemed…

Staccato grunted and pulled his legs close to rest his chin on his knees. He stared out at the endless sands, a frown slowly crumpling his face.

Stupid desert. Things were just starting to pop into his head again until he came out here.
Now he fell back to square one, just like when he first came to in the Shady Woods. And that place wasn’t blazing hot!

Why would anyone want to come out here??

...



The question stuck, and his gaze drifted to Marion once again. His face relaxed, lightening his expression. Something about this elf made him feel better somehow; he just couldn't pinpoint what.



“Heyyy.. you,“ his body turned towards the elf, “What made you come to here out of- I don’t know- any other place?”



His words were mildly slurred- perhaps still a bit out of it- but they were definitely directed at Marion.

"I'm travelling! Well, I set out to study flora and fauna of different places- plants and the creatures that live in the environment, you see, but I've sort of found travelling itself to be pretty fun as well."

Marion also sat casually in the shade, plating up some watermelon slices and sprinkling just a little bit of salt on top and offering it to the spider. Dolo got the whole other half and eats with his face buried in it.

"The white sand sea- even if it may seem barren to the eye, you'd find there's nowhere on this earth where life dosen't thrive. Scorpions, arachnids, insects, rodents, snakes, lizards- just to name a few."

Of course, he also cut out a slice for himself- and Marion bit a mouthful of the juicy chilled goodness before continuing.

"I ought to introduce myself, goodness me- I'm Marion Aurea, and this is Dolo- Dolo Aurum. And that one over there is Kweh- " the dragoonfly, upon being mentioned, wiggled its feathery antennae, while Dolo is trying to lick the tip of his nose to clean off the watermelon juices.

"I'm from King'svale, and Dolo is from the capitol. Where are you from- and what brings you here?"

Staccato raised a brow- though it’s a bit hard to tell since he didn’t have much hair there- and crossed his free arms, skeptical. 


“Life?? All I’ve seen is sand! And I don’t like the sand-“


He took the melon and held it up to inspect it before taking a little bite. As the sweet taste hit his tongue, his eyes widened in delight and he proceeded to chomp down the rest of the slice in one go, including the rind.

“Marion and uhhh, Dolo? Okay, okay, I can remember that-“ he stopped and made a face as the watermelon’s sweetness ebbed, leaving only the bland rind. He didn’t spit it out though and kept talking even while he chewed.



“Well, I’m Staccato- Well maybe not, but that’s what I’m going with-“ he paused his ramble to swallow, “Oh yeah, I'm from DarkVeil city; I was getting tired of the smoke and the people there. So there’s a place across this desert? Do you know where that is?”



He leaned in a bit, awaiting an answer. He seemed-and felt- more alert. His curious gaze stayed on the two while he snagged a second melon slice.

“They usually come out when it’s not so hot out- besides, to be completely fair, we did find you.”

Marion tried to deliver that in a matter-of-fact way, but couldn’t hold back his chuckles and just rolled with it instead.

“Staccato- that’s a nice name. And there are places beyond the desert- or, the desert is surrounded by other places, if you would understand it like that better.”
Wiping his hands clean, the sun elf got up and fetched a map from their luggage, and spread it out in front of Staccato- and the crescent shape of Charon’s land laid out before his eyes. Marion pointed out where they are on the map, the midsection of the crescent’s waist.

“King’s Valley- where I came from- is right here, below the desert. There are much more green grass than sand there, and we intend to keep it that way. To the left and right are the oasis, a water source in the middle of the desert, and the city- where a lot of people live and do business. And then further to either side is the sea, which is just a very very big bit of water, and you’d need to take a boat to get across it.”

Staccato’s cheeks becoming noticeably redder in hue from Marion’s remark.
Yet he couldn’t help also laughing a bit at himself. What he did was stupid after all, no denying that.

He watched Marion unfold the map, only to find himself staring at elf as he settled close by. A lopsided smile spread across his face.

He soon got to business though, following the other’s gaze down to the parchment.
He had to lean in and squint for the tiny text to properly focus, but once it did, he quickly scanned the whole map, letting out a breathy “Wow..”

Wow indeed. There was so much to see! More than he could imagine! And the desert looked so small on there…
Just how big was Charon in its entirely??

Before his eyes wandered too much though, one place in particular caught his attention more than others.
He put a finger right on the Sun City.


“And you said the Cap-i-tol? Where Dolo is from?” He asked before putting a second finger on King’s Valley,
“-And that’s where you’re from?”

Huh. Seems this spider lad was literate.

"Yep! That's where we were born and raised."

The little elf nodded- and Dolo, having finished up his half of the melon, wanted to join in on the fun so he plopped his chin over Marion's shoulder to see- Which prompted Marion to start helping to wipe the fish clean from watermelon juices all over his face and his hands.

"The Capitol, Sun City, is on an island, and it has very very tall buildings- and theres a whole lot of people, and everyone brings their own bit of special to the city, making it a pot of all the specials! Theres shops and diners and alot of places to have fun or to learn, and the streets are very crowded."

Dolo hummed, imitating that sort of jingle when you've gotten a question right on a game show- like he is agreeing to what Marion is saying.

"While King's Valley is mostly plains, rolling hills and wide open fields- and there are grass and there are wheat and barley growing, flocks of sheep and cows grazing, streams and rivers cutting though the land and there's fish and frogs and dragonfies, and in the summer the crickets and the cicada sings in the twilight as the wind rustles the reeds."

“Ahh, I like the sound of Sun City,” Staccato chirped, “I don’t think I’ve been there…?”



He sounds quite uncertain while saying, as if doubting his own words. He shuts his eyes as he digs through his brain.



“Mmghhh...Sun city…” he said again, this time in a mumble, “Sunnnn City..”



The Capitol. Sun City. It stirred something. He couldn't quite describe it though. Such feelings showed on his face, appearing simultaneously sentimental and perplexed. 

Before he could elaborate though, he met eyes with Dolo and got distracted. He automatically flashed the fish a smile- which would be nice if it weren’t for those big fangs as well as the other sharp teeth between them.



Now he looks to Marion again, still smiling while curiously tilting his head.



“And King’s Valley sounds nice-“ he paused, “I think.”



The description of King’s valley brought forth neither joy nor aversion. He felt nothing for it, not like Sun City. A bit guilty about this, the grin gets crooked and he bashfully rubs his arm.



“Eheh sorry, I’d have to go to first to really know, but I wouldn’t mind going there!”