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The scorching sun burns hot.
You don’t need to check the sky or your scroll to know. The deadly Vacuo midday has arrived.
A look around tells the whole story, as whining faces soaked in sweat meet your gaze.
“We look for shelter and continue when the sun sets a bit,” you command.
“Not sure our supplies will last dude…” Sun shakes his water bottle, the liquid inside seeming less than half full.
“And they’ll last even less if we keep going. We find some shade and we’ll scavenge for food and water if necessary.”
Tired nods and sounds of approval are your answer.
“Where can we even find shelter?” Isaac asks.
“Ravines, abandoned Dust refineries, really anything left behind by the other kingdoms.”
“Why did they leave that stuff behind?” Sun strokes his chin.
Both Narci and Coco call him some insult and begin either pompously or aggressively berating him for not knowing the story of his own kingdom.
In truth, you also only know the basics. You just recited what Maria taught you.
You wisely keep that to yourself.
But Sun’s lecture doesn’t last long as a breathtaking sight appears in the distance.
“What’s that?!” Typhu is the first one to see it.
You direct your eyes to where she was pointing, in the distance heading to Vacuo was the silhouette of a giant sea turtle, gliding in the sands.
All your group follows suit and they all give their expressions of awe and confusion.
“I can’t believe it…” Sun says. “That’s a- what was it called?”
“A Flatback Slider…” you say. “Yaya says there are only a couple left in Remnant and they hide in giant dunes. I thought they weren’t real…”
Watching the bizarre view of such a big animal moving so smoothly and swiftly in the middle of the desert is almost hypnotic.
In truth, the thing was nowhere near as far, or as big as you initially assumed, but exaggeration is to be expected when presented with a true wonder of nature, proving that Vacuo isn’t as dead as people from outside assume.
“That’s gotta be good luck, righ-?” Sun’s statement gets interrupted by a deafening roar from behind you all.
