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"We'll continue onwards. I doubt anyone will know our true intentions just by seeing us. We need the water in any case. It'd be a bad idea to try and stretch our limited supplies in a land we're unfamiliar with. Even if we run into someone we could turn it to our advantage. Let's keep moving before we have to set camp again." You say and continue onwards.
As Ming predicted, it wasn't until two days later that you finally came across the next oasis. Water was not the foremost thing in your mind however. Almost as strange as a sea of sand was the fact that said sand was receding. What you had thought to be endless was now giving away to a rocky terrain and one which had signs of vegetation. You still had to wonder, in a land where the heat and cold could rapidly change, could such a thing occur with the terrain as well? Was this stretch of land simply a mere respite before the land became in hospitable once again? Or would this new terrain bring about it's own dangers? Nonetheless, the change was welcome for the moment. "Finally! It's over!" Xin Lan shouts in exhaustion. "I hate the ocean. I hate the desert. Why can't we all just live in the nice forests? Or maybe in a nice hillside?"
"You know, my brother in law probably wouldn't like to hear about your disdain towards his realm." Bao muses quietly, prompting Xin Lan to sidle up against you and glare at her.
"Oceans are evil." They mutter.
"Alright. Let's all calm down." You say. "We'll make camp neat the lake and rest for a bit. The journey has been difficult for all of us."
"There's people there." Ming says as she looks out into the horizon as she shields her eyes from the sun. You turned a trained eye towards your destination and sure enough you see a group of people there. You see strange round buildings where people come in and out of but you don't recall such things in your previous stops. Perhaps this was some kind of village? It would make sense given the inhospitable nature of the desert that this place would be far more suitable for a village to be built even if the land seemed rather bad for growing crops.
