"I'm so glad you came back. We have no idea how to get anywhere. If it was a forest Korvax would have no trouble getting us somewhere. Hells, even a meadow and we would be fine, but this here? Every rock looks the same, and just looking at the endless dunes makes me shiver. How do you even manage to go straight?" babbled Darid the Cursed for the fourth time.

I had kept my oath, even if they didn't know about that, and had offered them help. Which they immediately accepted, despite the merchants muffled screams. Their meager packs had been strapped onto my camels and the four Cursed, Darid, Korvax, Robb and Lizia, pulled along the merchant and two more pale humans. They might be personal guardsmen, but they looked so shabby, I wouldn't put it past them to be vile thieves.

And for the tenth time, I sighed in my mind and cursed my teacher for making me swear that oath. I held my peace and led the way south-east. The stars were bright above us, with a thin sliver of a waxing moon.

"Why did you come here?" asked Polly from my shoulder.

"Whoa, your bird can talk?" two people asked. It was too mixed to say who exactly it was.

"Of course Polly can talk!" Polly fluffed her feathers indignantly. "Polly is the most intelligent, most beautiful popinjay in the world!"

'More like the most annoying pest in the world. But she's still far better company than a group of Cursed,' I thought and carefully circled around a cluster of rocks. When I found no signs of predators using this spot, I stopped on the northern side of the biggest rock.

"We'll camp here until sunrise, then walk until midday," I told them, throwing them their packs and the ration for the camels. Then I pointed at Korvax: "You will learn how to set up the water traps. The rest of you should feed the camels and pitch the tents.

I had Korvax carry another bundle of empty bottles to a small shrub, where I taught him to dig a small hole for the bottles to stand securely, in the shadow of something, be it rock or tent, and then put one of my metal sticks into them. I did the first trap and watched him for the second one, before I let him scatter the rest around the campsite. Always at a distance of at least two large steps and sheltered from idiots, so they didn't pull water away from another trap and no one would step on them.

Meanwhile, I watched the disaster that were the tents. Or to be exact: The one tent that was still functional. It looked similar to my own small tent, only bigger, but something was... off.

I decided it was none of my concern, as I set up my own simple tent, checked up on the camels and Polly and wrapped a blanket around me for my well-deserved rest. I heard them set up a watch schedule, but ignored them in favor of some sleep.

====

My growling stomach drove me out of my tent well before dawn. Robb was sitting nearby, glancing my way, before scanning the area again. I tiptoed out of the camp and around the rocks, taking care of my business on the south side, before returning and searching my packs for food. I sighed at the sight of jerky and dried dates, but ate my ration without grumbling and while checking on the water traps. They were filled by a quarter.

'That's one finger more than last night. I guess we're getting closer to the ocean. Or there is some water source underground.'

My water store could keep three people hydrated for a week, if they were on rations and the water traps caught as much water as today. But we were 8 people. Grabbing the shovel and a bundle of empty containers, I trudged around the area, looking at the earth here, poking at it there. Climbing through cracks in the rock and coming back out covered in red dust, before I finally decided on a promising spot near a pair of round cacti.

After the hole was dug, half a meter deep and wide and lined with coarse linen and a stone in the middle, I went to a second spot and dug a small well. Afterwards I cut the round cactus open to drink its water. To the east was a brighter streak of blue. Soon, the sun would rise, but for the moment, I enjoyed the quite and the soft gurgle of water.

Steps crunched nearby, walking in a random direction, then focused towards me.

"There you are! I didn't notice you until I was close enough," laughed Darid. "Sitting next to them, you look like one of these cacti."

"Stop right there," I told him quietly.

"Huh?" He actually stopped in mid-stride, one leg hanging in the air. "Why? There a snake or scorpion?"

Was he afraid of those little critters?

"No. You nearly stepped into our drinking water for today."

Darid carefully put his foot down again, looking around. I saw his eyes go wide in his pale face as he spotted the first hole. Picking up the containers, and another round cactus, I walked over to the hole.

"Hm... you nearly ruined 2 bottles worth of drinking water. That would be enough for one person for a day." I heard him swallow and shoved the cactus into his arms. "Here, hold this cactus, while I harvest our daily drink." Darid juggled the spiky cactus a bit, before getting a good grip on it.

Turns out, it was less water, only filling one and a half bottle. Together with the other hole, we now had 3 more bottles of water. I pushed the sandy earth back into the holes and led the way back to our camp.

"Why were you searching for me?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Ah, well... you see... we thought about making breakfast and didn't know what we could use from your things. Being as we have no idea how far the next city or village is."

"You found him! Finally!" Lizia jumped towards me and I stepped aside, letting her collide with Darid. "Ouch. Please tell me that we're close to a city and can make some proper breakfast. We're all tired of eating jerky."

I looked at their hopeful faces. "You have been eating nothing but jerky?"

They nodded.

"Didn't you bring any dried fruits?"

They shook their heads.

"Didn't your guide tell you what to bring?"

They shook their heads again.

"Guess that also explains your clothing," I remarked drily, having tried hard to ignore the fact that they ran around practically half-naked, by desert standards. They wore pants and short-sleeved, thick tunics, heavy boots and absolutely nothing to protect their heads from the daily sun. And I could smell them in the clear dawn air, although they stood far enough away from me.

Sniffing, I pointed towards the rocks. "There should be enough dew on the tents and the rock wall to wash yourselves with. Should take enough time for me to find some proper clothes for you lot. At least your employer had some sense to wear a keffiyeh and proper clothes."

I could see my camels wrinkle their noses in silent laughter. "And put that cactus down before you squash it! It contains precious water!"

"Don't you guys dare look!" screeched Lizia as I looked through the packs, followed by a thud, a grunt and steps walking away. 'Worse than children.'

Thankfully I had two sets of spares and there had been some proper clothes among the remains of their dead camels. As they tried the clothes on and complained about them being too loose and too hot, I got the time to scrub my face clean and cut the cactus open to share out the first bitter drink of the day.

The sun rose over the horizon as we packed the tents and picked up our route again - under much complaining from the merchant. Someone had removed his gag when we had set up camp and though thankfully silent during the night, the merchant started whining about his feet and the heat and why he couldn't ride on one of his camels. Around mid-morning, Polly started singing again, drowning out the whining merchant.

At least the 4 Cursed and the two thief-like guards stayed silent. If it was due to the heat, my continued silence to every attempt of a conversation or the horrible singing of Polly was a question I wasn't willing to ask.

Twice I had to hand out the water bottles for a drink, each time recounting how long it would hold. The answer sent a shiver down my spine. How many bottles did I have?

Normally, one person needed 2 bottles of water per day. I had started out with 12 bottles and 4 larger containers that could hold 7 bottles worth. When I had met this group of Cursed, I had maybe 14 bottles worth of water left. Enough to get me to the next city and have something left over for the camels and Polly to drink. With my nightly procurement, this had gone up by 3 bottles from the two wells and 2.5 bottles from my 10 water traps.

To keep 8 people going, we would need 16 bottles per day. And we didn't have enough. We didn't even have enough containers to transport even half of what we would need for a week-long trip. If I didn't lead us astray.

'If each little well brings enough water for 1.5 bottles... I would need to dig 11 of them. I would drain the area dry and hurt the vegetation. Gathering dew from the night air also doesn't give enough water. I don't have enough bottles to scatter around. And I have yet to see many edible, water-retentive plants like cacti around here...'

"... midday and the sun's so hot,

it grills right through cloth and brain,

we'll never be seen again,

only polished bones remain~"

Polly's horrible song cut straight through my calculations and tugged my eyes first towards the sun, then towards our shadows.

"We'll rest for a few hours in the shadows of those rocks," I pointed at a nearby cluster.