Watermelon Lemonade

Chapter 1: Sellers Delight

Art by: Grumpy-Zane

Watermelon Lemonade

Chapter 1

Sellers Delight

It's not a horse, it's not a horse, it's not a...he looked down at the ox and sighed. It wasn't a horse, but it certainly smelled like one. Zareth sighed looking around at Inky who was hidden within Cryptors cloak. He was hot outside and the sunny weather caused him to wonder if it was actually worth coming out there. His leg bumped into the suitcase that had a treasure within. His best friend lay within.

Inky looked through the folds of the cloak to see Mindroid fussing over the camel he rode. She couldn't really understand anything he was saying, but she was sure it was along the lines of 'if you bite me I'll bite back.' or 'if you spit on me I'll eat you.' both of which were completely impossible seeing as he didn't have a mouth. But of course the camel didn't know that.

Inky giggled, which got Cryptor to let off a short chuckle. He was a lot more laid back then he was when they first met. She looked up at him. His hood was up over his head. He was burning a bit hot to be honest.

"Why didn't we ride the train?" Inky asked. Zareth turned to look at her and answered.

"Because they don't ride out here. They destroyed the rails out here during the wars. It stopped the supply drops to the troops. Mind you that did piss certain people off, like your great grandfather who helped build those rails." Zareth said as they rounded the dune.

"I am...wow..." There was a huge bazaar with several thousand vendors. All of which surrounded a busted up steam engine. Its hull was rusted out so much that you could see into the engine.

"Looks like that one has been blown to bits." Cryptor said. The ox started to walk down the dune toward the large area.

"How will we know who this person is?" Inky asked as she was helped off the large beast.

"Dareth knows who she is." Cryptor answered, setting her down next to Mindroid who took her hand patting it.

[Let's get you something cold to drink.] he held up a few coins and gestured to a stand that had a huge block of ice melting into what looked like a pink liquid. There was a man that sat there cutting up and throwing lemons into the concoction. There was a second one cutting up watermelon and doing the same.

"Watermelon, lemonade?" Inky asked. The woman smiled at her and held out a large cup. Inky handed her the coins and took the cup. It was nice and cold from the ice water chilling it. She took a drink and smiled.

"Good huh? It's a popular drink here since we're a few leagues from Limon. We get a lot of lemons from them. This time of the year the sharks stay outlands because of the lemons. They hate the smell." Inky looked amazed.

"Sharks? Sand...sharks?" She looked up at Zareth who also grabbed himself a cup of the watermelon, lemonade.

"I heard of them, but never saw them. Zanes been through the desert a few times, but never seen them either. I just thought they were a myth." Zareth said, taking a sip of the liquid and sighed as steam came off from his body cooling down after being super heated from the desert sun.

"Dain't no myth there boy. They're real, and you should stay out of the red zones. The wranglers are good, but they don't save fools. If you go out there on your own they leave you there." The older man said. He threw another cut up watermelon into the mix and motioned to the next person in line.

"Oh hey...do you know where we can find a guy named 'Crixell?'" Zareth asked. They stopped and turned to look at them.

"You dain't wanna deal with that person. No sir...they're...a witch." They motioned to a purple tent off in the distance, but it was very distinct and different from the others. Inky couldn't help but feel a foreboding feeling from it. There was someone within that she didn't want to see...