Fears 3 - Journeys

Chapter 15 - Remote

"Wake up, Remote! Wakey, wakey!" I heard a voice above me. I slowly opened my eyes to see Liy standing over me with a gleeful expression. She seemed happier than usual, which raised many questions about why she was different today.

"Let me sleep," I complained, turning onto my side and looking away from her. I was far too tired to do shit today. Knowing that today would be yet another day of riding camels through the desert, I wanted to take advantage of the mere handful of hours of sleep I'd be getting.

"I have something to show you!" Liy shook me.

"Finee," I gave a little smile, not wanting to make Liy sad. Liy always made me feel content whenever she was around. I didn't know why, but I got butterflies whenever she did anything as little as talking to me. It was just something about her that I admired.

I slowly got to my feet and Liy helped me up. She knew how drowsy I was when I first woke up, so she was slow to lead me the way she wanted.

As Liy led me through the desert, I felt the sand on the bottoms of my feet start to become more dense and wet. It wasn't obvious why this was happening, but it was soon apparent why the sand was like this, contrary to the dry, dusty sand I vividly remembered from earlier.

I rubbed my eyes to see a large oasis looming over me.

"Wait... how did you..."

"Never mind that the water's just fine," Liy smiled.

My tired expression instantly changed to an excited child who had just gotten the first present on their list for their birthday. I could feel the cool temperature of the water from where I was standing, which was about twenty feet from the edge of the water.

There was an array of bushes separating the sand from the water. Liy and I moved the bushes away, and I got my first glimpse of the water. The oasis was bigger than I had ever thought an oasis could ever be. The water stretched so far that my eyes couldn't see the end of where it ended. I was interrupted by Bottle calling my name.

"C'mon, Remote! The water's just fine," Bottle smiled as she relaxed in the oasis.

I dipped my feet in the water and instantly felt the cold temperature run through my veins. The initial shock of the temperature was a bit much, but it wasn't enough to diminish the fact that we had found an oasis and how large it was.

"Liy, how the hell did we get here? I remember going to sleep and there being no oasis around," I chuckled.

"Well..." Liy guiltily smiled.

FLASHBACK: 1 HOUR AGO

PERSPECTIVE SWITCH: LIY

I woke up early to the rising sun. I watched the vibrant colors flow throughout the sky, and the temperature began to rise in real time. I didn't know why, but I had a weird feeling that today we would be blessed with good fortune, like something good was going to happen to compensate for the troubles we had gone through over the duration of the entire journey, through the many cities we had gone through and the long desert we had to traverse for over a day straight now.

Because I woke up so early, nobody else was up except for Jinn, but he was busy watching over the sun and drinking some water from his canteen.

I took a few steps, and Jinn heard the noise. He waved to me, but not wanting to be rude, I decided to sit by him and watch the rising sun.

We were far from the others, so they wouldn't wake up if we were to talk.

"Good morning, Liy," Jinn gave a hand signal as I walked over.