Rook took stock of the environment around him. The wind blew sand into his face. In his immediate vicinity was greenery he had never seen before. Palms, fig trees, fruit trees. Foliage he had never seen before. At the center of the greenery was a puddle of blue. A rich blue spring that acted as the cool heart in this savage heat. Rook viewed beyond the patch of greenery, an endless landscape of sand. He needed more info. Rook located the tallest date palm he could find.

  Rook sheathed his sword and grabbed onto the spines of the date palm. He climbed to the top and looked out to the horizon. There was nothing. Sand forward. Sand right. Sand left. Rook rotated his neck backward. There was a dot. A black dot beyond a dune. Rook determined the brown dot might have been some kind of made structure. It was miles away from the safety of the oasis through the onerous sand.

  He slid down the date palm. Two seconds ago, he was in Shangra. Where could he be? It must have been the women he faced. He reached into his knapsack. He had a tangerine that the Knight had given him. He had a health potion he’d taken off of an invader. He had a flint and steel. He had some rope, which he carried around because he liked to auto-erotically asphyxiate himself.

  “My jack-off rope!” He said, “This might come in handy.”

  Which direction would he head in? He realized he needed to find his way back to Shangra. There were only about two hours of sunlight left. He would likely need to stay there for the night and start on his journey tomorrow. Until the sun fell, he would need to get to work. But first, he needed some electrolytes. He picked up a mango and bit into it.

  Rook went around, grabbing fallen palm fronds from the ground. He located the straightest, dried stick of wood he could find. Rook chopped the ends to make it straighter. Rook found a sprouted palm tree that was waist-high. He rested the top of the stick on one end and dug the other end into the ground. With that framework, he began dressing his shelter in palm fronds until it was completely covered. He scooped dirt out of the floor of his A-frame, giving himself more space inside the dwelling. He sprinkled the turned earth with leaves. With his shelter complete, his next step was a fire.

  Rook gathered the driest sticks he could find and slapped his flint and steel together, lighting a fire. The next step was to find some food for the night and his journey.

  This was easy. He had figs. Many figs, and olives, and dates he could pick off the ground. He ate them handily, and when he was full, he placed as many as he could by the fire to dehydrate them overnight.

  Rook realized he’d need some protein for his strength. As the sun began to fall, he heard arfing. Rook turned his head, trying to place where the sound was coming from. Following the arfing was the splashing. He paced over slowly, wading through the bushes. His alabaster head peeked through, noticing that within the oasis lake was a sealhorn. From Rook’s time in the Toy Scouts, he remembered reading about them. They were a semi-aquatic mammal with horns of a ram and four legs propped up by webbed feet. They could tuck into the main body’s blubber and swim like a seal in water. Rook stayed motionless. The rook leaped out of the bushes as the sealhorn was turned away, bleating and eating grass sprouting in the sand. Rook’s body turned on its side, and he began rolling. The sealhorn scurried out of the way right before Rook could slash it with his sword. Rook tossed himself back up and stuck his sword out.

  The sealhorn stamped its foot and let out a breathy warning with its flared nostrils. Rook tossed his sword from one hand to another as he prepared. The sealhorn made his charge.

  Rook jumped out of the way. The sealhorn landed its blow on the fig tree. The horns collided with the tree, shaking every branch so thoroughly that every fig hailed down onto Rook and the sealhorn.

  “Woah!” Said the Rook, “Wait a minute! You’re incredibly powerful!”

  The sealhorn stamped his foot again as he turned back to Rook. Rook had to explore this. His eyes went to the perfect proving ground. He held his sword out as he slowly circled the sealhorn. He placed himself between the sealhorn and a huge rock. Rook feigned a step forward, and the sealhorn charged. Rook jumped up. The sealhorn cracked open the rock. Rook landed on the sealhorn’s back and grabbed its horns. This enraged the sealhorn, who tried to buck Rook off his back. Rook kept holding on as the beast kicked up in the air and shook Rook.

  Rook’s grip lightened, and with one last buck, the sealhorn threw Rook off.

  “Oof!” Rook said, before he noticed two sealhorn feet heading right toward his face.

  Night had fallen when he came to. He looked around but saw no sealhorn in sight.

  “Huh.” Said Rook, “Must have wandered off with his herd.” He looked at the campfire he’d started and checked on his a-frame shelter. When he pulled one of the fronds, he saw the sealhorn sleeping inside. Snoring.

  “What!?”

  Should he wake the sealhorn that whacked him in the face? No, this was the rook’s opportunity. He grabbed his sword and placed it to the sealhorn’s throat.

  “Why didn’t you go with your herd, stupid?” Rook asked

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  This was it, all he needed to do was slice the sealhorn’s neck and he would be fed for a week. If that’s what it took to get to the end, then he would do it. But he looked at the sealhorn and a thought occurred to him.

  “I’m such a dummy. Sealhorns aren’t found in the desert. You lost your herd too, didn’t you? That woman sent you here too?”

  He placed his sword back in his holster. He sat against the log in front of the fire and held his hands up. He ate one of the dehydrated fruits, and looked up at the desert sky. He found the North Star. But he was looking for something else. He traced the constellations until he found it. The tip of Fenrir’s fang. It was what was called the Darkstar. And it would lead him home. The rook’s eyes drifted as the desert sound helped him to back to sleep.

  He woke up to the sealhorn eating the dehydrated fruits.

  “Hey!” He said as he swung his sword around. The sealhorn backed up but started snarling again, “Yeah, yeah.” Said Rook, “You know I could have killed you? Twice, actually.”

  The sealhorn didn’t say anything. It continued to snarl at Rook.

  “You’re lost too, right? I remember you from my books. You’re not supposed to be in a desert. I think you and I should work together. What do you say?”

  The seal stamped their blubbery foot again. Their webbed foot again, and charged.

  “Damn, looks like I’ll have to prove myself.”

  The rook rolled to the right as the sealhorn charged past him. He took the handle of his sword and absolutely thumped the sealhorn in the back of the head. It hit the visual center of the brain, temporarily blinding the sealhorn. The beast lashed out, flailing before snarling again.

  “I’m sorry you got sent here!” Rook said, sticking his weapon out, “I got sent here too. I know you want to stay in the oasis, but you’ll die here. We need to get you back home.”

  The sealhorn kicked and launched itself. Their feet collided with Rook’s center. The sealhorn lifted on its hind legs, ready to slam it down on Rook.

  Rook kicked the standing hind legs, toppling the creature over. Rook was on top of the seal.

  “Look!” He yelled, “You need water, right? You don’t know where to go. I can navigate us out of here. I can find water if need be. And you, you’re a beast of burden. You can help me with the distance. We can work together!”

  It snarled its teeth at Rook. Rook snarled back. The sealhorn listened to this.

  Rook got off the sealhorn and brushed himself off. It stood back up on its own.

  He stared down at the sealhorn. “There we go. Starting to see reason. If those women come, find us, that will be trouble. So… it stands to reason that we have to find our own way out of here. Now… while I was at the top of the palm, I saw the tip of something. A tower, maybe. If that’s some kind of mummy lord’s abode, we could potentially find some allies there. Looks to be about two days’ travel from here. What say you and I make our way over there right now? The sun still hasn’t come up yet. AhH!”

  The sealhorn charged Rook when he was distracted. The horns nicked along the ridges of the Rook’s head and knocked him over.

  “Hold on!” Said Rook, “Hold on!” Rook needed to get some momentum before he could get up. He rocked himself gently to try to get back up. But before he could, the sealhorn rolled him forward even more.

  “Woahwoahwaoh!” Said Rook as he barreled out of the oasis down a dune of sand. He finally crashed at the pit of where the two dunes met. He rocked himself again until he was on his front and then pushed himself up. He glared at the sealhorn.

  “Fine!” Said the Rook, “Stay here for all I care!”

  He moved up and walked past the sealhorn. The sealhorn stared at him with a kind of angry glare, like he was really giving Rook the business. Rook picked up his knapsack and stuffed the rest of the dehydrated fruits in his bag.

  He started walking on the outside of the oasis, “But just so you know…” He pointed at the spring pool, “Even if they don’t come back… In a couple of months, as we get closer to summer, that spring will evaporate. That means less water… if at all for you to bathe in. Which means you’ll probably die either way. So if you’re so scared of coming with me, just know you’re prolonging the inevitable.”

  The seal cocked it’s head at Rook. he pointed at the water and kicked it, “No more water. Bye bye! Okay. Bye bye.”

  He turned and started walking down the desert. Without the sealhorn as a mount, it would likely take a third or even a fourth day to get to the object over the dune, if it even was something that could help. He would occasionally look back as he got farther along, and the green turned into a smaller and smaller patch of green. Rook was about to pass by a dune before he looked over it, and finally he saw it. The speck of the sealhorn beginning his walk over to him.

  He let out a sigh of relief. Rook had wasted enough time. He met back up with the sealhorn.

  “Hey!” He said, “Glad you could join me.”

  With that, he saddled up on the sealhorn, using his rope and wrapping it around the horns of the sealhorn.

  “I promise you won’t regret this.” He said. Then he whipped his reins, and the sealhorn bucked. Rook fell off and back onto the sand with a thud.

  “Oof.”

  He looked up at the sealhorn, staring at him, and it almost seemed as though the sealhorn was snickering at him. Rook laughed and said, “Yeah, I guess we don’t have to be friends about it.”

  He got on the sealhorn’s back and it started walking.

  “I should give you a name. Hey, how about Bobby?”

  The two took their leave of the oasis, on their way to that little black dot behind the dune that was about to bring them a whole lot of trouble.

  We have another member of Kip's Kourt! Kevin Krouse the mouse is in charge of all the crumbs in the entire kingdom. When you see a crumb disappear, it was Kevin and his merry mice that helped. Oddly, the dark lord has not found need for a crumb vault and Kevin Krouse the Mouse has been doing this on a largely elective basis. Oh well! If you see the little squeaker running around, make sure you say hi!

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