Night ascended its embrace from the world and daylight perpetrated along the edges to the center again. Another day had begun.
The wanderer's eyes trained on the horizon. None of the dark patches ever moved again. Oddness of the situation kept him strung up. He watched every wind's shriek in his vision and listened in to find if there were oddities in the senseless songs of sand.
Walking along in his chosen direction, morning's light graced him from the south-west and south-east at the same instant of the dayrise. A silent sigh escaped his lips while his cold sweat learned of warmth.
"Another day. Another ordinary trip." He spoke under breath, his eyes searching the sky above the desert.
He opened another button of his brown overcoat as the temporary effect of the action of earth wore off and few chunks of rock and metal fell from the insides. The weight lessened as he exhaled along with it.
'I need to find some place to rest… soon.'
A hand wiped off the sweat above his brow. It didn't stay on his hand even for long as the wiped sweat evaporated from the hot winds.
Descending from his current sand dune, he dragged his foot behind him. The boy wanted to play with sand, thus he did.
His gaze down following his legs while they drew long trenches in the sand from one dune to the next. Laughing at his childish acts, he kept going in the sole direction he considered his salvation.
As the day passed away in idle trek, the air became hotter. He wanted to open the next button on his overcoat but it was still locked in the effect of the action of earth.
Pulling on his overcoat at places, "Uh, I need something to burn away or lubricate this." He contemplated his choices, "Water won't work well." He didn't know fully what effects have grabbed on his overcoat and the armour he wore. Water may be neutral but it is still alone not the best option.
What he needed was something that reacts and tells him about what effect has grabbed on his overcoat.
Day touched the time of noon. He trekked through vast swathes of dunes. None of them high enough to provide him enough shade in this vast desert.
"Uh! Why did I had to land in a desert!" Cursing his luck he kicked off the sand that found its way into his boots. Sitting down, he took both his boots off.
Emptying his boots from the sneaked in sand, he quickly put them on. The land all around him had begun to be scalding hot. Not wanting to risk getting his skin burned, he kept his foot off the sand as he cleaned them. The boy leaned on his current sand dune.
Inhaling and exhaling large breaths. Air shrieked in places but mostly it kept getting heated. That heat embedded itself into the air, sand and the space itself.
This was a threat to his life. He couldn't risk getting caught in its vicious cycle. Heat may not have a mind but it timed its travel all over the desert to the instant. The heat cycle only helped maintain it.
Standing up, his gaze wandered across the desert. He wondered if he should change his direction.
"Maybe I will find some better sand dunes in a different direction." Raising one of his legs to turn left, his body contemplated the decision. So did he in his mind.
'Will it really be wise to change now?'
Putting the raised one down, his instinct told him not to change yet he wished to.
'Willfall.'
The winds shrieked over the word. His mind still only grasped the whites and blue of the desert and sky. Yet, his breath became haggard, he spun his head quickly.
"Who said that?!" He asked the desert.
Neither the winds shrieked nor the dunes collapsed to answer. He truly was alone in his conundrum.
Grabbing on his head, he crashed down. Muttering to himself, "No. No. Not again. No. Just find a different body to scare. No."
The bleak sky watched him for a while. He kept muttering the same thing, his hands grabbed his head while he laid down on the sand waiting for a change. None came so he chose a change. Or rather none.
He kept going in the original direction he was walking on too afraid of changing it.
Each step taking away a weight that he felt on him. Crust of sand broke apart under it. Leaving behind a trail of human feet, he walked to the west.
Sand dunes are no marvel of architecture, but a representation of fall of one.
In nature, sand dunes are as feared as the height of a mountain, for if there is one dune then soon enough there could be a thousand. It's a question of time.
And the wanderer was running out of time. His want of shade has become a need, while he did satiate his thirst time to time with an action of water.
But one necessity grew ever more, the one of food. He did not carry something that he could eat in his overcoat nor could he use the actions to create one.
Cresting another sand dune he looked ahead, and saw what he couldn't believe.
An inverted oasis floating in the air. "What is that?" Stupefied of his finding, he tried to remember if he had read something related. He didn't remember anything that he read as the heat became more unbearable.
And yet he had. A memory surfaced of a scroll describing illusions naturally occurring, one of them were called mirage.
'So this is that.'
"A phantom of an oasis that is inverted in the nearby sky. Hmm, so there is an oasis somewhere." His mouth tasted the words he spoke. Considering the illusion his situation may be able to be resolved sooner.
Converting his incoming sigh into a long breath, he descended the sand dune to advance. He saw a more achievable goal than crossing the desert.