God's blessing on this isekai'd Nazi! (Konosuba x Nazi Male reader)

Chapter 12

In contrast to his previous dream, which was situated in the city, this time he found himself wandering on the sandy fields of a desert. More specifically, he was walking on a sand dune. From the heights he traveled on the ground beneath him appeared to be like waves upon waves of sand which positioned themselves as if to imitate how the ocean would look if it were frozen. Up above was the sun-draped in red with some of its parts already dipping below the horizon, but it nonetheless enthusiastically beamed down its powerful rays to continue baking the brown-gold sands of the desert beneath him. The sky the sun hung on, however, was much darker: in the immediate area surrounding the sun he saw a wash of dark blue, however, just a bit further on and one would see the darkness take over.

The air that blew around and at him was hot and dry, filled with sand particle, their every touch sapping moisture and energy from his body. To counter this, he reached for his waist, where he apparently knew a water canteen awaited him, for a drink. The liquid that he let pour out onto his dry tongue and scratchy throat was heated and hence hardly refreshing.

He took a few seconds to finish off the canteen's contents, after which was he only content to continue his trek. However, this time a sense of worry began to manifest itself to him. The sky above was darkening and he had finished whatever sustenance he carried upon himself, yet he still seemed far away from any trace of civilization. Worry only turned into fear as his legs felt weaker and weaker as they failed to carry him out of the sea of sand. Below the dune, he spotted a dried river surrounded by an entourage of dusty brambles. After a brief moment of deliberation, he decided to make way towards it for it seemed as promising a place in the desert to spend the night.

Yet when he neared the riverbed, a fat rattlesnake was revealed to have made the dried river bed its dwelling. It laid curled up, layer upon layer of scaly serpentine flesh were stacked upon one another only to be topped by its head which was directed pointedly at Y/N. 

After catching sight of the serpent, Y/N felt his heart clench as he carefully tried to avoid the beast which was but a meter away from him. Curiously enough, the rattlesnake seemed content to simply watch him, with its beady eyes betrayed nothing of its intentions while its forked tongue slipped in and out under the cover of its hissing.

Y/N did not let his sight of the rattlesnake drop until after he was a safe distance of several meters away. But as one threat was averted, another quickly presented itself. Below he felt that his right foot was embraced fully by stinging heat. Looking below he saw that it was because his foot had been swallowed fully by the desert sand beneath.

At first this set off a series of alarms within him, as the possibility of him having unwittingly stepped into quicksand during his retreat from the riverbed became more plausible within his mind. Yet he realised that the sand, which had consumed his foot, was completely dry and betrayed no signs as having been saturated by water.

With welcomed relief, he lifted his right foot out of the sand before removing his shoe in order to shake out of the sand which had crept into it during its envelopment by the desert. But looking beyond the cavity created by his foot, he saw tracks run off past a plateau ahead of him. It was clear that the tracks were made up of two distinct types of footprints: one being obviously man-made and the other belonged to an animal of sorts, perhaps a camel.

After wiping the sweat off his forehead he followed the tracks that lead around the plateau. On the other side he came across a rough staircase of rocks washed in red where the footprints ended before reappearing below. So he continued to pursue them, after climbing down the uneven stairs of rocks, where they led him into and out of a valley. The end of the valley revealed a distant collection of angular structures which emitted sparks of yellow light from their  squarish orifices. To this unmistakable presence of civilisation did the footprints lead. A small smile of crack lips crept over Y/N's sand washed features and renewed determination washed through his form. Suddenly he did not feel as exhausted anymore.