Dell's Journey

Chapter 1

The earth wore a crown of sweltering heat. Two figures

appeared over the crest of a dusty, sand covered hill:

first their hands, then their heads, then all the rest,

lagging behind. Little pebbles were dislodged and tumbled

down the decline as four grasping appendages scattered them

in a search for leverage. The sun had long since donned

its own sunglasses and shone a blinding light upon

everything. It pressed down without mercy on the crawlers

as they dragged themselves along.

In regard to their appearance, the creatures were

quite different in size and general shape, but alike in the

fact that both were extremely hairy and both looked very

nearly finished. One creature was small and four-legged,

with a long mop of gray-brown fur entirely covering it.

The other was a young man with a scraggly beard and long

tangled hair. He wore dirty torn clothes, a rope belt, no

shoes, and he had two deep, searching brown eyes. Those

eyes peered out over the ridge, longing for something cool

and fresh to rest upon, something other than dusty hills

with scorched pebbles on them.

No, there was nothing of that sort here. Water was

almost comically unavailable. You may have heard of desert

creatures who possess special means of finding hidden water

inside succulent plants. One unique bird has a long,

needle-like beak which allows it to tap into desert plants

and, essentially, suck water out with a straw. Of the two

miserable wanderers, only one had even a rudimentary

knowledge of these matters. But neither of them had any

way of tapping into cacti themselves, or of befriending or

defrauding any of the desert creatures that could.

The travelers felt very far from home. Their own

mortality was beginning to seem less and less like an

abstract thought. The young man sank roughly to his elbows

and looked down at the horribly dry, cracking skin of his

chest.

My body is in ruins, but I still feel like myself, he

mused, making a noise of profound interest.

So this is how if feels at the end, he thought. His

capacity for detachment was a surprise to himself.

"We're going to lay down here and die."