13 The Forgotten Desert III

The young Gods traveled throughout the day and stopped only to take some gulps water from their leather bags. To their misfortune, the volume water they possessed decreased with an alarming velocity. What's more no water source was present within their vicinity, which only added the fuel to the fire.

Their entire body was since long drenched in sweat, causing their clothes to stick tightly to their skin. Not just once had Yang wanted to rip off the fabric to cool down. Luckily, Ying interfered since she knew that it would increase the rate of dehydration and skin burn.

However she understood and shared the Fire God's urge. If even a Fire God was botheredthen how couldn't she be? She was after all originally an Ice God and thus had less tolerability against heat than a Fire God. Yet, she could only grit her teeth and endure it.

As they moved across the desert, they tried to keep a straight line towards the east. Ying had some knowledge of the Forgotten Desert thanks to her parents teachings and knew that it was less wide along the east-west axis.

During the middle of the day, the sun would be faced towards the north. Based on this understanding, Ying used it as a reference. However she forgot that the sun's position changes during the day, resulting them walking in a curved line.

The everlasting landscape with yellowish sand and a few cactus at times, caused them to start to be less observant of their surroundings. Everything looked the same and therefore their brain started to shut it out and focus solely on keep moving.

Finally Yang had enough and collapsed on his stomach on a sand hill. This alerted the Ice God, which tiredly moved to his side and shook him with determination. Since he had no reaction, Ying suspected that he had fainted.

With limited medical knowledge about mortals, Ying's options were few. First she chose to remove his backpack and then shakedly turned his body so that he lied on the back. At last she removed Yang's protection over his face. The skin was reddish and a bit dry, which caused her to suspect that his water level was low.

She pulled out her water bag and put it to Yang's lips. To ensure as little waste of water as possible, she pulled down his lower jaw. As water flowed down his mouth, his lips moved slightly. After a while, he came to consciousness and frowned in discomfort, before lifting his eye lids.