In the great great deserts, there was sand, warmth, and heat, but there was a very far away very far from everything a little oasis. It was just a tree, a small lake and a little formation of rocks that made a little cave with some shade. one morning, she awoke. She didn’t know how she got there. She didn’t know who she was. She just knew that she had pale skin and long blonde hair. She wondered what she should do.

Then a small, stubborn sand-snup crawled from the rocks and drank the little lake dry, though it was smaller than her hand.

The sand-snup gave one round, sandy hiccup, and from its striped snout popped a single blue bubble that rolled toward the cave, plinking over the hot stones. Behind it, the little tree began dropping crisp brown leaves—plip, plip—onto the empty lakebed.

The sand-snup nudged the blue bubble, and it rolled back toward the woman instead of into the cave.

The blue bubble bumped her bare heel and hummed like a bee in a blue bottle, while the sand-snup planted its four stubby feet toward the cave. Plip—another brown leaf struck the empty lakebed, and the cave mouth gave a low, thirsty groan.