Cludge watches his little line of food to pass the time. Shortly after he puts it there, the little bits of food seem to disappear in a shimmy of sand, one by one. Over the course of his watch, the whole feast is claimed by invisible creatures. Near the end of the four hours, a tiny black scorpion emerges fully, grabs the last piece of food with one pincer, snaps the other at Cludge, and then disappears into the ground.
The other watches go uneventfully, without even a single scorpion sighting.
In the morning, you take a quick inventory of water and supplies, cast the necessary spells, and head out. You don't get far before you pass a strange sight: Out of one of the dunes is a massive black claw. The wind is constantly moving, but upon closer inspection you see that the claw belongs to a dead scorpion, buried beneath the sand. The monstrous thing is almost twice as big as you are, but it's quite dead.
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[Distance traveled: 2309 + 16*7 = 2421 miles]
[Time: 67 days]
A week has passed.
Your 8th day in the desert proper starts like every other. Time here moves slower. There is little to look at except the ever shifting dunes, and it all begins to seem the same. Sometimes a rock or two dot the landscape, but the winds work furiously to eradicate all opposition to conformity. Rarely do you see wildlife. Snakes cross your path every now and then, and the occasional, (normal sized) vermin, but no real threats. Before you, a line of the striped poles extends to the horizon. Behind you is the exact same view. If it weren't for the sun, you could get completely turned around and never know it.
Shortly before midday, something new comes over the horizon. You can't tell what it is right away, but it looks like a clump of rocks, just to the left of the line of poles. As you get closer, you think you can see trees, and perhaps even a sparkle of water.
Soon you can see that it is an oasis, a relatively small one, surrounded by a ring of smooth, weathered rock rooted somewhere deep beneath the sand. Across the pool you can see two camels drinking from it. They hear something and look up at you. One decides to meander away, behind a rock, the other decides to stay and watch.
