The soft sounds of Timber snoring on the saddle soothed Maria's ears, but it couldn't smooth her mind. He was still snuggling up with the creature as the horse's gait rocked them both to sleep. Maria tightly grips the reins—NEIGH! The sudden halt launches Timber and his teddy bear up, and their eyes snap open. "W-what in tarnation's goin' on?" He groans as he tenderizes his face with his paws. He squints at the horse that is now frantically looking around. The grasslands that felt prickly under its hooves were suddenly becoming sand and the trees that flourished were now suddenly becoming dead bushes and cacti. "We're just entering the desert," Maria grunts as she yanks down the horse's reins to stop it in its tracks, "Onward Beatrice." The horse's hooves stepped into the sand hesitantly, and then its trot became stabilized and slow again. Timber had his comfortable rocking chair again. He lowered his body back down to the saddle, his eyes slowly closed again, his snout rubbed deeper into the creature's abdomen, and his ear pressed up against its chest, sipping every tha-thump like it was this sweet drink.
Meanwhile, Maria's ears had to endure the constant squishing of her drowning feet within her leather boots against the crunchy sand. Her Middle Eastern skin has to tolerate the sun's solar energy trying to cook it, sucking away every last droplet of moisture. Her diaphragm felt like it had to lift up her lungs with the same strength of an Egyptian that has to carry up a sandblock to build the pyramids. Her tongue hanging out of her mouth like a panting dog was as cracked as an old road from all the saliva that was evaporating and longed for the sweet taste of rain. "T-Tim, how much water do we have—?" Maria glances back at him. He was sound and fast asleep, curled up next to the creature like it was the perfect fireplace for his cold, furry body. Her hands gripped the reins even tighter, almost crunching the leather within her palm. She used the other palm to wipe the sweat that was dripping from her forehead. Her frowning face glared at the blazing sun in the distance, her eyes squinting with each step because her feet were swelling up like sponges within her black leather boots until her vision went foggy. Her head was now light as the fluff stuffed into pillows and she was swerving and wobbling around like a car that has to trust in its driver because the streets are covered in fog. She couldn't see well or walk fine but she could feel a mysterious liquid pouring down her right arm. What the—She glances back and sees Timber, drenched in sweat, but still snoring almost like a grizzly bear after it has its lunch: sporadically laid back on the saddle. She also sees the creature looking like a dried up scaly prune, then like a normal fish just with legs and arms, then like the chopped up fish from Boris' market. She swallows the saliva filling up her mouth and the emerging grin. She yanks the bottle of water from the flask and gulps it down. Her left hand relaxes, water pouring into the sand to leave a nice squiggly line behind the travelers as she still walks like a drunk.
Beatrice skids her hooves into the sand and Timber no longer has a rocking chair. His eyes slowly open up to the creature's shiny, obsidian eyes. He found himself lost in their purple tint. He brings his arm over to drag the creature closer to him again to his ear… Its thumping was slower than normal. "M-Maw?" Timber mumbles under a shaky breath as he tries to get another feel for the creature's heartbeat, still slow. "MAW?" He cracks, trying to firmly rub her awake a bit. The creature opened her eyes a bit, but couldn't lift more than that. Its tongue hung out from the side of its agape mouth, licking its lower lip for just one drop of rain. Its scaly skin was cracked with dark blue veins creeping up its neck to its jawline. Its eyes were rolled into the back of its head as it started gasping for air. He starts frantically crawling and clawing into the neck of Beatrice. Open wounds on her start dripping blood. NEIGHHHH! Beatrice launches the creature and Timber off the saddle, and they splat on the sand. The reins snap down Beatrice's thick neck as Maria falls forward, her face skidding into the sand with the flask still in her hands. Timber spots the quickly pouring flask. He pushes himself up with his childlike biceps. His wobbly, hind legs felt like spaghetti, but he still reached out his shaking paw towards the flask attached to Maria.
"Hand it over, if ya please," Timber huffed and puffed. Maria's chest continued to move up and down. "Hand it over right this minute!" He barks. Maria grips the flask tightly. Timber launches onto Maria and wrestles her slowly to the ground. He pins Maria to the ground and threatens to bite her face hard through rude mouth gestures. She pushes his snout away forcefully with the available hand. Still, Timber found an opening. With how close Maria's fingers were to his sharp jaw, he bit deep into Maria's fingers like it was a juicy piece of steak. Maria cries out in writhing pain like she had just lost a loved one suddenly, and punches Timber in the cheek with the flask. He falls back into the sand, his body twisted as he landed skull-first into the sand.
Maria's arm shakes as she looks to see the damage: her index and middle fingers were completely ripped off, and their stumps were squirting blood. Timber slowly lifts himself, watching lime green blood drip down in front of him, dyeing the sand green. He uses his paw to check his damage: his nose had become a fountain. He glances up at the creature, now having more dark blue veins branching out, more compulsions on the sand, and gagging more. Timber growls and aggressively trots through the sand with each step towards a bleeding Maria lying on her side, cuddling with the flask like it's her stuffed animal. His jaw gets sharper just for the right spot he found to grasp the flask out of her other hand firmly, and wobbles back to the creature, leaving Maria lying in the sand as if she were for dead. The flask still in his jaw, he tips it over its opening and lets the remaining water pour down into the creature's agape mouth. The creature's tongue dances in the pitter-patter coldness of the liquid. The dark blue veins shrank away from the surface of its scaly skin. As Maria regained her strength to open her eyes, she glanced over from the sandy ground to see her adopted son smiling, so a smile crept from her lips…but his smile was directed towards the ground where the big, furry fish thing lay, relishing in its much-needed refreshment. Tears finally crawled out of Maria's eyelids and down her face as she sank into the sand.