a dry entry into Natlan

The group left Aaru Village and the endless sands behind without looking back.

Natlan lay ahead — greener, warmer, and far more temperate than the desert they had just crossed. The final stretch forced them through a shallow stretch of sea that separated the last rocky outcrops from the true border. Rosaria and Shenhe handled it without comment. A thin, solid sheet of ice spread under their boots in seconds, wide and stable enough for the entire pride to cross in single file. The water never touched them.

Aether walked at the rear, fully dressed like the rest, and felt a quiet, selfish pang of disappointment.

He had wanted the opposite.

In his head the scene played out in vivid, filthy detail: the women stripping at the water’s edge the way they had at the oasis, bare bodies slipping into the clear shallows, breasts floating and swaying with every stroke. He imagined watching from behind as they swam ahead of him — soft ass cheeks flexing, thighs parting, and those willing pussies opening and closing with the motion of the water, little flashes of pink and wetness appearing and disappearing between their legs like invitations he was not allowed to answer. He wanted the slow, deliberate show of it. The way Ganyu’s heavy tits would drag in the water, the way Dehya’s strong hips would roll, the way Rosaria would glance back over her shoulder just to make sure he was staring. He wanted to walk behind that parade of open, dripping holes and know that every single one of them was already thinking about the moment he finally pulled them out of the water and used them.

Instead he got ice and dry clothes.

He kept the fantasy to himself and followed the others across.

By nightfall they had cleared the last of the salt water and stepped onto proper Natlan soil. The air felt different immediately — warmer, richer, carrying the distant scent of volcanic stone and growing things. They made camp in a sheltered hollow between low ridges just as the sky finished darkening.

Dehya was the first to break the silence, already scanning the dark for movement.

“Welcome to Natlan,” she muttered.

The pride began settling in around the new fire — weapons close, bedrolls unrolled, bodies already drifting toward their usual places near him.