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Rex had not been considering how to keep Anastasiya entertained, but now he pondered whether the desert would make her irritable. He hoped not; his Russian was very limited, and, as far as he was aware, neither Cal nor Jonah could understand the language at all...
For now, though, they were coming upon a fairly large pond. It would not be an issue to navigate around it- such being but a minute detour- but it was still something new for the Russian princess to be fixated upon.
I really should've brushed up on my Russian...
As it happened, that pond was the last source of water they came across before the soil beneath their feet began to give way to sand, and the tree population began to thin drastically.
“Ah, looks like we're coming up to the desert now,” Cal said.
Anastasiya hurried a little way ahead to get a proper look, and seemed a little disheartened, but not too much so. Jonah seemed unaware of just how blatantly he was staring after her and how unabashedly his face was reddening with a quiet kind of blush.
Cal's cat-like smile only widened at the sight of this.
Cal's face drew Rex's attention to Jonah.
"Uh, Jonah...Are you feeling alright?" His voice was a mixture of concern and concealed mirth.
"I, um...I...Aah!" Jonah shook himself. "I'm fine, okay?! I'm...I'm fine."
“Sure you are.”
"Stop it..." he whined. Anastasiya looked round, to see what the commotion was about; Jonah turned away, so that she wouldn't notice his now-fading blush of infatuation.
Cal just gave a small snigger.
"Let's...just..." Rex started to lead again, not finishing his sentence. The road ahead, as promised, ran through the desert, and was virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the dusty, peach-pecan sand scattered over the slightly more crimson-ish rock beneath it. All that there was by way of scenery here, besides the forest and the south region retreating behind them, was the occasional dark red rock formation or mesa, and dots on the horizon that were towns found in the harsh central-Blazian desert, such as Crimston, and, more notably, Bistra Voda. Their route, however, did not so much as direct them near those locations.
Looks like this is gonna be a long walk, Cal thought.
Anastasiya began to grow a little restless as they went, what with there being much, much less scenery to entertain her, but she remained silent, to the extent that Rex wondered if she could even speak at all. She did perk up, though, when she noticed that, although it was some way off, they were coming up on a small oasis that had what appeared to be a little town built up next to it.
Hm? What might that be?
"An oasis? So soon?" Rex seemed surprised at the development, then checked his watch. "Well, we have been going for quite a while. I guess it's not that uncommon."