The silence that settled made Katie feel sad, but only made Koran feel awkward, who extinguished the fire and walked around, looking busy, to distract himself. Katie leaned against the tree that she slept by last night.
When Tyson returned Koran got straight to the point.
“We should get going now,” he said. “Be careful as we walk through the tall grass. We may not be able to see what is coming until it gets us.”
“Got it,” replied Katie. Tyson nodded. Koran led the two of them through the plains. The wind made it uncomfortable as it shifted the grass in all directions, making it hard for the three of them to keep their balance.
Their skin became annoying itchy within ten minutes and their faces felt as if they were swollen. Tyson had a grimace on his face but stayed silent. Katie grunted a few times. Koran looked almost unbothered.
They walked on and on through the tall grass. Katie’s already terrible sense of direction was completely lost, and at times she wondered if they were even making it anywhere.
After a few hours, Tyson stopped walking. Katie looked back and gave him a questioning look.
“I’m dehydrated,” he said. His voice sounded hoarse. “I-I need water,” he said. “If you can…”
Katie sighed. “I can try,” she said. She looked back at Koran. Katie could tell that Koran was also thirsty, he just wasn’t going to admit it.
Katie waved her hands in the air. Nothing happened. She tried grabbing the air as if it were solid chunks of matter but still, nothing happened.
“Don’t sweat it,” Tyson said. “I’ll live.” He pushed passed her and Koran continued to lead them through the field. Katie felt annoyed, but more so at Tyson now than herself.
They trudged on through the Equire Plains. The wind kept blowing and Katie felt like she was inhaling microscopic chunks of dead grass.
Another hour passed. Katie was walking slower, as well as the others, but Tyson didn’t say anything. His face was dead set, his eyes were staring and unfocused, but still, he pushed on. It was Koran who stopped this time.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked when she reached him. Tyson walked a little further but stopped as well. He looked back, almost annoyed but was too tired to show it.
“We need to get water somehow,” Koran said. He sounded worse than Tyson had done hours ago. “I don’t know how much further we have.”
Again Katie sighed. She didn’t think that she would be able to produce water from the air. But she knew that she had to try once more.
Katie grabbed the air again, but to no avail. She swept it with her hands but managed only to wave her arm through it.
“I-I can’t,” she said with despair, but as soon as she said it, Katie had an idea. She grabbed one of the stalks of grass from the bottom and slid her hand up it.
Water sprayed out from the top and rained down like the miracle it was. Koran cheered and opened his mouth to let the water drops fall into it. The grass blade had shriveled up and turned brown.
Katie did this again with another blade of grass but controlled the fall of the water this time. The drops hung mid-air like small pools. Koran cupped one of them and drank it. Katie turned around and offered Tyson some water. It floated towards him unrealistically, like a movie with dreadful special effects.
Tyson took the water but didn’t say anything. His face was set with no emotion, except a clenched jaw. He drank a lot and when he was done, he turned away.
Katie then quenched her thirst. Water never tasted so good until now. Katie wasn’t sure if it was because the water was just that, pure water, or if she was that dehydrated and didn’t realize it until now.
“At least you did it for man’s best friend,” said Tyson suddenly. “But not for me. I see how it is.”
Before Katie could answer, Koran spoke up, but he didn’t hear what Tyson had said.
“I feel much better now,” he said. “Thank you, Katie. I feared that we were going in circles, but I can sense we are in the right direction.”
“And we still trust the canine, even though he doesn’t know where he is going,” said Tyson. “Even though he should.”
Tyson kept walking, taking the lead. Koran looked at Katie, but she just shrugged and followed on. She got that Tyson was worried about making it back to his family, but she didn’t understand why he was acting that way towards Koran.
As they walked, Katie wondered why Tyson acted the way he was. At first, she felt sorry for him, and a little guilty, but he was starting to piss her off. What had she done that upset him so much?
Katie looked around. The sun was set high in the sky and burned down. The breeze that passed through felt warm too, unlike the ocean breeze that she woke up to.
Then it came to her. Tyson was jealous. She almost laughed at it. It was absurd, so stupid, to think she would have a “thing” for Koran.
She thought about it more. At first, the idea seemed even dumber, especially because she had just met Koran, and she wasn’t the type to believe in “at first sight.” But almost as if Tyson’s worries and sense of it entered her head, she looked at Koran. He was a good-looking guy. He had straight teeth, olive complexion, and a muscular body. Katie didn’t know what Koran’s life was like here, but back on Earth, and at their school, a lot of girls would probably be into him.
Still, Katie knew that Tyson was the one for her. She had known that for some time, even before
