The best word to describe the new zone: dry. In fact, everything about the area was just dry and miserably sandy and, you know what, not even Sandy would like this kind of sandy. Everything just screamed dry. It looked dry, it smelled dry, it even TASTED dry. Felt dry? Yep. Sounded dry? If dry had a sound, this was it. The wind whistled painfully, carrying enough sand to make the area feel like it had some personal vendetta against skin and was trying EXTRA hard to peel it all off.
In any other situation, a fur would probably leave on the spot. The sea of sand was constantly changing and was more or less empty aside from the occasional outcropping of limestone with a few veins here an there. Well, occasional being relative in this case. There was actually quite a bit of stony monuments but with all the effing sand it was hard to tell where they were at! One second the outcropping would be there and the next it was buried and it’s buddy was nearby ready for gathering like some sick game of a whack-a-rock. All the while your paws are sweating in a “I hate being here it’s hot” kind of way as opposed to the more desirable “I see my gorgeous lover across the room” kind of paw sweat.
Even the SAND didn’t like it. It was constantly bouncing about, not enough to be super noticable unless you bent down to look, but sure enough, the sand was jumping about like maggots in a pan of hot olive oil sauteeing for a warthog’s dinner. The effect was unsettling as the whole area already encouraged seasickness now it was like a blurry, low res TV looking at a golden sea of boring.
The ONLY consolation was the distant sound of bison and if those guys were about there was probably water to be found. With the sand sneaking into sleeves and places were the sun shouldn’t see, it kind of made one want to track down the beasts and bribe them to lead a group to something with a little more wet.
Perhaps a little bit of time to adjust to the dry and the area could be beautiful… It certainly wasn’t boring with the ever changing landscape and you know, the shade isn’t that bad.