Cactus

Sean stared at the endless expanse of yellow sand before him, a giant question mark seeming to hang over his head.

He instinctively turned to look behind him. There was no road.

Sand stretched in every direction, disappearing beyond the horizon.

Sean: "???"

Had he gotten into an unlicensed cab and been sold off?

No, that didn't make sense.

He'd checked the map while planning his route. There was no desert between Holkodo and Black Berry Rainforest. The nearest one was more than a thousand kilometers away, and in the opposite direction from Black Berry Rainforest. Could Jim really have turned the car around while he was asleep just to dump him here?

What would he get out of that?

Even the deranged Quill would at least leave him a laptop to write on if he locked him in a dark room. Jim hadn't left him anything. If he wasn't after Sean's looks and talent, but just his money, wouldn't it have made more sense to tie him up while he slept and force him to give up his bank card number?

It didn't add up.

The strangest thing was that Sean couldn't find a single footprint or tire track. If someone had really set him up, the only way he could imagine them getting him here was dropping him in like a supply crate. That was even more absurd than the cat at his enthusiastic female neighbor's house doing a backflip.

The pistol in his pocket was gone, too. He searched every pocket in his clothes, but found nothing. In the end, all he found was a condom in a matte blue wrapper, tucked into the sole of his shoe.

Sean fell silent.

It was the same brand he'd bought—the kind without lubricant, specially chosen. But why was it in his shoe?

And why was there only one?

He'd bought a whole box.

"Could this be a dream?"

Sean wasn't sure.

His memories stopped at the moment he'd fallen asleep. He didn't know if anything had happened after that. If this was a dream, it would be the first time he'd realized he was dreaming while still in one. The problem was, he'd never had any training in this sort of thing. He didn't know how to test whether he was dreaming, and even if he knew he was, he had no idea how to wake himself up.

The sun in the desert was scorching. He'd only stood there for a little while, but fine beads of sweat had already formed on Sean's forehead. He tried punching himself in the face—

"Ow!"

That hurt a little.

His senses were still intact. He was hot and thirsty, besides being in pain, and his stomach was cramping with hunger. Only then did Sean remember that he hadn't eaten breakfast. It seemed the state of his body in the real world had come with him into the dream?

Or had he also once been alone in a wasteland, starving and carrying a condom, in his previous life?

At the thought, Sean's mind stirred. Drawing on his usual experience, he summoned his magic, thrust out his right hand, and clenched it hard. Then...

Nothing happened.

A breeze swept by, stirring the fine sand at his feet and ruffling his hair.

The moment was a little awkward.

Sean: "..."

At least there was no one else around.

He realized that there wasn't a trace of magic inside him.

The sensation of his body was completely different from what he'd felt in his earlier dreams. Before, he'd felt full to the brim. Now, he felt empty... incredibly empty. So empty that when he pictured Conina in her slinky long dress, with one thigh showing, he even found her a little sexy.

He really must be hungry.

Since things had come to this...

He'd better eat first.

Until he figured out whether this was a dream, he couldn't afford to take risks. All he could do was try to survive.

The desert was vast. Sean walked for a long time, leaving a long string of footprints behind him. He crossed several dunes and finally found food—

Far away stood a cactus.

From the little he knew about wilderness survival, most cacti were nontoxic and could quench thirst and stave off hunger—as long as you made sure it was a cactus and didn't mistake it for a spurge.

Sean wiped the sweat from his face. His lips were already starting to crack, but when he got closer, he saw that the cactus was huge and strangely humanlike. It was as tall as he was, with two fleshy pads, one on either side, thick and bright green. Its spines even looked soft.

He touched it lightly. The spines still pricked him a little, but it was bearable. So he gritted his teeth and treated the cactus like Quill, gripping one of its spiny pads and putting all his strength into snapping it off—

"Crack."

The pad broke off with a snap, bursting open and spraying a torrent of clear liquid. For a moment, the juice gushed like a spring.

Sean hadn't expected the cactus to be so juicy. It soaked his hand, and its liquid wasn't white like the reference material had said. He didn't know what kind it was. But he couldn't afford to worry about that. If he didn't drink, he'd die of thirst. He quickly lifted the pad, tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and stuck out his tongue to catch the juice.

It tasted a little like aloe. The liquid was cool and refreshing, and Sean drank it eagerly, gulping down as much as he could. Even when the pad stopped dripping, he still wasn't satisfied. He wrung it out with both hands like a dishcloth, squeezing out every last bit of juice. Only after he'd drained the pad dry did he finally feel a little better.

Then he remembered the condom in his pocket.

He had no idea how long it would take to get out of this vast desert, or where the next cactus might be. Sean decided he'd better fill a bag with water. He took out the condom, then snapped off the cactus's other "hand" as well. The condom quickly filled with cactus juice, swelling into a large, transparent water balloon.

Sean didn't plan to throw away the shriveled pad, either. It would be his food for the next few days.

He was starving. He plucked off some of the spines and took a bite.

He'd assumed the cactus "flesh" would be as cool and refreshing as the juice, but it was bitter and astringent. Sean nearly spat it out, unused as he was to anything but cooked food. It took a great deal of effort to swallow, and his face twisted into a bitter grimace.

"Damn, why does it taste so awful?"

"No, I need to do something about this."

Sean raised a hand to shade his forehead and squinted up at the blazing sun. An idea came to him.

His big water balloon could focus sunlight.

So, ten minutes later.

Sean was eating cactus roasted crisp on the outside and tender within.

The pad was too thick to cook all the way through, but the charred taste on the surface cut through its original sourness. It still wasn't good, but at least it was edible. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but after finishing the whole pad, Sean felt full of strength.

"Once I get over the next dune, the oasis will be right there!"

He tried to encourage himself.

As soon as he finished speaking, a violent jolt suddenly hit him. It was like a car speeding along had slammed on the brakes without warning. His body pitched forward uncontrollably, and he went flying face-first into the sand.

The next second.

Sean's eyes snapped open.

"Sean, Conina, we're here."

Jim's voice came from beside him.

Sean looked around in confusion.

It was already dark outside the car window. He seemed to be back in the back seat, still holding the hunting rifle in his arms.

Jim said they'd arrived. Had they reached Black Berry Rainforest?

Had he been asleep that long?

So it really had been a dream?

"No, wait."

It hadn't been an ordinary dream.

Just as his body's unfed state had carried over into the dream, Sean realized that the feeling of strength coursing through him in the dream had also carried over into reality.

"What's wrong?"

Jim unbuckled his seat belt and glanced in the rearview mirror. He was about to ask when he saw Sean suddenly raise his hand in the back seat. A fierce flame sprang up without warning in the center of his palm, on a hand with long, pale fingers that looked made for playing the piano. It lit up the unlit car.

Jim's eyes widened. His mouth fell open as if he'd seen a ghost.

"What the hell is that magic?"