Shimmering Sands far from any road

River drew in a deep breath once she had drawn alongside Trench; running on the sand was harder than she had remembered. "Well," she began as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "I followed that weird smell that told you about —you know, before I ran off back there— and I found some sort of alien, or something. It was suuuuuper gross looking. It was like... a bee hive, but you could see through it, and it had a ton of long, skinny legs!" River's face scrunched as she recalled the brief encounter, and she stuck out her tongue; she had never seen anything like it. "But the worst part? It was slimy—it was... so gross." 

River glanced at Trench then, guaging his reaction to the story.