Shimmering Sands far from any road

The stench would make sense. More than once, the sphinx had happened upon an unidentified creature that had washed ashore from the dark water and had started to rot. They certainly had a different sort of aroma when they had been procured from the water.
 
Out of sheer curiosity, the quiet young man leaned into the glob and nudged it softly with his nose. The shape only moved from the pressure that had been applied, but it did not seem that there was much life within the jelly-limbs of the creature. Trench tasted it, recoiling softly at the bizarre fragrance that had followed into his mouth. The silver-flecked jade of his gaze turned back to River as she suggested throwing it back into the water. This inspired an expression of thoughtful wonder as the boy looked back from where they had traveled.
 
“Would you be willing to carry it back, River? It tastes awful,” he warned her in a soft voice. Trench had no plans to dissuade her from her goals, and he believed her plan was well-thought and established. The boy would follow her, but he did not anticipate that he would put the creature in his mouth again.