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They were giving up.
They were giving up and it was too soon, too early- it was unfair.
Squrrly was still out there. They could be dead, or dying, or worse and everyone was already giving up-
"Leaf, there's nothing we can do. We can hold a search party later, but we need to get home before the sun rises."
And Leaf- call them hotheaded- didn't want to accept that. Didn't want to accept the potential loss- of their will or of their friend, or maybe both.
"Leaf," Bugz said softly somewhere from their left, "I know you want to find lune. But we've been out since yesterday morning- it's going to get hot again and we're going to waste resources just keeping ourselves alive. We need to wait it out."
And see. The logic was sound. It was clear. It was perfectly understandable, and yet.
"Go back then. I'm going to keep going."
"Leaf-"
"No."
Leaf spun on their heel and walked out into cool sand.
"Leaf- this isn't going to help anyone!"
But Bugz didn't get it. Didn't understand. There was a companionship that came from being the only two things that knew each other for literal centuries- there was a level of understanding that came from being stuck with each other like they were. Bugz couldn't understand the ways that Squrrly had been there for Leaf, every moment, every day, every reincarnation. Every lifetime, Luna always found them.
It would always be Leaf that left, in the end. They couldn't live forever- didn't want to, even. But now Squrrly had left first and Leaf didn't know what to do about it. Didn't know how to move forward, didn't know how to keep going.
They needed to find their friend. It didn't matter how long they'd spend in this desert, being burnt by the scorching sun. It didn't matter how they could feel themselves draining by the day, exhaustion and disconnection from the natural world causing Leaf's body to decay. None of it was important.
They'd find Squrrly again even if it killed them.
Was this what death felt like?
Left in a painful cycle of burning days and freezing nights, body shackled by chains that went deep into the sand, Squrrly wondered. They were alone, more alone than ever before, with not even their celestial body to guide them. There was no connection to their moon here. And they never felt so wrong without it.
Lune's body ached with the pains of so many human injuries- hunger and exhaustion, thirstiness like never before. Their skin was iced over from the frigid night wind, agitating burns from days before. It felt like their own never-ending hell, a sort of purgatory that they had only ever expected after the sun's final days.
Maybe this was what death felt like.
Squrrly didn't know if it mattered anymore.
Honestly, she didn't quite care.
Eyes frozen shut, she sat in her desolate cave, waiting for it to end, or for someone to save her.
They didn't know which they would prefer.