Glen - Unbearable Heat

The three of us made camp not too far from the outer edge of the desert. Even from here, we can see the countless ruins that dot the vast sea of sand. Some say those ruins are the remains of a large city that incurred a god's wrath, other say its an empire that collapsed in on itself due to the ruler's massive ego. Either way, all that remains is stories, collapsed temples, and a lot of sand.
We all sit next to a small fire and eat while discussing things. Though, all of my stock of jerky had been eaten by Sarah some time ago... I wish she would eat HER jerky first... Luckily I grabbed some mushrooms earlier. I've eaten these before, once upon a time in a forest to the deep south-west. They have an OK taste, but they're also poisonous. I'm not worried about that though, since it's a mild poison that won't kill me or slow me down much. However, I'm worried about the possible hallucination effects these CAN cause. I'll just have to do my best and deal with them, should they happen.
I quickly devour them in little time, and grab my companions' attention with a clap, "Alright, tomorrow we're traversing this natural oven and reaching our next objective, the oasis town of Galalu." I lay down my local map and point at the desert town with my finger, "We can get there either by walking through the dunes, and dealing with Sandworms, Sandbears, and various other inhabitants." I circle the barren area to the left of the town, before moving my hand down and circling a small group of crudely drawn ruins, "Or we can go through this area, and deal with bandits, raiders, slavers, and treasure hunters." There's actually another route we can try, but I'm extremely sure that person doesn't remember me and wouldn't be in the mood to help me even if she did, so I only mention these two routes.
"Hmmm. I see I see." Ami nods her head and nibbles at a piece of hard bread. I'm pretty sure everything I said went in one ear and out the other. "It seems that regardless of the route we'll be dealing with something." Sarah nods her head as well as she nibbles on a piece of jerky, "Which do you think we should go?"
Ami begins rapidly biting into the teeth shattering hard bread as glitter forms in her eyes, "Which route has the most treasure?!" I ignore the Kitsune and hold back the urge to flick her ear, "I'd say the ruins would be our best bet due to it being quicker." Also because we don't have enough supplies, namely food, to go through the dunes. "Alright then, let's go that way." Sarah nods once more.
"Guys? Hello?" Ami speaks up, but neither of us answer her. I'd probably mention something at this point, but the mushrooms begin taking effect effect, and various things start happening. The star covered night sky ripps itself apart, and leaks an orange liquid all over everything. The ground below us begins dancing and shifting. Ami's fluffy tails grew in size, with her hair turning a pale green and numerous bugs crawling out of her mouth and ears. Sarah's skin and muscles melted off, leaving a nodding skeleton. The fire in front of us began popping and spewing candy every few seconds. I try my best to keep a straight face at what's happening. Truth be told, this is better than the last time I ate these things and witnessed my dead parents crawling up from the ground and trying to slit my throat.
"Are you alright?" Sarah's skeleton speaks to me, with each word sounding as though it came from a screaming beast.
"I'm fine." I try to respond while watching a purple snake jumping around the campsite on its coiled up tail, chasing a green critter with spectacles.
"I hope so." Ami begins bobbing in place as a torrent of bugs shoot from her mouth and eyes. This is certainly going to make sleeping a challenge.

---

The three of us traverse though various ruins in this sandy sea. The sun hangs over us, burning up all who walk through this place with extreme prejuduice. Ami is greatly affected by the heat of the desert and is sweating heavily as she slowly moves through the sands, while Sarah and I walk around unaffected by the temperature. After a few minutes of walking Ami falls to her knees and plants her palms into the blistering sand for support. " It's....so....HOT!" She mutters out slowly, putting extra emphasis on the last word.
I turn around and try to get the Kitsune back on her feet, "Of course it's hot, we're in a desert." Ami groans loudly before ripping off the sleeves of her dress, "HAH! That feels better..."
"Hey, why'd you ruin your dress?! You think I'll fix it later?! You think I enjoy sewing and such?!" I loudly shout at her.
"...Actually, yes. I do think you enjoy it."
I hold up my finger and prepare to continue shouting, before lowering it and hanging my head, "You may be right..."
"Anyway, how is it you guys can handle the awful heat? I'm being baked here." Ami fans herself and takes a drink of water from a flask.
"I'm not bothered by this kind of heat." I shrug and stare at her with eyes you'd find on a dead fish. This level of heat is much more bearable than what's on the continent that shall not be named, where some spots were hot enough to melt the boots I was wearing.
"Neither am I, though I would prefer a cool place high up in the mountains than this overall depressing place." Sarah speaks up and stares at her as well, with eyes you'd find on a dead shark.
"Ugh, I wish I was like you two..." Ami grunts out, "Now can we hurry up? I'm extremely hot, and extremely hungry!"
...?
A scorpion crawls into view, and it's a fairly large one at that. I pick it up by the stinger and hold it in front of Ami's face, "If you're hungry you can try eating one of these." Ami begins freaking out and backing away from me, "E-EAT ONE OF THOSE?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!" It would appear she really doesn't like scorpions.
A smile slowly forms on my face, "They taste awful unless cooked properly, but they're quite edible." I swing the scorpion by its tail around Ami's face, causing her to jump back a surprising distance and scream. After teasing the Fox girl a little more, I let the little guy go and the three of us continue onward. We didn't get far, though.
After about twenty minutes of walking we come across a suspicious mound of sand. "What is this?" Ami walks up to it and kicks it. Nothing happens, so she kicks it a second time. Once again nothing happens, resulting in Ami walking away from it. Almost as soon as she does, a large figure jumps out of the mound and lands not too far from it with a THUD. It appears to be a very muscular woman with dirty blonde hair, one eye, and various parts of her body covered in fuzzy fur. Her hands have long and dull looking claws. A pair of fuzzy round ears adorn the top of her head. A fairly large scar runs vertically across her left eye, reaching from her forehead down to her lower cheek. It would be safe to assume she's a Sandbear, though I don't know why she's HERE instead of being further west with the rest. Oh well. This could be troublesome, since they're known for possessing very high levels of strength and endurance, as well as stealing things. This one looks like a battle hardened veteran, so it may be stronger than a regular one.
The Bear crosses her arms and smirks at us, "Hmph, so you lot dare cross into my territory? How amusing, this-" Before she can even say anything, let alone introduce herself, Sarah breathes a large amount of fire at her, setting the poor girl on fire and turning the sand below her into glass. The Sandbear rolls around on the ground in agony for a few seconds, before digging underground and running away.
...Well then...
I walk up to Sarah pat her shoulder, "Good job, but was that really necessary?"
She places her hands on her hips, puffs her chest out, and huffs a little cloud of smoke, "Of course. Besides, I didn't feel like sitting there for three hours while she introduced herself." Well, I certainly know what that's like. Ami runs up to the spot where the Sandbear was, picks up something, and runs up to us. "Hey, look what she left behind!" Ami shouts with excitement as she waves around what appears to be a spear around. It might have been her weapon, though that doesn't explain where it was before being dropped. I grab the spear and examine it closely, "So what are you going to do with it? Leave it here in case she comes back for it?"
Ami sneers at me in a pretty disturbing way, "I think I've got an idea what I'll do."
"If you're going to do what I think you're going to do, which is pretty much assured, then I doubt you'll find a proper buyer. Everyone's into Maces,Flails, and those curved oriental swords these days."
"I'm sure there's at least one person who'll buy this! There always is!" She begins chuckling while trying to sound evil, but instead sounding like a drunk homeless man.

---

After a very grand while the sun finally sets and we take a break. The sun's tyranny is through for now, but it will return soon. We do our best to rest under the cool night sky. Sarah and I are still in good shape, while Ami doesn't look so good. Poor thing, it doesn't look like she'll last much longer at this rate.
..Maybe that person will listen and help us out? I seriously doubt it, but it couldn't hurt to try, right? I clear my throat out, and begin whistling a rather complex song as I tap the ground with my foot. A few minutes go by, and nothing happens. Guess I was right... She either didn't hear me or doesn't want to help.
Ami looks at me with slight amazement while trying to stay awake, "That's pretty amazing, but why did you even do that?" I sigh and slump my shoulders, "Just felt like it, is all."
I breathe a deep and heavy sigh as I close my eyes and try to take a short nap. But, an odd rumbling noise is making that a little difficult...