The desert of Issiq was hot, to say the least. Depths and Glow had accompanied Noodle here for their physician training, but had ended up taking care of their own business. They had recognized a friendly face here - Boti - and had started taking with them. They had also met a friend of Maedra and Harbringer: a draconic named Gerralt.

They had been chatting with them about killing time while Noodle trained, when Boti frowned thoughtfully.

"If you want… it'd be hard work, but I'd appreciate it a lot."

Depths tilted his head at Boti. "What sort of work?"

Boti nodded out the window. "Got a heatwave coming up, and the roof of my tribe's reservoir cover is broken. We were working on fixing it but," they shrugged, mildly embarrassed, "other things kept coming up."

Gerralt nodded understandingly. "Things like to come up all at once."

Glow considered. She didn't like the thought of laboring in the hot sun, but Boti needed help… she nodded. "Long as you promise to treat us to a nice cool dinner after, huh?"

Boti laughed and clapped their hands excitedly. "I can agree to that!"

With that, Boti, Gerralt, Depths and Glow headed off to Boti's tribe. Their dwelling wove in and out of a network of limestone hills with deep gullies and caves, designed to keep the paths at the bottom of the ravines nice and cool in the shade, while minimizing power usages with keeping them lit naturally. Their reservoir was kept on the top of the hillside, a natural spring that had been widened and covered over. It made it convenient to use the water, as the pull of gravity made it flow willingly into the dwellings below, but inconvenient to service.

Boti had gotten them all sunglasses as they climbed up onto the plateau above the reservoir, but still Glow squinted in the sunlight. It was bright and reflected off of the warm ochre sandstone around them, contrasting with the rich blue of the sky above.

Depths looked like he was already overheating with his dark coat, Gerralt seemed to be taking it okay, and Boti seemed used to it.

They gestured at the roof of the reservoir, one leaf of which had been removed and propped up on some sawhorses. It was in sorry shape, and Glow could see why it needed repairs. Holes had rusted in the sheet of metal designed to keep the sun and dirt off, and the insulation to keep the water cool was starting to flake.

"We need to strip the damaged parts off the struts," Boti explained, "and replace them."

Depths, Glow, and Gerralt looked at each other, then turned to the damaged roof section and started to repair it. Gerralt, with his lack of hands, couldn't pull parts off, but he was good at moving the pieces Glow and Depths removed to the side. As the sun rose higher, Glow sweated profusely. It was far warmer here than in the mountains.

The trio stopped frequently for sips of water, but they wanted to complete the work before the sun reached its peak. So, they carried on.

Next was installing the new panels. Gerralt proved able to hold the sheet metal stable while Depths drilled holes and Glow added screws, and in this fashion they filled the holes in the roofing. That was only half the job, though - they then had to flip it over.

The installation of the insulation was a little trickier, but they managed it with the three of them. Two people to hold the roof panel stable, and one to screw it into place. While it was mostly held on by gravity and friction with the frame of the roof panel, the screws would hold it on while they rotated it like this to install it.

Soon, as the sun climbed towards noon, the three shoved the panel into place, with Boti calling out instructions from above. It slid into place with a satisfying thunk, and they moved off to celebrate a job well completed.

A sweaty mess, Glow sipped some water in the shade while Depths and Gerralt did the same. Boti beamed at them.

"Thanks for helping out! Now we can be sure we won't lose any more water to evaporation over the coming heatwave."

Depths, laying on the ground, snorted. "Your thanks is all well and good, but what about that cold meal?"

"I can do one better," Boti's eyes sparkled, "there's a pool."

Gerralt's head shot up. "A pool?" He asked excitedly.

But grinned wider. "A pool."