Mirages

In the vast desert, there was a beautiful oasis. From the rare waters, bushes and trees sprang into life, creating a patch of beauty in the barren wastes. The oasis persisted, even through the harsh desert conditions and the dice rolls of Fate. Water was given to those who needed it, and even the Camel, when they first wandered through the desert, drank from the clear waters. The sand spirits, however, did not like the oasis' presence in the desert. Sand was and is dry. To contaminate that sand with water seemed almost like a crime to the sand spirits. Beaches were made for being wet; deserts were not. So the sand spirits worked to sabotage the oasis. Slowly, sand crept its way into the oasis over many years. Patient, the sand spirits slowly dropped fistfuls of sand daily into the oasis. The sand, though in small amounts, began to build up, and before the oasis realized, it had been covered up by the sand. Trapped under a blanket of earth, the oasis could do nothing to rise to the top of the thick mountain of sand, only slink into the depths of the desert. The water in the oasis submerged into the ocean of sand and resurfaced at another area, being covered again and having to move again. This cycle has been repeating since the beginning of time. So when you see a mirage, that is just the oasis surfacing from their subterranean den for a little while. And when it just as quickly disappears, that is the oasis submerging back into the ground, the sand spirits covering it again.