Sunrise didn't help as much as James had hoped it would. Alan didn't recognize where they were either, and the pair spent the bulk of the day circling the same hill in wider and wider rings before finally recognizing a landmark that lead them back to the lake.James immediately rushed to the water's edge for a drink after all that wandering in the hot sun, as did Alan before swimming back to his island.
It took another good hour or two for James to find his clothes. Well, some of his clothes. The vest and boots were where he'd left them, along with the flashlight and water bottle. The cargo shorts were close enough to the shore, and he found one of the gloves. No luck with the tank top though, or his underwear. Those must have been ditched later in the trip, or been snatched up for some weird alien bird's nest. Sighing, he gathered what he could and started heading back towards the cave around sundown, ignoring Alan's shouts about staying another night.
Reaching the passage Alan had marked, James took a deep breath and sidled through. Once out of the passage, he gave himself a onceover with the flashlight, hoping to have his old body back, but no such luck.
He was still a woman, for starters. Rather dark skinned, and dressed in only a skimpy white bikini and a pair of flipflops, with a tiny purse instead of the glove. "What the hell!?" he shouted, listening to his higher pitched voice echoing through the cave. Squeezing back, he was the blue girl again. Same vest, same everything. Back on the normal side, bikini.
James sure as hell wasn't going home like that, and made the long trip back to find Alan and get a handle on things.
Alan, of course, was high again on those weird mushrooms. James just had to wait it out until he was lucid again, and then explained what had happened in the cave.
"Ohhh... yeah that's like... the cache cleared. That happens sometimes when something is over this way long enough. Last time I went to head into town my car keys were a pocket knife. You just gotta wait these things out."
James stared back in silent fury. "Do I have this right? Staying here too long makes that damn magic portal forget how they started. You knew that. And you got me high on those fucking mushrooms rather than let me head back when I first got here, and get my body back."
Alan began to reply, "I mean... I wouldn't want you to miss out on these-" before ducking as James hurled the water bottle at his head. "But look, it's cool! You just need to hang out again on this side until your cache clears again! Or the other side! Whatever, just... stay out of the cave for like a day or so! It's all good!"
"And that's just for what? A chance at getting back to normal? Jesus Christ! I could have just written you off, assumed you were dead, gotten on with my life! But no, I had to let you drag me into all this! Fuck! And I haven't eaten any real food since yesterday. I'm sure as hell not going to try and walk out of the desert in a fucking bikini... maybe it'd help to find the rest of my clothes... and what the hell am I supposed to do while I wait on this damn reset of yours?"
"I mean, I've got a couple ideas..."