Zalia landed gently on the rocky outcropping where she had last seen Sazcha. Taking in a deep lungful of dry desert air, she looked around for any signs of life. Her vague goal was to find any kind of civilisation out here, learn something about them and if the opportunity arose, find some new herbs to take home. Mainly though, she wanted to find somewhere that she could set up her second Grove.

She really wanted to explore further east as well, towards where the Astar kingdom existed. That would be a dangerous trip, however, not something to be taken lightly. It would be best if she took someone with her when trying to go there.

From her vantage atop the outcropping, the world looked like an endless sea of dune waves stretching across the horizon. She remembered the direction that Sazcha had gone, yet there was nothing to be seen. From where she was, at least.

She took flight again, coasting through the sky on eddies of wind given life by the heat of the desert. The endless nothing ahead and behind her was surprisingly refreshing, all of her concerns for the future and memories of the past seeming small in comparison to the ever-rolling dunes.

Her reverie was broken by the sight of two figures trudging through the desert. It was a person followed by a large flat creature leashed by a strip of leather which she only barely spotted. From the air, Zalia could see that the person was armed with the same type of spear that Sazcha had had; A body height length of wood topped with a slightly curved spearhead. Without any reason not to go talk to them, she dropped down from the sky towards them.

The figure below must have seen her shadow as she spiralled down from the sky, as they turned about to look up into the sky holding their spear at the ready.

Without her feline backup, Zalia decided to land a healthy distance away. A healthy distance being exactly more-than-a-spear length.

Having fully accepted the farmer look, she must have seemed quite strange dropping from the sky with her straw hat, suspended overalls, flannel shirt, solid work boots and large magical wings made of wispy cloud. She bungled the landing a little, sending sand spraying all over the place and most annoyingly, into her shoes. Taking a moment to stand up straight, brush herself off and inspect the fellow in front of her.

He was very tall, somewhere over the six-foot mark, wearing long strips of sun-bleached cloth wrapped around his entire body save the face. There he had a type of crystal fashioned into a face covering that completely enclosed his face from top to bottom. He kind of looked like an astronaut if the astronaut wasn’t airtight and had a spear. And a weird lizard thing.

The leashed animal he was travelling with was huge, only reaching his waist yet stretching for thirteen or fourteen feet long. It had six legs stretching outwards from its body like a skinks would, two bulbous eyes covered in protective, clear eyelids. It was also covered in sand-coloured scales that she guessed would be hard as stone.

“What do you want, farmer.”

He said it like an insult, spitting the word as if being a farmer were a sin.

“Okay, firstly I’m not a farmer. Secondly, I just wanted to ask you if there were any… cities or anything nearby. I’m not super clued in to how you guys live out here.”

? - Bronze rank.

? - Bronze rank.

She was settled in knowing they were only Bronze rank, while she was now Silver. Remembering the fights she’d had with Silver rankers as a Bronze, she didn’t like the man and lizard’s chances if they did decide to attack.

He squinted his eyes, obviously suspicious of her. She wondered if having a more powerful stranger drop down on you alone in the middle of the desert was commonly a sign that you were about to lose your belongings and possibly life out here. Personally, she would be suspicious and a little worried if she were in his position too. Also, what did this guy have against farmers?

“Where are you from then, not-farmer?”

She gave him her best “I’m not here to kill you” smile.

“Endaria! I have a friend living out here, Sazcha. I’m trying to find her since it’s been a while and thought to look for the closest city. Have you heard of her?”

He shook his head warily.

“No, but there is only the one city. The magnificent wandering city of Ulzahar.”

Zalia tapped her fingers lightly on her leg as she considered.

“So it’s like, a city built on the back of something? Like a giant tortoise or… a beetle?”

He looked at her strangely, relaxing a little as she remained unthreatening.

“On a what? No, the city itself moves.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Oh.”

She stood there looking at him for a moment before he sighed.

“Fine, if it gets you to go away, the city should be somewhere in that direction,” he said, gesturing vaguely to the south-southwest.

She gave him another smile.

“Wonderful! Thank you for your help. Do you want anything? Maybe a nice wooden carving or something?”

He looked at her dumbfounded so in response, she summoned her chunk of wood. With quick movements of her hands that were totally unnecessary, she used Preparation and Healing Presence to grow and cut off a piece of wood. The larger chunk vanished and within a few moments, she had a wooden figurine that looked a perfect image of the man’s lizard pet.

Active 2 - Natural Matter Alteration- spell - targeted

Tin - The careful preparation of herbs, poisonous or healing, can enhance their effects. You may magically dry, cut or otherwise prepare various foods, herbs and other similar items that are plant-based.

Iron - Natural Matter Alteration can now be used to magically harvest plants. All bonuses from harvesting manually are still applied. You may also dry, cut or otherwise prepare foods that are not plant-based.

Bronze - You may harvest entire plants in their healthy form to be transplanted later. These can be stored directly in your Stasis ability or bonded item ‘Ethereal Vault Gauntlet’ under those abilities' normal conditions.

Silver - You are able to control the shape of natural matter such as wood, stone and dirt with perfect precision. The range and amount of matter you are able to manipulate at once with this ability increases based on your rank.

Mana - very, very low

Cd - n/a

It had been her last ability to rank to Silver, having been overtaken by Flora Identification in the last few weeks as she spent a few months walking around looking at plants; Something that Ember insisted most people don’t do. Zalia didn’t believe her though, because who wouldn’t walk around looking at plants for months?

The desert man was staring at her still, as she stood there wooden lizard held out.

“.... no?”

He hesitantly stepped forward to take the lizard.

“Thanks?”

Zalia gave him a final big smile as she handed it over before a single powerful wingbeat took her soaring into the sky. A few more and she was gliding through the air across the desert once more.

She’d been feeling great since coming on this trip. Travelling around was made significantly sweeter by the presence of her wings and the fact that the majority of the wildlife was unable to harm her anymore. When she had been back on her own world living in the snow she had enjoyed exploring around her little wooden hut as much as she was able but the constant danger of the million ways she could die kept her from feeling as free as she did now.

Down below, she saw a withered little bush that she wanted to identify. She landed in a much quicker manner than before, dropping from the sky and hitting with an explosion of sand. A quick bit of wind magic using Zephyr threw any of the sand away from her this time.

She stared down at the withered bush, proud of its stubborn will to live in such a lifeless place. It wasn’t even anything special, a rankless plant managing to survive out here.

With a touch, she was able to tell that it had no cultural significance or use in cooking, magic or otherwise. However, she also received brief flashes of vision, depicting the long and arduous life of the plant. Events of import in the life of the plant. Dropped here as a seed by an animal. Laying dormant for years before a single life-saving rain drenched the desert. A water reservoir forming underneath it due to the rain, allowing it to grow. Living off that reservoir for a long time, growing tall and strong through the months before that reservoir ran out. Reducing in size, withering and dying down until it lay dormant once more, waiting for that next life-saving rain.

She let out a small gasp, blinking quickly as the visions faded away. Using Water Lily Petals, she cast a small ritual to create a localised rain just above the plant, allowing Healing Presence to nurse the withered shrub back to life. Once she thought the reservoir was filled once more, she gently stroked the new leaves on the shrub and flew off once more.

The visions were a benefit of Flora Identification’s Silver rank.

Active 1 - Flora identification - spell - targeted

Tin - Poison, cure or food, you'll know. You may identify whether the targeted flora is poisonous, helpful, nutritious or all of the above.

Iron - You may now identify what elements different flora contain.

Bronze - Your ability to identify flora extends to understanding their role within ecosystems, including their interactions with other plants and animals, aiding in ecological preservation efforts. Additionally, you gain knowledge about the historical uses and significance of the identified flora, allowing you to uncover hidden cultural or magical insights related to them.

Silver - You are now able to tell the life cycle of identified flora. When identifying a plant, you are given flashes of the plant's life.

With it, she had seen the life and cycle of many different plants, giving her a deeper understanding of the natural world around her. The most interesting plants to see the life of were the most ancient ones. The trees that were hundreds of years old that had seen Zalia’s current lifespan many times over. She even wanted to return to Cormaine, just to see the life of that Living Trapvine that had protected Ro’s power for so long.

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

A few days later, she finally found the city. It had taken quite some flying back and forth, speaking to the odd desert dweller here and there before she saw it.

From what she could tell, the desert people lived as free as can be, venturing into the rolling wasteland on their own or in small groups to hunt for food and literally anything else of interest. The magnificent wandering city of Ulzahar lived up to its name in a spectacular manner. It was a complex of hundreds of buildings, sprawled across a large section of flat sandstone. The huge sandstone block itself was half suspended in the air by some type of magic, carving a path through the sand.

Zalia stared at it in wonder, trying to figure out how exactly the thing had been created. Even Matthias, the only other sand mage she had known couldn’t have managed something like this. That either meant these people lived in a more tight-knit community than she realised, or a really powerful mage had created it. That meant this thing might be really important.

She flew towards it with many questions on her mind.