Amity’s muscles whined to her brain as she stood up, immediately as she woke.

“Alright… let’s…”

She felt her stomach growl, along with the ache of the rest of her body, and she realized something was missing.

Food. Not having eaten in a few days and surviving off magic water probably wasn’t the best choice, she thought. Especially since the magic still took a bit of a toll.

Maybe I should’ve asked that Mariss girl if she knew where any food places were.

Albeit slowly, she made her way back down the tower, and quickly started conjuring a plan, as well as a bit more water, ignoring the fatigue. A cactus stood in the distance, which was notably not there earlier. She looked away to stretch a bit, but when she looked back, hoping to spot a juicy fruit, the cactus had moved.

Amity looked around somewhat confused, and found the same cactus on her opposite side. Luckily, there were a good few fruits on it, but that didn’t particularly help when she started walking towards it. One blink, and the tall cactus had once again vanished. Another look around, and wouldn’t you know it, its atop the sand dune.

“Great…”

She decided to make one final normal walk to it, just to avoid needing magic, but the plant wasn’t quite having it.

Again, when it was out of view for even a moment, there was a distinct emptiness where it once was. She looked behind her, barely catching the cactus turning to have the tempting spiked red fruits clearly visible to the girl who simply couldn’t care anymore.

One swift reach into her pocket as she grabbed the buzzing yellow rock and the extension of her hand was all it took for the once vibrant green cactus to be rendered charred around the impact, and a mangled mix of light and dark greens everywhere else. The remains collapsed, and the untouched fruits rolled away, gathering in the dip formed by the shock wave.

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The flames carried on by Amity’s magic and some planks taken from the already decrepit tower kept her warm as the chill of the air stung her nose as she breathed. Roasted voltfruit from the cactus smelt amazing in the otherwise bland landscape that she was finally realizing the scope of as she sat at the fire…

“I walked for pretty much a full day… I’ve gotta be nearly to them by now…”

She took another bite of the fruit, cranking the makeshift spit roast stick to keep the second one even. Juice got on her torn black dress, and she decided to trim it a bit.

The second voltfruit’s outer leaves made a crisp crunch on the plank she’d designated for holding the two delicious fruit, as she reached into her bag.

Scissors, small fabric ones at least, produced from a small inner pocket. They cut through the rip acquired from tripping on a rock as she approached the tower the prior day. The rough edges were comparatively smoother now, and the gash in her dress made for a welcome new look, diagonally slicing through the dress’ stomach area.

Amity stood up, throwing the fabric scraps into the fire and leaving the makeshift spit there to be used if someone were to come across it.

“There’s one!”

A woman yelled, two men with primitive rifles held near their chests following closely behind in her desperate sprint. Amity turned just in time to avoid being rammed into directly, the woman instead tripping beside the fire.

“Crap- You okay?”

“Shut up, you filthy- Get her! Nomad!”

The men silently pointed the weapons towards her, but the girl reacted with a solid layer of ice. A bullet shattered half of it, but he had to tamp more gunpowder before another shot could fire, so she simply used lightning to shock the tamping iron, forcing the man to drop it, and himself, to the sand. The other man began to reach around to the other side of the ice, but she shocked the gun directly out of his hands.

Quickly after standing up, the woman snarled and lunged, only stopped by her foot still catching on the spit, burning in the flames. Amity made a run for it, once she’d gotten the ladies foot out of the flames, and admittedly grabbing the voltfruit before booking it out of the area. Both men were incapacitated but not injured, and the woman had some pretty bad burns to her foot but otherwise was unharmed.

By the time another set of ruins was visible, she’d already stopped running, having caught her breath.

“Those…They called me… a nomad? That sounds… familiar.”

She shelved the thought, just opting to continue her walk towards the ruins, and the hill immediately beside it.

Closer to the hill, she saw some movement.

Something Amity didn’t expect, was two figures who looked to be crossing the bridge to the ruins, awaited by a third with a pointy hat.