Lily's longest spell chain had been, up to that point, fifty-two spell balls in length. It was also her most powerful spell. She was up to sixty-two spell balls and counting as she added yet another spell ball to the growing chain. She waited while the entire chain changed, shifting from one meaning to another, back down the chain. When it was done, none of the spell balls had yet to snap together. She could feel she was on the right path, but she was getting worried about how many balls she had placed in the chain already.

She looked at the chain for a second, before flipping back a page in her grimoire. She was in the dictionary part of her grimoire, looking for another spell ball to add to the chain. As she did, she thought about the spell balls. Long ago, she had classified the balls into two categories. One was what she called action spell balls. They were the ones that defined the spell. They were always needed in every spell.

The second type she called power spell balls. They were like engines and gave the spell more energy, making the spell more powerful. For some spells, they gave the end result more power, but, with others, especially the longer spell chains, they were needed to keep the spell chain stable and powered. It was like an extension cord - the longer it was, the less power it could put out at the far end of it.

They weren’t always needed in a spell - in fact, for most of the spells she had created she had left them out, as they hadn’t fit. She had discovered one hundred and fifty-eight power spell balls since she first looked upwards at the dome. It didn’t matter how they changed when she added another spell ball to the spell chain - they always shifted into another engine-like spell ball. She had eight of them already in the spell chain, with one being in the chain twice for a total of nine power spell balls. She was starting to think she needed another one.

She looked at one of the power spell balls that she hadn't used yet and decided to try it out. She quickly drew the symbol inside the ball then added it to the chain. The ball made her feel like her heart was beating too fast. She ignored the feeling and watched as the balls in the chain quickly changed, one after another. It was going good until about the tenth down from the end. The ball soured and blinked out of existence. The rest of the chain faded soon afterward.

She cursed and slammed her grimoire shut in anger. She stood up and turned away from her desk to look out into the world around her. She had been at the spell now for countless sleep cycles. It wasn’t the longest she had ever spent trying to create a spell. In fact, it took months when she first started creating spells, and those had only between four or seven spell balls attached to the spell chain. Even now, it took her an average of fourteen sleep cycles to create a spell. Even after the excitement of creating a new spell, she was getting worried by how large the spell chain was becoming. Still, she was having a lot of fun, even if she got really frustrated with it at times. She sighed and turned around to see if there was any way she could shorten the chain.

She opened her grimoire again and looked at the current spell chain. She quickly skipped over the ninth spell ball which was what she was calling the reality spell ball. She still feared it, but after so many sleep cycles, the fear had lessened. Especially after she had started to create the spell around it. As long as she didn’t look at it, she was fine.

She looked at each spell ball in succession, but they all fit. As far as she could see, the chain looked good so far. All she was getting from the spell chain was that it needed more. The problem was more what? More power? More action spell balls?

“What do you need?” She asked the spell chain that lay incomplete in her grimoire in frustration. It didn’t answer.

She sighed again, then reached down inside of her and pulled on a root. Once it reached her right palm, she started drawing the spell balls looking down at her grimoire to make sure she had the correct spell ball and the correct symbol before she drew it. She did not have all two-thousand-plus spell balls memorized. She only had the few spells she used over and over again memorized. Back in the early part of her spell-creating career, she had carved her spell chains and spell balls into the walls around her basement until she ran out of room. It was surprising how powerful having the ability to write something down was. It was only when she had created her Grimoire spell that things got so much easier.

When she got to the current end of the spell chain, she flipped the page in the grimoire and started looking for something that would fit. Three pages later, she found a power spell ball that felt like it could fit. With a deep breath she added the spell ball to the chain. The ball she used smelled like dust on a dry day, just as the first few drops of rain start to fall. She bit her lip as the chain started to change. She held her breath as the tenth ball changed and didn’t fail. She didn’t breathe again until the entire chain changed with no failure. She wanted to stand up and cheer, but knew if she did that she would lose her concentration on her mana well. If that happened, then the spell would fade out.

She added the spell ball to the grimoire page that held the spell so far. Once she was done, she looked back at the spell chain. “What next?” She asked herself, as she settled back to examine the chain so far. Her excitement rose with her success.

She flipped the page back to her spell ball dictionary and started going down the list. Nothing felt right, so she leaned back and re-examined the spell chain. Time slowly passed and she decided to give up for now. She let the spell chain fade and closed her grimoire, letting it fade as well. Then she grabbed a mushroom from her pocket and ate it as she stood up and looked out at the world around her, such as it was. She ran the spell chain through her head as she nibbled on the mushroom.

“Two power balls back to back?” She asked herself, still staring off into the distance. “No? Why not?”

Not able to let the thought go, she quickly summoned her grimoire and then started writing out the spell chain once more with her mana. She opened the book to the page where she had put all of her power spell balls. She went down the list, looking for the one that felt right. Near the end, she found a spell ball that felt like it would fit. She quickly drew it out, and added it to the chain. The spell ball felt like she was running Mardi Gras beads through her fingers over and over again. The spell chain took it without failure. Smiling happily, she flipped the page to search the active power balls section. She really didn’t want to admit that she was having the most fun she had had in a very long while, but she was.

Time seemed to flow without care as she slowly built her spell. She stopped to rest when she couldn’t keep her eyes open any more. She ate when she remembered to or her body screamed at her that it needed food. The spell was a tricky one. More often than not, when she added a new spell ball the spell chain failed. Still, she kept at it. It was the most stubborn spell she had ever created, yet, at the same time, the most exciting one. It was like the spell liked to surprise her. It forced her to come up with creative solutions to really hard problems that only got worse as the spell chain got longer. At first, creating the spell had been a chore, but, as the chain got bigger, her fears faded away to awe at the spell’s complexity.

Then, one day the spell chain snapped together and started to collapse. Lily quickly dropped the spell so as not to activate it. She turned to her grimoire and wrote the last spell ball on the chain, feeling like she was in shock. She counted the chain and shook her head when the number passed the hundred mark. She kept on counting until she reached one hundred and twenty-seven spell balls. By far the longest spell chain she had ever created, by a long shot. To her surprise, she felt let down that the spell was complete. Granted, she had no idea if it would work, but she had created something. All she had to do now was cast it and see what happened.

She absently reached into her coat pocket for a mushroom, only to find it empty. Blinking, she pulled out the top drawer on the left-hand side of her desk. Nothing.

“Did I eat all of the mushrooms again?” She asked herself, as she searched the drawers. The last drawer on the right-hand side had a few left. They were all small, about the size of her thumb, but would be more than enough to fill her up. Satisfied, she sat back and thought about the spell chain. She went over the finished product in her head. It felt right, but, then again, the spell breaker she had created a while ago had felt right as well. She only realized it wasn’t what she had wanted after she cast it. Still, getting a spell to work by accident outside of the intent was hard. Her intent last time had been to dispel the dome of light. Instead, she got a spell to dispel physical barriers.

She popped another mushroom into her mouth as she looked at her desk. She had gotten into the habit of sleeping on her desk since she had started to really get into creating the spell. She had even brought up her golden fur blanket. She looked down at the nearly empty drawer that used to be filled with mushrooms. While she wanted to ignore it and cast her spell, she knew better.

She turned around and really looked at the world around her. There was a large carcass of something in between what used to be a tractor-trailer and a van. She absently wondered how long the dead beast had been there. Not really surprised that she hadn’t seen or heard anything while she was creating her spell. That kind of thing happened a lot when she was working. She looked around, but didn’t find what had killed and partially eaten the thing. While she wanted to rush out there and go to her favorite mushroom patch, she knew better. She remained where she was and watched for the thing that ate the beast.

She pulled her chair towards the door and watched the world, looking for the threat. Time passed slowly and she was falling asleep in her chair when something hit the metal of a car. Lily felt her adrenaline spike and she sat up. At first she saw nothing, but then she saw something in the shadows move. She kept on watching and her diligence was rewarded as one of the large wolf monsters that walked on two feet that she had fought some time past appeared and started pulling at the carcass, eating large chunks of the rotting meat.

Lily stood up and cast her Mobile spell barrier on herself then she cast Greater flamethrower spells on her right hand as she used her other hand to open the door. She immediately started casting another Greater flamethrower on her left hand as the wolf thing stopped eating and looked right at her as she stepped out. Then it charged. Lily waited until it was close before setting her spell off. A river of purple fire roared out from her hand, engulfed the monster and knocked it backwards. It was dead before it hit the ground. Lily stayed where she was for a few minutes while the wolf creature glowed orange and faded away as black ash.

She waited for something else to happen, but nothing did. She let both spells fade as she went back inside and pulled out her large blue and red bag. She had to dismiss her Mobile barrier spell since she couldn’t put her bag strap around her with it on. Once she had it on, she recast all her spells. Her favorite mushroom patch at the end of the bridge had regrown since the last time she had harvested it. She quickly filled up her bag, making sure to keep an attention on her Area of sight spell as it slowly faded. Nothing appeared, so she recast it and made it way back to her tiny complex.

She put the mushrooms away in the desk drawers as her adrenaline faded. She felt really tired and didn’t really want to head out again to go to the basement. Instead, she climbed up on the desk and pulled her golden fur blanket over her entire body, including her head. She rested her head on her elbow and closed her eyes. She was out in seconds.

She woke up some time later. She used the bucket that had a small crystal in it with the spell Toilet on it that she kept in the corner. Unlike the big bucket in her basement, this one was one of those kid buckets that children used at the beach. It was also bright blue. Once she was done she cast Cleanse on herself. It was a spell she had come up with because she kept on getting UTIs and other sanitary problems from wearing the same dirty clothes over and over again, without the ability to wash them. It was a simple spell that burned up all the dirt and whatnot on her skin. The only problem with the spell was that she had to be naked to use it. Not that there was anyone to see her.

Then she cast her hardest spell, Repair on her clothes. The spell did what it said and repaired everything to brand new. It was the spell that had fifty-two spell balls. It was a complex spell, but so worth it. When she had started on creating it, she had been running around nude because her clothes had worn down to the point it was not worth wearing them anymore.

To her surprise, it had repaired her clothes to the point they were brand new. It repaired rips no matter how large and removed all the dirt off of them. Her jeans had already been ripped before the world ended. By the point she used her spell on them, they were just a worn strap around her waist. Now, they were better than before the world ended. The only problem was that it only worked on inanimate objects. To be fair, she did use it to rebuild her tiny complex when it got flattened by a huge horse-like beast. The biggest setback though was it had repaired the walls and erased all the notes that she had carved into the walls of the basement. It hadn’t been all that bad, since she had already transcribed all of them into her grimoire. Still, she had kind of liked how it looked with all the writing on it, and was still sad that it was gone.

She cast Mirror in front of herself, and a silver rectangle appeared in front of her. The mirror was about three feet long and about two feet wide. She stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror. It had been a long time since she bothered, but she felt like she needed to look good today because she was ready to cast her new spell. She looked at herself critically.

The first thing she noted was the thing that disturbed her the most - she didn’t look old. She had been fourteen when the world ended, and she was caught on the drawbridge with her brother. He had escaped before the dome fell. She hadn’t. Still, she knew that it had been years at least, maybe decades, since that day. She had aged a bit, she knew, but still she looked really young. She thought she looked like maybe seventeen, or eighteen now. She knew she didn’t look like her true age. At times, it had made her think she had died that day, and was stuck in purgatory. She still thought that at times.

Her Cleanse spell made her hair look soft, like one of those shampoo models. Her face was still as pale as always, and her green eyes stood out. Her chin, in her opinion, was still too pointy, and her nose was too skinny. But, overall, she thought she looked good. She checked her teeth and smiled. She missed brushing her teeth, but she was glad that her Cleanse spell kept them clean. She just had to open her mouth when she cast the spell and, bam - perfect white teeth. Well, not perfect, as her incisors stuck out a bit and one of her bottom teeth was crooked, but it was close enough that it didn’t matter to her.

“Let's get moving.” She told herself as she reached down and put her clothes back on. She ate some mushrooms for breakfast and filled her pockets with them when she was done. She took a deep breath and summoned her grimoire. Then she cast her Mobile spell barrier on herself. Once she was done, she flipped to the page where her new spell was. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Releasing her breath slowly and opening her eyes, she dropped into her soul. Using the grimoire as a reference, she wrote out the spell chain. Once it was ready, she spent what felt like forever moving each spell ball to the correct position. As soon as the last ball was in place the spell snapped together, forming a single spell ball. She let it go, not trying to balance it, nor to add more mana to it. Then the spell went off.

Unlike most spells where she had to push mana into the spell this spell pulled on her mana well, yanking tons of mana away from it. She felt her mana flow out of her like a fire hydrant. It moved so fast, that the root that led up to her right arm swelled up, and started aching almost immediately. She tried to slow it down, but the spell ignored her attempts. She had a flash of fear that casting the spell would drain her completely, then the spell finished and the world went dark.

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Lily woke up and immediately panicked. She had no idea what had happened, but from the wind on her face she knew she was outside her home. She never slept outside. It was far too dangerous, so something had to have happened to her home. Before she really thought about it, she was pulling a root out of her mana well and pulling it all the way down her right hand. It was by far the fastest she ever pulled on a root. She waved her hand and all the spell balls flowed out of her hand like water. The symbols flowing together almost on their own. She was pulling on a second root even as she rapidly moved the balls into the correct position and set off her Mobile spell barrier and moved it towards her sternum. The entire cast had taken less than two seconds. The amber light of her spell lit up the area, while a part of her head questioned why it was so dark.

A second later, the second spell, Light spell, formed in her left hand. She let a trickle of purple flames out to light up the area. It worked, but very poorly. She couldn’t see what was around her for some reason. It was only then that she realized that her feet were buried in something cold and wet. “Blood!” The thought screamed in her mind. “I’m standing inside a beast!”

She jumped up, bringing her hand to bear down on it. The Light spell lit up the beast. It was brown and wet like sludge. Its blood was clear to the point that it was see-through. Her feet had left big holes in the beast and its blood was filling in the wounds that she caused. Then she looked down at her feet and realized that she was sinking into the beast again.

“That’s not blood, that’s digestive fluids!” She thought, as she waved her hand around, letting the light from her spell show her what was going on. She was in some kind of huge hole that was filled with whatever monster had attacked her. It looked soft and squishy, but not like anything she had ever seen before. She tried to back up, but the monster kept pulling on her feet making it hard to run away. She quickly let the Light spell go and cast Greater flamethrower on her left hand

“That’s it!” She thought angrily. She raised her left hand a bit and set off her Greater flamethrower spell. The purple flames roared out of her hand and splashed into the monster that was trying to eat her. She kept pouring the mana into the spell as she waited for the monster to respond. To her horror, the flames splashed over the monster doing nothing.

“It’s immune!” She thought to herself and her right hand started to move in her second go-to attack spell. It was not the first time she had come across something that was immune to her Greater flamethrower spell, but most of those things that had been immune were either made of fire or used fire attacks themselves.

She lowered her right hand and set off her second attack spell, Chain lightning. Bright, white light illuminated the area as thousands of tiny lightning bolts the size of worn-down pencils exploded out of her hand, branching down towards the beast. It took less than a second for her to realize that she had made a mistake as the monster reflected her spell. Pain exploded over her entire body as electricity flowed over her, locking up her muscles.

She felt herself lose control of the spell and electricity left her body, but, to her horror, she was already falling. Before she could do anything, she fell into the monster and its digestive fluids splashed all over her. She screamed in panic as she felt the icy cold flesh of the monster rise up and cover most of her body.

She pulled her body up from the monster, only to slip back once more. The digestive fluids were very slick. She again used her arms and pushed herself out of the flesh of the icy-cold monster. As she did, she felt the flesh and digestive fluids stick to her flesh. She could feel the fluids already start to go to work on her exposed flesh as they started to freeze her flesh.

On her feet once more, she cast her last go-to combat spell. It started out as her first combat spell, but it turned out to be a very poor combat spell, but great for digging. She had long since refined the spell many times, until it was now an almost completely different spell. She lowered her left hand and set off her spell, Cut earth. Immediately, her spell punched through the monster, creating a five-inch hole in it. She poured more mana into the spell, hoping for the spell to cut deep into the creature, so she could find something vital and kill it.

She expected it to move away from her, or at least shudder, as she moved her hand around, letting her spell cut deep holes in it. The monster didn’t do anything. She could feel the digestive fluids begin to soak into her sneakers. She could feel the fluids start to work as her feet turned blisteringly cold.

“It’s not working. I need to leave, now!” She thought to herself as she cut the mana to her spell, letting it fade away. She turned and started to try to run away from the monster. It fought back by trying to suck her feet deeper into it. In near tears, she reached the edge of the hole where the monster lived. She grabbed onto the blessedly dry edge of the dirt wall in front of her. She pulled her feet out of the monster and, using both her hands and feet, she raced up the hill.

As soon as she reached the top of the wall, she reached up over the edge and felt something soft brush her hands. Screaming, she pulled her hand back, but that made her lose her balance. She slid down the hill, but she was able to arrest her descent in her fear of falling into the monster in the pit again. She froze as she looked down at the pit, when the realization hit her that she was trapped between it and whatever was ever at the top of the pit.

She looked around and her fear dropped as she took in her surroundings. She took a deep breath and cast her Light spell, trying to see her surroundings. Her Light spell was an old spell from back when she first started to figure out how to create spells. She had used it for a very long time until she found that some monsters had crystals inside them that she could use to anchor spells.

She had then recreated her Light spell so that it could be cast on the crystals. The first light spell was a lot more primitive than her later spell, with only four spell balls. The good thing about the old Light spell was that it was very easy to cast - the bad news was that she was only able to cast it on her hand. This meant that one of her hands was too occupied with the light spell and she was unable to cast any other spells with that hand.

She used the Light spell as a flashlight and shone the light at the monster below her. The monster was still below her and made no move towards her. For that she was grateful. It was also covered in digestive fluids, or maybe it was blood. She was not sure now, as the brown fluid almost completely covered the holes where her feet had gotten stuck as well as the holes where her Cut earth spell had carved deep into it. The monster almost looked like a huge mud puddle.

That made her frown. Where was the light from the dome? She turned her light to shine upwards and her light disappeared into the darkness above her. “How much power does a magical effect need to block out the light of the dome?” She asked herself, looking up. It wasn’t the first time some creature had appeared in her little hellhole and caused some kind of environmental effect, like mist or heavier than normal gravity. It was the first time the effect had canceled out the light though.

She brought her hand down again and let her light shine on the rest of the pit. It was only when she got to the left edge of the pit that she saw something that completely blew her mind. At first she had no idea what she was looking at, but old memories came rushing back. She was looking at a river. Her beam of light showed it clearly, as it shimmered on the little waves that moved from her left to the right.

“There are no rivers under the dome.” She thought to herself, as she waved her light over the large body of water that seemed to have no end.

“What kind of creature can summon that much water? Where is it going? Will the dome destroy all the water when it hits it?” She asked herself, shining the light over the water towards the right. She had to move along the side of the pit so she could see better. To her surprise, she couldn’t see the dome.

“Where is the dome?” She asked herself, shining her light towards where she thought the dome should be. It wasn’t there.

“Is the river environmental effect some kind of bigger-on-the-inside type thing?” She asked herself.

“Does that make it an ocean?” She asked herself, as she shone the light all around the far edges of the water, trying to see the other sides. She thought she saw something directly across from her, but she was not sure if she was imagining things.

“Why did I think it was a river?” She wondered, as she flashed her light all around the water. When she first looked at it she was somehow sure it was a river. Now she wondered why she thought that.

You have created a new spell. Name your spell.

Lily jumped as the voice spoke in her head. Then the memories came crashing back. She remembered the spell as she cast it, but then there was nothing afterwards. She looked around as a hope started building in her heart. She looked upwards towards the edge of the pit, and, ignoring the voice, she climbed up, keeping her light shining on the edge of the pit. She peeked her head over the edge of the pit and, using her light, she looked at what was all around her.

“That’s grass!” She thought happily, as her light shone on tall, green grass in front of her.

She smiled at the sight. It was not proven yet, as she had seen a creature create grass before in her little hellhole, but she was starting to feel the hope grow in her. She shone her light further until it lit upon a tree. She froze for a second, not believing what she was seeing. It was a tree. A pine tree, her memory told her. It was skinny and very tall. It had green needle-leaves that started about halfway up, on branches that came to a point at the very top.

She shone her light further and spotted several more trees, and not just pine trees. There was a tree with big, dark-green leaves on it, and a tree with a very fat trunk. She smiled so hard she felt her cheeks start to hurt.

Then she heard a plunk sound behind her. She spun around and brought her light to where she thought the sound was coming from. It was on the edge of the pit near the body of water. She didn’t see anything at first, then she saw a piece of dirt from the edge of the pit fall into the pit making the same sound. Several more pieces fell into the pit. One of the pieces had a rock in it that was about twice the size of her thumb. It fell into the pit and sank a little bit into the brown mess, but wasn’t consumed completely.

She watched the fluid soak into the dirt that had fallen and then it turned the same color as the monster. But, looking at the thing in the middle of the pit and how close it was to the body of water, she realized it wasn’t a monster at all. Well, it still might be one, but the most obvious explanation was that it was just a pit full of mud. She looked at her brown-covered hand then brushed the brown off on her pants. She brought her hand into the light and found that there was nothing wrong with her hand except it was slightly wrinkled. While she hadn’t seen water in ages, she knew that her hand got wrinkled if she stayed in water too long. Shaking her head at the sight, she turned back to look at the pit.

“I’m out?” She asked herself, as she turned back to look at the trees in front of her.

“The sun.” She thought to herself, looking up again into the darkness above her.

“If the sun rises, then I know I’m out.” She told herself, lowering her light.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m out of danger.” She told herself, as a thought popped into her head. “This still might be an environmental effect, and there might be a monster stalking me somewhere out there.”

“I need to create some shelter.” She told herself as she started shivering. She kept the hand with the light cast on it out while she wrapped her other arm around her for warmth and climbed up and over the edge of the pit.

Looking around, she stepped away from the body of water and moved further inland. Once she thought she was far enough away from the water, she summoned her grimoire. She opened the book and found the spell she was looking for. She slowly drew the spell balls with her right hand as she thought about how long it had been since she had used this version of the spell. It was a modified version of the one she used to create the hole in the ground under her basement.

She later modified it again to create her combat spell. She had other versions that she had never cast before. They were in a different section of her grimoire with all the other uncast spells. Some were uncast because she had no target to cast them on, while others she just had no reason to cast. Some were brand new spells, while others were just different versions of spells she had already created.

She had created this version to tunnel out of the dome, before she learned it wasn’t a dome but a bubble. Still, it was very useful for creating a shelter, much better than the first spell she had created. For one thing, they both had the same amount of spell balls, but this version had one spell ball that fit better than the one that she used in her earlier version. It made the spell faster and the walls harder.

As soon as the spell collapsed into one spell ball, she aimed it at the ground about four feet from her and set it off. A small hole appeared in the ground and seemed to push the dirt around it away, getting slowly larger. Lily was careful not to add too much mana, as that would increase the size of the hole much faster. She wanted a small entrance to climb in.

Once she had her small entrance, she knelt down and pushed her hand deeper into the hole. Here she added more mana. She used the light from her other hand to watch as she hollowed out a cave below her. She angled it so that the hole wasn’t directly below the ground, but instead angled back a bit.

She slowly pushed herself into the hole, deepening it until she was able to get her whole body into the ground. She then widened the hole so it wasn’t too claustrophobic. She then let the spell lapse. She resummoned her grimoire and opened the page for a new spell. Again, it was just a different version of the spell she just used, but the voice thought it was different enough that she had to name it again. This spell, to her at least, was identical to the one she just used except it was much more focused. She built this spell to carve out things like the ladder back in her tiny complex. She called this one Cut stone, not that it was exactly for cutting stone, the spell could carve small holes in dirt.

Instead of carving a new hole, she carved out a rock, which she had to guesstimate the size of, to use to block the entrance. She found it was a pain to carve the back side of the rock, but, in the end, she cut herself a rock that was flat on two sides and about six inches wide. She pulled it away from the wall, leaving an ugly hole that, if she was going to stay here for longer than the night, she would have fixed. Then she used it to block the entrance off. It wasn’t a perfect fit, as it left a few small holes on the top and the bottom, but she was okay with that because it let in air.

She wanted to put some protection spells up, but she didn’t have any crystals to anchor them. Most of her spells, well almost all of them, remained active as long as the mana was flowing. Once the mana stopped flowing, the spell faded away. She did, with the help of her grimoire, cast a spell to heat some rocks, because she was really cold. The spell ended when she cut off the mana, but the rocks were hot enough that they would keep her warm for some time. She called this spell the unimaginative name of Heat rock.

Once she was warm, she took off her clothes to see what she had with her. She had her jacket, her shirt, pants, underwear, and shoes. In her pockets, she had her mushrooms, so she wouldn’t go hungry. She also had the jagged piece of metal that she used as a knife, and an old metal charm that she had had since before the end of the world.

The charm was a metal fairy that her parents got her when she had gone to an amusement park. It was shiny and looked brand new because she had used her Repair spell on it several times. She kept it on her because it made her feel good. She absently rubbed it before she put it down next to her makeshift knife.

She cast Repair on everything but the mushrooms. She watched as her stuff became clean again. It was overkill to use that spell just to clean things, but she didn’t want to sleep in mud-covered clothes. She then cast Cleanse on herself before she put her clothes back on. She took time to eat a mushroom before rationing the rest just in case she needed something to eat later on. Once she was done, she checked the rock that covered the entrance to her hidey-hole. She didn’t see anything outside, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something waiting on her. Still, she was tired and knew she had to get some sleep. Even if the sun didn’t rise when she woke up, she had a lot to do. She cast her Grimoire, found her Heal spell and cast it on herself right before she laid down to sleep. She wasn’t sure why she had passed out when she finished her spell, and didn’t want to get sick from the mud pit, so she used the Heal spell to be safe.