Louise opened her eyes to an overcast sky, though it still hurt her eyes a little when she did, and she felt dirt beneath her hand as she closed it in surprise at the revelation she was lying on the ground. She quickly began to get up in embarrassment at her predicament, but soon realized she didn't hear any laughter from her classmates from her explosion.

Well good, she thought. She didn't know what she summoned but she knew it had to be something magnificent! It made her classmates go quiet with awe after all! Yes, that was it! She quickly scramble to her feet to behold her familiar. But when she finally did, she gasped in shock and began looking around frantically, her heart rate increasing.

She wasn't in the courtyard anymore. Her classmates were gone, the Academy was gone, the very vegetation as far as her eyes could see was gone. A sudden breeze sending dirt onto her uniform accentuated this facet. The land around her was completely foreign and despite her state she looked at it in a bit of awe.

The land was the most sickly shade of brown she had ever seen. She never was one for the color herself but something about this just felt… wrong to her. Like something had poisoned the land around her, for the only trees she had seen were dead, the trunks blackened and branches empty of leaves. It just served to amplify the sheer emptiness of this land that now surrounded her.

Her hands began to tremble and her breathing became faster. Where was she!? What happened!? She began turning in all directions, her fear and desperation rising.

No… no! This wasn't real! This… this was… this was just… just a dream! That was it! She was knocked unconscious and she was in the infirmary, yet to wake up!

She closed her her eyes, even with the sun behind the clouds she still saw red through her closed eyelids, and when she opened them she would be awake.

She opened them only to find the barren landscape before he still there, taunting her.

She closed them again. Then opened them again. And again. And again. She tried six more times, moisture becoming more prominent in her eyes as she did.

She tried again, ,keeping them closed far longer than any previous attempts, holding her wand close to her chest with both trembling hands.

She was alone still. She couldn't stop herself from falling to her knee's, ignoring the pain of the rocks she had landed on through sheer despair. The tears were running down her face and she was hyperventilating and her hands threatened to snap her wand in half. She choked out a few sobs. Her tears fell into the dry dirt of the desert.

She was alone.

She stayed that way for a while longer. The tears stopped eventually, but her eyes remained sore.

She had to find a way back home. She knew that. The question was how? The only clue as to her location was this being a desert and the only desert she knew of was Rub a Kali. But that meant she was in elven territory then! The enemies of man and Brimir. The fact alone nearly made her faint. She coud'nt even manage one spell without it exploding. That might help her sometimes, but against elves, who could challenge even their Founder, it would be a short battle not in her favor if she was ever found by them.

But even then, she was hardly an experienced outdoors man. That was more Cattleya's expertise.

Her thoughts abruptly halted as they passed over her sister. Louise

Cattleya... how would she react to news of her disappearance?

With that image in her mind she picked herself up from the ground and brushed the rocks and pebbles that stuck to her leggings off and tried to start on her journey back.

But how? She didn't even what direction north was. She certainly didn't want to wander deeper into elven territory. The clouds still covered the sky irritatingly cloaking it's position. She knew enough to realize that simply looking at it's position in the sky would tell her what direction to start walking.

Regardless, she still felt like she should find some shelter. She didn't know what creatures she could expect to run into in the desert. Hopefully her explosions would be enough for them. But founder help her if she should run into the elves...

With fear of the danger that lay ahead, uncertainty of her true next actions, and despair threatening to take her fully, she began her journey, leaving a solitary trail of footprints in the vast desert.

She didn't know how long she walked. Well that wasn't true. She had walked long enough for her legs to get sore and began feeling the oncoming thirst that she knew was rapidly approaching problem. And she also started experiencing one of the many mundane irritants of being outside for an extended period of time. She was sunburned. She had held her cloak over her as best as she could to keep the sun of her her, but it wasn't enough apparently as her legs, face and hands all began to turn red. It was't that surprising. She wasn't used to being outside for extended periods at all. Though she had more than a few passing thoughts to scream obscenities at the clouds for keeping her from getting proper bearings but doing sweet founder all to help her against the sun.

Regardless she pushed on into the unknown. She thanked the founder several times over that she had not encountered any hostile wildlife in the time she had walked. Though it did little to lift the sense of sheer isolation she felt. She hadn't seen anything other than the occasional dead tree to prove that anything has called this desert home in some time. And she couldn't shake the feeling that something about this place felt off. Like it was unnatural. Not the land itself, but something about it. It just felt too deserts she felt, just shouldn't have this level of just plain emptiness to them, both in animal and plant life.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she tripped over something and was sent to the ground in a heap. Although a bit painful, when she got a good look at the offending object a sudden flurry of emotions shot through her body.

It was a road! People have been here! But upon closer inspection she realized that the road was partially covered in dirt and sand and was visibly cracked. Doubtful that the elves had used this for travel in some time. Well she had something now. She could either continue on the direction she was heading or take her chances with the road. Neither really appealed to it, for though it showed signs of disuse, but that wasn't a guarantee of her being safe. But neither was any direction either. For all she knew, she was literally a few steps from finding a hidden elf village and her demise from a bunch of vengeful desert folk.

She bit her lip. She just didn't know to do!

Well actually that wasn't true. She needed to find shelter for the night. The overcast sky was starting to turn orange. night was approaching and she'd rather not spend the night out in the open. She knew that much at least.

Scanning up and down the road, she spotted something in the distance. A building. A small building a fair ways a way in the distance.

But before she could start walking towards it she began hearing a buzzing sound. Already feeling shivers crawling up her pins from the sound alone, she turned around to face her first encounter in this place.

Four large absolutely disgusting bugs flew towards her, their wings still making that horrid noise. Their over sized abdomens visibly jiggled which nearly throw up on the spot. She always hated bugs and these things, as dangerous as they probably were, took

She was about ready to launch a simple fireball spell at them when suddenly the lead one hovered in midair and pointed... something on it's torso and suddenly let out another something that warranted her dodging to the side lest it become a painful something.

She felt the projectiles tear and punch through her cloak, angering her at the destruction from her only protection from the sun. As best as she could on shaky legs from the sudden adrenaline. She backed up from the creatures, trying to get out of range of their projectiles. She aimed her wand at the ground and let out a quick spell.

"Fireball!" She shouted, her first true words spoken since the summons spell, and it launched forth. Sadly the things seemed to possesses big enough brains to doge... well most of them. Three of them dodged while the fourth was hit directly and suddenly there was no more disgusting bug. There was only disgusting bug parts, one of which landed right on one of her shoes, the piece of flesh staining it with gooey green blood. Though in a stroke of good fortune she felt would become a rarity, pieces of the bug propelled by the explosion managed to cut off the wings of another bug creature causing it to drop to the ground in what she hoped was agony, as it flopped around rapidly churning up dirt. Another one of the bugs was killed when what looked like a piece of the needle launcher impaled in it's abdomen causing ti to fall to the ground completely still.

With only one still a true threat, Louise took aim again. It proved to be a bit smarter, it dodged her attacks twice more before she finally managed to kill it. It exploded once again, causing another piece, irritatingly, to land on her other shoe. She kicked the offending gore off and decided to take out her rage on the last wingless one still screeching and flopping around. She marched forward... only to immediately start retracting.

Another bug had appeared behind the scene of violence and Louise actually had a reference for this one. It was a scorpion. A much, much larger version of one than she was used to however. It was a brown and yellow coloring and it skittered along towards the once flying bug. With a cruel snap of it's pincers it cut the smaller creature free of it's needle shooting appendage near it's bottom, it's screeching increasing in pitch, and then the scorpion stuck the bug with it's tail stinger. The bug began convulse violently , but before long Louise saw it's struggles get smaller and smaller before petering out completely.

The scorpion seemed to glance at the pink haired human before it, but it's primal instincts cared only for the fresh food laid out before it. It began tearing off pieces of the creature and using it's mandibles to begin chewing it's meal.

Louise had not witnessed much more of that. For she had taken off running towards the building, her tattered cloak and sore legs completely forgotten. Sun, thirst and elves be damned, she was going into that building and she might never come back out!

It was still further away than she would have liked even with how fast her legs and fear pushed her. She approached eventually and by then the adrenaline rush was wearing off and her legs had felt heavier than they ever head in her life. She pushed herself forward on fear alone and eventually made it to the strange building. Amazingly she could actually read the words on the front but whatever they meant were lost on her. What in founders name was a 'Gas Station?" It didn't mater completely to her mind overwhelmed as she only glanced at it before bursting trough the front door.

It came open far easier than she expected it to and it closed just as easily as she slammed it back shut, creaking loudly all the way both times. She backed away from the door in fear of anything that might have been right behind her without her knowing about it ready to snatch her. She stared it for a few seconds longer before she nearly slapped herself for idiocy. She hadn't even checked if this place was safe yet! Turning on her heel she faced the interior of the building. It was dark, that much was apparent, all the windows seemed to be boarded up letting an increasingly orange light leak through in rays. The room she was in was rather small only having a counter some odd looking shelves across from it.

The was however an adjacent room that filled her with dread. She couldn't see into it. Her hands severely trembling now she approached with wand drawn. She clamped on the handle, slowly she opened it and gasped a what came out.

It was a bathroom. With only a toilet inside with the most foul smelling liquid emitting a rancid aroma.

She had a feeling 'most foul' was going to be coming up a LOT during her time her. Regardless she confirmed this place held only her. And now that she had, she then set to dragging a heavy looking... something. She didn't know exactly except it had a glass cover on the top over long spoiled of that she guessed was food. it was a bit of a process, but when she was done, it was blocking the door.

She didn't care how hard it was. The door was blocked and that was all that mattered.

The sun outside was nearly gone now, and she realized she had nothing to do but go to sleep. She choose a place in the far corner behind an overturned shelf and propped herself in it. She had a good view of the door from her, but she couldn't shake the feeling of vulnerability with her back to the wall. She kept imagining that scorpion using it's stinger to stab right through the wall and impaling her. She nudged herself a little ways from the wall.

She sat in the corner away from the wall, not even a full day and already her clothing was damaged and stained and she had nearly died to something shooting needles out of it's butt!

This was her first day in the land and she knew it would take her a vast amount more to find her way back home.

She hugged herself in the dark as she heard what sounded like something howling in the night outside. It was a chilling sound that worked in tandem with the cool of the night to send shivers down the girls spine. She had already seen what was out there and it terrified her. What she hadn't seen out there terrified her more.

She began wondering how news of her disappearance would affect everyone. By now, she was sure news of her disappearance had gotten to her family. How would they react she wondered. She wasn't one to deny , but still. They were family. Mother and father would no doubt be devastated. They had always worried about her with regards to her magic, even considering having her get married into a powerful family just to ensure her safety and comfort. But she persisted in her attempts... she was starting to regret that immensely. Or maybe they might hire someone in an attempt to track her down... she really hoped they wouldn't be duped by con artists in their desperation.

Her eldest sister, Eleanor... well to be frank, Louise always did think she was a bit of a 'female dog' as Cattleya had politely told her, but then again, Louise herself could be one just as much. And she didn't forget the times where she helped study magical theory. Regardless of how Louise could feel about her, there was no denying she only lasted to the summoning ritual, an entire year, through her sheer knowledge alone.

And Cattleya... Louise's stomach took a dive when she realized how her favorite sister would take this. The sister who would always listen to her, who would comfort her with a snuggle when things got tough. It was painfully easy for Louise to imagine her crying her eyes out. That was assuming they didn't just presume her dead even. Not even a body to bury for them...

She had 'known' about her situation before, but now, sitting alone in this dusty building with threats all around her, no clear direction of where to go, no one to even help her... the cold reality that was staring at her the entire time suddenly hit her. And she began to crumble, choking out a few sobs. The only thing keeping from outright sobbing was the fear of what the noise it would attract. That is if her explosions from earlier didn't already alert every elf in the vicinity, but then again if it did they would have been here by now.

However, even in the midst of her own personal problems, she was also vaguely aware of another sensation going on in her body. She never noticed it before, but she suddenly realized that she it still felt like she was in the sun. Not just her sunburned parts, but her entire body had an overall warm feel to it. Even as the cold of the night began to set in fully, she still felt a dull warm all over her. It was an odd sensation, but in her state, it was just another 'thing' on the suddenly very long list of 'things' on her mind. The feeling stayed with her until she was finally able to drift off into a light fearful sleep, the entire day finally granting her a small mercy.

Edit: Removed previous authors notes on account of me sounding rather pretentious.

All you need to know is that Louise isn't in the Mojave wasteland proper yet. She's in an a pretty isolated area.

Just a pet peeve when Louise always is next to a convenient person in reverse summons. In all honesty, I have more than a few of them in regards to reverse summons and this story is just kind of me trying my hand at writing the type of story i would like to see.

Anyway, R&R and the next chapter will be coming soon.

And just to be clear: It was bloatfies she encountered.