Isuka had been traveling for hours. Ironically, she was searching for a teleportation spell to make her travels easier, but until she got her hands on a spell like that, she was stuck traversing grassy fields, grassy fields, and yep, you guessed it, grassy fields.

"I just want one change," she said. It had gotten so monotone that her mind had completely wandered off. She heard the soft hush of stepping on grass shift to more crunchy grains and started focusing around her again. She had reached the edge of a desert, the expanse of the Zipangu plains giving way to the expanse of the Zipangu coast. "I spoke too soon," she said, realizing she had asked for too much. Hoping she wouldn't have to look for the caravan for too long, she started her trip into the desert.

"Right here is where I get all my things," Headen said, pointing down to a desert part of the map. "All the caravans will go here to avoid getting into any altercations. They have all sorts of things they usually sell to keep food stocked, so you can probably get a spell there for a bag of gems."

"I don't have a bag of gems," Isuka said, taking off her spectacles. She was thankful she had a place to look for, but what was the point if she couldn't sweep up the funds? Headen nodded in agreement, before snapping her fingers. One of her women dropped a bag down on top of the map. Isuka furrowed her eyes, switching between looking at Headen and the gem bag. "Headen, I can't take this!"

"You helped me take my clan. I'm simply repaying part of the favor," she said. "I will have an escort bring you part of the way, along with a book of stronger spells for you to use. But once you get close enough to avoid most mamono, you will be on your own…"

Isuka took the bag of gems out from her satchel. "I hope this will be enough," she said. She saw dust creep up on the horizon, growing from a dot to a barreling path. She lined herself up with the dust being plowed, holding up the bag of gems as high as she could. She closed her eyes as the path of destruction approached her, stopping just short of running her over.

Her sight resumed to the caravan she was told of. A line of wagons slowly dispersed, being pushed around her as they kept journeying on their way. They had various ways of moving, with some pulled by sandworms that chugged along underground. The only wagon that had stopped was the first, being pulled by what looked like an engine placed on wheels while the other wagons slowly circled about to a stop around her. She could feel eyes on her, someone looking through the windows of each car.

"Hello?" She said, hand-fanning the dust away from her eyes as she went to the front. She had a small knife, some spells, and a bundle of small blunt objects to throw, but if anything came out of the door it wasn't going to go well.

She came to the side of the first wagon's door, noting the amount of gold that seemed to be sprinkled onto the wooden planks. It opened a tiny crack, the sun reflecting enough to only show a golden tooth, floating ominously in the darkness. "Who goes there?" A voice went, as raspy as a goblin role-playing a bed-ridden orc.

"A mere human sorceress, sir," she said, already reaching for her satchel. "I wanted to see if you had any spells I can take on?"

"No! I hate sorcery!" the voice went, the door shutting back loudly. Isuka held up the bag further, shaking it so the gems would shuffle with a gentle swish. "But I brought gems with me to pay."

"Gem?" came the muffled voice. The door opened back up, the tooth floating ominously once more. "You have money?"

"Will this be enough?" Isuka asked. The door widened further, letting her see a slice of the face that inspected the bag. He looked old, with bags just visible under the lack of light. He had gray eyelashes and eyebrows, and a few strands of leftover hair seemed to hang down with little left to hold on to. "Yes, yes that looks like plenty!" He said, pushing open the door. She could see his short stature now. He had a belly as round as a pregnant woman's, and spikes for here that seemed to grow everywhere but the central bald patch as big as a grapefruit. His broken goggles covered his eyes completely, almost viable as mirrors if cracks didn't distort the reflection. He seemed human, but everything about him screamed how she could be walking into an inhumane trap. "Come in! Before the tornadoes come…"

"Right," Isuka said apprehensively, stepping up into the wagon. She saw a mess of small trinkets surrounding one lounging chair, the old man waddling over to jump back into his seat. "Sit down!" He shouted. "No need for a pretty lady like yourself to stay standing. Sit, sit you're a guest!" She nodded and sat on top of a chest, clutching her satchel as she looked at the assortment of body parts around her. "You must run into a lot of monsters…"

"When you spend enough time in the desert, you stumble across a lot of…preservable items," he answered nonchalantly, waving it off. "Now then, this spell you are after…"

"Right." Isuka took a journal out of her satchel, flipping to the pages where she recorded her notes. "I heard this was a good place to receive a teleportation spell of some sorts." She watched as the man tapped his chin, ponding on his inventory. "Teleportation, teleportation…right! I think I have one. We used to use it to lure sandworms into our traps, but with all the meat we have, we won't need it for decades." He reached under his hat, taking out a crumpled-up ball of thick paper. "Is this what you seek?"

"Maybe? You would have to unfurl it…" Isuka started to lift her arm towards the ball, but he moved it behind his back. "Ah, ah, aaaah. I can't simply give away such an important part of our heritage without some compensation~"

"You just said you wouldn't need it for decades," she responded. The longer she was there, the more creepy items she noticed around the car. "Can't I just trade my staff, or some-?"

"No, only gem!" At the utter mention of a bartering, the short-staffed man slammed his hand into a box, busting a hole in the lid as he screamed the last word. A wave of spiders flowed out of the hole, causing Isuka to hop back on her chair. She lifted her legs, the horror and disgust all over her shrinking pupils as she watched the critters all scatter throughout the wagon. "W-where did they go?"

"Oh…." the man realized he had let something slip, removing his hand. He almost ignored the box completely, adjusting the collar to cover his bulging neck vein. "Sorry, force of habit," he clarified. "I just really like doing business with something with monetary value…l-like as gems!" Isuka was a hare's sprint away from abandoning her quest, but her need to not have to walk was still enough to fork over the bag of gems. She tossed it to his feet, watching him pick it up and shake it gently. "That does sound like gem," he said, back to his "normal" demeanor. "You better hope you have enough, young lady." He chuckled as he opened the pouch, turning it upside down expecting only a handful of gems to fall out. His smile grew less narcissistic as he watched everything fall out, shaking the bag once last time to get the last gem to bounce down the pile.

"This is enough for a night in a royal court…" his hoarse voice whispered, stirring handful after handful into his hands. The feeling of the shiny green coursed through his body, a giggle bubbling up his soul like lava out of a vent. "Where would you get so much?"

"I found a sponsor," Isuka said. "Does this mean you I can have the-eep!" The balled-up spell hit her in the face, bouncing into her palms.

"You can have it, you have whatever you wish!" He said, tossing gems around him like it was snow on Christmas. "I'm rich once more, ahahaha!"

"G-glad you enjoy it…" Isuka said, putting the spell into her satchel and starting to leave. She wondered if she was scammed, but seeing the green glow in the man's eyes unsettled her to get out of here regardless. She started to open the carriage, but a long walking stick jabbed the door back shut. "Where are you going!?"

"Home," Isuka said, trying to overpower the man against the door. "I…already bought the spell from you! Heavens you are strong…"

"No, I said you could have anything," he said. "That spell doesn't nearly cover the costs of all these gems. You must get something else!"

"From…here?" Isuka looked around. On arrival she saw nothing that she felt safe taking back with her, but now that she was forced to focus once more, the sight of all the random limbs made her skin crawl more than ever. Other than that it was useless trinkets, like torn clothing and magical items she could get for a bargain in a swap meet, with a way saner seller as well. "It's alright, I can just pay with the full bag of gems. A tip-"

"No!" the man yelled, pointing up at her face. "Good deals only! Must buy!"

"Then I will just take some of the gems back with me," she said, reaching down to grab a handful.

"I said No!" He said, grabbing her hand and yanking her off-kilter. She felt flat on her face, scratching her cheek as her head thumped against the worn wooden boards. "You will buy something!"

"I don't want to buy anything," she yelled back. "You're insane!"

"Then I deem you in debt till you do!" He pulled out a set of cuffs from deep behind some items, stomping over her back to reach her legs. "Ow, ack!"

"And I am not insane," click, "So don't ever call me that again!" He dragged her out, dropping her down the steps back out onto the sands. "Now join the rest of the caravan, you can sit about what you have done until you come to your senses."

"Like I would!" she argued. "I'm just going to leave!"

"Like you would get far in those chains," he pointed out. "You think you can out-bunny hop a mana tornado? Nehnehneh!"

"I don't need to," Isuka reached her satchel, ready to take out her book when she instead felt useless scraps of metal inside. She turned her eyes, seeing that she didn't even have the right satchel hanging from her shoulder.

"I'm just keeping your stuff as collateral," he said, twirling her satchel around his arms. "Of course, you could use the rest of the gems on some metal."

"What would I do with rusted pieces of metal!?" Isuka said. "I don't even know a blacksmith!"

"Then suffer then! Ungrateful brat!" He slammed the door shut, leaving her outside. She hopped back over, slamming her fists on the door. "Open up! You, you, skank!"

"I have a skank if you want to pay for him," he offered.

"That's disgusting!"

"Then no deal! And stop banging on my door, the tornados are about to get here." As if on cue, she heard the dust be parted, feeling her bangs blow in front of her line of sight.

Isuka hoisted herself up in one of the carriages, deciding to tag along with the caravan for now. She could hear the mana tornados blow right on top of them, sometimes hurling a frightening clump of sand against the frame. It never left until its slow death, trying all it can to wring the magic out of the pools of mana it detected inside the caravan. Almost surely without the engines, any animal, monster, or spell pushing this car forward would have been dried up, she thought.

Almost as bad was the smell. She was only able to catch up to the car of livestock before the caravan departed. The smell of desert sand baths and general funk got into her nose, no matter how many layers of fabric she put over her nostrils. Every so often a random animal would come over to sniff her. It grossed her out, but it also grossed out the few others that also took shelter within this carriage so at least she wasn't alone.

She stood up and squeezed around everything, going to one of those lucky few. She sat next to a blue-haired cat girl with red eyes and a pink shirt and shorts on, her head tilted down as she waited out the trip to the next stop.

"Hey," Isuka said, letting out a grunt as she sat down beside the bored woman. She looked up at Isuka, her eyes widening. "There's a new face around here!"

"Am I the first new slave in a while?" Isuka asked.

"Not a slave persae, but I can't really outrun a tornado with leg cuffs," she said, lifting up her footsies to show the rusted chains around her legs. "Plus, that man has my phone."

"What…is a phone?"

"Oh, oh! I meant 'device of contact'. Wrong life." She put her legs back down and extended a greeting hand. "My name is Jen, traveler of many…" She looked to the side of her before answering. "...we'll call them lands."

"I'm also a traveler, believe it or not. Isuka." Isuka shook Jen's hand back.

"I never thought another human would get this far into the desert though. You must not be normal."

"You could say I have a sponsor here and there. I wanted to retrieve a teleportation spell, but that man is as stingy as a Kraken around a ship."

"Yeah, sounds like Fraanz," Jen said, sighing as she rested her back against the carriage. "I came looking for something magical too. You see…"

There is this set of talismans created that were so powerful, they had to be sealed away by three Danuki yokai all at once, 50 leagues underground, surrounded by a tomb of refined silver. It was crafted by a crazy warlock that wished for nothing but eternal ecstasy and sexual relations, to bring to life his wildest ideas in his concubines. One tap of the talisman on one's body, and they instantly become a slave to whatever their master desires. I have been searching for months, trying to find the whereabouts of this sacred gem. I knew what dangers lurked ahead, as surely many more have died trying to achieve the promises of nirvana foretold….

"So yeah, turns out it was here in this random desert. He sold it to me for 30 gems." Jen took a small notebook-sized black box out of her pocket. "He found it, used the silver to make this container, and kept it in his house for years. No one else was able to get through all the trials, so everything thought it was still inside of the tomb."

"Wait, how did you know it was in the desert?" Isuka asked.

"Multi-dimensional eBay," Jen responded. "Feels a bit silly now, with all the lore and all, but hey, 30 gems is 30 gems. Now I just need someone to try it on before myself…saaaay, you wouldn't be looking for a few talismans to add to your style, are you?~"

"Not interested."

"Can't say I didn't try," Jen said, putting the box back away in her pocket. "I would have left after, but I had a gem left. So he went 'sPeNd ThE gEm ON SOMETHING' and I am like 'NO, I HATE EVERYTHING!' I just couldn't find anything I wanted to spend one gem on." Jen covered her eye whenever he did his impression, almost spot on with how uncanny he sounded.

"You too!? I thought I was the mad one!" Isuka exclaimed. "Those bugs just take the soul out of everything!"

"And the limbs?"

"I rather rot with these pigs than spend the rest of my money on those dead body parts."

"We might actually do that if we don't get out of here," Jen pointed out, hearing an annoyed pig snort from across the carriage. "Well frick you too! We can fight right now, you're just an undercooked piece of bacon!"

"I have a plan, but we need to know when the next stop is," Isuka said. She looked outside of the window, seeing that the surroundings had finally cleared up. The tornadoes had dissipated and it was sundown, the yellow sun slowly descending down into the horizon. "Does the man have a regular schedule?"

"It depends on him," Jen said. "He says we all have a say in where we want to go, but really he just chases after every gem in existence. It could be here, it could be to the beach, it could even be out in the ocean."

"Oh brother," Isuka said. She did not like the sound of teleporting over stretches of water to get home. "Do you know where next?"

"If he told us, I slept through it," Jen said. "I honestly have no idea."

Isuka nodded, pretending that she wasn't panicking. For all she knew, they could be on the other side of the continent and as long as the chains were around her legs, she couldn't exactly pull off a highway robbery. She looked at Jen, having no idea how long she had been here.

How long was she going to spend?

Rattle…the engine pulling their carriage shook violently, soundly like it would come apart into a million pieces for a solid moment. "Can that contraption stay quiet?" Isuka said, trying to brainstorm a strategy.

"Our engine does that a bit," Jen said, tossing the box up and down in her hand. "Sometimes I wish it would just break, then that man would fix it up already.

"Break?" Isuka said. "Break! We can break the engine and force a stop!" Jen turned her head, stopping her empty-minded tossing. "Heeey, that doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"But with what…" Isuka saw a blue ear leave her sight, but she thought nothing of it. It wasn't until she heard fiddling with a window did she stop her planning, seeing Jen gently pop the window open. Isuka could feel the breeze pouring in, tickling her pores as the catgirl took a gander at the engine. The few other people also looked up, watching quietly as the catgirl poked around at the front. "If I throw something right, I could stall the engine and blow it up…" Jen took out her pack of talismans, closing one eye as she aimed for a nice gap that seemed to lead to something important.

"Wait, you looked so long for those," Isuka said, not wanting Jen to waste her money. "We can find something else, I'm sure of it."

"No, this is the only way," she responded dramatically, throwing the pack into the engine. It bounced around but went inside, rattling itself until it found itself wedged between two gears. Jen couldn't see it, but hearing something start to grind against the gears was good enough for her. "GET DOWN!" She yelled, diving back down onto the carriage floor as the engine exploded. The animals started rushing everyone, making a ruckus trying to figure out what was going on. Isuka covered her eyes during the inital flash and stood up, bumping into scrambling cows and chickens as she made her wait over to Jen. "What did you do!?" She yelled over the noise.

"I broke the engine, help me bust open the door!" They shuffled over to the door, moving the animals out of the way until they had enough space to work with. Jen did her best to ram through it with her shoulder, but the ankle cuffs impaired her power drastically. "Square waffles! This thing is jammed."

"Wait," Isuka said. "We need to think about this. I was able to get in, and you were able to get in, so wouldn't the door be unlocked?" Jen didn't answer, but the look on her face said all that it needed to. She turned the handle, seeing the door swing freely open. All the animals rushed out, spreading out across the land now that they weren't confined to a darkly-lit caravan car.

Before them was the desert they saw before, only now, the dim light of dusk left everything dark. The most light came from around the wagon exterior, where the engine was up in flames and smoke. "Well," Jen remarked. "That was surprisingly consistent."

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CAR!" When the voice of sly dipwad of a man.

"We need to go," Isuka said to the few people remaining inside. They looked at each other, nervous about how they would get around with their feet bound by ankle cuffs but nervously got out of the car as well. "Stay here," Isuka said. "We will let you know once it's clear to run."

Isuka and Jen carefully got down from the back, peeking her head around and watching him pace around frantically. "I DIDN'T BRING ANY WATER, I'M GOing to lose…SO MANY GEMS!"

"Do you have a spell for this?" Jen asked. Isuka shook her head, looking at the other cars ahead. "I need my spellbook, I can't perform the magic without runes…"

"I might know a spell," Jen whispered in Isuka's ear, Isuka nodding as she recited it over in her head. "Are you sure this will work?"

"Probably." It was a good enough chance for her. She held her hands up, focusing hard as she started reciting the spell. "Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Her hands were quickly engulfed in a black mass, the outline of her fingers turning white as her hands tickled with power. The sudden collection of energy shot away from her towards the man. It was silent, leaving him unsuspecting until he was hit right under his armpit. "Agh!" He began to float up in the desert, rising in the sun while shaking his limbs. "Who did this! How! Wh-" he spied Jen and Isuka watching from a bird's I view, the anger making his veins pulse to near popping on his head. "You two! I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS!"

"How long does the spell last?" Isuka asked, a bit worried about his threat should he survive a building-height fall into the desert.

"We don't know, which is exactly why it's time to get moving." Jen started moving, waiting for Isuka to get the hint before hurrying over to the first car. "Come on!" Isuka yelled to the other people. The two could still hear the man screaming their name, their cuffs making it hard to put distance between him.

Reaching the first car, Jen hopped up and punched the window, smashing it to pieces before climbing through. Isuka didn't follow, questioning if climbing and subsequently landing on shattered glass was a smart idea until she heard the cabin door start to shake. Jen swung it open, tossing Isuka her satchel and holding the gems he also held as collateral. "Hurry! Do a magic thing and get us out of these chains!" Isuka nodded and yanked the book out of her satchel, flipping pages until she found a pretty easy spell to use. She drew the rune from the book on each of their legs and snapped her fingers. A glowing lock instantly appeared on the links, shaking them until-

CHING

CHING

One by one, the leg cuffs were snapped off into the sand. Jen bounced with jubilation, happy that she could move her legs more than five inches at a time now. "I knew principle would win!" She exclaimed. "Now we both have spare gems, you got your spell and satchel, and I get to keep my…" She patted around her clothing for where she put her case of talisman, each pat getting less and less enthusiastic. "Talismans."

"Oh no!" Isuka exclaimed, getting the cuffs off of the other enslaved people as well. "Didn't you throw them into-"

BOOOOM! The damaged engine suddenly gained a second wind, blowing up intimidatingly in a ball of rising mana-infused fire. They could see it from the first engine; that goblin of a man was definitely going to be pissed.

"Sorry about your cards," Isuka said, but Jen shrugged off the sympathy. "It's alright!"

"Because you didn't need time?"

"Because the talismans alone can survive a volcano." Right on cue, a sizzling black box fell into the ground like a nerfed asteroid. Jen picked it up, opening up the pack to see her talismans perfectly preserved. "As good as ever, but we shooooooould test one, just to make sure…."

"The answer is still no," Isuka said, splitting her gems with Jen and putting her half in her satchel. She finished freeing everyone else with the ice spell, watching them disperse and get their own stolen items. "It was nice to run into you though. We had quite the adventure together."

"NOT SO FAST!"

Jen and Isuka turned toward the man. He was holding a small boy at sharp-metal-object point, pressing the blade up against the artery in his neck. "You should have just BOUGHT SOMETHING!"

"Your selection is trash!" Jen said. "It's fucking shit! This talisman was literally the only good thing in your entire caravan! I'm not paying a gem for a dead spider!"

"So what? You think you can just come in here, disrespect my inventory, blow up one of my cars, and think you can just leave?" He cackled his grip on the boy and the object tightening. "Oh you can leave, after I pay in blood."

"Help me!" The boy went, desperately trying to get away. "Please, I don't know where I am!"

"Where was he even at!" Isuka asked.

"I found him in a different car," the man answered. "You thought I wouldn't have any leverage, but I know how you humans act. You can't help but sacrifice for a complete stranger, now can you?"

"Screw you then," Jen said. "Come Isuka, we don't need to take this." She looked at her, waiting for her to follow along again but Isuka shook her head.

"Isuka?"

"We can't leave him to die like this," She said back. He looked into the boy's eyes, seeing tears of fear roll down his red eyes.

"Well I'm not going back in chains either. He's just a boy, and he's going to just capture us again." Isuka looked towards the side characters for support, but being trapped in his caravan seemed to have left them too afraid to try.

"I…think I have a solution." Isuka stepped forward, taking her part of the gems out of her satchel. "We will pay for the boy."

"What?" The man went.

"What?" Jen also went.

"Well, it's something I want to buy now, so why not?" Isuka tossed the bag over to him, the bag of gems spilling out onto the ground. "This is the rest of my purchasing power, so please hand over the boy?"

"Oh…well…" The short deranged man didn't know what to make of it. Seeing all the gems being spent seemed to appease his anger, the veins on his head sinking back under his head as the pressure went away. "Since you're in a bargaining mood it seems, no deal!" He said. "I need something more."

"Screw it, here's my share then," Jen said, tossing her half over as well.

"Jenny?"

"I needed a moment to think about it," Jen said. "I guess buying a boy's freedom is the one thing in this dump worth something."

"Thatwouldbemore, yes yes yes!" He dropped the piece of metal and let go of the boy, rushing over to roll around in all the gems. "FINALLY! I have all these pretties all to myself!" The boy instantly ran over to Isuka, smothering himself against her. "Thank you," he cried, putting all his strength into not letting go.

"Well then Isuka," Jen said while tossing her pack of talismans. "I am never again using eBay to buy stuff online. I should have just gone to multidimensional Ikea…" She watched as Isuka tried to pry the boy off her, just noticing the little round black nubs poking out through his messy hair. She wanted to say something, but if she did, she might have to stay…

"Well, I have my thing," Jen said, double-checking she had retrieved her phone as well. "Will you be alright? My offer is still on the table."

"You know what?" Isuka said, patting the boy's head as he hugged. "Maybe I will take you up on that offer."

"Really!?~"

"No," Isuka said, coldly revoking her consideration. Jenny frowned and pressed something on her phone, opening a portal. "Well, how about you lot?" she asked the other random people. "Do any of you have enough speaking lines to come with?"

"We don't know how to get home," one of the nameless said.

"That is good enough for me! Come on now, I'm going to give you all a nice makeover…" Jen waved bye to Isuka as she waved everyone through the portal before hopping through herself.

Isuka waved bye, watching her leave her and the boy in the desert. She looked back to where she last saw the man, but his caravan, and his terrible shop, seemed to be slowly chugging away in the distance. "Well then, guess I'm bringing something else back with me…what is that on your forehead?"