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Breaking through the trees that had surrounded the Blackbriar Bog, Misty found herself on the outskirts of a large dusty plain. The Barrens, the heat rolled off it in waves and washed into her face. It was a dry heat, one that burned her eyes as small bits of grit wafted up with the low ground winds. It seemed that she went from one disaster to another! Was this going to be her luck in life? Kicking a back leg, small clumps of bog muck still cling to her hocks. Well... At least this place wasn't going to kill her by drowning, it would just be the heat. Shaking her head and looking back the way she had come, Misty didn't want to go back to that place... Not for a while at least...

Stepping out onto the sun baked lands, she instantly felt like someone had turned on the heat and forgot to turn down the sun. Her mane almost instantly clung to her neck and her mouth become parched. Wow, this place was the pits... A flaming hot pit where the Bog was one of poison and sucking mud.

"Just have to get through here... Hopefully going in one direction there will be something else?" she said to herself as she stepped carefully around large cracks in the ground, leaping over a couple that didn't look like there was any other way.

The dry arid air was enough to dry out what ever muck from the bog and it fell to shatter against the ground. Leaving mere dust to be blown away in the slightest of breeze. Misty stopped and looked back from the direction she had come from. Everything looked the same out here, all the dirt, rocks and dead plants that were scrub and scratched at her when she passed too close. The sun was getting higher on her second day in the barren and Misty was feeling like she would never get out of the barrens. Finding a small rock outcropping, Misty dragged herself underneath and into the shade. Not that it was that much cooler, but it was an escape from the sun that blistered her back.

"This place is not a good place for someone as tall as you." Said a voice of something deeper in the outcropping. "Perhaps you can turn around and go back to where you had come from."

Misty just about jumped out of her on skin, whacking her head against the rock over her head to cause even more pain to her body. It wasn't bad enough the muck from the bog had left sores on her legs and the sun blistered her back. Now she was hearing things. Closing her eyes with her head on the ground that was a tad cooler then the rest of the ground around her.

"Lovely, now I am hearing things. Ain't bad enough I am sore all over and haven't had anything to drink or eat since I left the bog... Not that there was much that was safe to eat there to begin with." Misty groaned rolling to her side and pulling her legs in close so that they were out of the sun.

"You are NOT hearing things!" hissed a lizard like creature who scuttled around her to sit before her nose. "I am right here. Now get out of my home."

Misty looked at the scuttle scale, not really lifting her head from the ground as she gave a heavy breath out. This is what was talking to her? And now was telling her to get out of its home? Giving the stone over her head a glance she looked back at the scuttle scale. Yea, she wasn't moving from this spot until the sun had gone down.

"Yea, not happening scaly. Too hot out there and my legs are killing me." Misty half groaned as she shifted around a little as she was getting uncomfortable. "Not that I have anywhere else to go!"

The scuttle scale watched her almost amused, his tongue flicking slightly as his green scales darkened slightly in the shade. He shuffled around out of her vision, small claws gripped onto her legs. Misty shifted slightly to try and shake him off, but he held strong until he was on her side. She couldn't tell what was going on, but at this moment she didn't care as sleep was taking her.

"Hey, wake up. WAKE UP!" something screamed in her ear.

The air around them had grown cooler as night had settled on the Barrens and it was a comfort after the hot day. Shifting slightly, her legs had gotten cramped from trying to keep her limbs out of the sun. At some point she wasn't sure when, she must have stretched her legs out in her sleep and instantly pulled them back in. With a groan, she opened her eyes and looked down at the scuttle scale that stood before her again. Those ember eyes watching her and expecting her to leave and soon.

All Misty knew was that her body ached all over and she didn't know where to go from where she was. Pulling herself out from under the over hang she stretched in the moonlight feeling a lot cooler as the sun had gone away and the broil was gone. Looking around everything looked different in the moonlight as it had in the sun.

"Now begone from this place and never return!" The scuttle scale said before scurrying back under the stones.

"Wait. Where can I find food and water out here." She asked before he was completely out of sight.

"Just follow the moon and it will lead you somewhere. Just leave now, you have disturbed enough already." Came the voice of the scuttle scale before he was gone.

Misty sighed as her skin started to itch again, her legs still sore. Just follow the moon, she thought she could do that. It was going to be easy now that she had at least half a days rest under the over hang when the sun was heading away from her. Now the moon was following that same path, but it was cooler now.

Walking around the cluster of stones and away from the grumpy scuttle scale, Misty kept following the moon. Hours later she could already feel n** of the sun at her back. Looking over her shoulder the sun was starting the crest over the far horizon. Ears falling back, was it morning already? She felt like she hadn't even gotten that far from where she had spent the day before. Looking forward again, Misty took off at pace that her legs would let her go. A head she saw more green rising over the barrens.

Was this the same greenery as the bog border? Or was this a new place? At this moment Misty didn't care. She just wanted to find someplace to curl up and just weep and perhaps just die. Her legs hurt, her back was blistered from the sun and long exposure. What else could go wrong?

Wc: 1183