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It was strange growing up in Homewood without any close peers. Elsie's childhood had been a rush of travelling the barrens and then fleeing to greener pastures, where a gangly, adolescent Emmerich had done his best to integrate her as best he could. Emmerich hovered, and Elsie didn't need him to. It had taken her some time to make friends with noulicorns her own age, fighting her way through the usual childlike bullying from being an outsider. But she had stories to tell and a few of the foals thought she was awesome for surviving out in the desert. She liked schooling, quite a bit more than Emmerich ever enjoyed it, and she liked people.

She hadn't left Homewood since Emmerich first brought her here, all those seasons ago, and the thought of stepping out into the barrens once again, the harsh heat of the day that sapped every molecule of moisture from you, the hard baked ground that made your hooves ache, the too-bright shine of white rock that glared and blinded. Elsie didn't miss any of it. She enjoyed the comfort Homewood offered. She knew, in order to get her gift, she'd have to make the trek across.

It was easier to do it for him than it was do it for herself.

It would be seasons again before Elsie's own peer group was ready to make the trek across the desert, but in the mean time, Elsie was prepared.

--

"Do you want me to come with you?" Emmerich watched her packing with a grim expression. All his expressions were grim.

"Nope," Elsie replied with chipper enthusiasm, tossing some herbs and sloshing jugs of water into a bag.

"Lots of giftless nouls have someone come with them."

"I've got it, Goose." Elsie ducked her head into her bag - a finely woven creation of her own design - and trotted up to Emmerich with a bright smile. She bumped her nose against his chin - daft tall brother of hers - and turned away. "Don't you have patrol, anyway?"

Emmerich frowned. Elsie's grin broadened. She knew he'd tried to get his schedule shifted to barren patrol for the evening, so he could tail Elsie without shirking his duties, but Elsie had sweet-talked the ascended scout that managed their group and made certain he'd be quite busy elsewhere.

After all, what younger sister wanted a big bro cramping her style?

--

The tree was much busier the second time Elsie approached it, surrounded on all sides by nouls roughly her own age, many already with their heads bowed in meditation, deep inside their dream visions. Elsie made certain she'd arrive somewhere in the middle of the throng, not first, not last, just one of the number.

Emmerich told her she'd get her own gift one day, and while she'd been nervous and flighty at the thought then, she was older now, more grown into herself. She knew Homewood and she knew the Barrens and she knew she had a bigger role to play in this life.

She strode toward the tree with her head held high. "I'm ready for you."

In a moment the tree dissolved from view and Elsie found herself standing back in the cracked, dry desert of the barrens, surrounded on all sides by hot dunes. Her ears snapped back as fear flooded her with adrenaline. Had she been denied a gift? Something else felt terribly wrong. Her belly ached and her tongue was thick and tacky, as if he hadn't eaten or drank in days. which was foolish, she'd been sure to get her fill before she left Homewood. She'd packed plenty more in case- Her pack! Elsie snapped her gaze over her back, but she didn't need to look, the weight of it was gone. She was out here with nothing.

Maybe she hadn't been denied. Maybe this was her vision. Emmerich said he'd found himself in the middle of the ruins when he'd gone to the tree, it just seemed so strange to be back in the barrens. What was her goal? There was nothing around her but hot sand and dry air.

'I'm not going to find anything standing around,' she muttered with a snort.

Elsie grew up here, knew how important it was to keep moving and find shelter. Already the sun was blistering her dark coat and dredging sweat from her flanks. She needed shade and water as quickly as possible and the urge to race for safety tickled her bones, but running rampant through the barrens was the quickest way to turn yourself to carrion. She set off at a steady walk and with no landmarks to guide her, she chose to walk with the sun at her back.

It didn't stay at her back for long. She trudged for hours through the sand, her head held low, mane a bedraggled mess hanging limp with sweat, as the sun danced around her with the drifting of the day. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe this wasn't a vision and she really was trapped out here in the barrens, far from anything green. Why would a vision take so long and be so devoid of... of anything! How was this meant to test her? Time trickled by like mud.

Another hour. Another sweep of the sun. Sweat drenched Elsie's pelt and stained her black. Her legs ached from dragging through the sand and hard granules clung to her fetlocks and dug into the frogs of her feet. She wanted to go home.

A spark of green winked over the crest of a dune.

Elsie stuttered to a halt, ears snapping erect. Green? Out here? Maybe she'd made it back to homewood after all! Elsie took off at a generous trot, head high and eyes on the horizon. She wanted to dash for it, to run, to gallop through the sand despite the pain in her legs. But if she was wrong, she'd have wasted too much energy, she had to keep her head about her.

It had been years since she'd last seen her parents, but she remembered their faces clearly. Papa always took up the lead, holding them at a slow and steady pace, while mama shielded Elsie and Emmerich from the hot sun with her own body. She'd whisper stories to them as they marched through the dunes in search of new shelter, new water, new food. Always lessons about staying alive in the desert.

"Don't run when you can walk," she'd say to them. "Do you remember the tale of the hasty jack hop?"

Elsie's eyes brimmed with excitement. She remembered all of mama's tales, but she loved hearing them anyway. There wasn't much else to keep a young mind occupied out in the barrens. "No mama, tell me again."

"One day a little jack hop went searching for sand seeds. Jack hops love to eat them, you see, but they're difficult to find. This little jack hop, whose name was Hasty, had a particular taste for them and would stop at nothing to hunt them down.

"Hasty lifted his little nose to the air and sniffed and sniffed until he caught the scent of one tumbling on the wind. Hasty was so hungry for a sand seed that he took off running! Racing about like silly buggers through the dunes. But the wind was even faster than Hasty and it chased the seeds further and further away from him. Hasty was so preoccupied-"

"That means distracted," said Emmerich.

Mother ignored him. "- so distracted that he forgot how hot it was. He forgot there was no water in the barrens. He even forgot how far from Homewood he was running! Eventually, Hasty was so hot and tired he collapsed and the seeds danced away from him."

"I don't like this story," said Emmerich, frowning.

Elsie knew he didn't like Elsie hearing stories like this, but mother must have known it too, because she ignored him again.

"And then Hasty died, from all the heat and thirst and silliness. And that's what happens to little animals that race about the barrens with no thoughts in their heads! So you must promise to always be careful and slow when you're out here."

Elsie laughed," Of course, mama!"

Elsie dragged herself up the rise of a dune and stared down at the greenery she'd spotted. It was far off, a trickle of viridian against a backdrop of brown, and all around the green was the sparkling blue of an oasis. But it shimmered in the heat, quavering like a fantasy. Elsie let out a long sigh and turned away from it.

A mirage, without a doubt.

Elsie knew better than to go chasing sand seeds in the desert.

Oop! Remembering to roll helps |D;;