'One day at a time. Tomorrow is gone. Get through today, worry about tomorrow later.' It was her current mantra, the words she lived by now. Since she had regained her mind, Celeste had managed to nearly kick her habit of that foul substance which the drow had hooked her on. Every once in awhile, Celeste would relapse, yet Larka would find her and convince her to put it away. This happened consistently.

The elf found it hard to sit around and do nothing all day. She felt weak, disgraced. A strong yearning to redeem herself over came her, made her stir-crazy. When stories about the dead rising, an ancient city defying gravity as it expelled itself from the sand reached Celeste's ears, the elf knew what she wanted to do.

Without warning, and failing to tell Larka as she was still trying to reset her sleeping schedule to match her wife's own, Celeste set out. Larka had managed to earn enough money to supply Celeste with a new set of leather armor, similar to that which she was accustomed to from her homelands. Donning the armor, Celeste grabbed her quiver, a bow she had made, slid her dagger into her boots, and two water canteens at her hip, the elf disappeared into the night.

If it wasn't for the help of strangers, the elf would have been hopelessly lost, never making her destination. Upon reaching the city, Celeste already had to fight too many of the shambling, wrapped beings. Having only a dagger, she found it difficult to stay at a distance, as her arrows didn't seem to have any effect against them. Not since they stand up and start shuffling away shortly after again.

Anyone who spotted the elf would easily tell she was quickly becoming fatigued, and will soon be overwhelmed.

She may have been maturing more quickly than her peers back from the place she called home, but her upbringing amongst Gnomes had nonetheless left her with a sense of insatiated curiosity, one of the many consequences of which was wanderlust. Having made preparations and purchases she deemed neccessary, she had made her way to the Aestas Outpost and, soon after, towards the cursed City, which had been subject to so many grim tales lately.

Vikki realised that it would be foolish of her to set out for such a journey alone. Throngs of undead are no joking matter, after all. And that is why, having failed to find a daring soul to accompany her, she hoped to meet someone on her way.

And from the looks of it, she did. A lone woman, fighting off a large number of mummies at once. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to state that she was merely holding onto her life, swinging away at the tireless beings of hatred and wrapped cloth.

With no hesitation, the Artificer ducked behind a nearby stone pedestal and loaded her crossbow. Unhindered by the grains of sand, which bounced off her protective eyewear and clung to a sash wrapped around her nose and mouth, she assumed her shooting position. Fully aware that ordinary bolts would be unlikely to do the task, she proceeded to whisper a spell to enchant her bolt with living flame, one that could possibly make short work of these dried wrappings. She was quick to realise, however, that if she were to put these undead aflame, she could put the woman she was trying to help in danger.

She abruptly ceased reciting the spell, cursing herself for her lack of foresight. It was then when she came up with yet another idea. It would have required her to ditch her cover, but if her predictions were to be at least partially as successful as she imagined, with aid of the rescued woman she shall eventually manage to fight off the vile beings. Or, at the very least, hold off until another adventurer arrives.

As she sped towards the commotion, Vikki went on to recite an incantation she had only recently memorised, and to make gestures in order to evoke a blast of ice towards the mummies. Having ran closely enough to the fight, the Artificer had thrown her hand in front of her, and the spell took effect. As she expected, the searing heat made short work of the amounts of ice that shot out of her hand, and generously sprayed the nearby undead with volumes of water. With cloth wrapping their bodies soaked, their movements became sluggish, and they themselves became far clumsier than before. Hopefully, this shall give the Artificer and the other woman the window for retreat at least, if not the edge they need.

Their numbers were large, but that was about it. Slowly, Eden smashed through the numerous mummies that flooded the sandy wasteland with her massive weapon, walking past the fallen bodies that have flooded the landscape behind her. After all, she did not know that the mummies were able to reassemble, and she did not care. Her eyes and ears only looked forward through the massive wave of carnage that flooded the surrounding sands.

However, what she was able to see were two more women trapped within the horde. One in the open, tired and surrounded while the other was taking cover, using bolts to keep the other from being flooded while not watching her own back. It seemed shew as taking the other's safety into mind more than her own. It would be that simple if the numbers were not as crazy. To Eden, however, this only meant needing to balance out the forces. After all, what is 3 vs thousands when you can have 6?

She could feel her throat vibrate as she loosened the clasp on the shackle around her neck, giving her throat more room to cry out, her voice screaming in the air as if a wild tiger instead of a simple scream. However, as far as Eden could understand, it was needed to call for some aid as an elephant, a bear, and a big cat phased into existence in front of the tigerkin before clasping the shackle back shut, quietly telling them. "Wrapped ones, bad. Other girls, save," taking to ear each one's acknowledgement before each one took off to handle a simple task. The large cat placed its focus on the elvish girl and taking care of the crowd around her while the bear aided the human. The elephant, with its big size and trunk, simply dealt with what was around to keep numbers at bay, giving Eden time to meet up with the other two and tilt her head at them, as if her way on seeing if things were alright.

If Celeste could stop and marvel at the sudden onslaught of water, she would have, wondering when she made it to the beach. What she could immediately see was the fact that her opponents have become all the more slower and a bit more clumsy now. With dagger in one hand, Celeste reached out with her mind and grasped at all the water she could. Water droplets pulled themselves off of the mummies, leaving them now dry as they pooled together to form three massive spheres of water hovering in various places in the group of mummies.

Celeste plunged her dagger into the skull of one trying to attack her, yanked it out and didn't even watch it fall as she immediately swiped at the next one to her right. As she did, the three orbs began to spin, flattening and hardening. The elf did a half spin, dagger catching a couple of mummies, and the refrozen flat objects arced around her, decapitating all of the wrapped undead in their paths. Her arms fell to her side as she stood there, panting, eyes searching for the one who sent her the water. The objects had stopped spinning to show that they had been shaped into shruikens.

Suddenly, they fell and shattered. Before her stood a strange sight of several beasts, a beastkin and one other. There were also more mummies coming from the alley ways nearby. Celeste had not been the most quiet fighter, and they were attracted to her efforts. "Fenehdis.. Where are they coming from?" It had been a mistake to come out here without Larka. Her strength ebbed, and it was unknown how much longer she could withstand such onslaught.

Even within the commotion as large as one present at the time within the walls of the cursed City, the sounds of heavy footsteps were rather distinct among all the fighting noise. Having taken pause to turn around and assess the source of these sounds, Vikki had noticed three large animals trotting towards her commotion, apparently led by a woman who had joined them right after the beasts. It was then when the woman Vikki sought to aid, having used her own magic to pull all the water from the mummies the Artificer had soaked earlier, turned it into icy blades, which easily cleaved through the necks of the undead, effectively decapitating them while inciting a storm of dirty undone wrappings, dust, and some intact bone.

It seemed that the mummies were not as impressed with the show as Vikki was, for many of the headless undead who had been knocked down by the impact of the icy blades had simply stood up before rejoining the fray. The situation looked rather grim, but then the young woman realised that she finally has everyone's attention, and that everyone fighting on the right side shall be able to retreat. Which was particularly important, for she was going to do something very dangerous.

Having stepped back to once again recite her spell for enchanting her bolt with flame, she turned to the recently arrived woman and, having returned her nod, she went on to exclaim:

- "Gals, let's retreat! It's gonna get hot in here…"

She hesitated for a brief moment. Did her words make any sense? After all, the fight took place in a desert, for crying out loud! It was already hot here!

- "Uhh, you know what I mean, just go, all of you! And search for a good defensible position while you're at it! I'll join you there!"

The artificer aimed her crossbow at the pile of recently knocked down mummies, which continued to be stampeded by others charging towards the beauties and their beasts, expecting to incite quite an inferno. Unfortunately, however, her flame-enchanted bolt got lodged in a thigh of a wretch that managed to charge ahead of its group. Sure, the withered appendage got broken off by a forceful shot, and a portion the cloth wrapped around it did ignite, but the end effect was far from satisfying. Sure, it was likely that the other undead trotting on top of an ignited "comrade" will catch the fire and then spread it to others, but the whole thing would proceed so much more slowly than she would like to.

She only hoped that the others will not be too miffed at her poor attempt. And more importantly, that their tactics will show more foresight than hers.

While Eden did not really understand the fire pun, she was all-too familiar with the term "retreat," and with how everything was at the moment, she, too believed it to be the right plan. "GATHER!" she thought, causing the three companions she recruited to help come together to make sure they would not be in harm's way, but to also aid in retreat. The only matter was where they could go? Well, technically, anywhere less crowded was better, so they had to go off of that.

Slamming her weapon's tip into the sand, she left it standing upright as if a metal beam sticking out of the ground before heading towards the elf and took her waist, hoisting her off the ground and carrying her through the sands to where her animals waited. Nearly no matter of struggled would phase her, especially by having such a thick collar around her neck. If anything, she would get defensive about her eyes, but that would be about it. All that was on Eden's mind in terms of doing this was ensuring she got to safety once he threw the elf onto the white tiger's back.

"Find safe," She informed the beast, who responded with a loud cry before taking off before Eden took her time to look at the elephant. Pointing at the human, she informed, "Bring," before finally pulling her weapon out of the sand and getting on the bear's back. Even if the weapon was heavy and awkward to handle, the bear paid it no mind. "Track," she commanded, pointing at the running cat, who indeed began to run through and follow the elf.

It was only after the shot happened and the human's face was covered in disappointment with her shot did the elephant run its trunk around the human's waist before lifting her onto its back before being the last to stampede from behind, giving the human plenty of sight to see the others.

This was really unfair… Her decapitated mummies stood and started to close in on her once more. The desire to call for Larka, knowing she wasn't near was strong, and very useless at the moment. Celeste probably would have been in lots of trouble if it hadn't been for the fact that she was soon swooped up. "Eep!" she squeaked, and was a bit too shocked to actually try and fight back at all. Never mind that she was already quite exhausted.

The elf was tossed onto the back of a large cat, and she assumed a natural riding position. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed the poor effect of a flaming spell. Water was just the wrong element for this environment. As the other woman got scooped up by an elephant, Celeste turned her attention to the beastkin. She hadn't heard a single peep from the woman except the roar to summon her companions.

"Thank you." she called out before watching the tiger's path. They zigzagged all over the city. Just as she was beginning to think that they'd be on the back of the animals all day, there was a perfect place for them to lay low for a bit. It looked like it was once an arena, the walls around the pit were high. Celeste slid off the tiger and found the pathway leading up to the bleachers. Easily defended, partially shaded, the animals weren't in obvious sight. The best part of all was that there were no mummies at present. While she would love to sit and relax, she also didn't want to be alone.

Returning to the others, Celeste beamed at them. "Perfect place for a breather. Is anyone hurt, need healing? I'm Celeste, by the way. Celeste Nash." It was an odd name, obviously not an elvish name.

The Elven woman's squeak as she was tossed onto a large cat's back was drowned out by the diminutive Human woman's own, as she was hoisted onto the back of an elephant. The squeak soon gave way to a panicked scream, as she found herself unable find anything she could hold onto, especially with one of her arms busy with cradling her crossbow. Laying flat on her stomach, Vikki tried to recite the incantation for her freezing spell yet again, hoping to freeze herself to the body of the massive animal, at least for a brief moment to pull herself someplace more secure. But each of the Artificer's attempts came with an abrupt stop as the beast's heavier footsteps threw Vikki up and back onto the elephant's back, knocking the air out of her lungs on impact.

And so she was left with the sole option of desperately holding herself to the elephant, to the best of her ability, until it reached her designation, which was still unclear to her. Eventually, the beast finally went on to slow down, and Vikki found herself able to lift her head up to assess the environment, as she let out a sigh of relief. Exhausted as she was, and still shaking from the stress of being barely able to hold onto the back of a speeding animal which was being chased by a throng of mummies, the woman could only manage to push herself off the animal's back with her hands, before falling off and landing on her bottom with an audible thud. Having taken a while to compose herself and listen to the Elf's introduction, the Artificer finally stood up and, having pulled down the sash obscuring the lower half of her youthful face and pushed up the goggles shielding her large, gray eyes, she had voiced her thanks and introduced herself as well:

- "You have my thanks, stranger" - she said, having turned to the woman, who seemed to bear some intriguing animal features. Although obviously still shaken by her recent travel, she opted not to complain, knowing full well that given the choice, she would have chosen it over being ravaged by the undead - "I take it you would have preferred me to go by your name instead, which… I don't know, unfortunately. Mine's Vikki. Vikki Brasslinkage. And I'm fine" - she turned towards the Elf and gave her an acknowledging nod, as she had added the last bit.

- "Sorry about my subpar performance, by the way. I'm still getting acquainted to these… intriguing lands, and what they have to offer. I assure you that I might still be useful to you, whether for deciphering arcane writings or handling any mechanical obstructions between us and our goal."

The Artificer took a pause to look around the enclosed structure they found themselves in, marvelling at its intriguing architecture. After a while of doing so, she turned to the women and voiced her thoughts:

- "Perhaps we could search the place while we're taking time for a breather? Who knows what intriguing secrets this place may hold?"

While the ride was sudden (and very bumpy for one), the animals tried to make sure they were as safe as possible during their trek through the sands. It was amongst the sands that they found themselves to a place Eden was very familiar with, in a sense: a Colosseum. Though more decrepit and worn out by the years of sand blown into its walls, it was a place where Eden had spent a good portion of her life. While she did doubt the layouts would be the same, but if there were any hints of similarites, it could be a big help for the team to help navigate.

While introductions and body checks were being around, Eden found herself mouthing the words of their names while pointing at them, doing it over and over between the two for maybe five cycles before realizing she had yet to introduce herself. Hoping to not be intimidating, Eden's form of introducing involved her lifting the handle of her blade, resting the heavy weapon on her shoulder until the pair could see underneath the base itself, where the word "EDEN" could be seen engraved underneath in the Common Trade Language. As for her health check, all she could really do is let them look at her. Sure, her body seemed to have been beaten and tattered thanks to the horde, Eden herself did not seem too phased by such injuries. After all, she had to deal with this on such a regular basis before her escape.

Finally, there was the fact of the three animals. While her lips did not move an inch, she gave each of them her thanks before the large cat, bear, and elephant began to glow before dissipating into the air, being sent back to their homes, away from such calamities.

Celeste shook her head. "Not lands that change. Laws of magic." Most people she has talked about magic with seems to have had problems with adjusting from one land to another. The best way she could cope with the idea of it was the fact that the laws of magic differed from land to land. It was stronger in one place, weaker in another. She couldn't say she had the same problem, however, as she had a whole year adjusting to this land and its laws long before she even attempted.

Then again, she had spent that entire year in a drugged haze. The elf shuddered as she made deliberate, large steps to Eden. She may have appeared intimidating with the determined scowl. 'Don't think of it, don't think of it. Do not think of it.' Celeste began examining Eden, noticing that she wasn't talking, merely showing a written form of her name. As she searched, a stressful hum of a tune came forth from her, trying to distract her own mind.

Any wound she found, Celeste concentrated on the area, hand hovering over it. Her healing magic was different from others, as it was more of controlling the blood within the body to accelerate the body's natural healing process. Bruises faded, gashes closed up as if days had sped by instead of mere seconds. When she was done, Celeste swayed dangerously on her feet, having drained herself a lot more than she previously realized.