I had a plan forming. I sat on the edge of my magically summoned comfortable bed, resting my aching feet for a moment, thinking about what I needed. Food and water were at the top of that list, preferably water without the mud and grit in it. Shoes as well would be lovely. All of this, of course, could be acquired at the nearest town, but that word nearest, that was a bit of a stretch. For all I knew, I could walk all day without seeing such a place. The prospect of walking for hours with no shoes, summoning a magically appearing place to sleep come nightfall, and hoping to get a good rest out in the open undisturbed, I might not know much, but that at least didn’t seem the best of plans.

  Gradually, insistently pushing its way toward the top of my list of priorities was another important need. Not having to walk too far. Combining that with my other requirements, the best option seemed instead to be heading back toward the stream, that was close enough that I was sure I could still make it there again. Where there was water, there would be other things as well. Maybe I couldn’t yet stomach the idea of trying to catch and cook my own fish, but visions of cool, shady lakesides with fruit filled trees, maybe a small fishing village that could aid me on my travels, my confused and overwhelmed head seemed to have made up its mind.

  When that faint, muddy trickle of nearly water came into view ahead, I collapsed to my knees beside it. As pitiful as it still was, I was just grateful that my slow, wearied trudging across this landscape could end, that I could rest for a moment. Lowering my aching body to the ground, I sat by the side of the water, taking a moment to wash flaking dried mud and dirt and more than a few stray leaves off the fur of my feet, and gently massage some feeling back into the battered and bruised soles. Scooping water up to take another drink, I could see it still swirled with so many shades of green and brown, mud and dirt and who knew what else mixed in with it. As I held the water, reluctant to actually taste it again, the swirling mud slowed and settled, by the time half the water had trickled out through gaps between my fingers, it looked at least a little clearer.

  Whether I was working on some vague instinct or intuition, or an almost forgotten past lesson, I knew what I needed to do, it would drop at least some of the silt and dirt collected. Grabbing eagerly for whatever rocks I could reach from my seated position, I started piling up a little makeshift dam down the middle of the flow, scooping up slimy wet mud to pack in around the stones, building it up more and more until the stream water splashed and tumbled over the sides of my barricade, a miniature waterfall one side, and a calm pool the other. Barely larger than my two cupped paws together, but clear and deep, I scooped it up, watching the faint shimmer of some greenish swirls on the surface still, and with a resigned sigh, drank down the cleanest water I could hope for out here.

  Between my undignified slurps, I almost sputtered the water back out again, not from the taste this time, but from the strange, half visible text box that had popped up just like my stats sheet might have.

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  Fluid Infrastructure Ability Tree Unlocked

  Grade 1 Abilities Available

  Ability Points: 0

  Basic Filtration (1)

  Small Water Storage (1)

  Channel Redirection (2)

  Rainwater Collector (3)

  I read through the text twice more before it faded from view entirely. Was this thing telling me that I had the chance to gain magical abilities over cleaning and storing water? Sure, that was on the list of the top five craziest things of the day, but not right at the top of the chart. Was it also telling me I had the chance to buy abilities that would let me survive here without dying of thirst of some water plague, and had no points to buy them with? I tried to see this as a win, but that part was just so intensely frustrating, with no hints at where I would gain these supposed points from.

  Ignoring my crude, makeshift dam, already starting to crumble around the edges as the water flowed around and over the stones, I climbed back to my feet and took a few awkward steps forward, I wasn’t sure who I hoped to complain to about this situation, but I was determined to do something. Barely had I gone any distance, than another frustration piled up on top. A few weak, stumbling steps past the stream, there was a road. Well, more of a winding track, worn down to bare mud and a few hardy scraps of stubby short grass, but it cut through the landscape in both directions, and clearly went somewhere.

  I summoned my bed back into existence here, between the water and the road, and flopped heavily down against it, the soft comfort of the mattress strange against the rest of this unpleasant place. Sitting there, I found that by thinking and concentrating, I could bring that same message back up, floating on the edge of my vision, still not entirely there, but readable. That lovely Ability Points: 0 never changed. Clearly I could buy new spells, or whatever they were, from this list, if only I had (1) point, but where to get that from? As I thought, I heard something in the distance, someone coming along the road toward me.

  I jumped up and looked around me quickly thinking. A barefoot, exhausted and dirty girl in the middle of nowhere was one thing, adding in a perfectly clean and made bed magically sitting by the side of the road would cause too many questions I couldn’t answer. I spotted a larger bush some distance back, and now with somewhat practised ease, directed the one spell I did have to summon the incongruous furniture into a new, better hidden spot. Nothing appeared.

  I looked around behind me, nothing there either. I tried again, and again, but somehow the one thing I had in all the world was gone.