Loneliness ate at her like it had never before. A month had gone by and she'd found herself feeling hollow. The wonder of the caves and of the gembounds and all their many shapes had started to dim. Fear of the unknown kept her around Pegasus and Cepheus, which at least calmed a bit of the homesickness, but it didn't make for a very exciting life. She thought that, by now, she would have found herself back in Lilith's arms. She thought that maybe her presence so close to her chrysalis would wake her up, but nothing had changed in their connection. She slept, still, near the cursed Spire, and Eleanora was left to wait.

In the meantime, she'd managed to build herself a crude shelter out of sticks and dried leaves and she'd started to familiarize herself more with the local plants and animals. It was the best she could do without the support of other witches around her to build a proper home. She sat outside her small shelter, next to the small fire pit she'd created, which for now was cold, as she sorted through a small handful of herbs she'd found. Large leafy plants, small flowers, berries, seeds...few of which she recognized. She sighed softly, wondering if she should start tasting them, but quickly pushed away the thought. That was far more dangerous then having nothing at all.

A couple she could identify - one had a sharp, fresh smell and a square stem like basil and mint, another was a little flower that reminded her strongly of lavender, although the color and shape was all wrong, the smell was what clued her in. Others were more hard to identify, especially roots and seeds, where she had little expertise.

As she picked up a small handful of seeds, an idea popped in her head. She'd been slow to pick up on magic (it had never come easy on the surface) and she sometimes forgot it was there at all. But if she could grow this plant from just a seed...

She focused, urging it to grow and sprout in her hand. Magic seeped into her palm and the seeds twitched as they took the magic in, but something went wrong in the transfer. They trembled and cracked open, rotting before her eyes. Frusterated, she groaned and threw the seeds into the leaves, hearing them pop against tree trunks and scatter into the undergrowth.

She rested her head back against the mounted sticks behind her, rubbing between her eyes, a faint headache starting to form. This was just all so frustrating and much more difficult then she thought.