Warm desert sand was the first thing Josephine felt when she woke up. She jolted up, noticing that she sat atop a dune in the middle of a sandy plane. The only thing she had on her was a blue gown which did nothing to prevent the sun’s heat from blanketing her entire body. For a moment, she sat still, letting her newfound circumstances sink in.

She was in the middle of nowhere, and nobody was around to help. Josephine’s breathing ramped up as she stared out into the vast open space she sat in. The vines growing out of her right arm coiled in response, sensing-

Josephine looked at her arm. Those vines weren’t there last night. She never had any plant growing out of her body… and come to think of it, she felt like several days were extracted from her memory. Her right eye hadn’t been missing either.

Josephine’s hand shook as she brought it to feel where her eye should be. She felt the softness of flower petals instead.

“What..? Why..? How did this..?” she muttered to herself. Her breathing intensified.

She began feeling her body for anything else that was growing out of her body. Her hand touched the soft petals of a larger flower growing out of the top of her head. That was when she screamed.

“This can’t be happening!” she shouted.

She tucked her arms close to her body and her vines curled around her, circling back to where they grew out of. She moved her leg slightly, causing the sand under her to collapse instantly.

Josephine lost her balance and tumbled down the huge dune, causing more sand to cascade down the slope. She shouted again and the vines uncoiled from her body, flailing around her and trying to find firm ground to root themselves in. However, this didn’t stop her head from impacting the hard ground waiting for her at the bottom of the dune. She tumbled on the sandstone for a few feet before finally stopping.

She laid facing upwards. A massive amount of pain pulsated from her head. Josephine groaned as she curled up, holding her head with her hands. She didn’t bother to wipe herself of the fine sand that was now all over her. The only thing she could focus on was her massive headache.

She laid down again, slowly dozing off as she struggled to deal with her pain.

———

A low revving noise woke Josephine up. It was dark out, and the stars twinkled in the night sky. The cooler air helped her cope with the now significantly dulled pain emanating from her head. She staggered as she stood up, scanning the desert for where the revving noise came from.

Josephine noticed that she was standing near a road. The ground wasn’t paved—it was instead covered with sand—but the amount of tire tracks that overlapped and criss-crossed each other was enough to convince her of this fact. She noticed a bright light at the horizon which was gradually growing larger.

That was when a realization hit her: she didn’t even consider how she was getting out of this desert alive! She’d focused too much on the plants that suddenly showed up all over her to think about that. The light had to belong to a vehicle, something which could definitely take her out of this barren place.

The revving sound intensified as the light grew larger. Josephine stared at it, hoping that the driver would notice her. The revving sound gave way to the low rumble of an engine as the vehicle drove closer. Josephine saw it clearly: it was a large truck with three pairs of wheels, colored just like the sand that surrounded her.

She jumped up and waved both of her arms at it as it drove past her.

“Hey! Over here!” she shouted.

The smell of exhaust and a cloud of dust washed over her before the truck skidded to a stop. Josephine coughed and wiped the sand off of herself as the driver stepped out of the truck.

A blond man wearing a floppy green beret walked towards her. As he got closer, Josephine saw that his beret had intricate floral patterns knitted into it, and that his similarly-colored coat had a symbol of a serpent wrapped around a staff emblazoned on its right side, just below his shoulder.

When the man got close enough such that he could clearly see Josephine’s face, he first looked surprised, but a grave expression quickly took over his face. The man scrutinized every detail that he could gather from Josephine’s current state, which unnerved her slightly.

“Um… are you alright?” Josephine asked.

The man was startled, but managed to compose himself.

“Oh, sorry! I’m fine, it’s just…”

The man paused for a moment. He sighed, his hand moving onto his forehead.

“It’s the flowers,” he said. “The ones growing out of your body. And that gown…”

“What?” Josephine asked. She looked down at her right arm again, and saw the vines growing out of it. She scowled at them. They weren’t supposed to be there, and yet they had appeared. The vines wriggled slightly as she looked down at her arm.

“Never mind. We can talk about that when we get back home,” the man said. “Anyways, I’m Barry. I make my living as a doctor,” he said, gesturing to the symbol on his coat, “but I also occasionally go outside my town’s boundaries to see if any hapless folks like you are stranded out in the desert.”

Josephine smiled and let out a sigh of relief.

“And you would be?” Barry asked.

“Um… I’m Josephine,” she answered.

“Pleasure to meet you, Josephine!”

The two shook hands, and Barry led her to the truck, opening the back doors and helping her climb inside.

“You’re gonna sit in there while I drive back home. There’s some water and food in the back corner for ya, by the way,” Barry said, pointing to some bottles and boxes.

As soon as water was mentioned, Josephine ran over to the corner and guzzled down one of the bottles. She’d been so revolted by the fact that plants were growing out of her that the thoughts of water and food failed to cross her mind.

“Easy there,” Barry said, “you don’t want to choke on that.”

Josephine finished off the water with a final large gulp. She faced Barry and smiled at him.

“So, we’re going home now, right?” She asked.

“Yep, straight back to Pyrite,” Barry said.

Josephine’s heart sank.

“That's… not my hometown.”

Barry raised an eyebrow, concerned. “I see… What’s your hometown called, then?”

“Um, Lazuli.”

“Lazuli, huh…” Barry paced around for a moment, pondering the name. Then, his heart sank as well.

“Haven’t heard of a town with that name,” he said.

“You what!?”

Josephine ran up to Barry, nearly falling out of the truck.

“What do you mean you haven’t heard of it, it’s got the huge lake and everything!” She shouted.

“Woah there! Calm down! And yes, it’s true that I’ve never heard of that town before. But what’s important is getting you to safety. We’ll find a way there eventually, I promise.”

Josephine frowned at Barry’s response. She was terrified. Both the appearance of plants and the realization that she was far away from home perturbed her. She breathed deeply in a vain attempt to calm herself.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

Barry paused for a few seconds before nodding. “I’m sure.”

A tense silence hung between them as Barry contemplated the situation. A serious look draped onto his face as a cold breeze swept through the area.

“We should get going,” Barry said. “I’ll start driving. It’ll be a bumpy ride at times, so stay safe.”

Josephine nodded as she walked to the back of the truck. Barry closed the doors to the trailer, and after a few short moments, the truck lurched forward and began to move. Josephine sat there, eating one of the rations from one of the boxes as Barry drove through the desert.

The rations only had the slightest hint of savoriness, and chewing through them was an ordeal due to their toughness. Annoyingly, the vines coming out of her arm occasionally wrapped around one as she was eating.

“Dammit, stop!” she said to herself, willing the vines to unwrap themselves from her food. It felt strange having what felt like several extra limbs portruding from her arm.

“Ugh… I can’t get used to this,” she thought to herself.

Eventually, Josephine was full, and she slowly fell asleep as the gentle noises of the truck continued outside.

———

Josephine found herself in a misty forest filled with bare trees. The air felt viscous as she walked through it and to a small tree. The tree had large purple and white flowers, just like the flowers growing out of Josephine’s head.

She went up to the tree and touched it. Energy cascaded through her arm, and words echoed in her mind.

“Reunite with me, child,” the Tree said. “You must come to me.”

The Tree repeated these words over and over again, its voice growing louder by the minute. Josephine covered her ears in vain as the Tree screamed at her, pleading for her to reunite with it. As Josephine succumbed to the overwhelming energy, the forest faded away…

———

Josephine woke up suddenly, jumping up from the floor of the truck. The vehicle had stopped, and she could hear snippets of conversation from outside. The feeling of the energy from the Tree lingered in her body.

“Was that dream real?” Josephine thought to herself. She crawled to the the trailer doors to hear the noises from outside.

“…finally back!” Josephine heard Barry say.

“Welcome back,” a woman replied. “How did your trip go?”

“Well… hmm… how do I explain this…” Barry said.

“What was it this time?” another woman said, her voice slightly higher-pitched than the first. “Did you find another one of those planty corpses or something?”

“Well, it wasn’t a corpse this time-”

“Wait, seriously?! You actually got a live one?” The second woman said.

“Yes… it wasn’t a rat or dog this time, though.”

“Ooh, what was it?”

“A person.”

Everyone outside was silent for a moment. Josephine felt a tension in the air as she heard someone take a step forward.

“A person?” the first woman asked.

“Yes, a person. A young girl, in fact,” Barry said. “The plants growing out of her were very different from what I’ve seen before as well. She seems to be docile, so I brought her here just like everyone else.”

“I see… what was her condition like?”

“She was disoriented. I’m fairly sure that she was dropped in the middle of the desert by someone since I found her wearing only a hospital gown. She isn’t from around here, either.”

“What? That’s peculiar… can I see her?”

“Yes. I’ll bring her out right now.”

Barry walked over to the truck and opened the trailer door.

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