The Land of Opportunity [Hannibal Bolton]

Melancholy was a most aptly named place, Sanctify thought, as she wandered through the hot, washed-out northern sector of the desert. What a horribly ugly place, she thought, hot and dry and various subtle shades of the same dull brownish gold. The grass was dead and brittle, and there was very little drinkable water, but there was a scattered population of withered whitish cacti that, while not particularly tasty, satisfied both her hunger and her thirst.

She had come here after leaving the Caverns of Calypso, and she was regretting her decision, this place was more unpleasant than the wastelands, which at least had a blue sky above. The dead grass gave way to bare sand, and she trudged through loose drifts for a while, watching with vague interest when a huge black scorpion scuttled across her path, and stopped dead in her tracks when a funny snake darted past, moving in a bizarre sideways slither.

The loose drifts gave way to hard packed yellow earth, bare and cracked, which in turn eventually gave way to grass again, as sparse and yellow as before. Here gophers and roadrunners darted around, and in the sky hawks circled, stalking their prey. The heat was nice, but that was the only thing she really liked about this dreary place, and she decided it was time to make her way out of here.