The sand in the distance, away from Grace, started to shift and move as a giant scorpion-like monster emerged. Standing at just over ten feet tall and twenty feet long, this giant Desert Scorpion had venom dripping from its tail. The scorpion venom made sizzling sounds upon hitting the sand. This terrifying scorpion demon monster was one of the overlords of this area of the desert. Anyone who wandered into its territory was never seen again. However, contrary to the thoughts of this giant Desert Overlord, Grace's thoughts were not nearly so complicated.
Upon not seeing that it was not the dreaded truant officer or any of the other evil factions of the dreaded Washington state board of education. (Author's Note: The first eight years of Grace Lockhart’s life took place in Washington state.) Grace couldn't care less. You may wonder why, but honestly, things don’t go well for anything that ever tries to hurt her.
The Overlord Scorpion, upon seeing a delicious human child in its territory, grew immensely hungry. The Overlord Scorpion loves children, something that it had not tasted for a long time. So, the Overlord Scorpion rushed in Grace's direction, picking up speed quickly. As the Desert Scorpion rapidly approached Grace, the unthinkable happened. As soon as it was within the range of one hundred feet from Grace, a giant stretch of sand slowly began to soften under the Overlord Scorpion's giant needle-like feet. As the sand below the Overlord Scorpion turned soft, it quickly became stuck and started to be pulled under the sand. The more he struggled, the more he sank until finally, the Overlord Scorpion figured out something was pulling him down. This is not quicksand at all. The last thought of the Overlord Scorpion was, "Huh, I’m supposed to be the strongest Demonic Monster here. Where did you come from?" Of course, Grace never knew any of this.
Grace was shocked as she had never seen something quite as miraculous as this. That Demonic Monster was sucked under the desert by quicksand. But Grace quickly heard a loud “Burp” after the Overlord Scorpion was ‘drowned’ in quicksand, at which point a giant purple ball was spit out of the sand, landing in front of Ruby and Grace.
Slapping Ruby, Grace said, “Put me down for a second Ruby! That looks like one of those demon cores that shows up in anime and manga.” After that statement, Grace quickly slid down from the giant back of Ruby with the help of Ruby’s paw to break her fall. As Grace got off of Ruby's back, it was a natural wonder that her white princess dress still looked as fresh as the day it was made, especially when both Ruby and Grace were stuck in an extremely hot and dirty desert.
The funny thing is, as Grace left Ruby behind to look at the supposed monster core, the strange cloud that had been following Grace all day still followed after her, keeping Grace nice and cool and supplied with ice for her to chew on. Grace looked into the sky. “Did Mr. Cloud also follow me into this strange land? Thanks for the help Mr. Cloud,” Grace said while waving at the cloud above her head. The truly strange thing is that the cloud seemed to gently shake as if saying thanks.
Grace finally walked to stand in front of the demon core that lay in the sand by her feet. “Hmm so if there are demons cores here am I in a cultivation or isekai novel situation here?” Grace wondered as she gently poked the giant monster core the size of a watermelon. “It probably has a poison attribute. Ha Ha, I bet all those adults who said I was wasting my time reading novels and web novels are now kicking themselves in the butt right now.”
“Did you hear that, you damn Librarian? Always yelling at me for coloring in her books.” Grace said as her tiny delicate hand formed into a fist and shook at the sky in anger. Grace considered the fact that perhaps she should start to curse out the heavens if this is a cultivation world. “Well, at least I did not get hit by some truck or something! What if it got my dress dirty? This outfit is one of the best ones I’ve found so far.”
Hearing Grace’s words, Ruby could only roll her eyes in irony at this statement. As Grace continued to look at the demon core in front of her, she poked it again, then kicked it lightly with her little white boots. As she did so, the damn thing cracked into a million small pieces, making Grace quite happy. “Well, this makes things easier! Ruby, it’s lunchtime, come and get it.”
With those words, Ruby came up to Grace and began to eat the Demon core shards on the ground. While waiting, Grace drew rabbits in the sand, with the loud sound of the Overlord Scorpion's demon core being eaten like glass by Ruby. As Ruby finished her meal, Grace finished her rabbit drawing. “Ruby, I hope you enjoyed that meal, and it looks like you grew in size a lot as well, making me wonder if you eat enough of these can you start talking like in those novels.”
Ruby, now clearly stronger and bigger in size, picked up Grace with her new ambidextrous paw that can now make a fist, then placed Grace gently down on her back. As they continued to walk onward, what neither of them noticed was that the drawing that Grace made seemed to solidify as if gaining a hint of spiritual intelligence - spiritual rabbit intelligence.
With Grace riding on Ruby’s back, Ruby’s pace began to speed up quite a bit, with the scenery beginning to pass them by quite quickly. This speed did not affect the quality of Grace’s ride, however. Little did Grace know that this desert region is known as a Forbidden Region referred to as the Desert Of The Rising Sun.
As Ruby ran in the desert for quite a while, the scenery started to become less bleak and started to show a few faint signs of life. However, after such an eventful day, Grace grew tired as she was still only an eight-year-old girl after all. By this point, it should not be surprising that Ruby decided to put Grace to bed. At which point, The Cave Of Wonders showed up in front of Grace and Ruby, ready for them to use and sleep in.
Grace and Ruby went into their home only to reveal its splendid scenery. Grace recalled that her home was what brought her on this journey. When entering the cave, Grace slid off of Ruby and went to the kitchen in her home to get some food. Grace calls her home The Cave Wonders, since somehow this place has been following Grace around since she was quite young.
“Hmm, I think that some tea and cookies would be good tonight.” As Grace entered the kitchen, she saw the tea and freshly baked cookies waiting on the table, still giving off a nice bit of steam from being freshly made. Grace sat down at the table then started eating her cookies while enjoying her tea. Grace loves lemon tea with a hint of honey.
“Hmm, with my supper over, I need to go to bed. After I brush my teeth, of course.” With this thought in mind, Grace quickly changed into her pink bunny pajamas and then brushed her teeth. Before walking to her bedroom covered in all kinds of pink decorations, pink wallpaper covered the walls of Grace's room with a nice plush pink carpet on the floor.
The most striking thing about this bedroom is the giant pink crystal bed in the middle of the room. This bed is so big that six to eight people can use it at the same time. This is Grace’s favorite bed, cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
“Time to go to bed then. Goodnight Ruby, be sure to get some sleep as well,” said Grace, looking at the head of Ruby, who loves to wear a pink night hat like Santa Claus with its own ball at the end. “Ruby, you better not chew on that ball on your hat again. I’m tired of washing it all the time.”
However, Ruby completely ignored Grace’s statement and simply closed her eyes. After Grace was asleep, Ruby started to chew on her hat ball anyway. “Ha Ha,” Ruby laughed as she too went to bed with slobber getting all over her hat ball as usual.
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