"Just fine, how about you?" She plops her latest carrot in its basket and straightens up and brushes dirt off her hands onto her overalls and heads for the house.

"Pretty great, all told. Among other things, Torok's new armor apparently contains cleverly concealed storage, so he has given me the backpack."

She follows Lily inside and to the pantry.

"Nice of him." She gestures invitingly to the pantry. "Take what you like, vegetables or fruit. Nothing here is transformative, I keep all that in the barn nowhere near my kitchen."

"Sensible of you!"

Into the backpack go four apples, four pears, four oranges. Then she pauses, considering the vegetables.

<No lighter, can't count on starting a fire in the desert. Could try to improvise a fire-starter, but no pot to cook in, either.>

<What about to cook once we're in the city? Keep us from buying from restaurants and food carts all the time?>

<If cooking is the most profitable use of our time, we may be doing something wrong.>

<Counterpoint: I like to cook, and it could be a nice way to unwind.>

Sable smiles and nods, and into the bag go eight carrots, four yams, four potatoes, and four onions.

She stands and smiles at Lily. "Thank you again. This should hopefully be enough for the trip, between us."

"Safe travels."

She smiles gratefully and then strides back out to meet up with Torok. Wait, does she need a label for whatever the fuck her relationship is with Torok?

<No, you do not need a label for your relationship with Torok yet. Dork,> Hailey teases fondly.

And so, when she reaches Torok, he finds her giggling faintly for a moment.

He's sitting by the edge of the path, tall grass bending gently over his head; he glances up and grins when he sees her laughing, then heaves himself to his feet.

"All set?"

"Yep! If we don't have a good opportunity to cook the onions properly on the trail, I'll keep 'em and cook 'em once I've got a pot or something in the city."

"I think my friend Diran has a cookpot—I'm planning to take you to her oasis, ask if we can stop for lunch, and go on to the city from there. Oh, uh, I guess I'll be carrying our water unless you have a way to carry some yourself, so speak up if you get thirsty, okay? And remind me to fill up when we stop at the oasis."

"Sounds like a good plan. We weren't lucky enough to worldhop with a water bottle, unfortunately, so I appreciate your carrying it. And will do on both counts."

And she sets her heart on going to Diran's oasis, wherever that is, and strides off toward the desert with Torok.

Torok takes some pretty long strides himself; they set a very respectable pace together, and make it across the wasteland into the desert before the sun reaches midmorning height.

The armor's storage system turns out to be a panel over his belly, which he can loosen to reveal what has got to be some kind of dimensional pocket given the size of the waterskin he pulls out of it the first time he needs a drink. He conscientiously offers it to Sable before putting it away.

The sight of the dimensional pocket prompts a Ruby, who gratefully accepts the water. "Oooooh! Oh my gosh! A dimensional pocket! That's so cool! What's the capacity like? Oh I've got to figure out how Hazel made that it's almost like mechashift, just a bit!"

If they had a tail right now, Ruby would be wagging it so hard.

"I have no idea what mechashift is but you're adorable. Maybe ask Hazel about it next time you see them? I can't keep up when they really get into it about how things work, but it seems like you guys can. As for capacity—I think it's roomier than that backpack, but it's hard to say for sure because I don't actually have enough stuff to fill it up." Is Ruby done with the water? If so he should put it away.

She passes it back, still smiling widely. "It's a tech thing from the world of my source material. We could make weapons and tools that compressed into much smaller spaces through spatial folds and multi-dimensional movement and very finely machined mechanisms. In the story, I was really good at it. It's part of why I'm so into engineering here in Sable's head. But we never had a shot to make anything remotely like it before now."

"I have no idea if you could do that with whatever made this armor but I bet Hazel knows!"

"Yeah! It's so cool! I'm gonna have to talk with them when we get back!"

She bounces up and down a bit as they keep walking.

Well now Torok can't stop smiling. Cute bouncy friend!!!