"Well then," I said and shifted my wings, "I think we are just about ready."
Sheila nodded and strapped her bag to my armour, "I think so too. Cael and the rest seem to have a handle on things."
I nodded in agreement and nuzzled at her side quickly. We spent three days in the ruin exploring with them.
It was slow work, we were only six rooms in so far and had run into a single automaton, one of those spider things.
But that was because this was a full expedition. Everything was documented, studied and gathered, basically a full arcaneological dig, not just… rampaging through and looting everything not nailed down.
…Okay, we did that too, but everything was documented properly first.
"Ready?" Ren asked and walked up to put her hand against my neck before she frowned at Sheila, "…Are you going to be wearing that as we walk?"
Sheila rolled her eyes, "It's thirty below freezing! No way I'm getting undressed here. I have my robes and backup warm clothes already packed."
"Hang on and we'll get going. Let's see what we find this time around."
Both of them put their arms around my neck and I closed my eyes, channeling my magic into my golden Spark.
Reality wobbled around me, before I opened my eyes and the world shattered into howling uncreation. It buffeted and tore at me as I looked around with my not eyes, ignoring the strong sound of mint that glowed in the wind. It disappeared after half an eternity anyway like anything here.
Solid ideas, landscapes and creatures blowing away like nothing but bad dreams as the sun went up.
Where to…
How about this way?
Shifting closer/further away, I reached for a random dot that filled the entire universe. Reaching out with a not claw, I touched it and reality collapsed down around me like a wave of water.
Actually, not like a wave of water.
Gak!
Struggling against the water, I slowly made my way towards the surface, shifting my wings as I climbed, pawing at the water to swim.
Gasping, I broke the surface and blinked, looking around. Son of a…
Blue skies, salty water. I couldn't see anything else.
…Well, at least it's not a desert. Diving beneath the surface again, I dove before pulling back up, working up my speed with my wings.
Blue dragons may not strictly be amphibious, but we were the best swimmers of the bunch and we held our breaths well.
As I broke the surface, I spread my wings and beat them hard, throwing the water off myself as I climbed into the air, tearing myself free from the grip of the ocean.
Rising into the air, I beat my wings. No real thermals above the ocean even if the water was warm. Where the fuck…
Ocean in all directions.
This was a problem. One I had actually not considered before. It might not be a warm desert but this might actually be worse.
Unless there was land somewhere around here, we were in serious trouble. I would need to Walk again and then I would be pretty much down for the count on the other side.
So, I climbed higher, scanning the horizon.
Nothing… nothing but sky and water. Blue sky, blue ocean. Shining sun straight above.
A plane with nothing but ocean? Or did I simply land in the middle of this world's pacific ocean?
Circling higher and higher, I scanned the horizon. Then I sent a scrying viewpoint straight up as far as I could to look around.
Nothing at all. Nothing but water and skies.
Fuck. Can't leave Sheila and Ren in their soulstones forever either, they have to wonder what's going on.
Working my way higher and higher, it revealed nothing but water.
…Well, shit.
I started to circle back down. I had to Walk while 'landed' as well. Sure, Walking while flying sounded like a good idea… but it was even risker than doing it on the ground. What if the other side was full of tall trees or floating stones? I might run into it at the other side.
Besides, this time will be even worse. Walking again this soon is more likely than not to knock me out. Makes it difficult to keep flying.
Beating my wings hard, I touched down on the water before tumbling into the warm water, floating and keeping my nose above the surface, I started to channel what remained of my magic into my spark.
This is going to suck so bad.
Reality shattered and once again I was surrounded by howling unreality. I reached for the first infinitely large dot of reality I smelled and touched it.
Reality crashed down around me, and I slammed into a thick brush. I just kind of laid there without moving for a while feeling like struggles against the impending darkness creeping in through my vision. All I wanted to just stay here and go to sleep for the next… forever.
Plants. Water.
Air.
Nothing tried to eat me instantly.
Good enough.
Not that I had an option anyway.
With the last of my energy I sent a pulse of magic to the soul stones to let them know it was safe. As Sheila and Ren reformed from smoke and fire, I closed my eyes and everything went black.
AN// Many thanks to Crembo for betaing this section.