Dawn in the Great Plains
The blazing ball of fire woke up from the horizon which it called its bed. Fiery rays slowly decayed the dark blues and purples that once had a hold during the night, making way for the orange sun.
"Eternity, wake up." My voice was low so as to not wake up the frail girl, but also weak from my own fatigue. I put one slow, tentative hand on Eternity's shoulder, careful to not make her broken left arm hurt anymore than it did. The broken arm she had gotten from Itri was mostly healed, Eternity spent a lot of time healing herself whenever she had essence to spare. It was slow, but the external bruises were now gone and what was left was internal only.
She opened her mouth slowly, letting out a mix of high yawns and low groans. She sat up slowly on Dusks's back, the wolf's silky black fur and the tough muscles underneath made for an excellent bed. Her pale hair fell down her head in split waterfalls, each band of falling hair reminding me of lemon water. Eternity slept the entire night, and deserved that sleep considering her injuries and the fact that we didn't sleep last night when we were fleeing the Moonlight Surge.
Ford was sitting at the back of the wolf, his feet propped up on the hips of the dark creature. His large back, covered in plates of dark wood that had swirling lines of orange and blue. Ford received the wooden armor memory when he killed a black salamander with orange and blue stripes, this one larger than the previous one he killed yesterday with Lorelei. The wooden memory had an attribute that didn't let him slip.
While it wasn't very durable, that one attribute made it all the more worth it.
Ford had his sights set in the distance behind us. He yawned and rolled his shoulders, getting prepared for another day. He glanced back at me and smiled with his onyx eyes, he then jutted his chin at the ground underneath him. "We're clear, no sign of the Great Devil last night." No, Moonlight Surge then.
Ford slept in intervals, waking up every few hours to keep watch of our rear which was successful. Personally, I got at best two or three hours and that was mainly caused by the fact that [Higher healing factor] was starting to regenerate my hands back. Bony fingers and pale thin palms were covered in small strings of red, encased in translucent cartilage and veins. Even though my hands were skinless, I felt nothing but electrifying numbness which kept me awake. That likely meant my nerve endings hadn't regenerated yet, and that was nothing short of a blessing. If I could return to the waking world before those nerves regenerate, I could save a ton of pain.
I woke up Eternity by touching her with these disgusting hands of mine. I quickly put my hands behind my back before she realized what happened, I didn't want her to make any more jokes about me. She turned her head at me for a second, studying me with narrowed green eyes before looking at Lorelei.
Lorelei, unlike the rest of us, hadn't slept a single wink. She straddled Dusk's thick neck, her steel armored figure facing the place we were going. There were dark circles under her eyes, yet she still looked like the raven-haired beauty I saw during my first day at the academy.
Small dark specks dotted the sky above the distant horizon, floating islands.
"Finally…" I let out a breath. Now, onto the next part of our journey.
***
The chained isles.
A series of earthy islands were connected by gargantuan chains, floating in between the doorway to two contrasting skies. The Sky Above was a cerulean ceiling that hosted the vivid sun and the wispy clouds, and the Sky Below, an empty bowl of darkness that had no end. I could imagine it was a hole dug to reach hell.
Each island, though similar in structure, were all distinct in the types of landscapes they possessed. From a mystifying garden of flowers that tempted the most sturdy warrior to fall asleep, to the islands holding fields of ash and flaming trees. There were islands that were quite literally everyone, though most of them were well equipped with Nightmare creatures and strange phenomena that sent all visitors to an early grave. This what without mentioning the rocky underbelly of the floating islands, which harbored deadly threats that even the most experienced masters would steer away from at a moment's notice.
Essentially, this was all to say that the Chained isles were no place for any sleeper on their winter solstice. Yet, here we were, staring over the abyss from the edge of the Great Plains. The surface of the world here seemed distorted, the grass unnaturally curving inwards into the darkness, as if the surface was being pulled into the astronomical pit which was the Sky Below.
I glanced behind me, watching as Ford slowly helped Eternity down Dusk's back. Lorelei was standing next to me, judging the view of massive metal chains and floating islands in front of her. She looked displeased.
The chained isles were one of the locations that Ford and Lorelei predicted would be the destination of our journey when we started travelling. The Great plateau itself was located east of the Chained isles and Bastion, the main hub and base of operations for Clan Valor. Between the two, we all much preferred if we could have reached Valor's territory instead.
"I told you we would come to the Chained Isles." He snickered at Lorelei with his arms crossed but a grim expression quickly found its way on his face. "Why was I right…"
Eternity slowly came over but barely gave a reaction to the sky below, she looked over at enormous chain links that were connected to the edge of the Great Plateau to a floating mass of earth. "There." She pointed with one pale finger, "We can use that to get to the main islands, where the citadels are."
The citadels…that's how we could get out of here.
Though getting to the citadels would mean we would have to brave the chains connecting each of the islands, including the nightmare creatures who made it their hunting ground. As we moved closer to the chain we would travel on, I could spot the infamous chain worms.
The staple nightmare creatures of the chained isles, these Fallen Demons had the body of a snake with long powerful humanoid arms that allowed them to crawl around the island chains easily. As if they weren't already blessed enough with physiques that allowed them to traverse around the chains, two large leathery wings sprouted from their back, wrapping around the sides of their body like a blanket. Though they had wings, the chain worms were only capable of short bursts of flight before gliding through the air and landing sloppily onto another chain link.
Did I forget to mention that every single chain worm that populated the chains were fallen demons?
I sat down on the grass, groaning audibly as my hands covered my face. What was the spell trying to do, trying to make us the next forgotten shore by forcing us to run and try to fight against Fallen ranked nightmare creatures as sleepers?
Strong hands picked me up by the back collar of my dull armor memory, [Whisper of Steel]. Ford hung me in the air like I was a kitten. In another time, I would be clawing at this giant beanpole that I called my highschool friend, but I was simply too exhausted. I stared at the blue skies in the distance, they were far away. Really far away.
"Can't we just wait here at the edge of the chained isles until someone, an awakened, a master, or--spell please bless us--a saint?" I asked, looking down at Eternity and Lorelei from my perch up in the air. They both gave me looks of disappointment, both tired of my constant exhaustion and complaining.
Lorelei looked away, "No one really comes in this direction, the land here is barren and has little in terms of rewards. Save for the chain worms, every other nightmare creature is more than manageable for us."
I pointed at the gargantuan rusted chains that connected the floating islands together. "You say chain worms as if each one isn't capable of wiping us out in seconds by itself. Let's not even talk about the fact there are at least four chain worms on this one chain alone. We have more chains after that, and even more chain worms, not to mention other nightmare creatures and having to travel through the islands first before getting onto the adjacent chains."
Lorelei put a hand up to her side, and a large wolf behind us circled around to lay next to Lorelei. She ran her fingers through the dark fur of the wolf-wyvern with a warm look in her eyes, "We have Dusk with us, he can carry us whenever it becomes too difficult."
'Yeah,' I thought, 'but we can't fly on him because of the crushing which becomes more deadly the higher one goes in the sky. The only carrying the wolf can do for us is let us ride it across the chains, but the chains worms will keep it too busy to allow us to be okay.'
"Besides," Lorelei turned her gaze towards me, much colder than I've seen before. "You're becoming more and more of a severe liability, something even more dangerous than any nightmare creature we've faced. We're all tired, but there is a limit to your yowling. Do you want us to leave you behind? I've already told Eternity the same thing in the awakened academy. If I have to fight with someone who doesn't do anything, I will leave them to die."
Behind Lorelei, Eternity glared at Lorelei's back with her hazy green eyes--she remembered the embarrassing lecture she had gotten from Lorelei after losing to her in a sparring match at the match. Eternity turned away while biting her lip.
On the other hand, I narrowed my dark eyes at Lorelei's steel blue. Her raven hair swayed lightly in the wind. With her eyes staring at me with such silent intensity, she was breathtaking.
I sighed, tapping the hand which Ford used to hold me up. He promptly let go of me and I fell to one knee.
I made a silent order in my head for my current humor depleting to change.
Immediately, every single cell in my body woke up from a sudden burst of innate energy that was being sealed away. I make changes between my two humors, [Mind] and [Energy], all the time. However, it always surprised me how much vigor courses through me every time, as if I awoke from a deep slumber.
"Sorry about that." I muttered as I walked past Lorelei to meet up with Eternity. Putting a hand to the side of my face to shield my expression from Lorelei, I rolled my eyes at Lorelei which brought a small chuckle from Eternity.
"Annoying." I said, sticking my tongue out.
"Annoying, but it works," Eternity said, glancing at Lorelei.
Me and Eternity quickened our pace our little towards the titanic chains that latched onto the great plateau.
Lorelei looked at us with an eyebrow raised, "What's annoying?" She looked at Ford, "What're they talking about?"
Ford looked at her with a disapproving look, "Annoying." He said while breaking into a sprint to run past me and Eternity.
Bewildered, Lorelei looked at Dusk, the dark wolf that towered over her.
"What's annoying…?"