So, make that three islands. Three I will never want to visit again. The scientist's place, the lake and the volcano. What was with my luck?

“Hey, all this trouble prepares you for seeing your mother again.” Grandfather said.

“Yeah…” I said.

I did not want to talk about my mother. With how long it was taking, I was not sure mother would still be able to go back. Years upon years. Will any gods listen to me? There are so many questions that I wanted answered. I was losing hope. I am still shocked that mother sparked so much fear everywhere that no one flew.

“Hey, are you okay?” Grandfather asked.

“No…” I muttered.

“What is wrong?” Grandfather asked.

“Will mother be able to go back? It has been years.” I said.

“Probably, Pax is the most forgiving goddess, and I think it takes five years for a being to completely go insane.” Grandfather reassured me.

“Right… What about the whole flying thing?” I asked.

“Ah, well, celestial beings are very rare. Even though the god of punishment is unforgiving, other gods are around to stop them from punishing unnecessarily. So your mother is the first celestial being in… a hundred years minimum. So every time a new one appears, people stop flying for five years, then everything is back to normal.” Grandfather said.

My motivation was refueled, there was hope. All I had to do was continue. One island passed. It was afternoon. Second island, getting dark.Third island, time to land. Great… the dunes. After all that work of surviving through Murklash, I now had to go through the cold and hot dunes. I landed, and thankfully it was not hot, but it was quite cold, even though I was wearing the cloak. I figured I needed to find the most stable area, the flattest surface with the most packed down sand. Just before I could start looking around, I heard a rumble beneath me. Instincts made me jump to the side. I was quite grateful they did.

A massive centipede erupted from the ground. Scales wrapped around it horizontally, and its legs were huge, and sharp as a new sword at the tip. The legs were a sienna orange, and its body was beige. It sank back into the earth, so I decided that if I was going to stay here, that thing needed to die.

“Wynne, it is best if we leave instead of fighting that thing.” Grandfather said worriedly.

“I have a better chance of surviving fighting this thing than not falling asleep whilst flying.” I said, unsheathing the Illumina blades.

“Nonsense!” Grandfather said, I could imagine what his face looked like. Probably as if I had just said the stupidest thing ever. Which I did, but oh well.

“I want to prove I am worthy!” I said, making up an excuse.

“Worthy to who? Pax has no care for whether or not you're worthy,” Grandfather said.

“Look, I want to see if I can work well with these blades.” I said bluntly.

“Fighting whatever that thing is to try and figure out if you ‘work well with these blades’ is a terrible idea! You should fight something you know you can defeat!” Grandfather said.

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I ignored grandfather's pleas to leave instead of fight, the blades glimmered in the moonlight, as I waited for the rumble to happen. Then, it did. I jumped to the side once more, and it leapt from the sand, once more.

I stabbed at the side of the monster, and it screeched in pain. Blood poured from the wound, as I jumped back. It collapsed on top of the sand, and I heard the screech once more, but this time, there was more than one rumbling sound, there were three.

“Well, look who has a family.” I said.

Sweat dripped down my face, as the cloak was warm, and the messenger bag made me slower.

“Wynne, I will protect the bag and the cloak, us spirits are hard to destroy, and since the staff is in there, I can easily protect it,” Grandfather said.

“Why did you not do it the other times I was fighting?” I asked angrily.

“Well because then, I was confident you could do it, now, I think you will die without help, so place it down, and take the fight as far away from here as possible.” Grandfather said.

“Got it!” I said.

I took off the cloak and messenger bag, and instantly felt lighter. I was confused though, I heard rumbling, but no monsters? I jinxed it. Three more came from the ground and fell onto the sand. They did not care for the injured one, but then the injured one got up and joined its horrid family in trying to kill me.

I ran towards them, and jumped on top of one of them, I ran down its back and jumped off. Still running, the monsters chased after me. I looked behind me, and could no longer see the cloak or grandfather, which meant it was time to fight.

I jumped up, landing on the already injured creature. I figured it would be easier to take down an already hurt monster. So I stabbed it mercilessly into its life. I thought maybe for a moment, would this damage my pure soul? But no, judging from all my previous attacks on separate monsters, I was doing it in defense of my life. I thought maybe for a moment, would this damage my pure soul? But no, judging from all my previous attacks on separate monsters, I was doing it in defense of my life. So I continued, until the monster fell, then I jumped to the next one, but it seems that they learn. The second monster avoided me, so I tumbled to the ground. I thought I could rest, but the sounds of rumbling meant I needed to move, but before I could get out of its grasp, the monster came from underneath me. I stuck my feet out both ways to force its mouth to stay open. My hair fell into my face, so I swiped it to the side. Appearance does not matter in battle. I did a flip sideways, and instead of falling to the ground, and breaking my legs, I slowed my fall by sticking both of the blades into the monster. I looked back, and sure enough the first monster was dead, not moving. The second monster made a horrendous noise, so I figured it was going to die quickly. I got to a standing place, and sure enough, the second monster fell to the ground, losing whatever came from its ugly body. The third monster was not thrilled, and neither was the fourth, so one of them leapt in front of me and one of them leapt from behind me. The second monster being on my right, I would either leap to the left or die. I chose left, but instead of leaping, I ducked under their massive bodies and crawled to the left. They collided, and the third one was knocked out, but the fourth one was fine. So it leapt at me, but I had an advantage, called flexibility. As it swung its jaws open, I grabbed the biggest tooth, and jumped on top of it. It got incredibly confused, looking around for me. Then, the rumbling sound happened, I jumped off the beast as the third one erupted from the ground. The third beast crushed the fourth one's skull, killing it, but the skin had pulled all of the third one's teeth out. I knew I was going to win. As the third one recovered from its mistake, I threw one of the blades right through its brain, a death at its finest. The blade came from the other side, and I quickly grabbed it, and ran back towards grandfather.

“I did it, told you so!” I said happily, skipping towards my things.

“Still, it was a bad idea.” Grandfather said, a bit frustrated, but I heard relief in their voice.

“Oh pish posh, I did it, that is what matters!” I said, standing by my point.

“Get to sleep, I do not want to hear your bragging” Grandfather said flatly, using his power to lay the cloak down on the sand.

Smirking, I went to sleep, to have a peaceful dream. Unfortunately, I woke up in pain. Why? Because I am in the dunes, and my cloak sadly attracts heat.

“Ow! Ugh, I can see why the dunes suck now…” I said, putting on my steaming cloak.

“It is best if we get going now,” Grandfather said.