The fake flying was nice. I stood up and stretched. The sky and just all of the view, in the mountains, was the best. Since we were in the mountains, I convinced Tom to climb a peak on our last day in them. Just walking through the valleys and trails on the mountainsides would have been unfulfilling. Three days of just looking up at the peaks, left me wanting.

I was on one of the higher peaks and could see the stretch of the plains on the other side of the range. It was a little weird how on this side, the mountains just ended into the flat lowlands. Well, on a larger map Tom showed me the day before, the range formed a rather even circle around the Dragon Mountain. The entire formation probably wasn't natural.

Somewhat to the right of me, streams connected at the foot of the mountains; forming a slowly widening river, streaking its way towards the huge, still blue-ish formation beyond the horizon. That, that was freaky. Even if this planet, was so big the curvature wouldn't hide that thing, I wasn't sure if anything was supposed to be visible from that distance.

No, wait.. you can see the moon, even during the day.. so... It was still freaky. That thing was worse than bees, as far as physics went. Maybe. I still haven't gotten to trying to remember them. I doubted high school education would help me much anyway.

I opened my arms wide, to hold the world between them. The trees and fields of grass at the bottom, the mountains around me and the sky above. I thought that idea about a flying castle might be worth taking seriously.

I was interrupted from my trance, by the sound of a large cat grunting. Tom finally made it up the cliff behind me.

"Quite the view, isn't it?" I said without turning around, still taking it all in.

There was a pause, the kitten walked up and stood by me. "Yeah..." The sun moved far enough, to be reflected in the river, turning it gold.

"Let's rest at the bottom?", with a shrug I asked Tom.

"Yes... yes." The kid almost whispered. "It's beautiful."

He couldn't turn his head away from the horizon, the entire way down as we hopped from rocks, walked over fallen trees and half-ran down the last mountainside, two peaks ahead of the cliffed one.

At the very end, we both ended up slipping on wet grass and rolling down a couple hundred meters into the woods at the bottom. We laughed the entire time we rolled and a bit more when we couldn't get up.

I took a moment to collect myself and gasped out between breaths, "You've... got... any plans...?"

"I planned a temple ruin to the west?" The kid said with a clear voice. Stupid big people and their big stupid lungs. I fell into another giggling fit.

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"But the evolution changes things a bit, so another one to the east might be a better fit." He continued unperturbed.

I calmed down some while later and picked myself up from the dried leaves. As I was about to call out to Tom, I realised we were missing our luggage. I looked up the slope, it seemed I lost our things quite soon after we began rolling.

"Be back in a second," I said and boosted up to where I could see the pile of bags and furs. For the way back to the kid, I used one of the furs as a sled.

"You got it all dirty..." he said with mock displeasure and added, "I want to do that too!" ...and he was off.

I pulled out my violin and practised one song before I grabbed the other fur and we began racing. We put the cat's backpack as the starting line, the trees marking the finish. Again, our fun evolved into a magical competition. 

I noticed Tom's body blurred a little and he pushed himself off. His fur-sled practically exploded forwards and the kid released a long joyful scream.

As if I'd get outdone by a slightly grown kitten. I boosted, holding tight to the fur. Flight would be cheating, wouldn't it? "The Devil's coming kid!!"

I overtook him at the last moment and zoomed past the trees, barely stopping myself before I hit some deeper in.

"The vile devil challenges the valiant hero?! I shall have your head for it creature of darkness!!" Tom yelled out, taking on a pose of an already victorious challenger!

My lips stretched in a grin and flew back up, "The last to the top, stinks of skunk farts!!"

The cat's legs shimmered and he ran up after me, in long strides. His feet ripped chunks out of the ground and he was first. "Oh, Mads.. is it the infernal brimstone I smell?"

"You mean 6th Circle de la'Rouge?" I said, smelling myself and showing an extremely content face.

We set the furs down. I flattened myself on mine and layered mana panes beneath it and began gathering mana behind my feet. Tom crouched on his, a shimmer extending through the sled and his body.

We waited. The first animal sound we'd hear would mark the start.

Something howled in the distance. I exploded forward! 

Dirt flew by my face, and I saw Tom pushing himself butterfly style.

I clenched my teeth and put the boost on a continuous burn. I was gonna feel it tomorrow, but damn, this race was Mine!!

The explosions of dirt increased in frequency and were still coming from near my face.

Fine. I added propulsion from my elbows and stretched my mana output to the limit!

Suddenly I was among the trees. Trunks zooming past me. I could barely feel any mana in my Well and used the last bits to throw myself towards some bushes. I heard a crash behind me and my world turned into green and brown splotches.

A whole lot of scratches on my face and legs later, I stopped rolling. The fur stayed behind, caught by some boughs.

I didn't know if I won, but... that felt fucking amazing. I laughed. All of my uncovered parts itched, but it didn't stop me from rolling around in a cheerful fit.

Tom walked over to me, massaging his lower back. He let out a sigh and after a moment buckled over in a giggling fit of his own.

"I guess we both stink." "You betcha!!" We managed to squeeze between breaths, as we tried to calm ourselves down. I won.

I stretched out my limbs and just took in the reddening sky, peaking through the canopy. 

I didn't notice when I fell asleep, but I woke up carried by Tom. We were out of the forest and it seemed it was already late evening.

I snorted, "You seem to be fine on mana."

"Unlike certain someone, I can't push everything out that quick." The kid paused. "It's also unwise to do that in the wild."

"Excuses of the stinky fart." My nose wrinkled in absolute disgust. I couldn't keep the face long and broke out into a smile.