She then jumps off of my back and switches to her normal form in mid-air. She then flies up to the island I pointed to and starts circling around it. At first nothing happens, but after a minute water starts falling down from the island.

At first it is just a trickle, but as Mulan continues to circle it quickly increases. Soon the island is heading higher, but Mulan stays beside it and keeps circling. Mulan manages to completely free the island of ice in just a few minutes.

She is far more efficient at clearing the ice than I am and she seems to enjoy it. As I fly up to extract the metals, she moves on to free a second island that I point out. She is probably just enjoying having a chance to experiment with her new powers.

When I land on the island and scan it with my mana I find something surprising. The amount of floating metal in this island is much higher than I expected. Based on the mass of the island, it should be floating much higher with that amount of metal in it.

However, my scan doesn't show anything else in the island that would account for the extra mass. It would make sense if there were some extremely dense metals, but I can't find any. It just doesn't make any sense, and that makes my curiosity flare up.

I must be missing something, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. Out of frustration, I start tearing the island apart with my claws and examining each piece. Of course, I extract any floating metal I find before I toss the pieces off the side.

Lin says "Ash, is something wrong?"

"There is something strange about this island, but I can't figure out what it is. It is driving me slightly insane!"

Lin says "Is that why the island isn't rising as you rip it apart?"

"Oh, I am removing the floating metal as I find it. The island should be bobbing up and down."

Lin says "No. It hasn't moved since we landed on it."

"What? That can't be right?! There is no way I could be removing floating metal at the exact rate that I am removing mass."

My confusion only makes my frustration worse and I end up punching the rock. When I punch the island, several rocks break away from the sides and bottom. The island instantly shoots up several hundred feet, but my attention is on the rocks.

This is because those rocks spread wings, or fins, and started gliding away from the island. Despite what my eyes are telling me, my mana is still telling me that they are normal rocks. The desert was bad enough, but with my mana scan failing here as well, I am thinking that it is flawed.

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What is interesting, is these rocks are not giving off any signs of life force. Yet they are obviously moving around, even gliding in circles as they descend. They look kind of like sharks with extra fins, just made completely of rock.

Mulan says "Dad, what are those things?"

"I have no idea!"

Suddenly there are cracking sounds from some of the other floating islands. More of the things are breaking through the ice and joining the others in gliding around. It turns out that there are over fifty of the things, but it doesn't look like they can fly.

They can only glide, which means we are safe since we are higher than they are. After a few minutes they all dive down and disappear into the ocean below. It is a good thing that they weren't hostile, they would have completely taken me by surprise.

"Lin, have you heard of anything like those things?"

Lin says "No, never. Then again, these northern waters are almost completely unexplored so it isn't surprising."

"I think I am going to have to develop a proper scanning spell. My mana scan completely missed them. If they were hostile, I wouldn't have known until they attacked."

Lin says "If they aren't predators, then they may have developed a magical camouflage. However, I will be happy to help you create a better scanning method."

Mulan says "I got a vaguely familiar feeling from them. Not like I had seen them before, but more like they are somehow similar to me."

"Well, you are an elemental being, so maybe they are the same. Just you are fire and they are earth. What's weird is finding them here, so far from land and the fact that they went into the water."

Lin says "Do you plan to try and catch one to study?"

"No. As much as I might like to, we have plenty of other things that we need to do. Besides, they are probably long gone already. Even if I wanted to try, I don't have a way to detect them."

Lin doesn't argue with me, so I go back to harvesting the floating metal from the island. Mulan finishes de-icing the next island and returns to human form to wait for me to finish. When the island I am on drops into the ocean, I fly over to where Mulan is waiting.

"Mulan, can you fly Lin back to the ship to get the castle for me?"

Mulan says "Sure!"

Mulan returns to her full form, Lin transfers over to her back, and then the two of them fly off. Once they are gone, I wrap the island in my mana and start altering its shape. I alter it until it looks like an upside down pyramid and the top is shaped to fit the castle.

Next I add more floating metal so that the island won't sink into the ocean once the castle is added. What I add is probably too much, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I don't want to have to try and fish the island out of the ocean, that doesn't sound fun.

Although, with the bubble on it, the castle would be perfectly fine if it was underwater. However, it would be annoying for me so I am going to avoid that if possible. After that, I just sit and wait until the girls get back and then put the castle on the island.

The island sinks until it is only a hundred feet above the water, it was a close call. I quickly ask Mulan to remove the ice from another island, I am going to need more metal. While she is doing that I start thinking about the enchantment I will need to control the island's height.

While I am thinking, I add additional metals to the island, both to strengthen it and add room for enchantments. After that, I work on fusing the castle to the island so that the enchantments will cover it. After all, this will be pointless if the island doesn't shrink with the castle.