Later on the surface, the trio emerged from the battered and almost non-existent entrance to the ruined dungeon with its foundation almost solely consisting of overgrown flora. Miana shaded her eyes from the sun as she ascended the final step.
"Mind your step," Vestro stated.
"Wha- plaph," Miana said before walking straight into a small spider web and getting some of it in her mouth, making her gag and spit in a struggle to expel it from her mouth. Vestro faintly exhaled from his nose before turning around to the duo.
"It's not my fault, the web came out of nowhere," Miana grumbled while slurring her words.
"That's not why I sighed and the web was stationary.". Miana raised an eyebrow as she pulled the spider web out of her mouth.
"Then why did you?".
"I could've sworn I parked the sky boat there," Vestro stated as he pointed to the surging river.
"Did the boat run away?" Kousako asked. Miana shook her head dismissively.
"Nah, Master Vestro's just looking the wrong way," Miana remarked with a playfully snarky demeanour. Vestro turned his head in the opposite direction before mentally huffing at seeing the boat floating on the other river: the sky boat was a large, pale,e sand-coloured narrowboat with six thrusters on the sides containing large green gems.
"I'm still certain I parked it on the other river," Vestro stated.
"But at least it didn't run away," Kousako added, making Vestro lower his ears slightly as he felt his frustration leave his body.
"Kousako has a point, Master," Miana said jokingly as she skipped to the parked sky narrowboat. Vestro glanced over to Kousako as they were taking in their surroundings with confusion but with an emotionless expression.
"Something wrong, Kousako?".
"Where'd the city go?" Kousako uttered.
"You mean the city of Rushak?" Vestro asked. Kousako nodded and Vestro rubbed his chin.
"When I was around a teen, the city was sieged repeatedly during The Great Apocalypse War until it was eventually abandoned and was left to nature's whims," Vestro stated, with Kousako nodding along.
"... That will make fulfilling Mother's task harder if everything is different," Kousako muttered.
"And what might that task be?" Vestro inquired.
"Finding siblings.". Vestro nodded and closed his eyes as he pondered whether to help. But as he took a brief glance at Kousako's blank expression, Vestro landed on a decision and opened his eyes.
"There's no need to worry, if your siblings are in a similar situation to you then the ruined dungeons they're in will still be there," Vestro explained. Kousako widened their eyes before nodding
"Oh... so Kousako just has to go to the ruins mother took them to," Kousako stated. Vestro watched as Kousako glanced around at their surroundings again before tilting it at a ninety-degree angle.
"You have no clue where they are do you?". Kousako shook their head but kept a smile on his face given he expected that answer from Kousako.
"Well, we can deal with finding the ruins later after we return to the mainland," Vestro stated as he began walking but stopped once he noticed Kousako hadn't moved an inch.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Mother said Kousako can't walk outside of dungeons by themselves," Kousako stated as they held out a hand to Vestro. Vestro stared blankly at Kousako's empty expression before arching his body to the side as he sighed pessimistically. Although begrudgingly, Vestro took Kousako's hand and led them towards the sky narrowboat.
"Are you like a mama's boy or something?" Miana asked smugly as she poked her head out of one of the boat's side windows.
"Kousako isn't a boy," Vestro stated boldly.
"Eh?". Miana lostly blinked at Vestro.
"Girl?" Miana asked half-heartedly. Vestro placed his free hand over his face and shook his head in bewilderment.
"No, and no it's not both," Vestro stated before Miana lowered her hand and huffed.
"Whatev," Miana mumbled before she slunk back into the sky narrowboat and closed the window behind her. Vestro rolled his eyes while muttering about the quality of the academy's non-combat classes going down over the years. Kousako tilted their head at Vestro's remark before Vestro picked them up and carried Kousako into the sky narrowboat like a cat. Vestro plopped Kousako on the table-bound sofa in the boat's passenger area.
"Try not to walk around unnecessarily when the sky boat is ascending or descending," Vestro instructed. Kousako nodded before Vestro strolled off to the driver's seat. The sky narrowboat began to shake, pushing the river water away from the boat's thrusters as they outputted green mana and raised the sky narrowboat out of the river. Kousako gazed out one of the boat's side windows before looking forward at Miana, who was sitting on the sofa opposite Kousako and on her phone.
"Boats fly?" Kousako asked as they pointed to the side window beside them. While typing on her phone, Miana glanced up from her texting briefly before returning to her texting at a hastened pace.
"They do if they have mana propulsion thrusters," Miana remarked.
"That makes sense...," Kousako uttered before they returned to gazing out the side window as the terrain below appeared to descend. The sky narrowboat's thrusters shone to their max intensity and tilted forward, boosting the skyboat forward over the marsh forest.
"Gah!" a feminine voice uttered from another room, followed shortly by a loud thud and multiple light metalic thuds. Kousako turned their head towards the noise as pained grumbles emanated from nearby before a door to one of the small bedroom cabins and Alleutia stepped out with a red mark on her forehead.
(Alleutia Faenozul is a kid-sized female adult-looking fairy[short humanoids with insect wings and plant horns]; she has shoulder-low super spikey red-pink hair, a pastel pink left eyes, a grey pupilless right eye, light chestnut skin, slightly wide hips and thighs, medium breasts, six opaque pale pink butterfly wings with red-pink which sparkles, and small birch tree-like horns curved upwards on the side of her head)
(Alleutia is wearing an oversized black shirt with a grey gaming controller on the front)
"Vestro... where's the healing Echelon...?," Alleutia mumbled in a groggly state as she waddled through the boat, dragging her feet across the carpeted floor. Vestro groaned, lowering his head to the steering wheel before pulling the steering wheel backwards until the sky narrowboat became stationary.
"How many times have I told you not to sleep with your Echelon in your bed, you neet?" Vestro uttered with agitation oozing from his voice as he got up from the driver's seat. Alleutia bumped into Vestro, sending a static shock between the duo and making both of their hair stand up in a fuzzy frenzy. Vestro deeply inhaled before a floating hand made of his mana formed in front of Alleutia. The energy hand grabbed Alleutia by the face and picked her up carrying her through the boat like a mouse cursor dragging a computer file.
"What am I going to do with you?" Vestro grumbled as he walked past Miana while brushing his fuzzed-up hair down. On her phone, Miana sent a text to her friend saying she might be back later than expected before she received a message emote from her friend expressing playful anger. Miana responded with a similar emote only its expression was of playful pouting instead.
"What's that?" Kousako asked while sitting next to Miana. Miana flinched at suddenly hearing Kousako right next to her, but quickly recovered and wiped away her visual surprise.
"It's a phone?" Miana asked perplexedly.
"No, the pictures," Kousako said as they pointed at an emote of a cat sticking its tongue out only to tap it and send it to Miana's friend. Miana's face turned bright red before she frantically tried to type she wasn't the one who sent that emote; however, as she was mid-sentence, bouncing bubbles briefly appeared below Miana's friend's icon before they disappeared, followed by her friend sending the same emote. Miana exhaled in pure relief before slumping back on the sofa, leaving Kousako to tilt their head in confusion. Kousako tilted their head in the opposite direction as they raised their hand and pointed.
"Huh?" Miana uttered.
"Wyvern," Kousako stated passionlessly.
"Pah, nice try as if I'd fall for that," Miana said smugly before a booming roar bellowed from behind Miana, making sweat form on Miana's face, "...Uh-oh....".