The area where they had landed had short trees. The tallest were only about the size of a doorway. But there were other plants in this area as well. They looked like vines, ferns, and roots. No, really. One of the plants in the area looked like it was just a root structure growing up against gravity in a small area. Or maybe it was like corral? She didn’t think it was one of those upside trees from the botanical garden.
It was not. Different smell. And Fleck would go with the corral comparison, despite never seeing corral. He doubted there was enough water on this planet for something like that.
As they went deeper into the forest, the trees got taller and thicker. Farther up ahead there were ones even Glimmer couldn’t wrap around. But there were fewer of the other types of plants. A few logs and stumps lay around. There was what looked like mushrooms growing off them.
They weren’t mushrooms like you’d find on Morivon, but in terms of the decomposing function? Yeah, they were basically the same.
She could see moss patches around. The ground turned from the tan of the desert to almost black.
It also went from feeling like coarse sand to the softer dirt, but Fleck’s scales protected him from the latter.
“Mind the poop,” he warned the riders. He had smelled some up ahead.
Harmoni stepped around it, grateful. She didn’t have the sense of smell, and hadn’t seen much yet, but she could hear animals. There was rustling in the leaves. She’d heard something hiss earlier, and there was a buzz almost no matter where they went. There was also the scream of what she would assume were birds. But according to Fleck, there weren’t birds on Xentron.
Fleck shrugged. For the most part, they had things with feathers, and things that could fly. Not both. The only exception was that some dragons could have feathers, but was anyone going to argue a dragon was a bird?
They passed more of their time walking through the forest like that. Harmoni saw what looked like tiny glowing pine trees in a hollow log. That was very cool.
Suzan would pick a couple small plants, or pick things off branches. Harmoni left her alone in that. She didn’t know what these things Suzan was foraging were, and she didn’t care enough to ask. It would just bother Suzan.
It probably would not.
They even saw one of those feathered creatures Fleck had mentioned. It had vaguely bird like legs, but all four of its limbs were like that. And it was large. Its yellow feathers were thick and long, like a mophead dog. It wandered through the trees to the left of them, and started eating ferns. Seemed pleasant enough, but Harmoni was OK steering away.
They reached a river.
“It’s wider than the last time I was 'ere,” Suzan said. “Just a trickle in the mud that you could 'op over. Must’a been all that rain this winter.”
Right. Wasn’t it still technically winter? That was disorienting to think of.
Suzan looked around. “I guess if we want ta get over this time, Glimmer will have ta carry us.”
There was a crack on the other side of the river, followed by rustling, and dull thudding noises. Harmoni looked across the river. She could see ferns moving, like something was brushing them aside, but she couldn’t see what was causing that. And it should be right in front of her.
“Oh it’s probably one of the invisible bears,” Fleck said.
“One of the whats?” Harmoni gaped.
“One of the invisible bears,” Suzan and Fleck chorused.
They were carnivores native to the planet. Their fur kept them invisible. They only lived in the forest though, if she was worried. Not the desert.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Harmoni squinted out where she could see movement. Now that she knew, she could sort of see something there. A faint outline of sorts. But it didn’t look like anything. At best, it was like watching glass.
Fleck could tell it was there by sense of smell. But in fairness, fighting it would be hard. Where were the limbs?
“Are we in danger?” Harmoni whispered.
Suzan snorted. “From that thing? You’d be in more danger from those giant Roly polies. We’re too small for ‘em, and they’re not about to fight a dragon. That would be just stupid.”
Glimmer watched the invisible bear, tracking its movements a lot better than Fleck and Harmoni. She growled quietly for emphasis.
Suzan patted Harmoni’s shoulder. “We’re safe. But it’s getting late. We should go. Glimmer and I will give you a ride back to Xentron City.”
~~~
Harmoni took a bucket of gross cleaning water, and dumped it out behind the spa building. It hadn’t rained again in a while. It was quite possible most of the water would slide away.
And that would be a good thing. Harmoni had been doing a lot of hauling today. Udo’s shop was so busy, she wondered if there was some kind of holiday she didn’t know about.
There was not. But their singular month of winter was almost over. Maybe dragons wanted a trip in the hot water before that ended.
That was good enough for Harmoni. She went back in, and set to work cleaning another tub. When it was clean, she grabbed her bucket and went for the open wall to dump it again.
They dumped it at the side of the building, technically, but the open back side was the easiest exit.
Fleck followed, fully planning to help, when he bumped against a cart. One of those ones on wheels that Udo and Ferren used to carry soaps. His back bumped against the bottom of a shelf, and he heard something rip.
He froze. Something was happening on his back. He could feel something coming out of the side, near the top. It didn’t hurt. Almost the opposite. It was like when riders wore clothes that were too tight, and finally got the chance to change.
He slowly turned to look behind him. There was something like a bat wing behind him, lying on the floor on his right side. The bony part was the same gold color as his scales, the webbed part a transparent yellow. The attachment started at his shoulder, and went all the way back to his hind leg. He tried to move it. It only twitched. His muscles were still tiny and unused there, but the wing had responded. It was his.
He felt his mouth twitch open. A wing. He had a wing!
Fleck jumped up and down, spinning in the air in his excitement.
This was it! This was why his back had been so itchy. And Glimmer had known and hadn’t told him the cause. Oh, she was going to get it later.
Harmoni laughed into her fist at that. Just a little.
“I’m happy for you,” she said.
And she was. She still had to dump the bucket she had, but she mentally shooed Fleck away. He wanted to rip his second wing open, and he should focus on that.
Harmoni yawned as she dumped the water out. She watched it drain down, but her eyes felt heavy. They flickered a few times as she looked down.
Why was she so sleepy all of a sudden?
“What?”
Harmoni’s body slumped. Fleck seemed concerned. Maybe she should be concerned too, but she couldn’t figure out why. She was too tired for much complicated thinking.
She turned to go back inside, and her legs gave out. Her eyes slowly closed. As she fell, she saw someone in the shadow of the building, pointing a wand.
Oh. Was that related to the exhaustion?
~~~
Fleck wasn’t affected by the magic. He knew something was wrong when Harmoni suddenly got so sleepy, and he was running for the front door by the time Harmoni toppled.
There was a wyvern at the door. Fleck had never seen one of those before, but he’d heard of them. They were like dragons, but with only four limbs. Two legs, and two wings. Also, while their bite could burn or poison or other things, they couldn’t spray the damage out like a dragon.
And this particular wyvern wasn’t letting Fleck pass. Fleck had basically ignored him when he pushed the front door open, but he kept blocking Fleck’s path with his foot or tail.
Fleck’s mouth felt hot, and he automatically tried to flair his wings up. They just weren’t strong enough yet. “Get out of the way!” he roared.
He bit the wyvern’s ankle.
“Fleck!” Aqua called. “What are you doing to Versith?”
Oh there was no time for this. “Harmoni’s been kidnapped!”
“What?” Aqua gaped.
Udo spoke too. Fleck couldn’t understand his words, not while Harmoni was asleep. But based on his tone he felt similar.
Fleck growled again. They were wasting time. “Harmoni was put to sleep! By magic! And he won’t let me past!”
Fleck pointed at the wyvern, Versith apparently, with his head for emphasis.
He was vaguely aware of Udo heading for the back, out the opening there. Aqua, meanwhile, growled. Versith made the mistake of side-eying the building, glancing towards the side where Harmoni had last been.
As soon as his focus split like that, Aqua roared. She launched forward, slamming into him and knocking him down. Versith fell onto his back, but bit into her limb, which started burning from the heat he was making. Aqua met the attack with water.
Fleck bounced past the two fighters and to the side of the building. Udo came at it from the other side, but it was no use. They’d wasted too much time. The area was empty, with no trace of Harmoni. Fleck couldn’t even pick up her scent, or the scent of her captor. She was gone.