A few minutes after we had gotten things set up, the two of us set ourselves on the bed and placed the Dream Machines upon our heads to enter the world of Panarena. We loaded up in the place we had last been, on our ship just around the coast of the Island of Ewar in the Hitherlands. I looked around for a moment as Ariana came online with me. Everything seemed peaceful. There was a player-made watch tower on Ewar, and I could just make out another one on Sirna Tai to the south of us.

Can't be too cautious with the pirates, I guess, I mused as Ari came to my side.

“Master.” a familiar voice then said to me.

“Fyu!” I smiled, heading over to pet him. “Good to see you; how's things?”

“All is well, and I see them getting better with your return, Lady Lana.” he said to me.

“Lana!” Sky Belle said as she came flying down from the mast. “The others sent me back to get you as soon as you came on; Fyu, you too!” the pixie-girl said, and the dog-beast nodded.

“Let us be off, then!” he declared.

Ariana teleported us to shore, and we then got up on Fyu's back so he could run us over to where the others were apparently gathering. While we travelled, the two of us received a flurry of welcome-back messages from our friends, and responded to them as best as we could on our rush.

“Nyah--?!” I froze as I got to the end of Angelfire's note, which was punctuated with a little heart.

“Hm?” Ariana wondered as she looked over my shoulder. “Aww, she missed you!” my partner said to me with a giggle.

“Y-yeah...” I nodded, bemusedly wondering how to reply.

“At least give her a smiley-face back.” Ariana told me, patting my shoulder.

“Eh? Oh! Okay,” I returned, smiling in relief.

Yep, that's the best answer. I mean... it does make me happy that she missed me, though. And we *are* friends. Mm, that's right; she probably meant it in a friendly way, and I just overthought it, I thought to myself with a grin.

“Hahh... and what's this one...?” I wondered, reading a message from Wildeye. It was an update on our current situations. He was particularly curious about the way the other Silvernight Queens had been acting the past few days, but added that he looked forward to hearing about whatever was going on when we had a mind to tell them.

“That probably has to do with whatever Lizzy and the others wouldn't tell us about at school,” Ari noted.

“I think you're right,” I nodded in agreement.

“I will let the other masters speak for themselves, but it is indeed a monumental thing we are going to show you, master,” Fyu said to us.

“Any hints, Belle?” I asked our pixie-girl.

“Not yet!” she grinned back.

“Well, rats!” I had to grin in reply.

“Oh, and Anna Belle is in her homeland tonight, so don't worry about her.” she then added.

“Ah, okay; that's probably best for now,” I nodded.

“Agree.” Ariana said.

“Most certainly,” Fyu remarked.

I spent the rest of our ride scrolling through messages and wondering what exactly the others had found right up to the moment we dismounted from Fyu at the agreed meeting point. The rest of our guild was here ahead of us, greeting us with smiles; to my surprise, Derwydd was not with us. I blinked in disbelief for a moment.

“Heh? No Der tonight?” I wondered.

“He's with his guild, helping them in one of the forests up here,” Healina told me. “We decided to keep this a guild-only affair,” she added with a sly grin.

“Hmm...?” I returned with interest. “Well, lead the way!” I said as we heard a flapping of wings descending upon us. Dracuoatlax had arrived. He touched down a few meters away, bowing his head to me.

“Lady Lana, you return at last,” he said.

“I'm here, Dracuoatlax,” I said to him.

“Then let us hesitate no longer; glory awaits us!” the dragon declared.

“Well something definitely awaits us,” Lizzy said as she stood up. “It looked like some sort of old samurai, but like, giant-sized,” she told us.

“Oh?” Ariana tilted her head.

“And we all got a really bad feeling from it, even Fyu,” Anhe added.

“That means trouble,” I said with a nod.

“Dracuoatlax and I are agreed, Lady Lana; there is nothing of old which we know to compare this to. It is some new devilry in this ancient world; or perhaps even a remnant of what was before us, returned to haunt the age we live in now.” Fyu said to us, and the dragon nodded.

“Let us be cautious, masters,” Dracuoatlax himself said.

“It's over this way,” Maryn called as she started off towards one of the taller peaks.

“W-will Dracuoatlax even fit?” I wondered.

“Fear not, Lady Lana; I have discovered an ancient magic in these lands that shall allow me to accompany you.” he said, speaking a few words in the dragon-language. He then transformed into a humanoid at least two meters tall with red robes and copper-colored hair, but the eyes were still the same dragonish eyes of our ally. He also had noticeably pointed ears, kind of like an Elf's.

“Oooh, nice trick!” I smiled in approval.

“Now you can follow us about anywhere!” Ariana clapped her hands.

“Ah-hem!” the dragon in humanoid form coughed in a dignified way. “I must extend my thanks to Guntaru and his humans; this is a worthy skill to have. Let us proceed!” he then said, and we hurried after Maryn.

“Oh, Myanihia!” I then turned to her, smiling as I sent her an invitation to the guild. She blushed for a moment, and then accepted with a smile. “And now you're officially part of our crazy family!” I said with a grin.

“I look forward, to our further adventures!” Myanihia smiled back.

“As do we all!” her sister smiled.

“We're not gonna get lost again tonight, are we?” Heali asked, and Lizzy gave her a baleful glance.

“Here, masters, just as before,” Fyu said a couple moments later. There was nothing but sheer rock face insofar as we could see, but the others, after nodding to each other, headed towards it confidently.

“Must be a mirage or something, if they're planning to walk through it,” I said.

“Right,” Ari nodded, and we quickly followed after them.

Just as I had inferred, we passed through the rock-wall with no trouble, finding ourselves in a bowl-shaped valley. There were overgrown ruins that gave the place an almost Mayan feel, except for what clearly looked like a torii-gate on the far side. Further ahead of it was a great stone that Anhe told us had actual Japanese characters on it. I frowned.

Why actually Japanese, and not one of their invented languages? That's weird, for a fantasy game... unless it has some in-world explanation we don't know about... I mused. I then looked at the quest log. Oh, duh, it updated.

Hitherlands Expedition, Chapter Two, Part One, Optional: Gain access to the Temple of the Beyond by defeating the Guardian of the Winds.

“Hmm... and this stone says to... eh?” I blinked. The characters were more stylized than I was used to.

“It says that this is the way to the Temple of the Beyond, where the Master of the Winds dwells,” Anhe replied.

“Come to think of it,” Ariana then said, “'Fujin' is a Japanese deity, isn't he? A wind-god? If the Master of the Winds is based on him somehow, maybe it's a mythology crossover?”

“Oh! Nice catch!” I said, snapping my fingers in realization.

“Ahh! I see! That could be it, then,” Anhe nodded in agreement. “Fujin-sama is definitely someone who could be called Master of the Winds. Though I should say, there are also a few others in Japan or China who could merit that label,” she added.

“Of course; I only remembered Fujin because of my wind spell!” Ari grinned, and Anhe smiled back.

“Mm! But this is definitely Japanese, so perhaps not a Chinese one...” she returned.

“Ah--!” a couple of us exclaimed as we heard a thump.

“Here it comes...!” Maryn said, getting herself ready. The rest of us did so a second after she did.

“Hm-hm! It's been a while since we've had a crazy boss fight!” Lizzy said with a big grin.

“I could possibly use my true form in this area, but then it would be a day before I could make myself this size again,” Dracuoatlax said as he readied some flame-spells.

“We'll see what the situation calls for as we fight it,” I said to him, and he nodded back.

Out from the darkness came the creature; it was definitely on the large side, almost as if it were an ogre in samurai armor. The mask that completed its get-up was also ogre-like. A large katana was in its massive hand, and two gleaming eyes stared down at us with hatred, their yellow gleam penetrating and fierce. I actually felt a shiver looking at it.

“Whoa...” I remarked softly as it halted before us.

“It has a name,” Maryn said, “Or a title, maybe?”

“I would say title,” Anhe noted. “Heavenly Obliterator.”

“Lovely.” Lysandra quipped.

“Well then, shall we try it, our trick?” Myanihia said to me, and I nodded to her.

“Let's go. Maryn!” I called.

“Right!” she replied, taunting the boss to get its attention as Myanihia and I dove into the shadows to use the combo-trick on it. Both of us definitely hit him, but when I backed off to examine our handiwork I saw his health-bar still at a solid one-hundred percent.

“Guhyeck--?!” I gaped in disbelief.

We didn't even tickle it?!?

Lysandra struck at it a couple times with her sword, and Lizzy followed it up with a halberd strike; both of them also did no damage. I then calmed down enough to rationalize that this guy probably had some high physical resistance.

How about poison, bub? I thought as I got out my bow, loosing a couple of poison-arrows at it. They struck home, and were at least doing some damage, but nowhere near what I had hoped for. Not immune, but still decently resistant, I noted. The Obliterator's sword then came hurtling down, glancing off of Maryn's shield with a bell-like clang, nearly knocking her to her knees as the monster himself stumbled.

Dracuoatlax then unleashed his arsenal of flame spells, doing a decent amount of damage; Ariana followed his attack with a lightning strike, which was just as effective. Anhe began bolstering the others with defensive and regeneration auras while Healina cast some heals on Maryn and a light-spell at the boss, which pierced his defenses to do some more significant damage. But immediately afterwards there was a healing effect that popped up on him, restoring his health rapidly.

Tch!! I hadn't seen any sort of induction or clue as to how it activated. I don't think he even had a lot of health gone... five-percent at best? I frowned, laser-focused on the fight as Maryn fended him off while Heali kept her going.

“Our best bet would be to keep using magic on him,” I called.

“Agreed!” Healina said.

“Activating Mage's Ally!” Anhe told us as she brought up a fourth aura to help us. Well, our casters, anyway. Mage's Ally gives magic users a damage and critical-chance bonus; it even affected Dracuoatlax in his current state, which was definitely a plus.

The others repeated their attacks a few seconds later, but just as before, the boss' special healing gimmick came into play. This time I for sure saw his health had gone down more than five-percent, but I still hadn't seen what was causing the heal to activate.

“Lana.” Myanihia came to my side. “I, can't tell, how it's healing.”

“You too, huh?” I said. I began looking around, wondering if there was something in this mysteriously camouflaged valley that held a clue.

“This is basically a stalemate right now,” Lizzy groaned.

At that moment, the boss roared. It then stomped on the ground, stunning Maryn, Lizzy, and Lysandra. It then raised its sword to try and deliver a sweeping blow that might have either severely damaged or one-shot the three of them, but I quickly used Shadow World and Shadow Speed to cross the distance between myself and the boss in a split second, using Thousand Needle Strike to interrupt the attack. As soon as the other three were free from the stun I backed off again, and Maryn began recapturing the Guardian's attention.

“Not immune to interrupts, I see--” I said, but in the moment before Maryn managed to get the boss focused on her, its eyes glinted at me, and I was frozen solid.

Eh? Ehh?? Ehhhh?! I briefly panicked, seeing a chakram coming my way at a blinding speed. Not even Myanihia could deflect it from me, and it struck home, taking my health nearly down to zero.

“Angel's Revival!!!” Healina said, focusing the spell in my direction. My health instantly went back up to half, and slowly continued regenerating from there.

“Nice!” Lizzy beamed to our healer, who nodded back.

“Have to keep Lana's reputation for not dying intact!” she grinned.

“Ahh... ha-ha-hah,” I smiled weakly as I retreated further away from the boss.

O-kay, that happened. So we have stuns, we have freezes, and we have insta-kills from this guy... he's basically immune to physical, unless it has poison or venom, and while magic has an effect on him he also has this mysterious heal-effect that takes place whenever we finally do some decent damage to him... no wonder they call him the Heavenly Obliterator, I mused to myself as I analyzed what had happened so far.

The boss then roared again; it was a longer roar, and there was no accompanying stomp. My sense of danger went to full alert, and I looked up. There were flaming objects hurtling down from the sky towards us.

“Defense! Defense!” I cried out as I gently tackled Myanihia to the ground and hid under the remnants of an old building with her while Ariana, Heali, and Sky Belle quickly activated their defensive spells and shielding buffs to weather the onslaught with the others.

One of the fiery things touched down with a crash about fifteen centimeters from my head, and Myanihia and I both tensed up. A split-second later she then shoved us to another side when one came down right where we had been laying, and a brief squeak came from my lips. The onslaught lasted for twenty seconds, and then ceased.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Good grief!” I heard Healina exclaim as the two of us got to our feet again.

“This is nuts,” I softly griped. “Usually by now we have some sense of how to start whittling down a boss, but this--!”

“I think this, is one of the new ones,” Myanihia then told me. “I heard a rumor, about a new kind of boss, the developers were implementing, this summer; this one, must be a test for them,” she said.

“Well good job, devs; this'll keep us puzzled for a while...” I said as I rubbed the back of my neck in vexation.

“It had high resistance, to that skill... but, Lana, we didn't use any extra damage on our weapons,” she then reminded me.

“Hmm...? That's true... we could have used a poison on our weapons before activating it... maybe we can try it now,” I mused, and she nodded.

While the others continued fending it off, the two of us did exactly that. With our now poisoned blades, we struck the boss with the combo-skill again. This time, there was actual damage; but of course it used its mysterious healing spell once again.

Tch!! If I could only figure that part out, or if someone else could figure it out, we'd smack him down pretty quick, I grumbled inwardly. Something then caught my attention. The boss was standing on a stone tile with a certain character written upon it.

“Anhe! What does that say?” I asked our youngest member, hoping it was a character she would know. She took one look at it, then turned back to me.

“It says 'immortal'!” Anhe told me.

Bingo!

“Ho-ho, I get it now,” Maryn smiled, taunting the boss forward as she backed up a few paces. It advanced towards her, and then Lizzy used her halberd to try and smash up the tile. She rebounded from the impact of her skill, and the tile remained undamaged.

“Rats!!” she sighed in frustration.

“Any other tiles around?” Lysandra wondered, and Belle flew around the area to investigate.

“There's eight others!” she then reported.

“Show me!” Anhe called, hurrying over to her, and the two of them examined the tiles together.

Meanwhile, the boss still had a ridiculous resistance and an astonishing regeneration rate, but its health was going down. Slowly. Very slowly. Our levels had gone over one-fifty recently, and we all had top-tier equipment to go with those levels. I won't say that we were far and away the best guild on the server, but we certainly held our own in most situations. It made me wonder if the GMs and developers were watching our fight with this thing, gauging their new toy's abilities as it did battle with us. A smile crept to my face.

Well if they *are* watching, let's give them a show!

“Lana!” Anhe said as she and Belle came to my side. “Clockwise from where the boss came out, the tiles read 'lightning', 'fire', 'water', 'holy', 'strength', 'fortitude', 'wisdom', and 'chaos'. The first four characters are red-colored, the last four are blue-colored.”

“And the one we moved him off of was black,” I recalled, and she nodded.

“What d'you think, chick?” Sky Belle asked me.

“Hrrmm... obviously he benefited from the first one for sure. The red-marked ones might be harmful to him, but that leaves the blue ones...” I replied, frowning as I pondered the information I had received.

“Maybe those are still harmful to him, but in a different kind of way?” Anhe wondered.

“Oh, that's a possibility,” I agreed. “Still... the color association seems weird...” I then remarked, suddenly bothered by it.

“Hmm... true...” Anhe said in agreement as Belle nodded.

“Def. Although, maybe it's less about him and more about us,” the pixie-girl reasoned.

“Oh?” I blinked, intrigued.

“The red tiles might mean a certain kind of damage will be more effective, while the blue ones affect certain attributes,” she said.

“Oh, that's a thought!” I remarked hopefully. “Still...” I wondered.

“How do we use the tiles, right?” Belle smiled back.

“Do we lead him, to them; or should we ourselves, stand on them?” Myanihia said, giving voice to my own thoughts.

“It seems like it would be a pain to lead him to each of them... but it is a hard fight to begin with,” Anhe suggested as she looked back towards the others.

“Well... let's try something first,” I said. The other three looked at me expectantly. “Maryn! Stand on the tile, the one he was just on!” I called to our shield-user, who nodded back, carefully maneuvering around the boss until she was on it. The tile then began to faintly glow.

I held out my hand to Healina to indicate she should stop a moment; she looked at me in disbelief, but did as I asked. The boss then did to Maryn what it had done to me; it froze her, and then unleashed a flurry of chakrams at her. Her health went down rapidly, but just before it was all gone it bounced right back up to full.

“Phew!” she sighed in relief. “Nice!” she then said in a more confident voice, using her skills to ensure the boss remained fixated on her.

“Tiles on the outer ring from clockwise are one to eight!” I then called. “Ari, one; Dracuoatlax, two; Heali, three; hm? Who should go on four...?” I suddenly wondered. “Three was... water... ack, I meant Healina to go on holy, but I guess that's all right...” I mused.

“I will take four!” Anhe spoke up as the others took their spots.

“Go for it!” I nodded to her, and she dashed off to take the fourth tile.

“Lizzy, fi-- wait, go to six; Lysandra, take tile five; Belle, tile seven!” I called.

“Gotcha, boss!”

“Right!”

“On my way, hon!” they replied to me.

“Tile eight; you, or me, or Fyu?” Myanihia then asked.

“Good question...” I returned. “Eh, you take it,” I then told her.

“Are you sure?”

“I'm sure; go!” I said, and she headed to the tile in question while I went to Fyu's side. He had positioned himself near Maryn, taking a defensive posture and occasionally leaping at the boss to strike when he saw an opportunity.

“Master.” he said as I joined him.

“Hiya, pal,” I said to him.

“The tiles are all glowing now,” Maryn noticed. “And we're starting to do more damage to him than he's doing to us.”

“That's good,” I said with a grin. “Now we just have to--” I began, but then the boss let out his long roar again, raining down hellfire on us once more. Maryn managed to keep the three of us safe, while Healina, Anhe, and Belle managed to do the same for everyone else. This time, however, the onslaught did not cease after twenty seconds. It kept coming.

“Minions!” Healina called out. She herself began summoning up her own minions to help us as Fyu and I began tearing into them while dodging the shower of fiery stones.

“He weakens!” Dracuoatlax told us. “We must persist in our attack!”

“Right!” Lizzy nodded, using the few ranged skills she had from her halberd to inflict some damage. It was, of course, the one she had gotten from that time I had put on a certain ring.

“Bolstering your attacks!” Anhe called out to us as she activated a fifth aura. “I cannot keep this up as long as Sun WuKong! We need to win this fight quickly!”

“Will do!” Ariana replied to her.

As Fyu and I continued harrying the minions so that the others focused on the boss, I suddenly noticed a tenth tile. The character on this one was golden. From my language studies, I immediately recognized this one; it was 'wind'.

Wind? Wait; Anhe and Belle would have noticed this one earlier, right? Unless it only appears when all the others are occupied... that makes sense, I guess. I still don't quite get the color scheme here, though Belle's thoughts might be close to what it's supposed to mean. But anyway -- wind. Wind. This is the Guardian of the Winds, and this optional quest is to see the Master of the Winds? Or at least his temple... this tile might be important, then, I concluded, stepping onto it. A light enveloped me. I suddenly felt... lighter, swifter even.

“Master!” Fyu said in alarm, then his gaze relaxed. “I see; you may have found the solution, master!”

“I hope so!” I said in agreement.

I guess I can't move from this spot; but I also guess I don't need to! I then grinned, taking out my bow and queuing up Dragon Breaker.

“La-na! Are you using what I think you're using?” Ariana called over to me.

“Probably!” I replied.

“Then I'll queue up Olympian Strike!” she grinned back in reply.

“Go for it!” I called back.

“Allow me to join you, masters, with this human-form skill of Flaming Pillar!” Dracuoatlax said to us.

“Be our guest!” Ari told him. “Ready in five, four, three, two -- one!” she called, and the three of us then unleashed our attacks.

A raging bolt of lightning struck down upon the boss at the same time a flaming vortex enveloped him, leaving my arrow to pass through him like a cannonball through a block of cheese. He cried out, and the attack from the sky and the minions both ceased. The boss staggered. We had taken down a third of his health, and he was not regenerating this time.

“Again!” Maryn called, and the three of us repeated our attack, driving him to less than thirty-two percent health.

“Cooldown!” Ariana told us.

“I'll cover for you!” Healina told her.

“Thanks!” my partner replied.

“I'm not as good as Snow Dancer with offensive skills, but let's see what Light Queen's Vengeance does!” our healer smiled.

“On three!” I called. “One, two-- three!”

As my arrow and Dracuoatlax's flaming pillar struck the boss, a radiant light surrounded him, blending with the fire and withering him away as his health went down to nothing, finishing the fight. We flopped to the ground in relief for a few minutes, and then checked our rewards.

“Sah-weeeet!” Lizzy said as she examined the loot. “We got his sword! And I can even modify it, too!”

“Oh, nice!” I smiled.

“There's a spell-tome here; Ari, you take it, unless Dracuoatlax can use it?” Heali said.

“Hmm! Now I want to know if he can use it,” Ariana returned as she handed it to the dragon in humanoid form. He took it from her, gazing at it curiously for a moment before opening it.

“Interesting,” he remarked. “It appears to detail the workings of the attack he used on us, masters; shall I use it?”

“Go for it,” I nodded.

He's already pretty powerful, though; I feel like his having *that* spell might break the game a bit, I bemusedly thought to myself.

“I hope we find something Fyu can use sometime,” I said as I patted the dog-beast.

“I am content, master. But your wishes warm my heart.” he replied. “Shall we proceed to this mysterious temple?” he then said.

“Let's go,” I agreed, and we headed through the entryway that the boss had come out from, finding a long hall with a portal at the end. We looked around at each other, and headed through it.

***

“Pretty,” was all I could think to say when we emerged on the other side.

We were on top of a great gathering of clouds, from what I could see. Another torii-gate, this one resplendent in colors of red and green, stood before marble white stairs that led upwards to a palatial white castle of Eastern style. Two towers flanked the top of the stairs, and as we ascended we found a few buildings to each side. The stairs themselves terminated before a small walkway that led to another set of stairs, this one leading to the palace with its golden-tiled roof. A wide pagoda tower rose up from behind it. All around the grounds of this sky-palace were white and gold flowers and trees, blooming and blossoming brilliantly in the light.

“For sure,” Lizzy agreed with me as we reached the palace. Our quest log then updated.

Hitherlands Expedition, Chapter Two, Part Two, Optional: meet with the Master of the Winds.

“Sure, but why?” Lysandra wondered as the great doors of the palace opened without a sound.

“I guess we'll find out... come to think of it, didn't Anna Belle's ancestor's journal say something about a mysterious temple?” Healina then remarked.

“Oh, it did!” Ariana nodded.

“Welcome, visitors, to my palace,” a mellow voice said to us. “Come! I would have speech with you, who have proven yourselves worthy to me!” it continued.

“I guess we're heading in,” I said, and with that we made our way inside.

The interior of the main palace was austere yet simple in design. There were no lavish or extravagant decorations; everything seemed to have a purpose... no, that's not right; more like, it all seemed to have meaning in some way or another.

At the far end, which wasn't too far away from us, the Master of the Winds sat upon a simple mat between two incense altars of curious shape. I heard Anhe say the word “feilián” when she saw them, as if she was puzzled by their being here. Not Japanese? I wondered to myself. The figure clad in white robes before us took up a cup on his right, and drank deeply before turning his attention to us once more.

“You have defeated the Guardian of the Winds, showing not only bravery in facing him, but wisdom in knowing how to strike at your foe. For this, I offer you a long-lost blessing of the lands below; I offer you the power of the winds.” he told us.

“We would be honored to receive your gift.” I replied to him.

I wonder what it does...?

“It is all written in this scroll. Here!” he said, clapping his hands. A scroll materialized before me, and I accepted it. “Now! One other gift I give you; the gift of returning to this place when you may desire to do so, that your use of this gift may grow.” he then told us, and a special trinket appeared in each of our inventories. I bowed to him, and the others did the same (well, except Dracuoatlax).

“We thank you, Master of the Winds, for your generosity.” I said.

“Be welcome here, and be one with the winds.” he said, suddenly fading away as if he himself was the wind.

Well of course, I suddenly reasoned to myself. He is the master of them, after all.

“What's on the scroll?” Maryn then asked.

“Hmm...” I said as I unrolled it, looking over the script. “Not a clue!” I smiled, handing it to Anhe, who took it as she gave me a smirk.

“We are going to work on your literacy level this summer!” she softly chided me.

“Ah-heh...”

“Hm? These are wind-spells, of course; they enable one to use wind-type attacks, or even to fly,” Anhe told us a few moments later.

“To fly, huh...?” I remarked, looking over at Fyu.

“Master,” the dog-beast then said, “Do you intend that I should make use of this scroll and the powers it bestows?”

“Friend Fyu,” Dracuoatlax broke in, “Since I myself have gained a new power in these strange Hitherlands, I would see you also gain such a boon from it,” he said.

“Your words have a sense to them, Dracuoatlax, but let me not be presumptuous!” the other replied.

“I say let him have it,” Lysandra said, and Belle nodded in agreement.

“I have enough wind-spells of my own,” Ariana smiled, “Though flying would be fun! But I agree; let Fyu use it!” she said as Anhe handed the scroll back to me. I then headed over to our faithful old friend.

“I do intend for you to use it.” I affirmed with a smile, and he bowed his head.

“Then I will accept graciously, master. Place it around my neck, that I may keep hold of it at my leisure,” he told me, and I took out a soft cord from my inventory to do so. Once it was secure, it began shimmering, and the dog-beast's eyes lit up with wonder as the scroll began to dematerialize.

“Ehh??” the rest of us exclaimed as we watched it vanish.

“Fear not, masters,” Fyu said to us, “The knowledge of the scroll is now within my mind. I shall endeavor to master these skills as I can; but first, there is one of them I must try. Lady Lana, Lady Ariana, join me!” he said to us as he made his way outside, and the two of us followed after him.

“I think I know what Friend Fyu is about,” Dracuoatlax grinned as he and the others came along after us. Once outside, he himself returned to his usual form, stretching his great limbs and flapping his wings a bit.

Fyu nodded for Ari and me to get up on his back, and then with a great heave he launched himself into the air. He laughed in delight, and we cheered him on as we soared through the clouds. A few moments later we saw the others on Dracuoatlax as the dragon sought to catch up with us, a grin on his face. The others were clapping or cheering as well.

“A fine day to be one with the winds, my friend!” the dragon called.

“A fine day, indeed!” Fyu replied with a hearty chuckle. “Hold fast, masters!” he said as he began picking up speed.

“Whee!” Ariana shouted with delight as she held on to me, and I grinned as I held on tightly to Fyu. Not too tightly, mind; but we were--

“Hyeck?!” I said as I looked down to see how high we were. It was so high up, the world below us looked like a map of itself.

“Eep!” Ari squeaked, tightening her grip around my waist.

“We're high up, huh?” I heard Sky Belle remark. “I wonder if we can head back down to ground from here... or if that's some sort of illusion below us...”

“We should indeed return to the ground eventually, masters,” Fyu said. “But for now...!”

“For now, let's fly!” I said with a smile as we continued soaring through the skies.

In the end, we spent about an hour flying around before we began returning to ground. It was a looong way back down from the height we had reached via special quest. As we landed, we found a small crowd waiting for us, half of them looking bewildered and the other half looking as if this was very much what they expected from us.

“You girls never stop finding amazing skills and stuff, huh?” Jannie grinned as she and Angelfire came to greet us.

“Guess not!” I beamed back.

Oy... wait a sec!

“Well while you were out, us mortals discovered a new vein of ore in one of the mines. Your Ragamis friend showed up as soon as we found it.” Angelfire told us.

“Anna Belle? Did she go back or is she waiting?” I asked.

“She's at the mining camp with a little picnic and a couple of her people,” Jannie said.

“Right, we'll head there now,” I replied as I went back to Fyu.

“Hold it right there, girlie!” Angelfire softly demanded, and then wrapped me in a big hug as I halted. Jannie dashed over to do the same. “Welcome back!!” she said happily, and I smiled.

“Thanks,” I told her, and all the others came over to join us for a small reunion before we headed up to meet with Anna Belle at the mining camp.