Our journey along the side of the mountain was terrifying in the extreme. In some places we traversed, the ledge was so thin that it was impossible to walk side by side, leading to some moments where one or both of us might slip, only to be caught by the other. The rock itself was fairly sturdy, and it didn’t break often under our feet, but the dirt that had collected on top of it was another matter.

Then there were the trees and shrubs, none of which Grace and I could identify. They simply weren’t based on anything we knew, although it looked like they had evolved along similar lines to what we were used to. Clearly this place had been groomed by the Umaru to host the Obrecs, just as our mountains back at Avonside had been cultivated to sustain humanity. It really had me wondering why they had gone through all this trouble.

“Can you tell how far they are now?” Grace asked, not sounding at all as tired as I was.

Having cast the spell only a few minutes ago, I just shook my head. “Closer, but that’s all I can tell right now. They’re also sort of inside the mountain from what I can tell, which doesn’t seem right.”

“Maybe they’re on the other side? This place seems like it has tons of different branching canyons,” Grace commented, staring around at the wild, alien scenery. So far it hadn’t really felt like we were on an alien world… until now. This place was truly strange.

“I didn’t think of that,” I replied, staring through the wall at where Adam was meant to be. Or at least his ring. “You’re probably right.”

“Which means, unless there’s a fork in the canyon up ahead, we need to go up and over, right?” Grace hypothesised, as she stared up at the wall of rock that not only yawned impossibly deep below us, but also dizzyingly high above us until it was lost in misty clouds that swirled and undulated in mysterious patterns.

“I doubt we’d be able to get over that without flying,” I laughed, my voice slightly rough with awe as I continued to stare up the rocky face.

“Good point,” she chuckled, then with a shrug she kept walking, picking her way over twisted roots and loose rocks.

I was starting to wonder if Ollinfer had really put us down near Millowhall, or if she’d just played a strange prank on us. Shit, or maybe her definition of “close” was just ever so slightly different to ours.

We had made a pact with a being that claimed to be a Goddess after all. That in itself was a whole mess of red flags. She could have dumped us on a detour so that would have us fulfilling some unknowable plan or prophecy while we bumbled our way towards the guys.

Either way, we kept moving, doing our best not to get freaked out by the world that had seemingly been turned on its side. We couldn’t even see the ring because of the mists and clouds that swirled around us. It was getting cold too, the chill of the region beginning to seep into our bones despite our clothing.

Then, to make the cold worse, the wind began to pick up, howling and groaning it’s way through the huge passage of rock. Pushing and pulling at us like it wanted to throw us into the chasm below or bash us against the rocky wall beside us. It wasn’t enough to deter us, at least not yet, but it sucked nevertheless.

I was sort of idly daydreaming by that point, letting my mind wander where it would, until some part of me jolted the rest back into the present. I was staring at a huge almost circular slab of rock, some two yards wide and two feet deep. Why had my subconscious mind brought this thing to my attention?

Oh! Oh gosh, it was perfect!

“Grace, hold on,” I said, taking her hand to bring her to a stop. “I want to try and steal that big ass rock for my grove.”

“What, why?” she asked, not yet having made the same connection that I had.

“It could be a floor to place an oven on! I would somewhat protect the tree from burning down!” I exclaimed excitedly.

“Oh, that would be great! We wouldn’t have to go outside to cook anything!” she grinned, understanding my intentions now. “Okay, how do you do it?”

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“I don’t know, I guess I’ll just wrap my telekinesis around it and try to yank it in, just like normal,” I shrugged, doing so as I explained it. “See you in just a moment okay?”

Her expression turned worried. “Wait, you’re going without me?”

“I need to conserve energy, sorry. I’ll only be a moment, I promise!” I told her, searching her eyes for any sign she wouldn’t be okay for the few seconds I was gone.

“Alright, see you in a sec,” she sighed.

Nodding, I made sure my grip on the huge rock was solid and then went through the mental steps needed to pull myself into my grove. The strain was pretty intense compared to just transferring people, but after a slightly longer transition time than I was used to, I landed in the center of my grove, the rock alongside me.

Taking a few deep breaths, I took stock of how much energy that had taken out of me. A lot, by the feel of things, not prohibitively so. I could do this transfer maybe four times in a row before I’d burn out. What was interesting was how much energy it had taken compared to moving people in and out. Was it to do with an object’s mass? I’d have to experiment at some point.

When I popped back into the mundane realm, Grace was looking anxious, but otherwise fine.

“Okay, phew,” she breathed, relief all over her expression. “I was worried you’d accidentally get stuck in some sort of wild time bubble or other nonsense. You know how magic and sci-fi goes sometimes, a quick extra dimensional jaunt and then bam, the little maneuver costs them fifty one years.”

“Oh my goodness, you dork,” I said, grinning at her affectionately, cupping her cheek in my hand. Carefully, I went up on my tiptoes and placed a short, tender kiss on her lips, backing away with an intense, adoring stare.

“Oh, yes,” she blurted, her cheeks colouring. “Right, everything’s fine.”

“It is,” I smiled, then tilted my head in the direction we needed to go. “Shall we continue?”

“Yup, deffo,” she nodded, still looking a little flustered. She was so cute.

An hour later and we were still going, with what were probably clouds closing in around us. I wouldn’t be surprised if each stretch of the canyons had their own microbiomes with the way this place was made.

“I’m starting to get pretty cold, Ryn. We should possibly rest for the night, I think it’s starting to get dark, but I can’t tell,” Grace mumbled, coming to a stop and shivering as she turned to look at me. She looked damned cold that was for sure.

“Yeah, alright,” I agreed, taking her hand. I didn’t actually need to take her hand for the transfer into my grove, but I liked holding her hand.

So whatever, sue me.

When we popped into my grove, the relative warmth washed over us almost immediately. It was still somewhat cold, but it was a temperate cold, not a frigid mountain type of cold.

My new big ass rock was still where I’d left it, a crowd of bunnies surrounding it as they tried in vain to move the heavy object. “Hey, stop,” I told them quickly. “You’ll just hurt yourselves, let me do it.”

“Your buns are so good,” Grace laughed. “Trying their best.”

“Trying their best,” I nodded solemnly, as though it was a sacred phrase.

“If you’re going to try moving that thing with your mind, then I’ll head up to the bathroom and have a wash. I feel gross after all that walking.”

“Sure thing, see you soon,” I smiled at her.

As Grace wandered off, looking over her shoulder as she did so, I turned my attention to the big ass rock. Almost like I was straightening my back and lifting with my knees, just like the safety signs always said, I wrapped my telekinesis carefully around it. I could feel its heft even before I tried to move it, and when I did, my eyes blew wide with the effort. Holy shit, this thing was heavy! I could do it though, just.

Mind tight with the effort, I floated the thing up the ramp and into the happy tree, stopping to rest in the entry hall. It took several stops like that before I had it up and into the center of an unused floor. I decided that it was going to be the kitchen, and once the rock was in I had no intention of moving it. Damn, it was so heavy.

Staring at it as I caught my breath, I mumbled my thoughts out loud. “I need a hole in the middle, big enough to contain the fire that’s going to be inside it. How the hell will I achieve that?”

As if in answer, I felt a tugging at my pants, looking down to find the cream coloured bun at my feet. The little critter pointed to itself, then mimed an action that I couldn’t fully interpret.

“I don’t get it,” I said, watching the bun get exasperated with me.

It stopped to think for a moment, then seemed to have a brainwave as it hopped up onto the huge flat stone and mimed bashing something in the middle.

“Oh! You want to dig the hole?” I asked.

Cream nodded, then shook the empty air between its little hands.

“Ah, but you need rocks to do it. Okay, I’ll go get some rocks real quick,” I grinned, feeling my heart swell with the cuteness of the little friends. They were so good.

I popped back out into the mundane world from right there in the room, then made several trips in and out, swiping all the loose stones I could get my mental hands on. I dumped them on the grass outside where the buns could get them, and on my third trip they were swarming the area, hustling back and forth between the spot where I appeared and the tree. Good buns, getting to work.

With that taken care of, I went and had my own bath, luxuriating in the wonderfully warm water. I really liked my tree, and it was only going to get better. Hopefully I could get some proper furniture, maybe some decorations to make it more homey and less echoey. Of course, we had to actually find and get to Millowhall first.