Chapter 139

Grimm's words continued to echo through her mind as she gazed out the window, paws pressed up against the translucent crystal glass.

The cabin was cool and clammy, a perfect companion to the low-slung clouds and the grey weather they brought with them just outside.

For hours, they had been making their way through a foggy bank, with only a brief expanse of blue underneath them, stretching out to the limits of their visible horizon.

What was unexpected was the swirling eddies the dragon's wings made in the mist—trails of spiraling air compacting it into puffs of swirling white that they quickly left behind.

It was hypnotic, in a way, meditative, as with all living things, the dragon had a rhythm to its being. She could even hear her heartbeat, slow and ponderous; it paused for as much as five seconds between beats, before resounding like a distant bass drum to her sensitive ears.

She yawned as her mind synced with the rhythm, as Grimm's mysterious message echoed again.

"Just as your current struggle lies in your past..."

The wings of the dragon beat as if underlining the phrase.

"So too does this world's struggle reside in its past; resolution will not come with aggression but understanding..."

Riley huffed and peered down just in time to see them clear the fog bank.

The land became visible just ahead: black sand beaches that stretched out to the grey horizons, interrupted by vertical grey-streaked cliffs that towered hundreds of feet above the beach, before giving way to a forest.

Catching a current, the dragon, Shasta, banked up, causing the cabin to tip back, pushing people into their seats.

Caedmon rolled up over the armrest before being deposited on the floor as they righted, traveling with the momentum, ending up wedged between the front of the cabin and his seat row.

He once again had his section to himself, something he was exploiting to full measure.

Nonplussed and undisturbed, he curled into a ball and continued his sleeping.

"I don't know how he does it," Tobias boggled.

His fear was ringing in her mind from their bond, adding strange punctuation to her morose reflection as he gripped his seat for dear life.

"Like that would save you," she quipped under her breath as Tobias turned his head.

"What wouldn't save me?" He asked, looking towards her.

"Oh, if there was an accident, we'd all be just as dead no matter how much you gripped your seat," she mentioned offhandedly.

Eastmund was journaling, driving her mad with curiosity. Paper was at a premium in Calaria, and books were largely unknown. Still, with a reed pen, that never seemed to run dry of ink, Eastmund had been writing for hours.

He looked up from his scribbling with a reed pen, his primary means of distraction. "She's right, ya know. The impact would tear us all apart."

Other passengers shifted nervously in their seats as Tobias turned a whiter shade of pale.

In an act of mercy, as much as a shift in course, Riley pulled herself briefly away from the window to nuzzle up and snuggle against his chest.

"But that's not going to happen. Shasta's a good dragon, and we have a greater destiny beyond today." She winced, sounding like a fortune teller, as the phrase 'new age horseshit' drifted through her mind.

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"More words of wisdom from your guardian celestial?" Tobias chuckled, stroking down her back.

"Kind of? He said we'd be OK, then again, he said I'd be OK after being torn apart by a chaos monster only to be sewed back together into a completely new person, so I'd take that with a grain of salt," she looked up, and let her ears droop.

"Comforting. Eastmund, just what are you writing anyway?" Tobias asked.

"This was a gift from my training officer. I've always liked scribe work and chronicling. He gave me this magic book he found on his travels. It's eleven craft, I think. There's always a blank page, and it knows where the information is that I want to recall if I think about it in the right way. It's my little hobby, well, that and knitting," he admitted, coughing into his hand.

"Wait, you knit?" Riley's ears perked in shock.

"Well, I dabble, mainly make blankets; the locals go mad for them in Alacia. It's a good way to guarantee goodwill," he shrugged.

"I see," Riley replied imperiously, chewing on the new data. "So you're a ranger who writes and knits. Tobias likes alchemy; maybe you two should talk more. You could date!" she wiggled her ears, teasing.

"Riley, that's more Justinian's thing," Tobias admonished.

Eastmund looked up as if considering the point before shrugging it off and going back to writing.

Her ears went crooked. "You mean he... but I never..."

"I was his first crush, I think," Tobias relaxed in his chair.

"Is that taboo? Do people get upset?" Riley forgot all about Grimm as some new hidden element to Calaria shone in all its unusual glory.

"Why would they get upset? What would it matter the type of companionship one would prefer?" Eastmund asked.

Tobias looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Huh. Never mind, long story," Riley gave Tobias an affectionate nudge before turning back towards the window, pondering the primitive world she had found herself in that wasn't so primitive in some ways, after all.

The towering edifice of Timbergarde rose above the forest in all its might and grandeur as Grimm's words echoed again.

"Guys, the Fae killed themselves at the end of the war, right? " she asked.

"Aye, The legends say that their armies were forced out of their redoubts and fortresses until they became surrounded at Coimeád Oighear; there, instead of capture or surrender to the King of Ashes, they committed mass suicide," Eastmund summarized.

"Tobias called it a ritual suicide," Riley recalled.

"There was some speculation on that, but it's been two thousand years since the Ashen Wars; the Ashenrealm is stronger than it's ever been. If it was a ritual, it truly fizzled," Eastmund replied.

"You think it did," Riley replied in challenge.

"Well, convince me otherwise," he retorted.

"Look at our case. It all seems to have ties back to the very same war that ended strangely in a world full of magic and weird shit. My world didn't like coincidence; Calaria laughs at coincidence. After all, Grimm did say the answer was in the past," Riley offered.

"That was thousands of years ago; that's more like ancient history. Still, it's worth asking the Generals about it. Maybe we could even check out the ritual site," Tobias posited, just as Shasta banked again.

"Aye, it's a good enough plan, but with the way things have been going lately, if it is a ritual, it's nearing its zenith," Eastmund replied, his words dripping with worry as the dragon began to slow.