Mike and Raemiel hung out in the air for just a little while longer. The angel only needed to flap his wings with a slow, consistent beat to keep them hovering in place. But while they were up there, Mike tried to do as he was asked and examine their surroundings closely. Even just one discernable landmark from Earth would at least give them a start on orienting approximately where they currently were.
Squinting, Mike then thought that he could just barely see something. “Hey… Spear.”
Now that they were on the surface, it was probably better to get in the habit of using the angel’s mentioned nickname. Especially for after they got back down on the ground, where anyone could be listening from around any corner.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Could you just turn us to the left, just a little bit? I think I see something on the horizon over there. See it, that patch of grey between some of the trunks of those taller trees over there?” Mike pointed at the spot in question as his Summon dutifully turned them to directly face that way.
“Hmm. I believe my sight is better than yours, Mike. Would you like me to describe what it is that I am personally able to discern?” Raemiel asked. To which he then continued after a quick nod from his Summoner.
“I see what appears to be a fairly small city, at least by the standards of my home. Its buildings seem to greatly vary in size and design, though the most prominent amongst them appear to be made of stone with many glass windows. However, many more look to be made from brick and are smaller in height. From that description alone, does that yet sound like a location that you would be able to recognize?”
Mike shook his head. “Nothing specific, but that does sound like an Earth city, at least. Dunno if the planet we got merged with had any cities or civilizations of its own. Though the System only specified that sapients creatures of my planet become Summoners, which I guess means either the second one doesn’t have sapients, or they just got excluded? The System wouldn’t happen to have given you any insight into that, did it?”
“Nothing of the sort, I am afraid to say. But in my personal opinion, I do believe that your initial assumption is the most likely scenario. Based on what little I do know, it is my understanding that the System is rather specific with the intent of its wording. If it made no mention of another sapient species, then the planet your world merged with should only be of its regular flora and fauna. And even if the fauna is made up of viscous creatures, it will not matter if they are not Summons. So their existence is of little direct consequence to us,” the angel explained.
“Fair enough. So what do you think we should do? If it’s just any random city on the planet, I probably won’t be able to tell much from it. Well, actually… maybe I could figure it out just by exploring around for a bit. See what language all the local stuff’s in, and go from there to find out if it’s in English. Unless you have any objections to that plan, anyway?” Mike was then about to reach up to scratch his chin reflexly, but remembered that he was still holding on with both hands.
“Hmm. If I had one concern, it would be that any other Summoners in the area may have thought of something similar. It is my understanding that when one’s life has suffered a tremendous and unexpected change, one might seek even the semblance of familiarity. So if they see it from afar, there is every likelihood that they will also feel spurred to go over this settlement. If that happens, there is every chance that at least one individual may prove to be hostile. Are you prepared for that possibility?”
Mike nodded, having already accepted that eventuality earlier. “If it’ll happen sooner or later anyway, then I shouldn’t stress over it for every decision I make, right? Besides, I’d much rather pick a nice building to sleep in tonight than just be in some random spot in these woods. Safer that way from all the Wild Summons running around, you’d think. Speaking of which, we should probably get moving before any flying ones come around and notice us.”
“Very well then. If getting there before we are spotted is your concern, then I shall have us reach our destination as soon as possible!” Raemiel declared while leaning forward. Then once again speeding up the beats of his wings, the pair shot ahead toward the city in the distance.
The wind ripped around them as they shot through the air. The canopies of the trees just below them zoomed past and became a blur as the angel just accelerated with each additional wing beat. Just from how fast the world below appeared to be moving, Mike guessed that they had to be going at least 100 miles per hour, and that was just a minimum.
Having never flown in a plane himself, he didn’t really have any personal experience with how fast it felt when flying at those kinds of speeds. Especially considering that driving inside a closed container like a car was likely very different than being fully exposed to the wing, so who even knew how that skewed his perception.
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But it didn’t even take five minutes until they were nearly right above the city. Yet now that they were close enough for Mike to take a closer look, he could now see that it wasn’t quite the same. The forest of giant trees wasn’t so kind as to simply skip the piece of civilization, but continued as if it was right there. It was kind of like a game that tried to generate two different biomes, but then some bug caused both types to overlap in the same instance.
Rather than the trees having grown through the buildings at the same time, it was like they’d just been teleported into their current spots. Bits of rubble and debris were practically everywhere that the eye could see. Some buildings were mostly fine, with a sapling sticking through the roof that was “only” 30 or 40 feet tall. But aside from some internal damage that would likely be found in the form of the ceiling and floor that the tree had destroyed, it still had structural integrity.
On the other end of that scale were buildings that had the misfortune of becoming the new home for much larger trees. For them, it was practically impossible to know what the structure looked like before, because they had now turned into just a fully collapsed ring around the tree.
Finally, there were the buildings that had been lucky enough to find themselves in the open parts of the woods. And with how the forest around here did appear to be one of the relatively more sparse sections, there were at least quite a few of the last category.
Now that they were actually right above outer part of the city, Mike figured that he would at least be able to explore the fully inta-
“What the Fuuuuuu-” Mike yelled as the angel holding onto him suddenly let him go, and with absolutely zero warning. Sputtering and cursing, his heart felt like it was about to explode as his adrenaline instantly spiked from 0-100. His stomach had already performed half a dozen backflips in a row, and was already doing more to aim for a world record.
“Oh shit! Motherfucker! You son of a!” Mike continued to swear like a sailor as he flailed. While his rapid descent toward the ground only continued to accelerate, his most basic instincts had him grasping around for something to grab and hold onto. The thing he mainly reached for was his Summon, of course.
However, despite having tucked his wings to enter a free fall as well, Mike appeared to be moving faster than Raemiel. So by the time he reached to grab his companion, the angel was already out of reach. And then as just the icing to this entirely unwelcome cake, the angel responded to his obviously panicked state by just giving him a thumbs up.
Finally, Mike’s shocked brain got its thoughts coherent enough to realize that he needed to give the Summon an actual order. And ideally one that he would give that Raemiel would follow immediately.
“Just fucking catch me alrea-!”
Boom!
Before he had time to finish the sentence, the fleshy sack of meat and blood called Mike hit the ground at full speed. A plume of dry dirt was kicked up around him as a human-sized dent had now been created in the stretch of grass he’d crashed into. For a moment he just laid there, still taking in shallow breaths as his pulse sounded like a war drum in his ears.
As he slowly pushed himself off the ground a few seconds later, his angelic companion then caught up. Right before he also unceremoniously crashed, Raemiel just flapped his wings a few times to almost immediately slow down. Then after reaching a point where he was just a few feet in the air, he dropped down with a much more graceful and barely audible landing.
Now on his very dirty hands and knees, Mike looked up at him. “You… actually dropped me. Just like that, without any warning?” He said with an utterly flabbergasted expression on his face.
“My apologies. Back home, my planet is very different. The composition of the air is such that a dense being like yourself would accelerate far, far faster than a winged like myself. It was only toward the end of our descent that I realized that this world was very different in that regard,”,” Raemiel said while bowing so low, it was a miracle he didn’t just lose his balance and fall forward.
“While I intended to have you already on the ground while I fell slower and would be the only one who was spotted if anyone looked at that point, I seemed to have failed in that regard. So once more, I apologize for my failure in better planning the results of my actions.”
Mike stood back up to his feet and after a moment of silence, loudly sighed. “Fine, just… just don’t do something like that again, alright? Even if you know, and I should logically know that falling wouldn’t hurt me, it’s still scary as hell to just get dropped out of nowhere. If it’s not an immediate life or death emergency, then at least give me a warning first so I know what’s about to happen, please.”
“Of course. I will do better from here on to keep in mind that while the changes from the System were immediate, an adjustment period will still be required. As your Summon, I swear upon my spear that I will not dishonor myself by failing you in such a way again!” Raemiel declared. And when he did so with such a genuine passion, it was hard to stay upset with him for very long.
While attempting to brush the dirt off his clothes, Mike looked down and quickly realized that it would be a pointless endeavor. While most were hyperbolic when they said their clothes were covered in soil or such, in his case it was rather literal. As it would be very accurate to say at least one side of his pajamas had been fully recolored with dirt as the dye of choice.
“Welp, I can at least think of one place we should try and find first. If we run into anybody, being the guy wearing ruined PJs wouldn’t make for the best first impression, would it? So if Earth is basically a post-apocalypse now, then nobody will mind if we go shopping for some new duds, I imagine,” Mike said, already looking around to see if he could spot the nearest store.