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I was stunned. I was trying to apologize and make her feel better, but I had ended up making her cry even more instead? Urgg, humans were certainly hard to understand, but women were even worse. An endless pit of mystery and confusion is what came to mind. “Is... Sniff* That why you always refused me? Sob* ” She asked in between sobs.

“Sigh*... It's part of it. We are only 8 in this world, so your choices are limited, I understand that. But we will certainly find a way back home soon enough. That day, you will change and realize I don't have the appeal you think I have. You will eventually find a better man, richer and or better looking than me. We both know that if we had met back on earth before all this happened, you wouldn't have glanced at me more than once.”

I could see that she was struggling to admit it to herself, but she was at least honest enough not to deny it. “But anyway, does it really matter? You are the closest thing to a female best friend I've ever had, so I think we should enjoy and value what we currently have. Don't you think?” These words seemed to have a positive effect on her as she stopped crying and wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt.

“I understand.” She then said with a resolute expression. “I won't give up and wait until we're back on earth to prove how much I love you.” She quickly said, gave a smile, and ran away before I could say anything. “W-Wai-... That's not what I-... Sigh*..........” She had no intention to stay and hear what I had to say, this much was obvious.

With that apparently taken care of, I walked into one of the hangars and helped Marc and Léopaul to complete the last preparations. Then, we pushed the plane out into position at the end of the runway, ready to take off. “Manu told me you wanted to explore the 'suspected ocean' to the south, so I double checked everything. It would be bad if the plane stopped working while you're over the water right?” Said Marc with a teasing smirk which didn't help to reassure me.  

“Thank you, I'm relying on you for this.” We started the engine, then as it was slowly warming up, I began to load my stuff inside. This engine's slow rumble, and the way it regularly coughed blue puffs of smoke, had already became familiar. I could already tell whether the engine was healthy or not. So far, everything seemed in perfect working order.

I jumped in and proceeded to buckle up my seat-belt and put on my sunglasses. These sunglasses were not meant to look cool, but to protect my eyes. I had spent the first flights squinting because of the sun and now knew better. This world was almost always sunny in this time of year apparently, and it also seemed like we had first arrived during the rainy season.

The air was cooler and the breezes were bringing a strangely enjoyable smell of dried vegetation. I took a hold of the stick and made sure the flaps and rudders were functioning perfectly, then signalled to Marc that I was ready to go. I had flown this plane 11 times already, and I never had any real incidents, except a rough landing which forced Marc to fix the landing gear.

Even though 11 flights was not a lot, I was already feeling a lot more confident in my ability to pilot this plane. Adding to this the fact that clouds were nonexistent during this period of the year, and the fact that this region never seemed to get strong winds, this made flying a plane feel very easy and safe.

I rolled down the runway and gently took off to the sky. I slowly climbed up to around 2500 meters and made a turn right toward south. With the help of my compass, I marked a point far away in the horizon, lit a cigarette and laid back in my seat for the long ride ahead of me. Finally alone high up in the sky, I could finally calm down and think clearly again.

All my thoughts were aimed at Rambo and what had happened. Maybe his instincts to go wherever he went were more powerful that his own will. Such a small dragon, was he alright? Was he eating properly? How far had he gone? Could I find where he is in the future with the long range plane?

Seeing the sky completely devoid of dragons gave me an eerie feeling. I also couldn't believe I had just thought that. Seeing dragons fly around made me feel safer? What the hell was I even thinking. Anyway, if it was a migration like I suspected, this meant that Rambo should eventually return.

Yes, he will definitely return and come back to me. H-he has to... Sniff* Sniff* With a newfound hope, I was finally feeling better. Taking this plane ride had definitely been the right thing to do. A moment later, I finally arrived at the river I had crossed on my way back from the king dragon's cave. Since the river flowed south, I decided to follow it. A while later, came a fork in the river which told me that I had already travelled 1/5 of the way to the 'ocean'.

A quick look at my instruments confirmed that everything was in perfect working order, and prompted me to push forward. I had to admit, Marc could easily be hated, but in revenge, his mechanic skills were top notch. Also, since his altercation with Robert, Marc had been very docile and cooperative. I had been suspicious at first but he seemed to make genuine efforts. He was not a bad guy after all.

As for Emanuela... Well I didn't know what to think of her. That woman had a knack to make my emotions go on roller coaster rides. She said she would keep pursuing me even after getting back to earth? Yea right. Who does she think she's fooling. There's not a chance for that to happen.

After what felt like a very long time, the immense body of water finally came into view. Knots began to form in my stomach and my instincts kept telling me to turn around. Today was the day I would face my fear of open water. Thinking of all the alien atrocities that probably lived in these waters made me feel sick, but I just had to push these thoughts aside and continue on.

I kept my eyes locked on the fuel gauge and tried to control this overpowering fear that became stronger as the land behind me slowly disappeared over the horizon. A few minutes later, all I could see was water in all directions. But there was something else going on. The further away from land I got, the more blue the sky became. After a while, I was finally admiring a blue sky like what I used to see back on earth.

A tear escaped from the corner of my eye as I watched the blue sky. I hadn't realized how much I had missed it before. Seemed like red mist didn't gather over water, or this area was a giant dead spot. Maybe salt water absorbed red mist? Well it was not like I knew whether it was fresh or salt water, so it was useless to make hypotheses based on assumptions.

The flight continued without any issues and soon the fuel gauge prompted me to turn around and head back home. Sadly, I hadn't seen any lands on the horizon so it was safe to assume that this was indeed an ocean, and that it wasn't worth investigating any further. Only a few minutes after turning around, the engine suddenly began to cough and behave strangely.

“You better not! Please, don't you give up on me now.” Hearing irregularities in how the engine sounded was giving me a panic attack. If the engine was to give up now, I could never glide the rest of the way back to land and would be stranded at sea. My worst nightmare was slowly becoming a very plausible scenario.

I just needed the engine to hang on until I could see land again. Then, as the fuel gauge reached the halfway point, the engine suddenly stopped as if it was out of gas. “NO NO NO NO FUCKKKKKK!!!!” There was no way to start it up again while up in the air. I was fucked, I was going to be eaten by the Kraken!

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I was panicking and having a hard time breathing. Knowing what was coming, I couldn't help but feel despair. Would I be able to swim back to land? How far was I? Gradually, the plane lost altitude and it seemed obvious that my fate was sealed. I was going to live my worst nightmare and probably die from it. I took my sunglasses of, somehow feeling like I could concentrate better without them and clenched my fingers around the stick.

With adrenaline filling every cells of my body, I began to violently expel red mist while trying to get the smoothest landing I could get on water. I glided a few meters over the water, slowly descending and  as the wheels were about to touch the water, I pulled on the stick to lift the nose of the plane up.

The tail touched the water first, shaking the small plane left and right then the landing gear touched the watery surface. This caused the plane to jerk and dive nose first into the water, making the plane do a front flip, rip the wings off and end up upside down in the water. Roofless, the water surged inside the cabin at lightning speed.

The landing hadn't been too rough and I wasn't injured, but I was upside down in a rapidly sinking plane. Panicking and gasping for air, I ripped my seatbelt off and grabbed my giant backpack on the back seat. Since my bag was watertight, it had air sealed inside of it that allowed it to act like a flotation device. Well now I knew for sure, the water was salty.

Holding tightly to my bag, I let it drag me up to the surface and was finally able to take my breath back. PhouAaa!* Pant* Pant* Cough* Cough* With all my heavy equipment and body armour, if not for my bag, I would have drowned. I reached my arms around my bag and held it close to my chest. I took one of the shoulder straps and wrapped it around my arm so that I wouldn't accidentally let go of it.

This bag was all that kept me afloat and without it, I was dead. A quick look around made it difficult for me to stay calm. All I could see was water, sky, blue and more blue. Worst of all, being neck deep in water prevented me from seeing the horizon. The waves, even though small, still reached higher than my line of sight and blocked my view. Even if there was land visible in the distance, I probably couldn't see it because of those annoying waves.  

I was being slowly trashed around by the waves and all I could hear was the sound of water. I kept nervously looking around me, imagining all kinds of monster swimming under my feet. This feeling was the worst. If a mutant shark came after me, I at least had my handgun to shoot myself in the head. The endlessly deep black abyss below my feet and what possibly lived in it was all I could think of.

Heck, I was panicking so much and was so afraid of this situation that I was already considering shooting myself. The chances of me surviving this situation were close to none. All I could do was slowly drift and wait for a monster to come eat me. Then, remembering something, I quickly pulled my necklace out of my shirt. Maybe this would protect me. This was all I could do.

After what felt like an eternity, the constant sway of the water slowly made me feel seasick, but I knew that vomiting in the water would attract the wildlife, so I fought against the urge as hard as I could. Hours went by and my situation was still unchanged. Luckily, the water was warm so I wasn't hypothermic, but I was still feeling the worst fear I had ever felt in my life. Not even the king dragon could compare to what was coming, and that was nighttime.

Living my worst fear during the day was already more than I could take, but seeing the sun go down on the horizon plunged me deeper into despair. Luckily, I hadn't encountered any sea creatures so far, but I somehow felt like this would change at night. Scared to death was not even close to depicting how horrible I felt.

Soon enough, night fell and everything became dark. The water appeared as black as ink and all I could see were the stars and the two differently coloured moons. I was getting thirsty, but this was the last thing on my mind. I was still in a state of panic which drained my energy and slowly made me become lethargic.

Looking at the blackness of the water wasn't going to help me in anyway. There was no way for me to detect an incoming attack. I kept using small sporadic doses of red mist just in case of an attack but eventually fell asleep or passed out with my head laid on my bag. When I woke up, it was still dark. I had probably only closed my eyes for a minute but waking up in this horrible situation had given me a regain of panic.

Some greenish glowing things then swam below my feet, making me jolt back in fear and grab my handgun, but no attack happened. A little while later, I lost consciousness once more and woke up only the next morning. The sun was out, but my situation was unchanged. I was now seriously thirsty so I reached for my canteen which was tied to my backpack and slowly drank the precious fluid.

There was still no land to be seen and I was starting to wonder if I was drifting further at sea or toward some faraway lands. I wasn't going to last long with so little water even if I didn't get attacked by monsters. Hell, yes, I was in hell, there was no other way to think about my situation. I was still feeling seasick but the urge to puke at least seemed to be calming down.

The sun was burning my face and making my lips crack due to dehydration. I had heard that rationing water was a bad idea, but I had no idea how long I was going to be drifting like that. I had heard that you could live 4 minutes without air, 4 days without water and 4 weeks without food. Watching all these survival show had given me a lot of knowledge, but hadn't prepared me mentally for these situations.

Feeling like giving up, I laid my head on my bag and closed my eyes. This damned world had defeated me. I was completely out of energy and feeling powerless. I then spent the rest of the day in the same position, already accepting my fate as a corpse. Soon enough, the sun had begun to set and it seemed like I would be spending a second night at sea. Just great...

Tweet* tweet* tweet!* The sound of something familiar brought my attention back to my surroundings. Muffled by the sound of waves, was the sound of something I hadn't heard since coming to this world. Birds! There were birds flying over my head! Seeing them, miraculously brought me enough energy to raise my head and look around.

And there it was, around 200 meters in front of me, was land. Using red mist, I powered through and swam toward it before being dragged away by the currents. Emptied of energy and out of breath, I finally set foot on a beautiful beach of pure white sand. Finally seeing land was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. I kissed the wet sand and dragged my body and heavy bag further away from the water up to a cliff.

On one side was the ocean, on the other was a naturally formed stone wall at least 15 meters high. On top of that cliff seemed to be more jungle, but there was something that instantly caught my attention. Coconut trees? I stood there, looking at the familiar tree with tears in my eyes as the red sun began to set on the horizon behind me.

No monster in sight, coconut trees and even birds? There was no visible red mist in the air and the sky was blue. Sure there were still those red mist streams flowing a few meters in the air like everywhere, but these lands were different from what I had seen so far. Everything felt, very similar to earth.

“Where the heck am I?” I wondered.