Aether Beasts

The beast stables were located near the outer area of the camp, and when we arrived Kara had to talk to one of the stable hands, but after a few words, she walked back to us with a smile.

"He's bringing them out now," She said. "Have any of you ever ridden beasts?"

"I did once," I replied. "One of the hunters in West Vale bought one from the yearly merchants, though all I did was ride it around his property. It was pretty easy."

"I've seen a few up close," Sandra added. "But I've never ridden."

"And you?" Kara asked as she turned to Misty.

Misty shook her head. "Never."

"Well, None of you have to worry!" A voice interjected, and we all turned to see the stable hand walking over to us, with three leads in his hand, connected to three riding beasts.

They were simply looking beasts, basically, horse-sized lizards with elongated necks and sharp teeth, although what most people didn't know was that they were actually herbivores. Their teeth looked deadly at a distance, but up close it was obvious they weren't made for cutting, tearing, or biting through flesh. The one back at West Vale had been very placid, and it looked like that was the usual behavior as the three the stable hand led to us also looked very passive.

"All right, so I'll go over the basics real quick," he said and gestured to the three beasts. "Riding isn't too hard. They do most of the work, you just have to know a few basic commands and a few to do's and not to do's."

Over the course of the next ten minutes, he went over everything we would need to know from basic positioning to commands, to how to feed and calm them. Nothing was too complicated which I took as a blessing, although their maxim speed did shock me.

"Sixty miles an hour?" I asked. "Really?"

"Yes, but that's at max speed and you don't want to push them at that speed for longer than an hour," He explained. "I'm told your heading to the tower up east, so they should get you there in less than three."

He handed each of us a lead and we all managed to hop onto our beasts easily.

"This is where I leave you," Kara said. "Good luck, and stay safe."

"You know us." I smiled. "We'll make it back."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't get cocky, that's how a lot of people die."

"We'll keep him in check," Sandra said with a grin. "Now, let's ride."

She gave the beast a command and let out a laugh as it took off. I gave Kara one last goodbye, before Misty and I took off after the dark-haired arcanist. We caught up with her and then together we shot forward. Our beasts moved quickly across the land, and even when we hit rough terrain, they got over it with ease. The saddle wasn't particularly comfortable and I could tell on a long ride it would turn into an annoyance, but we were only riding for three hours so I wasn't too worried about that.

Sandra looked happier than ever as she rode and she laughed and whooped whenever we took the beasts to max speed. Misty and I were much quiet, but I knew she was enjoying this. It was much nicer traveling like this than on foot, although perhaps it would wear off with time. How much did riding beasts cost anyway, not that I would be buying one, but I'd always been curious.

"Misty," I called. "How much do these things tend to go for?"

"What, the beasts?" She replied.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm not planning on buying one or anything, but I'm just curious."

"The prices can vary depending on the breed," she explained. "But if we're talking kor crystals then around five hundred for the lesser breeds, and upwards of two thousand for the greater breeds."

I whistled. "That's pricey."

"Not really," Sandra cut in. "They only have one size and type of crystals here."

"She's right," Zirani said from behind me. She'd left her core when we'd gotten far enough away from the camp. "There's a lot of differences. The crystals here would be seen as trash, actually lower than trash in the lands Sandra and I come from. The quality of the aether is just too low."

"Yeah." Sandra sighed. "Zirani did you perhaps hear anything about me, I mean you only recently arrived here in the plains, right?"

Zirani shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not, I stayed away from the affairs of Umbrin, although I did meet one of your family a few years back, that's how I recognized you and what clan you were from."

"You did," Sandra said with interest. "Did you get her name?"

"No," Zirani replied with the shake of her head. "It was only a brief meeting."

Sandra lowered her head sadly. "I see."

"We'll get you back there," I promised.

"We will," Zirani agreed. "Now before we get to the tower, there's a few things I need to explain. Mainly why I had Aiden accept this mission. The time distortion effect the elder spoke of is something I've seen a few times before though I never expected to see it here, but I'm grateful it is as it's going to give us the perfect opportunity for training and increasing in power."

"Why do say that?" Misty asked as I thought about Zirani's words.

The tower had a distortion effect that essentially gave those inside more time than those outside. I almost smacked myself when I realized why Zirani had been so eager to accept the mission. The expedition would arrive at the end of the year and while Zirnai had said she could get us strong enough by then, this war had taken a lot of time away from us. Tiem the tower would give back and more. My eyes widened as I understood why she'd had me accept this mission.

"We can spend weeks in the training," I said as I turned to look Zirani. "An hour in the for every minute out here means sixty hours in the tower for every hour out here, and that times twenty-four is a lot of time."

"And we'll be in a perfect environment for training," Sandra finished. "Damn how did I not think of that."

"You were all tired and worn out," Zirani explained. "You'd just fought in a long battle after all."

"And towers have tons of valuable resources in them," Misty mused. "This is a golden opportunity."

"Indeed." Zirani smiled widely. "This is a gift from the heavens or a miracle if I've ever seen one. It's exactly what we need. More time. With this, I have no doubt we'll be ready to cross the scar when the expedition comes at the end of the year."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though," I reminded. "We do have to get rid of the remaining twin horn members and then figure out what's causing the time effect."

"We will, and then we let it go on for as long as we need," Zirani said. "We are going to have to tread carefully though. We don't know much about the first floor and area inside and the twin horn who we have already have a chance to reap some of its benefits."

"We'll figure something out," I said as I gave my lizard the command to increase its speed to the max. "Let's pick up the pace.. Every minute out here is an hour for them."