Aether Beasts

Zirani and Misty had a hushed conversation and every now and then the blonde would glance over at me, though I couldn't tell if the look in her eyes was anger or not. From her body posture, she seemed relaxed, but perhaps she was holding all her anger in and any second now was about to explode.

I waited, but it never came. The two women turned to face and Misty walked up to me with a serious look on her face. I gulped and waited for the tongue lashing of my life, but instead of the verbal assault I'd been expecting, the blond just leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips.

I stood there stunned for a long moment as Zirani and Misty burst out into laughter.

"I take it you're not mad then?" I asked in confusion and surprise.

Misty laughed. "Why would I be mad. All you've done is help me. Looking back now, I can't help but think of how odd I must have seemed. I will admit there is a part of me that wants to tear both of you apart and drink you dry for what you did, but I'm pretty sure that's just my vampire side, and I'm certain I can get control over it."

"I see," I said, mildly disturbed at the words she'd used, but I sort of understood them. Zirani had said much the same, and if our binding would help avoid her wanting to kill and us having to kill her then it was definitely a good thing.

"It is a bit odd, though," Misty remarked as she tilted her head to the side. "I've never felt something like this before, can you…"

Her words trailed off and a look of concentration came to her eyes. A moment later I felt a tug on our bond, and although it was still weak, I was able to make out the faint feeling of wonder coming down it.

"I felt that," I said which caused Misty to smile.

"The connection should grow with time," Zirani added. "And as the two of you get stronger, which hopeful is soon. As happy as I am that we've sorted this out, we need to get out there and start exploring. I want us to get a basic understanding of this floating mountain we're on before we began training in earnest."

Zirani was right so together the three of us headed out of the room and toward the dining room where we found Sandra sat down, chewing on a strip of dry meat.

"It's about time," She mumbled as she ate. "I was starting to think you three had died. I've been awake for like an hour."

"Sorry," I said. "I was more tired than I realized, but I'm good now."

Sandra stared at me for a long moment and I saw her eyes flicker to my neck. They widened only slightly, but then the dark-haired arcanists tore her gaze away from my wound. Damn, I'd forgotten all about that.

"So…" Sandra spoke in an awkward tone. "Are we going to be heading out today?"

"We are," Zirani replied. "We going to get a lay of the land. Locations of certain plantlife, beasts, and other resources we can use.'

"Are we splitting or going together?" Misty asked.

"We'll start out together," Zirani said. "And then maybe later we can split up. Let's see how much ground we can cover as a group first. Also if we run into any beasts then don't hesitate to take them out, although if they're in a large pack then just flee. We aren't out to hunt today, just exploring, everyone understand?"

We all nodded and once Sandra was done with her breakfast we headed out of the treehouse, and onto the platform. We lowered ourselves down then followed Zirani as she took off to the east.

From the size of the mountain, it wouldn't take too long to search all of it, especially not if we kept up a good pace, and kept fighting to a minimum. Zirani's plan was simple. We start easts and then do a loop around the mountain, using green pulse in the areas we could and then heading inland every hour or so to check the areas closer to the center and then heading back to our original positions, and then rinse and repeat. All in all, I suspected it would take a day or two at most. If we didn't have green pulse it would have taken longer, but luckily we did.

As we traveled around the floating mountain, I noticed that Sandra kept glazing between Misty and me, which could only be because of what she'd seen on my neck. She was no doubt curious as to what had happened, and I knew that I would have to explain things to her sooner, rather than later, not that I thought she'd have a bad reaction. Although she could be crass as time, I knew she'd understand why I'd done it. I doubted she wanted to kill Misty anymore than we did. She did after all have a much better relationship with the blonde now than she had when they'd first met and I didn't want there to be any friction there because of a misunderstanding.

The four of us ended up finding quite a bit of plant and beast life around the mountain, and there was quite the variety. Closer to the center we found fire beasts that looked like horses made of rock, with glowing red cracks all over their body. There were also odd bunny-like creatures that hoped from shadow to shadow, and what was even odder was that they didn't attack us at all. I knew that they were types of beats that were docile, but those were uncommon and usually, didn't have any techniques, nothing like hopping in between shadows.

In the outer areas of the mountain, were nature beasts, much to Zirani and I excitement. They were snake-like creatures which thorn all across their body that they could fire out. I'd learned that the hard way because they blended into the environment with their darkish green skin and I'd accidentally stepped on one. The thorn hadn't pierced me, but it had grazed my skin and left a rash. Luckily some medicinal paste had done the trick and reduced the swelling and itchiness, but even so, it still throbbed slightly. If it did that from just a graze then I didn't want to know what would happen it pierced flesh. The image of my skin rotten or turning yellow wasn't something I ever wanted to see happen in real life.

There were a few more types of beasts, but the main attraction for Zirani was the plant life. She was in glee every time we came across a new plant, especially since she said many of them could be very useful to us. We ended up taking a lot of each, and even then there was still plenty. This palace was like an alchemist paradise, which was a good thing since Zirani was an alchemist and a far better one than any that could be found in the plains.

Eventually, we all stopped for a break since we had covered a lot of ground and things were going well. I took this opportunity to speak with Sandra who had wandered off. I found her close by on the lowest branch of one of the tall trees. I didn't really know how she'd gotten up there, but I assumed she used her shadow tendrils. I tried to sneak up, but I wasn't really all that good at stealth and her gaze flicked to me as I used a lashing vine to get onto the branch.

"You ok?" I asked as I sat down beside her and let my legs dangle.

"I'm fine," She said in a tone that made it clear she wasn't fine at all.

"Look Sandra," I started. "I know you saw the marks on my neck and yes they are from who you probably think they are, but it's not what you think."

"I think she drank your blood," Sandra said. 'What's not to think."

I took a deep breath then began to explain everything to her. From what Zirani had told me to what could happen if I hadn't bound the blonde to myself. As I spoke Sandra's posture became less and less ridged, and she seemed to relax.

"Oh," she said once I was finished. "I probably should have guessed it was something like that. You don't seem the type to like getting bit and drained."

I laughed. "I'm not, it wasn't really a pleasant experience. Are we good now?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know why I got so annoyed. It's just that I'd like to be told next time, like as soon as you are."

"We weren't trying to hide it from you, Sandra," I said. "I was obviously going to tell you, but Zirani sort of brought it up out of the blue, and then it happened immediately after. You had gone to bed by then and I was preoccupied."

"I'm sorry," She repeated.

"No need for apologies," I replied. "We're cool, now lets-"

Before I could finish my sentence, there was a loud screech from the direction Zirani and Misty were. I glanced over at Sandra and then without hesitation, we both jumped down from the branch. It was low enough that neither of us took any damage from the fall, and as soon as we were on the ground we rocketed in the direction of the screech.

My mind races with possibility as to what it was, and the foremost thought was that it was a beast, although that screech had sounded off in a way I couldn't explain.

I didn't need to think on it long though as we burst into the area where Misty and Zirani were and found them face to face with what I could only describe as an abomination.

"Oh fuck."