After a brief interrogation of Cy, as the guy who had returned to get help was called, I realised that the situation was a little more troublesome than expected. Thanks to the time Cy had needed to get back and the time I had wasted on playing with Lenny and Sylvia, there were only a little under two hours left on the first timer. I had no idea what it meant when the timer ran out, but given the quest’s objectives, I was fairly certain that the timer symbolised the life of a party member running out. It would explain why the timer didn’t reduce at a steady rate but occasionally jumped a few numbers or paused for a bit, it simply represented an estimated time until the party member died. Or maybe until they were so far gone that we wouldn’t be able to help, though even that relied on a few assumptions, so who knew what it exactly meant? I certainly didn’t, other than giving us a time until we should get to that trapped party.
The problem with that was that, again, according to Cy, the party was roughly twelve kilometres from the farm, a distance we could easily cover in those two hours, at least in theory. Practically, it was a little more difficult, as the path to them took quite a few detours, and even the direct line had obstacles we couldn’t easily overcome, especially not in the weather we currently had. That weather might just be the biggest obstacle; the constant, pouring rain made any footing we might try to find treacherous and unsteady; the mud and muck would slow us down and sap our strength, to say nothing of the chilling effect the rain had on Luna and Silva, neither of whom would be able to function at their best. Additionally, the storm was still raging, bringing down trees, causing branches to drop and generally making the forest a dangerous place to be in, even for people with our attributes.
All in all, the quest was quite challenging, though I did have an idea which might allow me to get there in time and save those people. After all, I had learned to fly, even if I had never tried to fly in a storm like this. It would be easy to call it a sink-or-swim situation, though it wouldn’t be me who was doomed to sink if I failed.
With that in mind, I quickly got ready, using what was essentially a towel and tying it behind my neck before letting it drop to my waist and tying it there, too. It was about as crude as clothing could be, leaving my entire back open to the elements and allowing far too much potential view to my upper assets, but it allowed me to spread my wings without trouble, so I couldn’t complain too much. The only problem with the idea of flying there was that I wouldn’t be able to take Luna or Silva with me, which was just a little bit annoying.
Sylvia and Lenny, who had continued to follow me as I got ready, looked fairly confused at my attire, to say nothing of the looks of disbelief they had displayed when Luna remained behind and helped heal Cy, shortening his recovery time from a week or two, if there were no complications, to a single night of rest.
“I will be going now,” I announced, projecting more confidence than I truly felt. The storm and the brutal gusts of wind were not filling me with confidence, but if I wanted to get there in time, I would have to fly; there was no other way. Crouching down, I called upon my wings, letting them flare out and causing gasps of surprise from the two watching people. Then, after a deep breath and a muttered, ‘Up and at’em’ I did just that, jumping as high up in the air as my legs, supported by the Draconic Leap skill, could carry be before flapping my wings in an attempt to stabilise myself.
Not that it worked all that well, I quickly learned what a kite felt like if some stupid kid decided that flying a kite in a tornado was a good idea, just that I had no cord to tie me to the ground and so, I was quickly ripped upwards by the gusting winds, desperately trying to retain some level of control.
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My Wind Magic helped a great deal, lessening some of the effects of the gusting wind around me, but even with all my power, I wasn’t strong enough to completely neutralise the wind. I could reshape it, blunt its impact and even cut through some of the strongest gusts, but I couldn’t fight the wind. I had to ride them, work with and through them if I wanted to get to the place I needed to be in time.
Additionally, I realised fairly quickly that my legs needed additional support. I could easily keep my arms tightly tucked in, but my legs made things a little more difficult, especially as they tended to dangle just a bit. So, with a brief effort of magic and will, I drew upon the cold moisture in the air and encased my legs in a thin, stabilising sheet of Ice, even adding some ridges and fins to act as stabilisers like the rudder and aileron on an aeroplane. With those moving parts removed and my centre of gravity shifted just a little, my flight stabilised to some degree, but the entire thing remained incredibly difficult and fairly annoying. Good training, sure, but I had a feeling I would be quite sore the next day, to say nothing of the exhaustion I could foresee for later.
Luckily, the place where the party had gotten into trouble was easy to find, especially when looking at it from above. While the storm and the torrents of water had caused more than one landslide, I hoped this was the only place where just about half the hillside had decided that being part of a mountain was just such a boring drag, so the ground had performed a simultaneous walk-off and rushed towards the bottom of the valley, taking hundreds of trees and growth with it. It looked quite brutal from above, making me wonder if the trees had been healthy or not or if there was some other cause for the landslide. Whatever the case, I could easily find the landslide, and from there, it was only a short distance to the area in which the party had found shelter and was hopefully waiting for help.
Looking around, still fighting the wind as it tried to toss me hither and thither, I managed to spot the landmarks Cy had described earlier and could follow his directions, at least to a point. Realising that staying in the air was no longer providing a real benefit, I let myself drop, shattering the Ice that turned my legs into a strange mixture between a dragon’s tail and the back of an aircraft. Once that was done, I used my wings to turn my fall into a somewhat controlled tumble until I had to flare them to bleed off the last velocity so I could land in a somewhat controlled fashion. Even with all that, I barely managed to keep my feet under me, thanks to the muddy ground and its attempt to evade my legs. Whoever had taught the ground to dodge away from kicks was somebody I wanted to kick myself.
Grumbling, I righted myself and drew my wings back into my, keeping just a small ridge outside and stretching the shirt I was wearing across them so I wouldn’t accidentally expose myself.
A quick glance at the timer told me that I still had a little over an hour to find the people I was looking for, so I began to search, still following directions from Cy. Thanks to those, it didn’t take all that long to spot the area where they had gone to ground, taking shelter beneath some rocks and a tarp, hoping that the ancient stone wouldn’t move, even with the wind and the rain. If it did, they wouldn’t have to worry about any current injuries; they would get crushed immediately.
“Hello, the camp,” I called out, shouting loudly enough to be heard over the raging storm, just so the people there wouldn’t attack in surprise if I suddenly appeared. While I wasn’t too worried about getting hurt, I didn’t want them to get hurt in some silly attempt to defend themselves.
For a few seconds, nobody acknowledged my call, so I simply continued onwards, stepping carefully to avoid slipping and getting even muddier than I was. Finally, there was movement, and a slightly bloody and incredibly tired head poked out from between the stones and the tarp, looking at me with utter disbelief written all over his features.
“Good day to you,” I greeted, “I’m Jade Morgana; I’m here to rescue you.”
