The rest of the trip passed uneventfully with no issues beyond breaking up drunken brawls, and one dedicated shoplifter who led me through a wily chase through a dozen tunnels and caverns before I captured him. We were finally going to exit the dwarven caverns and head for a human city. I was thrilled, even the brief snow covered breaks we’d had from the caves had been a breath of fresh air, and the idea that I’d be done with caverns of any kind for as long as I wanted to be made me ecstatic.

Before we made our final exit from the caverns, everyone and everything was strapped down, and secured. The descent from the mountains was going to be very sheer, and was only really possible with the beetles and their ability to cling to things.

Light came into view at the far end of the tunnel we were in and I drew the blanket I’d purchased tightly around myself, bracing for the cold I’d grown familiar with on our above ground jaunts. We passed through the threshold, and a burst of cold air slammed into my face momentarily, before we tilted at what felt like a 90 degree angle, and started moving straight down. It was disorienting, and I could hear a gasp from the rear beetle that sounded like Elle.

I would’ve gasped myself if all my flash step training hadn’t gotten me used to sudden shifts in perspective. I felt the straps dig into me, and could only barely see the ground. What I could see of it however, surprised me immensely. The ground was moving. It was a slow and gradual shift, but I could see the trees and other landmarks in the distance below moving ever so slightly to our left as we moved closer to the ground.

I looked over to Geode, who was focused on the controls with an almost bored look on his face. “Geode, is it me, or is the ground moving?” I yelled, trying to make my voice heard over the heavy winds that were buffeting us.

He turned around, with some difficulty, to give me a confused look. “Of course it is?”

“What do you mean of course it is?”

He pushed himself around a little more, straining a bit against his straps. “You entered the caverns didn’t you? How could you not have realized?”

“Realized what?”

“The mountains, the home of the dwarves, we live on the back of a great beast. A titanic tortoise.”

I opened my mouth to question further but before anything left my lips I just sighed and shook my head. “Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you? Makes perfect sense.” Or at least perfect weird fantasy world sense, which I apparently still needed to adjust to. It did leave a few other questions in my mind though. “So, how is it we don’t feel the movement?” I asked.

“Not sure. Probably magic, though I heard one fella say that the base of the mountains is isolated to prevent us from feeling it. Didn’t understand him though. I went into the beetle business to avoid that kind of thinking.”

I wasn’t sure which explanation was stranger. That it was just magic, or that the creature was engineered specifically to maximize the comfort of those that lived inside it. Still, just like everything else, my elf brain ceased to worry about it almost immediately, and a smile spread across my face from the new experience in front of me. That bothered me, but even the discomfort it caused was itself snuffed out quickly in a wonderful loop that reminded me of the lowest level anxiety attack imaginable. The change in thinking was a mixed blessing. Without it, there was a solid chance I would’ve become an indecisive mess when I’d first arrived, and quite possibly would’ve died. At the same time, it had caused me to act, well, dumber than I remember being back on Earth. I was reckless, causing a problem every time I acted to solve one, and not thinking things through. It was freeing, but I’d need to actively temper it in the future. I’d never be immune to making mistakes, but I could certainly be doing a better job than I had been so far.

I let those thoughts drift in and out of my mind as I watched the ever shifting ground grow closer. It was oddly relaxing, and I found myself dozing under the warmth of my blanket until I felt a clawed hand tap on my shoulder, which made me jerk painfully against my straps in surprise. I looked over to see an upside down scaled face staring at me with a wide smile of sharp teeth.

“Zevrack! How’d you get down here?”

He cocked his head to the side. “Climbed.”

“Why?” I asked, looking over and noticing he’d tied himself to one of the strap holds holding the cargo together.

“Wanted opinion.”

“Badly enough that you couldn’t wait until we got down?”

“Yes.”

I sighed.“Okay, shoot.”

He looked around. “I have no weapons with me.”

“Sorry, human expression. What do you need an opinion on?”

He smiled, climbed up quickly, reappearing with what looked like a backpack, with some odd leather flaps and a series of wires and other implements. He presented it to me, and I turned it over in my hands. Something about the leather was familiar.

“Is this…made from the wings of those bats?”

He nodded excitedly. “Here, let me show you.” He angled the pack away from himself and pulled a cord on the front of it. Immediately the leather flaps expanded into wings that reminded me immediately of the dragons we’d seen a week prior. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a very good look at them as the wind picked up and lifted the pack, and Zevrack, into the air.

“Zevrack!” I yelled, watching as he clung to the wings for dear life, only stopped by the rope he’d tied going taught.

The crew on the beetle behind ours yelled as Zevrack was slammed into them, struggling to pull the wings of his contraption closed. Every time he’d seem to be gaining a grip on it, a gust of wind would push him in another direction.

I took a deep breath, grabbed a rope and tied it around my waist. After that I repositioned myself, and slowly, very slowly, undid the straps that were securing me. I started climbing one hand hold at a time, trying to reach the rope that had secured my kobold companion.

Before I could reach it, I saw Geode, suddenly next to me. Unlike my gradual climb, his was surefooted and precise, not even looking as he adjust straps one at a time to allow himself to safely proceed up his beetle’s back. He reached the rope, and started pulling, trying to pull Zevrack down and out of danger.

I caught up with him, gripping the rope as well, and adding my strength to his. We slowly managed to drag him down to where we were. There was one particularly strong gust that took me off of the beetle entirely for one terrifying moment, but it faded, and we finished bringing Zevrack back down, just as he was managing to fold the wings back.

I looked at Zevrack, and was surprised to see him positively beaming. He noticed my confused expression. “It was like I was one of them. One of the gods in the air.”

Geode gave him a confused look, then looked at me with a flat expression. “Stay strapped in.”

“I uh, will. Thank you.”

He nodded, and made another expert climb back to his position at the front. Zevrack, still ecstatic from his experience, more quickly climbed back up to his seat at the rear, clutching his new wings, and muttering about what modification he could make to them as he moved.

I took a slower, and more deliberate route back to my seat. Untying and re-tying my rope as I made my way to my seat. I strapped back in and found the way the straps dug in to be a lot more comforting rather than grating as I had before.

By the end of the day, the end was in sight. Not that it hadn’t been in sight the entire time, as we pretty constantly had a clear view of the ground. There was about an additional 100 yards of open air between us and the ground, and that was when Geode surprised me.

“Alright. Get ready for the jump!”

There was a chorus of “Ready!” yelled out by the beetle drivers lined up behind us.

“Wait, jump?” I asked.

I was answered by a sudden sense of weightlessness as we began plunging toward the ground. I opened my mouth to scream, but was surprised to find myself letting out a kind of whoop, instead. After a moment of weightlessness, Geode grabbed a lever on the control panel in front of him, and yanked it back. Wings exploded from the sides of the beetles, and we went from falling to gently gliding down to the ground. When we landed I was smiling ear to ear. Ready to see what else this world had to offer.