As we’re rolling along the tracks, getting an extra push by more pickit wizards every so often along the way, I start wondering how the hell this became their main mode of transport, however I’m not allowed to think about it for very long as the tracks suddenly start going downwards.

Going completely vertical.

And then the tracks disappear, letting us freefall.

*splash*

For half a second before we’re embedded into some sort of jelly like substance.

Releasing my shell and climbing out I see that we’re in what looks like a very deep swimming pool, filled entirely with see-through jelly.

“This way!” Shouts Charlie from outside the pool, so I make my way towards her.

‘How the hell is this your modernized traveling?’

“Because we just traveled past three large countries in a matter of minutes?”

‘Oh.’

“Now come here, you probably don’t need it, but we need some climbing gear if we want to get up the mountain.”

‘Can’t you just use your earth magic?’

“No, us pickits become worse and worse at magic the further away from the earth we get.”

‘Fair enough.’

All four of us walk we continue our small talk.

“So this person you’re looking for, when you barged into our house you said her name was Shiona?”

‘Yeah, Shiona Offerson.’

“Are you guys together?”

‘Together as in?’

When she hears me and Lizz she seems to think for a bit, before performing a certain gesture with her hands, involving putting your thumb and index fingers together on one hand and moving your other index finger through that circle, making both Baom and Diifan start blushing.

‘...’

“”...””

“Well? Are you?”

‘... Do I look like I even have one of those…?’

“Well you’re always wearing that purple clothing so how am I supposed to see?”

‘...’

“Well?” By now she’s looking at me with a wide smile, as though gloating about her victory in an argument.

“Wait… I’ve been sleeping next to a nudist all this time!?” She stares at me in shock.

“That just won’t do! When we come back we’re going shopping!”

‘Come back? Me and Shiona are going to have to take a different way back than your transport system.’

“So? That doesn’t mean you can’t stop by here first!”

*sigh* ‘Fine.’

At this point we arrive at a store and the pickits buy a bunch of black magic wands.

‘Weren’t you going to buy climbing equipment?’

“This is climbing equipment, they’re charged with a very special spell, you’ll see when we get to the mountain.”

‘... Alright. Are we ready to go then?’

“Yup, follow me.”

We then walk to the edge of the town and enter a tunnel leading upwards, eventually we reach the outside.

“There.” She points at a mountain. “That’s the one.”

Looking at the mountain I can see that it goes above the clouds, and that in the caves and on the outcroppings along the mountain I can see blue grass.

‘That looks very steep, are you sure you’ll be fine?’

The mountain looks to be a vertical cliff on every side, only thing not turning it into a completely vertical wall being the aforementioned caves and boulders sticking out.

“That’s what the wands are for, though you won’t need them.”

‘Speaking of, how do you know about that ability?’

“We were walking through town and saw you jump off of a roof so we ran up to where you were, thinking you might’ve hurt yourself, that’s when we saw you swimming through the ground. You’re not very good at keeping it hidden.”

‘...Oh.’

We arrive at the mountain cliff, the pickits take out the wands and start charging them with energy.

‘Also didn’t you say you guys can’t use anything other than earth magic, even with wands?’

“This is for earth magic, albeit a very different one from normal.”

They then walk up to the cliff and-

*step* *step*

-Start walking up the wall as though it was horizontal, their hair and bags doesn’t even hang towards the ground, but rather it hangs towards the wall they’re scaling.

“Are you coming?” Asks Charlie.

Seeing as they already know about my phasing ability I submerge myself down to my neck in the ground I’m standing on and make myself slide towards the cliff, when I’m at the cliff base I rotate my body to be horizontal and keep sliding up the wall, follow by three somewhat disgusted pickits.

Every so often we end up needing to stop at one of the outcroppings in order for them to recharge their wands due to the spell coming close to running out, every time we stop it takes longer and longer for them to charge, likely due to the pickits getting higher and higher.

Sometimes they use some energy jellies that they say they’d bought from Rupe this morning.

Although it takes more than a few hours we eventually reach the clouds and the blue grass.

“Plush.”

I turn myself around and look downwards to the pickits, seeing them standing at the mouth of a cavern in the cliff.

“From here on out it will take way too long for us to recharge the wands, so we’ll stay here instead and wait for you to come back down.”

‘Alright.’

I then speed up as I finally don’t need to hold back and almost immediately reach the top of the mountain which we were only halfway up, leaving the pickits.

“So we were just holding him back huh…” Murmurs Charlie.

*sigh* “Seems that way, and we were hoping to help him and everything.” Says Baom.

“At least we can prepare some food for that Shiona girl for when they come back.” Suggests Diifan.

“”Good idea.”” Says the other two and they all enter the cave.

However I couldn’t hear any of what they said due to being too far away, and I reach the top of the mountain, however due to forgetting to slow down-

*fwoosh*

I shoot out of the top of the mountain like a bullet out of a gun and fly a good distance into the sky.

After a few seconds I start to slow down and start falling down instead. Headfirst.

I finally realize that I’m in a very bad situation and start panicking, well, until I get an idea, something I’ve not done in a while.

I cover myself with a shell of solidified air and…

I freeze it in place, making me come to a sudden halt.

I am now floating in the air, not moving any direction, and repeatedly make the shell fall for a split second before stopping it again, eventually reaching the mountain’s top.

Or so I’d like to say, however due to the harsh winds up there I kept being blown to the side and I am now a good fifty meters away from the mountain.

I try to release a large part of the shell, making it so that only my hands and feet are covered.

I unfreeze one of my feet and move it forwards, freezing it again after I’ve taken a step, I then do the same with the other one as well as freezing my arms whenever I feel like my balance is about to fail me, and start walking in the air back towards the mountaintop with the sun shining to my side.

Once I reach the blue grassed plateau I climb inside the bird’s nest and see Shiona laying there, sleeping.

I sit down next to her, phasing some of my back into the nest’s wall to make sure I’m not blown away by the wind, and start resting.

“Leo?”