Chapter 20:

22 Days After Spring’s Beginning

281 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

The Ghastly Skull, Airship, Captain’s Quarters

Rua Desert, Tuskite Territory

Felton took a delicate sip of his wine, licking his red stained lips. He holds it to the candle light, looking at the edges of it glowing a deep crimson. The flame glints off the silver metal that holds the glass.

“Vintage, from Emperor Fergus I’s reign. Right before he turned his throne over to his son. A good year. I’ll give him this, Corazon know’s his wine,” Felton set the goblet down next to the bottle of opened wine he pilfered from Corazon’s quarters.

Felton looked at the painting on the wall of his lavishly decorated bedroom. The painting depicts an idyllic picture, of rolling hills, small cottages and grazing animals.

Felton snorts, “It’s a nice picture, but why the skeleton?”

A dark hooded skeleton walks on a path in the left side of the picture, a short sword strapped to it’s back. Its dark clothes are in stark contrast to the vivid colors of the rest of the picture.

The small bronze plaque screwed to the bottom of the picture glints in the candle light, the dark words etched into it standing out; The Reaper Comes to Marla.

Felton shakes his head, deciding it isn’t worth the time trying to figure out what the artist had intended.

He takes his boots off the table, standing up from the fancy carved chair he was sitting in. He looks down at the bare blade of Volens, which shines in the candle light.

The sword had originally been up for auction, claiming to have been inscribed by a master spirit smith. Felton had acquired it without having to pay, to say the least.

He had quickly learned that it was in fact much more than a inscribed sword, but an Artifact. The silver scripting along its length showed it to be of the Old Ones, a long dead people. Their spirit scripting and manipulation of Katra had been unmatched, and a large deal of their knowledge had been lost when their civilization collapsed.

Felton wasn’t much of one for history, and the thing he most cared about it was that it was something incredibly powerful.

It allowed him access to a specialized aspect, Sky katra. It was something similar to a Talri warrior’s katra, but different. It was easier to manipulate, and was three types bundled up into one; Air, Cloud and Lightning. He had taken that aspect of katra, melded it with himself, and Volans acts as an amplifier for his power.

With it, he was the true ruler of the skies, able to spread a massive aura around himself, and allowing for him to manipulate all in the sky.

“And That fool Corazon couldn’t even access it’s Origin. Not even able to use it to its full capacity.” Felton picks up the sword, giving it a twirl and feeling the power of the Sky katra tingling in his fingers.

That’s when he feel’s the deep thrum of his Ghastly Skull’s engine cut off. It is a barely noticeable vibration that permeates the entire ship, letting him know that it is running.

Felton’s grip on his sword tightens as he looks at the fur carpet he stands on. Gravity starts taking over as the Cloud katra keeping the ship up dissipates. The sense of falling hit’s Felton deep in the gut.

His mind is hit with a burst of panic, but he pushes it down. He runs to the door of his room, his bare feet thumping loudly. Bursting through the door, he runs out onto the deck of his Airship.

The night air is brisk, the air shield no longer protecting the ship from the whipping winds up this high.

Pirates are scrambling on the deck, panicking from the loss of the engine.

Felton scowls as the ship starts spinning out of control, his grip tightening around Volans’s handle. He starts pushing katra through his channels and into the sword, powering it up.

His aura quickly spreads from the sword, permeating the very air and mixing with the now flashing by clouds.

He didn’t know what had happened to his ship’s Sky Gem, and didn't have to time to know if he wanted to live.

His aura stops spreading after about a mile, unable to go any further. Bit it is plenty for Felton.

With a flick of his will, he is enveloped in dark armor, the clouds around him thinning as they condense around him.

A thought later, he is floating, no longer falling with the ship.

He can sense the scrambling forms of his crew members on the deck, and he envelops them in a thick layer of Cloud katra, suspending them in the air.

He watches as the falling airship, and the airships it is tied to are pulled along with it.

Raising his left hand, the dark cloud armor crackles with lightning, and a bolt of searin white flashes out from his arm. It blazes through the air faster than the eye can follow, striking the thick ropes that connect The Ghastly Skull with the remnants of The Sky Fisher.

The bolt sears through the rope, another flashing onto the other rope a second later.

The Ghastly Skull pluments to the sandy desert below, the other airships quickly righting themselves.

Felton watches as his airship is engulfed in flames, spinning in the air out of control.

He watches in disbelieving rage as the airship crashes down in between two sets of parallel jagged rocks. It explodes in a blazing ball of fire, flaming shrapnel scattering around as it digs a deep furrow into the dunes of sand.

“Gone, all gone. No! No, no, no!” He screams in rage, the suit of armor on him crackling with white lightning, bolts licking at the air around him.

He calms a second later, rationalizing that he at least kept the majority of the loot from the Sky Fisher on the merchant ship. He hadn’t bothered with trying to move it to the Ghastly skull, it would have taken too much time and he would have had to leave some of it behind.

He is taken from his stupor of rage and disbelief by a deep roaring. It shakes the very air around it, and if he didn’t have a Steel body, he was sure that he would be temporarily deaf from it.

His gaze moves down to the crash site of The Ghastly Skull, the sand shifting and moving.

His eye opens wide, in awe and fear, his voice comes out in a hushed whisper “What in the hells if that?”

I feel the massive jolt as we crash, my body being flung about and gravity punching me right in the diaphragm. But I can’t see anything through the thick, cushy haze of Cloud katra, and I feel the impact of me hitting a wall and rebounding off it.

My cocoon of Cloud katra eventually sheds its momentum, falling still. I take shallow breath of air, not wanting to use up my limited oxygen too fast.

I can hear the crackling of fire and the shifting of timbers, but can see nothing through the cloudy haze of katra.

After a few silent minutes, there is a deep rumbling and I clamp my hands over my ears, trying to block out the roaring. Is that the fire?

No, it’s way too loud.

I can feel myself being lifted up, and there is a swaying as the cocoon is, hopefully according to the plan, lifted from the wreckage of the airship.

Then the Cloud katra dissipates quickly, the cocoon opening up. I am greeted with the view of a cloudy blue sky, two airships hovering above like vultures.

I sit up, taking great lungfuls of air in. Scanning my surroundings, I find the rest of the surviving crew of The Sky Fisher sprawled out across the sand. The flaming wreck of The Ghastly Skull rests a few feet away, the heat of the flame playing across my skin.

I stand up on unsteady feet, dizzy from the crash.

Looking around, I take in every detail possible. The sand is seemingly shifting of its own accord, and about a half mile off, a line of jagged orange spikes rise from the dunes.

What really catches my eye is the fact that past those spikes, it looks like we are rising slowly above the ground.

There is another deep, thundering roar. I clamp my hands over my ears, gritting my teeth at the noise. The dunes around us rumble along with the roar.

A haze of fear and panic flows onto my shoulders, shrouding my thoughts. It is incredibly hard to think, my mind filled with indescribable terror.

It’s like Inik’s aura!

I grit my teeth harder, pushing with my will onto the shroud of terror. Then it falls apart, dissipating and I can think clearly again.

When my ears stop ringing, I look over to the sailors. They are all screaming in terror and confusion.

Adre stands in the center, looking panicked. In his hand he clutches a now very dimly glowing Sky Gem, almost all of its power spent in cocooning the us in a cushion of Cloud katra.

We finally stop rising into the air, at about 50 feet if I had to guess. Are we on a floating island?

I start walking to the edge, near the massive spikes.

Kamar stumbles towards me, and I look at him. His eyes are filled with panic and terror, his face a mask of fear. It is the first time I have ever seen him look so scared.

“Kardin!” He huffs, his eyes darting around. He is hunched over on all fours again, his large hands sinking into the sand.

Is the aura affecting him like the sailors? If it is, that means that whatever this is, it is powerful enough to make a Silver panic.

Yet why am I not being affected?

I am taken from my thoughts by Kamar, who places his smaller arms on my shoulder. He points with one of his massive arms, turning me around.

Above the smoking wreckage of the airship is a massive arch. It is covered in thick, stony like scales. The appendage whips through the air.

That’s a tail…

The tail drops back out of sight, no longer visible. I can feel a slow swaying and reverberations through the ground like earthquakes.

“We’re on a massive animal…” I whisper, the gravity of the situation hitting me. The arua was something like what Inik pressed down on me, a fear effect. This creature’s very roar had caused it.

Kamar seems to collect himself, breathing deeply. But I can still tell he is under the arua’s effects. “We-we’re on a-a-”

“A what?” I ask, trying to get him to think straight.

“A Tarrasque!” He finally says, his eyes filled with terror.

That one word sends my thoughts spinning. Tarrasque. The Walking Calamity.

It is supposedly a giant monster that lives deep in the Rua Desert, as big as a mountain. It is known for the destruction, able to destroy a city with a flick of its tail.

A titanic reptilian creature that wanders the deep parts of the desert, near the edges of the Mountains of The Gods. It walks on two giant back legs, three clawed hands in the front. Covered in a carapace of rocky scales, famed for their ability to resist almost all katra aspects.

It was so powerful, that some Rua clans worshiped it as something akin to a god.

But why is it here? How?

We shouldn’t have encountered it so close to the edge of the desert. Something must have driven it out here.

The thought is the only one that I can come up with that makes sense, as it has been recorded many times that the Tarrasque never left to the edges of the desert.

I push these thoughts to the side, looking up at the airships that are quickly speeding away, not even bothering with trying to salvage anything from the Ghastly Skull’s wreckage.

I guess we are safe, for now.

A spear impales the ground right between my legs, shooting up a cloud of dust. The shaft quivers from the impact, making a low thrumming noise.

That’s when my eyes are drawn to a ridge of sand off to my left, past the airship wreckage and further up the Tarrasque’s back.

Alien, insectoid shapes are backlit by the sun. they climb up over the ridge, standing at the top with weapons pointed down at us.

I spoke too soon.