“Now that we are ready to go,” Rowan said, “I have a bit of a surprise for everyone.”

We had all gathered outside of the village and had been just about to sort out travel arrangements when Rowan spoke up.

“What’s that?” Cody asked.

Rowan turned and directed his answer to me. “I know you are in a tremendous rush to get home, and I also know that taking us in slowed you down a lot. So… I created a new Aeon that would get everyone there a lot faster.”

“What do you mean, it can get us there faster?” I asked. Did he make a giant mount or something that could fly us all there?

Rukia nudged me with her enormous head when I stopped scratching her between the ears. I quickly resumed before she accidentally shoved me off of my feet.

“I used my access to the dimensional magic school to create a Spatial Drake. Instead of being combat related, his special ability is an area effect that makes everyone within ten feet move faster. But not faster exactly… um… have you ever seen that really old sci-fi show, the one with a bald guy in charge? What was it called again? Oh right, Star Trek.”

Once Rowan mentioned a sci-fi show that was really old with a bald captain, I knew what she was going to say before she finished. Star Trek, the Next Generation, was not that old. It only came out… wait, when did it actually come out? Damn it, it was something like the early nineties or late eighties. I wasn’t even ten years old when it came out. Fuck, I’m getting old.

“Wait,” Magnus interjected. “Are you saying you have an Aeon with warp drive?”

“Kind of… I mean… his ability won’t take us to Mars or something. But I remember my dad watching that old show and telling me about how the warp drive worked. It sort of… compresses space in front of it, and stretches it out behind you… something like that.”

“Dude, that’s sick. How much faster can it make us travel? Relatively speaking, of course,” Magnus said.

“Just a sec,” Rowan said. His eyes took on the thousand-yard stare and his fingers rose and started poking at the air. I was confident in my assumption that he was checking out the new Aeons Stats in his interface. “it will increase the distance we can travel by fifty-seven percent. The ability won’t last more than an hour at a time, and it takes twenty-six minutes to recover before it can activate it again.” Rowan told us once he found the answers he was looking for.

“Does the Aeon need to rest while it recovers?” Kiara asked. She had a good point. If we couldn’t keep moving in-between uses of the ability, it wouldn’t really save us much time over all.

“No, it’s just a regular cool down. We can keep moving at our normal pace and when the cooldown is over, we can go faster again.” Rowan answered.

I nodded at the answer. “Ok, how long can he remain summoned for?” I asked.

“Since he is level fifteen, and I put extra points into his duration, about twelve and a half hours.” Rowan answered.

“So, about four hours longer than Slate? That’s pretty impressive.” I said.

“Umm… Actually… during our downtime, I upgraded all my Aeons to level fifteen. Slate can last twelve and a half hours, too. Sparks and Ember can each last about an hour and a quarter.”

“Dude, that’s outstanding, grats on their level ups. You are getting so powerful now. So, you have what, four summons now?” Magnus asked, while counting on his fingers. “How many can you have at once?”

“Yeah, I have four Aeons. I can make two more, but I didn’t have time to upgrade the others though. And… I’m not really sure what else I want to make.”

“Well, bro, bring them out. I want to see what they look like.” Cody said.

“Cody’s right, let’s bring them out and we can sort out who is riding what, then we can get moving.” I said, bringing the conversation back around to getting ready to leave.

Each summoning took only about fifteen seconds before they appeared in a swirl of light. Slate appeared in the usual brown colors, but when Rowan cast the summoning for his new Aeon, it looked like s spinning galaxy. It was all black, except for the spots of light throughout.

Once the Aeons appeared, I used my Identify on them.

Slate

Earth Drake (Aeon)

Level 15

Hp: 225/225

Stamina: 522/522

Mana: 240/240

Defense: 50

Strider

Spatial Drake (Aeon)

Level 15

HP: 207/207

Stamina: 468/468

Mana: 264/264

Defense: 50

Both Aeons were beautiful representations of their race. Slate’s coloring matched his namesake, but Strider was something else. His scales were pitch black, but held white spots that resembled the night sky. Rowan had also changed them both to have two saddle-like depressions on their backs, enabling them to comfortably carry two passengers each.

Each Aeon also had a peg-like knob protruding from their sides. They kind of reminded me of motorcycle pegs. While it looked odd for a living creature, it made perfect sense on one that was custom designed to be ridden.

“They look amazing Rowan. You did a great job with shaping them.” I said.

“I tried to add as many extra attribute points to Slate as I had previously, but… I almost lost control. I had to stop channeling mana into the spell before I wanted, so he wasn’t as strong as I had hoped. I didn’t even try to add extra mana to Strider. I was afraid it would fail. I need to work on my focus and mana control more.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Rowan,” Magnus said. “You solved a problem I hadn’t even considered. How we would all be able to travel quickly, especially since the roads are already breaking down.”

Rowan’s downcast appearance lifted as Magnus spoke. I noticed Kiara looking at Magnus, with a small smile on her face.

“Well, I plan on trying to ride on Rukia’s back. Even with my insane Agility, she still runs a hell of a lot faster than I can. Magnus, how are you going to carry Koda?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Since he is still such a little guy, I’m repurposing an old baby sling wrap thing the old campground had in its lost and found.” Magnus answered as he pulled out the cloth device. He then picked up his Soul-Bound bear cub and, with a few deft movements, had the little guy secured to the man’s chest.

I fought down a chuckle at the sight of the bear wrapped up and its four little paws dangling in front.

Both Rowan and Kiara let out an almost simultaneous “Aww.” I then saw Tess look at the cub, then back at Rowan. After a few more times looking back and forth from Rowan’s shoulder, Rowan noticed.

“No, I am not getting you a wrap like that. You are a big girl and are just fine flying on your own or perched on my shoulder.”

Tess flexed her claws, gripping tighter onto Rowan’s shoulder. “Ow! If you’re going to be like that, you can just fly on your own, you little brat.” Rowan cried. He then brushed Tess off of his shoulder, forcing the dragonling to take flight. It flew over and landed on Slate, spun around three times before settling into the front depression, her tail end facing Rowan.

Choosing to ignore the byplay between the summoner and his familiar, I brought everyone back on task with my next question. “So, it looks like the four of you will have to ride double. Who is riding with whom? And on which Drake?”

The four of them chatted between themselves briefly, sorting out amongst themselves.

“Cody and I will ride Slate,” Rowan said.

“I’ll ride behind Magnus on Strider,” Kiara said, while a faint blush painted her cheeks.

“I’m fine with that,” Magnus said.

Cody simply shrugged, His miniature guardian angel, Malakai, riding the motion from his usual seat. Until he heard the name of Rowan’s new Aeon. “Wait, did you say Strider? Like from that old Lord of the Rings movie? Rowan, you’re such a nerd.” Cody then laughed out loud.

“No, it’s not from the Fellowship of the Rings. That’s just a coincidence. I named him from his special ability, Thousand League Stride.” Rowan tried to defend, but unfortunately his vivid blush gave him away.

Still laughing, Cody managed to spit out, “The fact that you named the movie specifically proves it, nerd.”

“Oh, shut up you… you… you jock! or else I won’t let you ride, and you’ll have to walk back.” Rowan shot back.

Having to walk all the way to Colorado from the middle of Wyoming shut him up quick, and he stopped taunting his brother.

I let out a sigh. Siblings will be siblings. No matter where you are or what you do, they’ll fight, poke at each other and do everything they can to annoy each other. Even the apocalypse can’t stop that behavior for long.

I turned to face Rukia fully and gave her large ears a good scratching. ’How are you doing, girl?’ I asked, projecting my thoughts into the area of our bond. I was still trying to get used to communicating with her through it. It was strange, and she couldn’t reply in words. It was more impressions, emotions, images, and scents combined that I somehow translated into simple words or phrases.

‘Happy. Run soon? Play?’ Rukia replied in my mind.

‘We will run, very soon. Do you mind if I ride on your back?’ I asked.

All I got from her was a sense of confusion, like she didn’t understand what I meant by riding her.

I sent Rukia a mental image of Rowan riding Slate, then I imagined what it would look like if I were to ride on her back and sent that image as well.

‘Oh! Game, we play. Run!’ she replied in excitement. She bounded up from her seated position and ran in tight circles around me, her tail creating near hurricane-force winds with how fast it was wagging.

‘Easy, girl, settle down. We will go in just a moment.’ I got Rukia to settle down, and I looked at the others. “Every one ready to go? Rukia’s excited to run.”

Everyone seemed to be ready. Rowan and Cody had stopped their bickering when they saw Rukia’s antics. The brothers got on Slate, Cody in front and Rowan taking the back seat. I guessed it was some kind of compromise between the two of them.

Magnus got in the front seat on Strider and helped Kiara mount behind him. Koda sat snuggly in the baby wrap, making happy little bear noises.

I got Rukia to stand still, then I slung my right leg over her back and sat. I didn’t have a saddle or anything, but fortunately her thick fur gave plenty of padding, so I didn’t feel the knobs of her spine pushing into my ass. What I felt was Rukia vibrating under me. With barely enough warning to grab on, all that vibrating energy exploded into motion. She burst forward, running at full speed. I locked my legs around her torso, leaning forward with my arms wrapped around her neck.

The speed she reached was simply incredible. I hadn’t felt the wind rushing past my face like that since I’d sold my motorcycle. The wind tore tears from my eyes, until I manifested my Ki goggles, which finally let me open my eyes and see clearly. We had to be moving close to sixty miles per hour, even with her weaving around obstacles as she lapped the village walls.

Pure joy radiated through the bond as she let herself go all out. I could feel how happy she was to have me there with her, and she felt like she could run like that forever. I didn’t hold her back at first; I let her work the sprinting out of her system before I tried to rein her in. ‘Ok girl, ease up. It’s time to go back to the others.’

‘Don’t want to. Play more, run more!’

‘Rukia!’

‘Don’t want to!’

‘Rukia! Stop!’

Rukia tried to play stubborn again, but I applied my force of will to our link. She needed to remember who was the boss in our relationship. She had occasionally pushed the boundaries before, but that was normal for most huskies. Eventually Rukia slowed down, her ears drooped, and she walked over to the others. Once I got down and she sat, I gave her some more attention and praises. Letting her know how much of a good girl she was, and that I loved her.

“Sorry about that. She needed to burn off some of her excitement. She should be good to go now,” I told the others, all of which had been staring at Rukia and me the entire time she had been sprinting.

“It’s all good, brother. Rukia definitely looked happy there.” Magnus answered.

“So… anyway, how does this ability work?” I asked Rowan.

“We just need to stay within ten feet of Strider. He activates his ability and we travel like normal. We just happen to cover more ground than normal.” Rowan answered with a shrug.

“Ok, let’s get going then.”

Strider shimmered slightly, then an almost-invisible bubble sprang up around him. It extended ten feet away from Slate in all directions, and the light was slightly distorted looking inside. I got back onto Rukia, then I nudged Rukia with a thought and we moved into the bubble. I felt a strange tingle wash over us as we passed through. But once we were inside completely, everything felt normal, even the distortion from the outside didn’t seem to affect us inside.

Once Rowan and Cody entered the bubble, we started moving east. We started off slow, matching pace, but once we got used to moving so close to one another, we picked up speed and ended up traveling at the Drake’s maximum speed. Rukia could still run faster than them, but I managed to keep her from going all out. She was happy enough as it was to be running again.

Traveling in the bubble was extremely disorienting. It wasn’t so bad when looking forward, we simply reached objects we saw faster than we were used to. It was looking to the side that things got trippy. Objects seemed to compress as we reached them, then they would stretch out like taffy as they passed behind us. The one time I looked over my shoulder behind us, I had such a sense of vertigo that I nearly fell from Rukia’s back. It was like staring down a twisting and stretching tunnel that my mind couldn’t properly process. Turning quickly back to face the front made it worse for a bit, but it eventually passed.

Even my Spiritual Sense felt weird and twisty. I didn’t care much for this mode of accelerated travel, but I knew I would put up with a lot worse to get home faster.