Reece watched in amusement as the Qilin flew in loops through the sky. It was obviously happy to have the opportunity to fly a rider on their mission and perhaps into battle. Taela wasn’t so sure, as attested to by her constant screaming.

Reece had to hand it to her, however. Even though she almost fainted when he explained what was required of her for the mission, she readily accepted. That was mere minutes ago.

The three remaining Qilin had discussed it amongst themselves before one then approached Taela and offered her its back. To her credit, she had then only hesitated a second before sliding her shapely leg over the creature’s body. She then quickly pulled herself into position and a moment later, after the beast’s hair came alive to hold her in place, they were off and flying. That was where she lost her composure, shrieking as the Qilin playfully flew her through the sky.

Now, Reece couldn’t help but laugh, a good old belly chuckle as the Qilin started doing barrel rolls, eliciting a new round of panicked screams. Reece decided he’d better say something before the Qilin caused the poor girl to pee herself. Of course, he’d have to wait until it was done phasing through the carrier, which it had just started immediately after the barrel rolls.

“Whoa, come on down!” yelled out Reece as soon as he saw the Qilin re-emerge through the deck of the massive sea vessel, carrying a limp Taela with him. Apparently, she had passed out. Reece’s laugh turned to concern, and he quickly helped the girl off the Qilin. The beast backed off after releasing her from its hair, a sheepish look on its face.

“Hey, I thought it was funny too,” soothed Reece. “But it may have gone too far, so I’m just going to check on her, okay?”

The Qilin snorted and nodded.

Taela’s eyes fluttered open after a few moments and she looked disoriented and extremely pale, immediately grabbing onto Reece, pulling herself into his embrace. “Ugh, ah… the flying, then…metal wall, flashes…carpet, people, more walls…ugh… I thought I had died…” Just then, Naeva and Celia walked up onto the deck. Seeing the embrace but not what had led up to it, both girls shook their heads.

“And I thought I was a slut,” muttered Celia. “How many goddess-blessed women do you need, anyhow?”

“Leave you alone for five minutes,” added Naeva, continuing to shake her head in disappointment.

“You’re hilarious,” grumbled Reece. “She just freaked out from her flight. That’s all. Now, get your minds out of the gutter and help me get her up.”

The half-smiles left both women as they rushed over to help the Adaro princess up. Between the two of them, they managed to walk her below decks, whispering back and forth the whole time. Reece just looked back at the mortified Qilin and shrugged. The Qilin snuffled at that. Reece could have sworn that the beast was laughing. It was starting to get late so Reece wondered how Shenfu slept. Strange that he hadn’t thought of it before, but it had been a wild ride of late. He studied the Qilin while he relaxed with a few others of his kind, up against the tower.

“Do you need somewhere to get some rest?” Reece asked, not knowing the first thing about Qilin.

Shenfu snuffled at the question. “No, young Reece. We are self-sufficient. You may go to sleep without worrying about us. We have no use for fluffy ground on which to lay our bodies.”

Now Reece was certain that snuffle was the Qilin’s way of laughing. Instead of getting offended, he had to chuckle as well...fluffy ground.

“Oh, what the Qilin must think of our kind,” he thought.

To Shenfu, he added, “In that case, have a good night.”

“Goodnight,” came the short reply as Shenfu made himself comfortable, much like a cat would.

“I’ll bet they do love the fluffy ground,” thought Reece. “They’re just too proud to admit it.”

“Shhh, we’re trying to sleep here,” answered the Qilin, even though Reece hadn’t been speaking to him.

It was just Shenfu’s way of letting Reece know that he had heard everything that Reece was thinking. Reece decided that the best thing to do was let it go and get some sleep himself. He found it odd how much of a strange sense of humor the Qilin had. He shook it off and made his way to his quarters, entering the darkened room and falling flat onto his bunk, exhausted from the long day.

Reece opened his eyes to a darkened landscape. Billowing silver clouds rolled across the sky unnaturally fast. He watched as two armies of ants, one red, one black, faced off against each other and attacked. They were both soon joined by flying insects, hornets joining the red, yellowjackets joining the black. How he could tell the difference was unknown to him.

But before the strange dream could provide him any insight into what he was looking at, he awoke. In his bunk, still face down, Reece felt the soreness in his back and legs. While the dream completely dissipated from his mind, he performed a few morning stretches he had learned from Thato followed by a few basic yoga techniques. Getting up, he felt as good as new. The tragic death of the astronaut and teacher still weighed heavy on him, but he knew there was nothing he could have done to save the man. All he could do now was avenge him and with that in mind, he took a quick shower.

Twenty minutes later, he was eating breakfast with Naeva, Taela, and Ciera, along with their babies. Neither Naeva nor Celia seemed particularly shy about nursing their babies in front of him.

“You know,” said Celia, smirking. “If you’d like some milk with your breakfast, we can make that happen.”

Reece sprayed water out of his mouth at her comment, choking violently on the rest of the water he had tried to swallow from the cup he held. “Very funny,” he finally managed to choke out as he looked up at the women.

Naeva and Celia were just smiling wickedly at him, little glints in their eyes amplifying their devious mirth. Meanwhile, poor Taela’s pale green cheeks had turned to a darker sea-green from embarrassment. She clearly wasn’t used to that kind of talk and stared intently at her plate. Reece figured that it wouldn’t be long before she got used to it, assuming she stayed on with them and they managed to survive the coming days.

Luckily for him, Reece had finished his meal quickly and made a hasty exit, clearing his tray and leaving the tower to check on the Qilin and see how they had fared overnight. When he arrived, most of the riders were already present and practicing with their counterpart Qilin steeds. Angel had just dismounted and approached Reece the moment he stepped out of the tower.

“Buenos dias, brother,” chuckled Angel. “I was about to go wake you.”

“Hey, I needed my beauty sleep,” quipped Reece. “This is gonna be a long day after all.”

“You’re not kidding,” agreed Angel. “We’re all ready, just waiting on a few stragglers.”

“Yeah, I just had breakfast with three of them,” said Reece. “They should be out any minute.”

“Good, good, cuz daylight’s burning,” replied Angel, slapping Reece on the back.

“I hear you,” answered Reece. “How’s the Qilin been?”

“Good, at least as far as I can tell,” said Angel.

“Hey, Shenfu, how’re you holding up?” asked Reece, noticing the Qilin relaxing on the deck.

“I’m fine,” answered Shenfu, his deep voice echoing through Reece’s head. “How are you today?”

“I’m good,” replied Reece, sending his thoughts to the Qilin.

It wasn’t long before the three remaining members of the team made an appearance. Naeva and Ciera went straight for their steeds, waving and still giggling at Reece’s discomfort at their earlier joke. Taela approached Reece, stopping right before him. She took a deep breath, clearly nervous about the flight.

“I am ready,” she proclaimed, whether to comfort Reece or herself, he couldn’t be sure.

“I know you are,” he replied, wanting to instill some confidence in the girl even if she couldn’t conjure it herself. “You’re going to do great, trust me.”

Giving him a spontaneous hug, she quickly backed away, nodded, and headed for her steed. This time, the Qilin didn’t mess with her, detecting the girl’s nervousness. Once she was all strapped in by the Qilin’s furry hide, she nodded as if answering someone that no one else could see. The Qilin took off into the sky, making sure to be as smooth and gentle as possible for the girl. Once she was aloft, everyone’s Qilin followed suit. Reece hurried over to Shenfu before they all left without him. A moment later and he was flying swiftly after them. It didn’t take long before Shenfu caught up and the Qilin settled into a V-formation, Naeva’s steed forming the tip.

They flew like that for a few minutes before they crossed over into Indian airspace, the sea giving way to land far below them. The Qilin stayed in formation but didn’t fly in a straight line, instead, following the air currents to ease their travel and speed them along on their small clouds.

Chippo took this time to fill Reece in on Bhangarh Fort, the site they were currently headed for. Unlike the other sites, he wasn’t so sure that the goddess that was imprisoned there would greet them warmly. The entire place had a sprawling city built upon it, angering the regional spirits that looked after the imprisoned goddess.

The typical entry mechanism had been destroyed by a human man, a wizard, that had somehow gained entry and stolen some for the artifacts held within. He and his lover, a well-known sorceress of the region argued over the power relics, ill-gotten gains of their pilferage. Using some of the relics, a mighty battle ensued in which the two managed to kill each other off, her with poison, him with a crushing boulder. The relics disappeared after that, further angering the spirits.

From that point onward, the spirits treated everyone that entered the once sacred area with malice. Unfortunately for them, the loss of the relics caused them to lose much of their power, relegating them to cheap scares and almost exclusively at night, where their power was at its strongest.