@Digimon11 @Axqu @Tsukistar @Neige @Hanelli @Nimphy @gunslinger
I couldn’t say that the next day was very interesting. It was more of the same – fly, hide, rest, and then fly again. Perhaps I was being a little too cautious – Keir was getting concerned for my health (to which I replied, “if you could stop growing for a day or so, that’d be great” and she just laughed at me) and it seemed like we were out-flying the harpies.
Of course, that was what I thought until we went to sleep that night. I was curled around Keir like always (though I had only been half-joking earlier – she really was growing at a fast pace and she was almost too big to sleep like that) and jerked awake when I heard the quiet shifting noise of feathers. I growled and started sparking in the little cave we had found. Keir woke up a moment later, startled, and just looked at my sparks. I carefully crawled over her, standing between her and the entrance of the cave, and peeked out –
- only to get my nose slashed at by a harpy! I growled loudly, shooting out several Shock Bolts, and then turned around to grab Keir. Keir, the smart girl, had already grabbed our little bundle of belongings and was ready to go when I held her close to my chest and took off into the night sky.
She was getting heavier, but until she could fly as fast as I could or until we could afford to fly slower, it was faster to carry her. I glanced down as she yawned, blinking wearily up at me before giving me a sleepy smile. I returned it hesitantly. It broke my heart that she was growing up like this – on the run and being ambushed.
Ever since we had gone out the day before, my own incompetency was glaring me in the face.
Keir deserved better.
We flew into the morning, further into the Highland Scrub. I didn’t know where I was going, but it just had to be out of the Shifting Expanse. I had shifted Keir around so she was clinging to my back, wings tucked against her in an attempt to prevent drag and slow me down. While I was rather proud of my stamina, I had been flying for a while.
"Lan," Keir whimpered from my back. I couldn't muster a response, so I just hummed loud enough to make sure Keir knew I had heard. "You need to rest," she said quietly.
"Can't," I huffed out. I snuck a glance behind us and didn't see anything. Good.
"Lan! In front!"
I whipped around, shooting off a large bolt of electricity before I looked. It was just an Emerald Webwing, but the attack was enough to frighten it out of the way. After that, though, I was out of breath - in both senses of the word.
Keir yelped as I spread my wings and half soared, half fell towards the ground, narrowly avoiding a cactus. I skidded to a stop, opting to stay lying on the ground as I caught my breath. Keir crawled off of me and sat at my side. "I told you," she said quietly, though there was no ill will or sarcasm in her voice, just concern.
I just rolled his eyes at her good-naturedly, but didn't move. "Let me know if there's anything coming," I said, closing my eyes.
Keir hummed an affirmation, and I tried to meditate. I needed to regain some Breath in case he needed to fight, and also rest a bit. It was difficult to push the multitude of thoughts from my mind, but I finally managed it and felt Breath begin to come to me, giving me the energy I needed to fire off electricity.
Keir shook me out of it soon, though, with a whisper of "Lan, um ... There's another dragon. He's the same type as Rivis."
Huh? I opened my eyes, and then sat up when I saw the unfamiliar dragon. A Coatl. We were similar sizes, so we were probably similar ages. "Uh ... hi?" I called out warily. Coatls often had trouble speaking draconian, and while I could understand Coatl accents pretty well due to having a Coatl mother, I wasn’t sure how easily draconian came to this dragon and tried to speak clearly.
"Er, are we in your territory?" I felt Keir grip my side with one hand, her Blue Quartz in the other, and half hide behind me. "We don't mean any harm," I said in the calmest voice I could muster, though I was sure I still sounded out of breath, "we just need to rest then we'll go, I promise."
“H-hello,” the Coatl responded hesitantly.
I cracked a small smile when he returned the greeting. I glanced down at Keir, who looked a little confused, and was about to say something else when a loud screech of “Zeeeeecht!” made me wince. Keir jumped and shrank back behind me, and I whipped my head towards the sound, only to see a Coatl female approach.
I watched the Coatls warily as they conversed in their own tongue, bending down slightly when Keir tugged on my feathers lightly.
"Lan," she whispered, "what are they doing?"
"They're speaking Coatl," I said quietly back, and then straightened when the female spoke in draconian.
“Oh, don’t worry about Zecht over here. We’re not too touchy about people passing by our territory,” she said before glancing at Keir. Keir met her eyes, but then hid a little further behind me. “…but where are you headed? This is the end of the Shifting Expanse, out there is… well… the world. I don’t know what brings you here, but feel free to stay a bit… I may not know where you’re headed, but…” I followed the Coatl’s gaze as she glanced away. … A ring of cacti? Their lair? “…would you want to stay a bit? Or are you in a hurry?”
I tilted my head slightly to give her all of my attention and focus on her words. Overall, I understood what she said even if a couple of words escaped me. I laughed a bit before answering. "Sorry about that, we weren't really paying attention to where we were going." I glanced down at Keir who looked utterly confused. It seemed like she couldn't understand the Coatls. "We're headed to ... er ..."
I trailed off a moment in thought before speaking again. "Well, anywhere outside the Shifting Expanse, really. And, um, thanks for the offer, but we're in a bit of a hurry. I'm not really sure what my clan did, but we really angered a flock of harpies and ... well ... we'll be traveling for a while, I guess you could say."
The Coatl hissed, sounding concerned, and Keir moved out from behind me to look up at me with a furrowed brow. I'd have to talk with her a bit later. "Ah, right," I said, nudging Keir out from behind me to face the Coatls properly, "I'm Lan, and this is Keir. And you guys are, um, Zecht, was it? And ... ?"
“Ariadne. My name’s Ariadne,” the female – Ariadne – supplied. I couldn’t understand her next bit, which was in Coatl, but I gave her a nod and a smile to show that I understood her draconian.
Keir gave me a look that said she was lost. “Ariadne and Zecht," I said to Keir, gesturing to each of them in turn. She nodded shyly, still half-hiding behind my leg.
A moment later, I glanced around nervously, looking back towards the way we had come. "Er, if you guys could point us in the direction of the border of the Shifting Expanse, we'd be really grateful ..."
“Follow us, and stay close. It’s not that far to the end of the borders… but… wherever you’re going, be careful out there.” I returned my attention to Ariadne as she spoke again before pausing a moment. Some of her words were in Coatl, but even without understanding every word, I think I got the gist of it.
I looked at Zecht as he gestured to Ariadne. “Follow her, I’ll take the rear.” Zecht's words were a little harder to understand, but with the help of his gestures I got the idea and nodded.
"Thank you," I said to both of them before nudging Keir to follow Ariadne.
Keir still gripped my feathers lightly as we followed the Coatl. Her eyes grew wide as she peered into the ring of cacti, taking in the sights. She perked up when the sound of hatchlings and a hissed tune reached the group, then looked up at me. I laughed a bit and glanced at Ariadne as she explained. “Sorry about that, the kids are a bit rowdy.”
"Oh, it's no problem," I said before turning to Keir. "Hatchlings," I explained to her, "they're probably only a couple days younger than you."
Her eyes were still wide as she looked up at me. "But I didn't sound like that, did I?"
"No," I said, laughing, "but you're also not a Coatl. And you just ... started talking. Pretty amazing, really."
Keir's wide eyes lit up and she grinned with pride, seeming to relax as she kept staring at the lair, probably hoping to catch a glimpse of the hatchlings. Both of us turned when Zecht returned with a package, watching as he and Ariadne spoke in Coatl. “Take it, we insist,” was all Ariadne said as she suddenly handed it to us.
I stared wide-eyed at the package, looking at the Hallowed Ivy inside. I lowered it so Keir could see and she smiled. I felt a similar smile spread on my face, and after a moment I spoke, still shocked, "th-thank you! This helps a lot."
A moment later I noticed Zecht looking around. I followed his gaze behind us and shifted nervously. "Well," I began, tucking away the gift and picking Keir up. She really was getting too big, but there was no choice. "We should get going. I'm not sure how the harpies are tracking us, and I don't want to bring you guys trouble." Keir gave the Coatls a shy smile and a wave as I stretched my wings. "Ah, um, we're from Clan Scion, and our matriarch is named Dian. If you see any of them ... could you tell them that we're alright?"
I gave them a thankful but nervous smile before taking to the air, starting to get antsy. "Thanks again, Zecht and Ariadne!"
Keir waved and echoed my sentiment quietly, "thank you!"
And then I turned towards the border. To be quite honest, I wasn’t really sure which border was closest, but I picked a direction at random and stuck with it. The sunlight started getting brighter, and judging by the lack of increase in water or lava, I had a pretty good idea of which border I was heading towards.
In the distance, I could see a tall but broken tower. The Beacon of the Radiant Eye.
Suddenly, Keir started sparking and tugged rather sharply on my feathers. “Ow!” I said, stopping and hovering in the air. I turned to look at her on my back. “What was that for?”
She looked confused and her nose was scrunched up. “Um … I don’t really know,” she said, and I just gave her a look. “But there’s something here. I can feel some static …”
“Harpies?” I asked, casting a wary look behind us.
“No,” Keir said scanning the ground, “it’s more like … the kind of static I felt when we passed Ariadne and Zecht’s lair …” She suddenly jumped off of my back and soared to the ground, nearly giving me a heart attack. I dove and landed beside her quickly, watching as she rummaged around in a nearby shrub.
I had no idea what she was looking for, but the shrub seemed to be a bit of a garbage dump. She tossed out a couple of old scroll cases, a broken shell, and even squeaked in surprise and hurriedly tossed out some bone. Then she bent forward and grabbed something, walking back to me triumphantly.
My jaw dropped and I stared at her in disbelief.
“This is it!” She said, holding the item out to me, “er … what is it?”
“That’s …” I began, pausing for a moment to find my voice again, “that’s a Lightning egg.”
We were about to head into the Sunbeam Ruins. With an egg.
Gods help me, I prayed, I am not ready for this kind of responsibility.
Eventful update this time! And a huge thanks to Hanelli for the gift and small crossover! :’D
Also who would’ve thought that I would scavenge one last time before posting this and moving to the next area and find an egg?! This is literally my third egg find ever – I honestly did not expect to find any – I thought I’d have to buy eggs for my Nuzlocke!
Also, I'm actually pretty happy that the RNG gave me the Sunbeam Ruins next! Mostly happy for Lan - the poor kid wouldn't know what to do in the Sea of a Thousand Currents or the Ashfall Wastes. xD
As always, thank you all for your continued support! I’m super excited to hatch this egg omg. :’D
Notes at the bottom again! And I'm posting this late at night because I got excited, so I'll get up and edit for typos and such tomorrow morning! Apologies for any errors you might encounter. D:
I.
Day 6 - The Shifting Expanse. Distance Traveled 94/144
I.
Day 6 - The Shifting Expanse. Distance Traveled 94/144
I couldn’t say that the next day was very interesting. It was more of the same – fly, hide, rest, and then fly again. Perhaps I was being a little too cautious – Keir was getting concerned for my health (to which I replied, “if you could stop growing for a day or so, that’d be great” and she just laughed at me) and it seemed like we were out-flying the harpies.
Of course, that was what I thought until we went to sleep that night. I was curled around Keir like always (though I had only been half-joking earlier – she really was growing at a fast pace and she was almost too big to sleep like that) and jerked awake when I heard the quiet shifting noise of feathers. I growled and started sparking in the little cave we had found. Keir woke up a moment later, startled, and just looked at my sparks. I carefully crawled over her, standing between her and the entrance of the cave, and peeked out –
- only to get my nose slashed at by a harpy! I growled loudly, shooting out several Shock Bolts, and then turned around to grab Keir. Keir, the smart girl, had already grabbed our little bundle of belongings and was ready to go when I held her close to my chest and took off into the night sky.
She was getting heavier, but until she could fly as fast as I could or until we could afford to fly slower, it was faster to carry her. I glanced down as she yawned, blinking wearily up at me before giving me a sleepy smile. I returned it hesitantly. It broke my heart that she was growing up like this – on the run and being ambushed.
Ever since we had gone out the day before, my own incompetency was glaring me in the face.
Keir deserved better.
I.
Day 7 - The Shifting Expanse. Distance Traveled 146/144
Day 7 - The Shifting Expanse. Distance Traveled 146/144
We flew into the morning, further into the Highland Scrub. I didn’t know where I was going, but it just had to be out of the Shifting Expanse. I had shifted Keir around so she was clinging to my back, wings tucked against her in an attempt to prevent drag and slow me down. While I was rather proud of my stamina, I had been flying for a while.
"Lan," Keir whimpered from my back. I couldn't muster a response, so I just hummed loud enough to make sure Keir knew I had heard. "You need to rest," she said quietly.
"Can't," I huffed out. I snuck a glance behind us and didn't see anything. Good.
"Lan! In front!"
I whipped around, shooting off a large bolt of electricity before I looked. It was just an Emerald Webwing, but the attack was enough to frighten it out of the way. After that, though, I was out of breath - in both senses of the word.
Keir yelped as I spread my wings and half soared, half fell towards the ground, narrowly avoiding a cactus. I skidded to a stop, opting to stay lying on the ground as I caught my breath. Keir crawled off of me and sat at my side. "I told you," she said quietly, though there was no ill will or sarcasm in her voice, just concern.
I just rolled his eyes at her good-naturedly, but didn't move. "Let me know if there's anything coming," I said, closing my eyes.
Keir hummed an affirmation, and I tried to meditate. I needed to regain some Breath in case he needed to fight, and also rest a bit. It was difficult to push the multitude of thoughts from my mind, but I finally managed it and felt Breath begin to come to me, giving me the energy I needed to fire off electricity.
Keir shook me out of it soon, though, with a whisper of "Lan, um ... There's another dragon. He's the same type as Rivis."
Huh? I opened my eyes, and then sat up when I saw the unfamiliar dragon. A Coatl. We were similar sizes, so we were probably similar ages. "Uh ... hi?" I called out warily. Coatls often had trouble speaking draconian, and while I could understand Coatl accents pretty well due to having a Coatl mother, I wasn’t sure how easily draconian came to this dragon and tried to speak clearly.
"Er, are we in your territory?" I felt Keir grip my side with one hand, her Blue Quartz in the other, and half hide behind me. "We don't mean any harm," I said in the calmest voice I could muster, though I was sure I still sounded out of breath, "we just need to rest then we'll go, I promise."
“H-hello,” the Coatl responded hesitantly.
I cracked a small smile when he returned the greeting. I glanced down at Keir, who looked a little confused, and was about to say something else when a loud screech of “Zeeeeecht!” made me wince. Keir jumped and shrank back behind me, and I whipped my head towards the sound, only to see a Coatl female approach.
I watched the Coatls warily as they conversed in their own tongue, bending down slightly when Keir tugged on my feathers lightly.
"Lan," she whispered, "what are they doing?"
"They're speaking Coatl," I said quietly back, and then straightened when the female spoke in draconian.
“Oh, don’t worry about Zecht over here. We’re not too touchy about people passing by our territory,” she said before glancing at Keir. Keir met her eyes, but then hid a little further behind me. “…but where are you headed? This is the end of the Shifting Expanse, out there is… well… the world. I don’t know what brings you here, but feel free to stay a bit… I may not know where you’re headed, but…” I followed the Coatl’s gaze as she glanced away. … A ring of cacti? Their lair? “…would you want to stay a bit? Or are you in a hurry?”
I tilted my head slightly to give her all of my attention and focus on her words. Overall, I understood what she said even if a couple of words escaped me. I laughed a bit before answering. "Sorry about that, we weren't really paying attention to where we were going." I glanced down at Keir who looked utterly confused. It seemed like she couldn't understand the Coatls. "We're headed to ... er ..."
I trailed off a moment in thought before speaking again. "Well, anywhere outside the Shifting Expanse, really. And, um, thanks for the offer, but we're in a bit of a hurry. I'm not really sure what my clan did, but we really angered a flock of harpies and ... well ... we'll be traveling for a while, I guess you could say."
The Coatl hissed, sounding concerned, and Keir moved out from behind me to look up at me with a furrowed brow. I'd have to talk with her a bit later. "Ah, right," I said, nudging Keir out from behind me to face the Coatls properly, "I'm Lan, and this is Keir. And you guys are, um, Zecht, was it? And ... ?"
“Ariadne. My name’s Ariadne,” the female – Ariadne – supplied. I couldn’t understand her next bit, which was in Coatl, but I gave her a nod and a smile to show that I understood her draconian.
Keir gave me a look that said she was lost. “Ariadne and Zecht," I said to Keir, gesturing to each of them in turn. She nodded shyly, still half-hiding behind my leg.
A moment later, I glanced around nervously, looking back towards the way we had come. "Er, if you guys could point us in the direction of the border of the Shifting Expanse, we'd be really grateful ..."
“Follow us, and stay close. It’s not that far to the end of the borders… but… wherever you’re going, be careful out there.” I returned my attention to Ariadne as she spoke again before pausing a moment. Some of her words were in Coatl, but even without understanding every word, I think I got the gist of it.
I looked at Zecht as he gestured to Ariadne. “Follow her, I’ll take the rear.” Zecht's words were a little harder to understand, but with the help of his gestures I got the idea and nodded.
"Thank you," I said to both of them before nudging Keir to follow Ariadne.
Keir still gripped my feathers lightly as we followed the Coatl. Her eyes grew wide as she peered into the ring of cacti, taking in the sights. She perked up when the sound of hatchlings and a hissed tune reached the group, then looked up at me. I laughed a bit and glanced at Ariadne as she explained. “Sorry about that, the kids are a bit rowdy.”
"Oh, it's no problem," I said before turning to Keir. "Hatchlings," I explained to her, "they're probably only a couple days younger than you."
Her eyes were still wide as she looked up at me. "But I didn't sound like that, did I?"
"No," I said, laughing, "but you're also not a Coatl. And you just ... started talking. Pretty amazing, really."
Keir's wide eyes lit up and she grinned with pride, seeming to relax as she kept staring at the lair, probably hoping to catch a glimpse of the hatchlings. Both of us turned when Zecht returned with a package, watching as he and Ariadne spoke in Coatl. “Take it, we insist,” was all Ariadne said as she suddenly handed it to us.
I stared wide-eyed at the package, looking at the Hallowed Ivy inside. I lowered it so Keir could see and she smiled. I felt a similar smile spread on my face, and after a moment I spoke, still shocked, "th-thank you! This helps a lot."
A moment later I noticed Zecht looking around. I followed his gaze behind us and shifted nervously. "Well," I began, tucking away the gift and picking Keir up. She really was getting too big, but there was no choice. "We should get going. I'm not sure how the harpies are tracking us, and I don't want to bring you guys trouble." Keir gave the Coatls a shy smile and a wave as I stretched my wings. "Ah, um, we're from Clan Scion, and our matriarch is named Dian. If you see any of them ... could you tell them that we're alright?"
I gave them a thankful but nervous smile before taking to the air, starting to get antsy. "Thanks again, Zecht and Ariadne!"
Keir waved and echoed my sentiment quietly, "thank you!"
And then I turned towards the border. To be quite honest, I wasn’t really sure which border was closest, but I picked a direction at random and stuck with it. The sunlight started getting brighter, and judging by the lack of increase in water or lava, I had a pretty good idea of which border I was heading towards.
In the distance, I could see a tall but broken tower. The Beacon of the Radiant Eye.
Suddenly, Keir started sparking and tugged rather sharply on my feathers. “Ow!” I said, stopping and hovering in the air. I turned to look at her on my back. “What was that for?”
She looked confused and her nose was scrunched up. “Um … I don’t really know,” she said, and I just gave her a look. “But there’s something here. I can feel some static …”
“Harpies?” I asked, casting a wary look behind us.
“No,” Keir said scanning the ground, “it’s more like … the kind of static I felt when we passed Ariadne and Zecht’s lair …” She suddenly jumped off of my back and soared to the ground, nearly giving me a heart attack. I dove and landed beside her quickly, watching as she rummaged around in a nearby shrub.
I had no idea what she was looking for, but the shrub seemed to be a bit of a garbage dump. She tossed out a couple of old scroll cases, a broken shell, and even squeaked in surprise and hurriedly tossed out some bone. Then she bent forward and grabbed something, walking back to me triumphantly.
My jaw dropped and I stared at her in disbelief.
“This is it!” She said, holding the item out to me, “er … what is it?”
“That’s …” I began, pausing for a moment to find my voice again, “that’s a Lightning egg.”
We were about to head into the Sunbeam Ruins. With an egg.
Gods help me, I prayed, I am not ready for this kind of responsibility.
Eventful update this time! And a huge thanks to Hanelli for the gift and small crossover! :’D
Also who would’ve thought that I would scavenge one last time before posting this and moving to the next area and find an egg?! This is literally my third egg find ever – I honestly did not expect to find any – I thought I’d have to buy eggs for my Nuzlocke!
Also, I'm actually pretty happy that the RNG gave me the Sunbeam Ruins next! Mostly happy for Lan - the poor kid wouldn't know what to do in the Sea of a Thousand Currents or the Ashfall Wastes. xD
As always, thank you all for your continued support! I’m super excited to hatch this egg omg. :’D