Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight - Successful Insertion

Flying wyvernback was awesome!

It was also, I realised after a few minutes, a bit of a literal pain in the behind. The saddles we had were designed more to prevent chafing against the tough scales on the wyvern’s neck than to provide a soft cushion.

The wyverns, or at least Greencrest, shifted their neck up and down slightly with every big, sweeping wingbeat, which meant that we were constantly moving in our saddles. The multitude of straps made a lot more sense; they kept us in place even as we were forced to shift with the wyvern’s movements.

Bastion leaned down ahead of me, head lower so that he was almost hugging Greencrest’s neck, with a rein in each hand. I saw him glance back quickly, as if to make sure I was still here. “Are you well?” he asked.

“Yuppers!” I called back against the blowing wind.

“If you need to warm yourself, use fire mana. Though be careful with it, you could burn yourself internally or externally with it.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m from Canada.”

I think Bastion didn’t quite understand what that meant, but he just shrugged and refocused on flying.

We were in the middle of the formation of three. Ahead of us, Winnow and Amaryllis were pushing ahead with Bloodfang, and Little Doug took up the rear with Melos and Awen. if I understood things correctly, at some point we’d switch around, a new wyvern acting as windbreak for the others.

“Are we faster than if we were on an airship?” I asked.

Bastion shook his head. “Not really. A fast airship is faster than the fastest wyvern. The advantage with wyverns tends to be their mobility and size, as well as their acceleration. The average wyvern can fly circles around even the most manoeuvrable airship, and they’re much smaller targets. They’re discreet too.”

“Discreet?”

Bastion gestured to his ear. “Not nearly as loud as an airship. The wyvern knights are excellent at hunting down air and sea pirates, especially at night. A wyvern with a handler and a mage riding it can deliver a pretty heavy blow to a ship from angles where an airship might not be able to defend itself.”

That made sense, I supposed. “Hey, can wyverns fly on airships?”

Bastion shrugged. “It’s happened before. The wyvern knights have a ship or two in their employ that are built to house and launch wyverns, though they take up a lot of space and tend to dislike roosting onboard a ship, at least that’s what I understood from the experiments.”

“That’s still kind of neat,” I said. I shifted my bum again to try and find a comfortable position. “How long will it take to reach our destination?” I asked.

“We’ll be arriving by late afternoon or early evening,” Bastion said. “It’ll depend on the winds and weather. Though, the skies are predicted to be calm--we have stations all around the nation that report back to the capital, and some talented individuals have skills that let them predict the weather.”

That sounded very useful. “I guess we’re using wyverns because they’re sneakier, otherwise it would be better to use an airship, right?” I asked.

“This mission is supposed to be quiet, yes,” he replied. “Having a whole crew in on it would spread the news around a lot more. And airships are noticeable. The Trenten Flats aren’t the most observant, but they’ll see a ship landing on their territory.”

We continued to fly, and after a while I tucked my hands into the big fur coat I’d been given to keep my fingers warm. I was regretting not wearing thicker shoes, or maybe just some boots, too. My toes were freezing. My ear-tips weren’t any better, especially as they flapped in the passing wind.

It wasn’t all that bad though, and the slow trip gave me some time and plenty of reasons to practice circulating mana. I turned some of my raw mana into fire mana, then with a bit of help from Way of the Mystic Bun, I pushed it towards my feet, then my hands and back again, as if I was going to launch an attack then pulled back.

The warmth was nice, thawing out my toes and warming my shoes.

At the same time, I took in the passing scenery. The mountains of Sylphfree were quite beautiful. Dozens of peaks, all jammed in together with deep valleys between them. There were plenty of plateaus where little fields were growing, and I noticed a few villages next to rivers near the lowlands. Just little spots with maybe a couple of dozen homes, some fields, and maybe a mill by the river.

They weren’t on any of the maps of Sylphfree I’d seen, but maybe they were too small to be noteworthy.

I let my imagination run wild for a bit, putting myself in the shoes of some normal farmer living in a peaceful little town like that, barely more than a hamlet where you’d grow up knowing everyone, and where you’d dream of maybe visiting the city one day.

Then I shook my head and recalled that I was currently riding what was basically a small dragon. Anything my imagination could come up with was objectively less cool then what I was currently doing.

The flight continued on through the afternoon. My tummy protested a bit after so long without a snack, but I didn’t complain. I was glad I didn’t drink much before leaving either, we couldn’t exactly make a pitstop along the way.

The sun was right overhead as we finally escaped the grasp of the mountainous terrain around Sylphfree. The land below dipped down into rocky crags, then levelled off, with only the occasional bumpy hill below. The world of ice and grey rock was replaced by verdant fields and open plains with a few clumps of trees growing where they could find respite from the wind.

“See that little mountain to the north?” Bastion asked. He pointed to our right.

“I see it,” I said. It would have been an impressive little mountain anywhere else, but with the Sylphfree mountains as a backdrop it was kind of underwhelming.

“That’s Mount Goldshire. Once we’re past that to the west we’ll be looking for a place to drop you off.”

I nodded. “Okay!” I said, since he couldn’t see me. “Any tips for when we’re in the Trenten Flats?”

Bastion didn’t reply for a bit, thinking. “I know you like trusting people, but be careful with the locals. They’re superstitious, and they don’t trust strangers easily.”

I’d have to win them over the hard way, then. I could work with a bit of a challenge, I was sure. “And what about our mission?”

“Get to the fort, ask around,” Bastion said. “Then leave before you wear out your welcome. If it comes to it, you can likely divulge that you’ve come from Goldenalden. We don’t have excellent political or diplomatic ties with the Trenten Flats, but at worst, you will only be temporarily imprisoned.”

“That makes it sound a lot more dangerous than I expected,” I admit. I was hoping for a fun time, not something overly dangerous. I knew there were risks, of course, but still.

“You’ll be in a foreign land. Keep your guard up. And while you’re there, you might want to consider practising your magic and combat where you can. It’s a little late to hone those kinds of skills, but some added proficiency is better than none.”

“Is the wildlife around here dangerous?” I asked.

“Somewhat. Lots of large, predatory cats. Some very territorial land beasts, and a few nasty local creatures. There’s a kind of snake common to the region, and slimes are abundant during the right time of the year too. Stick to the roads if you want to avoid them, though that will mean that you’ll encounter more guard patrols than otherwise.”

“Okay. We’ll do our best to stay safe. Or at least safe-ish.”

Bastion glanced back. “You’re an honest girl, so I’ll take your word for it.”

Our flight continued, though only for another half hour or so. Eventually, we started to circle over a particularly hilly bit of terrain. The wyverns shifted, then on Winnow’s command, we stooped downwards.

I heard Amaryllis and Awen screaming, so I joined in too, arms loose above me as if I was on a big rollercoaster. The dive levelled off soon enough, then we skimmed over the top of a hill and the wyverns flared out their wings to arrest our momentum.

With big meaty thumps, our rides landed at a run with their taloned feet racing below. Finally, we came to a full stop near the bottom of a valley nestled between a few hills.

“Alright, let’s unbuckle you,” Bastion said.

I helped him undo the clasps holding me in place, then once I was free, I leapt off of Greencrest’s back and landed with bent knees next to the wyvern. “Thanks for the ride,” I told her as I gave the underside of her chin a proper scritching.

The wyvern huffed contentedly at my face and I had to wipe off some drool with a bit of cleaning magic.

My friends were dropped off too, and we started to collect our equipment. Mostly those were backpacks with plenty of survival stuff and of course our various weapons and other things. I slipped out of my harness, then handed that back to Bastion who stuffed it into one of Greencrest’s saddlebags.

“This is the last we’ll see of each other for a couple of days, I think,” Bastion said. “If I don’t hear back from you for more than that, then I’ll start looking for any major signs of trouble. Burnt down villages, destroyed dungeons, that sort of thing.”

“I’ll be sure to leave a super-obvious trail if we’re in trouble,” I said.

“That is less reassuring than you probably thought it was,” Bastion said.

I grinned up at him. “I’m kidding,” I said. With a little hop to reach him up in the saddle, I gave my sylph friend a quick good-bye hug. “Stay safe too, okay Bastion?”

“Always,” he said.

“And watch over Caprica while we’re off. I bet she gets lonely.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he replied.

And with that, I rejoined my friends. Amaryllis was fixing her feathers back into place--the long flight had mussed them up--and Awen was swapping out her loaner fur coat for her regular blue trenchcoat.

“Are the both of you ready?” Amaryllis asked.

“I think so. Where are we heading to?”

Awen pulled out a small compass, then tugged a folded up map from her pack. “Awa, I think we’re about... here. Which means that if we’re going to Fort Middlesfaire, we need to go west and a little bit south.”

Amaryllis glanced at the map, then the compass, then she stood taller and looked westward. “I noticed a river that way while we were in the air. It’s quite a ways off. We’ll need to find a way to cross it, fortunately, it should thin out to the north.”

“Then we go around?” I asked.

“That would be a start,” she replied.

The three of us paused as our friends took off without much said other than a few heavy wingbeats from the wyverns.

“Okay,” I said as they became distant specks above. “Let’s get started?”

“Yes. The sooner we move away from here, the better,” Amaryllis said. “Someone might try to investigate the area if they saw the wyverns coming down.”

“And we need to find a place for a camp, soon,” I pointed out.

“So soon?”

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m real hungry, and we flew right past lunch time, literally!”

***