A Space Oddity

by J. J. Pavlov

  "Hey, did you always have two tails?" The Crawling Chaos turns her head after peeking under the dorm mother's long skirt. That's just like the Nekomata - supernatural cats with forked tails in Japanese folklore. The catgirl stares at her in surprise, then puts both hands on her bottom to cover herself.

  "Not your concern." She quickly gathers herself and turns away with a pout that belies her real age, but looks quite fitting for her apparent age. With that, she cuts the topic short and makes it clear that she doesn't want to talk about it any further.

  In the end, only Daica remains. She must have seen Chaos take on this form in the battle against the academy. When faced with one of the most powerful creatures in this world, even when she knows that it's really Asoko, she's still nervous.

  "Come on. I don't bite... much." Speaking in a deep but feminine voice, she invites the big dark elf over with what can be construed as a smile. A dragon's facial features are quite limited in that regard, so maybe it looked more like an intimidating baring of teeth, as Daica shies back instead.

  "A-are you sure it's s-safe?" It seems that rather than being afraid of the dragon form, she's scared to take off into the sky.

  "I'll add seatbelts." Performing a mighty shrug that nearly shakes off the lighter passengers on her back, Asoko suggests. Out of everybody present, only Senka seems to understand what she means by that. Her expression grows concerned at the thought of what shape those seatbelts will take.

  Moments later, tentacles sprout from around everybody and wrap around their waists. Of course, those not used to it immediately struggle from the sudden embrace. Tamariki even rips the one trying to grab her out of the dragon's back and throws it away.

  "Hey, don't do that! It's only to secure you in place when we're flying." Extending her wing to catch the discarded squirming tentacle, she reintegrates it into her mass while reprimanding the red demon.

  "I don't need it." Crossing her arms and glaring at Asoko with narrowed eyes, Tamariki shows off her obstinacy. The Crawling Chaos swears to make this ride as bumpy as she can for her in particular.

  "W-will you be keeping your g-grip on us throughout?" Daica's eyes light up as she asks with noticeable interest. Her other half told Asoko that the big dark elf may appear cowardly and incredibly shy, but she's really a big closet pervert who seems to have an interest in darker and kinkier forms of pleasure. Maybe she's hoping for more than just a tentacle holding her.

  A chair made from tentacles - that does sound like a great idea.

  "Don't even think about it." Senka mutters, apparently having guessed Asoko's intentions. Heaving her shoulders in a shrug, the latter tries to act innocent. Having so many girls around her could prove to be quite stimulating, but she has to remind herself of the fact that most of them belong to her other half.

  In the meantime, Daica has approached her gingerly, still unsure how to climb up. Growing a tentacle from her side and grabbing the dark elf, the Crawling Chaos lifts her into the midst of the others before securing her with a seatbelt. It's in times like these that she most appreciates having such a convenient body, even if its real appearance can drive people insane.

  "Ready for takeoff." With this short warning, Asoko spreads her wings and kicks off the ground. It's her first time flying in dragon form, but the genetic template has given her all the information she needs to do it as well as a natural-born dragon could.

  She leaves the ground with mighty beats of her wings, kicking up a whirlwind under each of them with every move. Quickly gaining altitude, she ascends toward the clouds like a passenger plane. On her back, Daica, Lenoly - and unexpectedly - Ninlil are screaming in fear as they realize what they have gotten themselves into.

  Chapter 78 - Far Cry

  Kamii shields her eyes from the glaring midday sun and looks around in utter bewilderment.

  One moment, they had been in the damp and dark cell of the royal castle dungeon. It was not long after midnight when she suddenly noticed somebody else's presence in the cell and sat up from the wooden bunk bed. In the next moment, she found herself suspended in midair in the middle of a steppe, with the bed underneath her gone. Then she fell on top of Rolan, who had been sleeping in the bunk under her.

  The same had happened to the others of their group, with Hreidunn landing on Gram's broad chest, and Vigdis knocking the back of her head onto her brother Leif's nose. Only Sigurd escaped unscathed, as their odd numbers meant one person didn't need to share a bunk bed with another person.

  "What's going on?" The leader asks, knowing that nobody present has a definitive answer for that. After the initial shock, they had found their equipment in a pile a few dozen paces away, not a single piece of it missing. It had been confiscated when they were arrested and had most likely been locked away like that.

  "We were transported here with magic. There's no doubt about that." It goes without saying, but Leif still feels better by putting it into words. After all, the issue remains that they have been teleported without a transportation circle. According to common magical knowledge, that's impossible.

  "By whom, and why?" Hreidunn peers across the steppe and takes in the sights. It continues in every direction, although the silhouette of a mountain range behind the hazy veil hanging over any vast distance breaks the monotonous landscape to the east.

  "I felt somebody in our cell." Kamii says while scratching her chin in a thoughtful gesture. "But before I could see who it was, this had already happened."

  "Did anybody else notice anything?" Rolan asks around, but the others shake their heads.

  "Why is it so bright here? Was it already morning when it happened?" With a wondrous expression, Vigdis looks around in confusion. "I am normally a light sleeper, so I should have noticed if the sun had come up."

  "A light sleeper who still can't get up in the morning." To take the tension off the moment, Leif forces himself to tease his sister, who only shoots him a glare.

  " Transportation magic is nearly instantaneous, so the fact that it is midday here means we have traveled a long way." Sigurd suddenly states in a serious tone. He's riding on Gram's shoulders, so his persuasiveness is not the greatest, but he continues like a lector standing at his podium. "We are in a different time zone."

  "What does that mean?" Tilting her head in wonder, Hreidunn asks. Rolan and Gram remain silent, not wanting to admit that they don't know either.

  "You know that Mundia is a sphere, right?" The bard replies, getting down to the very basics to set up the more complex answer.

  "Yeah, but what does that have to do with-" Leif begins, but Sigurd immediately continues; it was a rhetorical question.

  "Mundia is spinning, and that is the reason why the sun goes up and down each day." He explains, and it immediately dawns on Kamii what he means. It appears that the others haven't figured it out yet, so he continues. "That is-"

  "Wait, I always thought the sun was spinning around the world." Gram interjects but receives an uncharacteristically annoyed glare from the bard, which he luckily doesn't see from below. Among everybody here, Sigurd is the most well-educated person, so they should believe him when he clarifies the workings of the world.

  "When the sun shines on one half of Mundia, the other half is steeped in the darkness of night." He uses his hands to represent this world and the sun.

  "So that means we've been thrown to the other side of the world?" With a shocked expression, Hreidunn asks while looking around.

  "I was asleep when it happened, so I cannot say what time in the night it was when we were transported here from our cells." Shaking his head and conceding that he can't make any premature assumptions, Sigurd looks across the landscape once more. It's the reason he climbed on Gram's shoulders in the first place.

  "Which nation is this then?" Rolan inquires after giving the bard a moment.

  "I have studied many a map of this world available to mortal men, but I cannot tell where we are." Climbing down from the lookout opportunity, Sigurd admits with a complicated ex
pression. The magical map they have only features the western half of the Kingdom of Lares. The red dot serving as a location marker was not visible on it when they checked earlier.

  "If this were the empire, things would be simple." Rolan scratches the back of his head and glances at the bard.

  "There are steppes such as this one in the Empire of Terminus, but none are as empty." He shakes his head to deny that notion and explains the reason for his certainty right away. "Man has been settling the Great Plains from the beginning of time, long before the empire came into existence. You cannot look across any large plains without seeing at least one village in every direction."

  "That sounds like a nightmare." Kamii suddenly comments, and everybody stares at her in baffled silence. Then Gram bursts out laughing.

  "You got that right." He agrees with her blunt sentiment. Dark elves are known for their closeness to nature if nothing else - more so than their fair-skinned brethren who shape the forests they live in much like humans do. Having a settlement wherever one looks is as far removed from nature as one could imagine.

  "So, what do we do?" Leif sighs while looking through his backpack. He was carrying all of the provisions during their delve into the Lost Tombs, so he knows their food situation the best. Judging by his expression, it looks grim. "We'll be out of food pretty quickly."

  "I don't think that will really be a problem." Rolan replies with a shrug. Although they don't have much food left, he isn't in the least concerned. If they had been brought into a desert or a barren mountain range, things would have been different, but this steppe will doubtlessly provide plenty.

  "It's quite hot here, so we can at least be sure that this is in the far south." Vigdis says while fanning herself by flipping up and down her neckline. She rightfully decided not to put on her robes after they collected them and wears a simple shirt now.

  "So, we should go north?" Gram looks toward the left of the mountain range, where the plains extend to the horizon.

  "The empire looks different, the republic is a mountainous region and has no place like this, and most of the sultanate is arid." Sigurd explains with a grave expression. He looks everybody over and sighs as if dreading the conclusion he has drawn with all that evidence. "This is not Blereath, and neither is it Enorath. I believe we are no longer in any of the realms of man."

  Silence lays itself over the group like a blanket as they stare at the bard. The first to crack under the weight of the revelation is Leif, who glances at the others with a nervous laugh.

  "That can't be, right?" Deep down, he knows that this is the only possible explanation. But admitting to that fact would mean that they're either stranded in completely unknown lands or the only other known place these plains could correspond to.

  "Degar steppes?" Rolan gathers his courage and asks, earning him a nod from Sigurd.

  "What is that?" Vigdis wonders when she sees the members of the original party grow somber. Growing up in the countryside and never having thought about traveling the world, she never bothered to learn much about geography or history.

  "They are the lands inhabited by the nomadic centaurs." The leader states, causing everybody to look around nervously. Even remote villages have heard stories about centaurs, though; horses with the upper half of a human body growing from where the horse's neck begins. They're known for being formidable warriors and bolster the monstrous cavalry ranks of the Dominion.

  Once again, the group grows silent. They contemplate what it means to have been transported to the nation of the demons as a group of humans and one cursed dark elf.

  That dark elf in question suddenly walks over to Hreidunn and pulls an arrow out of her quiver. Everybody watches in confused silence as she places it on the feathered end and keeps it standing with her finger on the tip. She then looks at the group with a neutral expression that doesn't betray her emotions despite the reveal that they're stranded in demon territory. Letting go, it tips over and drops into the grass.

  "This way." Kamii points her crab arm in the direction the arrow has fallen, her tone leaving no room for argument. Everybody keeps staring at her for a moment before Gram is, as always, the first to burst out laughing.

  "But that is south-" Sigurd begins to complain, but the big man's voice drowns him out. The others join his contagious laughter, and even Vigdis is so gripped by the atmosphere that the tension escapes her. Once again, Kamii has taken the edge off the situation with a seemingly childish act.

  But in reality, the little dark elf's mind is in turmoil. If Mahkotoh were to return to Kongenssoevn now, she would miss her. And knowing her temperament, she might go to challenge the academy when she learns from Senka how they ended up in the castle's dungeon.

  They've been separated for two moons now, and that time will only grow longer. There are no transportation circles to be seen, and even if there were one, none of the group members know space magic. That means they need to travel from the Dominion all the way to the Kingdom of Lares on the other side of the world. How many moons or even summers would that take?

  "Then let's go with Kamii's suggestion." Rolan states with a smile and pulls her out of her gloomy thoughts.

  "I believe it would be better to travel to the Dominion's capital, Arkaim." With a difficult expression, Sigurd objects while suggesting a strange alternative. But he goes on to explain the reason for his train of thought. "There is bound to be a transportation circle in a city that can act as the capital of this vast continent."

  "But we have nobody who could send us through." Leif argues with a concerned look around the group. "And wouldn't it be really dangerous in the capital of the demons?"

  "What's the plan?" The leader turns to the bard and asks him with a serious expression. Usually, the latter doesn't suggest anything without having thought things through thoroughly. So far, every failure had been the result of somebody else's misstep. For example, when they traveled through Rathgolim, it had been Chloe's thoughtless magic that woke up the Graebern.

  The mistake in the Lost Tombs that had gotten them into this situation had been Leif leaning against a pressure plate despite Sigurd's repeated warnings. It had opened a multitude of cells, and a stream of undead in varying stages of decay had surrounded them from all sides. If not for Rolan and Kamii's fighting capabilities, they wouldn't have been able to break out. After all, the fire mage's magic was either too weak or would backfire on them in that cramped space.

  Ultimately, their seemingly blind flight through the darkness of the underground - reminiscent of their marathon from the moment they crossed the Bridge of Enleith all the way to the Gate of Datharod - led to the transportation hall under the academy. They broke through the bars and held off the undead at that chokepoint until the professors noticed the commotion and arrived to help them.

  Then they were arrested for trespassing and locked away for later questioning, which brought them to this moment in time.

  "The problem is that an ocean separates Ceogath from any human nation. And even then, Yagrath lies between here and Enorath." Sigurd explains his reasoning. They may be able to successfully forage to scrape by once their supplies run out, but it doesn't change anything about the fact that they're in hostile territory. In these demon-held lands, humans will be viewed as enemies and are most likely killed on sight. "It is not a journey we can realistically undertake without a professional ship crew. And with Pontis Daemonis back in demon hands, we will not be able to find anybody to help us. Using a transportation circle is the only way, but that would require somebody who can use space magic."

  He pauses while looking across everybody's faces, then sighs and shakes his head. It's apparent that he's at his wit's end.

  "I have to admit that I have no plan this time." Sigurd finally concludes with a tired expression.

  "Well, that's a first." Gram strokes his mustache with a surprised expression. He knows the bard the longest among anybody here, and it would appear that even he never saw him like this before.

  "
Umm, what's that?" Suddenly, Vigdis pulls everybody's attention to her when she asks in a concerned tone. She's looking into the distance, where a cloud of dust is moving across the steppe.

  "Centaurs?" Leif immediately begins to panic and readies his staff to chant a spell. They're out on an open field, so it's his time to shine. After all, explosive fire magic doesn't agree with humans in small rooms.

  "No, it seems to be a band of wild horses." Hreidunn shades her eyes from the sun and narrows them. As the ranger, her eyesight is the best in the group, so nobody questions her verdict.

  "Could we catch some and ride them?" Rolan suddenly suggests, childlike excitement on his face. Nobles are the only ones keeping horses in the Kingdom of Lares, as the majority of the stock is imported from the empire. Few have successfully bred them natively, so among the commoners, only wealthy merchants can afford them.

  "Domesticating wild animals takes a long time." As always, Sigurd is the voice of reason, as he shakes his head at the leader's thoughtless suggestion. "And none of us are trained in doing that."

  "Let's move." Kamii changes the topic and picks up her bag demonstratively. The other members of the group exchange some glances with each other, then look at Rolan, who appears surprised that the little dark elf is taking the lead.

  Chuckling to himself, he picks up his backpack and fastens his sword before following her. Seeing their leader sanction her actions, the others follow suit and quickly gather their belongings. Meanwhile, Kamii continues to walk without regard for whether or not they're coming after her.

  She's thinking of various scenarios for how to make it back to the kingdom. Sigurd pointed out that without a transportation circle, they will need to go by ship, which requires an expert crew to cross the ocean to reach Enorath. There are most likely no demons that travel to human territories in the first place. Thus, they would have to find a ship willing to brave the dangers in exchange for money - something they don't have.