That wasn't supposed to happen

[whatamithinking]

The parameters are recalibrated, the dial is spun, and a new universe is selected.
It won't be home--they haven't collected anywhere near enough coordinate data to think they can find home yet--but it will be another step closer.
And who knows, it might be interesting.
Edie steps through the portal first.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"What kind of bug?"

[not_only]

"A bee or a butterfly or, well, there are ones called 'Fairy Wings' but they come from Pixies, which are little round glowing balls with wings."

[iamnotpolaris]

"She says it depends on what kind of butterfly wings it looks like. If it's not a wing design she particularly likes she'll go with the bird one."

[not_only]

"Okay. I don't know exactly what they look like, because I've never made them, but if I remember right I have the crafting materials already for that and Harpy Wings, so all I need is to collect a bunch more Souls of Flight."

They pass the edge of the island; now they are flying over the ocean, approaching a blank flat wall of mysterious fog some distance away.

[iamnotpolaris]

When they enter the fog Emily pulls up short for a moment before pushing on. She visibly relaxes when they make it out the other side.
"Not looking forward to doing that again."

[not_only]

"It's very unsettling," Sivath agrees. "Okay, look out for big flying white snaky things. Those are Wyverns and they're where Souls of Flight come from. We might get attacked by Harpies too."

He gets out a rather fancy-looking bow.

[iamnotpolaris]

"Nice."

[not_only]

"Thanks. It's my favourite. It does this," he says, and he slows his flight a little and aims the bow and draws back the string without putting an arrow to it, and when he looses the lack-of-an-arrow it blasts a fiercely glowing blue-white energy projectile into the distance. "Even though it doesn't look like it, it actually does use up arrows, but I have another thing that means I never run out of arrows. It's very good."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Sounds it!"

[not_only]

He smiles.

[iamnotpolaris]

That looks like a flying white snaky thing. Is it a wyvern?

[not_only]

Well, Sivath is shooting blue projectiles at it. That might or might not be a clue.

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily can't hit it over the head with as much metal as normal, since she needs it to fly right now, but she can send a cloud of flechette at it.

[not_only]

The combination of attacks causes the wyvern to messily explode. Sivath dives into the shower of wyvern chunks to retrieve some bright little blue things and several coins.

"That's seven Souls of Flight," he reports. "And it's twenty to make a pair of wings, so we'll need forty if we want to make both kinds."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Okay!"
Emily floats her cloud around her rather than remelting it under her clothes.

[not_only]

Onward they fly!

A pair of blue-haired women with wings attack, pelting them with sharp blue feathers. Sivath dodges and returns fire with his energy bow.

[iamnotpolaris]

Bits of metal tearing them to pieces.

[not_only]

Sivath collects the goodies that fall out of them when they explode.

"Those were harpies," he says. "They're kind of annoying."

And now there's another one. And a wyvern too. Never a dull moment around here.

[iamnotpolaris]

Shred. Shred. Shred.
"I wouldn't be this casual doing this to even animals with minds, in case you were wondering."

[not_only]

"I wasn't really wondering that, no. Okay, we have five more Souls of Flight."

After this there is something of a dry spell. Well, dry of wyverns. The supply of harpies seems inexhaustible.

[iamnotpolaris]

Maybe if they kill enough harpies a wyvern will respawn instead.

[not_only]

Eventually this does happen!

"Ten Souls of Flight from that one," Sivath reports after scavenging its remains. Then they are attacked by harpies again.

[iamnotpolaris]

Eventually Emily is going to explain video games to Sivath and that he's spent six years straight living one. But that time will not be now.

[not_only]

In the meantime, it takes them a while longer to accumulate forty Souls of Flight, and by that point it's only another minute's flight or so until they reach... a house.

It's very large, and made of dark purplish-blue stone that sparkles slightly in the sunlight, and sort of castle-like in an extremely square and symmetrical way.

"That's my latest house," says Sivath. "I think I have Butterfly Dust in there somewhere, and there are places where I can make wings out of these Souls of Flight."

He glides down and lands on a balcony and opens the door and goes inside.

[iamnotpolaris]

"Your latest house is gorgeous."
She lands on the balcony and follows him inside.