Location: 18°29'00.36"N. 122°08'53.68"E.
Time since asteroid impact: 4 weeks 2 days
With the same feeling for Arlo as Verena experienced, Arlo slowly woke up to the cold bumpy pebbles that surrounded the lower half of his field of view. Above them layed only darkness; the light from the sun had now been blocked by thick cloud cover. A chill went through him as he got up, things were too dark to even see the things right next to him. One of the only things he could depict was the boundary between objects and sky, everything else was a silouhette for him. There was however, one thing he could rely on: the sound of the waves next to him let him know where the coast was, and since most of the coast he saw was made of similar-sized stones, it would be easier just keeping to the coast, which he did.
A flash from his left hand side went as soon as it came, revealing more of the landscape than he did laying down. Nearby trees tht could potentially have food on them. Every now and then, the flashes from the left gave him more info as to where on the coast and how close to the trees he was. Just before he got to the trees however, a faint glow from afar caught his attention, and since he was taller than msot of the nearby trees it wasn't hard to see how far away it was; quite far whilst also being close enough to make out if it was moving closer or not.
Good thing about the glow was that it provided minimal light, but enough for Arlo to see more than just silouhettes of large objects. Each flash that came afterward though showed more than just the landscape. Infront of the mountains afar stood a massive column of cloud that looked to be changing shape. A faint sound, getting louder with each passing second, could be hard in the direction of the column- which started to move closer to the faint orangle glow. Now very weary of the potential danger, he kept one eye on it whilst eating the fruit that indeed was hanging from said trees.
An enourmous, rumbling roar emminated from the direction Arlo was keeping an eye out for, and rising up came a ferocious wall of deep orange flames. Originating from a probably forest fire, the column of clouds seemed to collect the flames and grew stronger. Worst thing was, the heat could be felt all they way from where he was, that and the fact this new powerful fire whirl was enraging closer and closer. At that moment, he instantly dashed to his right, running as fast as he possibly could, doing his best to keep his breath under control to keep the pace up.
"Hey, slow down!" A voice from Arlo's current left voiced, however Arlo wasn't going to let anything distract him from the oncoming fire wirl. And by the sound of it, it wasn't long before the voice soon realised what Arlo was running away from. "Nevermind, keep up the pace, I'll catch up!" Feminine of course, but not an adult's, it was more juvenile- older than Arlo but definitely not an adult. As Arlo continued to run, footsteps from behind creeped up to his point, and right beside him another Apatosaur had been catching up. This was probably the voice he heard earlier, however two things stood out; first, it wasn't any member of his family, and second she had an enormous bulk of... something, on her back which seemed to be fastened all round her, and the back were her tail was had been straped to what looked to be make-shift tail feathers.
What ever they were, she soon noticed Arlo glancing at the thing on her. "Oh don't worry about that, only for extreme emergencies." An ironic statement, seeing as the two were already in a- "Isn't this right now an extreme emergency?" Arlo said over a period of time, taking deep breaths between each word. "As of now no but I think we're close to one. Quickly, follow my lead!" She said, soon out-pacing Arlo for a moment before returning to the same speed. Instead of going nearer to the coast; where the trees were less dense, they moved inward, toward a high mountain range where a bright orange light could be seen.
As they scaled up the steep slopes, their speed had now been limited enough for the fire whirl to slowly close in on them. By the time they got to the rim, the whirl had already gotten close enough to feel the heat again. "Quick, get into this!" Pulling something, the object on her back extended to the left, creating a place for Arlo to fit into. As he got in, she said "Okay, now once you're fully in, I'm going to need you to put all your trust in me." Only then, when Arlo had finished getting himself into this... thing of hers, did he have the time to see what was truely in front of them: a large crater, in the middle filled a bubbling mass of molten rock, and slowly rising to the top.
"I-I-I can't do this!" Arlo for a moment forgot he was fastened in, and tried to run backwards. "Please... I need you to trust me... Either we jump, or you face that!" She said, obviously referring to the approaching fire whirl. Arlo mentally and almost physically gulped in fear, before eventually responding with a fast nod. "Okay, when I say 'go' you put your back legs on those pedals there, and immediately after that put your front legs on those bars in front of you. On, three, we run alright? One... Two... THREE!"
Arlo ran toward the edge of the rim, and did what he was told when she said 'go'. They slowly fell toward the molten rock, before a large force seemed to pull them back up. Looking on the sides he noticed, and realised, the true purpose of this thing he was fastened to. Large, flat wings extended far from where they were, and would slowly move up and down. "Um, you're meant to move the pedals like I am?" She said. Arlo observed how she moved her pedals, and prceeded to do the same on his. Together, they could rise up faster than ever. "See, now you're getting the hang of it! We must be over three miles above the sea already, must've been the warm updraft from that volcano, but just look!"
When he looked down, he could see the top of the... volcano slowly shrinking, as soon as some grey clouds started to build from the center of the crater, Arlo's savior mentioned "Oh, better start moving, you don't want those types of ash reaching us." And immediately they started to move forward, out into the open sea. While it seemed normal for the lass, Arlo could barely handle being up this high, and felt extremely light-headed. For a brief moment Arlo slowed down, making the whole device turn to the left slightly before adjusting back. "Are you okay there?" Arlo heard, before passing out from internal shock.
Squinting his eyes, Arlo regained conciousness. "Oh thank goodness you're all right. I thought you were gonna be out for much longer, I see you're not a fan of heights, so I lowered us down to a hopefully more comfortable altitude." In responce, Arlo sighed out "T-t-thanks... uuuuuh..."
"Oh that reminds me! My name's Ivy, Ivy Notapa. How about you?" Ivy said in a very upbeat-tone. "Uuuh, it's Arlo."
"Just Arlo. You don't have a last name? Ah well, it doesn't matter too much." She said as they were passing over a nearby island. "Anyways, care to tell where you're from?"
"Uuuh, Clawtooth Mountain?" Arlo asked slowly, Ivy almost jumped at the name and nearly lost control. "Sorry about that, haven't heard that name in a while. You live there? But that's a- nevermind, there's probably some explanation as to how that's possible. But for now, lets take you back to my home city. Pretty far from where we are, had to come over here to make sure everyone had alreayd left but by the makes of it I came just in time for you to be saved too. Hang on, that would mean you've- how did you manage to survive in the open ocean for four weeks!?"
"Uuuuh, what?", "You heard me. Unless you weren't concious during that time. In that case, sorry to break the news but it's been over four weeks since that... event, happened. You probably know the one since you were much closer than were we were in Oykot."
For a moment, Arlo remained confused about certain things. "Oykot?", "You don't know about Oykot. I could tell you it's history while we're on our way."
...
After a few hours, the light above the clouds had started to fade. Ivy had just finished up on the history of her hometown when she felt the winged-device turn to the left for a moment. Glancing at Arlo, she could see that all the talk and going through the air had made him so tired that he was already nodding off to sleep whilst doing his best to keep the pedals behind moving. "Oh, well I guess this is probably your first flight, so congrats on making it this far." She quietly said, mostly to herself, before swtiching changing the controls so that she had all the control. That way, Arlo wouldn't affect the flight if he didn't do anything. No sooner did she change the controls, Arlo's legs had let go of both the pedals and bars, and were now dangling in mid-air. Fortunately this didn't mean he would fall, as she had already been fastened in under his belly by thick vines.
Seeing as there wasn't going to be much light for the night, she looked for the nearest flat peice of land that wasn't surrounded by mountains on the island soon approaching, before making a slow decent. Shoving Arlo before they landed, he had enough time to know they were landing, and brace for it. A hard landing it was, but nothing more than a rough scrape on some of their legs. "Not there yet, we're gonna have to sleep the night away before we can continue." She said. If the clouds weren't blocking the sky, there was a chance that the moon could provide such light for easy travel, but as this wasn't the case they had no other option.
Audio Message #6: Subject Member #1: Member #1, also known as Arlo, has travelled an astonishing 513 Km (319 Miles), most of which in mid-air. Thanks to his new companion, his likelyhood of survival is almost certain for now. This companion seems to know a lot about various land features along with a range of hazards, such as volcanoes, ash, and some knowledge of Clawtooth Mountain. Whether said knowledge will eventually be disclosed with Arlo remains uncertain. However, as their current destination is the same as Verena's, it is likely that the two will find each other and find their way home eventually, for now, I can only hope that they make it to their destinations. End of Message.
A/N: A day late seems like nothing compared to being weeks huh? Ye ye I'm still late, but I thought it was about time I finished something within a small range of time. Hope you liked the chapter, and the story so far, and I'll see you in the next one!
Next chapter: March of the Desert Queens
Fun Facts: Surprisignly, N/A