Boat Ride Close to the World Tree
Rex and Rana's party are stretching their limbs after a good morning wakeup call from the sun and had breakfast provided by Risty and Swan who went out to hunt some food.
"When I woke up finding you two missing, I was worried that you might have already spilt town." Rana said.
"Hey, we may call ourselves bandits, but we've always upheld the deals we make and see them through." Risty explained.
"But you two are helping us now, doesn't that mean you've broken your deal with that Dughall guy?" Pyra asked, a bit puzzle.
"There are a few expectations we can make in breaking a deal with the clients. And we're not cold-hearted either, we're just trying to get while helping out the poor." Swan mentioned.
"Helping the poor? That's not what I've heard about you two." Nia narrowed her eyes at them.
"Probably because we don't want people to hear about our lives, the fewer people there are, the better." Risty stated.
"But it's still awesome of what you're doing. Like that story about Robin Hood and his Blade, Little John!" Rana compared that fairy tale story to Risty and Swan.
"Oh yeah, I remember reading you that bedtime story. It's one of your favorites." Rex chuckled.
"Guess that makes me the sexy hot Robin Hood." Risty said with a teasing wink at Rana making him blush.
"Remember he's only a kid!" Ymir yelled.
"Ara ara, if I didn't know any better, you sounded a bit jealous." Swan teased.
"M-Me, jealous! I'm just concern of the bad influence you might get on the kid!" Ymir stated while her face is blushing.
"Big sis's face is turning red." Tora pointed out.
"Shut up!" Ymir shouted making Tora jump in fear and on his back.
"Looks like Rana is getting the ladies before you, Rex." Azurda teased.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Rex asked.
"Young people and love. How amusing." Dromarch chuckled.
"It's nice to see everyone feeling so lively after all we've been through." Cattleya giggled.
"I guess it does have a nice atmosphere." Nia admitted as she eats her meat.
Minutes later, everyone finished breakfast and put out the fire including the little smoke as they all stand up and Rex held out an object from his hand.
"What is that?" Tora asked curiously.
"A Cloud Sea Compress. A must-have for salvagers. It's sort of a map of the Cloud Sea." Rex answered.
"Does it also point North like a regular compress?" Agate asked, wanting to be sure.
"Of course, what other compress wouldn't." Rex nodded.
"It may seem a little confusing at first to know how they work, but you just need to do a little of this… and that…" Rana showed everyone how the work a compress.
"Now we just need to put in today's date." Rana said.
"Um, then today should be Amathatober 5th, 4058." Pyra revealed.
"I'm amaze you know that consider you've been sealed away for 500 years." Cattleya commented.
"Well, I have been keeping track of the hours and days have gone by, something to help me keep my mind active for a while." Pyra explained.
"Poppi impress." Poppi nodded.
"Okay, now we just put in the date and there." Rex finished setting the compress.
"Clever way to travel through the Cloud Sea if you want to travel on your own." Agate commented.
"You can thank mama for helping us study these kinds of things when we started out as beginner Salvagers." Rana said hugging Cattleya's leg as she pets his head.
"I just wanted to make sure the boys are prepared." Cattleya said.
"Looks like Gormott is the closest country to the World Tree right now." Azurda said reading the Cloud Sea Compress right.
"All we need now is a ship." Rex said.
"That's going to be a big problem." Risty exclaimed.
"The army has every ship in town in its grip." Dromarch informed.
"We're kinda stuck on this Titan…" Nia sighed as the others see it too.
"Grandpa, how long did you say it'll take for you to grow back into your big body?" Rana asked, hoping for a pointless answer.
"Centuries, my boy. Centuries, I'm afraid." Azurda answered with the "I'm sorry" look in his eyes.
"I knew you were going to say that…" Rana hanged his head in defeat and looked at Rex hoping he might have an idea.
"Sorry, Rana… No ideas popping in this head." Rex said looking sad.
"Then how about we help you guys again." Ymir suggested as she, Tora, Agate, and Poppi smile at them.
"You know where we can get a ship?" Swan asked.
"We know someone who can lend us a ship. A ship builder who happened to be a good friend to our granddad, in fact if it wasn't for him then we wouldn't have been living in that shelter now." Ymir explained.
"Sounds like a kind man." Pyra complimented.
"Mem-mem, he is. He lives at Gormott Titan's bum-bum, he called Umon! Maybe he helps if we tell him what's what." Tora planned.
"Well, it's not let we have any options." Nia shrugged.
"Sure, it's worth a shot! Let's get going." Rex nodded.
(Umon's Home)
The party walk to the wooden home of the friend Ymir and Tora talked about as they walk inside of the boat garage.
"This place looks like the home of a sea hermit." Risty commented as she looks around.
"You know, I actually thought of the same thing when I first came here." Agate recalled that day.
"Hello! Umon, Umon home?" Tora called.
"Hey Uncle Umon, it's Ymir and Tora! We came to ask you of something!" Ymir called out too.
"Coming, coming, Umon was just doing work." Umon said walking up to the group, revealing himself to be a Nopon with green fur and wears a black jacket.
"Ymir, Tora, big surprise to see you two here." Umon smiled at them.
"Long time no see, Unclepon." Tora greeted.
"Yes, long time! About one whole year." Umon nodded.
"Yeah, sorry we haven't been able to visit you during that time." Ymir apologized.
"No need for sorry, Umon is happy to see both children Tatazo and grandchildren Soosoo are doing so well and how big you two have grown." Umon complimented.
"I didn't grow much, I'm happy to be alive now and being strong with my Blade." Ymir smiled proudly.
"It is good to see you again, Mister Umon." Agate bowed.
"Agate, I see Ymir's new clothes have been inspired by yours. The old one was good, Umon didn't felt like Ymir's old outfit was entirely suited for combat." Umon commented.
"Yeah, I thought I could use a change." Ymir twirled around.
"Oh, and I see you also brought tons of sidekicks too." Umon said looking at the other behind Ymir and Tora.
"Rex-Rex, Rana-Rana, and other are not Tora's sidekicks. They are real friends, Umon." Tora corrected his uncle-figure.
"Hello, I'm Rana and this here is my big brother Rex. This Blade here is mine and also our mom, Cattleya, and the red one is his Blade, Pyra." Rana introduced himself and his family.
"Hello there." Rex waved.
"Please to meet you." Pyra greeted.
"Hello." Cattleya said.
"The others are Nia, Dromach, Risty, and Swan." Rana said as they said their hellos too.
"Hello to all!" Umon greeted.
"And let us not forget to introduce the first ever artificial Blade, Poppi!" Ymir cheered, jazz hands toward the robot girl.
"Hello, it is nice to meet the friend of my Masterpon." Poppi greeted with a slight bow.
"Artificial Blade? Oh my, you two have been very busy all this time." Umon surprised seeing Poppi as the boat Nonpon can tell they have done a great job him.
"You two really take after your grampypon!" Umon smiled.
"Umon here used to some research for our grandpa and is a great ship builder too." Ymir bragged to her friends.
"Tora and Ymir have become such fine biggipon." Umon complimented on the two adopted siblings.
"Well, did Tora and Ymir need Umon's help for something?" Umon asked, recalling that Ymir mentioned something about needed help.
"Yes, yes, we wanted to borrow a ship from Unclepon Umon." Tora answered.
"A ship? There are lots of ships in Torigoth. Why hike all the way to bum-bum to see me?" Umon asked.
"I can't tell you all the details, Uncle Umon, but let just say a lot has happened since yesterday and we want to leave Gormott as soon as possible, but the problem is… we spent all of our gold on making Poppi." Ymir explained scratching the back of her head.
"Yes, flat like penniless pancakes." Tora nodded.
"We decided to go on a boating trip with our friends, and we were hoping you can let us borrow one ship. We promise to take real good care of it." Ymir said.
"Hmmph, I hope Tora can keep track of all these fibs he's telling." Nia concerned if Tora could tell a lie while Ymir seems to be doing better than him.
"I feel bad about lying to this nice Nonpon." Rana whispered.
"I know you don't like lying, but there's no other option. We can hardly tell him what happened in Torigoth, can we?" Rex stated that it would be dangerous to tell Umon about the situation they're in.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Nia said knowing Rex is right.
"If we get a boat out of this, then we'll be fine." Risty said.
"My thoughts exactly." Rex nodded.
"So, can we borrow your ship?" Ymir asked.
"Well, how can I say no to you two after accomplishing such big feat, Soosoo would be so proud if he were here right now!" Umon nodded, Ymir and Tora smile at each other with a high-five celebration.
"But there is one problem." Umon said.
"Wh-What problem?" Tora asked with a worry tone in his voice as Umon turns to the boat here.
"You see, ship not quite ready just yet. Not much left to do, but work stop because no building parts." Umon said.
"That's the only problem?" Rex asked.
"Hold on, Rex, from what I can tell I think the parts he needs to finish fixing the ship are some big ones for the inside." Ymir guessed as she looks at the boat carefully.
"That's right, parts heavy for Umon alone to carry all the way back here." Umon nodded and pat his back.
"Then how about we help you get those parts ourselves." Rana wanted to help the old Nonpon.
"How nice of you youngpons, get the parts to finish ship then ship is all yours to take." Umon offered them a deal.
"Great, we can definitely help with that." Rex accepted the terms.
"Yaa! Now let's go get ship ingredients!" Tora excited.
(One Shopping Montage Later)
Ymir is seen in the lower deck of the small ship doing some tinkering with the engine and putting in the final part for the boat, she wipes the sweats off of her forehead and smile upon the work is now finish.
"We're all set!" Ymir announced as she walks up to the deck.
"Now we borrow ship from Uncepon!" Tora cheered.
"Thank you for the boat, Umon!" Agate thanked.
"We owe you!" Rex said.
"Indeed, enjoy your boaty-jaunt!" Umon waved goodbye.
And so, with a boat acquired for the party, they set off into the Cloud Sea adventuring into to the World Tree as the party do some relaxing or play some fun games to keep themselves busy until they get there while Rex does the driving of the boat.
Rana and Tora are playing a ball game while keeping it from touching the floor the longest though the young salvage brother had a thought in his head and caught the ball, telling Tora to take a break for a moment.
"Hey Rex, I just realize something." Rana said.
"What's that, Rana?" Rex asked.
"Didn't heard a story or two from some of the sailors about a monster near the World Tree?" Rana asked back trying to remember.
"Monster near the World Tree?" Rex puzzled.
"Yeah, those sailors came to us barely alive on another ship and they said it was a giant snake monster that attacked them." Rana said.
"Oh yeah, I do remember hearing about that. They claimed that it might be a guardian and attack those getting close to the World Tree." Rex started to remember the rumors he heard as well.
"Is there really a monster there?" Tora asked shaking in fear, starting to have tiny regrets of going on this journey with friends.
"It's probably just a Titan or something." Ymir said trying to make sense of the story.
"No, I don't think that's it." Pyra said getting everyone's attention.
"You know something about this monster, do you?" Risty asked.
"I'm not entirely sure, but if this monster is what I think it is then I fear this journey may not be as smooth as we hope." Pyra hoped that her theory is correct.
"What do you mean by that?" Nia asked.
"Like I said, I'm not entirely sure. We'll just have to wait and see." Pyra placed her hand on her half core crystal.
Risty, Swan, Nia, and Dromarch look at each other for moment as they are thinking of the same thing as keeping their guards up for whatever dangerous they're about to face.
Over an hour later, the party have finally arrived near the World Tree seeing the might tall wooden structure with their own eyes.
"Wow, I've never seen it so close before." Nia amazed as Dromarch believe the tree is beautiful.
"Me neither, to tell you the truth. But it's just as awesome as I hoped." Rex smiled.
"Yeah, you could make the world biggest treehouse with this!" Rana excited.
"Does Big Sis think we can get pretty view of world from up there?" Tora asked Ymir.
"I don't know, but it sure would be great to find out." Ymir said.
"Just be mindful of the current, it's really strong here. One wrong move, and you're a dead man." Risty warned.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Nia agreed with the bandit woman.
"It's great that we made it this far…, but how do we get over there?" Rex wondered.
"Do you know any way to get there, Pyra?" Cattleya asked the red Aegis Blade.
"Well, I think we… Hold on, I'm sensing something and it's big." Pyra alerted everyone.
"It is the monster?" Swan asked.
"Oh on, we need to leave now!" Pyra shouted.
Suddenly something big did indeed came out of the water as the party sees it's a giant purple robotic snake with rings around its body and a big humanoid figure on the head.
"Ophion!" Pyra gasped.
"So, you do know that thing!" Risty said with her shield up.
"Is it going to attack us?" Rana worried.
"Rex, turn the ship around. I'll try to communicate with it." Pyra ordered, Rex quickly does so and the boat turn.
"Ophion, please stop!" Pyra commanded, but the giant purple snake machine didn't listen as it slammed its tail in the Cloud Sea near the boat making it rock hard.
"That thing is still attacking us!" Ymir pointed out as Tora hugs her.
"I don't understand, it's not listening to me." Pyra confused, probably something must have damaged its circuits after all these centuries.
"Well, for now, we should stay away from the World Tree until we can come up with a new plan." Azurda suggested as they see Ophion leaving them alone now.
"The little Titan is right, we have-Look out!" Agate alerted ahead.
Everyone saw what was in front of them is a giant Titan swimming toward them with its mouth opening.
"Isn't that…" Rex shocked.
"Uraya's Titan!" Rana gasped.
"We're getting suck into its mouth!" Cattleya screamed.
"Everyone, get ready!" Risty warned.
With the boat getting caught in the current heading toward the mouth of the Uraya's Titan, the only thing the party can do is brace themselves for the crash and the giant closes its mouth, continuing to swim through the Cloud Sea with the heroes in its belly.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Rex and Rana's Party have started their journey to the World Tree and managed to get close to it only to be stopped by the giant snake robot named Ophion that Pyra knows but couldn't get the machine to stop for some reason. Now they will find themselves inside the belly of the Uraya Titan and will also find something else inside as well.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!