"Start from the beginning," Virginia demanded. "I really have no idea what happened. The last thing I remember is being sucked out of the Sandcraft by one of the tentacles."
"Well," Gallows began. "After that happened we all sort of freaked out, you know. Jet stopped firing to try and save you. He ran up and jumped out onto the top of the Sandcraft and started firing the Airget-lamh like ammo grew on trees.
Well I could tell what he was doing from the get-go. He was hoping to get one of those tentacles to suck him up so he could get closer to you. Sure enough, one of the tentacles reaches down and tries to grab him around his head, like it did you, but he ducked out of the way and began to climb up the tentacle.
Meanwhile, Clive had taken over the helm. He figured with the harpoon broken there was no more need to man his station, so he kept her steady and tried to get under the two of you. I was busy trying to keep the other tentacles away from us with that damn gun, but I had to keep going back and forth to reload it.
Anyways Jet jumped like an acrobat, I've never seen him so agile in my entire life. Hopping like a toad from tentacle to tentacle he managed to grab a hold of you, but you had passed out. He starts making his way back to the Sandcraft with you in tow, but something happened.
The monster showed its ugly head. You'll never believe me when I tell you this, but it looked like a giant human face, and it was shaped just like the face of that Dream Demon!"
At this Virginia gasped. This was not a good sign. She decided that she would let Gallows finish his story before she started hers.
"Well she lets out this godawful shriek and Jet and you sorta… float. You're suspended in the air and then… BAM! She sends Jet flying far to the south and you far to the north… or at least that's what it seemed at the time. Your body sorta contorted mid flight, but still.
Well at this point we've figured you two were both dead, so we just sorta go nuts. I've never seen Clive that mad in my entire life. He just runs the Sandcraft at full speed right towards that monsters head and that's when things get a little fuzzy for me. All I know is I woke up somewhere completely different.
I landed on a desert shoreline, that was completely news to me, right? I start hiking for about a day and I see that old crater from the wrecked city. You know Fila Del Fia? Well I was relieved to see a familiar area, but it freaked me out because… well you know. We know what the area around Fila Del Fia looks like. We've seen the whole world, or thereabouts. So why didn't I remember any of the terrain?
Well, I'm not completely stupid. I figured it might have been something to do with the Dream Demon. I figured that she plucked the memories from our head… or maybe altered them somehow. But it still was a little unnerving.
I go inside, right? And the first thing I see freaked me out. All the old machines were running again. The thing looked brand new. I figure if the Teardrop had been there, the thing would have been floating in the sky, just like it was rumored to have once done.
Well, this is where things get really weird. I heard a voice in my head telling me that this was the place we had to go. It said something like 'The Immigrant Vessel is no longer viable. Fila Del Fia is the only place that can support us.'
But what was really weird was that I don't think the voice was talking to me. It was talking to somebody else and I just happened to overhear the two of them talking. Yeah, there were two, because shortly after that another voice starting saying something along the lines of 'Without the Teardrop we can do nothing. We will need to reclaim it.'
And then the first voice says 'Well, the terraforming has begun. We'll find it eventually.'"
Virginia had returned the Teardrop to its resting place… the Ruins of Memory near the port town of Jolly Roger. She wondered if the terraforming had gotten that far yet.
"So what did you do Gallows?" Virginia asked.
"Well…" Gallows continued. "I didn't really know what to do. The voices stopped talking and I figured it was time to am-scray before whoever was talking figured out I was listening in on them. So I high-tailed it out of there and didn't stop running until I couldn't see the outline of the crater. And that's when it hit me.
I had been running on land where there didn't use to be land. I've been hiking along this new peninsula… at least I think it's a peninsula, for about two days now and I just happened to run into you."
Virginia nodded, and then explained what had happened to her, and discussed her thoughts on what was happening, which seemed to correlate perfectly with Gallows tale from Fila Del Fia.
"Man, that's some crazy stuff. But at least you're alright now," Gallows said, patting Virginia on the back. "I figure if you made it from being thrown and I made it still being in the Sandcraft, then Jet and Clive gotta be alive somewhere. We just gotta find them. Say where were you heading?"
"Oh, Humphrey's Peak," Virginia explained. "I mean we all knew that was our next destination. I just hope the others remember that."
"That's a good idea. I was just gonna look for the nearest town, like you. But come to think of it," Gallows pulled out his map. He took out a small characoal stone and began to mark on the map. "Lets say I can walk about 25 miles a day, right? That would put us somewhere in this region. I figure if we hold this course solid we'll be at the area between Laxisland and Ballack Rise in about a day and from there maybe we can do some shore skimming to hike to Humphrey's Peak."
"I've got a better idea," came a thundering voice from the sky.
Virginia couldn't believe her eyes. Staring back at her was the dragon Lombardia.