Chapter 15 whoohoo! Longest story I have yet, in words and chapters! J
Ollieart43-This story is Tekkit world only, sorry. I thought this up more than a year ago, and it will stay in Tekkit. I will eventually have nods to the changes, though, such as Kim changing apprenticeships and such,
SilverG64- Thank you!
Krystal-Glass- I have ideas already! JI might have to wait until some newer ships are properly established in the main stories though.
MyDimension-Thank for the input! I don't know much about vegetarianism, but since eggs have always been meat to me so yeah. And, as always, the third story will be coming ASAP after this one.
Reyanna Pov
It turned out Martyn wouldn't say what he'd been doing in the town, but he came back to the group surprisingly fast, so Toby ended up not asking. Instead, he just went back to complaining about school.
"Redstone is definitely the worst class." Kim said. "It should not be mandatory."
"Nah, math is worst." Toby argued.
"So what are the mandatory classes, again?" I ask while we set off out of the desert.
"Math, redstone, magic, science, history, fighting, survival…" Toby listed them off as he bent fingers to keep count.
"Computers, architecture is another option-I forgot that one earlier. Ughh, why are we talking about school in summertime again?" Kim added.
"I'll figure out school when fall comes." I tell them. "No need to worry about it right now."
"Hey, Kim, care to come join us?" Minty asked, hanging back from where she was talking with Sjin, Sips and Lalna.
"You guys mind?" Kim asks. I shrug.
"Nope." Toby says. "Go right ahead."
Kim smiles to us and goes to fly in between Lalna and Minty. An awkward silence settles between Toby and I.
"You know…" Toby says after a few minutes of flying over desert and then forest. "Martyn's not actually upset with you. He just has a bit of a hero complex sometimes."
I don't turn to look at him, instead watching the birch leaves go by below us. "It is still partially my fault… if I hadn't panicked at him going we wouldn't have argued. And the others weren't upset with me stopping him as much as me keeping secrets."
From the corner of my eye I can see Toby shake his head. "We all have secrets, some more than others. You are still fairly new here... I mean, Martyn adopted me as his little brother and he still doesn't know everything about me. I don't know Xephos' or Ridgedog's past, but I can trust them anyway." He turns to me as if expecting me to argue. "The saying that actions speak louder than words is true. Maybe they don't tell us everything, maybe sometimes they won't talk, but when something matters they never lie."
I turn to him and look him dead in the eyes. "Why are you telling me this, now?"
He looks right at me. "You know why. There might not be a later."
Violet and brown eyes stare into each other, a silent contest of wills.
"Nobody is going to die, Toby. We will win and we'll go home."
"You really want to go to high school, don't you?" Toby says, but then averts his gaze when I don't respond. "Okay, not the time for jokes. Sorry."
I shrug my shoulders, my mouth too dry to speak. I don't bother to wonder why.
Toby becomes serious again. "You've never walked into and fought in a hopeless battle willingly before, with a real threat of death, have you? Other than the ones we've already fought together? When you have no idea who is going to walk away alive?"
Part of me wants to say yes, I've fought before. I did fight the Queen and Israphel… but they'd been defeated by some of our group before. Not to mention I didn't exactly do very well against either of them. I stay silent for a moment, pinching a piece of my hair between my fingers.
But his tone is a challenge I can't meet. I haven't done that before. "No." I admit quietly.
The brown haired boy beside me doesn't seem surprised. "You're lucky and unlucky. You're not lucky because you don't know how fights like this are. You're inexperienced when it comes to fights like this. You're lucky because you don't know how… bad they are yet."
I try and change the conversation's subject. "I didn't know you were this deep."
He laughs without any humor as the terrain changes to savannah hills. "Like I said, everyone's got their secrets."
"I guess…" Our conversation drifts into an awkward silence for a long time as we both drift into thought, slipping a bit further away from each other. The terrain changes from savannah hills to jungle with a huge river to steep hills with crazy ravines. Eventually we spill out over an ocean, where Ridge hung a left and we all drifted into a single, large group.
"Are we there yeeeet?" Sips said with a funny but weird voice, trying to lighten the mood. Sjin and Honeydew laughed.
"There we are." Ridge said after a moment's pause. Breaking through fog, I could see a huge mountain-huge didn't even describe it. It was so big I couldn't even see half of it through the ocean mist, and the top went far above the clouds hovering above us. It probably had enough coal and iron ore to run Honeydew Inc. for a year. On a clear day, it would have been even more impressive.
"Pre-ty-cool." Lalna said admiringly.
"The portal should be at the top. If we hurry we should catch it before it closes." Ridge says briefly.
"Closes?" Nilesy asked, getting a bit panicky.
Ridge had already flown above the clouds. We all followed without question, adrenaline starting to spike up. If we didn't make it through on time, game over.
Ridge met up with us at the top. "We got lucky. Either he thinks he can beat us or he's saving his power instead of shutting down the last portal."
"That's lucky?" Kim asked. No one answered her.
"Let's just go through already." Honeydew said impatiently.
Xephos nodded. "Is everyone ready?"
We set down on the mountain top, getting weapons, armour, potions, even some stretching.
"Has everyone got a healing potion?" Zoeya asked. Sjin and Nilesy needed some, so she gave them each one.
I did a check of everything of my own: dark matter armour, check; dark matter sword, check; healing potion, check; enchanted diamond sword at my side for easy accessibility, check; healing potion, check. I left my Enderbane in my bag, because the smaller, magic silver blade is of little good against much other than Ender-beings.
"We should get a move on, before the sun sets. C'mon, guys." Ridge said. I didn't know how he knew when the sun was setting, as he didn't have a clock visible and the clouds blocked the sun out, making everything misty and damp.
"I'm ready to go." Lomadia said, moving to stand next to Xephos.
Honeydew swung his diamond pickaxe in front of him. "I'm ready as well."
"Let's ice these mothertruckers!" Sjin declared. Minty stifled a laugh.
"Well then, if everyone's ready, we should go." Xephos added. We all murmured assurances that we were ready.
"Martyn." Ridge said. The Sapling Prince looked up.
"Yeah?"
"I should stay behind and make sure the portal doesn't close on us. You've been to the Lower Aether before- would you mind going through first?"
"Not a problem, not a problem." He said. He gave a mock salute and hopped through the portal. Toby didn't hesitate to follow him. I entered the portal after Rythian and Zoeya did.
My vision went blue, like I was underwater and I shuddered involuntarily. Water doesn't hurt me, but I can get panicky about it sometimes. Other times, though, I was completely fine. It never made sense, really.
The blue swirled in front of me, like a whirlpool; then my gut clenched a bit, like when I went up too fast with flying ring, but stronger, as all the blood rushed from my head to my feet. For long moments, my vision went dark, but then my ears popped painfully as the pressure caught up to me.
I stepped forward uncertainly, and my vision cleared. At first, I only noticed the almost pale teal-grey grass, growing wild around us. It came up to my waist. Then I noticed the trees, some light golden-yellow, and some normal green, others bluer than the grass. They grew thickly around us, blocking out my view of much other than a small clearing.
I joined the others, who were standing in a circle. I noticed Honeydew had his helmet off and was leaning heavily against a tree branch. His skin, normally pale from the mines, seemed almost bloodless- closer to Sips' normal tones.
I approached Zoeya and Rythian, who were at the edge of the circle already. But before I could ask what was wrong, Rythian just sighed, knowing what I was going to ask."Dwarves aren't used to high altitudes. He's actually holding up pretty well, all things considered."
I nod half-heartedly. I feel bad for the ginger hero; I don't feel so well either. My ears are still hurting (I was surprised they weren't bleeding) and my head feels heavy, like I should sleep- for a really, really long time. I shake my head to try and clear it before I faint or something else stupid. Rythian gives me a worried glance but says nothing.
"Well," Martyn says, sliding off a large tree branch into the little group's far edge gracefully, without a noise. Like he'd done it all his life, actually… maybe he had. Who knew? "I can only see one way off this island, so we'd better get moving soon."
Toby is the first to nod his agreement. Like Martyn, he seems perfectly fine in this high place. A few more people- Kim, Sjin, and Zoeya- nod as well. Lomadia and Xephos, though, turn to Ridge, silently asking for confirmation.
"He's right. Be careful, though… Most of my fellow Aetherborns have already fled the Lower Aether to the Overworld or the Higher Aether. It's more dangerous than it might look." He says hesitantly, pinching a golden button from his jacket between his fingers as he chuckles nervously.
Before any of us could even move a muscle to leave, Martyn nonchalantly waved his hand and a tunnel formed through the trees and bushes and stepped through. Utter silence fell upon the group as we traversed through for a few long minutes, until it broke out into open air again. Cautiously, I stepped through after Nilesy.
And my breath caught in my throat in the shredded remains of a startled gasp.
This place… was beautiful. Beautiful and dangerous.
"Look at the bunnies, Rythian!" Zoeya squeaked, pointing to a strange rabbit-like creature jumping around. At her voice, though, it jumped into the air, puffed out its fur, and glided away on an air current.
"Aerbunnies. I've read about them." Rythian said.
Kim gasped at something else. "What's this stuff?" She asked no one in particular, pointing at a small overhang with yellow bits poking out. They certainly weren't gold, though.
"Ambrosium." Toby said. "You can eat it, but it's almost impossible to attain anything here without Aether tools."
"Cool." Kim said happily.
"I should have kept my old Aether tools." Martyn said. "You can make torches out of ambrosium, too, because normal fire and torches don't work here."
Xephos started a bit. "That's not good."
Sips laughed. "Don't worry about it, you big babby."
Lomadia looked around. "It's a bit dangerous, isn't it?" She said, gesturing with her open hand to the sharp edge of the island falling away into this air, with nothing but clouds beneath.
"I like it here!" Zoeya exclaimed, seemingly unfazed by the cliff in front of us. "It's the exact opposite of the Nether."
"That it is." Ridge agreed with another nervous chuckle.
Nilesy laughed."Oh my god, are those flying cows?"
"And sheep." Minty agreed.
Sure enough, pigs and cows with golden wings flew around the air somewhat aimlessly, sometimes bumping into the white fluffy clouds- and some strange gold and blue ones as well. Countless floating islands like ours, but mostly bigger, spread out in every direction I could see. Somewhere to the left I could see a temple-like building, next to an island that was pretty much a floating mountain, with several perfectly square tunnels leading in and out of it at random. Down below and in front of us, a large island is heavily wooded with the unusual trees.
I notice specks of purple dotting stone outcrops, a huge whale-like creature soaring off to the right, and some strange birds flapping in trees or clearings on various islands.
Part of me wants to join the others in their gasps of awe or exclamations at various things around us, but part of me feels too cut off from the group to do so.
Ridge frowns suddenly. "We should move. Something's not right here. Where… where are all the aggressive creatures?"
I open my mouth for a moment, about to agree, but my mouth is too dry to say anything and so I just nod my agreement silently. No one even seems to notice my silence, which doesn't make me feel much more included. At all. Just great.
"You're right." Minty says, creasing her brow. "Where do you think he is?"
As if in response to Minty's statement, all the sunlight suddenly faded around us. I look up, but the sun isn't blocked out by a cloud- it's simply gone. In mere moments, it has gone from full sunlight to the darkness of a cave unlit by torches.
"Oh, shiiiiiit." Sips said.
Xephos jumped. "Oh, umm, what do we do, umm, torches won't work, oh, fuck, um…"
You know, you could see just fine if you wanted to.
I know that. Or, you know, I might not want to use it.
You know you're gonna have to soon anyway.
Just shut up already.
I shake my head to clear my small conversation with my Ender-side from my head. I know how to see in total darkness; but it's not the greatest thing. I'd rather spare my companions the heart attacks when I use it without warning.
I can see certain things giving off faint glows- the ambrosium bits, Xephos', Ridge's, Rythian and I's eyes, various magical rings and weapons from our group, and the little blinking lights on Zoeya's metal arm. I can just barely see Lalna pop his goggles on, probably for night vision.
My eyes adjust to the faint light as best possible and I take a nervous step away from the cliff edge. Now would be a bad time to fall all the way through space and time as well as the Void to be squashed on impact with the Overworld.
Does my ring even work here? I know it doesn't in the Nether, but this place is the opposite.
I turn my head towards where I think the large island below us had been and see something I never wanted to see again, for as long as I lived-however long that might be.
Two flashes of pure light-not sunlight, moonlight or electricity, seemingly pure light energy- seared a terrifying image into my head, and judging from the other's reactions, they got it as well.
Two soulless, pupilless eyes staring seemingly into my soul, like it was working through all my secrets and memories to find my weakest point so they could torture me before they killed me in cold blood.
No scream left my mouth.
I'm going to try uploading something every Saturday from now on, so bug me if I don't.
Also, tomorrow is my one-year anniversary of writing fanfiction on here, so keep an eye out for something special coming out on my stories list- and yes, it's part of this storyline.
Starting a three-day uploading streak, Spirit.