Chapter Nine: Crossroads

[Purr]

Finally, she asks, "Um, who is steering this thing? Is there a way to safely get to the top of the Wagon and look without falling?"

He (Powerpaw) continued on while clambering up to the top of the Adventurers' Wagon to make room for her. Once carefully there, he held on tight...

(parenthesis mine)

Luna could see that the young Felane was indeed on the top of the wagon. It seemed reasonable that others, if cautious, could do the same. As for who was steering the wagon in its enchanted journey through the air, Luna saw the reins to the team wrapped carefully around a post in the drivers' seat apparently made for just that. The answer was clear - no one was at the reins. =)

 

[Kaerri]

Bren Sarabina

Spoiler

Standard AC: 27
Fort save: +12
Ref save: +8
Will save: +4
Current action points: 9
Current HP: 87/87
Status effects: none
Powerpaw's tower shield +1 (-2 to attack rolls)
Spell: Speak with Animals
Speech color, for reference
Also #3399ff

Bren grinned at his elfin friend as he followed the others out of the room and through the purple mist that served as doorway. The sight that greeted him there caused his grin to turn swiftly into the dropped jaw and wide eyes of total surprise. "Forest Mother! How... what... when did they get wings?" He stared at the pegasi and the swift-flowing ground below as the girls called for the others to come see. Nivirea's comment pulled his attention back onto their flying wagon (!) and he smiled. "Never is a long time, but I can't blame you!" he replied. He moved to one side as everyone else piled out onto the wagon's "front porch," then followed Powerpaw's example and clambered up to the roof. Partway up, a sudden thought hit him and he stiffened. "Star! The others! What's happened to them?" Still careful, he nevertheless moved faster to get where he could look behind the wagon for his and the others' mounts.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Otiorin Taletreader

Spoiler: Current stats

HP: 56


Spells per day(1st:2nd)/remaining(1st:2nd): 4:3


Spells available: Daze, Detect Magic, Ghost Sounds, Open/Close, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Gravity Bow, Shield, Summon Monster 1, Mage Armor, Ice Slick


Active effects: In Love (Lvl 20 Healer-only spell-like effect)

Otiorin had not left the wine cellar with his fellow Wanderers, because, assured that they would be able to give the Sorceress their verdict and answer any questions she might have, he had decided to root out a suitably 'congratulatory' wine from the carefully stored array around him. He had been at his search only a minute or two when the entire cellar began to shake violently. Bottles rattled in their racks and even several of the smaller barrels began to bounce in their supports. The half-elf's preternatural agility allowed him to keep his footing without too much issue. But then the trouble started. During his search, Otiorin had not thought to reattach the collars that kept the bottles in their racks while the wagon was in motion on several of the ones he'd been looking over. These bottles then started to bounce and rattle their way out of the racks, one at a time. Otiorin panicked and rushed about madly, trying to catch and carry each of them as they flopped from their racks and started the swift terminal plummet to the cellar floor. Running out of space in arms and hands, the half-elf was forced to hold a bottle in his mouth, his teeth tightly gripping the glass neck. Just when he was out of carrying capacity, the shaking ceased, though his knees and legs were still quaking in fear. Gingerly he knelt down and carefully placed his catches on the floor, before returning them to their racks and making a point of attaching the collars to each.

This done, he wandered out into the hall and back to the pool room.
"Powerpaw, you must be still hungry. I felt your stomach rumbling from back-", he started to say as he entered the room, only to stop as he saw the retreating backs of Stewart and the Meadowsweets disappear into the purple mist at the entrance. He was now utterly alone in the room, apart from all the wreckage strewn across the floor and the pool, which still sloshed back and forth. Intrigued, he trotted over to the entrance and followed the others out. The view that met his eyes at first shocked him, then amazed him, then excited him.
"Oh, well. If we could do this, why did we not do it earlier? We'd have been in Highwind ages ago.", he smiled, nudging Stewart in the side, while stroking Bria's cheek with his other hand.

 

[Purr]

"Star! The others! What's happened to them?" Still careful, he nevertheless moved faster to get where he could look behind the wagon for his and the others' mounts.

As if in reply to Bren's question, one look back behind the Adventurers' Wagon and he saw a trio of pegasi flying fast and free. It was Star, Fealof, and Luna's red roan, each transformed and beating the air with bright, heavenly wings.

"Oh, well. If we could do this, why did we not do it earlier? We'd have been in Highwind ages ago.", he smiled, nudging Stewart in the side, while stroking Bria's cheek with his other hand.

"There you are!" Bria pushed her cheek against her half-elf's hand affectionately. "Isn't this incredible?!"

Mamapaw clambered up and was now the third Wayward Wanderer clinging atop the wagon's roof. As she spoke, the pegasi raced and raced up and up until the ground looked less like earth and forest and more like one grand, beauteous quilt draped across the land. Mamapaw quivered. "Otiorin, perhaps you might notice the empty reins and utter lack of driver? This is not our doing." She pointed upward. "This is a-- cl-- clou-- CLOUD BANK!"

When you look up into the sky, the clouds always look so far away when they travel over one's head, don't they? Distant and dreamlike, seen but unreachable. It is not until one meets a cloud face-to-face does one see just how each one is its own little body of heaven. This sensation is magnified when flying through one.

The Wayward Wanderers and company were suddenly surrounded by a universe of gentle whiteness, breezy and cool. For long moments, there was the feeling of rising and the heart-stirring sounds of dozens of great wings flapping together. There was a rush as you broke through the cloud cover. The pegasi levelled off and before you all was a view like no other.

Spoiler: The view from above

(Image credit: For Desktop)

At that moment, Glider and Shalin stepped outside and joined you. "Oh my gosh!" Glider exclaimed and sat down with a child-like grin across his face. Shalin gasped without a sound but then his eyes went to Bren as he scribed...

"Bren, highest of my friends, what odd star were you born under that no one can travel with you for long without experiencing wonders like these?"

Powerpaw, never being one to hold his tongue without great effort, added, "Hay! I jus' wanna know where we iz goin'! Anybuddy got an idea?!"

As if in answer to the charged Felane, the cloud bank broke and there in the distant green far, far below, was a mountaintop all alone save for a winding blue river to its west. The top of that mountain shone in the sun like a fine jewel lit by the sun's own radiance. The pegasi saw it and seemed to aim for it, but now it became apparent to the perceptive among you that the pegasi were indeed following something.

For there before the pegasi, easy to miss and nigh-impossible to hear over the beats of heavy feathered wings, were a group of sparrows. More than six, yet less than a full dozen.

It was these that the pegasi gladly gave chase.

Spoiler: A small flock of this kind of bird

(Image credit: Raymond Barlow Photography)

Their singing, once noticed, could easily be heard and theirs was a joyous sound.

(Mood music of a different kind!)

Spoiler: Songbirds

Shalin scribed again. "And what, pray tell, causes birds so small to fly to such grand heights?"

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

.:|Nivirea - The Sorceress|:.

The young girl watched with wide eyes as the winged mounts took them ever so higher and away, clearly appreciating the uncanny otherworldliness of the situation, albeit keeping a safe distance from the edge with her back against the wall.

"If this is truly not the doing of any one of you, then whose is it?" she supported Shalin's question over Powerpaw's because at least for now it was quite clear where they were heading. What remained was how. And possibly why.

 

[Purr]

Heya folks! Thus concludes Chapter Nine: Crossroads and all of the fun in that part of our story.

Please follow this link to Chapter Ten: Highwind!