The next morning, Yuriko didn’t see the Skybeast at the top of the sinkhole, so after her morning ablutions and a hearty breakfast, she started climbing up the side. The walls were surprisingly sturdy, so maybe it wasn’t so much a sinkhole but a pit. An ant nest, apparently.

The numerous tunnels only came up to a hundred paces from the bottom. The wall looked like limestone, though she wasn’t really sure. Nevertheless, it proved tough enough that the handholds she found didn’t crumble. For that matter, she covered her fingers with a protective layer of Animus and drove them into the rock to create her own hand and footholds. In about an hour she managed to climb all the way to the lip.

“Ugh.”

Yuriko grunted as she boosted herself over the edge. How many days did she spend underground? She’d lost track already. Must have been nearly a week. She dusted her hands and arms while she looked around.

The pit had been located in the middle of a bunch of low hills and ridges. The spire was behind her and looked larger than it ever did. In fact, it dominated most of her view. Her eyes followed it all the way up. White clouds hung at its midpoint, which meant that it was far higher than any mountain she’d been on.

“Did it go all the way to the barrier?”

That couldn’t be right. If a landmass approached the upper barrier of the plane then shouldn’t the Veil move further up? She couldn’t see much of it in the daylight.

“About time,” a gravelly voice interrupted her musings. “It took you long enough.”

Yuriko felt her heart palpitate as she spun on her heels and looked up. The Skybeast lounged on a ridge. How did she miss seeing its bulk? No, no, something was more important.

“You can talk?” she blurted out.

The Skybeast rolled his eyes, and since those eyes were bigger than her head, it was painfully obvious that he did so.

“You state the obvious, young Ancient.”

“Wha-” she spluttered. “Why in Chaos didn’t you talk when you grabbed me off the desert?”

“You didn’t look ready. Besides, you just killed a bunch of beasts then you attacked me.”

“You grabbed me off the ground!”

“A mere greeting.” He snorted, though he turned his head to the side. The edges of his mouth were upturned, looking very much like a smirk. But she could be mistaken in how she read his expression. His tone was quite even, after all.

“And you juggled me while you flew!” Her face grew heated with righteous outrage.

“Well, you poked me and it hurt, so there.”

“Argh!”

“Come now, are you a child who can’t even control her emotions? There’s no need to shout.”

“You-!”

“Hurrr hurrr, calm down, young Ancient. You’ll grow wrinkles before your time. ‘Twould be a pity for such beauty.”

“I’m just thir-, fourteen!”

“Ah, truly a child then. Huh, your kind always confuses me.”

“And what do you mean young Ancient? Who are you anyway?”

The Skybeast guffawed and reared up. He placed a clawed hand over his breast and gave her a short head bow.

“Listen well, young Ancient, I am Aydrun, Avos of Kogasi.”

“Avos? Of the entire plane?” Yuriko’s eyes widened.

“Indeed, indeed. Though it’s a pity that another controls Kogasi. Now as to your other question; surely you jest? You walk about with your power drawn about you, showing off, as your kind is wont to do. Hmph!”

“You mean my Anima?”

“Whatever you want to call it.”

Yuriko took long, even breaths. Panicking and freaking out on the huge flying lizard isn’t going to help her. Whatever it called her, it didn’t hurt her. Sure, it did toss her down into a pit. Chaos, he tossed her while he was still in midair! But then again, he saw how she managed to glide, so…

“Why did you bring me here?”

He pointed his snout at the pit.

“What do you think? An infestation of Femorants managed to find its way into an Interface. I can’t handle them, so you had to.”

“Femorants? Interface?”

“Can’t you do anything other than repeat what I’ve just said?”

Yuriko blinked. Then she kicked a stone at him. The pebble bounced off his nose and he reared back with an affronted expression.

“What was that for?”

“Don’t patronise me,” Yuriko growled. “Hmph! I’d be more polite if you had talked to me before laying your claws on me.”

“Fair enough,” Aydrun scratched his nose. “Apologies.”

“Alright.” Yuriko nodded. “I am Yuriko Mishala Davar. Nice to meet you.”

“Well met, indeed. Though your title is quite long.”

“That’s my name.”

He raised a scaly eyebrow, “Really?”

“Yes. Uhm,” she cleared her throat, “do you know how to get out…er, do you know where other people are here?”

Aydrun blinked. Thok. His lids were so thick and heavy that when his eyes closed, it sounded as if someone clapped. “There are no people in Kogasi.”

“Huh?”

“You would find them in the plane of Bella, though.” He pointed at the spire. “You’ll have to climb Polus Coelum.”

“The spire?”

“If you want to call the biggest stable landbridge between Kogasi and Bella, then yes.”

“That connects two planes?” she yelped.

“I just said that,” Aydrun grumbled. “And now, I’ve fulfilled our exchange. Farewell.”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

Aydrun grinned.

“You’ve cleaned up a nest for me and I answered questions you so desperately needed to know the answers to. An even exchange. Fare thee well.”

With that, the Skybeast launched itself into the sky with thunderous beats of his wings. Dust, dirt, and pebbles blasted away from beneath him, pelting Yuriko’s pants and boots. She squinted against the wind and gaped as he soared. Once he was at a proper height, he circled around her once, then flew off into the distance. North, into the mountain ranges.

“Wait!” Yuriko yelled belatedly, but it was already too late. Aydrun was but a small speck in the sky. “Swarm fodder! You owe me my Plasma Caster!”

That thing never did you any good. Damien observed.

“Yeah. He only gave vague answers,” she muttered.

I meant that toy you use.

“What toy?”

That Plasma Caster. Your obsession with it is counterproductive.

Yuriko shook her head. It was still early in the day and she wondered how long it would take to get to the spire. She also needed to make sure she had enough supplies to make that climb. How long would it take her to climb it? For that matter, was she supposed to climb it like she did the pit? That’s impossible! Er, maybe there’s a path?

Hey, don’t ignore me! Damien whined.

“Hmmph! You ignore me plenty of times!”

I can’t help it if you run out of Radiant energy!

“Oh, so you’re using up my reserves!”

It’s not as if you can use them all right now! Only a trickle is going into your core, and the extra energy’s just going to waste.

“Hmph.”

And don’t change the subject, young lady.

“I want to shoot like my Da, alright! I know I don’t have the techniques for it, but I still want to do it!”

Focus on your fundamentals first. You can learn to shoot later.

“I already know how,” she grumped.

She needed to get to a higher point so she could see how far she’d have to walk to get to the spire. And maybe she’d find something to hunt. She was pretty sure that part of the potato balls were made of that mushroom, but she wasn’t risking the trek back underground. Since the Skybeast was an Avos, he could probably manipulate the earth to some extent. That was conjecture, of course. Now that she thought about it, if he could manipulate earth freely, then he didn’t need her to go into the tunnels at all.

Once you reach Actualisation I’ll teach you a proper projectile technique.

“Truly?”

Yes. But for now, focus on expanding your Anima, mastering the sword, and strengthening your physical body.

“Oh, thank you Damien,” she smiled.

He snorted in exasperation but didn’t say anything else.

The ridge hill she was climbing grew steeper towards the peak. She’d have to climb the rock face if she wanted to get to the absolute top or she could settle for getting to a lower crest that didn’t require rock climbing. Still, if she wanted the best view, she needed the height.

Rubbing her hands together, she coated her fingers with Animus and started climbing. It took her less than five minutes to ascend a hundred and fifty paces, and when she arrived at the peak, she was rewarded with a gorgeous view of the valleys and hills beyond.

The spire was northwest of her position, somewhere between twenty and thirty leagues away. That is, the base of the mountain it was on was twenty to thirty leagues away from her. The mountain that was the base of the spire looked taller than the Zarek back home. She hadn't seen the mountain base because of the hills and mountains. For that matter, there may be mountain ranges between her and the spire instead.

How many days would it take her to hike all the way there?

Nearly unbidden, the image of her soaring through the air through wings created by her Anima painted itself across her imagination. Yeah…she could ascend to the heights of a cliff, jump off and glide as far as the winds would take her, then repeat the process on the next hill or mountain peak. That would certainly speed up her journey.

Except…the thought of throwing herself off the heights and trusting in her Anima and control to see her safely through was both incredibly terrifying and… exhilarating.

Anyway, there was a river going through a valley a couple of longstrides away. She used Enhanced Sight to scout and found some horned creatures in a herd. They weren’t cows, she was sure, since cows didn’t have three horns, a long neck, and scales along their backs. Their tails looked reptilian too. Oh, and she was sure cattle didn’t eat rabbits.

She wondered if they had redbones too. Either way, she could hunt one and smoke and dry the meat to make jerky. Since she was still training her body, she consumed far more food than normal, so one of them could probably last her a week or so. She looked at the spire. How long would it take for her to climb it? A Season? Huh.

Thirteen weeks worth of provisions. How heavy was that? She ate a couple of Jins worth of meat every day. Er, when she's training she eats three to four times more. Fine, five! So ten Jin a day. Ninety-one days to a Season. Nine hundred ten Jin worth of provisions. Would she even be able to carry all that meat with her? She barely weighed fifty Jin and she had to carry nearly twenty times her body weight?

Well, if the things had a red bone then she only needed sixty or so to supply her. Er, that still means she’d have to kill the whole herd to get that much. Something about that just sat wrong with her. Oh, well.

‘Let’s figure things out one step at a time,’ she decided.

As she had all of her gear with her, she gathered her courage, backed up a bit, flared her Anima and ran to the edge, flinging herself spread-eagled into the sky. Her Anima condensed between her arms and legs, catching enough of the wind that she didn’t drop like a rock.

It was still much faster than she was used to! The wind stung her eyes but she managed to navigate her way towards the valley. With her heart racing, she flipped into a somersault and landed on her feet after a thirty pace drop. Her Anima and legs easily absorbed the force of her fall.

“Huh. That was fun.” She grinned. “Ehehehe.”

She’d landed within a couple hundred paces of the not-cows. As soon as they saw her, with her flared Anima and all, they clumped together into a circle with every one of them facing outward, head and horns lowered. The smaller ones were inside.

“Am I that frightening?” she muttered as she approached.

She looked for an enfeebled not-cow, but all of the adult members looked healthy. When she came within fifty paces, they dropped the circle and stampeded away from her.

“Oh, come on!” she yelled. But it was no use. They left and the only thing left was trampled grass.

Wooooo!

Howling from the edge of the valley, and she saw snakewolves emerging from the grass to chase the herd. Some of the carnivores gave her a sidelong glance but ultimately ignored her.

Shaking her head, Yuriko pursed her lips and wandered over to the river. It was about twenty paces wide. Maybe there’s a river lizard in it. The water was crystal clear and she could see fish darting in the water. Well, these would do just as well. Now, how to catch them?

Despite everything else, she had a clear path out of here and she desperately wanted to get back home.