"The lightning swatted me away, it swatted me away..." I pondered out loud sluggishly. Thinking about what I could do to distract myself from the boredom that was this journey. There was nothing but grey dust all around us and we had exhausted most conversation topics. And, to make it all worse, Larishazza was not in her usually joyful mood.
So I and the other two did not have her antics to help alleviate at least some of the boredom. Instead, in recognition of this problem, I thought about what happened when I tried to chase them. The storm had not only struck out against me as if it was protecting itself. I could also swear that I heard it speak, even if this was something I never picked up on.
I understand that it is the storm of the Thunder God, that this area is his domain. But, was this storm also the one he once befriended? Was that storm the Loyal Lightning the stories spoke of...? The Loyal Lightning that accompanied Ancient Thunder until the Fourteen-Headed Beast broke their bond?
If it was, then I guess that explained why I seem to remember it speaking. Why it swatted me away when I tried to give chase. It might also explain why its magic did not spill out into the world around it. That storm was a living being granted life by the gods in a time long past.
Yet, as I thought on it, my mind went back towards my home and prior thoughts I had. I wanted to see if I could somehow gain the power of that storm, of its thunder-gold. But, if it was a living being then just trying to take it would make me fail. It would not open itself up to me, regardless of what I needed its power for.
"How would I befriend lightning...?" I then asked myself before I came to a stop. My legs had gone straight into the back of Heiya who had herself slammed into Larishazza.
"Something coming." Heiya's father then said as he walked ahead. Gesturing at the distant lights in the sky far above us. Whatever it was, it was clearly magical as those lights were the reactions one got in a land of no magic. Was it the airship? Had we perhaps judged the pair too soon?
"Nin, Vadei...?" Larishazza then croaked out as her eyes looked up at the sky. The object in question rapidly descended towards us as we came to a stop. And then, with a mighty bang, it crashed not too far from us. A storm of dust and gravel blew straight towards us as the magic reactions cleared up.
But, what we saw was not Vadei or Nin calling out to us. Instead, it was many creatures like Vadei who then disappeared inside. Something seemed to scare them all off back inside, however. And, just in case, I looked around and tried to see if anything was coming.
The answer to that was no and it cleared it up. Nothing scared them off, something just told them to go back inside. And, going by how it was not moving, I think it was clear they wanted us on board. So, again, was this our airship?
"That's the..." I soon commented when I saw the large gash in the side of the airship. The spot where the wyvern had snatched Nin from as well as smashed him through.
"IT'S THEM!" Larishazza then let out with desperate joy as she charged at the airship. And, just like that, she was gone as she quickly reached it and climbed up it. Disappearing inside of the airship before we had even crossed half the distance she had. Yet, as we approached, Heiya and her father got extremely cautious.
"H-Hello?" I then greeted as I kept my eye on the two slavers. Looking up once we got into the bridge, nearly smiling at the sight of Vadei before I frowned. A glare quickly came up as I looked at her nervous form. A glare of her own being directed at the two slavers.
"Alright, the others are here, where's Nin?" Larishazza then asked Vadei as her hands rubbed themselves together. First, however, Vadei seemed to make sure all the doors into the bridge were firmly locked. Something I felt like she did to delay the inevitable. But that was the thing with the inevitable, it always came.
And when it did, she couldn't even keep her eyes on us, "Nin is... Nin is not coming back, I don't know..." Vadei admitted. The answer wiped away any joy Larishazza might have regained while my simmering anger just went.
"What... What do you mean he won't be coming back? What happened!?" I asked as I approached the nervous tailed woman. Watching carefully as she kept her eyes focused more so on a screen than us.
"Alright, alright! I'll give you your answer, can I just get the airship back into the air, please?"
Baffled and unaware of why she wanted to do this, I ignored it, "No! I want you to give an explanation and apology!" I demanded of her as I put my foot down. Something that seemed to set her off into an even worse state.
"Please! I promise I will explain everything! I will shame myself to no end before you, just please get out of my way so I can get the airship back into the air!" she said with desperation, her actions being equally desperate. And then, all of a sudden, someone came into the room and she looked oddly familiar. Like an older version of Vadei, a more sickly version as well.
"Please, fair-one, please listen to my Little Va. She will speak to you about what has happened, if not, I will on her behalf." she said, establishing pretty quickly as to what she was while Vadei herself kept trying to get past me. Something I let her do as seeing her own mother hit a soft spot for me. I was then mouthed a 'thank you' before the outside boomed once more.
And at that moment, all this nervousness that seemed to plague Vadei went. Or, at least, most of it, she still seemed worried for something. But, I was likely to hear about what the worrying thing was soon. First, however, I wanted an answer concerning Nin.
"Alright, we're in the air again. Answers, now!" I demanded as I approached the seated woman. Stopping when her mother interfered with my advance.
"Please, give her some space. She's got enough to worry about." her mother asked of me with subtle scolding as her firm but gentle grip kept me still. Something I just obeyed as I longed for that same kind of behaviour from my own mother. Or, well, any kind of behaviour really, I just wanted to see her again...
"Vadei, where's our friend?" Larishazza then asked glumly as she moved directly in front of Vadei.
"He's not coming back, I don't know where he is now."
"But why is he not coming back?" I asked her as I became hurt by the suggestion we weren't important enough to Nin to make him want to stay. Assuming the worst had not happened...
"I don't know why, he never really explained it to me. He just... He just wants to go home is all I can really say." Vadei said before she looked down at the floor. While her fingers dug into her knees in the meantime.
"His home is in Suhurlodst, with us!" Larishazza then declares angrily as she suddenly becomes full of life.
"He would beg to diff-"
"Well, he's wrong! His family all share a dorm in an academy on top of a mountain! Between a great brass city and a ruin that goes right around it all!" Larishazza tells us as she suddenly approaches Vadei. And with her mother holding me back, she is unable to go over and stop her.
"It won't matter anyway! He disappeared! He's flushed all his magic out so we cannot find him! I don't know where he has gone!" Vadei explained defensively, her eyes showing signs of tears. Larishazza, however, just grew increasingly frustrated.
"Then we overturn every rock! We pillage every building until we find him! We'll hunt him down and drag him back with us!"
"No! I'm not wasting time looking for Nin when he has already made it clear he doesn't want to be found!"
"HE'S OUR FRIEND!" Larishazza yelled in rage directly into Vadei's face. Something that made her flinch back into her chair before she started crying.
"It's alright! It's alright!" cooed her mother as she suddenly left me alone and went to her daughter. A tenderly and motherly grip soon enveloped Vadei and I grew envious. I wanted to see and experience that again...
"Family in danger?" Heiya's father then asked as he stared long and hard at Vadei. A rather soft expression on his face before he looked at his own daughter.
Vadei's mother glared daggers at him, but, she nodded an answer, "I'll show it to you two, but I don't want you anywhere near him!" she then spat out at Heiya and her father. Her agitated and angered form soon guided me and Larishazza out of the bridge and into the airship. A horde of their kind awaited us as it was clear they were trying to listen in.
"She has blue-hair." a little child then said as he began to point at Larishazza as we passed by them. This horde spread itself out as if they were never there as we went deeper into the airship. And as we got further in, it started to sound more like a small village, actually. You could hear some kids playing and you could hear others speaking.
"You've been told to stop playing with that!" Vadei's Mother then reminded someone as we passed by them. Her soured mood frightened the young individual who jumped up in fright.
"The medical bay?" I questioned before she opened the door. An assortment of injured and sickly individuals was revealed to us at that moment. And, the crying of a baby drowned out all other noise as well. Yet, soon, we were brought before a bed with an old man hooked up to a machine.
"This is the reason why." Vadei's Mother said as she moved beside the old man. One hand on one of his while the other went to his head. A gentle kiss was applied to his cheek before tears started forming in her eyes.
"Who is this?" I asked, watching as Larishazza moved closer as well. Wet marks from her fingers appeared on the man as she gently caressed him as well. A healthier glow appeared where she touched before it just as quickly vanished.
"It's Vadei's other parent and her husband." Larishazza answered, looking back to the bridge first before looking at Vadei's Mother. Someone who smiled and nodded at Larishazza as she wiped away the tears with her tail.
"This is why she was so desperate to get us back into the air...?" I then questioned as my gut began to hurt. In my anger and the want it gave me to demand things of Vadei. I had potentially caused harm to her father...
"Yes, Vadei has tried to explain it to me, but, as far as I am able to grasp, we need to be up as high as we can be to get a supply of magic for my dear love. And, of course, everyone else here."
"There isn't much magic going into them, is that because there isn't enough?"
And, oddly enough, Vadei's Mother laughed just a bit, "No, thankfully that isn't the case. No, instead, the problem is that we can't give them too much magic. We have all been in a land with none for so long that it is as if we were never from a magical land, to begin with."
"So are you all Vadei's family?" I then asked while looking around. I know Vadei had mentioned at points she has been enslaved by the two we left behind. I believe she also said this was why she was here alongside Nin. Because he could help her save her family.
"Only a few of us are her direct family, some are close cousins or distant and others are from different packs altogether." she said before returning her attention to her husband.
"Did she manage to save all of them? Are we able to leave you be so we can find Nin?" Larishazza then asked in a rather pushy manner. Her movements were as erratic as they were sharp.
Vadei's Mother began to tear up again, "N-No... My other daughter and a few others are still enslaved within the higher portions of the city. Now, I know my daughter might be anxious to ask you this herself." she began to say as she left her husband be and walked away a bit.
"We'd probably help her anyway." I began to say before Vadei's Mother just dropped to her knees. Tail tip pointed directly up at us.
"Please help us! I want to see my daughter again! I don't want to finally hold one of them again just to lose the other!" she begged as she shook her tail about. The few of her kind that were watching suddenly became a lot more stern in their expressions as well.
Larishazza approached her without dropping her current expression, "If it'll make you happy." she then said softly as she began to gently caress the tip of the tail.
A wide but nervous and tearful smile soon appeared, "Thank you! Thank you..." Vadei's Mother said as her chest heaved out stutters.
"So are we going to help Vadei first or look for Nin first?" I then asked Larishazza with Vadei's Mother putting more effort into her plead at that moment. Something Larishazza just could not remove her eyes from when it happened.
"We'll find her daughter first, then... Then we can find Nin and then we can spend a lot of time asking questions." Larishazza said with a nod before she stood back up. Her hand pulled up the mother who then straightened herself out. Primarily focusing on her tail which seemed to make her lightly blush.