I found it pretty funny. He knew I found it pretty funny as he wobbled on his feet while lowering himself into Savannah's notch behind Ethan. I was tempted to make his heart leap into his throat a second time, but I resisted the urge. As much as I enjoyed his terror I didn't like feeling it myself. That was one of the few drawbacks of emotional feedback.
I left them alone to relax on my back. Keeping a steady rhythm. It would actually take me longer to fly back while I was mostly gliding like this. The near silent peace of the sky was nice. I wished I could fly like this more often.
It would be better on earth where the mana didn't feel like it was going to invade, and kill me from within. I fell into the rhythm after a while. Suppressing my sense of time so I could lose track of time. I found it humorous that I had to suppress my sense of time to successfully lose track of time. I tilted my head to look back over to my bonded.
Ethan was completely at ease. Taking in the peaceful environment like I was. Savannah was keeping all three of them warm. Caring for the other two like an attentive mother. I knew what she was doing before I looked, but it still warmed my heart to see it with my own eyes.
I snorted before straightening my neck out. Look at me. A big softie thinking about irrelevant things. I spotted the cannons still in place. I was glad that I'd adjusted to my new expanded sense of spatial awareness by now.
I activated my precognition ability, and bared my teeth. More then ready to deal with Eric's anger. The spatial distortion here was far worse then the nest. Opening a portal here was borderline dangerous. I kept myself high so I'd have time to react to an attack.
Something about the front line had changed. What could he have set up in a day? I looked over the front line a second time. Scanning specifically for something different. There was a new black cannon mixed in with all the shining metal.
It was nearly double the size of the others, and void of mana all around it. It was completely void of mana. It felt wrong. Why would he need a cannon of mana absorbing material? What was it for?
My scales stood on end when the cannon itself defied my precognition ability. This thing was dangerous. The boom when the cannon fired startled me. I had no warning. I should have had a warning with my precognition ability activated.
The missile shot my direction. I rolled mid flight to avoid the attack. It went off as it passed me. The attack boom next to my belly. This wasn't like the other missiles.
It seared into my belly. Like a hot knife into butter. I didn't understand. The pain of it surprised me. I was glad I had my belly to the blaze.
Flames hot enough to burn me would have killed my bonded. I fell away from the flames downward. Rolling away from the flames as I did. Falling away. Downward to safety.
I flared my wings to stop the decent. Turning upward rapidly. Leveling out about a hundred feet off the ground. I veered away from the front line. I found people fighting against the men reloading the cannon within my spatial awareness.
This close to the ground I was relying on the strength of my wings heavily. The damage that was done to my body put a strain on me as a whole. I didn't have enough time. I couldn't move fast enough to get out of range. I needed to make a portal.
That was the only way I was going to get out of here alive. The second boom of the cannon told me my time was limited. I tried to create a portal, and space revolted. Dozens of small portals opened at once. All over the place.
None of them in one spot. None of them where I needed them. I veered upward. Toward one that felt friendly. I felt the explosion when it went off more then saw.
I lost track of everything except flying through that portal. I knew my bonded were still close as the quality of mana skyrocketed, and the density plummeted. I slammed into solid frozen ground. My wings broke as tree after tree was snapped like twigs. I crumpled nearly a hundred trees in just a few short seconds.
Digging a large swath through the frozen ground as I did. Slamming into a rockface with far more force then I should have with how fast I was going. I'd tried to raise my head to protect my bonded from the ground that was being thrown up by my crash. My arms, and legs were in bad shape. My strength had left me with my mana.
What happened to my mana? I checked my mental connection to my bonded. None of them felt seriously injured. That was a relief. I was too tired to get up, and check on them properly.
At least my mana reserve was filling quickly as the mana of this world crashed into my reserve without resistance. My core didn't hurt. The feeling was actually really soothing. I fell into a deep darkness. Finding myself in a white room that extended far beyond what the eye could see.
A single woman sat at the center of this room on a white chair that was nearly invisible. I didn't know how to describe her. She was young, old, beautiful, and ugly all at the same time. She crossed one leg over the other casually as she stared at me. My vision was weird.
My hand went up to my face only to find that I was in the body I had before I became a dragon. My hand hesitated over the empty socket of my left eye.