"C'mon baby boy just think bout it, I can offer you more money" Leeland griped with his southern drawl as we walked through the snow.
"No, I can't do it" I said shaking my head full of black hair.
"I made a commitment to the CDC, the projects I'm overseeing will help cure disease, not vaccinate the general public with 'herd immunity' but an actually cure man".
"Were talking different strains of HIV, AIDS and SARS".
I implored him by asking him to look at the bigger picture.
"So your just going to keep flying back and forth for this project"?
I let the silence build as the wind howled around us.
I was planning on giving up on this project, I was just looking for a way to let him down easy.
The mountain we are walking on was bought by Leeland and he hollowed it out immediatly after closing the deal.
His small empire has grown steadily with the acquisitions of several large scale transportation and logistical companies.
He even bought prime land for oil drilling and is planning on working into the energy industry.
We continued walking until we got to the building with an elevator.
As soon as the doors closed shut he began his argument all over.
"But the quantum drive can help with all that, why look for answers for questions when the answers are in the questions themselves"
"We have enough data to find an answer out it's just compiled in different locations and placing it all in one place is the key".
"No one wants to do it because so far it's as the government would say 'Cost Ineffective'".
"And your going to fund the project yourself"? I said more so to cut him off and have a respite from his voice.
The elevator doors opened to a large living area lined with windows exposing the the storm outside.
"Yes, along with a few others" he replied sheepishly while warming himself a cup of hot coffee.
"So what do you need from me? be specific" I added.
"Want some"? he asked over his shoulder.
"Yes dear god yes man don't stop adding sugar either" he frowned at me as I took off my long coat.
"Sure" he said while adding low concentrate table sugar.
"I'll need you to write the program for the A.I" he said bluntly.
"Aren't there seeds for that? Why start from scratch when you have companies who will do this for you and for way less then what I would charge you".
I knew he must have a reason for flying me out here, the flight alone would be his deposit for a start up A.I.
"Because we created the source code for this thing not me alone".
"I know you can't do it alone I will offer you a whole team".
I shook my head, "I can't do it, like I said I am working on the data that goes into it, what did you want to show me by the way"?
As if on que the wind began to subside and the outline of a village below the mountain came into view.
I quickly realized it wasn't a village but a working site and everyone was working around a huge rocket.
"You can't be serious" I muttered.
"The Black Diamond Hard-Drive created can carry up to eighty percent of the data"
"But when we grow it in zero gravity we are in control over one hundred percent of the environmental factors and the conductivity rate should increase".
I could tell he was excited because his southern drawl kept getting thicker and thicker.
"You didn't clear this with the federal and state government did you"? I asked with my mouth agape.
"Hey Otis".
"Shut up Leeland"
"Hey Otis".
"Don't say it... don't fucking say it".
"I'M GANNA BE A SPACE PIRATE"!
***
'It was delicious' Ava said as I sucked on a bone while hanging off a ledge.
Letting the bone drop down below I swing and grab on to a hand hold above.
"It tasted like crap" I muttered while lunging for the next ledge.
Below me is the lake along with protruding rocks that will skewer me if I faltered.
The sunrise makes the rocks a hot handhold but the wet clouds soothe them.
Mana will disperse faster the higher I go making floating mana pulses more mana expensive for me and tedious for Ava since she had to maneuver her mana around all that gold.
'I like the other one better' she said referring to the bottle.
She received silence as an answer as I focused on one movement after another.
I spotted the nest of the Cro nest and found none inside.
It was more of a series of ledges that went across the mountain with the bones of all of it's prey littered about as if they collected them.
Looking around I found nothing of value and continued onwards.
Below is the wide lake that looked like an ocean but as I got higher I began to see it's edges.
Jagged Edge had many protruding rock faces that I could hide behind and use as a foothold making it so easy a child can climb it.
I would see a ship a day heading towards Undia.
I heard the sound of Oskana the second days climb but I paid it no mind and continued on.
I was not using mana outside of my body and was painted with mud from the shore to blend into the wall.
I took no breaks and worked my way up the mountain while tightening my stomach and keeping my mana completely still.
When I did this my aura would circulate faster through my body and even leave my body in times of extreme physical stress.
'Interesting' I thought to myself as I scared myself and Ava by jumping through the air and into a handhold six feet away, a foot further then I intended.
'When your mana is still your aura circulates when your mana is pulsating your aura is still' Ava chimed in.
'That's what I thought, but I when I don't circulate my mana the aura isn't circulating as much as it is accumulating'.
'Your saying your producing more aura, how can you tell'? she asked.
I perched on a protruding rock face and shared with her what I felt.
My mana was still pulsating but not as strong.
As if without the interference of my mana my aura is being produced.
The feeling eventually stopped but the boost to the physical strength and senses was still there.
I could smell the water rising from below and the fires burning from the south.
'Twelve thousand feet' I measured as I scampered over the last hurdle and looked over to a mountain range with small mountains.
It looked like a huge maze made op of many five and ten thousand foot mountain ranges.
Oskana could no longer be seen but I didn't give a damn, if it was around it will be hard pressed to catch me here.
The mountains are so close together that some of the natural roads they created closed off from above.
The all lead towards the huge mountain in front of me, a licorice black streak painted vertically down the mountain to my right but I soon realized it was the divide between the larger mountains.
Looking back I see where I came from and notice that Lissie was right, going over the mountain is insane especially if there are beasts like Oskana flying around.
"Are you ready"? I asked Ava.
"Are you"? I chuckled.
'Not really it's hard to do anything in here... it's like drawing with a glove on' she muttered and I raised an eyebrow at her first analogy.
I began running off the ledge and she caught me with a pulse of mana taking me higher and higher.
There are no flying creatures as most of the wildlife is below or towards the north.
Also the east had plenty of wildlife making this place undesirable for much of the wildlife.
I flew directly west for as long as Ava could take me landing on a seven thousand foot mountain peak only when she couldn't go on.
I noticed the drop in altitude immediatly as I could finally breath easy again.
If my lungs where any weaker I would have had issues.
As we neared the final peak for the night I see below a caravan of people moving along the trail made between mountains.
It wasn't just them a few miles behind them more and more people began to show up.
'What do you think is happening' Ava asked me.
'I don't know'.
Many stopped for the night leaving Skiles in the outskirts along with carts and seeking refuge in the center away from beasts.
Once morning comes I wait for the caravan to go before leaving.
I ended up waiting half the day but in that time I practiced manipulating my aura.
I condense all the energy in my core while tightening my stomach and sucking in my anus.
Once I felt the aura accumulate I sent a pulse of mana that stopped just underneath my skin and as it did my aura began to circulate and some came out of me from all angles.
With the new technique I was able to release my aura eight out of ten times and the clarity in which I could feel my insides grew.
If felt as if I tightened the blanket that was mana that covered my body.
Noticing it was the end of the procession I got ready to leave until I spotted a mana signature I recognized moving along the trail at high speeds.
It was only a moment but I saw Rumi before he disappeared into the backdrop of a mountain.
It was five figures, all of them coming from the north east unlike me who is coming from the south east.
They are maneuvering as if they did not know the terrain moving directly towards the migrating group over the sides of the small mountains not bothering to take the roads.