CHAPTER 216- ARRIVAL

[Keeno POV]

Our tea party lasted a few hours and many stores were shared. I was even surprised when Jormangandr added a few details that I didn’t know about, like how Loki was a surprisingly good father, despite how the myths and eddas portrayed him or how Hel was quite adept at puns. Or that the ginnungagap, the supposed void of nothingness, actually had amazing hot springs. Once all the tea was gone Jormangandr stood up.

“Ahh.  Such a refreshing time, little ones. It has been quite a long time since I have had such pleasant conversation. Unfortunately, now that I’ve awakened and my nemesis has been defeated here, I will soon move on, leaving my husk at the bottom of the sea, allowing my soul to pass into the perpetual cycle of my Fate. Though I shall leave you with a piece of advice; meditation may grow your power, but it means nothing if you don’t comprehend what you’ve gained.”

With those words, his body faded, leaving a small pile of scales and things that looked like teeth.  Outside, his actual body began sinking, the light in his eyes fading and his black scales turning a pale grey. I moved away from the window I was watching this from while Mostima was inspecting what Jormangandr left behind.

“I’m assuming he wanted to give us these things, but I don’t really know what we’re supposed to use them for.”

I picked up one of the scales and a tooth. The scale felt almost spectral yet as hard if not harder than dragon scale. The teeth were the same, though their points seemed sharper that a spear.

“I guess we can just save them for now and figure out a use for them later.”

I agreed with Freya’s suggestion and put the scales and fangs away in my storage ring. Now we just needed to figure out how to get out of this separate space.

{You probably just have to leave the door. I think he shrank the space he created after all of you entered the building.}

“That’s fine then, though I do wonder what his last words meant.”

“Maybe we need to actually understand what we see or feel when we meditate? I mean, you don’t just learn something then not do anything with that information when it comes to skill or training. That’s why it’s called training.”

Pram had a point. I’m not sure what the others have done, but I haven’t really thought much about the things I saw during meditation aside the shallowest of comprehension.  Promising myself I’d concentrate more on that, we left the building and thus the separate space itself to continue onto the next continent.  It took us nearly two more months to finally get close to the other side of the bridge. We would have made it in only a month and a half, but we were blocked by several storms that altogether lasted two weeks.

The first clear sight of land proper we got was a relief in all respects. A place of less tension and no worries of extreme gusts of wind blowing others off into a watery abyss of death. Though, and I’ll keep this to myself, when I could clearly make out just how forested the place we were arriving at was, a small part of me wanted to see how well it would burn. That aside, we were now just waiting in a queue to get off this damn bridge.  Luckily, once we finished the checks that were needed after what felt like years of waiting, we were free to go.  The relief we all felt was palpable, though the first to put this relief into words was Freya.

“It’s so nice to smell trees again. The sea smell is still there, yeah, but-*deep inhale*- this is wonderful.”

I had to agree. The air was full of so many scents that it was nearly overwhelming. The dirt, sap, clear, crisp pine scents.  It…reminded me of my death…shaking my head, I decided to pick a direction and walk. I wanted to sleep on a bed in a place that wasn’t accompanied by the sound of waves.

“Okami?”

Pram’s voice was steeped in concern as my mood showed though the ambient temperature.

“It’s nothing Pram, well, nothing any of us can do anything about.”

“That may well be the case, but don’t bottle it all up. Ever since the big guy gave us the at advice, you’ve been more broody than normal. Even Rasu is worried.”

“I’ve already explained it to her, and it’s helped, but just because it helps doesn’t mean it makes it completely better. Though I do appreciate it, Mostima. Once we rest up from this long trip, I’ll explain.”

“If you ever need some healing magic to help you sleep, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing to help.”

“And I’ll help Pram somehow.”

Seeing my friends so worried for me, I couldn’t help but smile. They were the best friends a girl could ask for, and I considered myself lucky to have them. I pulled Pram and Freya close while I wrapped one of my tails around Mostima.

“I don’t know if it’s just the fact that we’re finally back on land, or something else that’s making me so…feely, but I’m glad all of you are here with me.”

This got a laugh out of everyone as we continued on, looking for a place to stay the the night. It didn’t take that long as we found what we assumed to be a decent place that was built into the hollow of a giant pine tree. I’d even say it was the biggest tree I’d ever seen, if not for the one I’d planted in Lokir. That aside, it had quite the impeccable service. After paying for a shared room, a steward led us up a large winding staircase to one of the higher branches of the tree before leading us across a short rope bridge to a gourd-like room similar to a birdhouse. The steward then bowed before leaving us.

The room itself was more spacious than it would seem from the outside and, contrary to expectations, the room itself didn’t swing. One wall was taken up by a large curtain that opened up to a panoramic view of Valkyr. To say it was a stunning sight would undersell it. For the most part I could see an ocean of pine trees with a mix of them being three times the size of redwoods. The underbrush was made of more normal sized ones while further into the distance more varieties grew. They were too far away for me to tell what kind they were, but I could at least tell they weren’t pines. Even further into the distance, though it seemed small from here was a tree that was, in pretty sure, even taller than the one we were in now.

{That’s the Dead Zone and where you’ll find the dragon that lives in this country.}

“The one we were supposed to tell Fu and Moco about?”

{…That completely slipped my mind.}

“I only remembered it just now.”

{I’ll invite them over now.}

Turning back from the view, I found Pram laying face first on a bed, her tail puffed up and trembling. Freya was sitting by her side, rubbing her on the back. She looked over at me with a deadpan expression.

“Keeno, you know how Pram feels about heights.”

“…Should we find a different place then?”

“N-no…but I’m going to make myself sleep. Wake me up when we’re on the ground again.”

A small flash of green light later and Pram’s tail relaxed as she lost consciousness.

“We should turn in too. It may not be late, exactly, but I’m sure we’re all exhausted.”

Mostima had a point, so I closed the curtain, and we all changed into sleeping clothes. Sleep greeted me quickly after climbing into a bed.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: Trees.

Many trees.

Nykuro: Needs more alrunes.

You just can’t see them yet.

Nykuro: Hmph!

Luna: Why hmph?

Nykuro: Why not hmph? It’s fun. HMPH!!!

Luna: HMPH!!!

Nykuro: You get it!