GoldSphere Novels
patreon
Chapter 32 - Red Mountains
🕑 Added 2024-08-16 22:34:59 +0000 UTCAnother week passed while they traveled along the plains, keeping their speed at a decent level. John estimated that they had traveled about 1500 kilometers, but it was quite an exhaustive process.
Rain was a great hindrance in terms of speed, needing frequent breaks from clinging to his back and being unable to handle the higher speeds for long periods of time. But the thought of leaving her never crossed his mind.
The environment hadn’t changed much, although the occasional forest stood in their way. Not even the view of the planet had changed notably. But their progress was quite clear once they looked back to the craters they left behind.
The forest he had first landed in was quite easy to see now, spreading out much farther than he had thought. He was lucky to have landed on this side of it, otherwise the journey through it would have taken much longer.
They had encountered very few demons, and those they had met, they deftly avoided. There was too much risk involved in those fights as long as Rain was nearby, and it simply wasn’t worth it if it could be avoided. Unless they needed the food.
But they had encountered a few furry monsters on the trip, so food had never been much of an issue. Finding shelter was a bit more problematic, but in the worst case, John had simply dug a hole in the ground.
Due to the hunts, his core had grown another fifteen percent, bringing it up to about fifty percent growth so far.
Right now, they were resting by a small river, taking some time to prepare for the next part of their journey. They would have to cross a desert for the next part of their trip, and so they needed to bring water along somehow.
The desert wasn’t like the ones he had heard about on Earth. It was densely populated by thin red mountains with an average height of a few hundred meters. That made visibility a lot worse, so they would have to be wary of ambushes.
It was possible to see a few hundred meters through the mountains, but that was only in certain directions. Once they went inside, the closer mountains would obstruct most of the view.
John wouldn’t mind flying above it all, but since they wouldn’t have any place to land, it would make them very vulnerable if they encountered a beast.
John was busy at work making a large piece of wood into a usable container, planning to fill it with water and have it hang from Larang’s shaft as they flew.
There was also the matter of sunburns, but the light didn’t seem to have the properties of sunlight on this planet. John assumed it was due to the lack of a sun.
Where the light was actually coming from was still a mystery, though. It was like the light of a cloudy day, spread evenly across the lands.
“John! Good water!” Rain yelled at him from the river, completely unashamed. She was taking a bath and washing the clothes John had given her, and had very little care about her own nudity.
John cared, though, and was turned the other way while working. “Very good! Be sure to enjoy it; it might be a while before your next bath,” he yelled back.
“... Slower? Not understand,” Rain replied, still trying to learn the language. She had improved massively during the last week, but she still had trouble following his words if he spoke like normal.
“Enjoy water. Long time before next water. Probably.”
“Ah, understand! Rain enjoy!”
He could hear her splashing around again and returned to his task. It was a delicate task, carving the wood thin enough to be light, but not so thin that it would break easily. Each time he neared a wall, he had to get a proper feel for the position of the shortsword to avoid making a hole.
‘It’s my first time seeing a desert, so I’m kinda excited about exploring it. But I’m very wary about beasts… I imagine we’ll have more issues with fights going forward. The plains have been easy compared to the forest, but this might be the worst terrain so far.’
He purposefully avoided thinking about Serah these days, finding it too stressful once he considered her chances of survival. It was easier to trust her words that they would meet again and leave it at that.
But he dearly hoped Rain was pointing him in the right direction, at least. She didn’t seem to want to say what she was pointing at, despite his attempts at explaining the function and appearance of a portal. It wasn’t an easy concept to explain.
‘Well, even if she’s pointing at something random, she’s been good at finding important stuff in the past. She’s got some power guiding her, that’s for sure.’
A sudden stirring in the earth caught his attention, making him look at the spiky mountains. It seemed to be growing louder, but it wasn’t anything rhythmical like footsteps, so he assumed it was caused by something else.
But then he saw it. Or at least its shadow.
Something gigantic, at least fifty meters tall, was moving between the red mountains. It traveled steadily and without any noticeable movement, but that only made it scarier for John.
After noticing it, he and Rain went silent, staying very quiet while it passed them by. Neither of them wanted to attract the attention of a horror because that would be the end for both of them.
‘Fucking damn it! Another horror, and right in our way… But what the hell is that thing? It doesn’t resemble anything I’ve seen before, except for maybe the centipede.’
Something with a thousand legs would move slowly like that, so it made sense. But it could also be that its invocation had a strange effect like that, pushing it forward at a steady pace.
After a few minutes, the rumbling stopped, and they both let out a relieved sigh. John could hear Rain getting out of the water, probably not in the mood to bathe anymore.
“John, beast! Scary!” she said, standing behind him. The sound of drops hitting the grass as she shook her body to get dry distracted him from his task.
“Yeah, a horror beast. Too strong,” He replied, focusing on his carving. The wood was nearly done by now, but he also needed to make a good plug to make it sealable.
“... We go… uhm… not soon?”
He nodded, understanding what she meant. “Yes, we’ll go later. And we go slow.”
She sat down behind him, sounding relieved when she replied, “Good. But slow.”
“Yes, it will take a long time. But it’s important to be careful.”
He could hear her lying down in the grass and taking a deep breath, enjoying the nice temperature and cooling wind.
“Clothes?”
“Wet.”
“... Take them here, and I’ll dry them.”
“... Soon. Good wind.”
John sighed lightly, but he smiled and let her rest for a while longer. It might be the last opportunity for a while.
With the water barrel safely hanging on his stomach and Rain sitting on her back, John carefully maneuvered the new terrain. Their top speed had lowered even further due to the water, but he wasn’t interested in using half of it.
Rain had received a harness of sorts, made from tree bark and wines, to help her stay on his back. It made her a lot less tired on long trips, letting her rest instead of hanging on to his neck.
Since they flew fairly close to the ground, it would be easy to land in case of danger. But the speed at which they could escape had lowered quite a bit, so confrontations would be harder to avoid.
The vista of red spires around them would have been an incredible sight if they didn’t all carry the threat of ambushes behind them. The sand below them was also quite red, forming large wave-like structures on the ground.
Already at this point, John could feel the air start to dry up around him. His eyes needed to blink more often to stay moistened.
“How are you doing, Rain?” he asked quietly, hoping not to alert any beasts nearby.
“Good! Pretty rocks!” she replied, slightly too loud for his comfort.
“Yeah, enjoy the sights. But try to be quiet, alright?”
“Quiet, Rain quiet,” she whispered with a light laugh, seeming proud to have understood his words.
John smiled and patted her knee a couple of times, which had turned into a quiet acknowledgment during their flights.
As they turned the next pillar, John saw a large furred creature walking away from them. His instincts told him it was a demon, but he didn’t notice any obvious aspects, so it might be a monster as well.
It reminded him a lot of the monkeys from the forest, but if it was, it was definitely a demon. It was at least three times their size and had grey fur instead of green.
‘... It hasn’t noticed us, luckily. Probably because we’re quiet. But what is a beast with such thick fur doing here? And… why does it seem to be acting strange?’
As it walked, it seemed to be carrying something in its hands, tucked into its chest. From the angle they were floating, it wasn’t possible to see what it was, but John was very curious.
“Beast, Rain. Let’s observe it for a bit, okay?”
“... Not understand, but okay.”
John stopped their speed and prepared himself for landing in case things turned sour. He considered making a noise just to see it turn around, but it seemed like a bad idea.
The beast stopped walking and seemed to look around cautiously. John thought it had probably noticed the horror from earlier, and therefore stayed vigilant.
Then, it turned all the way around while scouting the area, revealing what was in its arms.
‘What?! A human?!’
Previous --I-- Index --I-- Next
