by Trey Myr
The raijū didn't have any drops, but Ed ordered the phantasmal cat-kin to butcher them and try to extract the lightning crystal that was the source of their elemental abilities, and which could be used in any number of alchemical and tinker creations. Four intact crystals went into the party's bags, and they moved on deeper into the floor.
The next few groups of raijū weren't any more trouble than the first, and Ed soon stopped the party to Slice a Manaflow Shard into the nymph.
"I think we can safely say we're back to full fighting strength now," Ed said after he resummoned the nymph. "We still need something to cure poisons, but we can probably manage without it for now."
"I agree," Ingrid said, "which means you should Slice the Luck of Sindbad now. The trials won't get any easier if we wait, and if something happens to your bag, we risk losing it."
Ed took the seven sided Questshard out of his bag and Sliced it. He looked around him curiously, waiting to see if anything would happen, but the cloudscape was quiet around the party, and a minute later Katya shrugged. "Questshard will not activate if we are waiting for it. We need to keep going, and it will start when it starts."
The party moved forward, but the cloudscape seemed to be free of any enemy they could fight, and an hour of walking brought them to a strange sight. A field of wispy grass was growing on the clouds, dotted by strange pale trees covered by blue white feathery leaves.
A terrified neigh sounded from deeper into the field, followed by the sound of thunder, causing the party to start running towards it, and they came upon a cloud grey horse tied to a tree. Large white wings grew from the horse's back, and as the party approached it reared and neighed again, and when it dropped its front feet back to the ground, they struck lightning from the cloudscape.
Unfortunately for the tied beast, the lightning didn't seem to faze the gigantic gryphons that circled above it and dove to attack.
Chapter 15:
The Cloud Kingdom
There were five gryphons flying above the horse. It was hard to judge the exact size of the flying beasts, but the biggest two looked about the size of an African elephants, and the other three were each the size of a large horse.
"I don't think we should be fighting these things," Ingrid said. "They look a lot tougher than anything else we've seen in this floor."
"We need to fight them."
"We need to save horse!"
Ed and Katya's voices sounded at the same time, followed closely by Ed shooting his crossbow at one of the smaller gryphons that was making an attempt to dive at the horse. The bolt did little damage to the large beast, but it was enough to make it abort its attack and circle to gain back the lost height.
"What the Hel are you talking about?" Ingrid asked while the gryphons continued to circle overhead, waiting for an opportunity to attack. "This is going to be a really tough fight, and I can't properly protect you against five flyers. We should retreat and look for something else to fight."
"I don't know why," Ed answered, "but I know we have to do this."
"It is Questshard," Katya interjected. "I read Journeys of Sindbad last night after leaving Labyrinth. Saving horse was part of first journey."
Another gryphon started to dive towards the tied horse, followed closely by one of its brothers diving towards the party. "Ingrid, you need to make sure the horse gets out of this alive," Ed shouted as he jumped away from the diving gryphon. The party scattered to the sides, and Lucy managed to cast a Firebolt on the gryphon, but between the great beast's speed and her own need to get out of the way, her Firebolt went wide. Ingrid charged at the second gryphon, and managed to slam into it just as it was about to hit the horse, and the stunned monster fell heavily to the ground, where the horse's hooves could crash into its head. Unfortunately, the gryphon's distress caused what must have been its parents to intervene, and one of the elephant sized beasts dove towards Ingrid. Ingrid and the horse managed to get clear of the attacking gryphon, but the distraction gave its cub enough time to get back into the air and start to gain height.
The five gryphons squawked at each other, and Ed barely managed to shout "If they dive together, cast a storm in their way!" to Lucy before the three cubs all dove down towards Ingrid and the horse together, while their parents dove towards the rest of the party. Lucy and the phantasmal kitsune both cast Chromatic Storm, Lucy in front of the leading cub and the kitsune in front of one of the parents. The four beasts passed through the storms at high speed, taking only a single second's worth of damage, but the sudden appearance of the storms threw out their aim, giving the party the chance they needed to avoid the attack. The fifth gryphon, however, was free to properly aim its dive, and its front claws shredded the phantasmal kitsune, dispelling it instantly.
The gryphon leaped back into the sky as soon as its target disappeared, but the clockwork archer took advantage of its brief stop to fire a precise arrow into the beast's wingpit, causing it to falter. Taking advantage of the momentarily immobile gryphon, the party attacked it with everything they had. Ed's crossbow bolt lodged in the beast's flank, followed closely by Lucy's Firebolt. On the gryphon's other side, the phantasmal dwarf brought its hammer down on the beast's front foot, and a trio of Katya's throwing daggers lodged in its hind leg. The phantasmal cat-kin, attacking from the gryphon's front, leaped at the beast's head, and gouged out one of its eyes.
The great beast screeched in anger and pain, lashed out around it with its front claws and beak, catching and shredding both phantasms into oblivion and jumped up into the air, quickly rising back to its waiting pack.
Ed summoned his lost phantasms as fast as he could, stopping only do drink mana potions between each summon, and barely managed to finish the summonings before the five gryphons started their next attack. The monsters seemed to be learning fast, and this time all five were aiming at the main party, each from a slightly different direction, far enough apart that a Chromatic Storm wouldn't catch more than one.
"Aim for the wounded one!" Ed shouted at Lucy, and ordered his kitsune to use its own storm on the other elephant-sized gryphon. The huge beasts were ready for that trick, however, and while they still took some damage from the spells, their dive didn't falter and all five dove at the party members, who were too busy jumping away from the monsters to retaliate. The phantasmal dwarf and the clockwork archer, being by far the slowest members of the party, couldn't get away in time and were caught by two of the diving beasts.
In their rage and eagerness to attack, however, the gryphons forgot about Ingrid and the horse, and as they started their climb back into the sky, the blade of a long lance punched out of the wounded beast's neck as the winged horse pulled out of its own dive, Ingrid riding its back and summoning a new lance to replace the one that pierced the gryphon's neck from top to bottom.
The remaining gryphons shrieked in anger at seeing their dead pack mate, but were still climbing after their recent dive and didn't have the height to attack Ingrid, and by the time they reached their preferred height, Ingrid was climbing too and too high for them to attack. The gryphons circled Ingrid in the sky, far above the range of the party's archers and mages, unable to attack the grounded party while the lancer was waiting to charge.
"We seem to be at an impasse," Ed noted from below. "If the gryphons do not attack, there is nothing we can do to them."
"Kitty birds have keen sight," Katya answered. "And they seem to be angry at big one's death. Maybe we provoke them by butchering corpse? Gryphon feathers are useful for enchanters, so we will want to get them anyway."
"Worth a try," Ed sent his phantasmal cat-kin to butcher the corpse, and went to inspect it himself. The dead gryphon yielded a Sharpness Skillshard, and when the cat-kin started removing its pinions the other gryphons screeched again, and the smaller beasts dove down towards the phantasm. The rest of the party was ready for the attack, and a pair of Chromatic Storms was waiting for two of them, but they managed to plow through them and hit the cat-kin, dispelling it instantly.
The clockwork archer shot an arrow hitting the third gryphon's eye, and the wounded beast crashed head-first into the ground. Seeing that, the remaining parent gryphon screeched its anger and dove towards the archer. None of the grounded party members was in a position to try and counter the attack, and the gryphon easily dispelled the archer. The enraged attack left the beast open to attacks from above, however, and Ingrid's lance pierced its wing and grounded it.
With the great beast on the ground, it was now vulnerable to attack from the rest of the party, and was peppered by Firebolts, acid bolts and thrown daggers. The phantasmal dvergr joined the fight a few seconds later, delivering a heavy hammer blow to the beast's leg, and this time managing to evade the gryphon's counterattack. "I'm out of potions!" Ed shouted before he resummoned his archer and cat-kin, who quickly joined in, and returned to shooting his crossbow. "These are the last summons for this fight!"
Fortunately for the party, the grounded and wounded gryphon lost a lot of its speed and maneuverability, and the combined attacks were enough to kill it before the other two could return to the fight. The remaining gryphons dove again at the party, but the first died passing through Lucy's Chromatic Storm, and the last managed to dispel the kitsune before Ingrid's lance finished it off.
With the last of the gryphons dead, Ingrid landed next to the party, dismounted, and led the tired horse in a slow walk around the party to let it cool down safely.
"Oh, thanks be to all the gods!" Called a voice from further into the strange field. "When I saw the gryphons circling, I was afraid the king's favorite mare was doomed!"
Hands on their weapons, the party turned towards the voice. The speaker would have looked perfectly average if his skin wasn't bluish-white, and if his hair wasn't dark gray. He was wearing a pair of riding pants made of light gray leather, a ruffled white shirt with an almost black vest on top and a riding helmet strapped to his head.
"And who might you be?" Ingrid asked the stranger.
"Forgive my manners. My name is Charles Matthews, and I am the stable master and chief groom for King Neil Corentin III, the ruler of this cloudscape, and this lovely lady," he pointed at the horse which, once she cooled down enough, started to hungrily munch on the strange grass, "is Aella, the prize mare of the King's stables. I am forever grateful that you got here in time to save her from the gryphons."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Matthews. My name is Eduard Fergusson, and these are Ingrid Bjørnson, Lucy Bradshaw and..."
"Yekaterina Gregorovna Petrova," Katya intervened. "It is indeed pleasure to meet you, Mister Matthews, and we are happy that we were able to save pretty mare, but I find it strange that such precious animal is left out unattended like this."
"You are right, madam. Aella should never have been tied up here on her own. One of our stablehands took her out from her stall for her daily exercise, and should have brought her back to the castle hours ago. When Aella didn't return to the stables and our guards reported seeing the gryphons, I was terrified that something has happened to prevent him from completing his ride."
"We have not seen stablehand, and pretty mare was tied up to tree when we arrived."
"I find that very troubling, and he had better have a good explanation when I find him, or I assure you that I will tan his hide for him. But please, the discipline of the stable staff is surely of no interest to you. I must take Aella back to the castle, and if you ladies and gentleman will care to accompany me, I am sure that His Majesty will reward you for protecting her."
Before Katya could answer, Ingrid clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Please forgive us, but we need to make sure we've taken everything we can use from the gryphons. Can you wait just a few more minutes until we're done?"
"Of course, madam. Very few of the fauna around here will approach a gryphon, so we should be safe here for a while longer."
"Thank you very much. Come along Katya."
Katya let Ingrid pull her towards the fallen gryphons, followed by the rest of the party. The phantasmal cat-kin was sent to start gathering the gryphons' pinions, but Ingrid stopped the rest of the party from going to look for other possible drops. "We need to decide if we want to go with this person, and it can't be just Katya jumping in without asking. I don't know who this King Corentin is, but we've all heard stories about the more intelligent Labyrinth dwellers. He could be honorable and reward us like his stable master says, or he could just throw us all into a dungeon for being delvers."
"It is part of voyage," Katya disagreed. "Sindbad saved mare from dying, and king gave him gift of treasure as reward. We need to go with groom to meet king and finish first trial."
"I'm with Katya on this," Lucy agreed. "I want to see the king of the cloud kingdom and his palace, and I'm really curious about the reward for this."
"Are you sure about this being part of the trial, Katya?"
"Is impossible to be absolutely certain, since trial obviously does not follow voyage in every way, otherwise we would have been stranded on giant whale first. But it follows spirit of tale if not letter."
"Then I also agree that we should do this. I have no idea what might happens if we fail a part of the trial that isn't combat, but I'm really not eager to find out."
"If we all agree, let's finish looting and go," Ed said, and the party scattered to finish searching the bodies.
In the end, in addition to the Sharpness Skillshard from the first gryphon, the party found an Endurance Shard, twenty large gryphon pinions and thirty medium gryphon pinions.
"We are ready to follow you," Ed told the stable master after the loot was tallied.
"Excellent. Please, come this way."
The stable master led the party further into the cloudscape, and a ten minute walk brought them to the edge of the cloud, and a bridge made of rainbow that connected it to its neighbor. Ed was a little apprehensive when the stepped onto the insubstantial looking bridge, but the rainbow had no trouble holding the weight of the entire party, and they crossed safely onto the next cloud, and towards the castle of the cloud king.
The castle was built from large blocks of what looked like clouds, but was a darker gray than the clouds it stood upon. A moat that was nothing more than a break in the cloudscape surrounded the castle, promising a long and deadly drop towards the far ground for anyone trying to attack it. The rainbow spanning the moat was narrower than the one connecting the clouds, and couldn't possibly allow for more than one wagon or two horses to cross at any time. Guards sharing the stable master's coloration patrolled the ramparts, holding spears that were little more than long and jagged lightning bolts, and archers stood on each of the six towers that rose high over the castle's four corners, and on each side of the gate.
As the party approached the gates, a young woman ran out of the castle and hugged the mare's neck. "Aella! Oh, Aella, thank Latobius that you are safe. When I heard you were missing and that gryphons were sighted over the meadow, I feared we'd lost you!"
"My lady, please come back into the castle." The new voice belonged to a short and matronly woman who followed the young woman outside. "The mare is obviously fine, and it is unseemly for you to be out without a proper escort."
"Nonsense, Nanny Gale. This barely counts as outside, and I just have to be certain that my darling Aella is safe."
"Your Highness, please," the stable master pleaded, "Aella has had quite an ordeal, and I really should be getting her back to her stall to calm down and rest."
"That is acceptable, Mr. Matthews, but I shall accompany you to make sure she is treated properly this time." The older woman opened her mouth to protest, but her charge raised a hand to silence her. "I will not be dissuaded, Nanny Gale. Horsemanship is a noble pursuit, and therefore taking care of one's steed cannot possibly be improper! Now come along, Mr. Matthews. Nanny Gale can take care of these strange guests you've brought us while we tend to Aella."
"As you command, Your Highness," the stable master bowed, and whispered some quick instructions to the older
woman, before leading the mare and princess past the rainbow bridge and into the castle.
"Come along then," the older woman turned towards the gate, motioning the party to follow. "I'll take you to refresh yourselves before you are presented to His Majesty."
The party followed her across the rainbow bridge and into the castle courtyard. The yard was a hive of activity. On the left side, numerous craftsman and women were all practicing their crafts. A blacksmith pulled a white hot bar of iron out of what looked like a stationary bolt of lightning, placed it on a piece of cloud in the form of an anvil, and went to work shaping it with a huge black hammer. Next to him, a tailor was busy sewing uniforms for the castle guards, and a carpenter was nailing legs made of strange pale gray wood into a chair. Beyond the craftsmen, they could still see the top of Aella's wings as she was led towards a building that must have been the stable. On the left side, young guards were training with spear and bow, aiming at straw targets and sparring with each other under the single watchful eye of a grizzled old veteran.
Nanny Gale cut through the crowd like an icebreaker through polar waters, never slowing for even a moment as she led the party to the keep. Once past the keep's doors, the crowd thinned out considerably, and only an occasional maid, butler or guard moved through the halls. The old woman took them through corridors that would have been confusing for people who weren't used to the mazelike Arctology, and into a large, well-furnished but clearly unused suite of rooms. "Here you are. There is a bath through the door on the left, and I'll have some refreshments brought to you as you wait, and if you need anything else just pull the rope next to the door and one of the servants will attend you. The King is in council with his advisors, but will probably be able to give you an audience in a couple of hours."
With that, she turned on her heels and left the room, leaving Ed and the girls on their own.
The sitting room of their guest suite was simply but richly furnished. A pale blue carpet covered the cold cloudstone floor, and the walls were hidden behind tapestries that while devoid of any reds and yellows, wouldn't have been out of place in the family wing of the Arctology. In the middle of the room, a set of comfortable looking chairs surrounded a table large enough for six people, and a large fireplace against the far wall held another stationary lightning bolt to warm up the room.