Now, to say that I was surprised when I turned around and saw a moving wave of fire would be a bit of an understatement. The sight of a moving mass of flame shooting across acres of rolling hills and engulfing the mass of zombies that I had just flown away from left me feeling a little chilled. The chill was fully a mental thing, as I had been knocked from my translucent perch by the waves of heat gushing forth from the rapid combustion.

  Luckily, I was already quite a distance away and over the river by the time I made the oh-so-wise choice of looking back and had thus only fallen into the river instead of onto a tree, rock, or other solid surface.

  It was at this point where I threw out another small thank you to my past self for using my water travelling spells. The active spell effects combined with my passive did wonders to keep me afloat. Instead of falling beneath the cold surface of the water, I had a moment to experience what I had seen Rocky endure.

  The water rippled out from my body as I hit the surface, creating a cascading wave that flowed away from me like the shattering earth scene in almost every super-hero movie. I landed with a muted thud-splash and slowly climbed to my feet, shooting an angry glare skyward as I heard the mad cackle of my bonded familiar.

  He really was the worst.

  I allowed myself to calm down for a few moments, letting my mana tick back up before I took a few more steps into the air again. I soon regained enough altitude to watch the end of the show over the Avery estate.

  I saw the little man, as I wasn’t sure if it would be rude to assume he was a gnome, collapse as the remnants of the fire died. He was then hoisted up by a tall willowy man and carried back to the little riverboat they likely arrived on. It seemed as if the gnome may have overexerted himself.

  What I did not see was the undead, the field below was vacant of all zombies. There were a few bits and such still twitching on the ground here and there, but the threat seemed to be eliminated.

  Doogan and his crew watched as the gnome-man was taken aboard before the marched up the hill toward the home of wicked witch. It would seem that they had things well in hand, and I was quite relieved to see that the fireworks were a thing used by my rescuers and not against them.

  Though to be fair, I was not quite sure I could be calling them rescuers as I had technically rescued myself. Would it be more accurate to say that they were my assistants, or just the distraction to cover my daring flight into the night? Sure, Doogan had supplied me with a great deal of the supplies I had used to rescue myself, but did that count; did it really?

  Focus.

  I would need to shelf that line of thinking until I got home, or at least back to South Jaga. I was still on the fence about naming the place as my home, it just seemed too final, as if it would somehow limit my desire to leave one day. Yeah, I needed to explore more of this world before I could think of creating some cage of responsibility and safety.

  “Can we get a move on, Olea.” Came the annoyed voice of Corvin through Forum, sounding just patient enough to make me not hush him. He knew me well enough by now that he put just the right amount of annoyance into his voice to make me respond without getting into a verbal spar.

  I was soon hopping my way through the air as we followed the river, quickly losing sight of the Avery estates and what I assumed was the town of Eldor. It had looked like a rather pleasant place, maybe one tenth of the size of the city in which I had awakened when I arrived in this world.

  Thinking about that made me also think about Merry, and the one she left behind. I was really hoping that had worked out the way I thought it would, or I’d probably owe some karmic debt and end up being haunted for all my days. I was fairly sure I was right though, mostly.

  “It would be nice to see her again.” I mused aloud as I stepped through the air, almost skipping as I recalled our last meeting; before the whole being murdered part. I caught myself running my tongue over my lips as I recalled how the meeting had ended and frowned, she would need to answer for that someday.

  And then I thought about my other brief encounter with who I assumed was the third in our triumvirate, I did not even know his name. I did notice that he looked incredibly determined, if a little frightened. I’d seen the look of caged animals before and seen that same look on desperate people.

  He was most likely suffering similar problems to Merry and myself and I found myself cheering for him in the back of my mind even as I picked up my pace.

  I would love to say that I was doing a bang-up job as I skated through the air, that I did amazing pirouettes and twirly leaps, but that would be a lie. I was mostly skipping along like the false Mima of Perfect Blue, I even kind of imagined the scene with me bounding from the tops of streetlamps. I probably needed a pink umbrella to really sell the image though.

  Meh, that would probably cancel the bonus I got from being surrounded by water somehow.

  “How long until we get back, do you know?” I asked into the Forum, hoping for some concrete time from the bird.

  “Four hours or so.” He said, “A bit less if you stop getting distracted.”

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  “Fine.” I said, voicing my witty reply even as I leaned into the magic and began to push.

  Something told me that the magic boosting effect from the rain and this particular phenomenon were the only reasons that this level of control over my spell was even possible. I had not been able to create the spell platforms from Wind Walk that were seemingly easy to manifest now. Sure, I used them, and they held me but the ones I was creating now took little to no effort and I was sure they could hold a great deal more than my own weight. I also felt that they were lasting much longer than they had in the cave below the graveyard.

  I focused a bit on the feeling as a new connection was formed with each manifestation, that ethereal link to my creations and I was surprised to count nearly twenty in existence. I could feel it as the older ones expired while I made my way across the lonely sky and had a moment of realization.

  I couldn’t feel Ignis.

  The little guy must have retired when I left range for the spell, though I wasn’t sure when that had happened which made me wonder at the maximum range of the spell, I was almost certain it was just after the fiery apocalypse had descended on the horde.

  I’d need to summon him again in the future and treat him to some gooey napalm treats, or meat pies.

  “Hey!” I shouted up to the bird, though the glare and body language did not carry into the Forum, and I was certain he wasn’t watching me so much as he was watching our surroundings.

  “Don’t bother asking.” He said shortly, “I promise to make it up to you, later.”

  “How did you-” I began before being interrupted. Who knew it was possible to interrupt telepathic thoughts sent with the speed of the soul, not me.

  “You always obsess over food; wait till we get back.” He said before continuing, “Sicily will surely reward her little sister for making it home safely.”

  I huffed, putting some extra wind into it and creating an effect that resembled a spit-take, totally ruining the display.

  I let his cackling caws be the fuel for my focus as I stepped and stepped, pushing my legs harder as I picked up speed.

  I learned to reduce the amount of resistance in the air around me and began slowly manipulating the very wind to bolster my movement, it was such an engaging process that I had lost track of how high I had climbed.

  I looked down on what at first was an amazing view of the winding river flowing on for miles and miles from its source and fed by a multitude of large creeks which I could see snaking in like dark arteries. Far in the distance to the south was Jaga Lake, from here it was almost a pond, but I had seen it firsthand and knew it would likely rival Lake Erie.

  The next thing my mind grappled with was the fact that in order to take in all of this at once, my body had to be extremely high up. I’d guess at over fifteen-hundred feet with the distance of my view being roughly eighty or one hundred miles.

  This distance was fully a guess as I assumed Corvin and myself could fly well over thirty miles per hour and he had said we could make this trip in four hours.

  My brain was kind of short circuited as I skipped along, thankfully too shocked at the knowledge that my body had taken it upon itself to jump into autopilot. It was a sensation similar to the dreams I had as a child, where my dreams had been realized, and I was finally able to fly. This dream almost always ended up with my ability being somehow lost, due to fear or lack of concentration and me falling toward the ground, only to wake up tangled in blankets on a cold cement floor.

  And now here I was, a victim of self-fulfilling prophecy.

  I faltered and missed a step as my foot landed wrong and I slipped sideways toppling over and falling downward. I let out a scream that was quickly stripped away by the wind around me and my primal brain shouted alongside my rational one for several long moments and I plummeted to the ground.

  And then I was no longer falling. I was gliding, awkwardly. I felt talons digging into my shoulders even as I noticed a shadow had blotted out the limited light from the pale overcast sky above.

  “You really need to stop eating so much.” Corvin crowed in my mind.

  I looked up to see the chuckling creature that was my bonded familiar, now in a slightly larger form. His body had grown to be nearly the size of a medium sized hog, with wings spanning out well over twenty feet tip-to-tip.

  “Have you always been so big, yourself?” I asked as my thoughts began to calm down a bit. The pain in my shoulder was helping me to focus faster on the matter at hand.

  “Only after you hit Rank Two.” Was the response I received to my question before he added, “Are you okay, and can you continue?”

  The words in my mind were accompanied by worry and a sense of protectiveness that made me wince as I recalled my state from not so long ago. He had been worried then, and no doubt he would not want to go back to that feeling of disconnected helplessness again. I could get behind the sentiment, fully.

  “I’m good, thanks.” I said, not bothering to belittle his feelings or make some glib remark to save face. He cared and that meant I had to play nice, though I’d still get him back for the pie theft.

  I shook my shoulders as he loosened his grip and allowed me to fall in a control fall, speeding forward at an angle rather than straight down. He had helped by stabilizing our descent and that was enough to help my brain regain proper functionality.

  I took several more steps skipping quickly and letting my body pitch forward a bit more than would be safe if not for the safety net that was my flighty friend. I knew he would catch me if I somehow got turned upside down again. I was also getting lower now, my altitude having dropped quite a bit before I was grabbed. I could clearly see the waters below as we covered the distance, and I watched the scenery race by. We were making timely progress, or so I thought as we sped along.

  I saw other boats along the river, tied alongside the shoreline. In some instances, I would catch sight of small campsites along the river with people sitting around campfires in this late evening air. I waved to random groups of people, though most never seemed to notice me.

  I did spot one pair of children playing near the river who in turn spotted me as I came flying by, and I decided to show off just a bit.

  I let my steps take me lower to the water, coming down close enough to be level with the trees before I leapt forward and landed on the river, relying on the Water Walk spell to allow me to slide across the blue, mirror-like surface. A cascading wake of ripples of mist formed behind me as I skated across the water like an ungraceful figure skater, and I will admit I loved every second of it.

  The children gasped in amazement even as some adults noticed my display, letting out small bursts of affirmative appreciation even as I stepped back into the air before all of my momentum could be bled away.

  Corvin had slowed a bit in his flight as he sensed the outline of my planned stunt before I had committed to it as if he knew I could use a little stress release. It felt amazing to slide across the surface of the river like that, and even more amazing to have such a wonderful audience.

  I felt all warm and fuzzy inside.

  Which of course was when I heard the screaming.