16. Flying

The leader of the margr was finally dead, and the pyramid was theirs. Jaden andFureva-Yung circled the top room where Ironhorn had made their final stand as Nox went downstairs to the green crystal room. Marius found her sitting cross-legged on the ground, sorting through chunks of crystal.
 
“Even small chunks have some gravitation push,” She explained as she set one down, and it hovered ten centimetres above the surface, “I’m hoping if I can get the right combinations, Jaden can use them to make the aircraft downstairs hover.”
 
“That’s great. Now were you hurt in the fight?” He asked, setting down his first aid kit.
Nox’s shoulder’s slumped. A chunk of crystal fell from her hand to roll into a pile with a group of other hopefuls. She nodded and indicated where the giant claw of Ironhorn’s exoskeleton had cracked her across the head.
Silently, Marius went to work, patching the girl up as she stared at the crystal pile in front of her.
I’m tired of being scared all the time, She finally thought, I just freeze up, and all I want to do is run and hide.
“And yet, you are always there trying,” Marius replied, cleaning her wound, “And that’s all anyone can ask.”
Nox turned to look Marius in his burned and patchy face, “Like you?” She reached out to gently touch his face. He flinched away.
“I’m still pretty scorched. I better go tidy up,” He said hastily, grabbing up his kit and stuffing it back into his bag, “I’m going to find some water in the Margr village. I’ll be back.”
 
Nox let her hand drop once more into her lap as she watched Marius turn the corner and disappear.
“Now, where’s he off too!” Jaden and Fureva-Yung joined Nox in the green crystal room.
 
“He’s gone to the margr village. He said he’d be back,” Nox replied thoughtfully before remembering the crystals, ”Oh, Jaden, I think we can make the aircraft downstairs hover.”
 
She demonstrated again the ability to manipulate what small force the crystals provided to make things float. With similar crystals aligned, the effect increased enough to be useful on the aircraft. Jaden’s eyes sparked brightly with the possibilities.
“No time like the present. Nox, you bring your crystals. Fureva-Yung, you bring the wing and let's see if we can’t build ourselves some sort of hovering craft.”
 
Outside, Marius was walking through the empty margr village alone. The village had no well, pond or nearby stream to provide water. Instead, each makeshift dwelling had large clay pots that had been regularly filled with water. The pots were half-filled with water stained black by soot from the fires. Marius did his best to collect enough clean water in one jug before starting his ‘tidying up’.
 
Weaving through the broken tents, he was surprised by something climbing his legs. Three somethings. He jumped and twisted, hoping to dislodge or at least see his attackers. His three attacker’s clawed feet gripped his clothing and held on, but he did see their reptilian bodies, long and whip-like, one of each leg and another climbing up his torso. The teeth of one sunk through his armour, scratching his skin beneath. The drowsy feeling once more washed over him, but he shook off the effects.
 
He activated his light gloves with a flick. Armoured up, he grabbed for the two on his legs. Both scampered away behind as the third on his torso tried crawling in under his armour. Clamping down tight with his elbow and twisting away, he blocked access. Falling to the ground, he now tried crushing them with his own weight. He hit one with his fist and felt the satisfying crack of bones as he crushed another. Evading bites from the two remaining lizards, he grabbed and flung them away. They flew across the empty village, landing on their four outstretched legs before beating a hasty retreat into the long scrub outside the village boundary.
 
Marius watched for a moment. He could tell they were still there, watching his every move. He drew his sword and charged into the scrub. One, surprised by the speed of his attack, was cut in half. The other took the chance life had offered it and ran away. When Marius was sure there were no others around, he skewered the cut one to his sword and headed back to his pot of murky water, ensuring this time that it was in a wide-open space where he couldn’t be surprised.
 
An hour and a half later, cleaned up and fully healed, Marius returned to the pyramid with a present for Fureva-Yung. He had toasted the lizard on the end of his sword and now presented it to the warrior. Bored watching the two ‘clever ones’ tinker with the pile of junk, Fureva-Yung appreciated the distraction.
“You spoil me,” Fureva-Yung said, plucking the morsel from the sword. She enjoyed the crunchy outside against the gooey interior.
“You were a long time,” Fureva-Yung commented, gesturing with the remains of her snack, “Did they give you trouble again?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Marius said jovially.
“Hmmm, he probably fell asleep again, “ Nox interrupted, looking back on Jaden’s creation.
Marius let out raucous bark of a laugh, joyous and bold enough to startle Nox and gain for himself a sideways glance from Fureva-Yung.
 
Eventually, Jaden removed two pieces of rubble that supported the wings and stepped away from the craft. It hovered a metre above the ground, slowing listing to the left.
“Well, it won’t strictly fly. There was just too much missing. But the crystals worked, and the things should float with all four of us on,” Jaden said, pointing out the crystal matrices installed under the wings, “But I could only get one engine working, so whoever is flying it will find it will want to turn left all the time.” She looked at the group, “So who is flying this thing?”
 
They all looked to Marius. He nodded, silently accepting the honour before looking from the aircraft to the stairs at the back of the room.
“Ur…how are we getting it out of here?”
“I will throw it out the window,” Fureva-Yung replied, mentioning the large opening that the aircraft had once flown through. As Nox winced at the loss of all their hard work, Fureva-Yung walked around the craft and tried to pick it up. To everyone’s surprise, it didn’t budge.
 
“Little tired there, Fureva-Yung? Let me try,” Jaden said, spitting in her hands for extra grip and also tried lifting the craft. Though it could be pushed around even by Nox, lifting was impossible. Without the forward thrust of a good throw behind it, they soon gave up going through the window and started pushing it through the pyramid’s passageways and out the front door.
 
As they walked through each room, Nox walked side by side with Guardian until they reached its charging station on the second floor.
“Thank you for your help and your strong claws,” She said, patting it once on its shiny dome and sending it to log off. Guardian reminded her of the goat-man downstairs. The Karrah leader had been the last of his kind, injured in a battle long forgotten. In their conversation, Nox had felt his yearning to go home. As they walked through the pyramid, she took note of the systems and how the Karrah’s technology had felt to experience in the alcove and the amphitheatre room. She realised there was a datasphere upon which the pyramid and its systems ran. Most of the pyramid was focused on the teleportation of consciousness through the datasphere to other places. Even out into space and beyond. But it was a long way from that datasphere, and the pyramid had no means of propulsion even if she knew where it needed to go.
 
As they passed the sleeping Karrah, Nox wished she could have done more for the noble being. Maybe, when they travelled north and finally found the Central Spire, things like getting one lost Karrah home would seem simple. She smiled at the thought and followed the others outside.
 
Fureva-Yung and Marius were pointing out into the space around the pyramid. The pyramid being their main focus up to that point, they’d little attention to the thousands of small rocks that hung in space around the pyramid. Some were small hills, others just shards of earth the size of Marius. Fureva-Yung had pulled out her rope and was trying to lasso it around a nearby shard. Nox grabbed the loop of rope with her hedge magic and hung it around the boulder with the warrior's thanks.
Planting her sizable feet firmly in the doorway of the pyramid, Fureva-Yung started pulling. The shard did not budge. She pulled again, wrapping the roped around her bulging arms. Something gave, and the lump of earth and rock was yanked across the space directly at Fureva-Yung. Unable to move in time, the shard smashed into Fureva-Yung at speed. Safe inside the Pyramid, Jaden could only watch as Nox dived and rolled away from the falling Fureva-Yung, and Marius barely escaped Fureva-Yung pulling him down with her. Where Fureva-Yung had been, the shard fifty centimetres across and a metre and a half tall now stood, a mangled impression of Fureva-Yung’s face on its surface.
 
Fureva-Yung stood, rubbing both her face and butt cheeks as she examined the rock. Marius pushed the shard, but it held firm, just like it had before.
“I wonder if there’s a minimum mass it has to be?” He wondered and looked to Fureva-Yung, “Want to find out?”
 
Together Fureva-Yung and Marius started chipping away at the shard. Each chip fell away like ordinary rock, but with each chip removed, the whole shard started sinking. Fureva-Yung piled the chips onto the shard, and the entire pile rose once more.
 
“What is this stuff? What can you tell us about it?” Marius handed a piece to Nox, who juggled the piece in her hand, judging it much lighter than she’d expected from its size. She scanned the sample surprised at a beautiful and perfect hexagonal carbon matrix only one atom thick. The matrix was layered over and over, creating light but dense tubes. Nothing in nature was like these perfect hexagonal tubes. Nox tried comparing it to other rock strata she’d scanned in their travels, the smooth homogeneous surface of the pit, the natural layering of the limestone passages and the random crystalline structures of the crystal caverns.
 
“They’re… it's…constructed. Down at the smallest particle level, it is made…” She finally astounded the group, “I don’t think this comes from here.”
“What? From the Steadfast?” Marius joked, mentioning a group of City states far to the west. Nox looked up at him, her eyes huge, trying to grasp the thought.
Not from this world.
“But, how did it get here?” He asked, all joking aside.
“Maybe the cavern crystals? We saw it. The gas travels through universes picking up bits and pieces. Maybe it's not a coincidence that the Pyramid is here just where the crystal breaks through to the surface?” Jaden suggested.
Suddenly, Nox forgot Marius and turned to Jaden, “Jaden, this material is…strong but light, “She handed the chunk over to Jaden with a description of its make-up, ”Is that something you can use?”
Jaden nodded, made silent by the many possibilities that ran through her head, “Here, help me throw a few pieces into Bellyache for later, huh?”
 
With aircraft safely deposited on a stretch of grass beyond the rope bridge, the group climbed in, and Marius started the engine. As predicted, the craft's functional right-hand propeller pushed the craft to the left. Marius quickly learned to compensate, and they were soon skimming across the grass back to the caravan’s camp.
 
At the caravan, the wounded from the battle with the margr were coming along. Yitti was recovering, while Alton was already on his feet, helping with light duties. Thanks to the food gathering trip, the rest of the caravan was in decent shape, but fresh water was running short. Marius took the aircraft out scouting for a new campsite and soon found somewhere with a small permanent water supply and grazing for game.
 
“I’ll take the aircraft and a small group out into the forest to find the second group,” Marius announced, looking to his old compatriots Yitti and Orv, “We can be out and back in a day or two. Provide the refugees with directions for this place.”
 
Why them? They’re not us? Nox indignantly let her thoughts spill through the telepathic link, a link Yitti and Orv didn’t share.
The caravan needs strong guards while we’re gone. Fureva-Yung is needed here. Marius responded in kind.
He wanted to get moving, and he tried to catch up with his old Dritmen friends. He thought the other would like a chance to catch up with the caravan. Wasn’t Jaden always complaining about having no time to make anything?
 
He was now starting to realise it didn’t matter what he thought or wanted.
 
Orv looked ready and willing to go, a heavy club of a fallen branch resting on his shoulder. However, Yitti was still a limping mess of bandages and wounds. He didn’t look up to a potentially dangerous trip through the forest.
 
“Well, I’m going,” Jaden protested, climbing back into the aircraft after checking it over, “Who’s going to keep this crate flying, hmm?”
Fureva-Yung just sat in her seat in the middle of the aircraft, expectantly waiting to leave.
“Okay,” He finally gave in, “But tomorrow morning will be soon enough.”
 
Safe in the sounds and smells of the caravan, the group rested well. Nox curled up on a seat in the aircraft and slept through the night. The next morning, they were once again fit and well and ready for whatever adventures the day provided. Before leaving, Marius thoroughly surveyed the local landmarks as tools in navigation for their return and for that of the second group.
 
The first leg of the trip was uneventful. The aircraft glided over the grass and small bushes, only small branches and leaves disturbed by their passing. As they travelled, Marius once again actively kept an eye out for landmarks. While traversing a large clearing within the forest, Marius and the others noted a dark glint in the sky above them.
 
The glint became bigger, and details like beaks and claws became visible. Diving towards the speeding craft was a bird of prey the size of a house. Keeping his eye on the forest line ahead, Marius pushed the aircraft forward, but not before the sun was blotted from the sky and the bird attacked. A claw the size of a whole automaton raked the ground just beside the aircraft as Marius jigged to the right. As its huge wings lifted it into the air once more, the other claw grabbed for Fureva-Yung, who ducked, dodging the attack.
“Stupid house chicken!” She yelled and pulled out a small cypher from her bag. It was tiny in her hands, almost undetectable in the claw she now attached it.
 
Jaden and Nox both stood up in their seats. Jaden planted her light spear into the seat, the serious end pointing at the bird.
NO! Nox shouted in her mind. The strength of the communication got the attention of the others, but it didn’t seem to do anything to the giant bird. Frustrated, she crouched back down and waited for another chance to strike.
 
It didn’t take long as the bird gained a little height, the cypher still attached to its claw. Suddenly, the cypher emitted a piercing scream. The bird and everyone in the aircraft were deafened by the raucous screech. Though it made the bird draw back for a moment, the opportunity for a tasty treat was too good. This time it tried to grab Marius. Seeing the claw, he turned the aircraft, ramming it into the bird's underside. As he did, the spear found the bird and pierced its breast. Now it was the bird's turn to cry out a long cry of pain. Distracted, Fureva-Yung also stood, swinging her chain around her. The moving aircraft below her and the momentum of her chain above overbalanced Fureva-Yung, and she tumbled backwards off the aircraft. With the sudden loss of Fureva-Yung, the aircraft swung wildly to the left as Marius’ usual oversteer was now too much. He quickly regained control again, but the moment pause gave the bird a chance to gain height. Looking up, they could see the gash made by Jaden’s spear start to heal before their eyes.
 
The bird’s yellow eyes marked the aircraft as prey once more, and it dove, claw’s extended. Nox stood once more, holding up one of her cherished cavern crystals. Placing stasis on it, the piece of crystal was suddenly ripped from her hand as the aircraft pulled away from that spot and the bird took its place. The bird hit the immovable rock like a bullet tearing through skin and feathers before the Nox and the aircraft were out of range and the crystal was released.
 
Fureva-Yung rolled to a stop now metres behind the action. Bunching her muscles, she released them like springs speeding across the intervening space and leapt up into the air to catch the bird itself. Her chain lashed out and wrapped itself around the body of the bird.
“Not so easy to get away from Fureva-Yung flying house chicken!” She said as she now started climbing up the bird to stand on its back.
 
The bird dived, Jaden once more braced the spear, and Marius prepared himself for another ram. Nox sat in her seat and made contact with the bird’s mind. In the link, she created a creature like a giant serpent with leathery wings and long teeth dripping poison. In her mind, it flew directly towards the bird, its mouth open to strike. The bird balked at the illusion, and Marius swerved the craft into the bird again. Jaden fell at the shock of the collision, losing hold of her spear. When the bird’s claw came down on the aircraft, it found Nox sitting still, focusing on her illusion and plucked Nox from her seat. As the bird rose again, Jaden spotted the scrap of a girl and jumped. She caught the talon and held on tight as she and Nox were pulled away from Marius and the craft. Left on the ground, Marius could do nothing but keep up with the bird as it gained height taking his friends with it.
 
On top of the bird, Fureva-Yung planted her large feet on either side of the bird's back bone. With the chain pulled tight across the bird’s torso, she started twisting the two ends together. At first, only the links slipped against each other. Slowly she felt other sensations through her feet, like the wet cracking of bones and ligaments. The bird banked violently, trying to shake off the demon on its back. Fureva-Yung pulled up on the chain and pushed down on the bird. The action made her an immovable mass firmly locked in place. On the bird’s claws, however, Jaden held on for grim death. Nox screamed mentally and out loud in the bird talon, filling both the air and their minds with her fear.
 
In the fear, Nox found a new strength. Mentally she grabbed hold of this new energy and pushed. Something within the bird’s head snapped as the psychic burst found its target. The bird stopped climbing. For a second, momentum kept the bird flying until gravity took hold once more, and the bird and all started falling. Fureva-Yung shifted her weight to one side, trying to turn the bird on its side at least. Her weight on the lifeless bird tipped it over. Now belly to the sky, it dove towards the ground.
 
The crash, when it came, was a spectacular fountain of feathers, grass and dirt. Thrown clear of the devastation, Jaden rolled away into the relative comfort of tall green grass. Nox was still twisted in the claw and needed Marius to help pry her cage open. Of Fureva-Yung, there was no sign but the chain embedded across the breastbone.
 
The bird moved. Nox pulled out her tiny dagger and stumbled to the neck of the massive bird. Fearing it was healing once more, she buried herself into the short, thick feathers close to the head until she found the tissue-thin skin beneath. Cutting through with her dagger, she found the bird’s jugular and sawed away at it, severing it completely in half. Blood still under pressure from the last pumps of the heart sprayed from the cut, covering Nox and pooling around her feet. The feathers around Nox wilted and turned red as Nox stumbled back from her bloody work. The bird moved again, this time revealing the hand and head of Fureva-Yung covered in a mixture of crushed vegetation and dirt. Pushing up with her legs, she lifted the bird's body and wriggled out.
 
Marius worked his way around the group, checking everyone's health. Covered in scratches and bruises, Jaden was otherwise uninjured from the fall. Fureva-Yung seemed to have a dug a hole with her head and shoulders on landing. She sat beside the bird and rested as she slowly retrieved her chain from the broken body. Nox was standing not far away from the bird’s head, baptised in the bird’s blood. Marius took an old rag and was about to wipe the gore from her face. Nox stared ahead, her mind caught in the thralls of a new idea. For a moment, the tiny smile of exaltation stopped Marius’ hand.
“Hey? Hey! Are you okay, kid?” He wiped the worst of the gore from her and shook her shoulder. Slowing, she turned to face him, the smile only fading as she became aware of his concern.
“Huh? Oh…I think I’d like to sit down for a while.” She said quietly, her legs collapsing underneath to sit crosslegged in the grass.
“Ur…good. Good!” He left her to rest and turned his attention to the huge supply of meat and useful items that were the freshly killed bird. As Marius contemplated the enormous feathers, long strips of flesh cut off the carcass dried over a smokey fire of grass and green branches. From one of the large primaries, he sawed a slice crosswise through the shaft and offered it Fureva-Yung. She looked at him quizzically.
 
“For your chain, maybe you can make a new link from it,” He explained, placing it in her open palm. Fureva-Yung smiled, blood making her teeth a ghoulish red, and put it away beside the goat horn, a piece of diamond glass, and two links made from twisted wood and carved crystal.