Needle and Thread

Save the Day!

This is the last Sunday bit I'm going to post guys. I stopped writing as much. I hope you'll still look forward to Thursday's updates :)

[@2D3D4D]

Benny looked up from his Pesterchum to see Nereida. "We're here," she said, grinning. "Just wait 'til you see it. It's AWESOME." She turned around and walked up the prow of the captured ship.

Benny followed cautiously. He wasn't very fond of walking from one ship to the next, despite the small walkway the ship's carpenter had whipped up. He always felt as though he was about to fall.

Nereida, of course, walked across no problem. He had a sneaking suspicion that she almost wanted it to break so she could swing accross to the other side, laughing like a hyena.

"C'mon, slowpoke," she called.

Benny crossed the homemade bridge and walked over to where Nereida stood. Before the prow of Nereida's ship stretched an island. It wasn't very large, but iit was more than enough to suit their needs. Benny had pictured something more Caribbean, but this one was mostly rocks and fields. A dock stretched out to meet the two ships.

"Don't we need a bay or something?"

"Why?"

"It's more defendable," Benny said, thinking of all the pirate movies he'd seen and the naval battle-style games he'd played.

"That's silly," Nereida laughed. "I would just park on the other side and come through."

Benny thought for a moment. "Touche. So, can you help me get to Roxy now? She's not on Android anymore, which is good, but I wanna get to the faunus planet ASAP."

"Chill, chill," Nereida said. "First of all, you'll want to assume Immorta so you don't die so easy. Then you'll want to get coordinates. And then we can build you a rocket."

"A rocket?" Benny echoed. "Dang. I thouht you knew where some sort of portal or something was."

"Nah," Nereida replied. "Why bother looking for those mystical portal things when we can just build you a rocket? Much cooler. Better view. Plus, I can come with you!"

"What do you mean?" Benny asked.

"Well, I can't come through those silly portals. They're only for the Player. So yeah. 'Sides, you're gonna need a partner on Faunii. Those monsters are inTENSE. Like camping."

"That pun has been way overused," Benny said.

"Not nearly enough for me to get tired of it," Nereida cheerfully said.

"When will it be finished?"

"Well, our team's petty fast. They can set you up in a month, if you give them enough materials. That's gonna be our job." Nereida grinned. "We get to send some Shadow ships to the bottom!"

"All right," Benny replied. He pulled out his mobile and shot a quick text to Roxy, telling her to stay put. "Let's do it."

"That's what I like to hear," Nereida said. "Oi! You lads! Anchor the idiot's ship here! Use her to build us a launch pad and a couple of nice underground bases! We'll ferry in the materials!"

Finally, she turned to Benny. "Okay," she said. "I've never done this before, but let's try it. We're going to my father's base. He won't object to my being here. Then we'll just kill you and pop you in the machine, and blammo! New outfit, nice haircut, and some good ol' fashioned semi-immortality."

"Okay," Benny said. "Just as long as you don't end up really killing me."

"Don't worry," Nereida said. "It won't hurt." That didn't exactly reassure Benny.

[Fandom+ (1)]

"I'm really not tired. Let's keep going," Lyra insisted.

"Are you sure?"

"Look, kid," Lyra said, "I don't lie, see? It's not my thing, see? I'm not frickin' tired. Let's go!"

"I'm kind of suspicous of this,"Andesine said.

"Eh. Be suspicious all you like. I'm going. Aren't we like nearly there?"

"Yeah, but..."

"And isn't there some huge, scary monster folllowing us?"

"Well, maybe..."

"So let's go!"

"Fine," Andesine sighed, giving up. "But if you get all weird and moody again I'm gonna slap you."

"Permission granted."

They walked farther up the mountain. The wind was rally picking up, picking up some of the smalller bits of gravel that dusted the mountains and whirling them around in a frenzied dance.

"WE'RE NEARING THE TOP!" Andesine yelled.

"THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THE WIND!" Lyra paused. "WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO US UP THERE?"

"WELL, I SUSPECT THE AIR ELEMENTALS WILL TEST US BY TEARING US OFF THE EARTH AND WHIRLING US AROUND UNTIL WE'RE HALF DEAD."

Lyra looked up. Indeed, the winds had already started swirling together. "LET'S TRY AND KEEP TOGETHER, THEN," she yelled. Andesine nodded, and they grabbed each others' hands.

Almost as soon as they reached the top of the mountain, the winds picked up to hurricane force and lifted them off the mountain.

It's hard to describe something like getting plucked on the earth as if you weighed no more than a fly. It's exhiliarating, but also terrifying. Lyra was pretty sure that she would have nightmares about the way the ground receded like a dream upon waking, the gravel stinging her arms and legs as she clung to Andesine's hand with all her might.

Andesine's eyes were tightly shut. He didn't dare open them, or he would have a panic attack. But he couldn't shut his ears, and later he would swear that the elementals creating the storm around him were laughing.

********************************

After a little bit, Lyra almost got used to it: the stinging gravel, incredible height, and lack of control stopped being so scary.

"All right," she said aloud, "I've had my fun." She pulled Andesine close to her and with the other hand drew her sword. "Take me to your leader!"

The storm didn't subside, exactly. It channeled more power into bearing the companions up rather than around, though, which didn't make Andesine any happier.

"Almost there," Lyra said comfortingly, as they burst through a layer of damp, fluffy clouds and were dumped onto a steel platform floating in the sky. "C'mon, boyo. Open your eyes."

"Is it over?"

"We're on a steel platform high in the sky," Lyra replied.

"Ugggh."

"Suit yourself," Lyra said, freeing herself from Andesine's grip and standin up. In the distance, metal spires glimmered. "I bet that's where we wanna go," she added. "Looks like a city. Hey, do you feel lighter?"

"Yes," Andesine mumbled. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "There's no chance of going down?"

Lyra shook her head. "No way but forward," she replied. "We just have to figure out which way forward is."

"And, there's your outlook on life in two sentences," Andesine said.

"It's a good outlook," Lyra replied absently. "You get some nice views."