Cerulean Planet (Blue Dust Trilogy #1)

Chapter 16

They travelled on water for more than 20 hours before they saw the first patch of dry land.

It was far bigger than the first piece of land they had crashed onto, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The monster got out of the water, shifting from carrying a sleeping Jiayun on their back to carrying him in their arms before stepping onto land. Despite being in humanoid form, they walked steadily without sway. Jiayun never once stirred.

A hot, dry breeze rose up from the surface of the terrain. Jiayun opened his bleary eyes and asked, "Did you find land?"

The monster had already walked up and down the land once with him in their arms. The ground was flat. Uneven bumps along the terrain indicated that it had also been impacted by the meteor shower, but most of the land was covered in golden sand. There were a few smaller fumaroles and little else. The monster decided that Jiayun would not like it here. "Mn, but it is not ideal. We will need to keep looking. Go back to sleep."

Jiayun blinked. Nothing in his field of vision seemed to catch his attention, so he listened to the monster, closed his eyes, and continued to sleep.

They went back into the water and continued swimming. The monster surveyed the underwater topography and found a few more patches of land, but none of them were very large.

Every patch of dry land was a little different. Jiayun said that searching for new lands was a fascinating and meaningful task, and told the monster to wake him up every time they stepped on land. He would get on the ground, hop and jump around to stretch his body, have a round of discussion with the monster, before the two decide to get back in the water. The monster was quite strict with their criteria for selecting their habitat. There were a few places where even Jiayun thought they should just settle down, but nonetheless, the monster would firmly decide to turn and leave.

The day passed and night fell. The monster marched along the ice. Jiayun was no longer interested in coming out and stayed inside them like a parasite.

Even though it would be far faster if the monster were to take on their many-tentacled shape, they chose to remain in humanoid form the entire time. Jiayun recalled himself once saying that he didn't like the way their tentacles looked. Maybe that was why the monster insisted on keeping this form?

Jiayun felt his heart soften at the thought.

The two of them talked as they walked. Their journey in search of a "home" was not at all a dull experience. Time seemed to gallop by as they traversed great distances across darkness and silence. Due to the vents underwater, the surface of the icy layer took on all sorts of strange shapes. There were jungles made of icicles and waves cemented in ice, sometimes undulating and sometimes crashing together to form sharp bumps. There would be land, too. More walking, fumaroles, ice craves, icy surfaces, and more land.

Jiayun felt as though his sense of time was being rewritten. His wrist watch was again reminding him that the sun was about to rise. Even though nearly a week in Earth time had passed, it felt like only a single day and night.

He stared at the horizon where warm, purple clouds began to rise. They were heading in the direction of sunrise.

Rays from the sun began casting its light along the edge of the planet and water vapour permeated the sunlit half of the sphere. The shimmering vapours, along with warm sunlight, bombarded them.

Jiayun had grown accustomed to the magnificent dawn, but he squinted his eyes nonetheless and fixed them at the rising sun.

A split second later, he saw patches of shadows in the distance. The monster must have seen them too; islands with towering peaks.