A. Poison in the Blood

A.13. The Next Step

Meanwhile in Harpy hills, a city in the mountains. A tall 18 year old waited on a bridge that spread over the valley to connect the two mountains.

He had brown hair, ruffled slightly from the cold winds. He wore a suit with a red tie that, while normally hot, was snug in the cold. He had turquoise eyes like his sister, but unlike hers they didn't change colour.

This happened at the same time as the story in New Genesis, well a couple hours earlier. Time zones are weird like that.

He checked his watch.

10:35

"Sorry I'm late." A harpy landed next to him. "I overslept then I misread your letter and went to the wrong place."

Her skin was covered in tiny pink feathers. The innerparts of her wings and her headfeathers were yellow. Her head feathers were tied into two braids.

Her sky blue jumpsuit looked warm with white scarves resting around her neck and waist. She wore white boots with furry edges and woolen gloves.

A blue domino mask covered some of her face to protect her identity. She was a Powerine after all.

"It's fine. I haven't been waiting that long." That was a lie, she was half hour late but he wasn't going to use that against her.

"So why did you want to meet me mister Mystic?"

"Call me James." He didn't like being called 'mister', it made him sound like his father.

Not that he didn't like his father, he was a good guy, but he had a habit of pushing work onto others to do who knows what. James didn't want to be associated with that trait.

"Ok. So why did you want to meet me mr James?"

He decided not to correct her a second time. "I'm looking a powerful object in a vault in Ashdrift. I need you to guard it."

"Ok! That sounds easy enough." She had a friendly smile. "For how long?"

"Till we upgrade security at the vault we are going to keep it in permanently. That should take...about a week."

"Okay! Where again?"

"Ashdrift."

"What am I guarding?"

"The dream orb."

"For how long?"

"Maybe you should write this down," he kindly advised.

"Good idea. You're very smart." She took out her phone and typed everything down, still smiling.

She's a bit forgetful but from what he heard she's a good fighter.

.....

Keira added some chemicals to the goop. The last of it evaporated.

Forest sent it over after calling her to make sure she was up. Turns out Scatterstar is five hours behind New Genesis. It's midnight over there now.

The structure was interesting. The outer layers were solid and flexible but the insides was gelatin-like.

With the help of some clear crystals she also figured out how the monster was animated. Some of Forest's aura was used, that's why Draco stole some.

She sent a voice message explaining this to Forest.

She was happy that Trixie gave her a phone so they can all remain in contact. Forest and Trixie had to show her how to use it though, since she never had one.