Eternal Skies [Dr. Stone]

Chapter Four: Senku VS Aria

(Featuring some new Aria art <3)

The hazel-eyed girl raised an eyebrow, her eyes widening seeing it all fall into place. "Oh! That's it!" She smiled, picking up the blueprints with excitement. His lips curled into a gentle smile, reaching and picking Aria up by the arm. "Come on, let's go get some ice cream! You need a serious break."

She chuckled lightly, dropping the paper back on the desk before following close beside him, "Alright alright, heh thank you, Toshi-san."

Toshiro turned and gave her a close-eyed smile, tilting his head playfully, "Of course, Ari-chan. What are friends for?"

━━━─── • ───━━━

Aria's consciousness began to come to, her eyes slowly opening. Her vision came into focus, making out what looked like a basket full of oddly shaped rocks in front of her. Tilting her head she looked around the rest of the room, however it was too dark to make out anything farther away. The only light was the sun ribboning between the cracks of the entrance. Her memory was fuzzy when trying to remember what happened.

"Where am I..?" She mumbled to no one in particular besides herself.

Using her elbows to help herself sit up, a sudden pinch makes Aria stop. Looking down she saw her side had been bandaged up, 'Ah, I remember now.' It was then coming back to her. To the side were a few spots on her arms and legs that had some sort of mush on it. Dipping it with her finger she brought it up to her nose, sniffing it to figure out what it was.

"Clay?" She then took a small lick, her face scrunching up and spit it out instantly. "Anti-Inflammatory Clay probably." And just by the smell of the other cream on her small cuts, she could tell it was a sort of herbal paste.

Using the wall to help herself stand, Aria makes her way toward the door. Upon opening it she became blinded, needing to guard her eyes to let them adjust. When they did, a look of awe spread across her face. The smell of salt filled her nostrils as the warm sun reflected off of a large body of water connecting to the ocean, surrounded by mountains and forests. Closest to the mainland, were two islands chained together with rope bridges and homes decorating the surface of them like little fairy cottages. Some of them appeared to be in the process of being rebuilt, but the sight was still beautiful, part of her felt like perhaps she was dreaming again.

Bringing her attention to the ground around her, whatever this structure-on-stilts was didn't appear to be on any smaller island like the village. Looking down, she saw a group of people around a tall furnace, crying and screaming like those bodybuilders in shows do when they lift their max. Their faces were practically sunken, no longer looking like living humans.

'What kind of odd monkey breed are they..?' She thought with a deadpan face. A ladder leaned against the rim below her, which she carefully used to climb down.

"Don't you dare give up and let it get cold!" Yelled a green-haired fellow in front.

An athletically slim blonde woman shouted to the man across as she was actually breaking a lot of sweat. "How much longer is this going to take?!"

The said lad was beginning to slow down, trying his best to keep up while calculating the question, becoming out of breath. "Let's see..maybe...20 to 30 more hours!"

To this the three others, which involved the blonde gorilla, a brunette man with a rope around his forehead, and a smaller child that looked to have the head of a melon; all screamed out in response- "Iron-making is bad!"

Aria raised a brow, 'They're trying to make iron with those things?' Was her first thought. Aria then looked over, noticing the small girl about to collapse. She rushed over and managed to catch the melon child with her arm. She lied her down gently so the girl didn't hit her head from her fall.