Between The Crystals

Ch 89 The Strange Cave

I gazed out the window as I fiddled with the hem of my shirt in boredom. Mountaintops emerged so slowly that it took me a bit to register their appearance. I toyed with the idea of getting up to look out the window, but decided against it. It would probably scare me so badly I'd never step foot inside an airship again.

The windows across from me suddenly showed a hillside with scattered pine trees. When a pine tree appeared, I knew we were landing. I sat straighter but waited until Citrine stood up before getting to my feet.

Now able to see outside the windows properly, I could see we were in the rolling hills with mountains in the distance. This terrain was similar to Pine Hills, only not as dry.

Jasper came out of the control room and opened the outside door. Citrine positioned herself at my right hand again. As we followed him out of the airship, I glanced into the control room. The glowing map showed several small red dots, one of which was just outside the door, and something that occasionally flickered blue.

The green Saursune snapped a long, dead branch off a pine tree and trotted ahead of us. He stopped and held out the stick as the rattling of a rattlesnake made me pause. Using the branch, he lifted the slithering reptile and carried it ten paces away before setting it down.

I eyed up the grass around us as I kept my hand on Citrine's shoulder, letting her guide me along the path that Jasper was clearing. That was roughly where one of the red dots had been on the map. Had all those dots been snakes? If I brought a group here, I'd have to warn them to put on snake guards.

It wasn't until Citrine led me behind some tall shrubs that I spotted the crystal. After checking the grass, I knelt beside the half-grown spires. It was big enough to port to, maybe a year older than Orange Flower.

Had another village planted it and been unable to find it? Or were the Saursunes responsible? Either way, the grass was untouched and I was here now, so I carefully memorized the young crystal and scratched a location phrase into the dusty dirt. Rattlesnake Pines seemed like a very fitting name.

When we went back into the airship, I glanced into the control room, intrigued by the glowing map thing and all the stuff. Another small blue flicker on the map confirmed my guess that the growing crystals were doing something that made them easier for the Saursunes to detect. The bigger crystals must also have some value, or the Saursunes would have destroyed them long ago to keep humans away from their fields.

Citrine and I sat down as Jasper went back into the control room and closed the door. I pulled my knees against my chest, dreading our next destination. They'd taken me to three crystals, and now it was my turn to share energy with a bigger airship.

This airship suddenly seemed downright cozy when faced with the idea of having to go inside a larger, unknown one. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad. How different could the other airship be?

~

Citrine began making a purring hum, and I glanced at her since I'd been staring blankly at a window for quite some time. A sudden dimming of the light had my eyes darting back to the frontmost windows, and I tensed at the sight of flat grey walls.

Unlike the trees that had risen up as we dropped down, the walls swallowed us from the front like we were entering a huge cave. Light came from odd glowing panels on the airship's ceiling as well as from several spots on the wall outside.

My hand dropped onto Citrine's arm like it had whenever the airship had shuddered. The walls outside slowed and came to a stop. We sank down a bit, and the deep ship hum faded into silence. Well, we were here. I really, really hoped the other airship wasn't too far away.