Things Lost and Found (a Waglington and Mianite fanfiction)

Chapter 78

The song for this chapter is "I'm On My Way" by Phil Collins.

*Waglington's POV*

The sun shone bright as it inched above the horizon. Origin Ranch was just coming into view, and I could already make out my friends where they stood outside the shattered dome. Wow, I guess even Mianite couldn't stand up to those meteors. Martha and Mot were already here too. The odd thing was they both had horses with them. Martha was seated on her palomino, Neighbelline, reading a book. Mot stood beside a sorrel mare, rubbing her nose with one hand and holding her reins with the other.

Why would they bring horses when we can all fly? I puzzled as Donella and I landed a short distance away to avoid spooking the beasts. Akatena landed beside us. Donella and her familiar had taken the flight over as an opportunity to teach Memento how to use my magic to fly on his own. I was ecstatic that he'd been a natural; now I didn't have to carry him everywhere! He was enjoying his newfound flight too; the only time I'd seen him happier was when he had catnip. I couldn't make a wide grin leave my face as I watched him glide through the air doing backflips and rolls above us.

As we got closer, I noticed that Jordan was ferrying everyone's bags to his spectre dimension. Oh, that's brilliant! We don't have to carry our bags the whole time; why didn't I think of that? I turned to Donella and offered to take her bag, "Jordan has had a marvelous idea. I can stash your bag in my pocket dimension until we stop for lunch if you'd like." Donella agreed, keeping only her canteen and weapons on her. I would have offered to take any of Martha's extra luggage as well, but Jordan had beaten me to it.

I greeted everyone and explained that Donella was joining us to pick up a stray apprentice. I swear, after this mess, the apprentices all need to learn a homing spell centered on one of my brothers. The trip to this dimension has been a disaster. Everyone seemed fine with having her along. Her healing Sparklez and me a few weeks ago had cemented her standing as a friend to our group.

After everyone was satisfied with what they were carrying and the chatter had died down, Mot mounted his horse—who was apparently named Cinnamon—and took point. We set off heading north through the hilly forest. Mot and Martha rode while the rest of us flew. Memento entertained himself sneaking up and pouncing on my friends while they flew, at least until they started noticing him. He let up on the teasing game when Tom threatened to go back and get Doughnut 2.0. He, along with Sonja's pets, had been left with the elderly couple in Katsir who had taken care of Martha's mare for her.

After the third time we flew out of sight of the pair on horseback and had to wait for them to catch up, Tom was getting irritated. "For f*ck's sake, are we going to do this the whole way?! Put a little giddy up in those ponies!"

Mot smirked as he looked up at Tom. "Why don't you fly on ahead, Syndy, and see how the going looks once we're out of the forest?" Sonja and I looked sideways at each other, but Tom and Tucker raced off without bothering to wonder why Mot looked so smug. Sonja shrugged and flew after them more leisurely to see what was up. Jordan had been sticking to the pace Martha and Mot had set, though he did range off to either side or a little ahead to keep an eye out for mobs. He'd occasionally hover in place to fire an arrow at something he saw. Donella had been flying about even with me, though far enough away that we didn't have to make conversation. She appeared lost in her own thoughts and unhappy about something. Friend though she now was, I wasn't about to start up a conversation with her when she had that look on her face.

I was about to follow Sonja when Martha called after me mentally, Wag, maybe you should hang back. The others will return soon enough. I could feel her smiling as she said it.

What mischief did Mot just send them into? I asked, grinning. The only answer I got was a light, airy laugh. Oh, this ought to be good, I thought to myself.