“When commanding an airship over a normal water-faring one, you have to take into account what's around you more than one would normally. Giants of the sky don't like having their territory intruded upon and will cast you down faster than you can shout. What's below can be even more dangerous. You are a target in the sky, and even as fast as some of the ships soar, you can't outrun most of what chases you.” - Lecture of Sky ships to new recruits of Karvum's Aerial Division.

  

  There was a lot to unpack in what we’d just seen, but neither of us seemed keen to pick up or start that discussion. The island we picked out was relatively small, and only three islands distant from our last one. Unsurprisingly, we went in the opposite direction of the horror. It contained ruins of what had to be part of the corner of a castle wall. None of the other surrounding islands had other parts of the structure. The monster of choice for the island was more bugs, a large beetle that had homes dug inside the walls. It's something we found out before landing by watching for a moment. We made quick work of the cluster of six, harvested the cores, and stored the bodies.

  It might have been a bit much, but there wasn't an obvious limit on the event's spatial storage, so I was going to take everything, not nailed down, and sometimes, if I could, even that. We made camp in a nook of the crumbled wall one of the Beatles must have been using as a sleeping spot. The treasure of the island could wait until we were rested. Umbra was in a highly protective mood as well after the events of the day, and she had curled in front of the entrance, letting out soft rumbles. Pulling out my bedroll, I set it on the ground next to Umbra and sat on it, leaning on her side. I was starting to feel the edge of tiredness, and my legs did feel sore from all the flying. Taking off my helmet, I enjoyed the cool air that brushed my face and was finally able to reach up and rub my ears. They were damp with sweat. Seeing as Umbra wasn't going to bring it up, I sighed and spoke.

  “What do you think of that thing? It was huge and..” I struggled for a moment trying to think of the word for it, and then it clicked: “It was wrong.” There wasn't any other way to describe it.

  Umbra didn't answer at first, and I thought she wasn't going to, but after a slight tap through the bond, she heaved a sigh and lifted her head, looking down at me but not in a disapproving or upset way.

  “What do you mean shouldn’t exist?” I titled my head at her words.

  Thinking about her words, I slowly nodded. I hadn’t seen what she had even through her eyes, but Umbra's shudder was telling. A creature, no, a monster, that wasn't meant to exist in this realm, then why was it here? It definitely wasn't part of this place. The bigger question I was worried about was if there were more of those things. One was avoidable. There wasn't any chance I would go near that island. Even if I wanted to, Umbra was more likely to send me floating in the void around us than let me near that place. If there were more of those things, then what? We'd be more careful. That was a given. Was there anything else we could do? Not anything I could think of off the tip of my ears.

  I wasn't ignorant to the fact that monsters were dangerous here, but this seemed a little much for an event, and they weren't the only threat. Other people were here, and if Arilon was an example, none or very few of them would be friendly. There were a number of other things that could also be a problem.

  Leaning my head back, I breathed out a breath and then had a thought. “What should we do if we find others? Do we break their storage and take their items? We could force them out of the event.”

  Umbra blinked, surprised, then showed her teeth and gave a thoughtful rumble.

  I hesitated; we didn't have to kill people to gain their items, but even that idea had an uncomfortable feeling running up my spine. I wasn't a stranger to the idea of the strong taking what they wanted. The pack at home had a structure of higher-level wolves eating first when prey was hard to find. The hierarchy of each wolf was derived from their strength. If you wanted to lead a hunt, you had to prove your worth. That said, the mother and nursing wolves were always fed, and the sick were tended to. Kulni treated each wolf in her pack with as much fairness as she could. When others had entered the forest, she didn't aim to kill but chase off, as long as they didn't hurt one of hers, and from what I'd learned, she'd helped to form Arilon. Would my mother take from others if she were here? Maybe, but she wouldn't pick on the weak.

  Looking at my hands, I thought about what I wanted to be like, not just here in the event but in the future. I was strong, as far as a grade two went, and bonded to Umbra. If we wanted, we could take what we wanted from most. I wanted to be like my mother, maybe not lead a pack, which did seem like hard work, but I did want to have rules I held myself to. Feeling the bond, I tried to get a thought from Umbra, but her side was quiet and her emotions hidden. She wanted me to make a choice without her input. I almost grumbled about it but held off.

  “I think,” I said, starting slowly, “we should take it person by person. I know there will be some that try to take from me, and I don't, can't, allow that. They can pay for the attempt with their own items or blood.” There was a tinge of positiveness to my voice that surprised me, but it wasn't a fake feeling. Each and every enchanted item we found was ours.

  Umbra let out a draconic chuckle, and finally, I felt agreement from the bond.

  Grinning up at her, I nodded, my tail twitching in humor. “As for the others, if they have something we want, we can at least try to trade first. Not every meeting should lead to violence. If they do want to fight, at least we can say we tried.”

  Umbra said, and I almost sighed at the motherly tone in her voice. That monster had her stressed. I didn't argue with my bond partly because sitting down had me realizing how sore my legs felt, and an hour or two of sleep did sound nice. Yawning, I nudged Umbra with my head. “Wake me up in a few hours or if you need to sleep.”

  With only a flicker of amusement that I felt through the bond, I dozed off.

  

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  I looked down at my bond, watching as sleep took her before finally relaxing a little. She was as safe as I could make her. The urge to create a wall of frost to block any chance of anything coming in was tempting, but I forced it down. Turning my head, I looked around at the landscape. The island we were on was normal-sized for the area we were in, but we were only on the edge, something Aster hadn't noticed yet. I couldn't see the inner part of the realm even when we were flying, but I could tell the islands had a curve. Heading towards the center would have to be what we aimed for. I'd mention it to her when she awoke. Idly scraping the dirt with nothing to do but look around, I couldn't help but think back to that thing. I shuddered, my wings twitching. There was another thing I'd kept to myself. I'd identified the thing, and the screen that appeared was just as horrific as the horror itself. Glancing at it, I had to wonder again why it was here.

  [Death Walker - Azthiz]

  No level was listed; there wasn't even a spot for a level, but it had its name, or at least I thought that was its name. I couldn't imagine what that meant, but I didn't want to know. Sighing, I pushed the message away. There was a chance that this Azthiz was just a one-time thing, and hopefully, it stayed on that island. When Aster woke up, we would move closer to the center and away from it.

  

  I knew I didn't have any dreams as it only felt like moments I was asleep before Umbra woke me up with a nudge. My first response was a groan and then a stretch. I winced as my head connected with Umbra's scales. Rubbing my knuckles, I sat up and finally opened my eyes, wiping at them. My bond rumbled with amusement above me, and I grumbled.

  There were any number of good mornings I could have started with, but my first question was what I felt was necessary: “Did anything happen?”

  That was an uncomfortable thought, but I guess it made sense. If the floating islands didn't give it away, this wasn't a proper realm. Fixing my tossed and tangled hair, I started to retie it, then paused and switched to braiding it. I hated the tight feeling, but if I was going to be wearing my helmet constantly, it would help. “Are you ready for a rest?” I asked as I worked.

  To my surprise, Umbra shook her head, then at my concerned look, she elaborated,

  I gave a nod of understanding but couldn't hide the worry from the bond I still felt, even if it was unfounded. “Okay.” I started slowly. “I'm surprised I never noticed it before, but if you're sure.”

  Umbra grinned and looked a little sheepish, or was it dragonish? Where did that saying even come from?

  I furrowed my eyebrows. “So more sleep is needed at first. What about eating the cores?”

  “The more I learn about dragons, the more interesting it is. Do you know if any other races have anything like this?”

  The flat look she gave had me rubbing my ears. Oh yeah, me, Beast Kin. I raised my hand. “Hey! I'm not sure how much of that is related to my race or being bonded to you, and there is my racial class and its weird skills.” I might have sounded slightly defensive, but I had a lot going on.

  “Well, yeah, but...” I trailed off. I didn't exactly have a good defense there.

  I threw my hands up. “Fine, but I'm sure there are other races that have just as special abilities. Let's eat and then find this island's treasure.” I grumbled a bit as I pulled out dried meat for myself and half a monster corpse for Umbra. I ate. Washing down the meat with some water, I got up. The alcove was small, but I was still able to stretch. Feeling my joints pop, I groaned and looked around, picking up my helmet and holding it under my arm. Then I looked at the scaled wall blocking my exit.

  Umbra.”

  She looked over at me. She had the last of her meal in her mouth and rolled her eyes as she moved to the side, almost reluctantly.

  Slipping on my helmet, I switched to speaking through the bond.

  Of course, Umbra had objections, but I only crossed my arms. Umbra could care for me as much as she wanted. I couldn't stop her, and I wouldn't, but she had to deal with me doing the same.

  Setting out, I started my search around the island, checking the obvious places first. The island wasn't exactly circular and was more shaped like a crumbled brick. Pieces of the island too small to stand on were floating around the edges. I was tempted to try balancing on a few to see if it would hold my weight but thought better after a small hiss of warning through the bond. Turning my attention back to the task, I started my search. The item, or rather a pair of items, ended up being on top of the wall, hidden under a stone flag cap that had almost crumbled into dust. The only reason we found it was due to Umbra's landing on the island, shifting the mason work, and her sense to find mana-filled items equal to my sense to see mana when meditating. It told her something was drawing in mana around the wall, and that had been enough. How hard was it for others to find these items? I guessed that if one couldn't feel mana, maybe an item could be created, but that had to be challenging.

  Sitting with Umbra, I held both items up in the palms of my hand. One was a small tower one could find at the end of the wall made of black crystal, and the other was a strange carving in the shape of a horse head with a flat base made of white crystal. Focusing on them, I identified the items.

  [Black Castle Piece - Rare - This item can be set up on a wall to magically increase the durability of the stone within four hundred feet of the piece as long as mana is fed into the item. This item is part of the King’s Defense set.]

  [White Rook Piece - Rare - This item can be held while riding an equine to increase the pace of the riders and mount as long as mana is fed into the item. This item is part of the King's Offense set.]

  “Ooh, I've never seen set pieces. I wonder if others are in the realm?” I looked up to Umbra, but she didn't have an answer and didn't seem interested in the enchanted items. I could understand why. They didn't have a use for us. The Castle piece might be useful, but the Rook didn't affect Umbra, so it would probably just be tossed into storage and forgotten about.

  Turning, I looked around. The sleep had helped, and the food even more. I was ready to go. “What Island do you think we should head towards next?”

  My bond didn't reply for a moment as I clambered up her side and into place. Once I was tied off, she did speak. .

  I tilted my head from side to side as Umbra turned to look at me. I hadn't noticed what she was pointing out, but this had to be a limited place, so it did make sense.

  Neither of us had an answer to my question, but we both knew our goal now. If there was a center to this place, we wanted to find it.