Turning to Stone 3: Acceptance (Rewritten)

Chapter 5: Ethereal Island

Basilio waited for something to hit him, whatever was lurking in the portal or the wubboxes after him, yet he felt nothing. He cautiously opened his eyes, finding himself in what looked like a whole new dimension.

The sky around him was various shades of purple, with pink and blue occasionally mixed in. The portal had closed behind him, so there was no worry of the Council getting him here. Where am I?

Unfortunately, the ship was running out of fuel, the chase had definitely taken its toll. Fortunately though, there was an island up ahead. He could already see monsters singing and playing, although none of them looked like monsters he had ever seen before.

Basilio made a quick check of his supplies. He'd exhausted most of his rations by using them as projectiles during the fight with the Wubbox Council, but the Poewk statue was safe and sound. As he got closer to the strange island, he could hear the internal mechanisms of the ship make unsettling sounds, before stopping altogether.

They were going to crash.

"Look out!" He called to the monsters below, hoping they would hear him in time. He wrapped his body around the Poewk to shield it from any damage, closing his eyes and bracing for impact.

The ship plummeted, landing on the island and splintering apart. Yet no debris made it past Basilio's rocky skin, and he was able to shield the statue pretty well. Both of them were unharmed.

The broken ship around him prevented him from seeing the island or any of the monsters already surrounding the crash site, but he could hear them. "Move it! Out of the way!" A commanding voice called, and he saw planks being pulled away by purple, clawed hands until there was a big enough hole for the monster's cat-like face to look through.

"Oh, you're alive. What are you? Who are you?" She asked, tilting her head. A few strange orbs floated inside the ship, circling around Basilio like they were inspecting him before going back around the stranger still staring at him.

"I'm Basilio, I'm a T-rox." He groaned out, feeling cramped from being stuck under the wreckage. "Here, let me help you get out." The purple monster kept moving debris out of the way until the hole was big enough for him to get through.

He stepped out, carefully dragging the statue behind him. Now that he was out fully, he could see that his rescuer didn't have legs, just a floating wisp of a tail behind her. "What are you?" He asked, turning her questions back on her.

"What kind of a question is that? I'm Ailura the Ghazt, your savior. Pleased to meet you. I'd shake your hand but um, you don't appear to have any." She shrugged, the orbs from before circling around her at a steady pace.

"You asked it first-" Basilio muttered. "Where am I? Apologies for the crash landing, I had a... nasty run in with some other monsters." He looked back at the broken ship, feeling guilty for immediately wrecking something Mooper had spent days building.

"Haha! You're on Ethereal Island, in the Pocket Dimension! Sometimes stray portals will open up, that must be how you got in here. But what's the big ship for? Well, it's not a ship anymore, I suppose." He almost felt insulted by Ailura's words. "I'm on a mission. My partner made this statue, and they found a way to bring it to life. I'm only helping them with their mission." He explained.

"...Wow. That sounds absolutely ridiculous and sappy, but I guess that's kinda noble or something." Ailura shrugged, casually floating in front of him. Other monsters started to bombard him with questions, but the Ghazt shooed them away. "Out of the way, this guy's clearly tired. Follow me, I can help move the statue thing."

With the statue balanced half on Basilio's back and half in Ailura's arms, they managed to get it inside the castle and into a spare room. "You can stay here for now, until we decide what to do with you." She explained.