Inkway to Albreton

Chapter Twenty-two

With two flying beasts in their company, Jasmine and the others found their way back to the Creature's Court with relative ease. It was, after all, located in the largest clearing in Fowlina's Forest.

They spent some time there, never daring to dismount Kur and Enkaiein as the two beasts said hello to a few creatures here and there, which they described as their old friends. With the humans wanting nothing more than to return to Castle Albreton, Kurventhor made a quick stop mainly to eat, he explained, because he had not been able to when he was trapped inside the pendant. While they were all antsy and waiting for Kur to finish gobbling down the platter of meat a human-looking man in a dazzlingly white tuxedo had placed in front of him, Jasmine could have sworn she saw a teenager with purple hair walk by. And normally that wouldn't have made her bat an eye, especially after all she had seen, but the girl looked to be entirely human except her hair color and she sported a silver dragon pendant around her neck, walking with the kind of nonchalance a human teenager shouldn't be capable of in the Court. Then again, thought Jasmine, there wasn't any guarantee it was the same pendant. And there also wasn't a guarantee the girl was entirely human in the first place, so she thought nothing more of it. Besides, the pendant meant nothing to Jasmine now that Kurventhor was restored.

"Shall we depart," said Kurventhor, and they took to the skies once more.

Enkaiein thought it best to travel above the canopy of Fowlina's Forest until they neared their destination, so Kurventhor followed him up with a mighty flap of his wings.

"Ah, it is good to fly," said Kur. "Becoming silver made my wings stiff and rigid." Jasmine felt something crack under her calves, heard it over the wind. Kur sighed happily.

"Didn't think dragons could get kinks too," said Jasmine.

"Ah, Jasmine," said Kur, "Anything with bones can get them."

Jasmine smirked, looking over towards Enkaiein but more importantly, towards Salina and Albert. Salina had mastered flying with Enkaiein by now and had enough skill to move around as she pleased knee-deep in his ink. She patted Albert on the back and then rubbed in circles as he moaned gloomily.

"Looks like the prince is still airsick," said the red knight, also glancing over from his place on Kur's back behind Jasmine. He was having a hard time containing a chuckle at Albert's expense until Jasmine elbowed him in the ribs. Then he made a noise quite like the one Albert was making and curled over himself. Jasmine did not feel bad for him.

"So it would seem," said Kur. "Alas, we shall arrive soon. Can you sense it as well? The atmosphere changes ahead."

Now that Kur mentioned it, the air did feel weird. It was as if it was misplaced, askew, like a hair pressing the wrong direction against a comb or a nail growing inward. Yet there was no physical evidence for the strange disturbance, no definite visual cue to indicate there was something awry. It sent a chill down Jasmine's spine, colder than Kurventhor's scales.

The forest warped below them.

"The rift has spread wider," said Enkaiein.

"I'm going to guess that's a bad thing," said the red knight. Jasmine couldn't disagree with him there.

"Is everyone ready," Kurventhor asked, spinning around to see Albert and Salina and Enkaiein. Salina gave him a nod, Albert braced himself and Enkaiein reared and then dove through the rift. "Here we go!"

Jasmine and the red knight clenched as hard as they could on Kur as he plummeted after Enkaiein. Like water lapping against her, everything felt like it was floating and shoving against Jasmine's skin. The air stung but it was also calm, eerily stagnant. Her senses were having a hard time keeping up with all the contradiction and so she barely knew it when Kurventhor landed in the swamplands of Otherworld, sliding through the water to decrease his momentum.