The West of the Western Region
The West of the Western Region
Flint, tinder, bandages, dagger, map, and a bag of dry food, stuffed with beef floss.
"What about yours?" She looked to Maggie. "Check it again too."
"Coo!"
Maggie put her hand into the bag. The cloth bag was usually hidden in her fluffy hair. It was difficult to see how many things it could fit in, and both the clothes and the bag would disappear into the thin air after she transformed into a bird. It did not seem to affect Maggie much as compared to Lightning's flying ability being restricted by the weight. And, the best proof was that she pulled out more things than Lightning.
There were piles of food piling in front of Lightning, such as dried meat, meat floss, chicken drumstick, fish slices and eggs, etc.
"Oh God," she said, "we're going on an adventure, not a barbecue. You should at least bring a weapon."
"Coo, coo!" Maggie touched her beak.
"Are you saying that your beak is a weapon?" Lightning sighed. "I wonder how you're going to peck open his armor if you encounter a Judgement Army who dressed like an iron bucket! Aye, nevermind... Anyway, it's just for a day, we shouldn't encounter any danger. Let's go."
"Oh! Coo!" Maggie suddenly turned into a pigeon while running for two steps and flying close to the ground for a while before she could slowly rise.
Uh, perhaps the weight still had an impact on her.
Lightning pulled down her windproof glasses and gently took a leap, and she was already flying in front of Maggie.
She remembered the first time she saw Maggie was when she was launching a chase in the west of the forest. Although the fat pigeon did not escape from her, but at least it took her a lot of effort before she caught Maggie. Looking at her now, she would probably be caught in a blink of eyes.
It could not go on like his. It was so rare for Lightning to find a flying partner, and she would have to rely on Maggie to carry the adventure tools in the future. The little girl thought, [It seems like she would need some good exercise.]
"Coo, coo?"
Lightning slowed down her speed, flying side by side with Maggie. "Speak properly!"
"I want to ask you where we're going to explore, coo?" Pigeon said while her beak was opening and closing.
"The west side of Misty Forest, I wanted to see how big the forest is." Lightning spread the map and pointed at the white area of the west side. "And, I'll fill it in at the same time and perhaps, we would be able to see where Redwater River comes from."
After Maggie returned from the Fjords, Lightning immediately began to prepare for the adventure. Anyway, His Highness would not control where they fly during the free practice. And the little girl had a secret that she did not tell Maggie, which was that she did not dare to explore the forest alone anymore.
It was a shame for an explorer.
However, she could not deceive herself that the stone pagoda trip had made her fear for the deep forest. She could not help but want to quickly run away once she thought of those terrible monsters that may be hidden somewhere in the forest.
Luckily, she was still the daughter of the greatest explorer.
Thunder had mentioned to her that the way to overcome the fear was to approach it slowly, observe it, understand it, and ultimately she would find that "fear" was not so terrible.
Because it was the obstacles that came from the heart.
This adventure was one of Lightning's attempts, and at least she felt bolder with the company of Maggie. The route she had chosen was also very safe, which was flying westwards along Redwater River and not flying deep into the forest, so it was unlikely to encounter the demon. After she flew through this route, she should be able to try flying alone next time. She believed that one day, she would complete an entire map of the west, and once again entered the stone pagoda and revealed the truth of Holy City of Taquila.
…
Lightning was controlling her speed at around 60 kilometers along the way. Now she had learned to accurately adjust her speed by controlling the release of her magic power, and she could continue to fly all day according to the current consumption.
The method of flying along the edge of the river and forest was easier for her. The entire sight was in a dark green color, and she could not tell the direction and height as it was gloomy and depressed compared to the last stone pagoda search. Lightning's fear was fading away now with a sparkling silver belt and Maggie who was talking nonstop along the way.
"Look, there's a mountain in front, coo!"
Lightning also saw the gigantic mountain. Albeit it was far apart, its gray figure had already described its towering height. At the same time, the hills area on of the riverside was drastically reduced, and the mountains that looked upon the sea seemed to be a closed inland. The closer they were to Redwater River, the closer they were to the silver belt.
"This mountain is a little too big." She could not help being emotional. The silhouette of the mountain was increasingly clear with the decreasing distance. It was white on the top as if it was piercing straight into the clouds, although it was not like the Impassable Mountain Range that was rolling over thousands of kilometers. In terms of height, it was more than three or four times higher than the Impassable Mountain. The hills on the south side of the mountain were just a corner of it and the source of Redwater River came from this magnificent mountain.
"We're at the end of Misty Forest!" Maggie screamed excitedly.
The dark green block beneath their feet was ended. The earth had restored the light green color and it looked like a grassland. However, looking further in front, there was a touch of darkness within the scope of sight and it covered the foot of the mountain.
"Let's go down and take a look." Lightning made a gesture while diving down toward the dark earth. She soon discovered that it was a ground formed by black-colored stones.
"What's this?" Maggie pecked twice. "It seems not edible!"
"Of course not edible." Lightning picked up a black stone and carefully looked at the array, which looked angular, and although it appeared to be black, a metal shine could be seen while turning it around under the sun. The stone was everywhere, mixing with the sparse soil. It looked as if the earth was entirely soaked in the black ink at the first glance. "It may be some kind of ores. Let's bring two pieces back for His Highness to take a look."
Next was the drawing work. She returned to the air and began to record the terrain around her in details.
They had spent almost half the morning flying from Border Town to the towering mountain foot, which also meant, it was about 240 kilometers away from the town which was further than Longsong Stronghold. And this mountain... Lightning suddenly came out with an idea. [What will be the scene behind such a huge mountain? Would it be a vast jungle, or the undulating hills and mountains?]
After the fear retreated, it was difficult to suppress it the idea once it came up.
There were obviously some difficulties to cross the mountain, and it was discouraging to simply looking at the white snow on top of the mountain. However, there was another route, which was to fly around the sea or even not around the back of the mountain, but simply flying oblique towards the center of the sea, which would allow them to cast their gaze behind the mountains.
Lightning called for Maggie and warned her not to tamper around before she put on her goggle, and suddenly increased her spead to the maximum and the magic power quickly vented out. The oncoming gust of wind blew her short hair backward, and the land receded while the blue ocean was filling her entire sight.
She could faintly see behind the mountain after flying for half an hour. It seemed to have another continuous mountain that isolated the sea and the land behind the mountain, but the next scene Lightning saw had scared her.
At the end of her sight was a layer of reddish-brown fog covering the mountains, as thick as the inseparable blood. The fog was spreading all the way to the west and there was almost no border to be found.