Villain's Second Heart: Trapped in A Fantasy Novel (BL)-Chapter 103: Into the Wastes

"Hold on tight," Rav instructed as the trio hopped onto the cloud.

"Hold on to what?" Ezra asked, grasping at the fluffy cloud that turned to mist in his hands.

"Me!"

Suddenly, the cloud lurched forward and began to rocket over the wide chasm of The Divide. It began to lose altitude fast, and they began falling into the wide canyon. Oberyn and Ezra gripped on for dear life, and for the first time since inhabiting Alcor’s body, Ezra did something -

He screamed.

But the wind was knocked out of his lungs as the cloud surged upwards again, ending their calamitous fall and ascending back into the sky. They began to soar over The Divide in a way that felt much less scary - and a million times safer.

As the flying cloud leveled out, Rav, standing upright with his arms crossed confidently in front of him, looked back at the two pleading young men who gripped onto his legs and laid low.

"I told you it’d be fine."

"That was NOT fine, Rav, I thought we were about to die!"

His tail curled into a question mark. "Now, why would you think a silly thing like that? Anyway - look. We’ve already crossed."

Ezra looked over the edge of the cloud with trepidation. They flew lower to the ground that he was used to, skirting over the land at a moderate speed.

As Ezra looked at the land, he saw it begin to change into something unfamiliar. Where once billowing red plants burst from the earth, their leafy forms began to thin. Over the hours that passed, the landscape soon turned to nothing but barren dirt, and as they flew into the afternoon, all they could see was wasteland.

Rav commented on the land as they flew over. "Magicians fought over this land once - the region north of Asteria. Everyone sought to claim it as their own, and it was once the most fertile and beautiful region in all the world - or so they say. Since the great war, nothing’s grown here since. A land destroyed entirely."

"That’s...kind of sad," Oberyn said. He had also calmed down from the terrifying start of their journey. Even still, he was on guard - the cloud moved slower than it should, and lurched at times as if it were about to split apart. It took nearly all of Rav’s focus to keep things together and support such a massive load.

When the sun began to set, Rav brought the cloud to a standstill. "Heenas roam in packs here. Nasty things. Nocturnal. I prefer to avoid them. Never liked dogs."

"So shouldn’t we keep going?" Oberyn said nervously. He wasn’t much of a dog person either.

Rav landed on the still ground and looked up at a massive tree - the only living thing for miles and miles. "I’m getting tired," he admitted. "It takes about 50 mana an hour to fly with one other person. With two, that’s about 100 an hour. I only have so much - or should I suck Ezra a little bit for some more?"

He winked at his words, and Ezra slapped him.

"I’d be glad to share some, but not if you talk like that."

"Fine, fine - I was ready for a break regardless. Even if my mana were unlimited, it takes an awful lot of focus to keep a cloud that big moving that fast for that long - you understand, yes?"

"Yeah. We can take a break."

They set camp on a high hill underneath the branches of the mightly tree.

"So, about those Heenas..." Oberyn said nervously.

"Oh, of course! I should have enough mana left for a basic barrier."

Rav clacked open his fan and began to dance, swirling cloud energy building around him and encircling the entire hill in a thin misty veil. The barrier obscured everything beyond it in haze, leaving them in an enclosed circle in the midst of his swirling magic.

"Nothing’s getting through that," he said proudly.

Ezra walked to the edge of the barrier, grazing against it with his hand. "How’s this work, anyway?"

Rav raised an eyebrow. "Hm? Doubting the Great Sage again, are you? Your manners need some work, Ezra. THIS barrier," he explained, puffing his chest out, "Makes it impossible for anything outside to detect anything inside. As such, we won’t have to worry about being hunted. In fact, the magic itself will serve as a deterrent for any lesser beasts. Quite fantastic, isn’t it?"

Rav turned in early after a meal of dried jerky and fruit.

"Just because they can’t get in doesn’t mean we won’t hear ’em. Ah, and when they start howling - that’s enough for even me to feel the shivers. Do try to filter it out, hm? On my end, I’ll be a little wound up."

Rav’s words were quite literal - he created a hammock from what remained of his mana and wrapped himself up in the tree like a cocoon. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Oberyn and Ezra sat by the fire. The fog wrapped around them like a barrier to another world.

"We’ll be there early tomorrow," Oberyn said. "Bree’s meeting us, and then we’ll be in the northern country."

Ezra stared into the fog, into the clean night air.

"I’m excited. More excited than nervous. We’ll never break your curse without facing trials like this, Oby. And I’m ready to learn. To get stronger."

Oberyn laughed. "Hard to believe a magical famine and a potential Harbinger is somehow less scary than the curse."

"I..." Ezra started. "I know. But the thing that scares me isn’t your curse. It’s what you’d do if I was ever not around...and so we need to find a way to heal you, no matter what. This...this is the only way."

"Yeah," Oberyn said, lying down. He liked to sleep near the fire, so close he could almost roll into it - but as a Magician who commanded explosive magic like his, a little fire was nothing to be afraid of. "I’d rather face a famine than have to deal with this curse, that’s for sure."

Ezra didn’t answer. He was with him in spirit.

He stared into the fire.

"Good night, Oberyn."

"Good night, Ezra."

’Good night, Tiana,’ Oberyn thought, looking up at the sky.

Even through the fog, the moon still glowed.

He closed his eyes tightly, guilty that he was thinking of her even now.

They fell asleep to the fire, and its warmth lasted into the morning.