Kona’s screams continued to haunt the ears. It should have been impossible to escaped the terrible sound, but a thunderous snoring smashed everything, and then a flicker of light slicing through the darkness.

My eyes snapped open to see a sea of enormous, fluffy, round—Asses.

Yep, bird asses.

I shook my head, trying to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Why, each time I was awake, did this world go more wired way that might lead to an unknown world only God know? Seeing these vast, round-like-balloon birds overhead gave me a hard time wrapping my focus on the impossibility.

“Thank god you’re awake, sleepy head!” 

A gasping sound startled me back to the reality. I pulled myself up with unhurt arm to look around. Kingo crippled through the patch of shrub with difficulty. It was the moment that I noticed those big ass-bird was grew out of the land; goggling from the soil to the huge stem until the round flower, I stared in disbelief: who could persuade me these flowers were just look bird, and wobbling just caused by the wind, not that they were snoring.

As if reading my thoughts, Kingo explained in a pride. “That’s Dap-dap (Dandelion Bird), Cool, right?”

Uh...why didn’t I see that? I felt my face twisted once. “They are...bird?”

“Half-half...”

“I didn’t get it.” I rubbed my temples.

“They are the half-bred descendant of Thalassophyte and Mocking, kind of noise and no way to call back once they’re freed.” she coiled and sprang onto the leaves which was ten feet highly over my head. Several swift jump had made her vanish behind thick leaves. “C’m on, Newfishiew”

Too late for the word flower to sink its meaning in my mind, I was wrapped by a long vine. Almost at the same instance before my scream oozed out, I was elated rapidly up.

A sharp wail echoed from within the Cube, followed by the horrible sound of crumpling metal. Botanic elevator wobbled and stopped.

I, startled, swung around to look, my mind so concentrated on the vines that I’d momentarily shut out the cold killer; I searched all the directions of the courtyard; I couldn’t see anything coming, but the sounds were louder—the whirring, the groaning, the wailing.and the air had brightened ever so lightly. I could make out the details of this flower field than I had been able to just minutes before.

“Kingo, Kingo...what’s wrong?” I yelled, but no one answered.

Shoot—worrying, I snatched the vine immediately with both hands and hurried to climb, directly over the spot where I had stopped. The thick leaves served well as handholds, and I was elated to find that the many spikes protruding out of the main stem were perfect supports for my feet as I climbed. I began to sped.

Once I reached a couple of feet below Kingo, a shooting-out hand pulled me directly up, making me sprawled onto the fluffy back. I choked with mouthful of cluster of feathers.

I spit. “Wha-t the hell were you doing just now?”

“Sorry, new, I was just freaked out.” a spasm of guilty tarnished her face before her body shivered again with the roar in the distance. “His howl has never been so horrible. Wh...at happened on him?”

I was still crouched over my backpack on the hairy back; I glanced up at her with a look of disgust. “You might be used to it. Possibly Vousi all have bad voice.”

Kingo frozen on the spot. “You mean...”

“I am not sure,” I shrugged. “But his face looked like them.”

Thinking about the possibility for seconds, she slowly shook her head. “No way, No one can see cold killer, no one...unless spirit possession—” her words broken in a sudden halt. “Something’s whacked. Call a whistle.”

She raised her head, howled quietly enough that I didn’t think anyone else heard, but it looked ominous. Then the sky rippled, just like the wave of water. Aflock of startled fishes—yeah, almost transparent white fishes with four tiny wings on the tails, which I was tired to be surprised—scattered everywhere.

“Kingo, what’s that?”

Kingo’s forehead creased. “It’s when the royal meet—they only call one when something weird or terrible happens.” she returned her gaze to me, a little sigh. “...But I will sent you to the Door, first.”

The deep dimness of the night was beginning to fade--the sun brightening the clouds, though it hadn’t cleared the horizon yet, far away on the other side of mountains. As we stood on the flower, it was suddenly possible to make out shapes...colors.

“Can yo sing?” Kingo asked, looking to me for some reason.

“Ha?” I asked, relief flooded my chest that my magic trip seemed come to a close, and I was getting tired of being hit by the surprise of monsters.

A fake glare was thrown on me. “Song, whatever you can.”

I snapped out of my daze and focused on her words. “I am sorry, I think we are in the escape now. It’s not a good time to KTV...Oh, wait...please don’t tell me it is some kind of way to fight against that thing?”

“You don’t know that?” Kingo barked a grunt that was probably supposed to be a surprised snort. “Are you lived?”

I didn’t know what to make of the conversation—it was hard to tell the truth: I had never lived here.

“Okay, here, Dap-dap prefer to wake up in good melody,” she sighed as if being defeated by my idiotic knowledge, almost to herself. “When they were awake, they can bring us to everywhere we want. So, your times.”

Forgive my knowledge was limited, it was impossible to imagine a flower can bring us to anywhere. Was that with some magic? I felt a flush of frustration. “Hang on, why...why don’t you do yourself?” 

Kingo had looked me square in the face for the first time, and I leaned back a few inches before she could stop herself. She rubbed her messy hair, a suspicious red color smudging her face. “I tried, but obviously they don’t like my songs.”

My eyes were widen. It was hard to believe that such a warbler-like voice could not float their boat.

She groaned as she pulled herself back a bit and crossed her legs under her. “Laugh, if you want, but hurry, we’re running out of time.”

Something in her voice lessened the embarrassment, and I made my decision. I liked her. “Fine, but don’t hold more expectation.”

I took a deep breath, a sickness growing in my stomach like an infestation. I was not sure how better my song would be than hers, because I was forbidden to descant at home. My fearsome reputation was gotten from my first music test and since then people avoid me as I was singing. I tried to remember my sound, but they had faded into obscurity. Now arousing this dark history frustrated my nerves.

“Cover your ears!”

Kingo hesitated, but obeyed.

I coughed, and started to sing, trying hard to control my tongue following with the rhythm. Soon, however, Kingo tensed her eyes dramatically, leaving no doubt as to how stupid an idea she thought that would be.

My gut clenched. I felt the thumps in my skull, and carelessly my voice rose in pitch, and it sounded to me like I was trying to be screaming. It almost startled Kingo throw herself off the flower.

She climbed with handful tightly of feathers. Then another violent wobble, she slipped down.

“Kingo—” It was that moment that I found the whole yard was quivering. I was flung to the fluffy back in poor balance.

Soon Kingo’ excited yell echoed the air, “Don’t stop, they are waking.” It touched my ear like whisper. I quickly scrambled to the edge of the flower, poking my head over to see the falling Kingo. The pathless way she took began to climb more and more steeply, it didn’t slow her down. She leap easily from one leave to another, not seeming to need her hands at all. Her perfect balance reminded me of a mountain goat.

As she finally crawled back to the top, the whole yard of Dandelion-Bird had been waken in a turmoil. Instead of their annoying snort, their coarse squeak sounded worse, and I barely read a piece of pleasant from sleep.

Then came earthquake.

The rippling sky suddenly fell, right directly down at us.

“Hold, it took off—” 

“What—”

“BIR—D”

The wind tore through her answer, lashing my hair around my face and making me shiver.

My eyes were round tensed as the flower below us started to struggled as if trying to get rid of floristic constraint.

There was a snapping of broken sound before a flicker of round birds rattled up to the sky as if a bunch of balloons .

My mind couldn’t process the view of what had happened to those dramatic flowers. My last ounce of strength disappeared, and I sprawled flat on its back, speechless for a moment.

 “Wow—what I said, cool, right?” Kingo’s jubilant cheer chanted overhead.

Without really listening, I shifted myself to the edge of its round body, stuck my head over again to get a better look now that dawn was in full force. The open sky around us was a deep pink, slowly fading into the bright golden of day, with tinges of orange from the white sun on the distant, flat horizon.

Abruptly the sky sloped.

All signs of terror catapulted out of my system. I slipped off.

A shoot-out hand caught me with a throw, pulling me up in a sit position. “Be careful, flight might be a little bumpy. Don’t slip off.”

Acid boiled in his stomach. A wave of sickness almost blinded my sight. Fighting against getting stronger feeling of emesis, I took a slow breath before I spoke. “This is what you called reliable flight?”

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Yeah, they have strong vitality, resign to any land except a little noisy, their snort...” she paused as if expecting me to be impressed. “Oh, the most importance, they are Free!”

My mouth fell open with a little popping sound. I snapped it shut at once, grinding my teeth together. No comment for her last point.

She heard that, her lips pulled tightly across her face in a mock smile. “Only pure blood has privilege to own his one Mount.”

Then the next ten minutes were an eruption of mass shock and confusion.

Though there had been no discernible change in the light since the sun and milk-white sky had appeared the morning, it felt like a sea spread over here. The sunlight showed the magic on those cloud, making them glittering like diamonds. As we ascended high enough, the wave sound touched my eardrums. Yet I could see nothing, but flocks of silver fishes.

“Hang on, we’re close!”

Kingo’s excited yell snapped me out of daze. A swift glance found the enormous stone door to the right of us seemed to defy every know law of physics as it slid along the cloud, throwing sparks and dust as it moved, rock against rock. The crunching sound rattled my bones. I realized that it was moving, heading for its neighbor to the left, ready to seal shut with its protruding rods slipping to the drilled holes across from it. More than that, the door was vanishing.

My heart was racing as Dandelion Bird dived, speeding.

However, its tiny, round body just like a table tennis ball, swirling in the wind, jittering everywhere.

“Damn it— u stupid bird, hurry up!” wind mumbled her a high-pitched, grating sound of scream.

A flicker of movement to the right caught my eyes.

Something stirred inside the Door, down the long air in front of me.

At first, a shot of panic raced through me; I leaned back, worried it might be some monster. But then several forms took shape, stumbling along the alley toward the Door. My eyes finally focused through the initial blindness of fear, and I realized it was Shawl, with Old Camel, practically dragging the old man along behind him. He looked up, seeming notice me, who knew his eyes must be bulging out of his head.

I was so stunned by the turn of events, it took a moment for me to act. “SHAWL—” finally I screamed, defending any impulse to jump into the door.

But when i turned to look into the Dandelion, and dread washed through me. We were still a hundred feet away.

The door was closing fast, seeming to quicken its pace the more I willed it to slow down. There were only seconds left until it shut completely. We had no chance of making it in time. No chance at all.

I turned to looked at Kingo, and looked back to the Door.

Shawl began running, at the closing door. Only a few feet more and it’d be over. Time was up. That was it.

I heard Kingo’s scream something from behind me.

“Don’t, don’t do that, you can match up!”

The rods on the door seemed to reach like stretched-out arms for my home. The crunching, grinding sound of the Door filled the sky, deafening.

Four feet, Three, two...

I knew I had no choice. I jumped.

Only one feet, the frame of the door vanished before I could touch it.

The Door slammed shut below me, vanished into an air of cloud, the echo of its boom still bouncing off the invisible stone like mad laughter.

-