"There is another!" Helie floated beside Noble as she pointed.
"Got it!" Aether called.
Sitting back to back with Roan on the griffin, Aether jotted down the point on a map he had drawn.
Even though the young man had never been a scout before, he had been a sailor and navigator for years. The only difference now was that he was tracking the ground instead of reading the stars.
With his writing utensil, he marked a black dot.
"Just one?" He asked, scanning the area.
"That is all I see," Noble answered. "And no Nightmare Creatures. I can't sense any around here at all."
Aether assigned the gate a number and flipped to a different page. He noted Noble's words. "Anything else?"
"This part of the tributary should be a straight shot to the sea. If the geography is the same as the Dream Realm, this is the main shipping channel to Bastion from the Stormsea."
"I would agree," Aether nodded.
Flint tore his eyes from the gaping hole in the landscape as he floated a little higher.
"What does that make? Thirteen?"
"Twelve. Unless you count that oddly shaped one as two." Aether counted up the dots on his map.
"I'm still not convinced it wasn't two gates," Roan pursed his lips. "The whole thing was just too strange."
"Fortunately for us, it doesn't matter. At least not here." Helie shrugged.
Whether the gate was one or two, they would avoid it.
"All in all, I think things here are better than they are in the real Bastion. Fewer gates and fewer Nightmare creatures."
The sun was beginning to get lower, and the amount of land they had covered was significant.
Flint squinted. "It's much closer to what the Waking World was like when I was born. They have another forty or fifty years before things get truly dire."
"That's assuming they follow the same type of timeline. Without the Awakened of the Spell to defend them, things could move much quicker."
"Quick or slow, at least we won't be around for its final demise. We have time to complete the Nightmare." Roan patted the griffin, who snorted in response.
"So we help the people get safely to Bastion through the maze of gates and…that's it?" Flint scratched his head.
The rest of the group remained silent for a moment.
"You make it sound easy," Helie shook her head. "There are many people with Lady Lyra. What took me mere days to cross will take a population of families and children weeks or months. It isn't a small undertaking."
"You're both right. It both seems too easy and immeasurably hard," Noble had been giving the issue a lot of thought while they flew around the countryside.
The task was simple, which seemed strange for a third Nightmare. Had they changed the original course of events so much that all they had left to do was get everyone to their new home?
On the other hand, Noble had helped with the evacuation of Antarctica and also the relocation of many others to the Dream Realm. Moving a whole population to start a new life was too big a task for five Masters, even with the ancient Saint as their guide.
No matter which way Noble looked at it, something didn't fit.
"Whether easy or hard, we will do it. One step at a time is the only way to go." Noble couldn't anticipate everything that would happen, but she could keep going. With each step, they moved closer to their goal.
Roan nodded slowly.
"On that note, have we covered everywhere we need to for today?"
Aether consulted his map. "We could head a little more east, but I think that might affect our arrival time back at the camp. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to upset the Commander. She was very specific about when we must return."
"Don't tell me you are afraid of Syrce," Flint scoffed.
The other four Masters gave him strange looks.
"Considering she exchanged an entire reality for another, she isn't exactly someone I would like to anger again. The commander already almost took my life once," Roan's winsome smile became strained.
Helie's eyes darted to the side as her voice became softer.
"The people of the court spoke of her with hushed reverence. Apparently, a man intended to kill Lady Lyra and upend the court, and Lady Syrce turned him into a toad. That's not even the strange part! When it was brought up later, she claimed to know nothing about the assassination plan and had transformed the lord because he had been unkind to the servant who served him his drink."
"You are making that up," Flint tilted up his nose against the wind.
"She's not," Noble confirmed. "I heard Syrce mention the toad incident when we first met."
Flint dropped a little in the air before regaining his height. "I think you are giving her too much credit. How would she even do such a thing? That's not even one of her powers!"
"We don't know exactly what her powers are beyond those we've seen," Roan reminded him with a frown. "And I'm not willing to test your theory. It is time to head back."
Roan pressed his heels into his mount and turned his echo around. The flapping of the griffin's wings blew back his master's blue scarf like a flag.
After tilting her head at Helie, Noble pulled her companion through the air, leaving Flint to his own devices.
"Last one there is a toad!" Noble called playfully.
Flint grunted, chasing after them before the tether forced him to move.
"The only one of us who is going to croak, Blondie, is you!"
"Oh?" Noble smirked over her shoulder. "I would have thought you would jump at the chance. Didn't you say you wanted to be kissed by a princess?"
"I believe my words were that a princess would be lucky to kiss me. I'll be a prince in my own right soon. But first, I'm going to win this race and feed you all humble pie!"
Noble tilted her head.
"You hear that, everyone? Flint is making dinner!"
"Blast it, Blondie, that's not what I said!" Flint's exclamation was lost on the wind. The race was on.
While Helie and Aether were at the mercy of their patrons of flight, Roan, Noble, and Flint gave it their all.
The speed at which they moved caused the world to pass in a blur. It felt good to let off steam, even if it burned through a little extra essence for Noble to pull Helie along at such a brisk pace.
The griffin nosed its way ahead, slowly separating from the others.
"You have to beat the men," the brunette woman coaxed as they sailed over the rivers and trees. "If we don't, we will never hear the end of it."
"Don't worry," Noble lowered her voice so that only the one closest to her could hear. "I haven't shown them my true speed yet."
As they drew near to Bastion, Noble prepared to leave Roan in her wake. But just before she did, the griffin came to a screeching halt. Noble barely missed running into its flicking tail as she passed.
"What's wrong?" Noble felt Roan's emotions spike.
He pointed to the ground.
The air around the trees below them was wavering.
A thirteenth gate was about to open.