Chapter 31: Sky Whales
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Such vast, beautiful skies...
With the help of mother’s familiar, a giant white owl, we traveled across the skies.
Although it feels cliché to say this, it was definitely a beautiful sight.
As we flew higher and higher, I was eventually able to see where we were.
From the perspective I currently had, a massive landscape was laid out in front of us. The forests, the mountains, and even our house, it had become tiny, with the latter becoming as tiny as an ant.
“Wow...”
.....
Then again, this was a floating continent, so it was so big that I couldn’t see the edges of this floating land until we got way, way higher into the skies.
Nevertheless, the breeze was truly pleasant, relaxing, soothing even.
Plus, there were a lot of places I sighted. Large ruins scattered everywhere, abandoned temples, and massive mountain ranges with peaks that have snow on top of them.
We also saw a few large monsters roaming around while traveling. Some of them were enormous birds flying by our side, while some were wyverns. Fortunately, they didn’t attack us and instead flew near us before moving past, heading to their own destinations.
It was so fun...
“Do you like the skies, Sylphy?” my father asked.
“I do! I do!”
“Isn’t it a beautiful and calming place?” my mother asked soon after.
“It is...”
“We should reach the edge of the continent in a few more minutes,” Eustace said after that, flapping his wings as he flew even faster. While doing so, he extended them so he could glide through the strong currents around us.
FLAAAAAASH!
At this point, I looked down as I felt a bit dizzy once more. But then, I noticed a large lake, the largest I’ve ever seen actually. It was surrounded by jungle-like forests where giant elephant-like beasts with three trunks peacefully lived.
Then, on the other side, I saw a large green lizard chasing down a herd of deer with sharp crystal horns, opening its large jaw as it tried to catch one. Unfortunately for the lizard, its running speed wasn’t the greatest compared to the deer.
On another part of the lake, I saw a family of wyverns, a lesser species that originated from the clade of dragons. From what I know, they’re unintelligent and are considered wild beasts instead of monsters. They differentiate from dragons in that they don’t possess a second pair of limbs to make up their wings. Also, their front limbs are their wings, like birds or bats.
Across this journey in the skies, I saw at least five different species of wyverns, all of them having beautiful and colorful scales. In fact, some had an array of colors on their heads, forming giant crests. Often, the males had the most colorful crests to attract females in courtship rituals.
We even saw two males battling in the skies while a group of females watched. I think they were battling for mating rights. I guess this month was wyvern mating season.
In any case, it was an interesting sight to see, but it wasn’t until now that I was left speechless.
“GRUUUOOOOONNN...!”
A thunderous sound resounded throughout the sea of clouds as I saw a figure slowly emerge from within the vast whiteness.
“Gruuoonn...”
“Grruuuoon...”
“GRUUOOONNN...!”
They were... enormous whales.
“Oh! Look at that, a family of Sky Whales,” my father told me, pointing at the beasts swimming through the clouds as if it were water.
Sky Whales were a race of large beasts that lived only in the skies. They had the ability to swim through clouds, and always followed them while traveling across the skies. Their enormous bodies were majestic, each one being as big as an island. Naturally, there were smaller ones as well. Those were the size of a small town.
The little Sky Whale babies floated around their mother, who offered them protection and also nourishment through milk. Surprisingly, we even saw them drinking milk from their mother.
The beautiful and enormous Sky Whale had the resemblance of a normal whale I’ve seen in fairy tale books from this world. They’re said to be mammalian marine creatures of gargantuan sizes who feed on large quantities of small organisms by opening their jaws.
Then again, there are also predator whales, powerful and big predators such as Killer Whales and Sperm Whales. I wonder if they have Sky Whale equivalents...
“There’s something particular in these creatures, the back of their bodies are so vast that they grow enormous ecosystems atop them. Plants, animals, birds, and more creatures live in such places, actually. The oldest of Sky Whales can be as big as a large-sized island, and it has been discovered that they harbor whole ecosystems and even people on top of them. Some times, tribal races of flying beast kin live on their backs,” my mother told me.
“Ooh... that’s a big one... does it have people?” I wondered.
“It probably has some, but we can’t get closer. We would end up taking a detour at that point,” father replied.
The large whale sang a bit more as it began to delve deeper into the sea of clouds.
Suddenly, a large mass of black clouds emerged before us. Seeing that, the whales entered it, and soon, we lost sight of them.
“Are they going to be okay there?” I asked.
“Yes, they prefer black clouds as they protect them more from predators. Although it might bring a bit of calamity to those that live on their backs...” mother told me.
“We used to once travel over these moving islands. There were special dungeons left by the gods and ancient civilizations in the oldest of the Sky Whales, where we found powerful ancient artifacts and weapons to aid us in our journey,” father could not help but say.
“Oohh... you must have had a lot of fun back then!”
“Well, we did, but there were also many dangers,” mother replied, chuckling as she seemed to recall the past.
“Yeah, in our first attempt to get on a Sky Whale, we almost didn’t make it... we tried getting on one by merely using our novice flying spells. In exchange, we ended up being blown away by the pressuring winds they produced to float in midair. We were blown away into the skies several times until we finally managed to get on top of them,” father told me.
“On that day, Nepheline had emptied her stomach by throwing up so much. Hahaha!” As father narrated the story to me, mother could not help but laugh.
“O-Oh... I guess you didn’t have Eustace back then?” I asked.
“No, they recruited me way later. But since I was recruited, I’ve become their flying transport... sigh...”
I guess the owl didn’t seem to like his role too much.
“Ah, we’re getting close,” he said as I was able to take a glimpse.
Unexpectedly, it was the edge of this floating continent.
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