abruptly, giving way to a field of lush green grass dotted with white and gold flowers, and then a vast blue body of water, stretching forever.
Moon landed on the shore and folded his wings. A light breeze came off the water, but he couldn’t smell salt. A short strip of sandy beach dropped away abruptly into the shallows, which were thick with reeds, cattails, and blue and purple lilies, their pads a good couple of paces across. Insects hummed and frogs sang. He stepped down to where the waves lapped the sand and crouched, scooping up a handful of water to make certain. It tasted fresh, so this could be anything from a large lake to a sweetwater sea. He stood and looked up and down the shore. The land curved out in a great arc, and there was no sign of any groundling inhabitants.
The others landed a little further up the bank, and Jade set Flower on her feet. Stone circled twice overheard, then dropped down to light near the others and shift to groundling. Moon joined the group, the grass releasing a sweet fragrance as his claws pressed it down.
Stone stretched, then winced and rubbed his neck. “I’ll scout for the island, the rest of you wait here.”
That was the only option. Flying over water was always problematic. Raksura could only go so far without rest and food, and they couldn’t get real rest without stopping to shift to groundling. And it was one thing to fly out over the shallow Yellow Sea, knowing the direction of the islands and that they lay less than a day’s flight for a warrior. It was another to fly out over an unknown body of water. But Stone had easily three times the range of even a young consort like Moon.
“You mean to start right away?” Jade looked out over the water. “You should rest and leave in the morning.”
Stone gave her a glare that Moon knew well. “I’m not wasting most of a day.”
“You should at least eat,” Moon told him. “It’s a bigger waste if you fall out of the sky and drown.”
This had the effect of transferring the glare to Moon. And Stone must be in a worse mood than it seemed, because he growled, a low rumble of threat.
Everyone twitched in nervous reaction, except for Moon, who was unimpressed, Jade, whose expression turned sardonic, and Flower, who yawned.
Stone was usually acerbic, but he didn’t growl often, especially in his groundling form. He had done a good job of hiding his impatience so far, but it was clear he hadn’t forgotten that it was his doing the court had come back to the colony tree. Moon figured that if someone was going to get slapped unconscious, it might as well be him. He said, “Good, let’s fight. That’ll save time too.”
Stone controlled a hiss, his jaw set. Then he flung his arms in the air. “Fine! Then get off your asses and hunt!”
As Stone stomped away, Chime, Balm, and Vine scattered toward the forest. “Hah,” Flower commented, and started back up the bank, wading through the tall grass.
Jade gave Moon a look, lifting a brow. He turned to stare out over the sea to avoid her gaze. Up to this point, the journey had been fairly straightforward. Now if the map was wrong, if they couldn’t find the island, they would have to turn around and go back to Indigo Cloud. And then figure out where to look for a new colony.
They made a camp on one of the broad lower branches of a small mountain-tree at the edge of the forest, only about a hundred or so paces above the ground. Jade kept watch over Flower and Stone while they napped, and Balm and Vine went hunting. Chime dug in the shallows, looking for roots, and found some sand melons and big white clams, while Moon wandered along the shore and made sure nothing tried to eat him.
Balm and Vine came back shortly with two hoppers out of a herd further back in the forest, one for Stone and one for the rest of them to share. After they had cleaned up in the lake, Balm flew back up to the tree to talk to Jade. Vine stayed on the beach, and Moon took the opportunity to ask him, “Why are you so anxious to help Jade now?”
“Do I look anxious?” Vine said, cleaning his claws in the grass at the water’s edge.