NOVEL NEXT Chapter 109: The stream
"Good, It's completely normal to feel uncomfortable now that you 'see' yourself in a body that is not yours, but you have to keep in mind, that what you are looking at is not real, everything is an illusion little Aether, and by that I mean your senses as well," Explained grandmother to which I subconsciously nodded.
I was still preoccupied with my now human hands, as I brought them closer to my face and then constantly glanced at my feet. I was wearing something akin to a long blue robe of sorts, while my bare soles touched the grass below causing me to feel quite uncomfortable.
I raised my head and looked at my grandmother's deep calm purple eyes before asking hesitantly, "This...this is not real?" She gently smiled at that and shook her head before answering. "No, nothing is. To put it in simple terms, you might say that I'm fooling your senses into thinking that everything is real,"
I slowly nodded as I took a few steps around the grass which caused me to almost fall to the ground. I was already too used to walking on four legs that now that I could only see two, my sense of balance was messed up. My grandmother gave me some space to get used to walking around, all the while silently giggling every time I fell.
'Grandma, you are having way too much fun with this,' I inwardly grumbled. It wasn't until a few hours had passed that I was finally able to walk somewhat normally. I had also gotten used to my new vision with the various elements flying about everywhere and the massive mana stream in the sky.
"Not bad little Aether," Praised grandma as she nodded in approval before adding, "It took your grandfather two days to get used to a human form when I forced him to try It, and he kept grumbling about It the whole time, but look at you, you are a natural!" She said with a sweet smile, a dangerous glint seemed to flash through her eyes as she looked at me with a very pleased expression.
"Now we can definitely fool those bastards," She silently muttered to herself with a chuckle causing me to suddenly have goosebumps. 'I don't like this,' I gulped. Grandma didn't seem to notice nor mind as she walked closer, circled me a few times while nodding before speaking.
"Okay, I think we should be good to go!" She suddenly exclaimed causing me to frown as I asked hesitantly, "Uh, go? Go where grandma?" At my question, she gave off her usual sweet smile before answering, "That's cute how you call me Grandma," She said while cradling my face with her hands.
"And obviously, time to go for our main event, the land of the gods!" She said with a beaming smile. "I'm so excited, this is the first time I'm taking someone with me you know? That old lizard is no fun all he does is complain, can you believe he wanted to forcefully enter their land without even changing his form or even attempting a disguise? The last thing we need is the gods thinking we are starting another invasion," She shook her head.
'Wait, another invasion? What do you mean another??' My eyes widened in surprise yet I tried to remain calm while I nodded as if everything grandma had said made complete sense.
"So now that it's just the two of us!" She suddenly grabbed my hands and looked at me with shining eyes. "We can eat all the food we want! And I wouldn't have to look suspicious eating alone!" She said with a beaming smile.
'Good heavens, so that's why she wants to go there so badly? Grandma is a foodie...' I inwardly sighed. 'I can't believe she wants to risk so much, and infiltrate the so-called land of Gods for food...' The mental image I had built of grandma slowly came crumbling down, to be replaced by that of a gluttonous dragon.
"Is this really okay?" I asked her carefully while pointing at myself. Although I could now walk 'normally' in this new body, I could still not run, and I still found It hard to do any special tasks that involved using my fingers, and so I still had some concerns that the Gods might easily be able to see through my disguise.
In response to my concerns, Grandmother lightly tapped my shoulder in a comforting manner before speaking. "Just follow what I say, and trust me, no one, and I mean, no one will see through your disguise," She said with a wide grin. 'I mean, at least she's very confident,' I noted before nodding in response.
"Okay, let's do it then!" Seeing no point in delaying the inevitable, I answered with a somewhat excited voice. In reality, I was still terrified and immensely uncomfortable, and so I figured the best way to handle things was to just get through with it as fast as possible and go back to my normal form.
"Great! You don't need to do anything, just try to maintain your balance," Before I could question what she meant, my now 'two' feet left the ground as my body was suddenly raised to the sky, I suddenly felt disoriented as I was almost sent spinning backward.
It took me a few seconds before I finally managed to regain my balance, all the while grandmother watched on with a bemused expression on her face. At first, the speed of our flight was akin to that of walking on the ground, soon, however, as I slowly got used to everything, grandmother slowly but steadily raised her speed.
Before I knew It, we were already sailing through the sky like a meteor, leaving behind two streaks of light, one gray the other blue. Since we were in the sky, my view of the mana stream was better than when we were still on the ground, and my eyes were glued to the magnificent stream.
All sorts of giant elements seemed to swim along, all together, following the flow of the stream. Some of the elements looked incredibly intimidating with large forms that blotted the sky causing me to gaze at them with awe-filled eyes, while others were extremely small, some wisp-shaped, while others were vaguely humanoid.
The different colored elements came together to form what looked like an ethereal rainbow. For a moment I was unable to take my eyes off it, fascinated with its beauty. It was then that grandmother's hand lightly tapped my head, her gentle voice reverberated in my ears.
"Don't look at the stream for too long little Aether, you are still not that strong," She chuckled, bringing me out of my trance. I gazed about in surprise as I felt goosebumps along my skin. 'That was dangerous,' I noted.
Just then, grandmother suddenly added. "You can see it now, the land of the Gods," She said with an undisguised hint of excitement.