TRANSITION:SHAROZ TO ZIXRA[]
The Sea Dragon[]
Once Nero reached the harbor, he shoved his mouse finger into the steel dial set on the diamond coated titanium door of one of the few small ships floating in the harbor. As he turned his finger in a quick combination of left and right turns the high pitch sound of diamond clashing against diamond could be heard slightly, until finally Nero pulled out his finger and opened the door.
Inside, the ship looked less secured, as the boat’s exterior was made of titanium, coated with diamond. The inside was still titanium, but a rug was laid on the floor and the walls were varnished. A light casting rune shone dimly on the ceiling and was set in a box of which the bottom slid underneath the light, to let one sleep. The boat was small--it only had two rooms, one lounge and one control room. The lounge had a one-person bed, an armchair, and a rocking chair. The control room had levers for the sails and a wheel to aim the thruster runes.
Nero gazed about dreamily, reminiscing some old memories. He walked over to a shelf and stroked it with his paw while explaining, "This is a ship I made, five back thrusters, three front thrusters and a frame that can take cannons.”
"So we are riding this ship until we get to our destination?” Neltor asked with a slight tone of disgust.
"Yes, and it’ll be better than that cargo ship we illegally boarded.” Nero replied.
"We weren’t supposed to board that ship?” Elorn asked with a voice of guilty nervousness.
"Well let’s see; we boarded the cargo ship without a permission slip stating that we could legally immigrate, I have a warrant stating that I can be killed in reward of a hundred thousand diamonds, and you two are being looked for as runts. Yes, we are permitted to just go over to Sharoz, another continent and then go on to make a guild," Nero answered in a completely sarcastic voice full of annoyance at that guild which had caused it all.
"Well then, but who's so eager to get hold of us?"
"Zovna. They want you two so that they can use you as generals in their coming battles. Their master is just too eager to expand his turf, and will do so at the expense of the lives peoples living in the villages on his turf," Nero replied with disgust. "That was why I decided to quit. But on to other matters, please read while I prepare the Sea Dragon.”
On the deck, where the engineering was visible, Nero could see that everything around him had signs of neglect. He:
- cleaned the drainage tubes,
- readjusted the metal wires,
- tightened the screws and bolts,
- polished the gears,
- recharged the energizer,
- washed the window,
- reinstalled the excess energy cannons,
- straightened the thrusters,
- polished the exterior,
- shifted the cargo for frontal weight,
- checked for rotten food,
- rationed the food supply,
- tested the radar compiler,
- planned a course to their new destination,
- filled the water bottles with the mother plant’s juices,
- packaged some of the mother plant’s vines,
- checked the weather conditions,
- rechecked everything,
- test ran everything,
- started up the engines,
- ...and started off.
...By the end of which Nero was completely tired out.
While Nero did these tedious tasks, the twins read up to Chapter 7: Using Your Surroundings, played some chess, and then looked at Nero’s geographical maps of every area in Synava, including the aquatic zones. In his mind, Elorn rapidly constructed a mental image of the charts, and sent this information to his brother.
"You could Do that?" asked Neltor, quite a bit of surprised. "No wonder you could remember stuff from so far back."
Nero then came into the inner room to see how the twins were. Elorn was the first to react, by getting up and asking, "Where did you find all those maps?”
"I have been to every continent and have been taught by some of the best cartographers. Those I drew myself,” was Nero's reply.
"You drew every part of Synava?"
"Yes, when you have as many years as I have had in your life, you find that things that never change get boring, you know what is going to happen, but geography is something that is always changing. I have swam to the bottom of the ocean and measured its floor, I have flew up into the sky to find out what way the jet streams are going, and I have climbed every mountain to get its height, and measured its circumference repeatedly to measure its average slope angle. I have recorded the fauna and flora of every ecosystem and seen them all evolve, how the only two things that haven’t died, in the sense of not being revived, is the mother plant of Sharoz and me. I can remember when the shadons were just starting to become paler, when they started to build their dome. I remember when the humans came in their metal cones and inter-bred with the other species of this planet and tried to join us with their federation, a union that has dispersed now, and how the technology they brought was banned, for the way it mass murdered. I remember when a meteor hit Synava, the crater has become flatter, but it is still an indent. I remember everyone thinking of it negatively, but I saw it as a great package of resources. I remember when the skullkas were only two meters tall, but they made a law to refine their race, and now they are two and a half meters tall. I have drawn maps like that many times, those are the most recent. This ship is my portable home, and my other one is atop our destination.”
"How long have you been alive?” asked Elorn.
"I haven’t died for the past five thousand years, the first time I was recorded in history was about forty-five thousand years and I’d estimate about five thousand years not being recognized in history, so that would be about fifty thousand years of memories.”
"Where are your other maps?” Neltor asked curiously.
"They are preserved with an ointment and kept in my home. Only the most recent maps are kept here."
"Can we see your home when we reach wherever it is we're going?”
"Yeah, like, where Are we going?"
"My home, atop Mount Omega, which is also the name of that island. It is the best place to hold refuge, but I plan to make it into a main fortress to have quicker action.”
"Can you explain your plan?”
"I can, and I will, replied Nero, before continuing.
"I plan to make a different ranking system. I will be Master of All, you and Elorn will both be generals, working with the same unit, and would lead an ambush on the other guild.
"From there I would not show up as a general, but as an anonymous mage, then change into a soldier to get closer to the fortress and then into one of their soldier’s costumes to enter the castle, then change into a messenger and get to the new warlord, from there I would kill him and change my identity into his, from their I would enter the main room, and when the guild's master gets up, I would throw a beam of energy at him, he would send it back, but with more vigor, and I would reflect it into his chandelier, it would shatter, so I would reflect the shards at him. From there we would commence a battle. If I become doomed, I can escape through the hole that would be in his ceiling."
"Well thought of, but what if something goes wrong?” Elorn remarked.
"Improvise... I am a warlord with more than a thousand years of experience, I have improvised many times, I rarely am defeated. But it has been a long day, so get to sleep, you two can fight over the bed, I’ll just take the rocking chair..."
The Sharoz Sea[]
The time spent on the Sea Dragon was repetitive and slow, much time was spent playing chess or studying. The sea always looked the same, a few large waves could be seen sometimes, yet still the sea was very repetitive. They studied a lot, Nero taught them architecture and with the plentiful supply of paper, made blueprints for a keep that could hold many people, defend itself and pretty much be an efficiently protected point. They even finished their encyclopedias...
After a few days, Nero became slightly anxious, and stayed in the pilot room. The waves were a bit harsh and the twins wanted to see outside. When they got into the pilot room, Nero was pulling the thruster levers and sending an energy reserve to the excess energy canon. They looked outside and saw in the distance a very thick curtain of vapor covering the sky. Nero turned to them and quickly filled the in on what was happening.
"Dazanra is chasing us down, apparently he had a unit with him in Sharoz. They are coming to get us and it would be easier if you two could help me. Neltor, you take the canon. Just aim it towards the enemy ship, do not hit the water though, that’ll probably overload our boat. And don’t shoot the clouds because that will just charge the storm. Elorn, I need you to distribute the energy, give more energy to Neltor when they are getting to close, and if they are faster then we are, give me more energy. If we need more energy, charge the system yourself. I’ll be charging it too, but I can see that they have a better model and that our wires will burn out if we power them too much. I’m going to steer this ship. Do you two understand?”
The two answered "Yes” while hurrying off towards their destinations.
On the approaching Cruiser, the sailors worked furiously to catch the Sea Dragon. They put the wires to their maximum capacity of energy for the thrusters and had the energy cannon set to the most condensed mode and fully charged. With them came a storm that was under their command, Dazanra focused on the Sea Dragon and opened fire on it.
The Sea Dragon countered with full force, a constant beam was set on the enemy boat and their cann on overloaded before exploding, which cut off the circuits. Quickly the thrusters of the foe had began to recharge and the backup cannon was installed. Again they were overloaded and this time the energy beam didn’t stop, making a surge of energy overload the fully charged thrusters, triggering more electrical explosions.
Dazanra's ship was filling up with water.
That is when Dazanra played his trump card, a bolt of lighting. The Sea Dragon received a shock from the direct hit and the cannon went out of order, thankfully it was off and had sent its energy to the reserves, so the reserves were extracted and the thrusters had been isolated by the advice of Nero’s, knowing that Dazanra was going to zap them. From there they reconnected the thrusters, and Neltor began to replace the energy reserves. Nero steered the Sea Dragon straight to the other ship, running over the sinking ship as he continued northeast for Omega...
Dazanra woke up in the lifeboat that him and some of the higher ranked crew had taken, the others were on some other boats that had been directed back to Sharoz, and from there to Kizo to call for reinforcements. His ship was headed for Zixra...
The Sea Dragon was much faster, with their thrusters and continued like normal, but instead of studying architecture and geography, they studied engineering, electrical circuits and other tasks they had used in that brief battle...
The Sharoz to Zixra Border[]
The seas of Zixra are very different from the seas of Sharoz. You would think that they did not have much difference, but they do because of a strong air current that reverses the tide, and from there the water system is isolated. Inside the air current, the waves are very harsh, and they go towards a current that goes to Sharoz. That is why many sailors end up getting caught in it and back at Sharoz, which is also why there is a port at the place current’s end because if you are headed for Sharoz from a place that this current intercepts, then this is the fastest way to Sharoz. Unfortunately, the Sea Dragon was going to Zixra. So Nero, and the twins after looking at the currents on the maps, had made a path that would cross with two islands. That gave an easier passage through the current and a place to restock on food.
A few days later, the two islands were visible. They were flat, from the wind, but the sand was enough to slow down the current. By noon, when the tide was low, the islands were higher and the current calmer. It was at this time that they reached the islands.
"Keep the thrusters low, the river takes a few sharp turns and is very narrow.”Nero advised Elorn.
"Alright, but where are the fish?”asked Elorn.
"On the shore, around the middle where the water is calmest.”was Elorn’s answer.
It took a few hours to reach the middle, but once there, Nero ordered the thrusters off.
"Get in the water, the fish stay here and have developed. They have no predators on this island,”Nero continued, "I’ll go and collect the fish, we can’t take too many or the ecosystem will die.”
"Okay, can we go on the shore?”Neltor asked.
"Sure.”Nero responded.
In the water, Nero set his sight format to compensate for more aquatic conditions so he could see better in the water and propelled himself with his wings, his head pointing straight to create a sub-stream so he could accelerate and then hold his wings horizontally to decelerate his speed and grab a fish. The fish were large and translucent, the only camouflage gene they had left. The last time Nero had noted them, they still had teeth, small teeth, but now they had no teeth. That way they can have more mouth space open to eat the microscopic algae that multiplied faster then the fish ate them. Nero took about ten fish and then decided he was done.
On the shore, the twins looked around the island. It was a very simple island, no seeds had reached yet so it was all beach. On the shoreline, it was greenish with algae, but as you went farther, the sand got drier because the water came up only at night, and there was no shade to keep it cool. The sand was not hot though, the wind kept it cool.
Elorn was first to break the silence they had had since they stopped talking about the way the environment worked here, "Maybe we should head back to the boat, and layout some of the seeds in the fruit Nero has.”
Neltor answered this, "Sure, the island could use some plant life to hold the sand here.”
So the twins went back, chose to use apples because the trees might hold up to the wind and went back onto the shore, planting a seed every ten meters, a quarter of a meter deep, and when they reached the center of the first island, they did the other island. Nero had waited on the boat for them, redrawing and taking note of how the island had changed, until they got back.
"What took you so long?”was the first thing they heard while he finished taking his observations.
"We planted all the apples because we think that the islands are going to get flattened below see level without plants and that then the fish would be washed away.”
"Good idea, though you should of given the island more variety. I look forward to the next time I come here so I can see how it worked.”was Nero’s response.
And they set off, evening was closing in and the tide was high. The twins went to studying and Nero continued piloting the ship...Chapter 34:The Zixran Sea
The Zixran sea is very unpredictable, this is because the perimeter is very strong from the outer current, this causes a domino effect by effecting the inner layers. The jet streams shift a lot too, because of the extreme temperature changes. Zixra comes within Nez zero rarely, it stays within ten to eighty. This causes the year to be very shifting in temperature. That may be why Zixra has such a low population, as you need to be able to endure most of the Nez scale. Because of the large Nez factor, the jet streams shift. Then you have the moons, though Kizo is the continent with the oddest tides, Zixra still has a problem with tides. From there you have the gravity of mount Zixra, though the moon has more gravity then this mountain, it is close to the water(most of Zixra is the mountain). When you add all the odd factors they make the sea unpredictable...Especially with the mountains and volcanos below sea level...These eruptions normally caused a slight earthquake, Zixra’s base to raise, a rock slide, tidal wave, whirl pool and from there a small hurricane. Fortunately, Zixra’s environment was isolated above ground. Unfortunately, beneath the sea’s floor, Zixra was connected. This usually caused a slight shockwave to pass through the continents and shift the plates slightly farther, with minor tremors in unstable territory.(except for Sharoz, because the Mother Plant was firmly settled in that plate and held it down. This may be why Sharoz is the closest continent to Zixra.) And at the other side of the planet, a tremor because the shockwave clashed there.
Nero was prepared, he sailing in the Zixran sea before he sailed in any other. Zixra was his home. This was where he had lived, learned the cruelty of people, learned the generosity of people. This was where he had been killed first, this was where he had been born, and born again. He could already see Zixra, you can see it from a very far distance.
"We are almost there, it should be a few more hours if we pilot well, set thrusters to maximum power, send the canon’s energy banks to them. Use the canon as a wire...Neltor, you set it up while Elorn powers the thrusters directly at the back of the boat. I’ll steer, I know these waters.” Nero started in a rush to reach the shore by tonight.
The twins didn’t need to respond, Elorn knew where the thrusters’ energy sockets were, behind the bed, and Neltor knew that extra wire was around and began to install another energy path to the thrusters. They wouldn’t be sailing at the wires’ maximum capacity, they would be sailing at the thrusters’. This took an hour to complete, the wires were exterior and would be made interior later. Lorn had a few energy tonics and a bucket to toss out the vomit.
A lot of hours later, when the moons were raising, they were reaching Zixra. It normally took more then a day to cross this sea, but with the thrusters’ new power and the advantage of knowing the currents, they had gotten to Zixra with a few hours to spare...