In the morning, they flew out to the coast, following the route Peter had suggested. When they arrived at the coast, Andrew insisted they stop to make sure they were ready for such a long flight. He suggested waiting to eat until they arrived at Vulcuo. Peter agreed right away. Anna shuddered, but said, “I’m going to hate this flight.”

  “It’ll save us a few days,” Peter reminded her. She nodded and agreed with Andrew that fasting might help them over the hours they wouldn’t be able to land. Jarnvaror made a noise, and Peter chuckled. “For you, maybe,” he replied.

  “What did he say?” Andrew asked.

  “He’s amused that we’re taking this flight so seriously.”

  Andrew shook his head. “Let’s just hope the weather holds,” he muttered.

  Clouds dotted the sky overhead, even as the dragon ascended over the ocean. The winds were strong as always, but no worse. The noise of the wind drowned everything else out. Anna was practicing her enchantments over the flight this time, and Peter spoke with Jarnvaror. Andrew couldn’t help but look behind them to watch as the coast slipped back and back until it disappeared over the horizon.

  After the first hour, it was gone, and there was nothing in any direction accept the white clouds, and the blue of sea and sky. Andrew spent most of their flights watching the landscape pass by beneath them. He’d watch the terrain change from forest to plains to hills and see the rivers winding around and through them all. More than once, he’d been able to make little notes or corrections on the maps about these.

  At first, he thought this particular flight would be mind numbing from the monotony of flying over nothing but sea water for hours on end. But the longer he looked down at the waters, the more detail he noticed. The water shimmered and rippled with waves that must have been rather high, but from the sky looked like nothing more than a shimmering texture. The water seemed almost green in some places. Other places were such a deep blue it was almost black. Andrew guessed this had to do with the depth of the water. It had never occurred to him before that the ocean would have its own terrain underneath the surface.

  Jarnvaror spotted the first island they were planning to land on after about three and a half hours. It took a while longer to come into view for the rest of them, and a out an hour before they could land. The island was small and uninhabited. Little more than a thin strip of rock rising out of the water where sand collected to form long beaches, and a few tropical plants grew in between.

  Jarnvaror huffed as he landed. Andrew heard him trying to catch his breath. “You doing alright, Jarn?” Peter asked. Andrew didn’t wait to hear the reply. His legs ached with each step as he forced them to move again. The plan had been just to stop for a few minutes so the Wisp Seekers could relieve themselves from the flight. But as the group rested, thye all seemed reluctant to return to the monotony of flying. Even the dragon.

  “We made it here a lot faster than expected,” Andrew noted.

  Peter nodded. “Jarn said the wind was with us.”

  “Well that’s good,” Anna said. “We can afford to take a bit longer rests before getting back in the saddle.”

  “We still have two more stretches,” Andrew pointed out.

  Anna shivered. “That was awful by the end,” she muttered.

  “We should get something to eat,” Peter said. “I’m starving.”

  “That might only make it worse,” Andrew said. “Though this stretch won’t be quite so long.”

  Peter groaned, but agreed to wait till they arrived on Vulcuo to eat. They waited a few more minutes for Jarnvaror to be ready. Then they climbed up on the dragon’s back and were back in the sky again.

  The second flight was much the same as the first, only now, the sun was passing by and getting in their eyes as they flew west. The flight masks didn’t do much to dim the blinding light, which made the flight feel much longer, even though it was a little shorter. Worse, Andrew was sure the skin on his face had been sunburned, even though the wind had chilled it so much.

  But at least this time, Vulcuo was visible when they landed on their second stop. It was many times larger than any other island Andrew had seen. On the small island, it looked like just another black strip of land on the horizon, as if they’d found another continent. But as they approached it from the sky, close to sunset, it became more and more clear what Vulcuo was. A massive mountain rising out of the ocean. Taller than most of the peaks in the Mettle Mountains, with it’s own forests clinging to its’ slopes. Only when they were almost on top of it could Andrw be certain it was just an island, being able to see it’s northern and southern coastlines almost on the edge at the horizon.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The noise and pressure of the wind died down as Anna cast her spell for them. “Can Jarnvaror see the monastery?” she asked. “It’s supposed to be on this side of the island.”

  “I saw the harbor,” Peter said, pointing down the side of Jarnvaror’s neck. “It should be close to that, right?”

  “There should be a road leading to it from there,” Andrew agreed. “But I don’t know how far it is.”

  “Jarn, can you see it? The monastery, or the road leading up to it.” The dragon rumbled and began descending. As he did, Andrew was able to make out a group of buildings up the slope of the mountain. Most of the buildings were long and low, though one of them had a high bell tower and another had a complete second story. They were all made from a mixture of stone bricks and logs. Many gardens were planted between the ordinary buildings, and a field on the south side of the compound was clearly cultivated for food.

  While they were in the sky it seemed the sun was only just ready to set. As they landed, though, it vanished behind the horizon. Jarnvaror picked a clear spot on the side of the road east of the monastery to land. As his wingbeats stopped, Andrew could hear the bell ringing in the monastery.

  “Maybe we should have landed in the harbor and sent word up to them,” he muttered.

  “I doubt it would have made much difference,” Peter said.

  “Well, we’re here now,” Anna said. “We should go and great them.”

  The trio nodded and started toward the monastery. Jarnvaror rumbled something, and Peter looked back over his shoulder. “Yeah, I know. Let’s check with the guys at the Monastery to see if there’s something nearby. Sound good?” he asked. The dragon huffed, then trudged after them.

  “He doesn’t look happy,” Anna said..

  “After flying like that for a whole day, he’s going to want to hunt. Or sleep first then hunt. Either way, we should probably figure out good places for him before hand.”

  As Peter explained, Andrew saw a small group walking toward them from the monastery. They wore thick grey brown robes tied at the waist with rope. All three figures were men, and older as far as Andrew could tell, with graying hair and beards and bald patches. No, those were too regular. The crown’s of their heads were shaved. And the central figure was an Elf. Andrew realized that they showed no fear of Jarnvaror as they approached, either.

  Andrew raised his hand in greeting, but the elf spoke first. “Welcome, dragon riders. You must be the Wisp Seekers who found the High Elf manuscript a few months ago. We’ve been hoping you would come to us.”

  “We are,” Andrew said. “I’m Andrew. This is my brother, Peter, and our companion, Anna. And of course, this is Jarnvaror.”

  “So you’ve been able to translate the document?” Anna burst.

  Jarnvaror rumbled something, and Peter replied. “We’re getting to it. Is there big game he can hunt here on the island?”

  “Guys!” Andrew groaned.

  But the grey haired Elf only smiled. “Not much larger fair on the island, but I know there is wild boar. If you would hunt, please hunt away from town though, for the sake of the people there.” As Peter relayed the information to Jarnvaror, the monk turned to Anna. “As for the book you found, we made some considerable progress under the circumstances but… no, we have not translated it.” He gestured for the group to follow him up the road. Anna seemed anxious to know more, but she couldn’t seem to get the words out.

  “What have you found?” Anna asked.

  The Elf sighed. “We’ve been studying the language of the ruins for years, but we’ve never gotten anything quite so intact as that book. We’re certain of the meaning of a few scattered words and names, but nothing else. It doesn’t help that the book is written in a very different hand than most signs on the ruins themselves.”

  “It is?” Anna asked.

  The monk nodded. “Yes. It is only a minor inconvenience, of course. Still, we can’t expect a complete translation too quickly.”

  As they entered the monastery, they saw many more monks and a few nuns out tending to the gardens. They were dressed in the same grey brown robes, whether they were men or women. Only the men had shaved head, though, and then only some of them. The women all wore their hair up in buns.

  “You said you’re certain of a few things,” Andrew began. “What about guesses?”

  The Elf smiled at him. “I’m sure our philologist could talk for hours on that,” he said. “Our real problem is that we’re missing some link between their old language and ours. We know our own language and it’s rules quite well, and some of the other old languages, like that the Selasi and Ryukyuu used before the shift to a common tongue was made. We can see things that might be similarities between them and High Elven.” Then he shrugged. “But without the link, we have no way to be certain, and it’s difficult to verify any theory that lets us make more progress.”

  Andrew glanced at Anna. She’d started rummaging around through her back, and he was pretty sure he knew what she was looking for. “What would such a link look like, ah, sir?” he asked.

  The Elf laughed. “Forgive my manners. You can call me Faelni. I’m the abbot, here. These are Francis and Mark. As for a link, well… The best we could hope for is some document, even a small one, written with both High Elven and one of the languages we know. Well, two other languages, so that we know each passage is saying the same thing. Failing that, evidence of a mixed language would be useful.”

  “What about this?” Anna said, holding up her chunk of stone from the Selasi ruins.

  Faelni paused, and bent down to examine the stone. “That is promising,” he said after a moment. “Yes… let’s take that to our library right away. In the meantime, you are all welcome to rest as we work to translate the documents for you.”

  Anna saw set her jaw a moment before she spoke, and Andrew knew what she was going to say. “Hold on a moment! Part of our job is finding out about the Wisps, too. However we can, we want to help with this. Just tell us what we can do.”