It had been immensely hard for Leon to keep track of what was happening – one moment, he was whining about the altitude of the dragons’ lair and the next he was being embraced by the air. And all that air was rapidly rushing past him as he fell, fell and fell. The whereabouts of his companions was utterly lost on him as he fell off the mountain – he had predicted it, dammit! – and rushed towards the forest below, his face utterly blank and devoid of emotion. The only thing that was currently registered in his mind was ’I’m falling. Three seconds later and a hundred meters or so closer to his death, his brain posed another question. ’What am I going to do about this?’
Eventually, after two more seconds, Leon concluded that dying would be most inconvenient. Not only didn’t he want to be splattered across the forest’s grassy floor, it’d make burying him that much harder. Seeing as how he was currently in freefall with nothing to catch his fall and spare him the painful death, Leon decided to use his amulet’s power.
That is, until Hakuren decided to latch on as he quite literally appeared out of thin air. Leon gave the boy a blank look before heeding the older boy’s request. Concentrating on the sensation of air rushing past him, Leon slowly but surely slowed the wind, taking control of the air directly beneath them. By now, they were only twenty feet or so above the ground, allowing Leon to steadily lower them down to a soft, comfortable landing. Once he and Hakuren were out of immediate danger, Leon lay on the grassy ground much like he’d done when he’d fallen off Candycane.
He absently noted a distant female’s voice, the cawing of birds and, most apparent of all, Lesley and Hakuren’s shenanigans in one corner. Leon’s eyes momentarily flitted towards his friend and his ambiguous companion, before they went back up towards the sky. Speaking of the sky, it looked extraordinarily cloudless today, and was that a sun? Leon had never noticed a sun anywhere else in Nowhere –
“Holy mother of –” Leon scrambled up at the monstrous roar that assaulted his eardrums. He was met with the sight of a hideous orc, another creature that could possibly either grant him the painful death he had just been spared off, or be drooled on. Again.
Just in the nick of time, Leon ducked out of the way of the orc’s tree, just as Jasper and Riley emerged from a clump of bushes. Where were the others? Had they fallen in the same general area? Were they even alive? Leon didn’t have time to dwell on that question as he quickly skittered behind the pink-haired 6’4 human (was it a he or she?), absently noting that they had created a train of sorts with Hakuren in the front, Lesley in the middle and Leon at the back. And Leon liked it right at the back, just where he could make a lucky escape if the troll thing decided to lumber up and attack with another tree.
A glance at his amulet made Leon sigh. “Oh for the love of God…” A little less than a tenth of it had drained away when he’d only harnessed the air for around 5 seconds. What a crappy amulet. He figured his best course of action would be to strike at opportune times, yet only if his companions provided enough of a distraction. And if that failed… well, Leon had a very shiny, cylindrical piece of gold delicately balanced on his head. Shiny enough to cause distraction. He only hoped he didn’t have to use his precious crown as a beacon but knowing his luck, he probably would have to. Still, it didn’t dissuade him from sticking to Lesley and praying to whatever deity decided to listen in – mostly for his crown, but for the overall situation as well. He only stopped momentarily, to make a final comment.
“Alright, now we’re gonna die. Unless you move away from that thing. Hakuren-san, I think your ballet skills will come in handy here, don’t you think?”
