Higher Plain Ch 30: Unexpected Visitor, An Unexplained Feeling!

(Kaelira)

I couldn't see anything.

White clouds curled around my arms and shoulders like silk shawls, drifting past my face as I stood still and blinked through the endless haze. I kept expecting to see something—someone. The stories said this place, the lower realm, was filled with humans. Tiny creatures, yes, but clever, powerful in ways we giants often underestimated.

But right now? All I saw was green.

Green stretching for miles in every direction. Strange mounds that rose and fell beneath me like frozen waves. The clouds hung low and wet, brushing against my skin and catching in my hair. I swatted at one absently and watched it tear apart like spun sugar before it formed again behind my arm.

"Where is everyone?" I asked aloud, my voice low and uncertain.

I shifted my weight, and the ground seemed to buckle beneath my feet. A muted rumble, distant and lazy—like the earth was annoyed I was even standing here. I glanced down.

That's when I noticed it.

Near my feet, the color changed. The green was gone. In its place was dark brown earth, cracked and uneven, like something massive had crashed into it.

Well... I had just landed, hadn't I?

Squatting down, I braced my hands on my knees and leaned closer. The clouds thinned enough to show me more clearly: some of the green was still there, just pushed outward, flattened or torn away by my presence. The rest was bare dirt. Scarred. Almost like a wound.

"What is this?" I murmured.

Curious, I reached down with my fingers and pinched a clump of the green from the earth. It crumbled slightly as I lifted it, some bits falling away and catching on the wind. I brought it close to my face.

It looked soft. Delicate. Dozens of tiny individual blades. Like fur. Or hair. No—leaves. Plants. It was alive. I'd never seen plant life so small.

I turned the little cluster in my fingers, squinting at the fine details. The texture. The smell. It was kind of nice—earthy, fresh. Reminded me of the gardens in Xylarion. Only those were giant.

This?

This was like holding a whole miniature forest in the palm of my hand.

I gently let the foliage fall from my fingers, watching the clump break apart and float away. There was something oddly peaceful about it, but still very strange, I've never seen such small plant life before.

I stood back up slowly, clouds curling around my knees now. The wind here was different—sharper, a bit colder. It wasn't home. That was for sure and these clouds, were annoying, making my skin wet.

But the pull in my chest was still there. The same warmth that had led me here, that had tugged at my soul since I crossed the veil. The Princess.

Faylina.

I didn't know why her presence was so weak, only that I had to reach her. Had to bring her back. It was the kings orders, yes—but more than that. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

So I started walking.

The green parted beneath my toes as I stepped forward. Each step felt weird as the ground almost seemed to fall apart under my foot. I kept moving.

"Don't worry," I muttered to no one but the clouds. "I'll find you, Princess.

I paused for a second, glancing down at my bare body.

"...and maybe give me a second to find clothes." I said as I realized how my armor seemed to have fallen away in the crash.

I chuckled to myself. While I was here I hoped that I would be able to meet one of these humans, I wondered why I hadn't met one yet.

They said the humans were brave. Strong. Heroes of the last war.

This trip would be a lot more fun than I thought.

***

(Faylina)

Dinner had gone quiet.

One second I was laughing—well, giggling more like—at something dumb Krelzor said about how my enormous footprints were now "honorary landmarks" in the field, and the next... I just stopped.

The fork in my hand hovered halfway to my mouth, speared with a piece of something sweet Krelzor called a yam. I didn't taste it. I didn't even really see it anymore.

There was this... stillness. Not the normal kind, not the peaceful kind that wraps around you like a soft blanket. No. This one was sharp. Like the world itself held its breath.

I blinked.

"Faylina?" Krelzor's voice broke through the fog in my mind. "Are you okay?"

I didn't answer.

I stood up, chair scraping gently across the floor. My legs moved without my telling them to, and I crossed the room in three steps, opened the door, and stepped outside into the cooling night air. Krelzor followed me, I heard him, but I couldn't take my eyes off the horizon.

The wind was wild. That was the first sign something was wrong. It had been a hot day all day, with barely any wind blowing, and now, it was growing stronger.

I narrowed my eyes toward the distant ridge where the forest met the sky. Something in my bones told me to look there. Something instinctive. Something I hadn't felt since—

"Faylina?" Krelzor was at my side now. "What's going on? You're kinda freaking me out."

"I don't know," I said softly. My voice felt thin in my throat. "But something's wrong."

It wasn't just a feeling. It was pressure. Not physical, exactly, but like the atmosphere around me had thickened. The kind of tension that builds Before a storm cracks the world open.

I placed a hand on my chest without thinking, over the spot where my heart was raising.

No.

No, no, no.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but dread was already climbing its way up my spine. That same feeling I had before the Morvren revealed itself. That oppressive weight, like the world was shifting and didn't want to say why.

I heard Krelzor shift beside me. He wasn't speaking, but I could feel his eyes on me, full of that quiet concern of his. He was small, fragile, and yet... for some reason I found comfort in just knowing he was beside me.

Still, I had to protect him. I had to protect all of them.

If there was danger coming—something else rising from the darkness—I couldn't wait for it to announce itself like last time.

"We need to be ready," I finally said, my gaze fixed on that distant edge of the sky. "Something is coming. I don't know what... but I can feel it."

"Another Morvren?" Krelzor asked hesitantly.

I shook my head. "I don't know. Maybe worse. Maybe something different. But whatever it is... I won't let it catch us off guard again."

He swallowed hard, his face pale in the moonlight. But to his credit, he didn't argue. Didn't panic.

Instead, he looked to the ridge too. "Then I guess we better figure out what it is."

I glanced down at him, a faint smile tugging at my lips despite the weight on my chest.

Brave little farmer.

If only he knew how lucky the world was to have hearts like his.