Ch.10 — Takeoff (Updated)

Finishing their banter they began flying up onto the ship's deck. Zane watched around him in wonder, the corpses he had seen on his first day in this world had all been cleaned up with 3 of the elders working in tandem to begin converting them into resources.

Of course, little Zane was unaware of this. Reina noticed his growing curiosity and hesitated before separating from Alexis and deciding to bring him below deck into a large room that they had converted into a small nursery of sorts. Inside, Elder Amelia was playing with her newly adopted daughter, Yaling.

The not-so-little baby dragon was rolling around playfully while tackling Amelia occasionally. Amalia was going with it, it was then she saw Reina walk in.

"Are you leaving Zane to play with us?" Amalia asked and Reina nodded.

"I am, I was hoping he and Yaling could play for a bit now. A young dragon should get to play a bit after all." Reina said, though a bit hesitantly. Behind her, a curious Zane popped his head over her shoulder and his eyes lit up seeing another little dragon to play with. He almost tripped falling off the hover slab and rushed over to tackle her. Yaling was no slouch though and also began running full speed at him, the 2 ran into each other headfirst. What resulted could only be compared to a bowling ball hitting a bowling pin.

Reina chuckled seeing Zane stumbling around a little dizzy after knocking Yaling back a few meters.

Yaling quickly got up and tackled him and together they formed a ball of sorts rolling and wrestling around the room.

Amelia and Reina's hearts grew warm at the scene, ever since they had found out the clan was nearly annihilated they had been constantly moving forward in order to ensure the safety of what remained. They hadn't really had a whole lot of time to grieve, and when they did they were mostly thinking about the future, not the present.

So seeing these wrecking balls going flying around the room was actually therapeutic in a way. It was also very heartwarming.

Seeing Zane was settling in nicely she spoke to him mentally. ("Mommies gotta go work, I'll be back to visit you later. Behave for big sister Amaelia alright?") she said pointing at Amelia.

Zane stopped for a moment understanding this. This gave Yaling the chance to tackle him to the wall.

*Thud*

Zane got up and looked at Reina and ran over and began rubbing his head against her leg, or in his case thigh due to how tall he was. He looked up at her as he rubbed his cheek against her before reluctantly stepping back and going to play with Yaling again. Reina smiled at this.

"At least they get along." Reina said and Amelia nodded.

"You should go, they need you on the bridge after all." Amelia spoke and Reina nodded turning around and leaving. The hover slab remained in the room, not following her. She made it stay here in case Zane decided to rest on it.

After she left the 2 wrecking balls got even rougher causing Amelia to chuckle. She just let them wrestle it out, after all, it was quite entertaining to her. After living for nearly 1300 years she had come to appreciate the small things in life. In fact, recently she had even comprehended the concept of life and was in the process of forming a profound shell from it.

Watching as the 2 played she looked through her storage before finding what she was looking for. It was a few tough rubber balls, capable of withstanding a lot of force. It's a common toy amongst young dragons, as she looked at one of them, many memories flashed by. Smiling she threw the balls into the mix and transformed into dragon form while shrinking herself down to their size and using her tail to swat one at them, controlling her strength.

This caused a game of free for all dodgeball between dragons to break out. Quite the amusing yet dangerous sight. An ordinary human if hit by one of these balls would get some broken bones at best, and die at worst. Such was the power dragons were gifted with at birth.

While they were playing Reina made her way to the bridge. Many of the elders were already waiting for her there, the ancestor looking out the window giving a view of the bow of the ship.

When she arrived on the bridge, many turned to her noticing the faint smile on her lips and the spring in her step. She took her seat on the captain's chair, crossing her legs charmingly, and began interfacing with the ship's formations, arrays, and runes. Once she had fully integrated with them, she smiled.

"Let's fly shall we?" Reina said with a smile causing everyone else to smile a bit.

"Indeed, to new beginnings we go." The ancestor said with a small grin. Everyone in the bridge nodded. "To new beginnings!"

Shortly after that, the entire ship began vibrating and humming as its spirit engines roared to life. A thin translucent golden membrane coated the surface of the hull strengthening it while a golden bubble made from many strands of energy also slowly formed around it.

The ship rocked for a moment as it began soaring into the sky and orientating itself southwest. Once it was clear of the chasm it began accelerating forward.

*BOOM!*

The main engines gave a loud bang as the ship instantly broke the kilometer a second sound barrier. The inertial dampeners of the ship prevented the people inside from feeling anything though.

Soon, it accelerated 25 kilometers a second and settled around that speed. With their destination being across the world, it would take nearly 4 weeks to get there. Still, they had more than enough supplies on board.

Alexis stretched her arms as she spread her immortal sense out watching as the chasm they came from shrunk into a dot over a few seconds. "Who would have thought we would have to leave our ancestral home one day…"

The ancestor smiled bitterly "Indeed, for 100 thousand years that place has been my home. It feels strange leaving it, knowing I might not ever return. Alas, it is time to move on."