178 Bog and Fog

"Where am I?"

Mindy wandered in endless mist, aimlessly, the fog around her seemingly in harmony and one with the fog in her mind.

She came across something cute and funny. There was this big wolfcat, bigger than a horse, and it was carrying a wolfcat cub by the scruff of his neck.

Wait. I know that wolfcat. That's Carrie. And the cub dangling awkwardly in her mouth is Vigil…

But such strange ideas faded and swirled around as Mindy giggled and stumbled in the bog. She called into the fog. "Helloooooooo!"

"Chirp!" a bird's voice answered her from far, far away. Meanwhile, the wolfcats right in front of her wandered off to the right and completely disappeared in the mist.

"Aeyrie?" Mindy called.

"Chirp!" a big bird came flapping over, a chubby eaglet as big as Mindy herself.

"Aeyrie! You can fly!" Mindy remarked in surprise. "Oh, but then, you could already fly a bit for quite a while now. Sorry. I forgot."

She giggled. Aeyrie giggled. Together, Mindy and the Eagle Princess stumbled around in the weird smelling mist.

Then another queer smell cropped up, and Mindy seemed to be in a nice wooden home, by the fireplace, with Aeyrie sitting by her side, and there was Remian and Mandy, and they were married and living together happily, and Remian was her brother-in-law and Mandy was pregnant…

"I wish…" Mindy sniffed, feeling tearful all of a sudden. Why was she tearful? This was such a happy scene…

Was it even really her wish? She wasn't sure.

But suddenly, it wasn't Mandy who was talking with Remian any more. No, Mandy had left, and now the owners of this cozy home were herself and her husband…

Wait. What? The man in front of her had also changed. It was almost-Remian, but at the same time it was not Remian. Mindy actually knew who he was, except that she'd never seen this face, this form before.

But she did. Sort of. Only the last time she saw him, he was much, much younger, and hadn't grown up to be that man yet.

What was his name?

Ah, yes. Darian. Mindy stepped forward, trying to kiss him.

Darian ran away. Flat out turned and ran off, disappearing through the walls.

"Chirp." The Eagle Princess laughed by the fireside. Then, she walked into the wall.

"Me too!" Mindy said, and tried to do the same.

BANG! "OW!" Mindy held her head, wondering why for goodness' sake she'd been dumb enough to try walking into a wall.

But wait, it wasn't a wall. It was a tree, and the mud there was especially murky.

Tree? Mud? Mindy looked around, frowning. The house was gone. The fireplace was gone. The strange smell was gone. She and Aeyrie were surrounded by fog, but the mists here at least smelled better.

Wait. Where… why… what…?

"Ugh!" Mindy held her head as clarity pounded back in with her aching head. "What just happened?"

"Chirp." Aeyrie blinked, looking around. [Bog Dreams. This is bad.]

"Where is everybody?" Mindy glanced about. Other than her and Aeyrie, there was nobody else around. The entire expedition had gotten lost in the fog, probably caught up in some dream-state or the other just like she had been.

"C-chirp…!" Aeyrie gasped, suddenly ducking and keeping her head down. [I don't know about everybody, but something big is coming this way!]

There was a hissing sound coming from above. Mindy likewise crouched, and the pair of them stayed very, very still.

An enormous, serpentine form slinked overhead, as if floating or swimming, a form so big, it could easily have swallowed them both in a single gulp. Mindy glanced at Aeyrie. [Bog Serpent?]

Aeyrie nodded slowly.

And then an absolutely colossal figure appeared out of nowhere, blotting out the sky in its shadow. It was like the entire day had turned to night in an instant, and then turned back into day again, except that now it was a little bit brighter than before, because the serpentine shadow above was gone.

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[What was THAT?!] Mindy gasped.

[That was gramps!] Aeyrie perked up, immediately cheered. [He just came out to grab a quick bite! We have to go after him! That way!]

[But what about the others…]

[What about them?] Aeyrie asked, frank and uncaring.

[We have to get them out!]

[How? If we wander around much more, we might get caught up in the dream-state ourselves again. Let's get ourselves out of here first.]

Over to the left, there was loud hissing, and then a scream.

[They're going to die out here…!] Mindy gasped. [We have to help them!]

[Not by ourselves! We have to get to Gramps. He can help us.] Aeyrie urged. [The Bog and the Serpents are more than we can handle.]

Mindy hated to admit it, but she was right. As things stood, they were of no help to anyone. [All right. Let's go get your Gramps.]

***

The journey through the Bog was arduous, at best. Several times, Mindy almost wandered off into another dream-state before Aeyrie smacked her awake. Likewise, she had to rap the Eagle Princess on the head sharply a few times whenever the bird's eyes started to glaze over and her feet began to wander.

The dreams Mindy faced were bewildering, familiar, yet unfamiliar. They felt as if they'd already happened, even though Mindy was sure later that they never took place.

For example, twice she found herself fighting George, and he had his ME-Frame equipped, and so did she…

At one time, she caught Tim flying her airship.

On three separate occasions, old friends whose names she could barely remember came by and had lunch, dinner and tea with her respectively.

There was even this one case of Arnold dressing up as a clown to perform a balancing act for three new airships to learn from. He kept telling the airships to pay attention and learn how to balance themselves, but all three basically just floated there, ignoring him.

There were even weirder dreams that made absolutely no sense. Some of them, Mindy clear forgot the instant she woke up.

All told, it was a rough trip, and it lasted for hours.

But at last, they set foot on solid grass, and left the fog a few inches behind them.

"Now, what?" Mindy asked.

"Chirp." [Now we go up the mountain.]

"Mountain…?" Mindy looked about and trailed off. "Wait. You mean… THAT mountain?!"

In the distance, a huge cliff loomed over them. It was so high, Mindy hadn't even thought of trying to climb up it. She had actually been looking around for a pass or a tunnel to get through.

But Aeyrie nodded. [Gramps is at the very top.]

Mindy grimaced. "Can we go around it, or skip it altogether?"

[There are eight other mountains in this range, and every one of them is ruled by a King. Which one do you want to cross?]

Mindy's face fell. "Never mind."

She drew herself up. Aeyrie fluffed her feathers a bit, and the pair of them turned their gazes to the cliff ahead of them.

"Let's go climb a mountain."