That was the last! Just in time to see dawn rise on the meadow.
How would I explain it to the human? Maybe with sponges. You had the realm that had been drained dry of magic. When she showed up, magic overflowed to absurd levels. And that was too much for the land to absorb.
So those massive monoliths that were sinking into place? Dampeners. To slow down that flow and let the sponges absorb more.
Not that it would change much, the mana drain would still dry up her meadow anyway but it bought time. Precious time.
"So, what do those big stones do?" The simulacre of a sky lynx asked at my side.
The distance looked right. All around us the whithering grass had given way to a thin, gracious sand that flowed in the distance before dying out suddenly to a flat rocky landscape. That border flowing like waves on a shore.
Not the best dampeners but they would do. And the city of Rajlin had learned the hard way the hubris of trying to control the flow of mana.
The meadow was only eight hundred meters away from us, tied to the monolith by a dry stone canal.
Portal! The lynx jolted at the sight of that magical rupture in reality.
I jumped in before it could protest. It followed before the portal closed on it. We were back at the ship, in the middle of the grassy hills. A barrier kept the... peaceless monsters at bay for now.
"How, what? How?!" The sky lynx kept scrambling. "You can teleport!? That's unfair, I'll do it to!"
I wanted to ignore those nuisances but here were the four sparkly lizards putting logs in front of the ship's keels.
"What are you doing." I groaned.
They turned and fell back, a bit scared.
"We are getting the ship to a pond!" One answered. "It needs water!"
One more look at their logs: they were never going to move the Parao with that. Good. I left those creatures at their games, climbed the nets and reached the superstructure. Inside, in her small double bed, the human was still sleeping.
One more, living pillow had added to the pile. The legged rapt was asleep with her.
It was a rapt, it was fine.
To the dining room where I quickly prepared a small breakfast. Should I wake her up? I should. Back to her bed where I picked the monster who screamed at the touch. I threw it away.
The human proved harder to shake awake.
"Ah! I'm late!" She finally stood up, panicked.
Then she looked around, rubbed her eyes and her fear turned to disbelief, then to a warm smile.
"I remember now!" She fell back among the cushions. "I'm in heaven!"
"Get up." I firmly suggested.
"No!"
"It's past dawn, there is a lot to be done. Please get up."
"I don't wanna!"
I swore the stone tablet in my clay body was losing inscriptions just dealing with her!
"You breakfast is waiting."
"Breakfast!"
Before she could even leave her bed, I stopped her with my hand, picked the clothes I had made on her night stand and left the room. The little monster was still rubbing its round head at the door, so I dragged it outside too.
The human joined me, all ready, and I brought her through the restored lounge and at her table. She melted at the entrance.
"Pancakes, eggs and truffles, lobster, salmon and asparagus, soufflé..."
"Stop!" She ran to the table. "There is a freaking honey fountain! Are you kidding me, those are pancakes? They are thick as my thumb!"
I was not trained to be a cook, okay?! I did what I could with what I had!
"We don't have much time left."
She got back up, picked a seat and dug in: "Oh yeah! The whole world is dying thingy! Eh, why don't you come and eat too?"
"We have leads as to how to end the mana drain. One is a temple named Hashal where the Earth was crafted."
She coughed.
"The Earth?! As in planet Earth?"
"That was our best lead, but we have a new one about changing the realm's balance."
"No no no, backtrack, what was that about Earth!?"
I had to painfully remind her of her own history. How humans ruled the realm, how the mana drain happened and how her kind had gathered all the magic they could before leaving. The name they had given to their place of exile was Earth and yes, it had been crafted.
As for what Earth was, exactly, I could not tell.
"Okay, one piece of advice?" She quipped after swallowing. "Don't go there. Never approach Earth. Forget it exists, like, entirely."
"Why? It could..."
"I don't want to talk about it!" She offered her brightest smile. "Actually, I don't want to talk about any of that stuff, it's depressing! Let's enjoy breakfast!"
"Understood."
As I was about to leave, she called me again.
"What happened to... your arm?" She prudently asked.
I looked at the side covered by my toga. Oh yeah. That.
"Nothing. Please enjoy your meal."
The meadow outside was a battlefield. Monsters hunting monsters cracking the ground, burning the trees. It had been going on all night, would not let up in the morning and still the quiet vegetation stubbornly grew back behind them.
I could not really sense it but knew the scent of petals filling the air all around.
Back down to the lower deck. By now the first third was painted and weakly decorated. The second part was filled with the crates and racks, mostly empty by now. The last section, casted in metal, was left in the dark.
There was my arm, near the plates of my armor still in the work. That ugly, ugly clay arm.
Now that the ritual was over, it was okay to take it back, right?
I started to melt some silver and marble, some gold at that. Not even plates, just a quick coat for my discarded limb so it wouldn't offend the human's sight. That was wasting time but in a way, yes, I did want that arm back.
And that cloth on my side was impractical.
I sensed the human approach the hatch, open it and walk down in turn. She found me at the furnace.
"Sorry to disturb you, may I take a bit of your time?"
"Of course." I had not even turned to her.
She was nervously rubbing her hands.
"I... uhm... I haven't even thanked you for all you have done for me." She began. "Also, I think that mask looks good on you!"
I looked at her. My faceless golem head was expressionless behind the mask.
"Thank you." And back to work.
She sighed, shook her head and tried again. "What I mean is, that whole saving the world? I... I am not interested."
"Two weeks from now, you will start to feel weaker. Three weeks from now, everything around you will start to die. And there is nothing I can do to prevent it!"
I had childishly hit the wall with my armored arm.
"I have tried everything! I will try everything! But a month from now, if you don't try, if you can't solve this... I will be made to watch you die! Every hour I let you idle is me killing you! Every second I am failing you and not even your name will be left!"
It was fine. That was just how the realm worked.
"Not even your name..."
"Eh." She had her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, I have already made peace with that." The human offered me her warmest smile. "I have decided to leave those weeks to the fullest! And just enjoy them. So it's not your fault, alright?"
"Don't speak like that."
"I'll do what I want, thank you very much."
"I won't let you!"
"I am not giving you a choice!" That woman almost chirped. "You save the world if you feel like it, I'll even make breakfast for you! But as for me, I want to sleep until it's past noon and sip a drink in a sauna! And when it all ends, well..."
She turned around, walked toward the hatch.
"... Let's leave no regrets behind!"
Her whole cheerful demeanor stopped for a moment, when she saw me pick my old clay arm, throw back the toga and fix the limb to my shoulder. Yeah, it hurt! Soft clay not so soft anymore in that cut limb, but it would flow again in time.
Before I was done, she had hurried outside.
Outside, she addressed her slaves.
"Excuse me everyone! This place is beautiful, but it could really get some work! So what do you say we build some houses for you all?"
"Houses?" One lizard wondered, its head covered in fluff. "What for?"
"Well I won't be the only one enjoying luxury! You too should have beds and food and a good bath! So what do you say? Let's make houses for us all!"
"But we need to get this ship to the water!" Another lizard protested.
"Who cares!" She laughed it off. "Let's just bring water to the ship! We'll dig a whole stream, and raise a big tree on top of this hill! It will be our own little paradise!"
"An oasis." The mammoth woke up, its voice heavy. "That sounds good. I will help build an oasis."
"Come on everyone!" The human raised her arm high in the sky. "Hip hip hip!"
"Hourra!"
Work started almost immediately. But housing meant something very different for monsters. They thought dens, they thought peaks and nests. Yet they wanted their new friend to be impressed and so all went to cut wood and bring stone.
Meanwhile, the human had left the barrier and started a rampage. "Pacify!" Her voice boasted over the meadow. "Pacify!" Again and again wherever she went. "Pacify!"
Creatures all fluffy and cute trickled in toward the ship.
By mid-afternoon I had dropped the barrier. There were still fights around, but they were dying out. Monsters by the dozens, reduced to happy beasts, were plowing the ground and raising trees. They had decided on their houses.
It would be trees. It would be layers of canopies and large hollow trunks.
I watched the human's slaves dig the trench that was to be the new stream running through their future hamlet. I watched the stretched cats that had been meniles work on a bridge already.
"It's scary." The legged rapt that followed me whispered.
It had been too fearful to stay on the ship. Now it clutched on my leg, almost hindering my walk. All the slaves around it made the rapt nervous.
Here was the sky lynx, the one the human had named Sora. It was busy leaping up a tree to tie down a rope. They were planning to drag it down and make space.
"Ah, the portal one!" It noticed me and hopped back down in a flash.
Sky lynxes. Because when humans were tired of watching monsters fight, they wanted to watch monsters run fast. Few things moved faster than lightning and so sky lynxes had become little favorites, for their speed and for their pelt.
Maybe they looked like this, back when mana was plentiful? Maybe this was how monsters were meant to be under the humans' rule.
"Come closer." I gestured and the lynx begrudgingly approached. My hand touched its fluffy head. "Show me your thoughts."
Three ways for a monster to talk. Gestures: all that fluff and paws screamed peaceful. Voice: they kept talking and talking as friendily as monsters could.
Thoughts. The part a monster would only use to boast, because of how dangerous it was to expose it to others. What trust a beast needed to let one do that.
Yet the sky lynx let me. It purred on my hand, as if I was patting it, and the rapt at my leg trembled. I could hear the thoughts loud and clear.
"I will kill you! I will kill you! I will murder you all! I will break your bones and devour your flesh, you are dead!"
I tried another, and another. Those creatures all had the same thought.
Because they were monsters in the end.