A Rainy Night

The night sky in this world is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Hundreds of unknown constellations backdropped by an enormous milky tapestry of scarlet red that stretches across the horizon. The medley of colour is obscured from view by floating islands of various sizes.
Floating. Islands. How cool is that? They even have rivers that flow down from their edges, eventually scattering into a fine mist. There are bridges which span all the to the ground from some of them. How do you even build something like that?

After a while, my grip on the elf in front of me lessens as we seem to come to what I will call our cruising altitude, for lack of a better term. The beating of the gryphon’s wings slows to an intermittent flap to avoid falling. When the we’re just gliding, the only sound to be heard is that of the night air rushing past my ears.

There’s a tranquility to be had up here, and it cools me down from the thoughts that have been running through my head: Am I ever going to be able to go home? Who exactly is Great Witch Iris? Why do these people want a spell of hers? I don’t exactly feel like I’m in any immediate danger. After all, these folks have a vested interest in keeping me alive, at least for now. Is swapping bodies something that commonly happens here?

I’m interrupted by the second gryphon approaching. Lilah is commanding her mount with a serious expression on her face. Basil, somehow, is dead asleep while holding onto Lilah. How hasn’t he fallen right off?

“A storm is up ahead,” she yells towards Aster when she gets within earshot. “We should land and wait it out!”

He replies back in agreement.

The gryphons both then bank to the right, and we approach a nearby floating island. It’s mountainous, with its two peaks reaching far above even our current height. I’m pretty sure we’re coming in far too fast to land gracefully. Aster, however, seems unperturbed as he leans over to look at the ground. I’m rocked by gryphon’s legs making contact with the ground. The bumpiness of the beast breaking into a gallop is making me a bit dizzy. A few seconds later, Aster steadies our mount and brings to the edge of the nearby woods. I heard stomping on the ground behind me, and turn to see Lilah bring her gryphon to a stop. Basil, I notice, is wide awake now.

We dismount, and Aster immediately pulls a large canvas that was strapped to the side of our gryphon. In no time at all, he and Lilah secure its four corners around some trees, creating a large covered area. Extra fabric drapes down from the edges, forming an enclosure. Lilah quickly goes to work securing the seams together and weighing down the makeshift walls with rocks.

***

I can’t sleep. Aster is asleep on the side of this gryphon. Lilah is laying down near the entrance of the shelter, seemingly out cold too. Basil is sorting through his belongings on the ground. I guess he got enough sleep on the ride over. 

An anxiousness takes over me. This is probably the first real chance to get some kind of answers about anything. But what should I ask him? Do I come right out with it and admit I’m not who they’re looking for? Will he even answer? I lift myself out of my stomach and begin to speak.
“Um, uh… Basil?” I mutter. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself by calling this speaking.
Basil places a tool into one of the bags in front of him and turns to look at me. “So you have remembered how to speak!” He says in a low voice while smiling.

Now that he’s looking at me, I’m finding that actually asking the question is a lot harder than getting his attention. The sound of rain tapping on the canvas fills the emptiness of this conversion. I look down from his patient eyes towards my hands which have come together on my lap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“Where are you guys taking me?” I finally manage to spit it out.

“Quite simply, we are taking you back to Carneli.” My face must be clearly showing how little that means to me. “You do not know where that is, do you?”

I sheepishly shake my head while continuing to look down. Interesting, Iris paints her nails.
“That confirms my hypothesis then. You are not actually the great witch, are you?”

I can feel my whole body tense up. The rain sounds so distant. I look up at Basil to see the same patient eyes as when I looked away. When did he lean so far towards me?

“N-no, I’m not.” I look away again as soon the words come out of my, or I guess Iris’, mouth. 

“Who are you then? A colleague of hers? A rejected former student of the old Great Witch Nepeta? She always was quite harsh. No that is not right, you would have used some form of incantation by this point if you were.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Frankly, I’m having a hard time believing it myself. I hoped I’d fall asleep and wake up in my bed back home, but neither of those things seem to be happening anytime soon. 

“If I have learnt one thing in my life, it is that the world of magic is full of unbelievable things. We have only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible with it.”

“I think her and I swapped bodies.” The jig is up.

“Souls swapping vessels is not unheard of. What would be unusual is how long the spell is lasting. Even with the latest developments in our understanding, it should only last for up to a minute at most. It is possible that Iris has come across a way to extend its duration, but I cannot envision maintaining its link over the distance we’ve flown. Such a spell really should have reversed by now.”

Am I ever going back?

“Your story lines up with the mana structures I saw earlier. I do not have any other good explanations at the moment for how someone’s structures could look like that. That said, she cannot have swapped positions with you that long ago, that much I know for certain. Are you from Linaria then?”

As I’m about to fess up about my situation, Aster jolts out of his sleep into a crouching position. 

“We need to move.” He says as he shakes Lilah awake. The gryphons are both awake now, and they begin making distressed cries. 

Lilah opens her eyes and immediately jumps up and looks directly at me. 

“What have you done?” She demands to know. 

“Nothing.” I reply. I look towards Basil, pleading for support.

“There’s a large beast approaching from the East,” Aster says, undisturbed by Lilah’s inquiry. “It’s flying. It should be upon us in a minute.” 

Lilah peers out of the shelter’s entrance. A golden hue spills onto our bedding as the first light of dawn breaks over the horizon. 

“What do you see?” Basil asks.

A look of terror washes across her face. “It’s an ether dragon.”