Introductions part 3

The moment Mina stepped outside, here eyes opened wide in amazement. In front of her was a fantasy world practically pulled straight from her dreams. The sky was blue, and was dotted not just with clouds, but floating islands! Every direction she looked, there were islands made of white stone flying in the sky, topped with green and red and gold, with all sorts of birds and such flying between them. If she looked close enough, she could even see people riding some of the birds.

Focusing down onto her own location, she could tell that they themselves were standing on a floating island of their own, a fence bordering the area to keep people from falling. Mina ran up to the fence without hesitation and immediately looked down to see that their islands were way up high, above peaks of small mountains dotted with gold and green trees that looked like specks below them.

Then over in the distance, not too far away and just slightly below them, there was a massive floating island with dozens or even hundreds of buildings, each of them seemingly floating on its own.

“Beautiful, isn’t it.” Athan said as he placed a hand on her shoulder, and not so subtly pulled her back so she wasn’t pressing against the fence. “This is our kingdom, Chamiloran, the kingdom blessed by Uraina to join her in the sky.”

“Amazing! Everything’s flying!” Mina exclaimed.

“Naturally. Uraina is the goddess of the sky, so everything under her gaze shall be separate from the earth with her.” Athan said. “Of course, even as her followers we have limitations. We still require ground beneath our feet to function. But all that which is blessed by her can join her in the sky, so naturally we also lift ourselves into the sky to join her.”

“Wow!” Mina said.

Athan allowed Mina a few more minutes to take it all in before he ushered her over to another part of the flying island. Mina obediently followed, now even more curious about everything this world had to offer.

The area that Athan brought her too had Mina’s eyes widening even before he started explaining what it was. It was a large cage essentially, with birds of difrent sizes and colors flying around, and on the bottom were dozens of difrent trees with lots of fruit, as well as a small patch of grains in one corner of the area. Also in that area were two people, a man and a woman, who were helping a very large bird groom itself.

“Natalia, Vasilis, I’d like to introduce you to someone.” Athan called out to the pair.

“Just give us a minute!” The woman called out.

The pair took a moment to finish grooming the bird’s feathers, with the man pulling out a fruit and feeding it to the bird before allowing the bird to fly away.

“Alright, now that Pecker is done, who’s this?” The woman asked as she and the other guy made their way over, letting Mina get a good look at them.

The woman was on the taller side, and had dirty red hair that was cut fairly short. She was also clearly physically fit, though she probably had the most balanced build Mina had seen on anyone here so far. She wore what could be best described as this world’s version of a cowboy outfit, having a dark blue shirt with puffy sleeves, tight dark purple pants, dark red gloves and boots, as well as a purple cowboy hat and a red cape that went down about half her back.

The man on the other hand had a build that was about 5% smaller than the woman’s, height included. Unlike her though, his clothes were visibly high end, with both his shirt and pants being a mix of dark blue and dark purple that waved in the wind, and he had a full length dark blue cape with gold in it. But he also had dark red gloves and boots, and a purple cowboy hat.

“This is Mina, the one that Uraina sent us.” Athan told them. “Mina, this is Natalia.”

“Hey kid, nice the meet you.” The woman said with a wave.

“And Vasilis.”

“Greetings young miss.” The man said with a partial bow.

“Oh, um, greetings.” Mina replied with a bow of her own.

“Relax kid, no need to bow. This one’s just too used to being a snob from all his time in the castle that he’s forgotten how to act like an actual person.” Natalia said with a roll of her eyes while grabbing Vasilis by the collar and forcing him to stand up straight. This earned her a scowl from him.

“It’s called having a bit of class and making a good first impression.” Vasilis growled at her.

“As you can likely tell, these two are siblings.” Athan said with a chuckle, ignoring their growing argument. “They’re both in charge of managing the little farm we have here, ensuring that we’ll have good and fresh food to eat, or if we need to sell something to get a bit of money. Natalia is also proficient in healing magic, so she assists Agapi in the med bay from time to time.”

“This is a farm? It’s cool, but why is it all birds?” Mina asked.

“Simple. As I said earlier, we follow the goddess Uraina, and anything blessed by her can join her in-”

“Long story short, it’s a religious thing.” Natalia said, cutting Athan off. “People that worship Uraina don’t eat anything that doesn’t either fly or grow on trees, with grain like wheat being the only exception. Also, personally I’ve found that stuff that walks on the ground tastes weird anyways.”

“That… is the simple explanation I suppose.” Athan said, the wind momentarily taken out of his sails. “In any case, I didn’t bring you over here just to see the farm. While I’m sure you like the clothes you’re currently wearing, it would likely be best if you dressed in a way that was more appropriate. Both for our kingdom and for your status as it’s future go-great savior.”

Mina didn’t notice Athan’s tiny slip up at all, instead she was focused on the fact that she was about to get new clothes. While she wasn’t that big of a fashion girl like some of her friends, idea of getting new fantasy world clothes sounded incredible!

“Really! You’re going to give me some cool magic clothes!?” She asked excitedly, making Athan chuckle.

“Well, not quite MAGIC clothes, but they will at least be an improvement on what you’re wearing now. And Vasilis here is our resident fashion expert, so he’ll be the one preparing them for you.” Athan said, turning to said man. “Well, do you think you’ll be able to clothe Mina in something fitting of her status?”

“Well, probably.” Vasilis said, looking at Mina with a critical eye that would have made her uncomfortable were she not so excited. “She’s smaller than I expected, but seeing as she’s about Nik’s size I should be able to repurpose some things to outfit her properly.”

“Alright, then why don’t the two of you go into the sleeping quarters and get her clothes figured out. I need to go back and reconvene with Lefteris and Elias.” Athan said.

“Alright, I can do that. You ok to finish up here Nat?” Vasilis asked his sister, who waved him off.

“I’m good, you go do your fashion diva nonsense.” Natalia said, making Vasilis roll his eyes.

“Alright. Come Mina, I’m not sure about a full wardrobe, but I should be able to make you at least one outfit in an hour or so here.” Vasilis said as he began walking to the other building on the island. Mina looked at him hesitantly, and looked towards Athan with an uncertain look.

“It’s fine.” Athan said softly. “I trust Vasilis, so you don’t have to worry about him. Besides, given your blessings, I’m sure you could fight him off even if he did cause you trouble. So go on and get some new clothes.”

“… Alright.” Mina said after a moment’s thought, and she rushed after Vasilis. Athan smiled after her before walking back to the main hall.