68 Sniff The Cracks
As the young young girl felt from the sky , she felt a gust of wind slowing her fall as she got closer to the summit of the mountain.
"Nodus , catch me!"
The innocent girl saw Nodus who was holding his arms open already as she stretched out hers while facing downward.
The young girl resembled to an beautiful angel with a hint of divine aura around her but the most eyes catching aspect would be her small pale purple lips that contrasted her white skin.
When she reached the range of the magic circle , Ry'ia felt like she was slowly floating down and landed on Nodus arms who stood on waters.
"Nodus? Wahh you're so cute!"
After questioning his identity , she didn't hold back after seeing him nod and rubbed her face against his while her arms was wrapped around his neck as he carried her to the lands on the edge.
"Meh?" Shishi who ran to him with a fruit in his mouth was puzzled when he saw Nodus carrying a girl.
"Wow so adorable!"
As soon they reached the land , Ry'ia pounced on Shishi and hugged him tightly.
"Boss! help me...Guehh." Shishi was turning red from the lack of oxygen as he was being held by the young girl.
"This is my..Friend , Shishi , this is Ry'ia , she's a friend from the sky."
After introducing each other , Nodus and Ry'ia sat on the edge of the cliff as they dangled their feet right above the huge pool in the crater.
"This is so beautiful.. Although I get to see it from far times to times , I never imaged the water to be so clear."
The young girl would talk about how she always laid beside the edge of the island to see down below even though the clouds were almost always there , she was still afraid of missing the opportunity.
"Will you be alright? What about your sister?"
"It's alright , my sister only comes home at night whenever she has school and sometimes if she has a task she would be gone for weeks!" Ry'ia pouted as she talk about how bored and lonely she was whenever her sister was gone.
"But what about Nodus? Did you come here to see the water too?"
The young man gently shook his head and explained that he came to look for some people.
"Precisely , they are just like Shishi , magical beast with different appearances and shapes."
"Oh! I saw them once before , some of them were flying in the sky but never came close toward my island.."
Knowing that she must be talking about the flying lightning magical beast , Nodus couldn't help but to ask when was the last times she saw them.
"It was 5 days ago..? Only for less than a minute until the clouds came back again booo."
"Do you know how they look like?"
After pondering for a while , she described a big bird with feathers that shines under the sunlight , their entire body , including the claws had a dark gray and two unique strand of feathers sticking out from their head.
"Mhmm.. The two feather on their head are white unlike it's body feathers..."
'Must be some-kind of antenna to conduct lightning.' Nodus didn't bother guessing any further and waved his hand toward Shishi.
"Shishi , let her try one too."
Shishi jumped down from a tree and gave the yellow greenish fruit to the girl , rested on her laps and stared down below the pool.
"Thank you so much Shishi!"
The mysterious fruit attracted her attention as she held it with both hand and imprinted the fruit shape in her mind.
While she was distracted , Nodus went toward the taller side of the cliff and couldn't find anything irregular other than empty holes that were used as a shelter.
'They also left their homes without a fight.. What is this?'
Nodus advance eyesight caught a single piece of fur on the floor and as he picked up , Z1 determined that it belonged to the lion looking magical beast that he fought in the tunnel.
"So they came here for sure , why?"
"Nodus! Can I bring some of the yummy fruit for my sister too?"
The young girl waved her hands as she called the young man.
"Are you sure?"
Nodus approached Ry'ia with a smile as he thought about a silly princess he was close to.
"Huh? Why not , I am sure she will love it!"
"But then.. She will question you about it and find out that you went down the island."
The girl froze in shock as she covered her mouth.
"Oh no! I almost got caught , phew , thanks to Nodus I am safe!"
"How about this? Why not cut the fruit into smaller pieces and tell her that it was your uncle who brought it."
Nodus convinced her after his logical explanation , after all , her uncle goes directly to the island to visit her without any warning so she gets to see him more than her older sister who was always in school.
"Nodus is so smart... and so cute!" Ry'ia crawled with her knees and held onto the young man's hip with a big smile on her face. 'This... is worst than Ali..'
"Ah! Were you looking for those magical birds?"
Nodus nodded with a puzzled expression.
"Maybe they went into that door!" Ry'ia pointed at the middle of the taller side cliff and led Nodus there while holding his hand.
"*Sniff*" The young girl was moving her nose up and down and sniffed around the brown crater walls like a dog.
"Here! I smell the door here!"
Nodus was even more confused and decided to touch the wall. *Pushhh*
He could tell that his hand wasn't on the wall at all but exactly one millimeter away from it. 'A barrier.'
He finally understood what she meant by door and told her to stand behind him. "Stand behind me , you too Shishi."
With his device materializing in his hand , he flipped the switch to the *P* and shot out a laser beam onto the invisible barrier.
As he slowly drew a circle and as soon the lines connected , he could see a new world that was dimly lit with a ocean of clouds surrounding hundreds of hills. "I will go first."
As soon he took a step into the portal , Nodus could see the stars shining brightly in the sky with the suns extremely far away.
"Light wouldn't normally be able to reach here but because there is 3 suns , it is possible.." He came across many worlds and systems but never encountered one with more than 1 sun. 'How is this system not collapsing?..'
Another matter for another day , said the young man as he thought about the more urgent matters and 1 KM scanned around him. 'It's them.'
He turned around and signaled them to come in. "It's safe and Shishi , I found your friends."
Once Nodus scanned something , Z1 would always let him know if he encountered the same thing or people based on the DNA system it was built with.
"What? Really boss? Whe-..Woah!"
The first thing that caught Shishi and Ry'ia eyes weren't the clouds or hills , but the brightly lit stars that were shinier than usual.
'Mhmm.. They also noticed the difference , this world has oddly a thin atmosphere zone.'
While the two of them were staring at the stars , Nodus went ahead and looked down the cliff and could only see the clouds. 'Something is wrong.' With a beep from his scanner , he could see that the cloud thermal level was high.
Without any hesitation , Nodus jumped down the clouds as his magical robe transformed into the black fiber suit that covered his entire body.
As soon he passed through the clouds , Nodus landed on the ground and stared at the deserted ground filled with cracked earth like in those dry area of the desert.
'They are indeed stratus clouds and to be this low , the world most likely died a long time ago.'
He noticed that the clouds were too low and had a thicker mass than usual to be called fogs , he once came across this situation before so it was no surprise for him.
Nodus made his way back up the hill that wasn't as tall as one would expect because of the clouds and saw that those two were searching for him.
With his suit transforming back into the magical robe , Nodus reached the top and called them out.
"Let's go to your friends." Shishi jumped happily and ran around Nodus.
"More adorable creatur- magical beast? I want to meet them too!" Ry'ia tagged along with Nodus and went down the hill together.
"Wow! These are clouds? Did they fall to the ground..?"
As Ry'ia stood up straight , with only two heads taller than Nodus , the clouds almost scratched the surface of her hair as she looked around with a curious expression.
