12 11: The City atop a Mountain

After about an hour of flying, Edward has calmed down enough for him to look down from where he was. Because Zarg was not flying too high, he could still see the landscape below.

The land they were on was very lush. The grass was a healthy shade of green. Once in a while, Edward would see strange plants in the middle of the plains. It was quite similar with plants found on Earth, however, the size of the plants were gigantic. Strangely enough, he hadn't seen any other living creatures apart from the Giant Ravens.

"Lord Zarg, may I ask where we are heading?" Edward asked. They were already flying for about an hour and he still has not seen any type of house or nest nearby.

"You don't have to call me lord, just Zarg is enough. Anyways, we are going to the north near those mountains you see over there. That's where our territory is." Zarg replied.

"I see" Edward said. 'I wonder why they would choose to settle in the mountains…'

After nearly half an hour of flying, they soon reached the mountains. Edward was amazed at the sight. There must be at least ten mountains here, and each one is the same height as Mt Everest! However, the main difference is that instead of the cold, snowy environment associated with mountains of such size, what Edward saw is dense vegetation and trees.

'It seems that the cold air has no effect towards the plant life here! How strong must the vitality of these plants must be to survive this environment…' Edward thought.

As soon as they reached the mountain ranges, Zarg began to fly higher and higher until they were near the peak of the mountains. A few meters behind Zarg was Brigg and Frigg holding on to the still unconscious Zagath. Edward couldn't bear to look down now. The height was to much for him to handle.

'Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, just think of happy thoughts' Edward was chanting in his mind, while they were ascending higher and higher. Surprisingly, even though they were ascending quickly, the wind and the temperature still remained the same.

"Why in the world are we climbing the peak of the mountain?!" Edward shouted towards Zarg.

"Because our territory is at the peak of this mountain" Zarg said telepathically. "Don't worry, this mountain is the shortest of the 12 mountains here, so you will bee safe!"

'Safe my ASS!!!' Edward cried in his mind.

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Zarg then landed at the peak of the mountain. Edward jumped down from Zarg's back and kissed the grass. Zarg just rolled his eyes at him and started to walk towards a certain direction.

"Come Edward, inside that wall over there is our city." Zarg said while pointing his wing at a certain direction

Edward stood up from the ground and looked at the place where Zarg pointed. There stood a gigantic wall, nearly 200 foot in size! He had not noticed the structure when they were flying in the sky because he kept his eyes shut from fear.

As Edward walked closer to the wall, the more he started to get excited.

"Oh God! An alien civilization! My friends back on Earth would be green with envy with this discovery." Edward thought to himself.

When they reached the wall, Edward was astonished. The wall was made of what seems to be a variation of concrete back on earth. At the middle of the wall was a gigantic metallic gate that looked incredibly heavy, guarded by two giant ravens.

When the raven guards saw Zarg approaching, they immediately bowed down.

"My Lord! Welcome back!" the two gate guards greeted in unison, and they immediately opened the gates.

"Brigg, Frigg, bring my son the recovery area, and call the Grand Healer to check his condition." Zarg ordered. Brigg and Frigg quickly flew away to the recovery ward. "Come Edward, let me bring you to my home"

Edward did not reply immediately because he was busy looking at the city in front of him. He couldn't believe what he is seeing. In front of him was not the flocks of Giant Ravens he was expecting, what was in front of him was humanoid creatures with black wings protruding from their backs. As they were walking past Zarg they would always bow and curtsey respectfully.

"Angels?!" Edward was shocked! 'What the hell is this?'

"Surprised?" Zarg said. "No they are not mortals. They are the same race as me."

Suddenly, a bright light surrounded Zarg and slowly he began to shrink and morph smaller and smaller into a human. Well, not exactly human, because he has four large wings protruding from his back. Surprisingly, when he transformed, he was already wearing a black shirt and black pants.

Zarg, in his "human-form" looked like a middle aged man, in his forties, about 6'5 tall, with thick black hair and red pupils. He was very muscular, almost like a wrestler, and his face was incredibly attractive. Edward looked at him and thought to himself, 'I wish I looked like that when I was in my forties. Of the 11 previous bodies that I had, I was always lanky and thin, maybe I should work out this time…'

After Zarg transformed, he grabbed Edward by the shoulders and led him to his house. While Zarg was dragging him to his house, he began to observe his surroundings. The road was completely flat, and it had been paved with a strange black stone. It almost looks like asphalt from Earth. There are houses made from the same black stone and it looks like it is in the style of medieval European houses. He then turned his attention to the people around him.

"Wow! They all look like supermodels!!" Edward was astonished. Each and every person, man, woman, children and the elderly, were incredibly attractive. "All of the people here would be hired as supermodels back on Earth"

Because Edward was curiously studying his surroundings, he did not notice that the people around him is studying as well. With Edward's white hair, grayish eyes, slightly thin and lanky figure, and strange clothes, and he is wearing a navy blue t-shirt, cargo pants, and military boots. Edward stood out like a sore thumb from all of the black haired people.

" @%#&!%!@# " " !*#%#!&×+ " The people was speaking with each other. Edward was surprised that he couldn't understand a thing. Edward asked Zarg why he can understand him, Brigg, and Frigg when they were talking a while ago.

"Oh, because we were talking to you through telepathy. When communicating through telepathy, its usually thoughts and feelings being conveyed rather than actual words. Even now I am talking to you telepathically so that you could understand me. Its quite hard to explain, but I will show it to you later." Zarg replied after a few minutes of walking, they arrived in front of a gigantic palace.

It looked like a one of those gothic palaces from horror movies, except this one is not gloomy at all. There are strange, colorful flowers everywhere and there are trees all around. The entire palace was enclosed in a wall about 15 feet in height made with black stone, and the gate was made with what seems to be copper, but being in another planet, Edward was not entirely sure.

There were two guards at the front of the gate, fully armored in black, medieval armor. They look like knights in the movies, except they weren't wearing their helmets.

"@#%$ @&#%!" the two guards saluted and opened the gate for them. Edward didn't understand a thing, but he guessed that they were welcoming him back or saluting them.

Zarg just nodded and led Edward directly inside. When Edward entered the palace, he was amazed.

"Amazing!" Edward couldn't help exclaim.

The interior of the palace did not look medieval, full of wood and leather, and animal skins, like he imagined, it was actually very refined! Much like a British or German royal palace from the 1800's. The floor was carpeted, the furniture was very ornate, there were vases and decorations everywhere, it was very colorful. However, instead of the furniture being decorated with gold, it was decorated with this shiny, lustrous, black metal.

"Well, no one is home at the moment actually, so is there anything you want to talk about?" Zarg asked while he gestured Edward to sit at one of the sofa.

"Actually, could you please tell me all about this world…" Edward asked