Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (best ebook reader ubuntu .TXT) 📖

Her reflexes were also forty times greater than a human’s. She had fast eyes, which meant she was able to process visual stimuli faster. And she could dynamically calculate image velocity, which meant not only the size of an object in front of her but also the speed of her approach.

Her tiny, pointed ears didn’t perceive most of the actual sounds, including voices. Her feathery antennae, which stayed with her in either her fairy or hummingbird form, felt the vibration from the sounds. Afterwards, her brain made sense of all the vibrational data.   

Humans relied too much on their sight, which explained a lot as to how they were judgmental and tended to dichotomize things into good and bad. If they could only smell the halitosis in their own breaths, she thought.

When diving, Jayla could increase her wingbeats and reach up to sixty miles per hour and her itty-bitty heart (nevertheless five times bigger than a human’s in proportion to her body) made over a thousand beats per minute. Sadly, her feet were still weak and could only be used for standing and not for walking.

No matter. She felt invincible. The queen of the fairy world.

****

“Fairy is the Nightcrawler,” Mage explained as he walked while slightly leaning on his staff for support. Fairy was farther ahead, playing with a pink unicorn.

“Nightcrawler?” Elf asked. “Don’t you mean caterpillar?”

“No, Nightcrawler. She is the dominant consciousness in this world.”

“Does that make her a fairy queen or something?” Warrior asked.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking. Everything in this world, as far as you can see, is her creation.”

“Wow,” Warrior said.

“If she’s so powerful,” Ranger spoke at the head of the column, without looking back. “Why doesn’t she just send us all back to where we came from? Or just teleport us to Heliopolis?”

“Because that would defeat the purpose of the quest. You need to know and claim the land yourself. The Nightcrawler creates the path but every one of you must walk it.”

“Who came and made her God?” Ranger asked.

 “That is a relevant question, Ranger. It is my observation that Fairy exhibits the symptoms of narcolepsy.”

“Narco-what?” Warrior asked.

“Narcolepsy,” Elf recited mechanically, though confused how she could know such a term. “It’s a condition of excessive daytime sleepiness and intermittent, uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep.”

“Meaning what exactly?” Warrior asked.

Mage answered: “Fairy is able to reach the REM stage of sleep at the drop of a hat, to borrow your parlance.”

“You keep talking about dreams and sleep,” Ranger said, still without looking back or stopping. “Are we really asleep right now?”

“I understand your skepticism, Ranger,” Mage replied. “But if you observe closely, there are many things around you that defy logic.”

“If we are indeed sleeping,” Warrior said, “why won’t we wake up?”

“It is one of the primary rules of this world,” Mage answered, “you cannot leave until you have completed the quest. Do you not recall the mnemonic TEA-C-F-P? The fourth letter stands for…”

“Complete the Mission,” Elf finished, looking more and more bewildered.

“Prove it,” Ranger said with an edge in his voice. He had finally stopped and turned around to face everyone. “If we are indeed dreaming and this is a quest, aren’t we supposed to be fighting dragons or something?”

As soon as he had said it, a raptorial screech was heard from above. The sound was also sibilant and partly guttural. And then a shadow at least forty feet across fell over them.

All the Dreamwalkers looked up with frightened eyes.

“Me and my big mouth,” Ranger whispered.

“Actually, Ranger,” Mage said nonchalantly, “the appropriate phrase is big imagination.”  

****

“RUUUUUUUUNNNN!!!!” Ranger screamed as the dragon swooped down on them. “TO THE FOREST!!!”

He stood on a knoll and pointed at a forest that had materialized ahead. 

The others didn’t need to be told and bolted over the knoll and down to a plain. Warrior was surprisingly fast for his bulk and, more to it, soon metamorphosed into his crest animal: a 3,000-pound black bear. Running on all four of his long, powerful legs, he overtook everyone, who fell behind him with open mouths because even down on all fours, he was easily taller than all of them.

The last was Blacksmith, who ran awkwardly like someone averse to exercise. He felt inspired by Warrior’s transformation, but his hopes didn’t stay up long because he knew his crest animal, for some tragic reason, was a mereswine; otherwise known as a dolphin. To him, Ranger shouted: “GET DOOOOOOWWWWWWNN!!” as Ranger watched the dragon glide right behind the pudgy Blacksmith.