It seed strangely wrong, for sothing as imnse as the Night Garden to move. And yet, it did slowly at first, and then faster and faster, the titanic ship began to glide across the undulating waves. The oceanic waves themselves seed impossibly small as they broke against its living hull, rging into a flat aquamarine plane while stretching toward the distant horizon.
It was as if an entire island suddenly decided to move on, complete with a city full of millions of people. The groves were moving, the adows were moving, and the lakes were moving as well... Sunny knew that there was nothing odd about it, logically, and yet his mind was failing to reconcile the inconceivable scale of it all with what was happening.
"This world... it truly knows how to make one feel small, does it not?"
And that was coming from soone who could tum into a hundred-ter-tall colossus whenever he wished.
A loud cheer reached the runic hall from the upper decks of the Night Garden, where people had poured onto the pronades along the edges of the titanic ship to watch it depart from the Eastern Quadrant. The atmosphere, despite the perilous journey that awaited them, felt bright and festive.
For so of them, this was just another journey. For so - those who had boarded the Great Citadel in the Eastern Quadrant as refugees - it was the first voyage. Their continent was liberated from the clutches of the Skinwalker now, but their cities and hos were already gone, so the newcors were eager to experience the seas and build anew ho for themselves on the Night Garden.
Sunny had only spent one morning on the titanic ship, but he could already tell that life here was one of starkly opposing extres.
The Great Citadel itself was idyllic and beautiful beyond belief, while the storms assaulting its impregnable hull and the Nightmare Creatures besetting it were furious and chillingly horrifying. Sohow, though, the dread of the dark and tumultuous seas only made the vibrant beauty of the Night Garden more comforting. Plus, it belonged to Soul Reaper Jet. She had co far from the days when people who knew of her- mostly Awakened-treated her with distaste and aversion due to the ruthless cruelty of her murderous ways. Now, there was no person in the world who did not know the Soul Reaper, and her reputation, while not as loud as that of the other great champions of humanity, was stellar. People treated her with the respect and esteem reserved only for those who had earned it. Jet had always been a professional, and her profession was serving humanity - she had a spotless track record of being good at her job, as well, so being under Soul Reaper's wing ant being safe. That was why refugees were happy to settle on the Night Garden and beco a part of the community here.
"What is this feeling?!
Hiding in Jet's shadow and watching her steer the titanic Citadel while giving her subordinates commands, Sunny felt his heart swell a little. He felt like a proud parent... proud child? Proud student or a comrade, perhaps.
In any case, Sunny had to get down to business. He was reasonably sure that the sixth fragnt of Weaver's lineage was hidden sowhere on the Night Garden, or at least sowhere where the Night Garden could help him reach. At the mont, Sunny was being suppressed by the War Realm, so he could not search too actively... but that did not an that he could not do anything.
As the Night Garden slowly moved along the coast of Australia, Sunny extended his, shadow sense in all directions - or at least tried to. The hull of the ancient vessel was interfering with his perception, so he could not cast a wide net. He could still explore the ancient vessel bit by bit, though, finding paths where the living wood did not block his senses.
The Night Garden had countless decks and cavernous holds, with bustling activity of a thriving city. It was also full of strange and wondrous things, so finding one well-hidden anomaly here was going to be much harder than finding a needle in a haystack.
Sunny could sense the entirety of a haystack in a split second, find the needle, and count each individual strand of hay on top of that... actually, he already had a needle - Weaver's Needle- so he would not need to do sothing so senseless, to begin with. However, finding the fragnt of Weaver's lineage was going to take a lot of effort and ticulous work. Sadly, an annoying distraction kept invading his senses when he tried to focus.
At first, there was the sound of wings.
'Then, there was the sound of small talons click-clacking on the wooden floor.
Then, soone aid a persistent stare at him.
'It's alright... lam hidden in Jet's shadow. No one can see ."
But then, soone jumped onto the shadow, walked this way and that across its surface, and even pecked at it with a sharp beak a few tis.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Sunny focused on his imdiate surroundings.
A black bird was standing on top of him, looking down with unreadable round eyes. Its inky feathers glistened in the morning light.
Crow Crow pecked Jet's shadow one more ti, then spread its wings and cawed loudly: "Sah-nee! Sah- nee!"
Sunny gritted his teeth-taphorically speaking - and produced a quiet whisper: "Get off , stupid bird. Go away!"
Crow Crow stared at him so more, then waved its wings a couple of tis.
"Bird! Bird!"
Sunny sighed.
"Yes, you are a bird. I don't even know how you noticed , but please, stop blowing my cover and go annoy Jet, instead."
Crow Crow tilted its head, then hopped up and down the shadow a few tis and flew up to perch on Jet's shoulder.
Giving Sunny a smug look from his perch, it then cawed again:
"Bird! Jet!"
Sunny suppressed a groan.
Sothing was telling him that concentrating on the search was not going to be easy.
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