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Sam had never been inside of a whale’s mouth before, but he found it was surprisingly cozy. He wasn’t sure if all whales had equally as cozy mouths, but Big Fish’s mouth was better than the place he had been squatting in when he was a talentless. There were two green, glowing stones embedded in the roof of the whale’s mouth, and they were bright enough for Sam to see the details of the insides of the whale’s mouth; well, as many details as he could see with a green filter placed over them.
Sam suspected regular whales didn’t have mouths with murals etched inside of them. Perhaps it was a result of Big Fish’s origin, the mantids’ heritage pillar, that the whale had scenes from history decorating its interior. Of course, Sam assumed they were scenes from history because he wasn’t too knowledgeable about Oterra’s past; humanity didn’t have much time to figure it out, and history lessons usually began when humans ascended to Oterra.
Other than the etchings, the floor of the whale’s mouth—if it could be called as such—was spongy and soft to walk on. It was comfortable to sit on, and when Sam lay down on the fleshy substance, it molded to his body perfectly like the best mattress out on the market. Although the whale claimed it shrank and hid its body underground, Sam was having a hard time believing it because he didn’t feel himself shrink at all. The space inside the whale’s mouth didn’t reflect how it appeared on the outside, and Sam’s All-Seeing Gaze behaved as if there was nothing beyond the whale’s mouth as if it were a separate dimension.
Sam checked on his stone tablet, but it could only connect to other tablets within the whale’s mouth; however, he still had lots of videos stored on there, so he wouldn’t be bored for the foreseeable future. How long were they going to camp underneath the ground? Well, that depended on how long the blue avians were going to be hunting for them, didn’t it? He hoped they weren’t a persistent race, but seeing as they sent someone after him at the first sign of a calamity, he wasn’t too hopeful.
Well, even if Sam was isolated from the outside world, that didn’t mean he was lonely. He had his higher-dimensional beings to accompany him. In fact, he was so fine with being inside the whale’s mouth, he had already stayed inside of it for over three months, living off the food Raindu stored in its fur. According to Big Fish, as long as one stayed bathed under the light within its mouth, they wouldn’t have to eat, but Sam ate anyway because despite not feeling hunger, he missed eating.
Whilst staying inside the whale, Sam experimented with his heart chakra. Although he didn’t have a tutor to impart him with techniques, he had the perfect sparring partner: Manga. By figuring out a way, namely, crystallizing his aura, Sam could defend himself from the wooly pig’s disintegration attacks which turned out to have similar properties to a blue avians’ attacks. Once he was satisfied with his mastery of Aura Crystallization, as he liked to call it, Sam made a decision.
“Well, alright,” Joe said, the sloth’s words dragging on for centuries. “I’ll bring one of them back to life for you.”
Sam waited and waited some more until the sloth finished speaking. Then, he waited for its aura to turn green as it entered a relaxed and cheerful mood. The blue avian corpse lying by Sam’s feet twitched as the green haze emitted by the sloth’s aura touched the blue avian’s feathers. With his All-Seeing Gaze, Sam saw the green light enter the blue avian’s body, and it thrummed, spreading throughout the corpse. Hints of green replaced the emptiness within the corpse, and soon, the light seeped out of the blue avian’s skin like shoots of grass growing on a barren field. Soon, the blue avian’s aura returned, and the green was tinged with several other hues as the blue avian regained consciousness.
The blue avian zoomed upwards, rocketing into the air and crashing straight into the roof of the whale’s mouth. It collided with a crunching sound as its body scrunched in on itself, and it let out a small exhalation as the wind was knocked out of it. The blue avian floated downwards as it recovered its posture, and only after it reassessed its surroundings did it focus its attention on Sam. “Hello,” the blue avian said. “This is … unexpected. What dimension are we in?”
“We’re the ones asking questions here,” Birdbrained said as it spread its wings and squawked. “Teach it a lesson, Manga.”
The wooly pig let out its four-syllable-long cry and ran, its legs running forward but its body traveling upwards. The blue avian crystallized its aura to defend itself, but the wooly pig didn’t mind, slamming into the target with its snout anyway. The blue avian’s aura flickered as it flew upwards, crashing once more into the roof of Big Fish’s mouth. The wooly pig snorted as the blue avian floated back down with its arms crossed in front of its chest.
“Ask away,” the blue avian said. “But please do inform me of my situation while you’re at it.”
“Can you teach this human how to fight?” Vercedei asked, pointing at Sam’s head with the tip of its tail.
“I can, but I won’t,” the blue avian said.
“What could you teach him?” Vercedei asked.
“All sorts of techniques,” the blue avian said and examined Sam with its All-Seeing Gaze. “It’s rare for a human’s chakras to be so open and charged. If he’s smart enough, he can learn everything.”
“Then teach him everything,” Vercedei said.
The blue avian stared at Vercedei. “I said I won’t.”
“We’re not giving you an option,” Vercedei said. “Manga, beat some sense into this blue avian. Sam, pay attention to the blue avian’s every move.”
Sam distanced himself from the blue avian and wooly pig, moving as far back against the walls of the whale’s mouth as he could. Vercedei’s idea wasn’t terrible. Since blue avians manipulated their chakras to perform their actions, theoretically, Sam could steal the blue avians’ techniques by watching and observing. Even if he couldn’t mimic them completely, they’d give him a general direction to work with. It wasn’t a bad deal for the blue avian either since it could come back to life and live a little longer; well, mantids would think it was a terrible deal, but blue avians loved life, …right? Sam wasn’t too sure.
“If blue avians didn’t love life, that one wouldn’t be trying so hard to defend itself,” Vercedei said. “Pay attention.”
Sam observed the blue avian and wooly pig with his All-Seeing Gaze. The blue avians aura was crystallizing with a green light, becoming solid an instant before making impact with the wooly pig’s fur. Although it was similar to Sam’s Aura Crystallization, there were a few differences. The blue avians’ aura seemed to detonate as well after solidifying, exploding and creating distance between the blue avian and its opponent. The blue avian formed a connection with Sam, and he braced himself with Toughen. A moment later, the blue avian rushed towards Sam at incredible speeds, but before it could reach him, it was intercepted by Manga’s tackle.
Sam wasn’t sure which chakra allowed the blue avians to move as if by teleportation, but he suspected it was related to the Sahasrara. What other chakra would allow the blue avian to form a connection to lock onto him? Perhaps it was a combination of the crown chakra and solar plexus chakra working in unison to produce the movement effect. Manga was born from his Manipura, and it loved to charge at things.
The blue avian righted itself in midair and stopped its body from colliding against the walls of the whale’s mouth. Sam observed as the blue avians’ aura rippled, starting from its root chakra, a pulse of deep-brown rising up and washing over the already established colors layering the blue avian, causing the hues to become muted. Sam had a feeling the blue avian was mimicking a vibration, and when Manga rushed at the blue avian once more, a barrier made from the black aura extended out of the blue avian, stopping the charging pig in place. Without Sam’s All-Seeing Gaze, it looked like the blue avian had used telekinesis to prevent the pig from moving.
Sam’s root chakra had been mastered first, yet he didn’t know how to copy the blue avian’s technique. He had a lot to learn it seemed. Luckily, there were three blue avian captives; maybe they each knew their own individual techniques. Although he hadn’t wished to live inside a whale’s mouth, that’s what the situation was, and it was still an experience not many could claim to have, so Sam was going to make the best of it. He might be here for a while after all.
***
Paula hovered in the air, their eyes closed with their All-Seeing Gaze scanning the surface of the land. There wasn’t anything to be found other than the fauna native to the land, but that was impossible. According to the calamity detector, there were definitely calamities in the region, so where were they hiding?
“Has anyone found them yet?” a bored-sounding voice asked inside of Paula’s head. “We’ve been looking for forever.”
“And we’ll keep looking until we find them,” Paula replied, their intentions broadcasted to every blue avian in the region. Like volunteers for a search party to locate a missing child, dozens of blue avians had turned up to search for the culprit, and they had been at it for months. Despite their diligent work, they had found nary a trace.
“I’m just saying,” the same blue avian’s voice said in everyone’s minds, “we’ve been here a long time. What if the calamity detector is defective, and we’re searching for them in the wrong place?”
“Then, do you know where to search?” Paula asked.
“No,” the blue avian responded, “but how about I split off from the group, and I’ll search somewhere else?”
Paula exhaled, expecting something like this to happen sooner or later. Since the search wasn’t proving fruitful, a lot of the blue avians were thinking it was a waste of time. However, how could they allow three blue avians to be murdered by calamities without doing anything about it? This was more important than anything else the blue avians could have going on in their lives. “And what if you do find them when you’re all by yourself? Those calamities fought five of us and won, or did you already forget?”
“I’ll take some people with me who’re tired of searching this place,” the blue avian said. “I can’t be the only one who thinks this isn’t a good idea.”
Some blue avians gathered by the complaining blue avian’s side. “We’ll go with them.”
Paula wasn’t pleased, but it wasn’t like the blue avian could command the whole nest. There were always individuals in a group with their own thoughts, and it was true a lot of their resources were being used to find the culprit to no avail. If people wanted to give up, then Paula would simply take on their responsibilities and bear their workloads like the blue avian always had. However, if they had already spent three months searching the region, would they be able to find the culprit in a reasonable timeframe? Where exactly had they gone?
Time passed: minutes, hours, days. Another group of blue avians grew bored and left the region in the name of searching another area. The first group that had left still hadn’t come back. Either they had no luck, or they had given up on searching completely; Paula had a feeling it was the latter. Paula floated over to the calamity detector, which was underneath a piece of cloth on an altar. The blue avian’s hands hovered over the cloth, and they formed a connection with the crystal underneath.
After connecting to the crystal, Paula’s All-Seeing Gaze broadened as if it could accompany the whole of Oterra. A single flashing light flickered repeatedly at Paula’s location. The calamity detector was capable of determining the rough location of a calamity, but pinpointing it was much more difficult. Upon seeing the location of the calamity hadn’t changed, Paula disconnected themself from the detector and spoke to everyone within range in their mind. “We’ll have to start digging.”
Groans and other internal sounds of dissatisfaction filled Paula’s mind. As a blue avian, Paula preferred keeping away from the ground, and the rest of the blue avians felt the same way. However, the calamity needed to be taken care of, and it could only be dealt with if it was found. Someone had to do the dirty work. It wasn’t like the reptilians or mantids were going to step up and take care of Oterra’s stability, and the humans certainly weren’t going to help either.
Paula floated towards the ground and made a ripping motion. A cube flew out of the ground, leaving a cube-shaped hole. The blue avian manipulated the cube, setting it off to the side before digging up the surface once more. Paula had to lead by example if they expected to get any help. As expected, despite their groaning, most of the blue avians descended above the foliage and dug into the ground with their powers.
“Why are we digging?” one of the blue avians asked, voicing their discontent.
“We’re in the right area,” Paula said. “They’re not above us, and they’re not on the surface, so they must be underground.”
“But … there’s so much more underground than aboveground,” the blue avian said. “How long will it take to find them?”
“That depends on how well they’re hidden, doesn’t it?” Paula asked. “We could be here for a long time, or if we really try, we’ll only be here for a short while.”
“This sucks,” one of the blue avians said. “Maybe they went somewhere else. We didn’t find any traces of them digging anywhere, so why would you think they’re underground?”
“They could’ve used the holes left behind by burrowing creatures,” Paula said. “They wouldn’t necessarily have to dig their own.”
“Right,” the blue avian said. “Because the calamity that trampled all those trees is small enough to crawl through the hole left behind by a worm.”
“I know you’re frustrated,” Paula said, “but that’s no reason to be so sarcastic with me. The calamities are out there, and we have to find them.”
“Those three fellows who got killed would probably understand if we gave up on avenging them,” a blue avian said. “If they were in our situation, they’d want to give up as well, so it’d be hypocritical of them to get angry at us.”
“A calamity isn’t something that solves itself,” Paula said. “Someone has to take care of it before it grows into an even larger problem. Unless we want to spend even more effort and maybe lives of our brethren in the future, we have to end it now.”
“I hate that you’re right,” the blue avian said. “See, I’ve got this thing I was putting off, and I need to go do it now before it’s too late since I spent so much time out here. How about you notify me when you find a trace of the calamity?”
Paula didn’t say a word as they lifted blocks of dirt out of the ground. “Are you sure you don’t want to help?” they asked after moving a few more blocks. “If something terrible happens, can you bear the guilt knowing you could’ve prevented it?”
“I can bear it,” the blue avian said. “Does that mean I’m free to go?”
“You’ve always been free to go,” Paula said. “We’re blue avians. Nothing can restrict our freedom.”
“Except our sense of responsibility,” the blue avian said, “but since you’re shouldering my responsibilities, I’ll be taking my leave, thank you.”
The blue avian took off before Paula could say a word.
Another blue avian chimed in. “I also have things I need to do,” they said. “May I go as well, Paula?”
“Yeah, Paula,” a second blue avian said. “I need to do important things as well.”
It was so convenient for so many important tasks that needed to be done to crop up all of a sudden, but Paula wasn’t going to call out their fellow blue avians on their bad behavior. It wasn’t like they wouldn’t make up excuses to get out of it later if Paula didn’t let them go now. There were some blue avians who’d stick around to help, and eventually, even if it’d take much longer, they’d locate the calamity and deal with the problem.