//------------------------------//
// New Horizons 
// Story: My Own Wings 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

Krystal carefully steered her smaller craft into the atmosphere of Dinosaur Planet.  She found herself constantly glancing towards the new systems monitor that Slippy had installed, which measured the ambient magical fields of her area.  The Great Fox had a much stronger magical field than her fighter, and the biggest concern was that Dinosaur Planet's ambient fields wouldn't be strong enough for Sunset's energies to safely interact with, for the planet's sake or hers.  She turned her eyes to where Sunset was strapped in, struggling to look out every view port the small craft had all at once, eager for every bit she could see.

Seeing no concern at the moment in the fields, Krystal guided her craft to the home of the Earthwalker Tribe she was heading to meet with, the ancient Walled City.  The ancient stonework glowed bronze with the light of the sun, tall walls marking the borders of the city with smaller buildings surrounding a central massive pyramid that rose into the heavens.  She assumed the pyramid was a structure of great importance, and so guided her craft to land on a flat, raised platform some distance away that showed signs of having been used as a landing platform previously...though not necessarily by space craft.  She knew it wouldn't be long before the locals showed up, but she wanted to see if Sunset could handle the environment before she had to start talking with them.

Quickly unstrapping herself, she plucked Sunset from her own seat before letting her float.  "Alright Sunset, this way," she instructed firmly, going to the craft's boarding ramp.  Much to her surprise, Sunset grabbed hold of her and pulled back.  "Sunset?"

"No!" Sunset cried out worriedly.  "Bad empty eat you!"

Krystal blinked for a time as she tried to process that.  "Bad empty?  But the ambient magic is..."  She paused, then laughed.  "Sunset, we aren't in space," she explained softly.  "This is a planet.  There's no vacuum out there to worry about.  See?"  She pressed the button to cause the ramp to lower, flinching back as a barrier of orange magic flared up around them both.

Sunset tensed up as she clung to Krystal...then opened her eyes in confusion.  After a time, she dropped the barrier, then floated down to the floor before slowly crawling down the ramp.  Krystal followed, watching Sunset's actions as she approached the edge of the ramp...and stared in awed wonder at the grass, carefully reaching towards it only to pull her hand back in fear.

Krystal shook her head in wonder.  Sunset had been raised entirely aboard the Great Fox.  At the age of three, she had no conscious memory of a planet's surface, save seen through a view screen.  A genuine living plant so close was something she didn't know how to handle.  "It's grass, Sunset," Krystal offered warmly as she stepped off the ramp.  "Come on.  It's perfectly safe."

Nervously, Sunset took Krystal's hand and let herself be led along, staring around in awe and fear at the drastically different environment.  Krystal took in the sights as well, splitting her focus between the architecture and her portable magic scanner.  So far Sunset's magic seemed to be balancing with the environment readily enough, showing no signs of uncontrolled feedback or buildups.  The architecture showed signs of magical construction, and the propensity of sun and moon engravings suggested a society strongly in tune with nature.  For some reason, Sunset seemed to really like it whenever she saw a Sun and Moon engraving close together.

"<Stay right where you are!>"

Krystal jerked upright as she heard the shout of the Saurian language.  Turning, she saw two Earthwalker guards approaching her.  The Earthwalker tribe were massive four-legged reptiles with thick skin, large horns, and head frills, resembling various Ceratopsia dinosaurs of Ancient Cerinia.  The two approaching guards had three horns - one on their nose, one over each eye - and had bronze skin and wore silver armor plates over that.  They were marching towards them in a steady walk that ate up the ground due to their sheer size.  Sunset stared up at them curiously from where she sat amongst the plants.

The first guard approached Krystal.  "<You do not have landing clearance for your craft, nor communication with our leaders!  How dare you enter the sacred Walled City uninvited?>"

Krystal winced at that.  "<I attempted to communicate before landing,>" she began, "<but my signal did not get through to any receiver.  The matter with which I needed to bespeak the King and Queen Earthwalker was urgent, however, and->"

"<You dare presume to speak to the King and Queen?>" the second guard demanded, stepping forward and nudging Krystal with his muzzle, sending her falling back onto her rump.  "<You Offworlders are always->"

"Leave Mama alone!" Sunset screamed out angrily as her horn lit up.  Both guards found themselves surrounded in her magical aura and levitating into the air, turning end over end despite their struggles.

"<The Krozoa Gift?>" the second guard gasped out in shock.  "<Impossible!  How could an outsider have their blessing?>"

"<Not even the King's Gifts are strong enough to send us flying through the air!>" the first guard gasped in awe.

"<Heresy!>" the second guard snapped angrily.  "<None are stronger than the King!  He just has no need to show his true strength!>"

"<Blind loyalist fool!>" the first guard growled.  "<We are taught to question and judge, not follow blindly!>"

"<Excuse me->" Krystal tried to interrupt.

"<To claim the Krozoa would bless an Offworlder more than the King is Separatist talk!>" the second guard raged back.  "<Would you unleash the Red Eyes 'for the sake of their rights'?>"

"<If you would->" Krystal tried again.

"<And there you go again blowing everything out of proportion!>" the first guard drolled with a roll of his eyes.  "<I don't know why I bother talking to you about anything, Tumble!  The slightest thing I say that you don't like has you blow up on me!>"

"<Like you're any better, Twitter!>" Tumble snapped back.  "<You're so against controversy you refuse to admit when I don't like something you say, only accepting positive feedback!>"

"<A happier outlook would do wonders for you->" Twitter started to say, only to be interrupted as his head was slammed into Tumble's.

"Hey!" Sunset yelled out.  "Listen to Mommy!"

Krystal quickly took advantage of the silence caused by them being whacked together.  "<As I was saying, my daughter's abilities are why I wish to bespeak your King and Queen.>"

"<Oh, that's definitely something they should be made aware of!>" Twitter agreed happily.

"<Why didn't you just say so?>" Tumble demanded in a surly tone.

"<How could she when you wouldn't let her get a word in frill-wise?>" Twitter countered.

"<I wouldn't let her get a word in?>" Tumble snapped back.  "<I wasn't the one going on and on about->"

"<Do you think one of you could give me directions before my daughter gets a headache and decides to see how well you two can function as Cloudrunners?>" Krystal interrupted, irritation slipping into her tone.

Tumble and Twitter turned to stare at her.  "<Wait...you mean she'd transform us into those winged wastrels?>" Tumble demanded in shock.

"<Or are you saying she'd throw us all the way to Cloudrunner lands just to see how well we stuck the landing?>" Twitter offered fearfully.  "<That honestly sounds more reasonable.>"

"<Whichever one she thinks is funnier, I'd say,>" Krystal observed grumpily.  "<I wouldn't put either beyond her abilities.>"

"<That way!>" the two guards intoned together, pointing to a large pagoda on the central island amongst the Walled City's rivers, the same island that held the pyramid.

Sunset promptly flung the two guards in that direction, where they landed horns first in the ground at the foot of the pagoda.

Krystal rubbed her forehead as she groaned.  "So much for a good first impression..."