Chapter Text
“Fly?” Tubbo took a step back from the ledge, only to bump into Ranboo. “What do you mean, big man?” he asked with a nervous laugh. He looked back at the taller boy and decidedly not at the sizable drop that awaited him over the edge.
“Hm? Oh, nothing. We’re actually going to walk,” he said.
Tubbo relaxed, a relieved smile growing on his face. “Really?”
“Of course not! Do you see a path up there? It’s sky travel from here, pal.”
He deflated. It really was a long drop from where they were standing. What if he couldn’t do it? “I don’t know if you noticed, bucko, but I fell off the first cliff I found. I don’t know if flying is really my thing, if you know what I’m saying…” His attempt to back up further was blocked by Ranboo, who only shoved him closer to the ledge.
“I promise it’s super easy. Just trust your cape.” The audible amusement in his voice didn’t help the boy’s nerves. “Look, just glide until you reach the clouds, then you won’t even be able to fall.”
Tubbo looked at him, then at the ledge, then at the distant castle. Was it really that easy? “I, uh… I don’t…”
Ranboo moved to stand next to him. “Do you want me to hold your hand? We can fly together if you’re scared.” He slid his mask to cover his face. “I won’t let you fall, I promise.”
He sighed, then nodded. If he really had to do this, he was reasonably sure that he could trust Ranboo to keep him in the air. “Yeah, alright.” With that, he slid his own mask over his face.
He watched as Ranboo grabbed his hand, felt as he gave it a warning squeeze, and followed a bit numbly as the tall boy guided him to stand on the very tip of the edge. The wind ruffled his hair as he gazed ahead, refusing to look down at the ground too far below. It would be fine.
“Jump on three, okay? One… Two…” the pause dragged unbearably on. “...Three!”
Ranboo jumped from the ledge and, miraculously, Tubbo felt his own legs push off from the stone as well. He expected to fall, to feel the air rushing up at him as he plummeted. Instead, he felt the wind around him, felt it under his cape that had… well, it was practically like a pair of wings with the way it had spread to fill with the breeze. He looked at Ranboo and saw that his cape was the same, spread like wings and occasionally flapping like them too.
Chancing a glance at the ground, Tubbo found it far below—farther even than when they’d stood on the ledge. Then, he couldn’t see the ground anymore. Around him, the clouds swirled and shifted, and the wind guided the pair higher. He almost forgot how scared he’d felt. Really, flying among the breeze and the clouds, soaring toward where the sunlight broke through… it felt freeing. He felt alive.
Ranboo looked back at him and Tubbo had the distinct feeling that his friend wore a smug grin. Behind the mask, he could have sworn he saw him wink. Without warning, Ranboo’s hand was gone from his, leaving him to fly alone. He faltered, and if he called his new friend an unkind name, his shouts were drowned in the wind. Looking down, he began to fall toward the clouds and expected to tear through them in a plummet toward ground or water.
He did fall into the clouds, but instead of plummeting, his cape shimmered in the white haze and lifted him. A rise and a fall, and again, until he realized with shaking breath that Ranboo had been right; he wasn’t going to fall. Trust your cape, he’d said. Alright then, let’s see what this cape can do.
Without looking, he knew his friend was flying circles above him—something about their connection. Tubbo took a deep breath, waited for another rise and fall and then, without fully knowing how, flapped his cape with a flash of light. He almost didn’t feel it at first, the way the wind carried him high over the clouds, far above Ranboo’s head, into the sunlight that filtered past the castle’s spires. The exhilaration of it… he loved it. He could have stayed up here for hours.
He let out a whoop and a honk as he climbed higher and higher. When he crested and the wind would lift him no farther, he leaned forward experimentally. His cape carried him in a soft glide. Leaning a little more, it became a dive. He smiled as the wind whipped past his ears and through his hair. Oh. Now he was getting rather close to the ground of the island. Perhaps speeding up like that wasn’t the brightest idea. Before his face could collide with a patch of sand, he flapped his cape and, though it did not send him into such a flight as it had before, it did greatly slow his descent.
Tubbo landed on the jutting natural platform of the island, instantly tripping over his own feet. If he wasn’t already embarrassed enough, Ranboo landed gracefully beside him. Standing, he dusted himself off and removed his mask.
Tubbo then turned on his friend. “You lied to me!”
Removing his own mask, Ranboo tilted his head and gave an innocent smile. “Did I?”
“You said you’d hold my hand!”
“I did hold your hand… for a while.”
“You promised you wouldn’t let me fall!”
“And you didn’t fall.” His smile turned smug. “I kept my promise. How would you have learned to fly if I just carried you everywhere?”
“You—” Tubbo sighed and turned from him, seeing no point in pressing the argument. He wasn’t going to admit it, but he’d enjoyed that brief solo flight.
Instead, he looked ahead. Up the path of grass and sand sat the grand structure. Up close, Tubbo found its splendor… lacking. It was smaller than it had appeared from the ground, and the gold roof, he realized, had been a trick of the light. The carved stone walls and spires cracked and crumbled in places. Moss grew up the sides and ate away at corners, the strong winds up above chisling at the higher jutting stones. But even so, the scene held its own majesty in its humble appearance.
Slowly, he walked toward it with his eyes cast upward to its heights. The sparse sand gave way and the lush grass felt soft under his feet. Along the path, the occasional flower and glowing clover poked out of the ground and gave pops of color to the blanket of green. Behind him, he could hear Ranboo’s soft footsteps trailing after him. His own feet stumbled onto smooth stone while he wasn’t paying attention.
A short set of stairs, crooked and uneven and overgrown with moss, led up to the doorway of the structure. Tubbo marveled at the sheer height of the arch as he passed under it, the whole thing making him feel no larger than one of the birds from the cave. The narrow corridor opened to a small—though small was a relative term—room with a great door set into the far wall that spanned from ceiling to floor. Light peeked in through a small hole in the far wall. The door, though cracked with age and blue paint peeling, had pieces on its face—curious gems and carved stones—that seemed like they’d have to move for it to open.
Stepping into the room, he noticed two alcoves carved into the walls on either side. In front of each one sat a stone sculpture resembling a boat like he’d seen in the desert, each boat holding three white candles. He approached the first bunch, on the right side of the room, and lit the wicks with his own. As if in response, the wall behind them flared to life with more glittering carvings. The images depicted were those of swirling clouds surrounding three different castles. At the bottom of the image, the first structure looked similar to the one he stood in yet still too different to be it. The others, however, were totally unfamiliar. Lighting the set of candles in the other alcove resulted in another carving revealing itself—a similar image of clouds and castles, different to those in the first, with the largest of all of them shown at the top of it.
“Looking at the carvings?” Ranboo called from behind, startling Tubbo more than he’d like to admit.
With a sigh, he turned to face his friend. “What are they?”
“As far as anyone can tell, myself included, they represent the different lands around here. But, even then, they don’t quite fit.”
Tubbo tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“Well, look at this one for example,” Ranboo said, directing his attention to the first carving. “This one here at the bottom. It’s the first, so you’d think it’d be the castle we’re in, right?”
He nodded.
“But that’s where you’re wrong.” Ranboo smiled in a way that made it seem he’d been waiting to talk about this with someone, waiting for someone who would listen. It was endearing. “This castle is the one in the Prairie—er, the place we’re about to head to—which, fair enough I guess. After all it could just be a depiction of all the other places around this one. But,” he said as he dashed to the other set of carvings, “these don’t line up either! Look at this one!”
Tubbo looked where he was directed, at the second castle in the carving. It was taller and more narrow than any of the others; a tower, it seemed. “What about it?”
“I’ve never heard of a tower or anything like this. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t exist. And sure, I haven’t been everywhere, but still… and same with this one!” He pointed at the last one, the grand one above all the others. “I’ll find the occasional reference to this place in carvings and old books every now and then, but surely if this place existed… people would know where it was, right?”
He nodded again, doing his best to keep up with his friend’s rambling.
“And yet, no one seems to know about it! So the only thing I can come up with about these places, the last one especially, is that maybe they used to exist and something happened to them a long, long time ago. Or, maybe it’s something that the people who built this place, and all the other palaces, were looking for! Like a legend or something, you know?”
“I… guess that makes sense?”
Ranboo turned his gaze from the carvings to finally look at Tubbo, his face reddening slightly. “Oh, uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to rant about it. It’s just so fascinating, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, sure. Fascinating.”
“Alright, alright, I see how it is,” Ranboo said with a chuckle as he rolled his eyes. “Come on, why don’t you help me with this door?”
“The door?” He turned from the carvings to get a better look at the thing.
Upon closer inspection, he was able to identify the moving pieces. Two gilded slabs were set into the sides of the door, each with a gem at the center gleaming with a soft blue light, that looked like they were meant to slide left and right. In the middle of the door sat a stone that was carved to resemble a boat—it would have to be moved in order for the doors to open.
Ranboo stepped up to one of the slabs. “You get the other one, I’ll show you what to do.”
Tubbo nodded and walked to the other, looking to his friend for instruction.
Instead of speaking, Ranboo simply formed his candle and placed the flame to the glowing gem. After just a few seconds, the light changed from blue to gold. Slowly, the slab slid to the side with a low grinding noise before locking into place on the side of the boat.
Tubbo followed suit, his candle changing the gem from blue to gold and the slab sliding into place.
Then, with the door unlocked, the boat slid upward to rest out of the way. Carvings of birds and creatures he couldn’t recognize flared to life on the door’s surface as the cracked stone slowly opened. The grinding sound of rock on rock filled the room louder than before and the ground shook as the barrier gave way to reveal a new scene.
Past the door, Tubbo could see a new room. It was taller and larger than the one he stood in, with the walls lined with iron-gated windows from ceiling to floor—or, they would be ceiling to floor if there was a floor at all. The ground in the room gave way to reveal the clouds billowing around the place. In the center of the room ran a walkway to another door on the other side, this one less ornate but a bit larger.
In front of the door, the pathway widened as grass and moss grew around a peculiar statue. The statue was tall, narrow, and mainly flat save for some details on the front—what appeared to be a mask and a beard. Before the statue sat a single white candle, unlit, on a stone pedestal.
“What’s that?” Tubbo asked, tilting his head as he looked at the strange statue.
“The Elder,” Ranboo said as he strode into the room and onto the walkway. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
That’s right, Tubbo remembered the spirit he’d helped mentioning something about the Elder. He followed curiously. As he walked he glanced over the side of the path. Whether there was ground or open sky below, it was obscured by the swirling clouds. An updraft gave him a sense of security that he wouldn’t fall. When he reached the statue, he found Ranboo already lighting the candle.
“This is Daleth, Elder of the Isle.” Then, Ranboo knelt before the statue and bowed his head. “He will open the door for us to pass.”
Tubbo watched, curiously, for something to happen. As Ranboo knelt, the eyes of the statue lit up with a glittering white glow and a wind snuffed the candle’s flame. The boy watched in amazement as the tall gray doors slid open, once again shaking the ground with the movement, to reveal a small raised path of cut stones before a valley of clouds.
The new path looked almost like a bridge meant to span the cloudy distance, though it was broken not far after it began. Grass and moss crowded the corners and edges with more clovers growing here and there, and sunlight streamed through the false mountains to paint the scene in majesty. On either side of the ‘bridge’ were a pair of golden bells adorned with curious symbols that glittered in the light.
“What’s through there?” He wandered forward, eyes distracted by the multitude of birds flying through the passage in the sky.
His friend joined him at his side. “The Prairie. It’s where my friends are. I really can’t wait for you to meet them, they’ll be able to explain more about the world to you.”
Tubbo nodded as he neared the broken edge of the bridge. “I, uh… I’m guessing it’s time to fly again?”
“Yep! Want me to hold your hand?”
Tubbo turned to look at him, then at his outstretched hand. He fixed his friend with an unamused stare. “I don’t trust you.”
Ranboo titles his head with his best attempt at an innocent smile. “Come onnnnnn, why not?”
Tubbo simply raised an eyebrow at him.
With a chuckle, Ranboo adjusted his mask over his face before extending his hand yet again. “I won’t let go this time, I promise.”
“You promised last time.”
“Last time, I promised I wouldn’t let you fall—and you didn’t fall, need I remind you—this time I promise not to let go of your hand until we’re safely on the ground.”
Tubbo looked at his hand, at the large, twisting path before him, and back at Ranboo as he weighed his options. With a sigh, he secured his own mask in place. “Fine.” And with that, he gripped his friend’s hand tight.
Without a second of hesitation, Ranboo bolted for the edge, jerking Tubbo forward with him. Then, the pair were in the air among the birds. They gained height, Ranboo flapping his cape like wings and reaching almost to the peaks of the false mountains swirling on either side. Everything felt so much brighter here than when the sun was hidden behind the castle. Now, they soared through unobstructed daylight among the clouds. They flew steady, until Tubbo caught sight of Ranboo glancing back at him. That same mischievous intent could be felt even through his mask as he turned his head and winked once again.
Tubbo opened his mouth to protest only to release a startled shout as he plummeted, gripping his friend’s hand like a lifeline. He wanted to slow down but couldn’t, the air rushing past slicked his cape back and he couldn’t open it effectively with only one hand. He honked, trying to get Ranboo to stop, then honked again and again. Ranboo either couldn’t hear him or simply chose to ignore him—likely the latter. All he could do was close his eyes and hope for the best.
Then, the feeling of falling abruptly stopped as the nosedive changed to a normal glide. Tubbo heard Ranboo whoop as they rose swiftly from the updraft, their capes finally catching the air again. He sighed, and took some deep breaths to steady his spinning head before looking around.
The walls of cloud on either side had given way to an open expanse of rolling white. Up ahead and a ways below, green hills poked through the pale blanket as their grassy coverings swayed in waves in the breeze. It looked so serene. The nearest and most prominent of them was a formation of gray stone, the top of it coated with moss, with a narrow passage down the center of it.
As they banked toward it, Tubbo could feel them rising higher rather than gliding toward the ground. A pit formed in his stomach as he realized what his friend was doing.
“Ranboo,” he shouted over the sounds of rushing air. “Ranboo let go.”
He could have sworn he saw Ranboo laugh, before leaning into another nosedive. This time Tubbo tried to let go, because surely he could descend at a much safer pace on his own, but he couldn’t. Ranboo was holding on too tightly.
He didn’t close his eyes this time, couldn’t tear them away from the ground rushing up at him instead of the soft clouds. Honk after honk after honk escaped him in an effort to try and slow down, but all in vain. The ground was getting closer and closer and closer until—
Ranboo flapped his cap at the last second, Tubbo’s own following suit, saving them just inches away from impact. Their capes gently lowered them the last little distance to the ground.
As soon as his feet touched the soft grass, Tubbo collapsed and Ranboo finally let go of his hand. He wanted to yell at his friend but all he could get out was a weary “I hate you.”
Ranboo only laughed and put on his innocent facade. “Whaaaaat? I kept my promise!” His smile was audible in his voice.
Tubbo found he couldn’t help smiling despite himself. At least Ranboo couldn’t see it.
As he picked himself up off the ground, he noticed a new figure approaching from the passage through the stone; a man, taller than himself but still shorter than Ranboo, with a layered green and gray cape and a mask that resembled a bird’s head.
“Oh! Hello Ranboo, I was just looking for you,” said the stranger. Then his eyes fell on Tubbo. “Who’s this?”