Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith-Chapter 323: A grinning Greldo

Irwin examined the instability of the soulforce before him. The massive explosion of the Chaos Whale hadn't done any noticeable damage to the closed portal, and after inspecting it a bit more, he turned to the others.

Mia stood with Zan and Ti, huddled close to Scintilla, while the three boys were being held back by a grinning Greldo. Irwin could see that Mia wanted to join them, likely only staying where she was because Zan was scared without her. Ti was staring at where the portal was, a curious gleam in her eyes.

I wonder if she can see it, Irwin thought before focusing on Scintilla.

"Bring them all into our room, just to be safe," he said.

"Aw, Dad! I want to see!"

Soot shouted, quickly echoed by Glow. Flux and Mia were giving him looks that said they were less than impressed, but Irwin ignored all of them.

"The last one down will need to eat a double portion of cinder scallops," Irwin said, wiggling his eyebrows.

There was a single moment of stunned silence followed by a mad dash as his six children sprinted to the door. Mia and Glow were fastest, vanishing from sight as the others banged into each other. Scintilla shook her head, grinning at him.

"You sure you didn't talk with my mother about how to handle young Ignitzians?" she said before turning and walking after the kids.

Irwin waited and looked at Greldo until his friend smirked.

"They are all downstairs, and Soot and Flux were last. Right now, they are complaining that Mia and Glow tricked them somehow."

"I bet they will tell us later," Irwin said before looking around.

The Blademaidens were standing on deck in groups, with a few whispering with Zender. Earila stood behind the helm with Hind, shaking her head as she watched her brother. A soft crooning came from the four baby chaos whales as they circled The Concerto.

"Ready?" he asked, turning to Ambraz.

"I'm always ready."

Irwin focused on the closed portal and began resonating his cards in the opposite way. He started slow, intending to feel as much of the process as he could. So far, he'd only found a few portals, and he wanted to see if he could learn anything new.

The first thing he noticed was that with his enhanced soulforce sensitivity, the soulforce resonances looked like a chaotic, incredibly complex mess of a resonance. The second thing was that as he counter-resonated, the closed portal began changing, and a pattern formed. It was way too fast and complex to follow, but for a short moment, he thought he saw something familiar. Something that reminded him of one of the cards he'd reforged over the years.

The rest of his plan to go slow failed a moment later as the four chaos whales began resonating around him.

Irwin had a single moment to realize that they weren't counter-resonating as he was when the closed portal's resonance exploded into a chaotic, rapidly expanding cloud.

"Back! Earilla!"

Irwin felt the ship move down instantly and just in time. A fifty-foot hole in space appeared, looking nothing like a normal portal. The soulforce was glowing so bright he could barely look at it, and ripples surged out from it.

"What the heck happened?" Greldo shouted, standing next to him.

The Ignitzians were shouting in surprise while Irwin absently noticed Boohm and Helm appear from below.

"The chaos whales are causing this," he shouted back to Greldo.

As if understanding him, the four chaos whales crooned loudly, flying tight circles around the still-growing portal. The resonance only faintly resembled that of an exit portal and seemed almost padded and stuffed with something extra that came from the Chaos Whales.

"It's far too unstable," Ambraz said, just as Irwin concluded the same thing.

The portal kept growing for half a minute before the turbulent mess stopped. By that point, they had backed up far enough to see that the snow throughout the valley was melting, causing waterfalls into the hole below.

Irwin was staring at the portal, noticing that the soulforce resonance seemed to be pulling away the already thin ambient soulforce- sucking it into the growing portal. Normally, that should have caused the temperature to drop, but glancing at the rapidly melting snow even further away was definitely not the case.

"It's big enough for The Concerto to go into," Greldo said.

"Or a chaos whale," Irwin said, sharing a look of wonder with his friend.

Four mingled cries made Irwin look back to see the Chaos Whale babies all looking at him. They began humming a soft song not unlike the one he'd sung to guard them from the explosions a day earlier, but Irwin sensed the question.

"They want to go inside," he said, turning to Ambraz. "That portal is going to close after this, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Ambraz replied. "It might just shrink to normal. But if you are thinking of going inside, don't."

Irwin snorted as he turned to the Chaos Whales. What should he do? They were clearly waiting for his signal, and if he waited too long, the portal would close or shrink. Worse, he knew that with the distinct lack of ambient soulforce remaining, it would be a long time before they could do the same trick again.

If we let them go in here, and someone finds the portal, they will also find the babies, he thought, making up his mind.

He resonated his soulforce, trying to indicate that they shouldn't go in and come back.

The four babies crooned sadly, glancing with a few of their eyes at the portal before flying back, circling The Concerto.

"You sure you shouldn't let them go in? What if we don't find another portal?" Greldo whispered.

"I don't know what's on the other side, and we don't know if someone or something is going to come here anytime soon," Irwin said.

Barely a minute later, the portal flared up and rapidly shrank down to a regular size.

Irwin kept looking at it for a while, but besides the incredibly faint soulforce resonance that came from it, showing it was a rank two, and a weak one at that, it was perfectly normal.

"Alright, let's leave before someone shows up," he said, heading to the helm.

"I hope we don't have to search for another month," Greldo muttered behind him, and Irwin agreed.

--

As the Concerto vanished deeper into the seemingly endless sprawl that was the Graboul's Teeth mountain range, the melting water slowly froze back over. The faint heat from the portal wasn't anywhere close to enough to keep the ice from rapidly recovering its lost ground, and barely a day later, the area had returned to being a near-pristine, snow-covered valley surrounded by towering mountains.

Only the seemingly bottomless hole in the center with the small, faint portal hovering above it showed that something had happened here. Snow was constantly drifting into the hole, covering the ice at the bottom, as a faint shadow moved into the valley. A moment later, the origin of the shadow appeared. It was a ship with a pearlescent sail and a shape different from most of those that flew in these parts of the portal Gallery.

Two blue-haired, purple-eyed women stood on the prow, staring at the valley. One of the two was smaller and had a scar across her neck. She also exuded confidence as she stared at the taller woman. When they reached the edge, the taller woman raised her hand, and a wave of soulforce flowed from it, covering the area for a short moment.

"You were right, Captain. A Neamhnathair was here," she said in a smooth, flowing language that could be mistaken for singing.

"And the explosion?" the Captain asked in a raspy, commanding voice. As she spoke, the scar on her neck pulled oddly.

"I think one of them died, and the addled reached the heartcard," the other replied, sounding uncertain.

The scarred Captain shook her head, glaring at the portal.

"If that had happened, I'd have sensed it. Who or whatever took the heartcard definitely wasn't addled. Can you sense if anyone else was here?"

The taller woman immediately shook her head. "The Neamhnathair used up all of the ambient soulforce, and there's not even an echo left."

The Captain continued looking at the portal for a short while, then she sighed.

"Barely a rank two, but we have no choice. It's the first portal we've found here, and we need a place to hide. If we don't hurry, they will arrive. Send out a scouting force, and let's hope the other chaos whales we chased here find a better portal."

"Do you want me to call in the others?"

The Captain hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. We will work with the assumption that we can't find another portal unless proven differently."

The taller woman quickly walked away, leaving the Captain to stand at the prow on her own. If she'd turned around, she would have noticed the women vanishing into the cabin while some of the other crew, including the man behind the helm, tossed her worried looks.

"If we don't find a place to hide the fleet before the guidar are here, we will face the same fate as those filthy soul thieves," she muttered as her hand reached up to her neck.

The only response was the soft howling of the wind that blew snowflakes around the barrier of the ship.

--

Over a month later, in the nearly forgotten depths of Graboul's Teeth, Irwin let out a relieved sigh.

Finally.

They had been constantly searching for a portal, leaving him with just the bare minimum of time to spend with his family. Besides that, the only thing he'd had time for was to check on the Aurorium to make sure it wouldn't somehow start pulling in soulforce.

"Please tell me that sound means you found one?"

Irwin looked to Greldo, who was huddled against Coal's side. Even his resistance to the freezing cold was not enough to withstand the close to permafrost-level cold they were standing in. Icy crystals nestled in his thick, dark fur, but he was still shivering nearly constantly.

"Yes. There's one over there," Irwin said.

He pointed at a narrow, five-hundred-foot-long gorge that split a mountain as if someone had struck it with a sword. Even he could barely hear the soft resonance of the closed portal, and he knew it was another rank two portal, which was perfect. That said, as far as they were into the mountains, he would have taken any portal.

"Finally! Let's bring the others here and finally get warm," Greldo said.

One of Coal's clones was left behind so they could easily find their way back, and Greldo rapidly returned them to The Concerto. Shortly later, the ship was racing through the mountains, pulling a V in the pale frosty fog. Four baby chaos whales were dashing after it, letting out contented humming. Of everyone present, they had been the only ones more than happy traveling together through the mountains for days on end.

Irwin looked at them for a bit, an idea still toying through his mind. He'd wondered what would happen if he touched them, and if he could speak with them as Basil had back home with Scariander, the scarred, ancient, and enormous Chaos Whale that now lived around their portal.

Hours later, they reached the spot Irwin and Greldo had been at, and Earilla expertly flew the ship into the narrow strip. The rocky sides almost touched the sails on either end, but Irwin wasn't at all concerned. By now, Earilla could have done the same even if they had been in the storm.

Thinking about the storm, Irwin looked up, but all he saw was the almost steely gray sky and drifting snowflakes. As much as he had gotten sick of the white, gray, and black, he didn't miss the storm.

A few feet from the closed portal, Irwin raised his hand, and Earilla slowed down until he dropped it, and the ship stopped.

"Alright. Everyone below deck and Earilla, be ready to move back if needed," he said. He waited to make sure everyone went down this time, leaving only him, Zender, and Earilla there. Greldo would be around in the shadows, ready to pull one or all of them to safety if needed.

Hoping his plan would work, Irwin focused on the Chaos Whales. They had flown over the ship and were now crowding around where the portal was, sometimes thudding against the rocky cliffs while letting out annoyed grunts.

"Nim'ron?"

"Ready."

I wonder if it will even fit, Irwin thought as he focused on the portal resonances.

Exactly like the first time, he tried to go slow, but as soon as they sensed the portal open, the four chaos whales resonated loudly, and the portal began drawing in the surrounding soulforce.

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Earilla forced the ship before he could tell her, and Nim'ron's shield stretched out, surrounding the entire area around the portal. Instantly, the cold wrapped around Irwin while patches of frost formed across the deck and the sail just above him.

The portal exploded out, the wave of soulforce rippling against the barrier, which dimmed rapidly. A dense steam and soulforce filled the barrier, obscuring everything inside, while Nim'ron let out a pained groan.

Irwin worried that he wouldn't hold it. Then he faintly sensed the resonance stabilize through the portal, and Nim'ron muttered something as the barrier vanished.

"I'm going to need some time to regain my energy after that," Nim'ron grunted.

"I'll do some cardreforging soon," Irwin said, already looking forward to it.

Nim'ron grunted, and a thin barrier popped up around the ship. It was barely strong enough to hold back the worst of the cold, and Irwin knew that none of the Ignitzians except for Scintilla would be able to stand being outside.

A crooning made him look up at the baby chaos whales, and he nodded, answering as best he could by resonating his own soulforce in acceptance.

He'd expected them to be hesitant, or wait, or go one at a time, but nothing like that happened. All four chaos whales surged forward and into the large portal.

"I wonder what kind of world is beyond it," Greldo said.

Irwin didn't react to his sudden appearance, and they quietly waited for the portal to shrink back down. As soon as it did, Irwin looked at Greldo.

"Make sure you keep everyone here," he said. "I know we discussed this, but I don't know if Scintilla will keep her word if there's a large time dilation."

"That barely ever happens with a low-rank world," Ambraz snorted.

Irwin didn't react but held Greldo's gaze.

"No worries. Nobody will follow you for atleast a week," he said, which was what he had discussed. "But after that, I'm coming after you."

Irwin nodded, hesitated if he should say goodbye again, before deciding against it. The chances of someone trying to bring up how it wasn't right for the Captain to take such risks were too high. So, he let out a bark and raced along the soundwaves and into the portal.

On the ship, Greldo hummed before turning to Zender, who was standing nearby.

"Well, let's see if Boohm has any food ready. Who knows how long we have to wait?"

--

Irwin shot through the tunnel, staring at the end. There were still no signs of any Oculithar around, nor of the chaos whale babies.

Almost there, he thought, his curiosity growing rapidly. He'd been on a few worlds now and many world shards, but not on a rank two world. The lowest was rank three, which was odd as most people lived in rank two. While ranks three and up usually had reasonable climates, like Giard, anything below could be very extreme.

"Here we go," he muttered as they reached the end.

Slamming into it, he held his breath as everything turned dark for a moment. Then the world turned bright, and he had the sensation of falling.

"Dammit!"

"Don't worry, we brought one of those small sloops for a reason," Ambraz shouted back.

I know that, Irwint thought as he looked down, only seeing more swirling clouds. But I don't have it here now.

Not that he was very worried. He didn't think he would die from falling, and that was if he didn't use his soundwave movement.

As he spun around, he tried to find any point of reference, but all he saw were yellow and orange clouds with swirls of dark ash everywhere. One side gleamed brightly, and he presumed the sun was hidden in that direction. Besides the surprising lack of land, he was also surprised by the soulforce density. It was far higher than he expected from a rank two world, almost rivaling that of Eluathar.

Using his soulforce senses, he felt the familiar presence of the four chaos whales not too far away.

He was about to signal them when the world changed again as he fell out of the clouds.

Below him was a world of rock and black smoke. What he presumed were volcanoes covered the distance, and below him, it looked like a jagged landscape of rock and fissures. Pale lightning rippled across the distant clouds, and he was suddenly glad none of those had been among the clouds he had just dropped from.

As he continued plummeting to the ground, he sensed the incredibly dense soulforce slowly fade. Before he could wonder about that, the four chaos whale babies shot up and began circling his falling shape.

Irwin took a quick look up, and he was relieved that he could easily sense the exit portal above him. Although his instincts were telling him to just shout back up and go back through, he knew just how long they had searched for a world. He wasn't going to give up just because the portal was high in the air. So, he looked down and was relieved to see where he would land—a reasonably flat area with a crevice to the side that he should miss.

Knowing he would be fine even if he hit the ground at this speed, he used his arms to spin around and inspect the rest of his surroundings.

As he spun a full circle, Irwin's mouth fell open. Far away, above the horizon of hills and mountains, hung an enormous moon that covered atleast a quarter of the sky. Bands circled it, and he saw an enormous storm rage across the moon's skies.

"What kind of moon is that?" he shouted.

"Not a moon, a gas giant," Ambraz shouted back. "It's a type of planet only made of gases and fumes, and one we can't live on. It also means that this is a moon."

"What? The world we are in now?" Irwin shouted as he pointed down.

"Technically, you are still above it, but yes," Ambraz said, his lips curved in a grin.

"Is that a good or bad thing?"

"It depends on a few things," Ambraz replied.

"Which are?"

A deafening shriek rippled through the air, and Irwin spun around as fast as he could, overshooting and causing himself to be in a spiraling, tumbling freefall.

Three distant winged shapes were shooting towards him from a distance, their eyes locked on the three Chaos Whale babies. It was hard to see any details, but they seemed dirty and yellowish, and their eyes glowed from the inside.

"If those things are here," Ambraz shouted. "Get ready! Those things are Flowlies, and they consume any sufficiently condensed source of soulforce! Don't use your hammer, because they will eat it.

A terrified swoon came from the four chaos whales, and they moved so close Irwin could have touched them if he wanted to.

"How do I fight them?" he shouted.

"The best is to teleport on their back and use your hands," Ambraz said. "And you might want to hurry because, from the look in their eye, they are going to attack the chaos whales!"

Irwin hissed, resonated a sense of security to the chaos whales, and roared at the birds before moving along the soundwaves.

He reappeared a short distance from the birds and shivered. Just their eyes were the size of his head, and their curved beaks reminded him of the Bablibon. Clicking his tongue, he reappeared above one of their backs, grabbing hold of the coarse pink and yellow feathers behind its head. His heart nearly skipped a beat as the head of the Flowlie spun around until it was glaring at him.

Irwin moved just in time as it snapped its beak at him, and he grabbed both halves of the beak. An immense pressure pushed against his palm, and he felt the edge slowly slice through his metallic skin.

"Flame?" he shouted at Ambraz, feeling the kinetic energy rapidly build up in his body.

"Yes!"

Irwin pulled on his soulcard, which resonated in delight at being used. Flames surged from his hands and arms, rippling around the Flowlie's head. It let out a pained hiss, folded its wings, and shot down like a rock. Irwin felt his stomach rise to his throat, and seeing his flame only angering the Flowlie, he began pushing back, trying to rip the beak open.

Seconds passed rapidly as the ground closed in, and Irwin knew he wasn't going to make it- atleast not least that A look to the side showed the chaos whales were fleeing in the distance, chased by the other two Flowlies. He could try his steam, but he was probably not going to be in time, which left him with one choice.

"Move into my soulscape!" Irwin roared.

Ambraz didn't ask why, and as soon as Irwin felt him there, he pushed himself back from the beak. He was ripped from the back of the bird, going into freefall as he summoned his soulstrum guitar. Of all the tools at his disposal, he was about to use one he'd not used for offense yet.

Forcing as much soulforce into the stoulstrum guitar, Irwin ripped his hand across the snares.

Soundwaves and soulforce rippled out from the instrument as booms seemed to appear around him at some points in the soundwaves. The Fowlie was hit multiple times, and its wings stopped moving as it plummeted to the ground motionlessly. Irwin fell after it, and as he did, he saw that it was slowly regaining its senses. He continued playing the soulstrum guitar as the ground rushed at them. A second before they would slam into the ground, he rushed up and away along the sound waves of his guitar.

As he appeared a few hundred feet above where he had just been, he saw a splattered heap on the ground below. He stared at his handiwork for one second before turning his attention to the distant specs. Strumming the snares, he shot across the sound waves, reappearing every so often and rapidly closing in on the chase.

'Try to remember where the portal is!' Irwin shouted into his mindscape during one moment of freefall.

'Don't worry, kid, I can sense it from miles away.'

Feeling a lot better, Irwin continued his chase. It took him minutes to catch up, and when he did, he wondered what would happen to the Chaos Whales if he did what he had done before. Tumbling down a small distance behind the Flowlies, he could see they were going to catch up soon. Deciding he had no other way to help, Irwin shot forward, reappearing before the two birds.

As their eyes locked onto him, Irwin prayed the chaos whales wouldn't be hurt. Then he slammed his hand over the snares, causing a massive sound explosion that stunned the two incoming avians. As they started plummeting down uncontrollably, Irwin gazed over his shoulder to see the four Chaos Whales continue flying and showing no sign of being stunned.

Good, let's squish you on the ground and then figure out what to do, Irwin thought.

--

"Scintilla, it's only been two hours," Greldo said as he watched the Ignitzian glare at the portal, her hands clenched around the railing. The freezing cold was causing him to shiver, and he wished she'd just remained inside. What use was there in standing outside if they weren't going to go in the portal for a while longer?

"We need to get some proper scouts," she said, shaking her head.

Greldo sighed, and the two of them remained on the deck quietly. Finally, just as Greldo was ready to head back inside, guessing she wouldn't do anything stupid, the portal flashed. A shape appeared as if it was thrown out of it, and a moment later, Irwin was tumbling through the air.

He let his bark and reappeared on the deck of The Sonata. Greldo smelled the sickly sweet scent of blood, and his eyes narrowed as he scanned his friend. His armor was somewhat disheveled, and his hands were covered in thick, viscous copper-colored blood.

Scintilla walked forward, looking relieved.

"You are alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Irwin said as he gave her a quick hug.

Greldo walked forward, pointing at his friend's hands. "What managed to do that?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. For now, can you get someone to bring the small sailships up from below?"

Greldo blinked, raising his eyebrow. "The portal is in the air?"

"The portal is in the air."

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The Cardsmith-Irwin's JourneyThe young, sickly boy Irwin has seen nothing but bad luck in his short life. When his brother finally returns after his first stint at the wall his luck is about to change. 440 posts

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Irwin's Journey