Ep. 1093 Homeward Bound Part 2 (Patreon)

Mulan says "It's alright. We have plenty of time. Besides, would your curiosity have really let you wait any longer?"

"That's true. Alright, let me go wake up Lin and then we can have breakfast."

At the mention of breakfast, the kids finally release me and I go in to wake up Lin. Considering our middle of the night conversation, Lin is understandably reluctant to get out of bed. It takes me quite a bit of effort to get her up and moving, but I have fun doing it.

When we finally come out of the cabin, all the kids rush over to take their spots at the table. I don't tease them and quickly fill the table with a massive variety of dishes. Everyone quickly digs in and for a while the only sounds are those of eating.

After we are done eating I ask the kids if they want to go with us to the floating islands. Of course, all four of them say that they want to go, that is until I remind them it will be really cold. After that, only Mulan still wants to go with us, which I am fine with.

I step out onto the balcony, drop shapeshift, and have my clothes shift into a double saddle. Once Lin and Mulan have mounted and are comfortable, I take off. I decide to head for the biggest island first, since it looks like the others are orbiting it.

It is the one that is the size of a mountain, just one that was cut off and flipped over. When I fly over it, all I can see is ice and snow, there is nothing moving. Just to be safe, I scan the entire island before I land, but I don't find anything living.

However, I do find out that the island is made of rock, it is just covered in ice. The ice is several feet thick, meaning this island has probably been here for a long time. When I land on the ice, I have to dig my claws into the ice to keep myself from sliding.

"Be careful when you get down, it is very slippery."

Lin says "I'll just stay here, you are nice and warm."

As I chuckle at Lin, Mulan jumps down, but she doesn't slip, instead her feet sink into the ice. The ice beneath her instantly melts into water and a few seconds later that water evaporates. She has to quickly climb back onto my back to avoid sinking even further into the ice.

Mulan says "Sorry, I didn't think that through. How do you keep your heat so contained, father?"

"My heat is contained in my breath, other than that my body stays at a fairly normal temperature. My body isn't made out of flames like yours is."

Mulan says "Does that mean that if I hug someone who isn't protected from flames that I will burn them?"

"It is possible, but I think you would instinctively control your heat if you were to hug someone. That is unless you actually wanted to hurt them."

Mulan says "Still, I should probably work on controlling it myself before I try it out."

"Didn't your memories tell you all of this?"

Mulan says "I didn't recover all of my memories, this wasn't covered by what I got back."

Lin says "It should be quite similar to controlling mana, if you want I can try to help you."

Mulan says "Yes please. I would like that, mom."

Lin says "Alright. We will work on it when we get back. For now, what's the plan, Ash?"

"Well, if there is floating metal, it should be within the rock. So, I am thinking that I need to melt all of this ice."

Mulan says "I can help with that, if you want."

"Sure. I'll blast it first and then you can melt what's left."

Hearing no arguments, I take a deep breath and then blast the ice directly below us. The ice that is hit directly gets instantly turned to steam and the rock below turns molten. From there, the heat spreads out and melts a massive portion of the ice.

A lot of the water, with nowhere to go, starts to form a lake covering the majority of the island. Then with a loud crack, a section of the ice on the edge of the island breaks off and falls away. With a way out, the water instantly creates a massive waterfall and then the island smacks me in the face.

With the water leaving, the mass of the island is reduced and this allows the island to float higher. I should have known that was going to happen, but I didn't think things through. Instead I get to land suddenly, not only do I get smacked, but I also get soaked.

Lin and Mulan, who were shielded by my body, have a good laugh at my expense. Now that I can touch the rock, I send my mana into it to do a detailed scan. Not only is there floating metal in the rock, but there are some other metals as well.

Mulan says "Dad, do you still want me to melt the rest of the ice?"

"No, I think this is good enough. You can melt the next one."

Lin says "You sound a little grumpy. Did you hurt yourself?"

"Just my pride."

As the two of them have another laugh, I start extracting metals from the rock. As I extract the floating metal, the island starts slowly sinking down towards the ocean. I make sure to get the other metals before I take the last of the floating metal.

When the island is just barely floating above the water, I take the last of the metal all at once. I also start flying at the same time and avoid going into the water with the island. Just from this island, I now have enough floating metal to be able to float the ship.

I still want some extra, but that should only take mining one of the smaller islands. So, I start thinking about what else I could do with some extra floating metal. Quite a few crazy ideas come to mind, but that isn't really all that surprising.

Lin says "Ash, what are you thinking about? You have a strange look on your face."

"Actually, I was just thinking about what else I could do with all these floating islands. What would you think of having a floating castle?"

Lin says "Well, it would make it so that we didn't have to worry about having somewhere to set it up. But it would draw an awful lot of attention. Are you sure you want that much attention?"

"I think trying to avoid attention is fairly pointless at this point. That ship has already sailed. Besides, the flying ship will draw way more attention once it is done."

Lin says "That's true and you are really bad at not drawing attention. Sure, a floating castle sounds good!"

"Okay. Mulan, why don't you try melting that island?"

Mulan says "Sure!"