Chapter 202 - A Big Guy with Courage

Chapter 202: A Big Guy with Courage
After making their purchases at the boutique shop, Baiyi led the four
furballs
to a local carriage service. It took a few turns and zips through even more caves for the group to find the carriage service that the boutique shop owner recommended.
Of course, the carriage services here never used beasts that were common in Isythre, like horses. Here, the means of transport that substituted horses were flying beasts called ‘skycruising rays1’. These skycruising rays looked virtually similar to the stingrays of the deep ocean, but it was larger in size. An adult skycruising ray was as big as a living room, perfectly adapted to accommodate a dozen adults on its spacious back.
This peculiar beast, which was native only to Gouve, was not only omnivorous but also incredibly docile. Although their speed was on the slower end of the spectrum, their merit rested on their reliability. For all these reasons, skycruising rays ended up being one of the very first animals to be tamed by the humans here; they also became the main mode of transportation.
This particular skycruising carriage service was located within a wide, tall cave. Atop the ceiling of the cave was a dozen gigantic skycruising rays, perching for a rest, and below them, some stable boys were feeding the younger skycruising rays with powdered, dried seaweed. They sat on the back of the younger skycruising rays and threw the powder into the air. The rays then opened their mouth wide to suck in their feed, purring with contentment.
Even the knowledgeable Baiyi was new to this unique feeding method. As a middle-aged man with a goatee walked towards Baiyi, the latter withdrew his gaze from the feeding scene and turned around.

Hello, customer! You have great judgment. My skycruising rays are the fastest and the most reliable!
The middle-aged man beamed proudly. The skycruising rays there were also beaming, and they made booming
ooohh
sounds to echo their support for the man’s claim. At the very least, these beasts were truly in sync with their masters.
Nevertheless, the man’s claim seemed like a fib. Skycruising rays weren’t exactly renowned for their speed, after all. For destinations that would take a common bird mere minutes to reach, it would take a skycruising ray an hour to get there; this was due to its slow-paced but relaxing speed. That was why despite its enormous size, the skycruising rays were actually at the bottom of the food chain. They didn’t possess any predatory parts such as claws or fangs, neither were they capable of harnessing mana as a self-defense measure.
This made the rays the most perfect of preys; it will take only one lucky animal to hunt an entire school of them. A meek beast like this was better off allying themselves with the humans for survival; this accounted for their eagerness to be tamed.
After a little price negotiation, Baiyi rented a skycruising ray to take the girls to the floating island that was closest to the ocean. With a whistle from the owner, one of the rays perched above slowly flew downwards—like a paper which was lightly touching down from a fall—before Baiyi.

This here is our strongest ray. I call her ‘Hammerhead’!
The man patted the beast’s back. A hollow sound echoed from within; the ray seemed hollow on the inside.
‘Uh, for an animal that can’t even fight a goose, the name it was given is an embarrassment for the entire Sphyrnidae2 family…’


Ay? It has the same name as my Sharkie!
Mia exclaimed as she approached the creature in wonder. She mustered some courage, then reached her hand out to touch its smooth scale.
It felt cold and tender. Mia found herself enjoying the sensation.
Wow! So smooth… So comfy.


This little girl is a natural at understanding animals! You see, for a skycruising ray, the smoother its skin is, the healthier it is!
the man replied gleefully. Perhaps the girl’s cuteness had rubbed off on him, prompting him to talk like an enthusiastic encyclopedia.
In fact, curiously, the skycruising ray seemed to understand what they were talking about; as soon as it heard Mia’s compliment, the ray eagerly leaned closer to her and gently rubbed against her body. For such a massive beast, it was as gentle as a house pet.

Sharkie is so adorable!
Mia hopped onto the ray’s back in mirth.
Boosted by Mia’s gleeful antics, the other girls approached the ray as well, surrounding it as their curiosity spiked. Attie even managed to take some dried seaweed powder from one of the stable boys to feed it.
The wide smiles on their faces were all Baiyi needed to make his decision. He quickly handed over his money, even though this particular shop cost more than the others. After all, as long as the kids were happy, all that money couldn’t be called a waste.
The family climbed up to its back.
The skycruising ray spread its wing-like fins, swayed its two rope-like tails and started flying—in a manner that made it seem like it was swimming—out of the cave, downwards to the direction of the ocean.
The descent was very slow, but it was marvelous enough for the girls. Clutching on its wide back, the girls passed through cotton candy-like clouds slowly, until a wide blue ocean spread out before their eyes.

This is so beautiful…
Mia exclaimed out of awe as she watched the ocean.

So this is an ocean…
Attie said. She was lying on her stomach, carefully clinging to the beast.
I always believed the plains to be the most expansive pieces of nature, but now…
she added, albeit uncontrollably.
It wasn’t just the ocean that had attracted everyone’s attention. They could see other floating islands on their way, and for reasons unknown, each island had its own unique ecology. Some islands were full of hills and thick woods; some islands were potted by lakes and parted by streams; some islands were vast plains that seemed more like savannahs, and some island were covered by seas of blooming flowers.
Every island was its own little world. These different, distinct worlds all combined to create the exotic beauty of Gouve.

Being able to come here makes me so happy,
Laeticia exclaimed contentedly.
It’s so beautiful here, I don’t even feel like going home.

‘Seemingly beautiful, you mean
,’
 Baiyi thought to himself. He may have emphasized how perfect this realm was for vacations a couple of time, but the fact that there weren’t many tourists like them—who also traveled over to Gouve through the transmission portholes—was not lost on him.
Dangers that few could imagine lay deep within this beautiful realm.
For example, the skycruising ray suddenly shuddered after flying steadily for a while, almost as though it suddenly felt cold, or worse—afraid.

What’s wrong, Sharkie?
the sensitive Mia asked when she noticed the ray’s anxiety. She bent down to stroke its back, trying to pacify it; thus, she did not see the black dot cruising through the sky in the distance.
The black dot was still too far away for the human eye to make out what it was, but if it could scare the ray, it was probably one of its worst nightmares.

A dragon,
Baiyi said calmly as he stared at the black dot.
He was a bit puzzled, though. This part of the sky was supposed to be safe—because it was part of society’s territory—with dragon knights patrolling at all times. Other beasts wouldn’t have dared to get close to the dragon knights’ dragons, and a wild dragon shouldn’t be in here, either.
Could the black dot just be a dragon knight on patrol? Was the big ray, which Baiyi was riding atop of, shuddering just because it was easily frightened… causing it to tremble as soon as it saw any kind of dragon?

Well, it’s not in caps here because this beast is apparently very ubiquitous in Gouve!
Sphyrnidae is the scientific name for the hammerhead shark family!