Kapitel 30: Sailor Tai

Tai continued to manage the majestic flying ship all by himself.

He drew the sails when a mighty gale was up ahead, he twisted the oars to divert the breezes, and he turned the wheel to steer the ship.

It was pretty amazing for a person who had never even steered a ship before.

Everything seemed to be going fine, at least for now, making the red haired teenager sigh in relief.

Slowly, Tai had gotten a bit used to the laws of nature, time, space, and reality being undone. The eerie whispers did not bother him anymore and the vague silhouettes became even vaguer.

The only disturbance left was the violent undulating rocking motion of the ship.

One second, they were at an extremely high altitude that Tai found it hard to even breathe, and in another the ship was so low that he found it hard to stand due to the pressure.

"Curses"

The red haired teenager wished that the storm would just stop, cease to exist, or even slow down a bit.

However, that was not good either.

Because if the Time Storm were to stop while they were still within it, then they would be lost in time forever.

Tai sighed and leaned against the steering, consumed by an overwhelming desire to be back in his bed at the Protectors Academy.

The trauma he had endured for two full years had begun to take a toll on his mind and he severely needed a rest.

The physical scars may have been wiped clean each revolution of the time loop, but the mental scars would remain, probably forever.

The harrowing gales that came from the mighty hurricanes howling on the distance and were passing through the ship from it's open windows were not helping matters as they had begun to feel like a refreshing breeze, and the violent rocking of the ship had began to feel... Strangely relaxing.

So much that the red haired teenager slowly began to close his eyes.

'What the hell am I doing, sleeping in a friggin time storm!, am I crazy?'

Tai jerked his head up.

Sleeping when he was the only one steering the ship, manning the oars, and hoisting the sails? Maybe he really had gone crazy.

That simple act was more than enough to cost them their lives.

He was not going to die this time, so the red haired teenager was determined to get through the time storm.

Finally, the ship had slowed down a bit as Tai found himself facing a gargantuan tornado.

It was nothing like an ordinary tornado, though, as it had lightening streaks of different colors and sizes. Enormous black holes appeared and disappeared randomly, and mighty hurricanes howled violently around it.

This was the core of the Time Storm.

In a time storm, time was twisted in a perverse, harrowing way that caused the very fabric of reality itself to tear. This rift created would then begin to suck in all living creatures around it like a mad vacuum cleaner.

The creatures that survived the hell of the actual storm itself, would end up in any of the black holes and find itself in a different time period.

The black holes in front of Tai, was one of these harrowing rifts, and all led Into different time periods. Luckily, each ship was imbued with a compass to direct it around the Floating Isles.

Pulling out the drawer that held the compass, the red haired teenager frowned. He had no clue on how to read the compass.

This particular compass on this particular ship, instead of having the four cardial points, North, East, West, and South, like normal compasses, instead had six cardinal points.

Where north would be, there was future.

Where south would be, there was past.

Where east would be, there was present.

And where west would be, there was another present.

"How the hell am I supposed to read this?!"

Tai hadn't even seen this sort of compass before. Apparently, it was specifically created for...

"Navigating a Time Storm!"

Tai had miraculously stumbled upon the very type of compass actual Protectors used whenever they were challenging a time storm.

It looked like lady luck was on his side today.