Friendship in the Far South

Harkwin ignored the cooling air temperatures and he tried to ignore that slowly increasing wind. He kept flying as fast as he could, racing through the skies to get his task done.

---

Just a quarter of an hour later, Harkwin was having serious doubts. The storm stretched from horizon to horizon, splitting the world into two—clear blue behind him, and an immense wall of dark grey up ahead. The sun was still dimly shining, and its direction meant that the grey clouds of the blizzard cast long shadows on other clouds as it slowly swept forward. Vast and powerful, the storm system's sheer size meant that it hardly even seemed to be moving, despite the strong winds which were blowing those clouds around. The air was noticeably colder than before, and the winds were now starting to push him off course and to the side. Instead of just a tailwind, wind shear was making it hard to fly steady and level.

The Bluefall Weather Station was still most of an hour away and not even in sight yet. Harkwin's determination to fly onwards was rapidly eroding in direct proportion to time spent looking at the storm, but he forced himself to keep moving forward. He had a task and he was going to get it done.

But then out of the darkening sky ahead, Harkwin caught sight of something moving. Back in the more temperate regions of the world, the sight of movement in the skies could possibly have been a bird, bat, griffin, or other flying creature, but here it could only be one thing—another dragon.

Coming from up ahead, a dragon with dark blue scales was furious beating their wings, approaching but flying on a different heading which was right towards Central Camp. Recalling his map of all the outposts, Harkwin made the logical assumption that this new dragon must be coming from his current destination—the Bluefall Weather Station—as there weren't any other outposts in this specific area. The closest other outpost was the hot springs at Outpost 20, but that was almost directly behind him. Tilting his wings, Harkwin changed course to intercept.

High up in the sky, it took a few minutes for the two dragons to close in on each other, even with how fast they were both flying. Of course, Harkwin was flying faster because he had air affinity and could use magic to give him an advantage with the winds, whereas this other dragon wasn't a scout and couldn't do any such thing. Squinting at the other dragon, Harkwin tried to see if he could recall having seen them at the Bluefall outpost before. Bluefall was staffed by four weather workers, and vaguely Harkwin though this dragon looked familiar.

As they came into relatively short distance, the two dragons both went into a circling pattern flying around each other. Harkwin was about to shout out a greeting when the other dragon spoke first. "You're flying the wrong way!" she yelled at him.

"I'm headed towards Outpost 3! Bluefall Weather Station—" Harkwin started to reply, but the weather worker cut him off.

"Are you blind?! There's a storm! Turn around and head for Central!" she shouted, sounding a bit panicked. Wasting no more time, the weather worker broke out of the circling pattern and flew on in the direction towards Central Camp.

Harkwin hesitated for a moment, then he turned around and flapped his wings to chase after her. Which his air affinity, he caught up to her with ease. Flying alongside her, Harkwin got her attention again. "Hey! Are you from Bluefall? I was sent from Central Camp to get the latest weather data from the outpost!"

The weather worker had been beating her wings hard, but now she looked surprised and her flight slowed just a bit. "You're too late, scout! Storm Four is here! Can't you see it? Can't you feel it? The outer boundaries of the storm have already reached Bluefall. We've sealed up the station to survive the storm, but I volunteered to be the one to warn Central. Even as I was leaving, it was so windy that I almost crashed on take-off. What a day... What a terrible day."

Harkwin didn't know what to make of this. He glanced behind, then decided that there was no way he was going to fly into that immense storm if it had already reached Bluefall. However, that would contradict what he'd been told this morning. "But... but the predictions from yesterday were that the storm wouldn't reach Bluefall until much later today, or tomorrow morning—"

"Wrong. All wrong. This storm is different from the previous storms we saw. It's not slowing down even though it hit land." The weather worker shook her head desperately, and she patted one of the pouches of her flight harness. "You're the scout sent to collect today's weather data? I have that data right here. We need to fly back to Central Camp now to tell them what's happening with the storm. It's faster than all the other storms, faster than our previous predictions. Maybe even faster than anything we thought possible."

Harkwin was no expert on weather, but he'd learned a few basics during flight school as a fledgling, and after developing air affinity and becoming a scout he'd also learned more about wind to help him fly faster. "But... So the storm is... Can we still outfly it?"

"We can! It's a fast storm, but dragons still fly quicker." The weather worker started beating her wings faster again. "We'll make it back to Central Camp just fine," she muttered, though there was a worried tone in her voice.

"Huh." Harkwin left out a huff of nervously held breath. If the storm was faster than expected, then the whole expedition would have less time to prepare for it. The outposts would have less time to evacuate. Even as he kept pace with the weather worker, Harkwin stared off in the direction of the highlands—Outpost 20 was amongst those distant, snow-covered mountains. Besides Outpost 3, it would also be one of the earliest to be hit by the storm.

There was a choice to be made—should he try to fly to Outpost 20 to warn Nacen? But the winds weren't in his favour, and there were many other outposts which would need to know. He had to get the data back to Central Camp. With his decision made, he rushed to put it into action.

"Ok. Ok. Change of plans, then... What's your name?" Harkwin asked

"Jiwu, from Mintaka clan," replied the blue-scaled dragon. "And you?"

"I'm Harkwin, of clan Taslin. Let's get back to Central." Flapping his wings, Harkwin pulled ahead. Reaching into a special pouch of his flight harness, he took out a long coil of rope and tossed it out. At one end the rope had a metal carabiner clip, and the other end was attached onto Harkwin's flight harness. The rope was strong but lightweight enough to trail behind him as he flew, pulled by the stream of wind which his magic was creating. "Ok Jiwu, I'll tow you fast. Have you done this before? Hook yourself up and fly right behind me."

"I've done an aerotow before." Tilting her wings, Jiwu lined herself up so she was trailing about three body lengths behind Harkwin, and then she grabbed that rope he was dangling behind him.

Although relatively rarely done, it was possible for scouts to use their air affinity to increase not just their own flight speed, but also to tow other dragons along with them to speed up their combined flight. It was tiring, inefficient, and not quite as fast as a scout flying alone, but it was still faster than a dragon flying on wingpower alone—at least for as long as the scout still had the strength to channel their magic.

Harkwin curled his head around, watching Jiwu as she clipped the carabiner ring at the end of the rope onto her own flight harness, right at the central supporting strap over her chest. "Just let me... Got it!" she announced.

"Ok. I'll pull you along, but don't forget to flap your wings still," Harkwin told her. Then he once again called that power inside him, and the winds around swept them back towards the Central Camp.

---

Harkwin wasn't used to flying with someone else. The vast majority of his flights during the expedition had been by himself, using his air affinity to speedily travel between Central Camp and the various outposts. With that rope connecting his flight harness to Jiwu's, he used his magic to tug her and pull them both along right back towards Central. This was a tiring process that felt slow compared to how fast he could fly alone, but it was necessary.

The two dragons flew in silence, both not bothering to make conversation as they put their focus onto travelling quickly and efficiently. When Harkwin occasionally glanced back over his shoulder, it was only to check on the progress of the storm. Much to his relief, he was pulling away from that dreadful wall of immense grey clouds—even if the storm was fast, it wasn't faster than him.

Despite being slowed down by having to do an aerotow, the journey back towards Central Camp seemed to pass faster than the journey out had. When Harkwin checked his pocket watch, he confirmed that this was his own misperception of time—he was definitely flying slower, but the journey seemed less tedious because he no longer had to fly straight towards the imminent, ominous grey of the storm.

By the time they were on final approach to Central Camp, Harkwin was feeling the strain of having performed an aerotow. His wing muscles were starting to ache, and having used twice the air magic as normal was depleting his strength, but he made no complaint and refused to show any sign of tiredness.

As Harkwin approached with Jiwu in tow, he finally cut off his air magic so they could slow down for landing. Then he felt a sudden jerk as his flight companion unclipped the rope from her harness, separating the two of them so they could land safely—this was standard practice, and Harkwin grabbed the rope and coiled it up quickly so he could stuff it back into the designated pouch on his flight harness, rather than having it dangle behind him.

It was late afternoon. By now, the preparations at Central Camp looked to be nearly complete. The greenhouses were all boarded up, their glass exteriors all covered in temporary layers of metal and stone which the builders had constructed with their magic. Windows and doors for many buildings were completely blocked off as well, except for a few key structures. One of those structures was the camp's main command post, which Harkwin headed right towards.

Even as he flew at low altitude over the camp, Harkwin could see dragons still moving about—some were transporting supplies from one storage depot to another, others were still adding more reinforcement to buildings, and there were even some who were just sitting around, enjoying a chance to stay outdoors in the sun to enjoy the (very relative) warmth before the storm hit.

Carefully flaring his wings to cut his speed, Harkwin landed softly on his paws on the compacted snow street just outside the main command post. A few moments later, Jiwu landed beside him. "Thanks..." The weather worker spared him just a quick nod before she immediately rushed inside.

"You're welcome." Harkwin flicked his wings, then furled them neatly onto his back. Trotting forward, he followed her into the building.

---

The operations room was a familiar sight, mostly unchanged from how Harkwin had seen it in the morning. Exactly as before, the underground chamber was roughly circular and split up into various sections for the different teams. The only notable difference was that the skylights in the roof had been boarded off and sealed, leaving the operations room lit only by artificial lighting in the form of oil lamps or enchanted crystals.

Jiwu scrambled down the stairs, nearly tripping up on her own paws when she came to the bottom, though she manged to recover and ran over towards the weather worker section. Harkwin didn't run, but he did walk briskly towards the scout section.

The scout leader, Legrane, was sitting beside the light field projector. He was tapping at the control pedestal, and the sand in the pit was formed up to display various numbers and equations which were overlaid on top of the map projection. Legrane looked up when Harkwin approached, and nodded at the sight of the young grey-scaled dragon. "Welcome back, Harkwin. Did you get the data from Outpost 3?"

"Something like that. It might be bad news." Sitting down beside Legrane, at the edge of the light field projector's sand pit, Harkwin nodded to the opposite side of the room where the camp's weather worker team was assembled around their own sand pit and now speaking with Jiwu. "I made it to Outpost 20 and delivered the message tube, then I headed towards Outpost 3, but I never made it to the weather station. About one hour away, I met one of the weather scientists from the outpost. She had their data with her, so I towed her back here instead of heading all the way to Bluefall."

"Ah." Legrane nodded understandingly, and he followed Harkwin's gaze to look across the operations room. The weather workers' discussion now seemed to be getting more frantic, with gesticulating and pointing down at their sand pit, which was displaying a map just like the scout section's was. "That's completely fine," Legrane decided. "As long as we have that new data to make forecasts, we can plan accordingly. Well done, Harkwin. Aerotows are tiring. You can head back to the dormitory and take a rest. Most of the other scouts have already arrived back here."

Harkwin nervously shifted his weight between his paws. "It might not be fine. The weather worker told me the storm was faster than expected, and that they'd sealed up their outpost."

"What? You mean at Outpost 3?" Legrane snapped his gaze back to Harkwin. "They sealed themselves up at Bluefall already? But the storm shouldn't hit them till the end of today. Why'd they hunker down so early?" The scout leader jabbed a button on the light field projector's control panel and the device switched modes to display weather instead of numbers on top of the topographical map. Sand shifted and changed colour, with the numbers melting away and instead forming into a greyish mass of clouds which represented the (supposed) current position of the storm.

Harkwin shook his head. Just looking at the displayed map in the sand pit, he knew from his own experience that the storm was much closer than that projection showed. "The storm is moving faster than from yesterday's predictions. That weather worker I met in flight told me that it's a different sort of storm."

Legrane went very still, and his gaze darted across the map with all its outpost markers. "That is... problematic. That is bad news, if true..."

A chill went down Harkwin's spine—not from any cold temperature, but from the way Legrane seemed so concerned. "Could it be true? What should we do?"

"Unexpected changes are almost never good. Preparations here in Central are almost complete, but all the evacuations from the outposts were scheduled to only be completed by tomorrow morning. That might have been a mistake." Legrane twisted a knob on the control pedestal. Lines appeared in the sand, connecting all the different outposts with Central Camp, along with those numbers from before, which Harkwin now recognized as exact distance values and expected flight times.

Harkwin stared at the map. Each outpost was represented just by a simplified marker, but in reality those indicated people. Researchers living in rudimentary houses, or huts made from excavated stone, or even just basic tents which would provide little shelter against the storm. A mere scattering of outposts were well-built and insulated enough to survive the storm on their own, but most were not.

Legrane gestured across the projected map with all its information. "These are calculations for our evacuation schedules. There was already supposed to be reserve time factored into the recall to Central, but if the storm is fast then it'll eat into that extra time."

At the other side of the operations room, the discussion was becoming more heated. There were eight weather workers standing in their section, and some of them were arguing with each other loudly enough that people from other teams were beginning to take notice of the commotion. Legrane slid to his feet. "Let's go see what our scientists think."

---

"—are obviously driven by warm air, which should make a sustained cyclonic storm impossible given the temperatures here. This storm cannot be truly cyclonic, but merely has a rotating component driven by wind shear!" insisted one of the weather workers, frowning sceptically.

"Wind shear? The previous storms had wind shear. This is different." One of the other weather workers shook her head, looking more excited. "Look at that sharp temperature drop right near the end of the data! I think we are seeing vortex effects coming down from the upper atmosphere jet streams, which would explain why in the latest data on this storm we have such anomalous atmospheric readings..."

The weather workers appeared to be in a mix of confusion and excitement as they pored over the lists of numbers and graphs displayed by their light field projector, representing the latest data from Bluefall Weather Station. The projector also showed a map similar to the one the scout section had used, except this map seemed stretched upwards to show much more detail in the clouds and the sky instead of ground topography and the outposts.

The one exception to this enthusiastic argument was that weather worker Harkwin had towed back from Bluefall. Jiwu seemed dejected and had wrapped her wings around herself as if cold, and she wasn't really contributing to her colleagues' discussion.

Standing by the side, Harkwin joined a small crowd of onlookers who had gathered around the weather team to see what was going on. Unlike him, Legrane didn't stand aside and simply observe. The scout leader shoved his way to the middle, unapologetically pushing aside other dragons. "Make way!" Partially unfurling a wing, he made a small flicking motion with his wingtip—that small gesture wouldn't have been enough to create much of a breeze, but Legrane used his air affinity. Harkwin could feel the magic coiling outwards, reaching out into the air and pushing into motion towards the sand pit. The sudden gust of air sent sand flying, which scattered away all the numbers and disrupted the projected display showing the cloud structure of the storm.

Despite the breeze, the sand was kept contained within its pit and quickly reformed back up again, but this action had been enough to draw attention. "What?!" grumbled one of the weather workers. An older dragon with scales of dark purple, Harkwin vaguely recalled she was the section leader for the weather workers, though he couldn't quite recall having ever learned her name. "Who did that? Oh, Legrane, it's you. Come see these results! This is fascinating."

Whereas Legrane had a casual, often friendly manner with his fellow scouts, he always seemed a bit more formal with the other sections, especially with their section leaders. "Get a hold of your people, Norex. What are you all yelling about?"

"Yelling? Why, I... must disagree. Spirited debate and the rigorous discussion of ideas is the basis of a thorough scientific inquiry," retorted Norex, the weather worker section leader. "We've just got the latest atmospheric readings from Bluefall Station! This storm has some unique characteristics differentiating it from previous major storm systems we've encountered previously. It'll take us some time to process the data, but just the preliminary results are very curious. The potential future applications for advanced weather manipulation back in the city are—"

"Figure out the future applications later. What are you results?" Legrane demanded.

"We have several different theories... It is possible this storm is truly cyclonic, or alternatively, that it is just so big that it has not fully made landfall and is still drawing energy from the ocean waters. My personal favourite theory is this is not just one big storm as we've seen before, but an assembled collection of several smaller storms orbiting each other in close formation. All of these phenomena have been observed back in the City of Wings, but that is such a different climate from the far south. The structural characteristics are—"