"The Thirteenth Flying Cavalry Squad requests to take off."

"The easterly wind is northerly, the weather is clear, the visibility is good, there will be no rain until evening, and you can take off at any time. Good luck to you, brothers!"

A soldier waved two green flags, and the major of the southeast command post stood in a salute, squinting at the twelve massive camel eagles flapping their wings and kicking up a cloud of dust. "Please be safe, Lieutenant Colonel Jonah, if something goes wrong with you, Lieutenant Colonel Sardis will not bypass me when he returns." The Major nodded at the boy on the back of the first camel eagle.

"Of course, Major. Even though he didn't understand, Jonah could guess what the other man was saying and waved as calmly as he could. The powerful wings of the camel eagle set off a hurricane, and the astrologer felt his body sink and couldn't help but cling to the saddle on the eagle's back. The claws of the riding beast slowly left the ground and hid beneath him, the camp of the Fireblade Cavalry Regiment shrank rapidly, and twelve majestic flying riding beasts rose in the clear sky, "Please sit tight, Lieutenant Colonel Jonah, we are going to speed up!" The cavalry lieutenant named Morrell, the leader of the thirteenth flying cavalry team who was sitting on the neck of the camel eagle, turned around and asked the commander behind him loudly. The lieutenant spoke the lingua franca of the Western Continent, and Jonah guessed that this was one of the reasons why Emperor Esaba Inck assigned this cavalry to him.

"Target: Ekbatana, forward!" Jonah gritted his teeth and pointed forward.

"Woo-ha!" the twelve flying horsemen cried excitedly, "Click," Morrell fastened his crystal goggles with a brass frame and clamped his legs around the neck of the camel, "Rush forward, Miss Nancy!"

The Flying Rider let out a long, high-pitched chirp and flew forward with its wings. The wind of the hunt was blowing in his ears, and Jonah had learned from Morrell to put on his goggles, and when he looked back, the eleven camel eagles began to accelerate in a wedge-shaped matrix, and Asai was waving his arms excitedly on the back of the second horseman, shouting something at a loss.

In just five flapping of its wings, this marvelous beast increased its speed to a terrifying level, its entire body contracted into the shape of a date pit, and its sharp beak pierced through the air and shot through the white clouds like bullets. The distant land was rapidly receding, Morrell leading the group to climb altitude, the Thirteenth Flying Cavalry began to cruise at high speed above the clouds, and the bright red Iokotel shone in the eastern sky, sprinkling the golden sun on the camelhawk's steely feathers.

The wind was so strong that Jonah could barely breathe, and he clasped the armrest of his saddle, feeling that if he relaxed a little, he would be lifted off the camel's back and plunged into the unfathomable void. He used to have a crush on this beautiful beast, who would have thought that it would become so terrifying after flying into the sky?

Half an hour earlier, the astrologer had seen the legendary camel eagle for the first time in the landing and landing field in the backyard of the barracks. A symbol of the Tocharian royal family, this noble beast has been domesticated for hundreds of years, and the Fireblade Cavalry has a total of ten flying cavalry teams and hundreds of battle eagles. Due to the usual laws of nature, females are generally larger and stronger than males, so the battle camel hawks in service are all females, which are seven feet tall, weigh a thousand pounds, have a wingspan of more than thirty feet, and have an eagle-like head, wings, and claws, but a body similar to that of a camel, with two humps that can store water and energy, and a body of fine, soft short hair.

The feathers on the wings of the twelve camel eagles are different iron gray, dark brown, brown and cyan, and only Captain Morrell's "Miss Nancy" has a pair of black wings, which have more speed and strength than ordinary camel eagles, but at the same time have less stamina, which is more conducive to short-range raids.

"Y-How far did you say about Ecbatana?" Jonah asked aloud, unable to hear himself.

Lieutenant Morrell didn't look back, and stretched out his right hand to make a gesture of a "4" and a "2". The astrologer remembered, and the captain of the flying cavalry said that it was 40 miles away from the destination and could be reached in 20 minutes. In fact, the energy consumed by this high-speed cruise is staggering, and the camel eagle cannot maintain this speed for long periods of time, and the fat and water stored in their humps can support about half an hour of high-speed cruising, or twelve hours of low-speed flight.

The cavalry flew across a white cloud and beneath them appeared the blood-red river, which meandered up the hills and pointed to a red sky. Jonah rubbed the crystal windshield and was amazed to see the northwestern sky burning violently. A circular hill encircles the dark basin like a large bowl, and in the center of the basin rises a fire that is not the eruption of Mount Ekra, but the great furnace of the Florerians working day and night, forging steam mechanical parts from the heat of the lava.

"Where did we land, do we fly straight in?" the third-level astrologer asked aloud.

"No, Lieutenant Colonel!" Lieutenant Morrell shouted back, "that's too dangerous, the pink-hated dwarf's steam puppet will wipe out all uninvited guests!"

"Understood!" Jonah replied.

As Ecbatana got closer, the air began to smell of steam in a hot metal, and the temperature rose significantly, and from above you could see the Floresian houses, squares, and unknown machinery, with steam pipes crisscrossing the city and countless chimneys spewing white smoke into the sky. The towering hills are a natural barrier to Ecbatana, and apart from the southern gorge where the red river flows, there are only two passages on the east and west passes, and several ant-like steam wagons loaded with various elaborate steam machines drive out of the steam golem land.

"Forty degrees to the right!" Lieutenant Morrell gestured twice with his right hand. The twelve camel eagles neatly deviated from their course, drawing a beautiful arc in the air, and headed northeast against the invisible boundary line of Ecbatana, "See, Lieutenant Colonel?" the cavalry captain pointed to a small black dot in the air on the left, "That's the pink-hated dwarf's steam puppet, this floating model is designed to deal with enemies from the sky." ”

Jonah narrowed his eyes, barely seeing a cylindrical mechanism suspended in the air, "Can a steam puppet fly? Can a Florean make a steam airship like Lame Henry?" the astrologer couldn't help but ask.

The speed of the camel eagle slowed down, and the annoying wind no longer hindered the conversation, and Lieutenant Morrell shook his head: "Flying is the hardest thing, these puppets are hoisted into the sky using balloons, look at the top of its head, there is a steam-driven hot air balloon. ”

"And you can make a big ship with people out of a balloon to cross the great river between two continents?" said Jonah, with bright eyes. The "other side" of the Holy River, a moat between the West Continent and the South Continent, made him remember it very deeply, and if he could find a way to transport it safely, there would not be so many tragedies at the water's edge.

"I don't understand, Lieutenant Colonel. Morrell hesitated, "But the altitude of the hot air balloon is very low, and the air flow over the holy river is very complicated, so it is probably not very practical." ”

As he spoke, the camel eagle spread its wings and flapped slightly, and the height of the cavalry began to fall, and the green hills enlarged in front of them, and a road spiraling at the foot of the mountain appeared in front of them, and a majestic steel gate at the end of the road. "Uh-ha!" the twelve horsemen shouted in unison, and the camel eagle flapped its wings and descended vertically, blowing a whirlwind of rocks and broken grass.

"Bang!" The heavy body finally touched the ground, and the rider clawed at the ground with its claws, and folded its wings and head underground. The cavalry landed on a turquoise meadow, at the end of which was a Tocharian-style white house, and at the door stood a middle-aged man in a white robe. Before the dust cleared, the man rushed over, shouting excitedly.

Lieutenant Morrell jumped off the camel eagle, reached out to help the astrologer step down the beast, and then greeted the middle-aged man with a smile. The cavalrymen drove stakes into the ground, tied the reins of the camel eagle to it, took off the goggles and began to line up, and Asai came over with a grin: "Look, I said it was wise to fly over, right? We almost missed such a fun flying experience!"

Jonah felt his legs go limp, and he barely managed to stand up straight with Silafina on the ground: "I didn't think it was fun...... Is that man Ambassador Tocharo? What are they talking about?"

The Oriental listened attentively, "Lieutenant Morrell is introducing you to the Ambassador, asking the Ambassador to inform Ecbatana to open the east gate. The poor man had been alone for several years in the place where the birds did not lay eggs, and at last he saw a living Tocharian soldier, and he seemed a little overly excited. ”

"Isn't there a lot of steam puppeteers studying here? Jonah wondered.

"Merchants and apprentices entered and exited through the west gate, which was set up specifically for the Tocharians, and was said to be a requirement of the dignity of the state. Asai spread his hands.

The middle-aged man in the robe, who had heard Morrell's words, ran over to greet Baron Ecbatana in fear, and Jonah picked up the poor man and repeated his request. The ambassador said that he would inform the pink-hat dwarf immediately, but it would be difficult to say whether the other party would sell his face or not.

The thirty-foot-high steel gate was coldly closed, and the ambassador led the cavalry to the door, crouched down and opened a small window, and explained something inside. Through the one-and-a-half-foot-thick door, I could see a small guard on the other side of the window, holding a small spear, and a small face showed a little surprise.

"Tell them that the one who came was a descendant of Gilberto Gilberneon. "The Oriental does not shy away from saying the name of the first teacher," - this trick will definitely work. ”

The Great translated the past in Floresian. Jonah wanted to stop this too blunt act, but his form froze. It wasn't that he saw anything unremarkable, but that a voice came to his head. A voice that has been absent for a long time. The voice of the Adventist.