According to the Traveler’s Guild, one day away from the city of Vodka was where the continent had split. There was a huge cliff which would be tricky to get down, and then they’d have to travel over fresh lava fields before reaching the country’s border.

  Luke had been expecting something big, but as they made their way towards a point where the world seemed to end, he realized the descriptions he’d been given were far too underdramatic.

  The road they were traveling angled up. It was possible that there was a nice decline where the road looked like it had been sheared off, but given that the mountains also sheared off at that point, he doubted it.

  As they got close, the liondrakes jumped off the roof and loped to the edge. Maeve got out to follow them, so Luke went with her. Maki and Cali were on the front bench of the wagon, standing to see better. Luke took Maeve’s hand, expecting to see something impressive at any moment.

  He didn't.

  It took until his foot touched the edge of the cliff to figure out why.

  The cliff went straight down for miles. It got lost in the clouds below them. Straight ahead was nothing but blue atmosphere, curved slightly to follow the planet. Below was nothing but splotchy blues and greens, hidden by rain clouds and sheer distance.

  “So this is where the world ended,” Maeve said softly.

  “I’m glad we were at the beach when it happened,” Luke decided.

  At the same time, they both took a step away from the edge. They looked at each other and smiled nervously, Maeve tightening her grip on Luke’s hand.

  Maki walked up, stopped between his sister and the liondrakes, and whistled.

  “No, stay here!” Cali called, running up to put a hand on the liondrakes’ shoulders. “Don't… jump.” She stared down with wide eyes, ears going flat.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  They stood there for one minute, then two, just staring silently out at the view in awe. Luke doubted anything he ever saw from now on would be this grand and epic.

  “Oh, there’s the new road,” Maki finally said, pointing to their right.

  Luke moved to look around Maeve, and suddenly wanted to turn around and find some other way out of Owonyan. The trail was just a rectangle punched out of the rock, angled steeply down, only barely wide enough for the wagon to not fall off. As far as he could see, there wasn't any kind of barrier, magical or otherwise, stopping people from falling to a very distant death.

  “Nope,” Maeve decided. “Nope nope. We’re gonna go find some other way into Bestest. No way in freaking hell am I rolling down that death trap.”

  “Yeah, agreed,” Luke said.

  “It has to be safe enough,” Maki said. “We’re not the first people to go down it, and no one has reported any deaths.”

  “So far,” Maeve added.

  “I have an idea,” Cali said in a small voice.

  “You do?” Luke asked.

  “Yeah. The liondrakes really really want to jump off the edge here and glide down,” Cali said. “If we tied all three of them to the wagon, it should be safe, right?”

  There was a pause as everyone looked off the edge of the impossibly high cliff.

  “I trust them more than I trust that road,” Maeve eventually said.

  Maki nodded slowly. “It would be faster. There would be less time for things to go wrong.”

  They looked at Luke.

  “The wagon wasn't designed to be…” He stopped. He knew everything about the wagon, so he knew how well-built it was, and how much stress it could take. “Ok, if we have Sir at the front, and put a net under the wagon for the other two to hold up, it should work.”

  Cali’s ears sprang up. “It’ll work?”

  “It should, yeah,” Luke admitted.

  “Great!” She immediately started talking to the liondrakes.

  “Let’s get it ready, then,” Maki said, going back to the wagon. “Do we even have a net?”

  “Yeah, I brought one,” Maeve called, taking a few steps before stopping. She grinned, stepping up to Luke. “Just in case this is a really bad idea, and we all die horribly: I love you.” She gave him a quick kiss and ran to help her brother.

  Luke stood there for a few seconds with a big, stupid smile on his face before shaking himself back to reality and moving to help Cali make sure the harness was properly secured to the wagon.