"There are clear areas. And Onbu is safe! Mostly! We keep its back clear of spores, and there are antidotes from the doctor."

"Right. The thing I am asking about is your process for keeping Onbu clear of spores. An I incorrect in assuming that I might need to take a shower or something before visiting there?"

"No. Spores don't spread on new people coming to Onbu, or on returning scouts. They spread mostly by parasites and by floating on the wind. Each viable spore is like, this big," a clenched fist. "So if you don't have any fist sized purple objects on you, you're good."

"Oh, okay. ... Why the suits then."

"Well, they're Scout suits. They let us do scout things. Like fly, go without sleep, and not get poisoned out here."

"But you're confident I will not poison anybody landing in your hometown. Okay."

"Yep! If you can fly at at least... What, three or four times as fast as walking on dirt? You could definitely follow us if you want to come see Onbu. No promises on getting to stay."

"Understandable. I can fly a lot faster than I walk and indeed also faster than most people can walk. I'd love to check it out. Did I remember to introduce myself? I'm Cam."

Huh, that's a really short name.

"Good to meet you, Cam. We'll tell you our names when we get back. I don't think there's anything else to do here, so we might as well go now."

"Which way?" he asks, spreading his wings.

The three scouts walk out of the closed room and then along a slightly dilapidated hallway, wood paneling bent with age and also purple mushrooms. The skirt around a particularly bulbous fuzzy blue-purple mound in a dilapidated dining room, then reach a shattered window. Outside is a forest of tall pale blue-purple stalks and fuzz, looming silently over the rest of the old manor.

One by one, they leap out of the second floor window, their backpacks FWUMPing out into large gliders that lift them high into the air as if, well, by magic. The trio ascends in wide spirals, looking to see if Cam follows.

Not by magic, but his wings do work.

The whole region is mountainous. The scouts ascend above most of the nearby mountains, and then turn east.

...There does seem to be a really huge six-legged thing off in the distance! It's walking ever so slowly, each full stride taking something like ten seconds to complete.

Wow. Living island bug. Wacky.

It's more mammalian in form, aside from the vast bulk upon its back and the structures atop a flat plateau there. The giant head droops low as if depressed.

The rest of the landscape is pretty bleak and empty. Patches of fungus are visible here and there on the ground. There's an old village on a mountaintop.

They'll be flying for a while, it's actually pretty far away.

Well, at least they're gaining on it. How much distance do the scouts need to fly, is it too much for airborne conversation to be feasible?

Their wingspan seems to be about fifteen feet and the speed is tolerably low, that's probably shouting-distance.

"How many people live aboard?"

"I think we have about three hundred sixty! And growing! My old village was dead, man. No hope, no future. Onbu's different."

"Was it literally dead or did it... walk around."

"It wasn't on an Onbu, it was ordinary houses. On an island. That didn't move. Ever since the Carpenters stopped visiting it's just been a steady decline. Uh, they kept the magic working in exchange for fish. For boats, and separating salt and fresh water, and growing healshrooms."

"Magic in my alternate universe is very different so most is that is lost on me. How does it work and who were the Carpenters?"

"If I knew how it worked, I would have stayed and tried to fix it. I mean, I have some ideas, but... You know? The Carpenters were the followers of some line of kings and queens, or something. They mostly feature in legends as idiots who had fabulous wealth but ruined everything by being greedy and stupid. And that's a really convenient story, hard to think that's how it really went."

"You say "you know" but in fact I truly and utterly do not know."