Everyone is afraid of something. Fire mages and cats are afraid of water, Jakey's afraid of talking to people and messing up while doing so, and Mario was afraid of heights.

It was an understandable fear really. He was a cavern dragon slayer, his powers were related to the ground. He preferred it when both his feet were on the ground. He had been absolutely terrified when being dropped from heights as part of his training but had stayed quiet due to the fact that he didn't want to show weakness. There was a code about using extreme phobias during training (such as the trainee needs to be eased into facing their phobia) but he had never used it since he hated showing weakness.

Mario was worried that he was going to have to use the code however. His guildmasters were planning a trip to a sky island for training and he was so not ready for it. He could handle being dropped by Brandon every once in a while as part of his training but at the height a sky island can contain for a week, it made him more nervous than riding in a moving vehicle did.

He decided that he would just stick with it and try not to show his weakness. He got a little nauseous going up to the sky island and it was definitely bothering him from the moment he got up there but he thought he would be fine.

He was wrong.

They had only been on the sky island for half an hour when Mario disappeared. They didn't think much of it at first. It wasn't until Daveed went to look for him and couldn't find him that his guild mates started to worry. They started looking for him and couldn't find a single trace of him.

Kit was trying every door in the building they were staying at. They were the only ones there and, except for the attic, everything should have been unlocked according to Brandon and Ritchie. This was why she was surprised when she came upon a locked door.

She tried twisting the knob harder figuring that maybe the door was just jammed before she heard a voice say with a hint of something she couldn't place. "Go away."

"Mario? Is that you?" Kit asked and when he didn't reply, she said. "Mario, everyone's been looking for you, what happened?"

There was another silence but before Kit could say anything else, Mario told her. "Please go tell either Brandon or Ritchie to put Code 111 into effect for me and get me off this island."

Kit was worried but when she didn't get another response from him, she went to look for her guild leaders. Ritchie was the first one she found.

"Ritchie! I found him." Her guild leader's eyes instantly snapped to look at her. "Really, where is he?"

"He locked himself in a room." Before Ritchie could go and check on him, she added. "He said that he needs you to put Code 111 into effect for him and get him off the island."

Ritchie looked at her in surprise before asking. "Did he say why?"

"No." Kit shook her head.

"Hmmm... Lead me to where he locked himself in, I'll talk to him." Ritchie asked her and she nodded, leading him over to the door of the locked room before taking her leave on his orders.

"Mario?" Ritchie asked. He could hear the click of the door unlocking and went inside to see the dragon slayer sitting curled up in the corner. How he had unlocked the doors was anyone's guess.

"Kit said that you wanted Code 111 put into effect for you." Ritchie said raising an eyebrow at him. "So what exactly are you so afraid of that we need to say you back to the guild hall."

Mario was silent before saying in a quiet voice. "Heights."

Ritchie gaped at Mario in surprise before asking. "If you're that afraid of heights, why didn't you say that when Brandon was training you?"

"Two reasons: one, I did not want to be the one to admit they're terrified of heights." Mario took a deep breath before continuing. "And two, while it was terrifying when Brandon was training me, it wasn't so bad as it wasn't for long. Being up in a high place for this lon-"

Mario stopped and rushed over to the toilet that was in the corner of the room. Huh Ritchie hadn't realized this was a bathroom. After a minute of Mario throwing up, he sat back and wiped his mouth. Looking at his guildmaster, he said. "Its worse than my motion sickness, so not only am I nauseous but I... I'm terrified as well, even when I'm not able to see over the edge."

And it was true, not only did Mario still look at little green but Ritchie could see in his eyes that he was absolutely terrified. This would be a problem they would have to work through but he wasn't a cruel master to subject one of his guild members to something they were obviously terrified of for an entire week.

There was a silence before Ritchie said. "Code 111 granted, I'll ask Brandon to take you back down in a little while."

Mario would have nodded with relief if he hadn't had to rush to the toilet once more.