Mystydjinn
[Insert rimshot]
Gallius looked around the armory. It was littered with weapons and tools, all recently used by him. He found it tough just sitting on his hands waiting for Laermont to return, and the TorBru presence in the city was actually increasing daily. After a couple of weeks of waiting, the fighter decided that it was finally time to go find Laermont in the ever-spoken of metropolis that was Terminus.
He talked it over with Kat, and they decided that it was best if he brought the artifact with him. Using the same plan that they had decided on before. Then, after a long period in front of a hot oven and face first in searing metal, Gallius had the wares to take to Terminus for sale. He packed the artifact into the crate, and then tightly packed all of his goods in around and on top of it, concealing it seamlessly.
Finally, it was time to find a ride. When he had talked to the detective last, the idea of an airship was thrown around, so that was the first place that Gallius decided to check. The docks were filled today as he pushed his heavy crate around on a wheeled pallet. He wasn’t even sure what he should be looking for. Some of the airships were brightly colored, some were extravagant looking, it was hard to tell which one he should inquire about rides from first, everything was just so new to him.
“Eyes full of wonder are a dangerous thing friend,” joked an unfamiliar voice. “They can often lead you down dark paths.”
The voice belonged to a dark shadow of a man, out of place in the bright colors and extravagance of the Excelus docks. He was tall, with spiky black hair tied back into a horsetail, and decorated with bright orange streaks that matched his eyes, and the blade strapped to his back. He had materialized out of nowhere it seemed from the crowd who now seemed to be veering away from him. Like his out of placeness went further than his fashion choices.
“What brings you here all on your own? Excelus’s a big place to be wandering around awestruck,” he placed his hands on his hips as he said this, and tried to peer around the man’s shoulder at the crate behind him. “Might run into some shady characters ‘round here.”
Gallius was caught off guard by the sudden voice. His surprise showed through his light blue skin he was sure, though he tried his best to conceal it. He looked the man up and down twice, first noticing the streaks he wore as decoration, and then he noticed the weapon he bore.
“I’ve been told many times that showing one’s innocence does not always show one’s weakness.” Gallius smiled knowingly at the stranger. He had been in too many new situations recently, and that was one of the last pieces of advice Kat had given him before his departure, however she finished the thought with the words of warning beware of those who show innocence to throw their enemies off.
“I am looking for passage to Terminus,” Gallius continued. He was unsure about who he could trust anymore so he stayed on his guard. “I want to show the pride of Excelus craftsmanship to those in that great city. Where would you point someone to for a safe and easy trip?”
“Passage to terminus you say? I just came from there.” The man gestured back towards the floating portion of the docks where airships lay moored to the port.
“I think I know a ship that can get you there safe,” he said walking towards the cart unassumingly, “Might cost ye a bit though for fuel and all y’know.” The laicar stole interested glances at the cart while he looked over the surprised spurii with interest.
Obviously, this fellow must be new around here. He behaves too much like a stars truck felvar to be a local; he’s probably from out in the sticks. The man smirked to himself. A felvar’s a quick buck though, and he looks like he’s got interesting company... The man didn’t move his head, but caught a shadow’s movement in the corner of his eye, and decided to keep things casual. No sense in facing an unknown enemy unprepared. “What’s in the crate? Nothing dangerous is it?”
“Oh, this old thing?” Gallius took a step closer to the crate as if that was going to protect it more. “Weapons to sell once I get to Terminus. My master figured that these might be able to fetch a larger price in the hub rather than here, and it will help make a name for her business as well. I guess they can be dangerous, but only in the wrong hands.”
The blacksmith apprentice looked at the man and then to the airships, trying to match what airship he might be leading him to. Maybe he didn’t even want to take that ship. This man was leading him on, a good salesman tactic he had seen Kat use many times but Gallius couldn’t tell whether he was more interested in getting Gallius aboard a vessel or getting Gallius’ wares aboard a vessel.
If there were TorBru ties going on here, Gallius wasn’t going to find them by just standing around. He had to know how deep the organization's ties went, which meant getting into dangerous situations. “Gallius, by the way,” the blacksmith apprentice said, offering his hand. It itched to be in the shield hanging from his side, but he couldn’t show his hand right away. “Who would it be that would be giving me the ride?”
“Good to hear!”
The songen man’s eyes sparkled and he committed to a full grin, taking the spurii’s hand fully in his and shaking it firmly. “Miyazaki Hikaru, Captain, Miyazaki Hikaru,” he said, crossed his arms proudly when he released the shake. “My vessel the Getsumei should get you there fine and safe long as she’s paid, airships use up quite a lot of fuel you know.”
The pirate gestured again back towards the docks, this time pointing directly towards a black and silver airship moored to the pier with a gleaming white moon dripping with paint was depicted on the hull. It was close enough to make out some of the crewmembers bustling about on the deck cleaning and restocking the ship, and Hikaru turned back to Gallius once he figured the spurii had had an eyeful.
“Is this all your cargo?” He peered around the man to get a look at the crate he was pushing again, trying to judge the weight of its contents from sight. Weapons huh, probably dahlitium or bigatium. This guy doesn’t look like he’s swimming in exa at the moment... He guessed it light if the crate was alone or one of a small group, that is if the spurii was telling the truth about its contents. He knew a thing or two about smuggling and would rather he be in on it, but there would be plenty of time for snooping while his guest was on board, and he had a feeling he’d find out in due enough time.
Gallius wasn’t sure if he thought the ship was recently renovated or recently adapted, but something about the way the white moon was clumsily painted on gave him serious doubts about the way these people worked. But, he knew that the best way to keep one’s self on edge was to be right in the danger. He was certainly being judged by this man, that wasn’t hard to miss, but what exactly Miyazaki was thinking was beyond the blacksmith.
“This is all I have,” Gallius answered. “I packed everything I thought I would need inside, no sense carrying two things when you only need to carry one, right?”
As they moved to the ship, Gallius could feel the stares of many eyes upon him. It was hard to tell from where exactly, but it was something more than just the usual odd glances that he received in public. He suspected that TorBru were looking for him, and he couldn’t say he was a hard subject to find. No one seemed to be making a move yet though, and Gallius was glad of that. A few moments of pretend peace was a nice break from what was becoming routine.
“Are you taking on any other travelers for this journey?” Hopefully Gallius had learned a few tricks from Laermont and he could pull some information out of Hikaru before things ended up turning sour. “Also, where would be a secure place for me to keep my gear? I certainly don’t want anyone else getting into it while we fly.”
Ah, a wary fellow. There may be something important in there. Marda will have something to say about this. The songen made a box out of his hands to assure him, “Oh your weapons will be fine my friend, you’re a valued customer after all. They’ll be kept in the hold under lock and key,” He began with a fox grin. “Nice and safe, and you with the one key.” The captain stopped at the docks where his ship was moored and tugged three times on the thick cord.
A moment later a face cast in shade by the sun peered over the side of the ship and the pirate lifted his blade high in a waving gesture, immediately cries of “Captain’s back! Seabound!” went across the ship and it began lowering to sea.
Before it finished its journey a young enlil woman, looking roughly the captain’s age dropped out the sky beside them and saluted after straightening her feathers. She didn’t wear much besides a stiff, pleated, navy skirt riddled with brown pockets strapped to it with at least three belts, and a thick, baggy, open whitewashed denim blouse with rolled up sleeves and tied off at the waist. The rest of her was completely covered in red and dark blue feathers with the exception of her forearms, calves and face. Atop her head was a crown of feathers that looked like a side swept pixie cut crossed with a bob with strategic highlights in red and orange.
She looked over the both of them with a frown, taking note of the large cart as well, before it seemed she checked herself and turned to the captain. “Captain, Getsumei is all ready for takeoff, just let us know when to drop sail.” She then addressed the Gallius innocently, “Passenger?”
“I usually go by Gallius, but if you need to you can call me Passenger.” Gallius heard the words coming out of his mouth and immediately decided that Byron was being a bad influence on him. He extended his hand, which the enlil shook. “I heard so many great things about your vessel; however, they seem to be directly from the captain so I hope he isn’t exaggerating.”
Gallius and his trunk were led below deck to a hold. He was promised by several of the crew the hold was secure; however, the blacksmith decided that he wanted to be close to the contents as much as he could so he brought the trunk to his room. There he flopped onto the bed.
“How many crew do you have anyways?” Gallius asked. He wished he had actually put to memory the layout of the ship he had seen so far, but it all just seemed to float out of his memory as soon as he left it. He looked around the room, taking in all the objects here. The bed, which was comfy enough, but certainly nothing special. There was a chair pushed into a desk in one corner of the room, but nothing adorned the desk, likely so that it didn’t have to be cleaned up every trip. Moreover, the only light that came into the room was from two small portholes in the side of the ship; and from where Gallius lay he could see the couple of clouds that littered the sky, but nothing more.
“Twenty-three,” Marda answered off the top of her head and ran her thumb across the doorframe, picking at a bubble of paint that never settled. Hikaru had gone off somewhere else in the ship and left her in charge of keeping an eye on their guest much to her hissed protest. First mate duties my ass, that bum just didn’t wanna be bothered with babysitting.
“Most of them are up and about now if you’d like to wander, but I don’t advise it if you’re not used to air faring yet.” The enlil looked over Gallius for a moment as if gauging his reaction before turning away from the doorpost and looking down the hall.
“Dinner’s at the seven and the kitchen is three lefts from the deck.” She turned her head back to face the man with an eyebrow raised. “Don’t be late, think you can remember your way around to get there?”
“Easy,” Gallius said, but he wasn’t actually so certain that he could remember. It was a maze in here with nothing really to help him keep his bearings. However, he did know how to wander and he knew that with enough wandering things would be found. He gave a polite smile and then it faded as something came to mind. “So how do you guys stay in the air if you only take one passenger at a time?”
The blacksmith felt his hand move towards his shield, and he let it. If this was some sort of trap, he would be ready. He sat up and stared at the enlil with prying eyes. He wasn’t sure he could fight off twenty-three people, so he really hoped that he wouldn’t have to.
The enlil narrowed her eyes at the man’s movement but didn’t show much else to say she was perturbed; instead, she casually let her hands fall to her hips and shrugged. “We usually don’t do these kind of services, we’re typically do more of the... Extravagant type of pirates y’know?”
Her expression was as frank as her shrug was uninvolved. The enlil assumed their unexpected guest was well in knowledge of the nature of their crew, after all Hikaru wasn’t the one to keep anything that made sense to be a secret a secret for long. His whole policy was about making sure his name was in everyone’s mouth, naturally she guessed that the fool had already told Gallius. If he hadn’t well, she figured he’d find out sooner or later.
A moment after she spoke a crudely made horn sounded and the ship lurched, prompting the enlil to brace herself against the doorpost to keep from falling. The Getsumei was departing. “Looks like we’re off I guess,” she grumbled, a little irritated with the unexpected take off.
“Brace yourself against the walls if you’re going to move, or stay in bed I don’t care which. But don’t fall off the boat, you’re not wearing a tether and...” she looked him over again quickly, “I don’t think you’re wearing feathers either. Enjoy the ride.” With that, she waltzed away, her bare feet silent on the sturdy wood floor.
Gallius let the air finally escape his stomach once the enlil breached the doorway. Pirates... he suddenly realized that there was more to this world than just TorBru and himself. It was possible that these pirates were working with TorBru, but they had already had enough chances to jump him that it now seemed unlikely that they had ties to the corporation, at least the whole of the crew didn’t. That wasn’t to say individuals didn’t. He would have to keep his guard up still.
The second the thought left his mind, he was suddenly thrown off his feet by the movement of the airship. The enlil exaggerated a small amount, it wasn’t as if he was going to fall out the windows, but he suspected that if he went topside he would have to be more careful. Getting back to his feet, he was glad to see that the crate hadn’t budged. Checking to make sure the lock was still in place he finally let the crate be pushed to the back of his mind for a bit.
Gallius wanted to see what it was like to be above the city. He moved over to one of the portholes in his cabin and looked out to see the buildings below him growing smaller and smaller. The people were becoming the size of a finger and the sprawling city that took days to walk through shrink to be seen without having to look around, and then smaller to the size of a hand, and finally to the size of a finger; too difficult to pick out in the surrounding forests.
The forest continued to fall away as well until it looked like an intricate painting done by none other than the Vis themselves. To the pirate above steering the ship, the sight was still breath-taking no matter how many times he’d seen it.
He whistled his appreciation for the tapestry while eyes the shade of the sunset took it in until the slight sound of feathers rustling broke him out of his reverie; Marda had appeared to lecture him.
“What offendeth thee now?” He asked teasingly, tilting his head to his shoulder slightly as he spoke.
A sharp pain to the back of his head was his first response. “What part of any of that was a good idea Miyazaki?”
The ship veered starboard slightly with the pirate’s wince from his reprimand, and he continued to sail the ship (with some apology) with one hand while the other busied itself with rubbing the well-forming knot on the back of his head. “Well I fig-”
“I mean seriously, Miyazaki!” She continued her tirade, pacing back and forth across the poop deck and taking swings at him occasionally with her sheathed nodachi.
“Weighing anchor in a normal port,”
SWING,
“Where we could have been discovered!”
The ship swayed back and forth, rolling its crew from side to side on the deck and in the hold roughly.
“Then disappearing-!”
SWING
“Into Vis knows where!”
SWING
“Without saying anything-,”
SWING
“And then coming back to the ship with some blacksmith-,”
SWING
“With stalkers!”
She stopped swinging and barking at the man and caught her breath, more for dramatic effect than necessity and glowered at the back of his head. “You’re not even listening to me up there are you?”
“Nope!”
The enlil sighed. “So I’m just wasting my breath as usual then aren’t I?”
“Yup! I was wondering when you’d catch on.” The bright-eyed pirate’s voice was chipper as he righted the ship again, looking over the sea of clouds ahead of them.
The festively colored woman groaned and slumped against rail in front of the helm defeated, and sighed again. “I assume you picked this, Gallius fellow, specifically because he had some folks on his tail then didn’t you?”
“Uh, huh.”
The enlil folded her arms beneath her head and turned it to face her captain blankly for a moment as if searching for something, but his face remained the same. Plastered with a grin and eyes twinkling, same as the day she’d met him. /FONT]Anything for fame huh?
Eventually she sighed and stood up, turning to face him in the process and looked him dead in the face and spoke. “You’re an idiot, y’know that?” Then she turned to walk past him to the deck, she had to make sure the rest of the crew wasn’t goofing off like someone else she knew.
The songen watched the woman as she passed and then returned his gaze to the sights up ahead with a wider, toothy grin on his face. “You know it.”
[3313] Total Iron Void & MinjaBlade
He talked it over with Kat, and they decided that it was best if he brought the artifact with him. Using the same plan that they had decided on before. Then, after a long period in front of a hot oven and face first in searing metal, Gallius had the wares to take to Terminus for sale. He packed the artifact into the crate, and then tightly packed all of his goods in around and on top of it, concealing it seamlessly.
Finally, it was time to find a ride. When he had talked to the detective last, the idea of an airship was thrown around, so that was the first place that Gallius decided to check. The docks were filled today as he pushed his heavy crate around on a wheeled pallet. He wasn’t even sure what he should be looking for. Some of the airships were brightly colored, some were extravagant looking, it was hard to tell which one he should inquire about rides from first, everything was just so new to him.
“Eyes full of wonder are a dangerous thing friend,” joked an unfamiliar voice. “They can often lead you down dark paths.”
The voice belonged to a dark shadow of a man, out of place in the bright colors and extravagance of the Excelus docks. He was tall, with spiky black hair tied back into a horsetail, and decorated with bright orange streaks that matched his eyes, and the blade strapped to his back. He had materialized out of nowhere it seemed from the crowd who now seemed to be veering away from him. Like his out of placeness went further than his fashion choices.
“What brings you here all on your own? Excelus’s a big place to be wandering around awestruck,” he placed his hands on his hips as he said this, and tried to peer around the man’s shoulder at the crate behind him. “Might run into some shady characters ‘round here.”
Gallius was caught off guard by the sudden voice. His surprise showed through his light blue skin he was sure, though he tried his best to conceal it. He looked the man up and down twice, first noticing the streaks he wore as decoration, and then he noticed the weapon he bore.
“I’ve been told many times that showing one’s innocence does not always show one’s weakness.” Gallius smiled knowingly at the stranger. He had been in too many new situations recently, and that was one of the last pieces of advice Kat had given him before his departure, however she finished the thought with the words of warning beware of those who show innocence to throw their enemies off.
“I am looking for passage to Terminus,” Gallius continued. He was unsure about who he could trust anymore so he stayed on his guard. “I want to show the pride of Excelus craftsmanship to those in that great city. Where would you point someone to for a safe and easy trip?”
“Passage to terminus you say? I just came from there.” The man gestured back towards the floating portion of the docks where airships lay moored to the port.
“I think I know a ship that can get you there safe,” he said walking towards the cart unassumingly, “Might cost ye a bit though for fuel and all y’know.” The laicar stole interested glances at the cart while he looked over the surprised spurii with interest.
Obviously, this fellow must be new around here. He behaves too much like a stars truck felvar to be a local; he’s probably from out in the sticks. The man smirked to himself. A felvar’s a quick buck though, and he looks like he’s got interesting company... The man didn’t move his head, but caught a shadow’s movement in the corner of his eye, and decided to keep things casual. No sense in facing an unknown enemy unprepared. “What’s in the crate? Nothing dangerous is it?”
“Oh, this old thing?” Gallius took a step closer to the crate as if that was going to protect it more. “Weapons to sell once I get to Terminus. My master figured that these might be able to fetch a larger price in the hub rather than here, and it will help make a name for her business as well. I guess they can be dangerous, but only in the wrong hands.”
The blacksmith apprentice looked at the man and then to the airships, trying to match what airship he might be leading him to. Maybe he didn’t even want to take that ship. This man was leading him on, a good salesman tactic he had seen Kat use many times but Gallius couldn’t tell whether he was more interested in getting Gallius aboard a vessel or getting Gallius’ wares aboard a vessel.
If there were TorBru ties going on here, Gallius wasn’t going to find them by just standing around. He had to know how deep the organization's ties went, which meant getting into dangerous situations. “Gallius, by the way,” the blacksmith apprentice said, offering his hand. It itched to be in the shield hanging from his side, but he couldn’t show his hand right away. “Who would it be that would be giving me the ride?”
“Good to hear!”
The songen man’s eyes sparkled and he committed to a full grin, taking the spurii’s hand fully in his and shaking it firmly. “Miyazaki Hikaru, Captain, Miyazaki Hikaru,” he said, crossed his arms proudly when he released the shake. “My vessel the Getsumei should get you there fine and safe long as she’s paid, airships use up quite a lot of fuel you know.”
The pirate gestured again back towards the docks, this time pointing directly towards a black and silver airship moored to the pier with a gleaming white moon dripping with paint was depicted on the hull. It was close enough to make out some of the crewmembers bustling about on the deck cleaning and restocking the ship, and Hikaru turned back to Gallius once he figured the spurii had had an eyeful.
“Is this all your cargo?” He peered around the man to get a look at the crate he was pushing again, trying to judge the weight of its contents from sight. Weapons huh, probably dahlitium or bigatium. This guy doesn’t look like he’s swimming in exa at the moment... He guessed it light if the crate was alone or one of a small group, that is if the spurii was telling the truth about its contents. He knew a thing or two about smuggling and would rather he be in on it, but there would be plenty of time for snooping while his guest was on board, and he had a feeling he’d find out in due enough time.
Gallius wasn’t sure if he thought the ship was recently renovated or recently adapted, but something about the way the white moon was clumsily painted on gave him serious doubts about the way these people worked. But, he knew that the best way to keep one’s self on edge was to be right in the danger. He was certainly being judged by this man, that wasn’t hard to miss, but what exactly Miyazaki was thinking was beyond the blacksmith.
“This is all I have,” Gallius answered. “I packed everything I thought I would need inside, no sense carrying two things when you only need to carry one, right?”
As they moved to the ship, Gallius could feel the stares of many eyes upon him. It was hard to tell from where exactly, but it was something more than just the usual odd glances that he received in public. He suspected that TorBru were looking for him, and he couldn’t say he was a hard subject to find. No one seemed to be making a move yet though, and Gallius was glad of that. A few moments of pretend peace was a nice break from what was becoming routine.
“Are you taking on any other travelers for this journey?” Hopefully Gallius had learned a few tricks from Laermont and he could pull some information out of Hikaru before things ended up turning sour. “Also, where would be a secure place for me to keep my gear? I certainly don’t want anyone else getting into it while we fly.”
Ah, a wary fellow. There may be something important in there. Marda will have something to say about this. The songen made a box out of his hands to assure him, “Oh your weapons will be fine my friend, you’re a valued customer after all. They’ll be kept in the hold under lock and key,” He began with a fox grin. “Nice and safe, and you with the one key.” The captain stopped at the docks where his ship was moored and tugged three times on the thick cord.
A moment later a face cast in shade by the sun peered over the side of the ship and the pirate lifted his blade high in a waving gesture, immediately cries of “Captain’s back! Seabound!” went across the ship and it began lowering to sea.
Before it finished its journey a young enlil woman, looking roughly the captain’s age dropped out the sky beside them and saluted after straightening her feathers. She didn’t wear much besides a stiff, pleated, navy skirt riddled with brown pockets strapped to it with at least three belts, and a thick, baggy, open whitewashed denim blouse with rolled up sleeves and tied off at the waist. The rest of her was completely covered in red and dark blue feathers with the exception of her forearms, calves and face. Atop her head was a crown of feathers that looked like a side swept pixie cut crossed with a bob with strategic highlights in red and orange.
She looked over the both of them with a frown, taking note of the large cart as well, before it seemed she checked herself and turned to the captain. “Captain, Getsumei is all ready for takeoff, just let us know when to drop sail.” She then addressed the Gallius innocently, “Passenger?”
“I usually go by Gallius, but if you need to you can call me Passenger.” Gallius heard the words coming out of his mouth and immediately decided that Byron was being a bad influence on him. He extended his hand, which the enlil shook. “I heard so many great things about your vessel; however, they seem to be directly from the captain so I hope he isn’t exaggerating.”
Gallius and his trunk were led below deck to a hold. He was promised by several of the crew the hold was secure; however, the blacksmith decided that he wanted to be close to the contents as much as he could so he brought the trunk to his room. There he flopped onto the bed.
“How many crew do you have anyways?” Gallius asked. He wished he had actually put to memory the layout of the ship he had seen so far, but it all just seemed to float out of his memory as soon as he left it. He looked around the room, taking in all the objects here. The bed, which was comfy enough, but certainly nothing special. There was a chair pushed into a desk in one corner of the room, but nothing adorned the desk, likely so that it didn’t have to be cleaned up every trip. Moreover, the only light that came into the room was from two small portholes in the side of the ship; and from where Gallius lay he could see the couple of clouds that littered the sky, but nothing more.
“Twenty-three,” Marda answered off the top of her head and ran her thumb across the doorframe, picking at a bubble of paint that never settled. Hikaru had gone off somewhere else in the ship and left her in charge of keeping an eye on their guest much to her hissed protest. First mate duties my ass, that bum just didn’t wanna be bothered with babysitting.
“Most of them are up and about now if you’d like to wander, but I don’t advise it if you’re not used to air faring yet.” The enlil looked over Gallius for a moment as if gauging his reaction before turning away from the doorpost and looking down the hall.
“Dinner’s at the seven and the kitchen is three lefts from the deck.” She turned her head back to face the man with an eyebrow raised. “Don’t be late, think you can remember your way around to get there?”
“Easy,” Gallius said, but he wasn’t actually so certain that he could remember. It was a maze in here with nothing really to help him keep his bearings. However, he did know how to wander and he knew that with enough wandering things would be found. He gave a polite smile and then it faded as something came to mind. “So how do you guys stay in the air if you only take one passenger at a time?”
The blacksmith felt his hand move towards his shield, and he let it. If this was some sort of trap, he would be ready. He sat up and stared at the enlil with prying eyes. He wasn’t sure he could fight off twenty-three people, so he really hoped that he wouldn’t have to.
The enlil narrowed her eyes at the man’s movement but didn’t show much else to say she was perturbed; instead, she casually let her hands fall to her hips and shrugged. “We usually don’t do these kind of services, we’re typically do more of the... Extravagant type of pirates y’know?”
Her expression was as frank as her shrug was uninvolved. The enlil assumed their unexpected guest was well in knowledge of the nature of their crew, after all Hikaru wasn’t the one to keep anything that made sense to be a secret a secret for long. His whole policy was about making sure his name was in everyone’s mouth, naturally she guessed that the fool had already told Gallius. If he hadn’t well, she figured he’d find out sooner or later.
A moment after she spoke a crudely made horn sounded and the ship lurched, prompting the enlil to brace herself against the doorpost to keep from falling. The Getsumei was departing. “Looks like we’re off I guess,” she grumbled, a little irritated with the unexpected take off.
“Brace yourself against the walls if you’re going to move, or stay in bed I don’t care which. But don’t fall off the boat, you’re not wearing a tether and...” she looked him over again quickly, “I don’t think you’re wearing feathers either. Enjoy the ride.” With that, she waltzed away, her bare feet silent on the sturdy wood floor.
Gallius let the air finally escape his stomach once the enlil breached the doorway. Pirates... he suddenly realized that there was more to this world than just TorBru and himself. It was possible that these pirates were working with TorBru, but they had already had enough chances to jump him that it now seemed unlikely that they had ties to the corporation, at least the whole of the crew didn’t. That wasn’t to say individuals didn’t. He would have to keep his guard up still.
The second the thought left his mind, he was suddenly thrown off his feet by the movement of the airship. The enlil exaggerated a small amount, it wasn’t as if he was going to fall out the windows, but he suspected that if he went topside he would have to be more careful. Getting back to his feet, he was glad to see that the crate hadn’t budged. Checking to make sure the lock was still in place he finally let the crate be pushed to the back of his mind for a bit.
Gallius wanted to see what it was like to be above the city. He moved over to one of the portholes in his cabin and looked out to see the buildings below him growing smaller and smaller. The people were becoming the size of a finger and the sprawling city that took days to walk through shrink to be seen without having to look around, and then smaller to the size of a hand, and finally to the size of a finger; too difficult to pick out in the surrounding forests.
The forest continued to fall away as well until it looked like an intricate painting done by none other than the Vis themselves. To the pirate above steering the ship, the sight was still breath-taking no matter how many times he’d seen it.
He whistled his appreciation for the tapestry while eyes the shade of the sunset took it in until the slight sound of feathers rustling broke him out of his reverie; Marda had appeared to lecture him.
“What offendeth thee now?” He asked teasingly, tilting his head to his shoulder slightly as he spoke.
A sharp pain to the back of his head was his first response. “What part of any of that was a good idea Miyazaki?”
The ship veered starboard slightly with the pirate’s wince from his reprimand, and he continued to sail the ship (with some apology) with one hand while the other busied itself with rubbing the well-forming knot on the back of his head. “Well I fig-”
“I mean seriously, Miyazaki!” She continued her tirade, pacing back and forth across the poop deck and taking swings at him occasionally with her sheathed nodachi.
“Weighing anchor in a normal port,”
SWING,
“Where we could have been discovered!”
The ship swayed back and forth, rolling its crew from side to side on the deck and in the hold roughly.
“Then disappearing-!”
SWING
“Into Vis knows where!”
SWING
“Without saying anything-,”
SWING
“And then coming back to the ship with some blacksmith-,”
SWING
“With stalkers!”
She stopped swinging and barking at the man and caught her breath, more for dramatic effect than necessity and glowered at the back of his head. “You’re not even listening to me up there are you?”
“Nope!”
The enlil sighed. “So I’m just wasting my breath as usual then aren’t I?”
“Yup! I was wondering when you’d catch on.” The bright-eyed pirate’s voice was chipper as he righted the ship again, looking over the sea of clouds ahead of them.
The festively colored woman groaned and slumped against rail in front of the helm defeated, and sighed again. “I assume you picked this, Gallius fellow, specifically because he had some folks on his tail then didn’t you?”
“Uh, huh.”
The enlil folded her arms beneath her head and turned it to face her captain blankly for a moment as if searching for something, but his face remained the same. Plastered with a grin and eyes twinkling, same as the day she’d met him. /FONT]Anything for fame huh?
Eventually she sighed and stood up, turning to face him in the process and looked him dead in the face and spoke. “You’re an idiot, y’know that?” Then she turned to walk past him to the deck, she had to make sure the rest of the crew wasn’t goofing off like someone else she knew.
The songen watched the woman as she passed and then returned his gaze to the sights up ahead with a wider, toothy grin on his face. “You know it.”
[3313] Total Iron Void & MinjaBlade