RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Seven - People e Here to Be Fotten

  The Lonely Isnd was... an isnd. Not a of isnds or an archipego, but a single rge lump of an isnd. I couldn’t see all of it from our height, the isnd stretg too far to the north for all of it to be made out, but what I could see was fairly pin.

  The ground aleish yellow, likely some sort of sandstone if I had to guess, with little topsoil frass and trees to grow in.

  It wasirely bare, there were some splotches of colour, especially on the western side of the isnd, but they weren’t all that big ht.

  “It looks like a sad pce,” I said as we started to e down.

  Bastion joined me by the front and eyed the isnd as roached it. “It’s an iing location, actually. Far enough from the shore that it’s basically impossible for any sylph to fly to it, and the winds around here are typically pretty rough. The o he coast is often choppy, and there are frequent storms that blow past iumn.”

  “You know a lot about the pce,” I said.

  “It was once used as a penal y,” Bastion said. “Oher end of the isnd. There should still be some docks and such. Sylphfree stopped when we discovered that the cervid were doing the same.”

  “Wait, two nations were using it as a prison isnd?” I asked.

  “Yes, aher realized it for decades. The cervid would toss their prisoners off near a bea the south end, and we would drop ours off he north. I imagihey met up somewhere in the middle, formed their own little unity and such.”

  “That’s weird,” I said. “Did ary to escape?”

  “Oh, that’s almost a certainty,” Bastion said. “But there aren’t many resources here.”

  “Captain!” Clive called.

  I patted Bastion on the shoulder, then jogged over to Clive. Well, it wasn’t quite a jog. Jogging would require that I be able to move my legs properly. After the day before’s training, my legs were a wobbly mess, and every step hurt in new and iing ways.

  Being on Dirt might mean that I healed faster than bae, but that didn’t mean nothing would hurt.

  “What’s up?” I asked Clive.

  “We’re slowing down nid steady before we nd,” the pilot said. “Question is, where do you want us toug down?”

  “Hmm.” I looked out ahead. The Lonely Isnd was surrounded by a reef, often with big ks of stone poking out of the water like jagged teeth. I could only imagihere being even more stones just uhe surface of the water, ready to scrape the hulls of any nautical ship. Not that that was a . “I ’t see alements,” I said.

  “Aye, none in sight. And hat I know of.”

  That didn’t mean that there were none. If there were people here, they had to be living somewhere. Where would I build my house if I was stu this kind of isnd?

  “I think we should circle around the west side, keep a around the bits of wood there. If there is a pce to live, they’ll want space to grow stuff. Assuming they ever found anything to grow.”

  “Folk find a way,” Clive said. “No matter where you go, and no matter how harsh, people will always find a way to root themselves in and make a living. Might not be a pretty or fortable one, but folk will manage.”

  “Huh,” I said. “I guess so. I don’t think we’ll be spending much time here. Just a quick toud-go.”

  “Should we aim for civilization, then?” Clive asked.

  I rubbed at my , then reached up and straightened one of my ears. The right one had a tendency to bend over when I was thinking hard. “How about you keep up off the ground, and we’ll see if it’s worth nding.”

  Clive nodded. “We need a few days in dock to fix the balloon properly. Patches are all well and good, but they’re not meant to keep.”

  “Yeah, but something tells me there won’t be any airship docks here,” I said. “Let’s take it slow and steady. I don’t want to strain the Beaver any more than we o.”

  With that said and done, I headed to the back, then down a level to the deck below.

  Awen was in the dining room, p over some papers with a frown on her face while Amaryllis sat o one of the portholes on a chair that was usually tucked in the er of her room, legs folded up and beak buried in a thick book.

  “Hey guys,” I said as I walked over. “Where’s Moonie?”

  “She... it, is still in its room,” Amaryllis said.

  “She?” I asked.

  The harpy shrugged without looking up. “The name is feminine. I suppose I’m not used to dealing with genderless beings.”

  I shrugged. “As long as Moonie doesn’t mind, I guess. Ah, speaking of Moonie, we’re over the Lonely Isnd, or near enough to over it.” I pointed out of the window over Amaryllis’ head. She leaned bad up to peek out, then nodded. “That does look like an isnd.”

  I huffed at her, one of her own ‘oh, e on’ sort of huffs. “You should be more excited! Bastion said that the isnd is filled with all sorts of prisoners and people like that! I bet it’ll be super exg to visit.”

  “Ex-- Broccoli, that makes me want to go down there less,” Amaryllis said. I noticed Awen nodding from the er of my eye.

  “Awa, I think Amaryllis is right; that makes it scary, doesn’t it? Also, are we really going t Moohere if there are mean people below?”

  “Prisoners are just potential friends who made a mistake,” I said. “And... I guess that is sending the wrong message, isn’t it? Moonie isn’t a vict, we shouldn’t be bringing them to a pce that’s meant to be a prison. Or an ex-prison, I guess.”

  “Five me.”

  I tur the sound of Moonie’s voice from the corridor. The cry hovered closer, dug down just enough to avoid the doorframe. “I overheard you speaking. The walls aboard this ship are a little thin.”

  “That’s okay!” I said. “We were kind of talking about you, so I guess it’s only fair that you join in. What do you think, by the way? About the isnd?”

  “It seems like a fine pce. It’s where Shard of Waterwatches passion, Third Split and One Whole wished for us to go.”

  “Yeah, but is it where you want to go?” I ask right back. “We bring you elsewhere, or at least, to somepce where we’re going. Sylphfree is , but then who knows where our adventure will bring us?”

  “We... I don’t think I am made for adventure. I would rather have a quiet life, some dozen years to bee whole, perhaps a little bit of pany to sing and talk with.”

  “Alright,” I said. “We should at least make sure the isnd is safe before dropping you off though. I’d feel really awful if we brought you there, and then you got hurt right after.”

  Moonie bobbed up and down. “That’s appreciated. Truly.”

  “So! Assuming you do want to go down there, is there a p particur you’d like to make ndfall at? The isnd has some big hills in the middle, I think, and there are some trees and stuff on the west side.”

  “We have heard that there is a pce with some ear the south of the isnd. That would be the best pce, I think. But we do not know where, exactly, that is.”

  “Then we’ll find it!” I said. “e o’s get onto the deck. I bet we’ll be able to spot it from the air.”

  “Really, Broccoli? It’s uo be some big town. What are you expeg, a rge tower with ‘nd here’ writteo it?” Amaryllis shook her head, then casually flipped a page. “If they’re trying to be hidden, then we won’t be able to spot them easily.”

  “I bet it's really hard to find something when you’re not even looking,” I said.

  Amaryllis looked up from her book, then s shut with a cbsp;“Fihe’s prove it, shall we?”

  She stomped past in a birdy huff, then climbed up the steps at the rear.

  “I guess I should e too,” Awen said, and she wiggled out of her seat.

  “What were you w on?” I asked Awen as we started towards the back, Moonie a bit ahead of us.

  “Oh, ah, some pns. I o make sure the new version of the crossbow ptform fits right in the room on this side of the Beaver. She gestured to the empty guest bedroom. “The prototype is a bit big.”

  “So you o make it smaller?”

  “More pact, yes. You ’t really make the seat smaller, or some of the meisms, so it’s everything else that o take up less space. And then there o be room for the rails, and a way for the wall to move out of the way.”

  “And it o stay somewhat airtight,” I said.

  “Airtight?”

  “What if we have to nd in some water one day? Or if we fly north and arrive in a pce that’s really cold, or somepce super hot? It’s probably best that the ship remains well-insuted.”

  “Oh, I hadn’t sidered that.”

  I rubbed at the bay neck. “Oops? Sorry, didn’t mean to put more on your pte.”

  Awen shook her head, arms waving this way and that in denial. “No, it’s better to know now!”

  We made it to the top deck, and all three of us moved over to the side where Amaryllis was gring very hard at something ahead of us.

  I blihen leaned over the side a bit to see better. The Lonely Isnd was very desert-y. irely made of sand, but more bare stone and wi dirt, at least on one side. The hills in the middle marked a split, with grass growing oher side.

  Out in the middle of a rather pin part was the unmistakable blue of a small ke, and right o that, a big tower of pale stone.

  It would have been easier to miss if there weren’t so muothing on the isnd.

  “Well, there’s a building,” I said.

  “I noticed,” Amaryllis said. “Moonie, does that crystal at the top look like something the cry would make?”

  I squinted, but I guess Amaryllis had better eyes than I did, because other than notig that the top was more or less blue, I couldn’t make out a crystal.

  Moonie hovered close, then quivered in the air with a meaningless chime. “Yes. That is a cry.”

  “Should we get closer?” I asked. There didn’t seem to be any other vilges around, but we were still a long way out.

  “We should be safe. The cry aren’t usually immediately aggressive. And we may be able to speak with them first,” Moonie said.

  I trahat, then came to a quick agreement with Amaryllis and Bastion, who had e over to see what all the fuss was about.

  “Clive! Port, ten degrees, and bring us down another hundred metres or so. I think we have a pce to explore already!”

  “Aye aye, captain!”

  “Alright everyone,” I said. “Let’s get ready to move. We don’t know if the people down there are friend material just yet, so we might have to leave in a hurry. It might be best to be prepared, just in case.”

  I g the tain. It didn’t look particurly mean, just a big yellowish pilr.

  I hoped that it was filled with potential friends!

  ***

  RavensDagger

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