Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Four — Intercepted
Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Four — Intercepted The Beaver held up well for the next couple of days. Thankfully, the weather stayed calm. We hit a bit of rain the day after leaving the Lonely Island behind, but it was a gentle rain, and while we were worried it might undo some of the stitching on our balloon, any damage we had to deal with was small.It probably helped that everyone was keeping an eye on things.“Land ho!” Clive called from above.I was in the lower deck, resting at the dining room table with my copy of A Guide to Manipulating the Essence, the book that I’d bought way back in Rockstack when I was still just a normal human girl looking for friends and adventure. The book made a lot more sense now that I knew how to cast a couple of spells, kind of like rereading a math textbook after having several lessons on the subject.I was thinking of maybe growing my repertoire of spells. Fireball and its variants were really cool and super useful, and of course I had Cleaning magic, but I was kind of limited in what I could do with just those two. Amaryllis was practicing her magic too. I think she was figuring out how to cast barriers and use her lightning magic in new ways.Awen had her Glass magic, which she was using to make stuff for her Wyrmgineer class. Those weren’t ordinary uses of Glass magic, I don’t think, but they were really neat.Bastion had given us a list of spells we should know, and I was still working on mastering those. The problem was I couldn’t practice Clean Wounds without wounds to clean (and that one was kind of a moot spell to learn anyway). Soften Earth required earth to soften, and Draw Water needed water to be drawn. We only had so much fresh water aboard and I didn’t want to spill it all over while practicing.So I was caught reading about the magic instead of practising it.“Land ho!” Clive called again.I snapped my book shut and stood up with a stretch. Time to go see what all of that was about!I arrived on deck and found I wasn’t the only one coming up to see what was ahead.The mountains of Sylphfree had been visible for a while already. They were hard to miss, rising over the horizon. Big jagged walls of pale grey stone, with a few clouds hovering around the tallest peaks.Now, though, we were close enough that a glance down revealed the shores where the ocean beat against the foot of the mountains, great big splashes of water surging into the sky every time a new wave came in.The shore stretched on for a long, long ways, so far that it was nothing but a hazy line on the edge of the distant horizon.“Over there,” Bastion said.I glanced over to the sylph, then followed his pointing hand towards a site further along the shore. The mountains receded a little, and in the middle of the basin there was a small patch of forested land with a strong river.I wouldn’t have noticed the village tucked away in the valley if Bastion hadn’t pointed it out. It was hard to see from afar, but there was definitely a small settlement nestled there, with tall walls of the same colour as the mountainside hiding it all away.Clive spun the wheel, and soon we were heading straight for the settlement.“Alright, everyone, let's take it slow and steady! We need more sails out!” I shouted as I jumped back into the role of captain.A few airships rose from within the distant village and turned to fly our way, but Bastion seemed at ease, so I didn’t worry. By the time we’d cut the distance to the village in half, the airships were circling around in formation to come up next to us.They were strange, boxy looking ships, mostly made of steel with sharp edges, held together by large rivets. Their balloons were fairly small, and it looked like they had two each.Most interesting was the large ballista at the front, and the two smaller ones mounted onto long arms that jutted out of the ship’s sides and that swept down a ways. The sylphs manning those ballistae were all dressed up in thick coats with goggles and scarves on. I imagined they got a little cold when at higher altitudes.“Hold us steady!” I called back to Clive as I ran to the side of the ship nearest the approaching airship.Their pilot was pretty good, because they came close while slowing down to match our speed nearly exactly. A trio of sylphs in light armour jumped off of their ship, and with wings beating hummingbird-quick, they glided over to the Beaver and landed on deck.“Hello!” I said. “And welcome aboard the Beaver Cleaver. I’m Broccoli Bunch, the captain.”Of the three sylphs, two were carrying short spears, with swords hanging by their hips, while the third was carrying a far more terrifying weapon: a clipboard. “Greetings,” he said as he bent over his board and scribbled something down. “One moment, I need to... Beaver... Cleaver. Two words, yes?”“Yup!” I said. “You look like you have a lot of questions to ask.”“Oh, I do. You’re in restricted airspace. Do you have a permit?”“A permit for what?”“Then that’ll be one fine to add, not to mention another fee for the inspection. Are you attempting to reach Granite Springs?”“I don’t know where Granite Springs is. Is it the little town over there? Where your ships came from?” At his nod, I went on. “In that case, I guess? We took some damage to our balloon. We’ve patched it up as best we can, but there was only so much we could do. If your town has a place for us to land and get repairs, then we’d love to stop by.”“Granite Springs should have the facilities to care for such a small vessel,” he said.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.“That would be nice,” I said.The sylph made a few more marks on his clipboard, and I slid up to my tippy toes to see over the edge. He noticed and pulled it back.It was a little rude to write stuff about people without telling them. “Yes, well, there is a clause that would allow a vessel, operating in good faith, to use a port in an emergency, but I don’t think you’re currently in an emergency state.”“Well, it’s less an emergency, more... a bad need for repair. I don’t know where the next nearest airship port is. In the Trenten Flats, maybe?”He winced. “Yes, I suppose I could justify that as a good reason to land, though there is an emergency landing fee.”“Perhaps I can clear some of that.”The three sylphs tensed as Bastion walked over. He had his arms by his sides, and looked entirely casual. I noted that he was back in his full armour, minus his helmet.“Sir Paladin,” the clipboard-wielding sylph’s feet clicked together and he stood straight, hand snapping into a salute.“Paladin Bastion Coldfront,” Bastion introduced himself. “Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. I thought I’d leave some of the minutiae to the captain.”“Of course, sir.”“Now, what was this about an emergency fee?” Bastion asked. “The ship was damaged while carrying out duties any paladin ought to do in the pursuit of justice. I think we should at least treat the vessel with respect.”“I, yes, sir, but, well, the vessel is... extremely bright. And colourful. It doesn’t seem very, ah...” He gestured around, at the two duck figureheads, then at our very bright balloon above.“No one would suspect a thing, you mean,” Bastion said with a nod. “Good observation, lieutenant. Do keep it to yourself.”The sylphs snapped to salute. “Yes, sir!”“Now, carry on. The captain doesn’t have a flight path that I know of, and there are fees incurred from that.”“Oh! I think we do have one!” I said. “Wait, let me go get Amaryllis!”Amaryllis, being the organized sort of girl she was, had a whole file with our flight plans and such in it. There was a system in place where-like the banks-papers could be sent between ports. Which meant that Sylphfree did know that the Beaver Cleaver was coming, though we were a teensy bit off with our time estimate.“Here you go!” I said as I bounced back to the sylphs and gave them the plan.The one with the clipboard looked it over, his eyebrow rising. “This paints you as... two days outside of your intended arrival time.”“Oops?” I tried. “We had a few little detours. But they were fun! We fought pirates, then we fought these other airships, and then we kinda crashed on the Lonely Island, but we managed to use the airships we downed to fix the Beaver back up. Also, we got a bit off track a few times. People needed help.”The sylph officer blinked, then looked at his clipboard. I wondered if there were any checkboxes for the kinds of adventures we’d been on. I don’t think he found anything because he looked up at Bastion, who was just staring with a polite smile, and then he started sweating a lot.“Yes, well, of course. Um. I'm sure the fee for adjusting your flight plan to accommodate for a slight discrepancy is much more manageable. Let me just... uh, yes, that can be done. Will... will we be inspecting the ship?” This he asked directly to Bastion.“Of course. It’s your duty to look over every inch of the vessel for any sort of contraband.”“Do we have anything illegal on board?” I asked.“No, we don’t,” Bastion said.“Oh, good.”The sylph with the clipboard stared a little, then seemed to shake off whatever was holding him back. “Well then, maybe we can start our inspection with this top deck and work our way down? Then... back up on the other deck?”“Sure thing,” I said. “Do you want me to guide you around?”“That would be appropriate,” Bastion said. “Barging into the rooms of the noblewomen onboard without the captain as escort would be highly suspect.”“Noble— well, yes, captain, I would appreciate an escort.”I grinned big and proud as I gave the inspector a tour of the Beaver. I made sure to introduce them to everyone on board, the Scallywags, our harpy crewmates, and, of course, my friends. He took notes as he went, though he seemed a little confused on where to put Grand Admiral Orange since she didn’t fit neatly into any of his charts.The sylph seemed impressed by Awen’s engine room, even if I was cringing inside at how disorganized it was. He was less impressed when he discovered Awen’s turret emplacement inside the hull.Seeing her bedroom a few minutes later made him reconsider. It was clean, because I wouldn’t not have a clean room on my ship, but Awen had a habit of leaving her stuff all over, and underthings on the floor was never impressive.That somehow cemented the idea that she was a noble in the sylph’s mind though. Amaryllis’ being herself proved that she was a noble too. She was particularly snooty today.“And that,” I said as we huddled in the bathroom—which didn’t actually have a bath—“is the whole ship!”“Do you have any hidden compartments?”“Like smugglers? Oh, that would be cool.”“I’ll take that as a no,” he replied with a sigh. “That concludes my inspection, I think. Shall we return to the main deck, I’ll signal our ship ahead, and we can guide you into port.”“That sounds wonderful,” I said.I wasn’t sure what to expect of Sylphfree, but regardless of how things turned out, it was nice to finally arrive after such a long voyage.I was almost shaking at the prospect of making so many more friends!
* * *
Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Five — Buniver's Travels
Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Five — Buniver's Travels Granite Springs was, according to Bastion, a small and secluded town in Sylphfree. It was along the southern end of the country, next to the ocean, and as airships had become more common, shipping over water had declined.I couldn’t really tell if it was becoming less prosperous as we hovered over the town, the Beaver being guided over to a waiting berth in the airship docks at the rear of the town.The sylph airships peeled off as soon as we tossed ropes over the sides and the sylphs working at the docks tied us in place.“I need to give my assessment to the port authority,” the officer sylph said as he tucked his clipboard under an arm.“It was a pleasure having you aboard,” I said as I leaned down to shake his hand. It was easy to forget how small most sylphs were. Bastion was a pretty tall one, and he barely reached my shoulder. The officer and the two guards with him were a bit shorter. I think I’d met children who were taller.That only meant baby sylphs had to be absolutely teeny tiny!The officer exchanged some pleasantries with Bastion, then bowed before fluttering off the side of the Beaver and over to the docks.“Alright!” I said once the deck was cleared of strangers. I clapped my hands together for attention. “We need a plan.”“That shouldn’t be too complicated,” Amaryllis said. “We find someone who can repair the Beaver’s balloon. I imagine a proper port like this has at least one company that does repairs. The port authority should know.”“That means that we won’t be able to use the Beaver to head deeper into Sylphfree until it’s repaired though,” I said.Bastion shook his head. “That might not be an issue.” He pointed off the side of the ship and to a flagpole standing proud above a building in the centre of the town. It was a big, square struicture, very utilitarian, and made entirely of pale grey stone. There were three flags on display: I kinda recognized the flag of Sylphfree, but the other two didn’t tell me much. One had a grey square in the middle of a two-toned background, pale blue above and white below. The other was a checkered grey-orange flag.“I don’t get it,” I said.“The bottommost flag, under the town flag, is a warning. The area is on a middling alert level. That means more guards will be posted in cities and towns, some soldiers will be pulled from reserves, and travel will be restricted.”Amaryllis huffed. It was a very unimpressed sort of huff that basically said “well, we’d do that better where I’m from.” “Of course the sylphs have flags to tell them how they’ll be oppressed today.”“So,” I said as I decided to ignore that comment. It was best not to start an argument. “We can’t fly the Beaver to the capital.”“Not without the sort of permissions I wouldn’t be able to obtain,” Bastion said. “There should be some vessels heading to and from Goldenalden. Food and materials still need to be moved, and people as well. Besides, the mountains are treacherous for inexperienced pilots.”I glanced to the north, where the mountains rose up and up above us. They weren’t the biggest mountains I’d ever seen. That definitely went to the Harpy mountains. But they were dense. Just a lot of peaks rising up every which way.I imagined the wind between all of those peaks would be tricky, and unless ships could move over the mountaintops, they would have to twist and turn around the peaks. That wouldn’t be easy. The Beaver was a fairly light ship, and he could only go so high. It got really cold, and the air grew thin past a certain height.“So we’re going to have to leave the Beaver behind?” I asked.“It’s not that bad,” Amaryllis said. “It will limit our options, but not overly, and we can leave most of the crew here to guard the Beaver while repairs are being made.”“I guess,” I said.It would be a bit strange to leave the Beaver behind. Sure, we hardly stayed on the ship while out exploring, but it was always nearby, our home that we carried with us. Or rather, that carried us.But if we didn’t have a choice, then that was that. And it wasn’t like we’d be gone for a long time. “So who do we bring with us?” I asked.“The usual away team.” Amaryllis said. “Myself, you, Awen, and Bastion, of course.”“Let’s ask around, make sure that everyone is okay with staying. And then we need to pack our things.”“I doubt we’ll find a ship leaving this evening,” Bastion said. “Most shipping happens in the morning and early afternoon. You can reach most other places in Sylphfree with half a day’s flying from the capital. Flying at night is dangerous.”“I can imagine,” I said. All those mountains would serve as obstacles to anyone flying with the sun down. “We do need to go out and find a ride for tomorrow though.”“We hardly need the whole crew for that,” Amaryllis said. “I’ll head over to the port authority, sign off on our berth.”“Bring a human with you,” Bastion said. “I... don’t wish to doubt my fellow sylph, but you might find that there’s some animosity towards harpies here.”Amaryllis harrumphed. “Typical. Though... I suppose we’re no better. I’ll bring Awen then. She’s reasonable, at least.”I nodded. “So, that’s the plan?”“We also need food. Not for those of us leaving, but for the rest of the crew. Though I suppose I could leave some gold aboard for them to purchase things once we’re gone,” Amaryllis said.“That sounds fine,” I said. “Bastion, did you want to come exploring with me? I don’t think we’ve been on that many adventures, just the two of us!”If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.“Certainly,” Bastion said.Grinning, I ran off to gather a few things. Last time I’d gone wandering in a new city, I was ambushed by giant laser-firing crystals. Let it never be said that Broccoli Bunch doesn’t sometimes learn her lesson. Once I had my turtle shell hat on, a small pack with a few essentials, and a pouch with some coins, I picked up my warspade and ran back onto the deck to find Bastion waiting on the dock in his full paladin regalia.“I’m ready!” I cheered as I hopped over the rail and landed next to him.“I can see that,” he said. “I’m not certain if people would appreciate seeing someone armed on the streets.”“Armed? You mean my spade? I guess I can leave it behind,” I said. I only took a hop to return to the Beaver and tuck my spade away. “Better?” I asked as I returned.“Quite,” Bastion said.“So, where are we going first?”“I thought we only had one destination?”I pouted. “Well, yeah, but you know how much I love detours. We could make new friends, meet new people. Maybe grab a bite to eat?”“I suppose. In either case, we should get moving.”I nodded, and soon enough both of us were walking along the docks towards a tower off to one side. The port was made up of a dozen berths for airships, with what looked like docks that could be moved from side to side to accommodate ships of different sizes. There were towers on either end, with exits at their bases leading onto an empty field.It looked as if the sylphs were clever enough not to build anything under the space ships would occupy, which only made sense. A tool could fall and bonk someone on the head.My head was on a swivel as we moved, taking in the other ships and the people aboard them. They were all boxy, metal-clad vessels (ironclads?), smaller than the Beaver and with a few more balloons. At least, those that were nearest. On the other side of the port were a pair of larger ships, with the flag of Sylphfree on their bows and bigger ballistae on their decks.Every ship was manned by sylphs, and no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t see anyone who wasn’t a little person with big wings.“Aren’t we going to visit the other ships?” I asked.“No, that’s not how things work here. Most of these ships look like merchant vessels, the cheap, faster sorts. The crew on board won’t have any authority to take on passengers.”“Oh. That’s weird. Don’t they have captains?”“Yes, but only in the sense that each ship has a person who leads its crew. The captains of most ships aren’t the owners of those ships.” He pointed to the hull of a nearby ship where a logo sat, a big flower I vaguely recognized as a snapdragon. “That one and the ship next to it are owned by the same company. You’ll notice most transport ships are similarly owned by one company or another.”“Instead of having them owned by their captain who then picks up stuff,” I said. “That’s not as cool.”“I suppose it isn’t, but it might be more efficient. Sylphfree policy is big on efficiency.”We reached the tower, and I was surprised to find a basket elevator within. We clambered aboard, and Bastion lowered a lever that had us dropping down.“So, if we can’t just ask the captains nicely, where are we going?” I asked as I enjoyed the sensation of falling.“I took note of which company owned which ship,” Bastion said. “Their headquarters in town should have something in place to offer transportation to civilians.”The elevator thumped onto a cloth pad at the bottom, and Bastion raised the lever he’d pulled down, which locked the basket in place so we could climb out.Once we were out of the tower and back under the sun, Bastion took a moment to look around before gesturing ahead. “This way, I believe.”“Have you been here before?” I asked.“In Granite Springs? Only a couple of quick stops. Did some training with the army by the coast. Learning how to swim is part of our training.”Made sense to me. “So you know your way around?”“The stops were hardly comprehensive,” Bastion said. Soon we’re walking down what I guessed was one of the town’s main roads. It was very strange to be the tallest person around. I was used to Bastion being shorter than me—I hardly even noticed it anymore—but to be taller than everyone down an entire street...Worse were all the stares. Little sylph kids, who really were tiny, looked up to me with mouths opened wide in big Os and the more adult sylphs were quick to scamper away.I was probably very intimidating. With my ears straight, I was nearly twice as tall as some of the sylphs we were walking past.At least no one seemed really afraid, and Bastion got some looks too. People pointed at him, some turning to friends before they whispered things.“Do people stare at you like this a lot?” I asked.“It happens often enough,” Bastion said. “I’m a paladin. We’re not exactly rare, but it's uncommon for us to be seen in such a small town, and unfortunately, we're usually chasing trouble. I wouldn’t call Granite Springs a frontier town, but it’s certainly not the most prosperous place within the kingdom.”“It seems nice,” I said. The homes were all neat and clean, pale stone-granite, I guessed-and tall, with balconies on the topmost floors.They also had really, really small doors. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to squeeze into them without bending over double to avoid bonking my ears against the doorframes.“This is the place,” Bastion said as he stopped before a larger building.I glanced up at it, taking in the same flower logo I’d seen on some of the ships at port. “Neat! Lead the way, Sir Paladin Bastion.”Bastion chuckled, but he did step ahead.
