Jonah and Diana held onto the ropes of the center mast as the ship lifted up from the water for the first time in almost two weeks. The unsteady rising in Jonah’s stomach made him waver as the ship turned, rising ever higher, prow first into the clouds. The captain cheered loudly as the water vapor rushed past them, soaking the top deck. Jonah couldn’t see anything as he was drenched, holding on for dear life to the pegs in the mast. When the ship broke through the cotton mists, the water slicked off the top, but she still kept climbing. Diana smiled at him, similarly sodden as her hair clung to her face, beside her the tiger was growling, gripping onto the deck. In the rushing ascent, Kalyah had fallen to her rear, holding onto the great cat’s core, the rope securing her drawn tight.

This was only the low mists, and the ship was coming upon the actual clouds, gaining speed. The water was chilling Jonah to his bones. This time, Diana was ready, she drew her hand in one fast motion, all the water from his clothes and hair collecting in her hand. Another rotation grew the orb as the water left her as well. The last bit of size was gained from Kalyah and the tiger. Tossing the ball up, it expanded into a bubble around them, connected to the mast. It even stopped the wind and Diana kept it liquid with a clenched fist. All the mermaid training wasn’t for nothing it seemed.

They saw the crew rushing around frantically, the Pirate laughing.

“I wish I could say whether this is done with malice or not,” Diana growled as they broke into another cloud. The vapor swirled past them at even greater speed and they were pressed against the mast as the ship angled up through. “Accounts of the Pirate’s mad flights are well known!” she added loudly.

The table on the side of them broke from the anchors holding it and went flying. There was nothing on it for the day, but where exactly it went was impossible to tell. The deranged laughing of the Pirate came with the splintering of wood. Water sloshed off the deck again as light erupted all around them. The bubble was frosting on the exterior of it.

“If she doesn’t put the fucking shields up, then we’re gonna all fucking suffocate!” Kalyah screamed, hugging the tiger for dear life.

It was difficult to see anything outside of the water, especially with the crackling ice. Jonah and Diana were almost sent through it as the ship swiftly leveled out. There was a loud humming sound as a wave of magic swept over them all. Kalyah sighed in relief, stating the shields had come up. A sweep of Diana’s hand sent the bubble to the deck and they could finally see where they had climbed.

Jonah’s head was throbbing, from what he realized was his racing heart. His first step away from the mast felt like he was tugging his feet from thick mud. The second staggered and Diana supported him. A gigantic globe of force surrounded the ship, letting the wind through leisurely, it was briskly cold and he was glad to be dry. The sights kept his heart galloping along, and even though his tongue was dry, he struggled to close his mouth.

The light from the sun exploded out onto them as an ever burning orb should. The brilliant blue all around them was split, darkening with its nightly shade above them. There were no words exchanged between the two as the ropes and belts were removed and they made their way eagerly to the railing of the ship. Looking down he was disheartened to see that the quilt of clouds stretched on for many miles out, forming the ship’s new ocean. The engines and shields greatly displaced the cotton around them, but no sign of the Fairy Forest was there.

“Oh gods, there they are!” Diana said, pointing off.

Following her finger, he noticed masses of cream colored shapes in the glare of the sun. Covering his eyes, he saw the largest one drifting up to them with a beating motion. The Tengu cheered loudly, flapping out into the protected air the ship’s shield held in.

“Come mighty behemoth! We mean you no harm!” he urged as the shape came closer.

The ship rattled down to her core with the deep song of a whale, a throaty bass note. Though she was rather steady in her place, it rocked aside as the colossal creature flew several hundred feet past her stern. It was making a wide circle around them before flying over the top of the masts and into the clouds. Twisting in its descent, Jonah saw its deep set eye as it passed, a black dot on an off white body. They all felt the gust of its winged fins, wind streaming loudly through the feathers, they were flapping slowly as glistening bits of stardust twinkled off of them. The whale sank into the clouds, twice the length of the ship itself. Its maw opened as it skimmed vapor off the top, slapping its feathered tail on the surface, ascending once more.

“Hard to starboard, starboard captain!” the Tengu called. “He’s too close!”

The Pirate sent the wheel spinning and the whole of her occupants low as it lurched over, narrowly missing the whale as it rose. “Such a big thing, doesn’t care for us!” she laughed.

“More come, smaller denizens!” the Tengu cried.

The whale twisted around the top of them, as if finally noticing this smaller thing. Another blast of a song shook the ship to her fittings. It lowered its head with a slowed movement into the surface of the shields, its long ridged throat working as it opened its mouth. Jonah feared the worst, this all made his knees weak in the grand scale. Out from its mouth came a harmless puff of clouds, the remains of its meal. An almost approving bellow came from it as its great eyes blinked. Diana held Jonah to her, hand high above them. Suddenly a great jet of water punched out of the whale’s blowhole, raining down on the ship. It smelled harshly of ozone, and large droplets hit the deck like a battered snare drum. Diana’s hand blocked the spray, forming it into a guard of water. As the rain stopped, she threw the blocked water over the side.

“We are blessed by the flying behemoth!” Coal cried, holding up his talons.

With a slow turn of its body, the whale went floating away from them, twinkles falling from its fins as it navigated past them carefully this time. Then as it peacefully fed, more flying creatures had reached them.

The ship echoed as comparatively tiny beasts hit into her hull. One soared up as Jonah looked down and he was face to face with a fluttering skinny catfish, sparkling wings holding it up as it shook off the impact. There was a streak of silver along its white clay body and it pushed closer, inspecting him with its popping mouth, fleshy whiskers dangling erratically.

“Make your fish face for it,” Diana said from behind him, pushing his cheeks in with her fingers.

The excess of motion spooked the creature and it swam off through the air.

He removed her hands, meaning to grumble at her as he turned. Then he noticed her bright smile and the flying fish now covering the ship. Whole schools of catfish, some hundreds, had come to look at the strange wooden contraption, and he marveled at the swarm. They had taken over the light brown ship with their pearly bodies. By the time he returned to Diana a few moments had passed, and he found she had three catfish trying to gum her red locks of hair that flapped in the wind.

“If you sit still, they come to you,” she said, frozen in place except for her mouth. “I hope they don’t think my hair tastes good…” One managed to grab hold of some, and tugged away. She yelped at the pain and all of them flew away from her. “I’m glad to know you’re no wiser than your aquatic brethren!”

Jonah suppressed a laugh as Diana did too, trying to hold a frown on him.

“I’m hiding the buffet from them,” she said, putting her hair up with a tie several times until it became a bun.

He stepped away from the rail carefully, trying not to spook the catfish all about them. His soul felt so light, and he gazed out through the gaps of the creatures to the sky. A clicking sound filled the air, and many of the fish flew off as long and slick animals shot through the sky. One finally stopped for him to see the dolphin treading the air like water, watching as the school herded itself around the masts and interlaced with the railings and riggings. The dolphin, whose body was a lighter blue, a frosty morning sky, turned its attention to Jonah. With a series of clicks it approached him, its mouth of tiny teeth jabbering on. It spun its body and contorted its feathered fins, rotating all around as it inspected him. The creature’s mouth was too small to eat him, but he remembered about their high level of intelligence.

A clicking came from the helm, and he saw it was the mermaid producing it from her mouth. The dolphin turned, squeaking in reply. The mermaid had a dolphin by her and was petting its underbelly like a cat.

“He says that you look like you belong in the sky, Jonah,” Angelina translated with a laugh. “We have many people with your complexion on Hera, but they live on the Cloud sea, not the salted one, as these ones call it.”

“Huh,” Jonah said, blinking. The dolphin near him, turned around him with a rush and he felt the elongated dorsal fin push into him. The reminder of its solid state and the new magical world he lived in, ripped the nerves from him. The dolphin straightened up before him, eye to eye, trilling at him.

“Blue Feather wants you to pet him, its a customary greeting,” Angelina explained.

Jonah reached his metal hands out and placed them on the dolphin’s rounded head. The sharp chill went through him, and with a light press he could feel the warmth. A kind of purring noise came from the wise beast as it swept the deck with the gusts of its tail fin.

“May, may, I pet him?” Diana said, holding her hands out, eyes wide in childish rapture.

Angelina produced another series of clicks.

Blue Feather’s eyes opened and it examined Diana, swimming out of Jonah’s hands. The princess laughed, running her hands along its head and down its body. It turned its belly up and cut a tight circle around them, letting the two feel its sleek form. Its feathers had such a closeness to their form, lacing together like webbing. Given a few moments with its fascinating make wasn’t enough, but they were both glad to see it, even if they missed it as it flew off, continuing its hunt. Jonah and Diana met in an embrace, squeezing the excess emotion out of each other.

“Diana, can you please come here? I’ve been asking Aiko for your help,” Kalyah called. Her and the tiger were still up against the center mast, soaked now from the whale’s blessing.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As she trotted off, apologizing, Jonah watched on as the schools of fish were herded by the hunters. Through them he saw the moon in the distance, half in the night sky and half in the day time. It looked awfully full and almost like the one of Earth, except the patterns were all wrong and it might have been bigger as well. At this height it certainly looked much larger. Somehow the silvery disc unsettled him with its fullness, and he stared at it a while, unsure as to why.

As Diana returned with Kalyah beside her, leaning on the tiger, a new sight had taken Jonah’s focus. There were more than the catfish and dolphins, there were much larger tuna, hiding amongst the smaller fish and parts of the ship, bolting as the predators approached. The dolphins were toying with the tuna, whose bodies were streaked with yellow and blue, but also thick carapace armor. A dolphin nipped at a tuna and its bite bounced off its hide, the mammal complained, possibly swearing at it when the fat beast swam off. What got Jonah’s attention and kept it was the predator that covered the moon, a brilliant swordfish that must have been eight feet long from its weapon’s point to the tip of its crescent tail.

The hunter’s sword was a shining silver, a fine edge to it, locked into a face of hard bone. The long plates on its body, a fighter’s armor, whistled as it flew, a deadly song as it speared two catfish in one swift lunge. With a whip of its head and a push of its long stretched skin fins, it slid its catch off its face and bit into them. Its beak mouth chopped them into manageable chunks, and swallowed.The fish still retained their hovering ability in death, even their blood hovered in globules. The small morsels weren’t enough for the swordfish and it now went after the tuna, who didn’t hesitate to swim as fast as they could from it.

The rest of the crew were out and under the chef’s instruction were trying to catch the fish. So many things going after them, the fish went every which way, except the open air. Even Coal, who could fly rather fast after them, had no luck. The ship became a massive reef for the flying fish, Jonah and Diana merely watched all the excitement. Kalyah sat huddled against the railing as Aiko stayed before them all, growling away the fleeing fish.

“I don’t think that Cloud fish taste much different,” Diana remarked, watching as the dwarf tumbled in his failed attempt to grab one. “I am terribly sick of fish being on this ship anyway… What I wouldn’t give for some land dwelling animals on a plate.”

“Everything is so much better on this ship, I don’t think I’ve ever been this well fed,” Jonah replied. “Well, except for when my grandma was alive. She was big, and she cooked to keep her figure.” He chuckled lightly.

“When did she pass?” Diana asked, keeping her voice measured, she usually didn’t inquire about the dead.

“Oh, when I was a teenager, heart failure,” he said. “She tried to correct her diet later on, but thirty years of frying everything caught up with her.” He shook his head. “My mom always ate healthy after my grandma’s heart attack. It didn’t really matter in the end.” Diana gave him a sympathetic embrace.

“I’m sorry, honey,” Kalyah commented. “All my prayers can’t save people from themselves or certain illnesses. There’s only so much magic can do here. They must have been good women, from what you’ve said and who you are.”

“Thanks, they were,” he said, regarding the two of them. “I’ve got two great women around me now.” He smiled.

“I’m not the big grandma, am I?” Kalyah chuckled.

Diana peered at him with concern. “I’m not your mother, am I?” she asked.

He scoffed. “They don’t have to be the same exact roles,” he grumbled. “I was just trying to complement my friends.” He frowned, turning away from them.

Diana laughed, hugging him, pressing a hard kiss into his cheek. “Oh, come now, don’t pout, Jonah,” she gently urged.

She couldn’t meet his eyes without her laughing more. He stepped away from her, out of her hold. Aiko stepped over to him, watching the fish swimming still.

“I wasn’t going to harass him anymore,” Diana said to the tiger. “We should stop off on our way to Al’pa Linn and find some elvish cuisine. It would be a nice change of pace.”

Kalyah made a disgusted noise. “I like human food better,” she said.

Diana put her hands on her hips. “Well, then we could ask a High elf to make some food from Jonah’s memory,” she said. “Do you know how to prepare any of the food from Dirt?”

He flared his nostrils at her incessant teasing, just when he thought she was done.

“Earth food I mean,” she said, expressing a quiet humility. “I’m sorry, I’ve gone for too many rises out of you. My mind won’t stop bringing up all the meals I shared with my sister…” Her lips drew tight.

“Then just talk about them,” he said with a shrug.

She folded her arms, thinking for a moment, then glancing at the crew, who had given up on their hunting. “Not now,” she said quietly.

Jonah tried to reply, but there was no time.

Suddenly Aiko jumped as the whistling song of death came. Turning his head, he saw the swordfish rocketing towards him. The tiger’s flank offset him, claws and jaws open to intercept, but it only ended up biting air. Diana put out her hands, wind pushing him down to his back. Something had caught itself under his legs, and ceased its wriggling. It was a tuna, one much smaller than the others, still blinking, gills pumping air in and out of its body.

Diana and the tiger were scanning about the air. The sails were out still, flapping. Kalyah clung tighter to the railings, urging him to lift his legs, at least he assumed. The panic and pain of hitting the deck, the air bursting out of his lungs made him freeze.

A sharp whistle returned and the tuna under his legs bolted out, lacing in between the railings and then across him. The swordfish angled itself, heading for a direct spear downwards. Electricity crackled from Diana’s forearms as her sleeves ignited. The violet bolt formed from the sparks and shot in odd angles through the air, landing into the broad side of the swordfish. Arches of electricity climbed across its body from the scorch marked patch on either side of it. Hovering there, Aiko leaped ten feet up and caught the hunter, its jaws bursting its head. The tiger whipped it across the deck, a mass exodus of avian fish continuing, started by the clap of thunder from Diana’s magic.

The Druid sighed, shaking out the fires on her arms. Without a word she reached down and met Jonah on the ground, holding him to her. Her fingers dug into his hair, and he felt tears hitting his face from hers.

“I could save you, I could save you,” she repeated into his ear.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, the stun still working its way off of him.

The Orc chef cried out in joy. “Ah, the finest catch is ours!”

Coal and Kalyah shot an insult at the callus chef and the Priestess came to check on him, the Tengu flapping around him as well. The Pirate made her way over, asking about his condition. He was fine, especially after the wave of prayers laid across his back. Diana held him firmly, face buried into his shoulder.

“Why don’t you go rest?” the Pirate suggested. “We’ll start sailing down, much slower than before.”

Kalyah smiled at him. “You two deserve some time alone together,” she said. “I’ve been bothering you guys all night for a while.”

“Sure, yeah,” Jonah said, as Diana was silent.

The two of them made their way down the stairs. The high skyline bright through the porthole windows, the smell of recycled air more defined in such a closed space. Diana’s face was blushed, and she did her best to wipe away the tears and the sniffles. Instead of taking him to their room, she led him to the windows, fingers on the trim. Her other hand gripped his with all her strength, which might have hurt immensely if they were real. There was no possibility of her breaking them, so the crushing pain limit had been reached and endured, he suspected.

Her breathing came deep and slow, hair still bunched up at the base of her head, he could see the fragile nature of her white neck. Slipping from her death grip, he embraced her from behind, feeling thankful and romantic as he kissed her neck, the heat radiating through him. His hands squeezed her soft belly, which wordlessly he knew she was self conscious of, as she always sucked it in when he touched it. She leaned her head over, giving him more landscape to kiss. Behind him the tiger pushed him closer. Then Diana twisted about, arms coiling around his neck. Their mouths met in a working kiss, tongues greeting each other for the first time. His hands went up and down her back, hesitating at her rear. A smile cut across her face and a laugh echoed from the gap between their mouths, her hand shot back and shoved his under her skirt’s top. He swallowed, feeling her warm bare skin filling his hand.

Noses together at the tips, their eyes met. “Like I would save your life and deny you a touch of my rump,” she said with a quiet laugh.

“I can’t be…” he cut off as Diana’s attention jerked to one side.

The tiger growled and then Jonah heard what the familiar had detected first, the clicking of heels.

Then the source was there, standing by the stairs in her full outfit. There was a smile in the deep violet eyes of the Witch. She was just as pristine and porcelain as the moment he first saw her, skin contrasting with the obsidian corset and lavender accents. There was no sign of the destruction from nearly two weeks before.

“Ah, the full Moon rose last night, and every moment close to Her majesty, I am gushing with power and arousal,” she said, moaning as her lace gloved hands plucked along the strings of her attire. “I see you feel it too, princess…” The woman stopped before her groin, hands holding her hips above her skirt. “The Moon is the most magnificent aphrodisiac.”

Diana took a long breath, the tiger still growling, Jonah’s hands held her shoulders, while hers were on his chest, bunched up in his shirt. “You can engage in whatever orgy or dancing in the woods you like now. You’re going to be leaving,” she said evenly.

The Witch’s eyes narrowed and then she searched around, mockingly.

“What are you doing?” Diana asked, an edge in her voice.

“I’m looking for the subdued corpse of Blodwyn, for it seems you have already succeeded in avenging your sister, and no longer need your best chance at finding the goddess of death,” she said, shrugging. “I can’t seem to find her, so I suppose you no longer care.”

“My best chance for avenging my sister is not from the likes of you!” Diana spat, turning to face the woman, staff flying from where she had set it by the wall. She pointed it at the Witch. “You are nothing but a slaver! A repulsive creature who uses magic that all your fellow Witches would behead you for! I have settled for you leaving, instead of having the army rush in here and kill you! People have been executed for less than your crimes!”

Fia yawned, rolling her eyes. “Crimes? Bah!” she scoffed. She shook her head. “You’ve read too many soft cushy histories. The youth likes to pretend we are better now, that they didn’t cheer for public executions only two hundred years ago.”

Diana swallowed, throwing a side eye to Jonah.

He very hesitantly winked back, a microphone growing on the tip of his finger.

“What could you say to justify your actions?” Diana began, turning fully back to the Witch.

Fia put her hand on her face, tapping her cheek, head turning. What she was thinking, Jonah feared to comprehend. “You act as if getting rid of me will cleanse the ship, little girl,” she said with a demented smile. “Those traps on the lower decks, all your bickering with Angelina. This big moral and righteous tirade. It’s not going to win the war, it sure as fuck didn’t win the last one. While the other Heroes fought on the frontlines against the Ash Makers and their war machines, we won the war. You can’t have an Order of Ash without any young blood.” She gazed about the ship, the light reflecting off her glasses.

Diana froze in place and Jonah trembled, aware of the fear that was in her.

“What do you mean?” Diana said quietly.

“This ship, you’re not going to be happy on it, no matter who’s helming it,” Fia said, leading them deeper down that pit of dread. “It flew and sailed all about, taking out all those would be soldiers, thumping them in their beds. All according to my scrying. If they’re Ash Makers, they aren’t even people, and they sure aren’t innocent. You saw what happened in Rowoak, even the Watchdogs of the gods considered them food.”

Tears streaked down Diana’s cheeks, and silently she put up her hand, a mighty gust of wind erupting from it, blasting straight for the Witch, a Hero no more.