In order to get his air shipping business off of the ground, Finley was going to need to get some more gate cards. This whole traveling by everything himself was for the birds. The literal birds, not the figurative ones.

As soon as Sonya said it was safe to go up, he slipped through the portal to the overlook. Expecting to see anything, he was displeased that they weren't within view of any settlements. What he expected was to see the markings of an orc tribe that had been zombified. Sure. There were some planes up ahead but he couldn't see that far. Maybe some of the goats would help?

"Gigi, do you think you guys could?" He said.

"Can't talk right now. Cake business," Gigi said, in a deep conference with Bob and Stella.

The dwarves and the humans wanted to conspire against the one lone elf. He was just going to have to step back and let them do whatever silliness that they were going to do. It sounded like they had a lot of silliness and tomfoolery in the near future. If it resulted in cake, he was all for it.

Finley tried to tap into the green but there weren't any plants close enough that he could interact with. It was probably a combination of the brackish water and how high up they were.

They should have some plants up here and he saw a little bit of scrub brush but not much else. The scrub brush didn't feel like talking and he couldn't blame it.

"Is the idea that you want to park the airship up here?" Finley said.

"I don't think that's going to work out too well. I was just hoping to not be bitten by sand fleas for like five minutes."

"If nothing else, this could be a marker for an air highway. I just don't think it's close enough for any action against the zombies."

"Do you think that the zombies are just going to stay put? Like they are going to hunker down in their locations? I feel like they're going to start wandering out looking for us, especially when one of the death knights has it out for Bob. Do you think that they know how many of us there are?" Sonya said, finishing some embellishment on a side railing.

Finley appreciated her light touch.

Finley inspected the railing. It looked solid but that didn't mean that he wanted to step off onto the drop. It had to be at least half a span.

"There's a thing on Earth. We call it a lighthouse. Put them on top of the coast. I would light them up so that boats know that they're getting too close to land or that they can come in closer and get out. In a way, we are a lighthouse for this entire continent. Just us being here is going to draw their attention."

Two monks took that time to fly over them, wrestling Finley's attention away from Sonya. Their slight movements based on the air currents made them look magnificent. As if they were two manatees who had finally gotten accustomed to loading underwater.

"Unless I'm selling something, I don't really want anyone's attention. I wish it was a way that we could shroud ourselves from them, but I'm pretty sure the death knights have a very good idea of where we are. Not that I'm happy about that," Finley said.

"Are you ready to head back over?" Sonya said.

"You know if there's one thing you guys have taught me it's that I'm okay with being on a boat. It's being up in the air and on the boat that I'm that not okay with."

"You and me both, brother," She said laughing. "You know what? Did you know that Gigi was a barmaid?"

Finley hadn't known that. He was going to let her tell her story in due time.

"Did you go back to her about her past or something?"

"Let me guess. She's been through a lot right?"

"Yes she's been through a lot but so have we all-"

"Thank you, Finley."

"Oh what?" He said.

"For making my point so eloquently when I could not," Sonya said curtsying. She, not having a skirt made the entire thing look very official. He might be able to find one for her later. But she would have to get over being smug.

"You humans," He said, rolling his eyes.

Sonya smirked. He was going to have to work a little bit harder to get them to act like proper tinkers. Real proper tankers didn't badges someone about their life choices. They just aggressively pushed food on them until they gave up the information voluntarily. Then a thought occurred to Finley.

A large tree with yellow fruit cried out to him. Those would do nicely.

"Sonya! You see some of those trees down there? They look like banana trees. I haven't seen one in ages. If the monks are done flying around, let's go grab some bananas."

"Yeah, all right I see them. Let's go get some. If you monks are done?" She said, raising her voice at the end.

---

The arrival of so many long yellow fruits onto the decks of the airship provided a much needed break. It also provided a fair bit of levity as no one was above pretending that they weren't going to laugh about it.

" You really outdid yourself. Thank you so much, Sonya, Finley. This was quite a find. If you found some mangoes too that would just make this even better but-" Anthony said.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Can you describe what a mango is?" Finley said, holding up his fourth banana.

"They're a spherical fruit. Really sweet. The flesh is very tender and it's yellow on the inside or orange. I was hoping since you guys have bananas that this was something else you might have. I'm just moaning over these bananas. If you got me some mangoes? I might be taking off my clothes," Anthony said.

"Why would you be taking off your clothes?" Finley said.

"Because you so utterly seduced me with your fruity wiles? I would do terrible things or it may go right about now," Anthony said.

"Finley, if you got mangoes, I would make you a special cake that no one else could eat," Bob said, from across the deck.

"And you would make one for me too right?" Stella said.

"Of course dear," Bob said, clearly stage whispering.

"This is all great now but no one has really explained to me what a mango is," Finley said.

The assembled humans sat around a circle, eating a fresh lunch of cake and bananas. It was the sweetest thing they'd had in weeks. Andrew and Valerie looked at the cake with an air of distrust, but Anthony indicated that it was safe to eat. They might have taken it the wrong way as he tried to shove a second banana in his mouth, but he was ready for it.

"Fresh fruit really hits the spot," Anthony said, in between bites. "And this cake? Perfection."

"I've never seen a man eat two bananas at once," Sonya said, giving him an extra helping of side eye. Anthony most definitely was done doing that for the time being. He had enough attendance

"What kind of adult entertainment did you get up to in Regina that you didn't-oh wait-didn't they have to mail the internet to you?"

"Har har," Sonya said. "But no, we were connected."

"Bob! When are you taking the scouts out again?" Anthony said.

Bob looked contemplative. He dropped into a deep thought. He was either trying to avoid the question or thinking about how Stella would take it. Anthony could easily tell that he was trying to find the most diplomatic way to answer that. Bob wanted to keep people happy, but especially Stella. He had just baked them a cake, but asking him too much to give his timeline for his next activity? Probably not.

"I dunno. I think they want a day. We're definitely going to do a sweep nearby. We'll see if we can find anything on land, but there's no telling how close the nearest settlement is to us. It could be far away."

"Did you want to keep flying then?" Anthony said.

"I did not say that. I would like to be fully out of the Quiet Sea in case there are more sea monsters."

They both shuddered. The threat of something that they couldn't see in advance was enough for Anthony to consider ordering the ship up again.

"Yeah let's get on that. I was thinking that you guys could keep looking for that list gate card that the academy should have somewhere with Valerie."

The two men looked around, but the dwarf had snuck out, leaving them in the lurch. Then as a unit they both got up to search for her. The unfamiliar ship combined with the overwhelming scent of goats and general body odor did nothing to help.

"Upstairs?" Anthony said.

"There's no light downstairs."

They ran downstairs. Anthony tossed a mage light up as they ran.

At the bottom of the aft stairs, there was a row of doors leading to crew quarters. They had been divided up during the flight several times. Valerie was reading a book under her own mage light.

"What?" She said, looking up. "I was expecting a council meeting but a girl has other hobbies."

"Ah yes," Bob said. "We wanted to pick up the thread of this missing gate card. You know about this high security vault that it would be in."

Valerie closed her book.

"Every single Cadet at the Academy learns about the security features of the system. There was even a theory crafting design class about various security features. It is a popular pastime as to how that will be hidden. But it is at the top level of the most secure floor of the academy. We were still working through the first floor last time I checked."

"We wanted to see if we could speed that process up a little bit," Anthony said. " I'm sure you're aware of our situation. I have every reason to think that there are other high value cards up there that we probably need to keep away from whoever is trying to harass Bob here."

Bob stood up then and turned away from them.

"All right. I can plan something out. You want maps this time?" Valerie said.

"As detailed as you can make them. Is Bob up?"

"There's movement."

Bob ran up the steps. Anthony shrugged and followed. He indicated to Valerie that maybe she should follow along. He indicated to Valerie that maybe she should follow along.

Up on the deck, Bob ran to the triangulation circle. He moved to the center and then held out one arm.

There wasn't a stone in the direction. There was one close to it. He walked straight on to the edge of the circle.

"Well that's not good," Valerie said. "Let me get out my notes here. Bob! Secondary circle please!"

The rear circle was the same deal. Bob moved the stone in a similar fashion.

"Based on my notes here," Valerie said. "They're not moving in this direction? That's odd. Maybe they're heading to where we were?"

"That has to be it," Bob said.

"That makes this next mission even more important."

Anthony sighed as he checked Valerie's work. The death knight had gotten closer, if only just.

---

Bob, Mork's best chance, slid through the portal once again in full kit.

Behind him, Stella and Sophie began donning their heavy robes. It might not have been snowing on the southern coast of the Quiet Sea, but it sure as heck was by the academy. Up on the rooftop, the dwarves roofing was doing its utmost to dump snow on any idiots in it's path.

Juan and Micheal were joining them. The two monks that had gotten the air aspects powers. They had not stopped complaining about the cold the entire time.

"It's like Jack Frost's left titty would have frozen off by now," Juan said.

"And the right one!" Micheal said. "You can't forget the right one."

"Yeah, you see he gets it," Juan said.

"Would you both quit it before I need to call up my mind goblin?" Sophie said.

"Mind goblin?" Juan said.

"Mind goblin Deez nuts!" Sophie said to the cackling of Stella and Bob.

"Guys, you knew we were going into the cold today. You chose to come in a long cloth. So we're trying to get you set up with that kind of clothing."

"Bob, you were flying around naked last time we checked," Juan said. "You barely have a third leg to stand on."

"Guys, I think that we can just have Bob heat us all up," Stella said. "Or I can do it."

That shut them right up and they fell in line.

Bob tested her spear, dropping into the stance he had used over and over again. One practice thrust later and he felt like his old self.

"You boys ready? The ladies made it clear that they have better places to be now," Bob said.

Bob peeked his head out to check if the coast was clear. It was. His skills.let him know when zombies were close and it wasn't pinging. It was the two feet of snow in places, of the four feet of snow in others, but the academy felt different now.

He led the combined team to the door of the academy. Bob and Stella took turns in lead as they melted a pathway through the snow. The fire bending card was on the track to become his favorite card. If he retired later and became a sexy lumberjack it would help him work in the deepest of winter. But there was a long time before that.

Bob got to the door of the academy's sprawling lecture halls. They had shut it before to keep new zombies from entering. There still were some inside, he realized as they stacked up next to the tall double doors. They were right next to the door, but they were close enough for a pause.

"Three zombies on the inside, first hallway."

"Damn, I thought we had cleared that floor," Sophie said. "I'm up first."

Stella pulled back the door. Sophie put the tip of her spear first as first she then Bob went in. Micheal pulled up behind him, another spear tip pointed in the right direction.

Three zombies, awoken by the opening of the door, stood up and began to approach them.

"No gods no masters," Sophie said.

"Flame on," Bob said, dancing as she created a fire ball which then flew down the corridor, striking one. That power was coming in handy.