“I want to look around and get the big tour,” I said to Amaryllis as soon as we were back in our little room.

“And leave me to do all the paperwork?” she asked acerbically while waving the file we had been given around.

I shook my head. “No, no! Let’s look at it now, then... we could take the tour together? It sounds like a lot of fun?”

The harpy rolled her eyes and sat down onto my hammock to place the folder onto her lap. “No. But you’re not wrong about looking over these now rather than later.” She fumbled with the edge of the folder, her talons not exactly suited to handling the paper, but when I reached out to help she glared and tore the folder open. There were only two sheets within and they seemed identical. “Here, tell me if you don’t understand anything,” she said as she passed one over.

“Thanks!” I took the page and sat down on the ground next to my backpack to read over it.

Exploration Guild Official Expedition Summary

Expedition No.124 of Year 398PC, Port-Royal Branch

Mission Statement: To explore, scout, and map the region around decommissioned Fort Froger and return to meeting point.

Estimated time: Approx 3 days

Difficulty: Low to Negligible

That left me with a few questions. Notably, what did the PC in the year stand for and who named the fort we were going to explore? Asking about the year would be suspicious so... “Did they really name the fort Fort Froger?” I asked.

Amaryllis looked up from the page and shrugged. “Why not?”

“Isn’t that a bit... racist?”

She tilted her head to the side in a way that immediately made me think of a bird. “I think it would be speciesist, actually. And no, it’s okay if the Grenoil themselves named it, I think.”

“I guess,” I said. “So this isn’t really heavy on the details. Do you know anything about this fort?”

“No, I don’t. It sounds like one of the projects that went up just after the skirmish with the Trenten Flats. I know Deepmarsh went mad building fortifications for a few years, only for half of them to go unmaintained when nothing happened.”

“I’m not familiar with the history,” I said.

Amaryllis sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her talons. “I’ll tell you once we’re on the ground again. Go do your country bumpkin routine with the captain.”

“Alright!” I said. She didn’t need to tell me twice. I scrambled to my feet and tucked the page into my bandoleer before I noticed Orange’s head looking around. I bit my lip. “Hey, before I go, can you watch over Orange for me? I don’t want her to get hurt while I’m looking around the ship. Thank you!” I tossed the spirit cat onto Amaryllis’ lap, the kitty looking none too pleased by the sudden motion, then walked out of the door.

Now I just needed to find the captain...

As it turned out, that wasn’t too hard. The moment I climbed onto the deck I spotted him with his awesome hat standing next to the ship’s wheel, a collapsible telescope in one hand and a folded map in the other.

I made sure that I wouldn’t bump into anyone on the crew as I made my way to the rear section of the ship. I knew it was called a castle or something, but I wasn’t quite sure. I had to brush up on my nautical terminology before I became a sky captain myself.

“Ah, hello there, Broccoli,” Captain Isaac said over the rumble of the Silver Boot’s engine and the whistle of the wind.

I pulled my hair back out of my face, then started to tie it into a rough bun. “Hello, captain!”

“This is excellent flying weather,” he said. “We should be making it to Green Hold just before nightfall.”

“Green Hold?” I asked. Since he wasn’t looking right at me, focused as he was on his map, I decided to take a moment to scan the ship. Other than a few people coiling up ropes or sitting back and taking a break, there were few people on the deck.

The rest of the space was taken up by the big magic engine thing in the middle, two shirtless men both working around it with shovels in hand, occasionally tossing some glowy rocks into a burner at the back.

The front of the ship had another man with a telescope who was leaning against a large ballista while looking around. There weren’t any canons or anything like that, which was a little disappointing.

“I take it this is your first time aboard an airship?” Captain Isaac asked.

“It is!” I said. “And it’s wonderful.”

He laughed, full and from the belly. “Count yourself lucky that the trip isn’t even a day long. I love the Boot, but people who aren’t born for the sky can find it hard to stay aboard a ship for a long while.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said. How twisted and evil would someone have to be to not enjoy time spent on an airship of all things?

“It is what it is,” he said. “Did you want a bit of a tour? We still have a good six hours before we make landfall.”

“Wait, we’re arriving today?” I asked.

“You thought the trip would take longer?”

I shifted from side to side and pressed my fingers together while fighting a bit of a blush. “Well, I was kind of hoping for a grand airship adventure. You know, sky pirates and maybe a fight with an evil dragon?”

The captain blinked, then tilted his head back to laugh. “No! No, I'm afraid there’s a dearth of sky pirates over Deepmarsh. And as for dragons, well, we have our banners.”

“Banners?” I repeated. Captain Isaac pointed to the rigging where a pair of big green banners with a strange symbol in the middle. It had wavy lines that probably represented water, and a big mouth like a crocodile’s chomping its way out of the waves. Its long forked tongue was shaped a bit like a mangrove tree.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You didn’t hear it from me, but most dragons are on the wrong side of greedy. The sky belongs to them, so if you want to pass through their territory you need to pay a tax. The banners are a sign that you’ve paid your part. They’re imbued with the dragon’s own magic. They see the banner, they leave you alone. They don’t and your ship is fair game. Worse, if they see a rival’s banner then you’d best hope you know the featherfall spell because your ship is going down.”

“Whoa,” I said. “You can’t fight them off?”

Isaac laughed, but this time it had a tinge of actual horror in it. “No, no you can’t. A young dragon will usually be in its fourth tier. A match in sheer level for the Kingsguard. The older dragons are, well, no one knows.”

“Cool,” I whispered. I couldn’t wait to find one and ask it if I could ride it. It didn’t even need to be into battle. “Oh, so about that tour?”

“Of course young miss, I would never forget a promise I made only a scant few minutes ago. Let me show you the Silver Boot in all of her glory!”

What followed was some of the most fun I’d had in weeks, and it was the best kind of fun, the sort where I learned a whole bunch.

“This is our gravity engine,” Isaac said as he tapped the side of the big motor in the middle of the ship. “Careful, it’s hot.”

“How does it work?” I asked. I didn’t know all that much about motors. My dad had shown me how to boost a battery and change the oil, and that was about where my experience ended. Everything else I knew was from television and books.

“I haven’t the faintest clue,” the captain said with good cheer. “I do know that it burns through quite a lot of mana-rich coal, which boils an alchemical reagent that, in turn, flows through a complex array of runes inside the metal casing. That’s what gives us our lift. The boiling reagent gives off heat that pushes out of a cylinder. That also makes a flywheel turn, ah do you know what that is?”

“It’s a big heavy wheel that soaks up energy and keeps turning for a while,” I said. “I know what it is, yeah.”

“Smart girl. There are belts leading below deck and to the control mechanism for our two propellers, and we have a switch that allows the pilot to change the direction they’re turning in. It breaks quite often, but most of our forward momentum comes from our sails and some rune work. The propellers are merely more convenient than playing with the wind.”

I waved goodbye to the two young men working on the engine and they smiled and waved back.

“Does working on an airship pay well?” I asked.

Isaac made an indistinct gesture in the air as we moved to the front. “For myself and the officers it’s decent. Most of the crew are quite mixed. I’ve got blacksmiths and bakers and farmhands. There aren’t that many classes suited to the work we’re doing here. Still, the pay is better than what they’d get in some little town and they get to travel. It has its perks.”

We got to the very front of the ship where the lookout stopped staring ahead with his binoculars to give us a jaunty wave.

“This,” Captain Isaac said as he gave the big balistea a proud pat. “Is a Rever mark four. Imported all the way from the Snowlands. Cost me a pretty copper but it’s worth it.”

“You don’t use cannons?” I asked.

“Cannons? I don’t think placing a heavy lump of steel on my ship, then loading it full of explosives would be a good idea. Besides, cannonballs cannot be aimed with the assistance of marksmanship skills. At least, I haven’t heard of enemy-seeking cannons yet.”

“Sir,” the lookout said while pointing to something out ahead. “Grey clouds on the horizon, dead ahead.”

“Ah, damnation,” Isaac said. “I’m sorry Miss Broccolli, but perhaps it would be best if you returned to your cabin for now. I wouldn’t want to have to explain to that grenoil gentleman accompanying you why one of his charges had gone overboard.”

“Ah, yeah, alright,” I said. I wanted to stay atop the ship, but it wouldn’t do to be impolite and end up dead, or worse, in someone’s way. “Thank you for the tour. Your ship is wonderful!”

“It was truly my pleasure.”

When I returned to the cabin it was to find Amaryllis swaying lightly in her hammock, one leg over the side and her head leaned forwards until it was almost tucked into her armpit. She was snoring lightly. Orange was rolled up in a ball on her tummy, back to sleep again.

I held back a giggle at the ‘chuu chuu’ noises she was making and slid into my own hammock with my book on basic magic. The day so far had been plenty productive, and I looked forward to seeing all sorts of new places later.

My first mission had so far been exciting, but it lacked... something to make it truly awesome. I figured it would come eventually, maybe as we finally hit the road and started on the adventure proper.

My hammock rocked from side to side, accompanied by my new partner’s ‘chuu-chuuing’ and I tried to imagine what the future could bring. There were dragons to ride, and airships to travel on, and sky pirates to battle. There was magic to learn and awesome skills to discover.

I was smiling like a very silly little girl as I refocused on my book. The adventure was underway, but that didn’t mean I could slack off. I had to work hard to make the best of friends and to see all the wonderful places the world had to offer.