For the next several hours, Seren and Rive stayed on the floor, bracing themselves between the bed, the table legs, and the wall at each violent jolt. Unfortunately, no matter how uncomfortable the floor was, it was still better than rolling off of the bed when wind slammed into the side of the shell ship and tipped it. The plates, thankfully, were wood and not ceramic. They’d been the first victims of the storm and were currently sliding over the floor. The bookshelf, with whatever magic the person creating this ship had cast, hadn’t wavered, and thankfully, the yellow ribbon keeping the books in place was doing its job well.

“So, did you ever want this?” asked Rive, grinning at her even as they clutched . “Riding out a storm in the sky?”

She shook her head.

“We’ll need to figure out how to harvest lightning,” they continued. “Since that pays pretty well, from what I’m told. And that means we’ll probably get used to flying in weather like this.”

“I wonder...” Seren let out a hum. “Do storm clouds go all the way up? Or could we go above them and maybe fish lightning?”

Rive let out a bark of laughter.

“Never even thought of that! I guess the first part of that needs to be answered. If they don’t go up all the way, then it’s possible. Maybe. We still have to find how something like that can be caught. Like trying to put wind in a jar, right?”

“The trick might be in the equipment. Wind can be caught in sails, water can be stored in containers, air is in bubbles.”

The entire room spun to the left; the first couple of times that had happened Seren had shrieked, but it wasn’t a surprise anymore. Instead, the two of them clung to each other and leaned into the spinning.

“How long do storms up here last?” groaned Seren. Her current position was lying on her back, spread out like a starfish, and looking up at the ceiling.

“No idea.” Judging by how rough Rive sounded, they weren’t doing much better. “Could be longer. Or the storm could be pushing us to the edges.”

“Ugh. I vote for no pushing.”

“Agreed.”

The room spun again as a particularly vocal bit of wind screamed outside.

“I hope the tree’s okay.”

“Not like we can check on it.”

Seren almost laughed at the thought. Anyone who ventured outside now was asking to be swept off of the ship and flung to their death.

“Any thoughts on what we should do?”

“Sleep.”

She looked over at them.

“You’re joking.”

“Nah. I mean, think about it. We can’t go outside, we probably shouldn’t go down to the engine, and I don’t know about you, but if I tried reading or writing I’d get motion sick immediately.”

“Same,” admitted Seren. “But I’m not sure I can sleep, either.”

“We’ll bring down the blanket and pillow from the bed and curl up on the floor.”

“How’s your shoulder, by the way?”

When the storm had first blown up, Rive had been optimistic about staying on the bed. One strong wind later, and when the ship had gone from leaning left to right too quickly, they’d rolled off the bed and landed hard on the left shoulder.

“It’s fine. Still smarting a little, but it’ll be fine.” They rubbed it and rolled their eyes. “See? Not screaming in pain.”

“That’s someone else we should think about. At the very least, we should learn some medical skills.” Seren sighed. It was good to be on her own, and out exploring the world, but there were a lot of things she had to anticipate now that her parents had taken care of. Her dad was the medicine person of the family and could swiftly take care of any injury from bee stings or sprained ankles. She also had to consider food and drink, which was something her father had always taken care of since he was pickier about tastes and textures. He also liked to make sure there was a minor surprise for each member of the household when shipments came in.

“So, a nap?”

She jumped at Rive’s voice.

“Ah, yeah. That sounds like a good idea, actually.” They raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. “I was just thinking that there’s a lot I need to remember.”

“Yeah. Each increasing member of my family meant another person to worry about and care for.” Rive held up their hands and smiled. “I don’t regret any of them, as much as I wanted to drop kick them off of the roof sometimes, and I’m not angry about it. But I can’t help being excited, and feeling that this is going to be amazing. Focusing the worry to only, ‘I hope they’re doing well’ and less worrying about what they need to hear from me and what I can do for them.”

She could understand that. Seren was happy she didn’t have to play at being the daughter her parents wanted. She could spend all her energy on just being herself. They reached up and pulled the blanket down from the bed.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Thanks,” she said as they tucked both of them in.

“You can even use the pillow.” Rive pushed it over to her and she gladly took it. “I’m used to sleeping on my arms.”

“May the elements send you pleasant dreams then.” She yawned, and any worry that she wouldn’t be able to sleep faded away. Even though the temperature up this high kept the inside of the ship chilled, the blanket was warm and Rive felt like a comfy furnace. She yawned again and slipped into a nap between the howls of winds from outside.

***** BREAK ****

When Seren woke up again, it was dark, but the constant shaking had stopped and there was silence in the air. Well, except for Rive’s gentle snoring. They were on their back, half under the table with the blanket mostly tossed on her. For a brief second she was going to wake them, but then realized they’d probably didn’t have many chances to sleep in. She snagged her journal and charcoal pencil, tiptoed to the kitchen to grab a piece of fruit, and shut the door behind her gently.

The sky outside almost glowed with clashing streaks of orange and pink fire, but there were enough muted, dark purple clouds that she didn’t need to squint.

“Wow...” The surrounding scenery was a little different from the sunsets she used to watch from the ocean. There the water sparked and moved, the crashing of the surf a calming and rhythmic sound to hear. Here there were little whippets of wind that wound around the tree and the side of the shellship, but nothing else that she could hear. And the dark clouds looked like they would allow her to continue walking until the stars came up for their nightly stroll.

Seren made her way up to the tree, and before she nestled at the base, she looked up in the branches. Nothing seemed to be broken. There weren’t any dangling limbs or snapped twigs, or at least she could see from her angle.

“Hmm…” Well, she would not dismiss a good thing. Satisfied with her quick check, she sat at the roots and tapped the side of her leg as she thought about what she wanted to write down first. Now was the time to think.

“I’m going to need to keep a list of supplies on hand,” she said aloud. “How many days we have food for. What medical supplies we have.” Or, don’t have, as the case was right now. If Rive had hit their head, Seren didn’t know how to put ice on the swelling, and if they had scratched themselves hard enough to bleed, there were no extra fabric scraps to bind their injury.

She wrote SUPPLIES at the top of the page, then started one column for medical, another column for food, and a third column for random ideas. Rive might like a journal for themselves if they were going on a self-discovery journey. They might also like to have some books... she wanted new ones for studying and for leisure reading.

“Ooh, I forgot about house items.” Like another pillow—even if Rive said they didn’t need it, she was pretty such they would enjoy having one. And looking into how the entire ship could gain some space, if possible. After writing down all the ideas she had, Seren turned to the last page. She started trying to sketch the dragon from memory, focusing more on the slenderness of its neck, the bright wisdom shining from its two eyes. The third eye was outside of the drawing’s range, but she included it with a little head-on placement so she could have all three eyes in one area.

“For some reason, I didn’t think you’d be out here already.”

“I hope I didn’t wake you. I mostly wanted to check on the tree; it also seemed to be an opportune time for jotting down all the thoughts swirling around in my mind.” She patted the trunk behind her. “I looked briefly, but I didn’t see any broken branches.”

“I’d feel bad if there were some,” admitted Rive. “Because if they blew away and hit something below us, or someone, I’d feel guilty.”

Seren thought about it, then shook her head.

“I don’t think I would? I mean, when these types of storms blew over the island and things were broken, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Just the weather.”

“It is our fault though, because if we weren’t up here, then the branch wouldn’t have fallen.”

“But storms bring a lot of things from other areas. Have you ever seen it rain fish?”

Rive laughed.

“No way.” They looked at Seren, who hadn’t moved. “Wait... you’re not kidding, are you?”

“I’ve seen that happen twice at home. A storm swoops in, a whole lot of fish are thrown onto land, and my family and I ran out to throw them all back into the ocean.” Those two days were etched in her memory. First, her dad had run outside, trying to use his air magic to swish the fish back to where they belonged. That hadn’t worked when the wind the storm controlled was much stronger than his. Then her father had cursed under his breath, thrown on some old clothes, and started scooping fish up in his arms. Seren had wanted to join them, but she’d been charmed to stay in the house until the winds died down and the windowpanes hadn’t rattled in the last ten minutes.

The moment she’d felt the geas leave her, she rushed outside in one of her longest skirts, holding up the edges so she could carry more fish. In the end, they’d had fish for dinner, breakfast, and lunch, salted a lot more of them for the winter, and had stocked a small pond near the house.

“Nope. We ate fish for so many days after that first storm. But, we were also able to get a bunch back to their home in time, too, so it wasn’t all negative.”

“Huh...” Rive rubbed the back of their head. “I guess, if the storm can bring fish somewhere else, it is kind of silly to worry about a branch.”

“Actually, since you’re up here, you can hold these things and I’ll climb up for a closer look.” She held out the journal and the charcoal. When Rive climbed over the lip of the shell and took them, she was grabbing hold of the branches and going higher. It was a little strange though... none of the branches were bent or broken. Not even a single twig had snapped.

“... how is that possible?” She leaned out over a thicker branch and looked again. Not a single spot where leaves should be missing. “That wind was too powerful for everything to still be here.” If this was like anything that had happened on the island, there should be trees stripped bare, branches broken, and other signs of damage. She slid down and landed at the base.

“So? Did we kill someone with a falling branch?”

“No... you’re worried about nothing. We didn’t lose a single bit.”

They pulled back and looked up at the tree, a concerned look on their face.

“That’s not a good thing.”

“No,” Seren corrected them, “it’s not a natural thing. But it’s good you don’t have to worry about anything falling, right?”

Rive shook their head.

“The only thing I can think of, to make a tree stand this strong against a storm, would be that a threader had tied everything together so that it can’t change. That’s a smart idea though, I’m not sure I would have thought about it.”

Seren’s mind snagged on the threading idea. Wasn’t there something she needed to remember? Something that was really important to the conversation.

Her conversation aboard the Crimson Cloud with Jo popped back up. “Threaders are used to keep found things close by. Or at least easily found again.”

“We need to find a threader when we set down,” she whispered, a shivery feeling running through her. All her thoughts went to understanding, in different ways, how this little piece of knowledge made everything much worse.

“What? Why?”

“The tree was threaded, right?”

Rive nodded.

“Think about it. That means whoever threaded the tree can track us, and find us no matter where we go.”