We rode out past the city gates, through some farmland, and then another twenty minutes towards a looming mountain range. As we approached the ranch, I could see several arial species of megafauna taking off or landing near a small fortress.
“This is quite a ways out, eh?” IronHide asked no one in general.
“As convenient as travel by dragon coach may be, people don’t generally like living in close proximity to the creatures,” Lena explained.
“Makes sense,” I agreed. “Still a bit of a hike though. IronHide is faster than the usual transport around here. This would be, what, two or three hours by horse? I’m surprised there isn’t a special landing pad for imperial use.”
“Oh there is. The Princess here, just isn’t--,” Toadwart supplied.
“You shush,” Lena ordered.
To his credit, the Lieutenant dutifully acted as though he’d never said a word.
We pulled into the ranch through a heavy gate bearing a sign overhead that read “Drakonis Imperium. 501st Division''. What I’d perceived as a small fortress was essentially just tall walls surrounding an open field with several cave-like stables nestled against the edges.
An elf in an imperial uniform with jet black skin, hair, and eyes ran out to greet us. Captain Wendy was already jumping out of the back to intercept them. She handed over some rolled documents that the elf examined. They nodded to Wendy then ran off again.
Lena activated her [Cloak()] and patiently waited until someone would open the door for her, making little throat-clearing noises. The others in the cab pointedly looked in my direction until I got the hint. I made an attempt at rolling my eyes and stepped out of the vehicle only to run around to the other side and open the door for her.
Of course, given the size of IronHide’s truck form, and my height, the best I could do was stand and wait as IronHide opened the door himself. I couldn’t even reach up to give the Princess a hand as she stepped down since she wouldn’t reach my hand until she was already on the ground. Still, I waited, hand outstretched like an idiot.
Lena stepped out of the cab and climbed down the short ladder, carefully keeping the folds of her dress from getting underfoot.
“No peeking,” she warned, shooting me a teasing glance.
“Don’t worry, there’s too much fabric to get a good look,” I shot back.
“That wasn’t the correct answer,” she grumped, her brows knitting into a scowl. “You were supposed to be flustered and stammer that you wouldn’t do such a thing.”
“Ah, my mistake. Try again.”
“The moment has passed,” she said with a humph, taking my hand and leading me to the open field where a small, horse-drawn bus was waiting.
The others got out of IronHide and stretched, looking around the place before following. Thanks to everyone having their own personal [Inventory] spaces, there wasn’t any luggage to worry about. IronHide vanished in a reverse waterfall of pixelation, only to be replaced by his Lil’Hide body.
The coach was fancifully decorated in the same style as the carriages that I’d seen in service of the Royalty. Other than its size, it was also set apart by large metal rings mounted at each upper corner with heavy reinforcements to its frame. Thick rods extended from each of the wheel hubs and the front jutted forward like a Jawa Sand Troller.
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The elf from before finished speaking with Wendy and ran up to Lena, giving her a low bow.
“Your Highness. I am Captain Major Rywind of the 501st Drakonic. I’ll be your pilot for this trip. My under pilot will be Captain Shorn while Sergeant Pria will be your footman within the coach,” they said dutifully.
“A pleasure,” the Princess replied, extending a gloved hand for the elf to touch to their forehead.
A loud screech split the air, followed by a muffled explosion, and some shouting attempts at calming. Those in attendance, with the exception of the Captain Major, flinched at the sounds as eyes were drawn to a gigantic creature being led out of a stable.
The creature, I assumed a domesticated dragon, was easily some thirty feet at the shoulder and built much like a horse. It had been outfitted with a thick harness that had anchor points along its underside. This was clearly a massive creature with an incredible wingspan, though it wasn’t half the size of the purple dragon I’d run into during an air flight test of my CloudBurst armor.
If this one felt like a large scaly horse with house sized wings, that one was a kaiju with blot-out-the-sun sized wings. I shuttered as I recalled that thing looking in my direction after I’d smashed into its flank.
The horses had been disconnected from the coach and led away. I noticed that a creature that looked like an over inflated cow had been left in their place. The creature didn’t seem to be concerned about anything and just stood there, quietly chewing on something.
Out of curiosity I opened up my [Console] and inspected the thing, to find that it was under some HEAVY magical sedation. I closed up my screens and looked away as Lena tugged me along and into the coach. Huh, the doors opened inwardly. I guess that made more sense if you had to open or close them in the air and it wasn’t like the coach would be pressurized.
“Good morning, my name is Marybell. Please find your seats as we’ll be taking off shortly,” a maid-class Automata said, greeting us.
“Really? An Auto?” Dash smirked, climbing into a harness for quadrupedal species.
“Is there a problem ma’am? If you’re not good with Autos, we can have it switched out, though it’s pretty standard to have them aboard these days,” a burly horned cyclops in the imperial uniform said, entering the coach.
“I apologize if I have caused offense,” Marybell added, giving Dash a bow.
“What? No! It’s just--” Dash sputtered in a panic.
“It will be just fine,” Lena interjected. “Marybell, we’re happy to have you with us.”
Marybell gave Lena a bow then glanced at IronHide and myself before giving us each small nods.
“I know what you’re thinking, dear husband, but please wait until after the trip. Not that I wish to get more work out of her, but the timing for aftercare isn’t convenient right as we are about to embark,” Lena said softly, squeezing my hand.
Maybe she would be a good pairing for me. She certainly anticipated my actions. Without a word I mentally tucked the [Liberator] deploy script back away.
Once we’d found our seats and been strapped in, large sets of legs passed on either side of the coach. Ground support personel ran up to the coach and climbed it, making a lot of noise and jostling the coach around. I couldn’t see, but I assumed they were attaching the anchor points on the dragon’s harness to the rings I’d seen mounted on the coach. As they worked on securing the mounting points, a low growl came from overhead and to the front of the coach followed by a snapping and crunching sound.
Best to just think of it as fueling up the plane before takeoff and be glad that there weren’t any windows to the front or to the rear of the coach.
Everything shook as the coach bounced and lifted off of the ground by a foot or so. We gently swayed with the animal’s breathing and the sound of its lungs and heartbeat thrummed out a constant drum that reverberated through the coach.
I glanced around and noticed that both Dash and Wendy were hanging limply in their harnesses, out cold.
“Wow, I guess it’s true that a soldier can sleep anywhere, eh?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Roy, the shadow imp, offered. “Both of them were balls of crazy about riding by dragon and asked me to knock their heads out.”
“They’ll... be okay right?” I asked, somewhat apprehensively.
“Not to worry. Just a little sleep spell. They’ll wake up feeling refreshed and happy. I might have to hit them a few times to last the trip though... then hit them a few times in the face to wake them up when we arrive... but should be fine,” he said with the smirk of one looking forward to slapping his coworkers.
“We will now be taking off,” the cyclops warned. “If you’ve never flown by dragon coach, it’s going to be a rough ride until we get to gliding altitude but don’t worry, this is perfectly normal.”
As promised, the coach lurched and swung under the dragon as it spread its wings in preparation for flight. I would have liked to observe a takeoff from outside of the coach, just to see how it was done; for research purposes you understand. Magic circles embedded in the ground around the coach flared to life as a ring of ground support slammed magic staffs around us and chanted.
Wind magic erupted from the magic circles providing a column of air to lift the dragon. Gently, then with gaining speed, it rose above the ground. The coach violently heaved back and forth as the dragon pumped its massive wings. Once a suitable altitude had been reached, large fans swung out from the coach, just below the dragon’s wings and whirred to life.
They weren’t propellers, but looked to be a scaled down version of the wind turbines that I’d seen on the imperial air ships. I wondered if they provided extra lift to lessen the weight of the coach or helped in some other way.