The little boat skimmed lightly over the water, sending salty spray up into the wind and into Xan’s face. He allowed himself a moment to relish the feeling of being at sea again. A gust blew across from the port side, causing the boat to list slightly. He adjusted the sails with one hand and the tiller with the other to keep their little craft on course.

Shadow seemed to feel the same as him, he noticed. She had found a perch on the bow of the boat. She trilled happily as the boat surged up and down over the waves.

“Woah…!” Taika exclaimed as they crested a particularly large swell. If Xan didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that she was looking greener than usual.

“Doing alright there?” he called to her from his spot next to the tiller. Taika tried to wave at him to indicate that she was fine, before another swell threw her off balance. The next moment she was heaving over the side of the boat.

“I’m good!” she called back once she had a moment to catch her breath.

“Keep your eyes forward, it’ll help you keep your balance,” Xan said.

“I told you – urp – I’m good. This always happens – ugh – when I first get on a boat. It’ll pass,” Taika said.

Her motion sickness did indeed pass about an hour later, right around the time that Dee signaled to Xan that they were out of sight of the watchtowers.

“We’re good now, Xan!” Dee called down to him. She had clambered up the mast to get a better view of the shoreline

“Alright, then. Let’s get this dinghy in the air,” Xan said.

Dee slid down the mast, deftly landing on top of the lockbox. She hopped down onto the deck, then laid a hand on the lockbox’s lid. Xan watched as she went still for a moment, concentrating. The Terra Sang began to hum from within the box. Then he felt a slight lurch as the boat began to lift out of the water.

Another sudden gust of wind punched into the sail. Without the resistance from the water below, the boat tilted too far to starboard and threatened to capsize them. Everyone grabbed for the closest handhold. Sage gave a startled hoot and flapped his wings in an effort to stay balanced. Shadow dug her claws into the wood at the bow and hung on for dear life. Dee yelped, grabbing onto the lockbox with both hands.

“Dee?!” Xan called to her.

“I got it, hang on!” Dee called. A moment later the humming from the Terra Sang subsided as the boat splashed back down into the water.

As they sat there waiting for the boat to settle, Xan took a moment to look over their little craft again and think about what just happened. The Terra Sang was meant to provide the lift, and the sail would give them the forward thrust. It was so simple, and yet they hadn’t even made it out of the water. What went wrong?

He saw Taika bend down to check on her father, who was resting in the bottom of the boat. He was about to ask her if everything was alright, when he felt Dee trying to squeeze her way under his seat.

“Dee, what-?” he began to ask. The little Rodentian backed out from underneath the seat, pulling out a coil of rope and what looked like a spare sail. Without saying a word, she brought them over to the lockbox and set them down. Then she pulled a notebook and a charcoal pencil out of her satchel and began to scribble, muttering to herself.

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“Dee, what are you-?” Xan tried to ask again. Without turning around, Dee raised a finger and waved it at him.

“Just a moment, doing math,” she said dismissively. Then she resumed her muttering, alternating between glancing up at the boat and the rigging, and scribbling in her notebook. Finally she gave an excited gasp, clapped the notebook shut, and scrambled over to the rowing well.

“Pardon me,” she said to Taika as she reached for the two oars that were stored there. The oars had been built for someone human-sized, so Dee struggled to lift them. But with a determined grunt, she pulled them out and brought them over to the lockbox.

Xan watched in fascination as Dee began to thread the sail with the coil of rope. Then she tied the oars to two sides of the sail, with the oar handles crossed at an angle. Once she had finished tying all the knots on the oars, she tried to pick up whole bundle in her little arms. It proved to be too heavy for her, so she sheepishly waved to Xan.

“Give me hand with this, please,” she said. Xan briefly let go of the tiller to haul the bundle up to his seat.

“What’s this supposed to be?” he asked as Dee hopped up to join him.

“An extra wing!” Dee said excitedly. She procured another coil of rope from underneath his seat, then began directing him on how to place the oars against the tiller.

“Right, now hold it there,” she said. She began to tie one of the oars to the tiller while Xan held it in place.

“I don’t understand,” Xan said as she worked.

“Well, when you’re sailing a ship, you only have to worry about two dimensions, but with an airship you have to worry about three. We have the lift from the Terra Sang, so that takes care of one dimension, but the orientation of the rigging and the sail makes it so the forces from the other two dimensions are fighting each other. If we can separate the forces with two sails, we’ll be less likely to tip over,” Dee explained.

“Less likely?” Taika called over concernedly from her seat in the rowing well.

“If my math is correct, yes. There, that should do it,” Dee grunted as she tightened the last knot.

Xan looked down at the sail-and-oars contraption fastened to the tiller. He had no idea what Dee was talking about, but she seemed so sure of herself that he couldn’t help but believe her. He resumed his grip on the tiller and smiled at the little Rodentian.

“Alright, then. Let’s give this another try,” he said.

Dee nodded, then hopped back over to the lockbox. Right before she put her hand on the lid again, she turned back to Xan.

“One more thing, try to keep the sail as perpendicular as possible,” she said. At Xan’s confused look, she amended, “Keep it abeam. We want the wind to push it from the stern as much as possible.”

Xan looked up at the sail. “I’ll have to let out a lot of slack to do that, and we’ll lose speed.”

“That won’t matter as much once we’re in the air. Now, once the boat starts to lift, open up the oars like a fan, and let that sail catch the cross-wind, alright?” Dee said.

Xan took a deep breath, then nodded. Dee nodded in response, then turned back to the lockbox. She put a hand on the lid, concentrating. Once more, the Terra Sang began to hum as the little boat started to lift out of the water, and once more the ship began to list.

“Let out more line, Xan!” Dee called. Xan quickly adjusted the sheet so that the sail sat abeam. The sail guttered for a moment as they lost momentum. The craft rose higher and higher, leaving behind the whoosh of the waves on the hull.

“Now, Xan!” Dee called back.

Xan adjusted the oars, opening up the makeshift sail behind him. That sail immediately caught the wind, and Xan pushed the tiller hard to compensate for it. But the little ship was steady as it continue to rise into the air. Xan adjusted the sheet once more, until the main sail formed a smooth curve against the wind, and with that last adjustment the little ship shot forward into the sky.

“Woah!” Xan exclaimed, catching himself. Then he looked down over the side of the boat. The ocean was quickly receding below them as they climbed higher and higher. Dee gasped as she also looked over the side.

“It’s working!” she exclaimed in awe. Then, seeming suddenly self-conscious, she quickly added, “I knew it would.”

Xan chuckled. “Well done, Dee! We’re flying! We’re really flying!” he said. Then he looked astern to see Taika tentatively peeking over the side of the boat as well.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” he called to her. Taika simply looked back at him with a meek grin.

Dee kept concentrating on the Terra Sang until they were high enough to cruise along with the wind. Then she took a map of southern Ibora out of her satchel. She tapped where Taika had marked the location of the Meridian Shrine, on the coast far to the west.

“Say, Taika, are there any landmarks we should be looking for when we get there?” Dee asked.

“Just look for the enormous tree on the coast. You can’t miss it,” Taika said.