There were few things in the world that could throw Maddalin for a loop. Having worked as an airship pilot for over a decade, very near since the time of their creation, she had seen some crazy things in her time. Full grown men capable of taking on whale sized monsters, magic items that others could only dream of, and even actual dragons.

Still, despite all that, she was currently perplexed by the newest piece of information she had just received from one of her crew mates.

A child of unknown age was currently riding on top of the balloon holding the Airship up.

No one knew how he had gotten up there nor where he had even come from. There was no record of anyone under the age of 21 having signed up for the flight to Ingolin, nor was he a part of the small group of knights scheduled to protect the Airship from monsters and bandits. He damn sure wasn't a member of the older woman's crew. In fact, the sole reason they had even noticed him in the first place was due to the youths abnormally snow white hair, a color so bright that the sunlight practically made it glow. Against the dark metallic surface of the balloon, it stood out even more, prompting the lookout to report it to her the moment they caught wind of it.

According to the informant, the white haired individual wasn't even sitting in the middle, the relatively safest spot on the top, but far to the front, the arguably most dangerous position on the entire vessel.

"What kinda idiot decides to stowaway on an unstable surface where one slip up could result in their death?" Maddalin questioned as she shoved her feet into her worn down shoes. "It makes no logical sense."

"Maybe he's just confident," Emma, Maddalin's right hand and best friend answered. "Plus he's a kid. Kids do dumb stuff."

The green haired Airship pilot shook her head. "There's dumb and then there's fucking stupid. Pretty sure this falls into latter category."

After making sure her shoes were snug and her uniform was on properly, Maddalin walked towards the wall of her room and picked up a palm sized circular gadget with buttons on the side. Pressing the largest one, she waited until there was a small beep before speaking into it.

"Walner. Report in."

There was a few seconds of silence. Then a male voice responded.

"Walner's Abortion Clinic. How may I be of service to you, oh bringer of mistakes?"

"Shut it Walner," Maddalin retorted, clearly annoyed by his response. "Save your jokes for the strippers."

"I mean....it was kinda funny." Emma said softly, playing with her long ponytail.

"Pft. Not like I'm whipping out my best material. I still got plenty of actual jokes to spin." Walner let out a laugh and a few snorts. "Anywho, how can I help you doll face?"

"What can you tell me about the boy?"

"Where should I begin," Walner said, a hint of wonder in his voice. Maddalin immediately rolled her eyes, her finger hovering over the hang up button. "His name is Kevin. He's about 5 months old, about 16lbs, blonde hair, blue eyes, totally adorab-"

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"Not your own child you wignut," Maddalin interrupted, her irritation slowly transforming into anger. "The stowaway."

"Oh, you mean good ol Jack Frost." Walner sounded nonchalant, his tone of voice having remained the same throughout the entire encounter, a hint of playfulness always present. "Well, to be honest, there's not much to say. He's just been sitting in the same spot for the past few hours, looking out at the horizon like some tragic hero from a fairytale...looking like a lightbulb."

"A lightbulb?" Emma asked aloud.

"Oh just wait until you see the hair on this guy," Walner said matter-of-factly, almost as if answering Emma's question. "It's basically glowing."

Maddalin frowned, her black hues shifting from the phone to Emma and back to the phone. "Can we please stay on topic? I need more details. Did you manage to make contact with him at anytime from the moment you spotted him?"

"Hold on, give me a second," Walner said. The line went dead soon after.

"I'm gonna murder this man." Maddalin stated as she stared at her device for a minute after the designated lookout had ended the call. "I'm gonna skewer him with a rusty butter knife, twist it, and throw him overboard miles away from any sort of land."

"Calm down. He's your brother after all. You have to cut him some slack." Emma shrugged.

Setting down the communication tool, the brunette let out a large sigh, a clear attempt at getting her own frustrations under control. Once she was certain that her emotions wouldn't cast a light over her own judgements, she made her way to her door, and yanked it open, preparing to leave the confines of her cabin.

"Oh, guess I don't need to see if you're home."

Standing in front of the once closed door, fist raised in a sort of knocking position was Walner. Standing at full height, he towered over Maddalin's significantly smaller figure, making her look almost tiny in comparison to his massive frame. With wavy sea green hair and blue eyes, Walner JunBaren was definitely a looker, something even the ship captain could admit as she looked up at him, an unamused expression on her face.

"Oh come on Maddy. At least ACT like you're happy to see me."

Maddy frowned. "I'm not."

"Hence why I said ACT." Walner's blue hues shifted from his sister's to Emma's, of whom was still in the exact same place, leaning against Maddalin's dresser. "Emmy."

"Walnut," Emma answered back, nodding her head, a smile on her face.

"Oh my gods, get a damn room," the exacerbated older sister muttered as she walked out of the room. "I got too much on my plate to be dealing with your damn hormones."

"Hormones? I'm 24 years old." Walner raised any eyebrow as he stepped to the side to let his sister pass on through. "I reckon that I have my drive well under control.....probably."

"Wait. Maddalin." Emma came running out of the room before either one of them could get too far away. She looked back and forth from the Captains Quarters to Maddalin, clearly anxious and disturbed by something.

Both the Captain and the lookout stopped and looked back at her, clearly confused.

"Aren't you gonna make your bed?" Emma asked, her tone of voice disheartened, as if she already knew the answer to her question.

Almost at the exact same time, the two siblings looked at each other before looking back at Emma. In unison, they asked the exact same question, almost as if they had it planned out from the very beginning.

"What for???"

"Ugh." Emma shook her head, watching as the bickering duo walked away from her. "Why do I even bother?"

——————————–—————————

"Okay. So do you plan on answering my question from earlier?" Maddalin inquired, making her way up the stairs to the surface of the ship.

"Of cour-"

"No jokes this time."

Walner immediately took on a more serious tone, his eyes narrowing. "I established connection with him a few minutes after we spotted him. I used [Setsuzoku] to establish a link and then ran down a list of questions with him. He was actually quite forthcoming."

"And?"

"His name is Takeda ValBurn, he's 13 years old. He's going to Ingolin for the Adventurer license."

Maddalin frowned. "ValBurn? That name sounds familiar.

"I mean, it should. It's from one of the most famous Houses in the country of-"

"AshNall." Maddalin finished. "Yeah, I think I remember it now. It was from the country that slowly went on a decline before getting overrun with monsters."

"I'd have to put you into an insane asslum if you didn't remember something like that."

"Don't you mean 'asylum'?"

".....Nope."

There was moment of silence between the two as they reached their destination, the back of the ship, where the steering wheel was located. As a 14 man ship, most of the duties that were performed were oversaw by Emma or Walner, two key irreplaceable members on Maddalin's crew. The driver seat however was something only the captain herself oversaw and delegated roles for as she hated when someone touched her belongings without asking. To her, the whole ship was akin to her own flesh and blood and she'd be damned to hell if she let anyone else control it without proper authorization.

"So, do you think he's related to the ValBurn house?" Maddalin asked, taking the wheel from the person she had stationed there. "Or do you reckon it could just be a coincidence."

Walner shrugged. "Hard to say. I don't really know enough about AshNall, let alone the ValBurn's, to say anything about them."

"Well, did you at least get anything else out of him?"

"I did manage to get one last piece of information before he clammed up." The blue eyed individual looked towards the clear skies ahead, as if looking for the white haired kid he had spoken to. "I asked him why he was sitting up there all alone as opposed to coming on deck."

"What'd he say?"

"Crowds suck," Walner answered in what was probably his best attempt at mimicking the kids voice. "Also, I forgot to pay for my ticket."