Private Tales A Fallen Knight

[Talus]

Talus hesitated a moment.

Not because of the question Finn posed him, no, he'd heard that one before. The pause came from what he had just done. It was...new. He'd never managed to step outside of himself for that long, nor had he ever been able to effect anything in that manner.

An odd sort of exhilaration filled his chest. Fingers clutching at the sword that lay beside him as if it were a token able to ground him. He breathed, and then shook his head. "I don't know."

It wasn't entirely untrue.

"We gotta go." Talus cut off any further questions, not sure if he could answer them.

 

[Finn]

The gangly-limbed girl stared at him a moment longer.

A mixture of fear and fascination shadowed across her gaze. Head shook almost as if to convince herself all this was actually happening. "Grab those bags." She pointed to some supplies as she hustled over to shoulder some of the others, stuffing scrolls in where she could.

"C'mon!" She began retreating back out the cave, wobbling under the weight of what she carried. The balloon was filled now. Blooming high into the night. Ropes taught, the ones holding the small houseboat-like structure beneath tight. It swayed lightly within the night breeze.

The drums beyond the mountains were getting louder.

 

[Talus]

Talus could barely walk. The injuries from the night before and the weight of the magic he had just used sitting heavily upon his shoulders.

He wobbled out of the cave after Finn, his head spinning so much that when he first saw the balloon he was pretty sure that he was hallucinating. The young Apprentice blinked once, then twice, then slowly shook his head in confusion.

"What in the hell is that?" Talus asked, frowning and coming to a stop before the entrance of the cave.

In the distance he could hear the drums get louder.

His head slowly swiveled towards the noise, spotting small speckles of torch flame rising within the distance of the mountains. His head shook, and he decided he could ask for more information later.

 

[Finn]

She hopped aboard and dumped the bags on the deck from her shoulder.

"We don't have time for questions right now!" Finn said tersely. Turning, she offered him a hand up. The craft was already hovering a good foot above the ground.

Who was this guy...really?

How dangerous was he?

She had enough of her own questions and she wasn't sure she wanted him to come along. But he had saved her life. She supposed she didn't have a choice. A finger pointed in the darkness.

"Cut those ropes aft!" She took a knife from her belt and went the opposite direction. No time to even untie them. Better just to get air-bound quickly. She didn't like those lights blinking into existence on the not-so-distant horizon.

 

[Talus]

Talus stood there bewildered for a moment, looking around the strange craft before he shook his head and let out a curse.

She was right.

There wasn't enough time to contemplate all of this and ask questions. Hell, there was barely enough time to cut the ropes. Orcs were stupid, but they weren't too stupid to use bows and slings. In quick striding steps Talus moved towards the aft of the ship.

His sword swung quickly, cutting one rope, before he glanced over towards the edge of the sloping forest. Marks of torchlight could be seen, and he let out a curse as he moved to quickly cut the other rope.

 

[Finn]

She sawed through the other two ropes. Looking back in the semi-darkness, lit by the balloon torch, she saw Talus had done the others. Looking over the lip of the house-boat, she saw they were, indeed, rising. But more slower than she wanted.

Running to the middle, she cranked up the heat of the fire that fed the balloon.

Fire leaped into the darkness, increasing the heat in the structure with a whooshing-sssssssshhhhrrrrr. There was a whoosh sound through the night.

SSsssssssssst.

Finn looked up as an arrow embedded itself into the hide of the balloon.

"Shit!" Finn yelled.

"Talus! I need you to stay here and keep your hand on this lever to keep the fire roaring." Neck craned as she peered into the darkness. "I'm going to have to climb up there and patch it. Gotta keep our altitude." Not only did they have to worry about the orcs below. They had to worry about clearing the surrounding peaks.

 

[Talus]

Talus looked around for a moment.

Confusion crossed his features, but he quickly took a step forward right before the lever that she told him. His fingers wrapped around the lever and he pressed it forward.

In truth, this all seemed very surreal.

He was standing in a strange flying balloon, orcs were attacking them, and now he was holding a lever so that they could fly...faster? Higher? Talus really couldn't tell anyone at that moment.

"Go!" He shot Ted the word, still somewhat asking himself what the hell he was even doing here.

 

[Finn]

She shouldered a large piece of hide and a jar of sticky substance. The girl began scrambling up the ropes that held the massive canvas balloon in place. She began climbing up, up, uuuuup into the darkness. Brush and sticky substance hanging from her belt. Canvas over her shoulder.

Cold wind plucked at her dirty-blonde hair and nicked at any exposed skin along her face.

Legs crossed and her gloved hands flexed along the ropes as she began traversing the circumference of the balloon. Wasn't long until she found the arrow. With a yank, she plucked it out, letting the shaft fall below. Teeth grit as she balanced, hooking her toes into the rope below so she could take the extra hide and glue it over the hole.

This was dangerous work. Low light. Cold grip. She could fall at any moment. And that would mean disaster.

 

[Talus]

Talus felt utterly useless.

He wanted to move, wanted to fight, wanted to do anything at all. Yet all he could actually do was stand there and hold a lever. He wished to some sort of God that he could have had a bow or better yet a crossbow, something that he could actually use to fight the orcs.

His fingers clutched the small piece of metal tightly, glancing up above him to see the fire dance into the fabric above.

The Apprentice frowned, wondering how the hell a contraption like this was even supposed to work. In his head he could see the pieces, the things she'd mentioned briefly, but fitting them all together was a mystery of epic proportions. His gaze glanced down over the edge of the ship, spotting half a dozen more orcs with bows.

"We have to get out of here!" Talus called to Finn in a panic.

 

[Finn]

They were rising high now. Finn's grip wavered on the ropes. The patch was set. The substance was quick-drying. It was a mixture between camel spit and whale saliva. Finn's shoulders heaved heavily as she caught her breath and looked over the lip of the balloon.

"We are getting out of here," she heaved, knowing Talus probably wouldn't be able to hear her from this height. Did he always say the most obvious things?

The dark outline of the mountains and trees began to get further away. The orcs' arrows pinged and embedded themselves into the wooden bottom of the craft as they rose. Finn climbed carefully down, half collapsing on the deck as she dropped the rest of the way.

 

[Talus]

Talus glanced down over the edge, then at Finn.

His chest fell as he let out a heavy breath, his body relaxing slightly. The adrenaline still pumped through his veins, the only thing that was allowing him to remain standing. Fingers twisted around the lever and clutched the railing to the side.

"Alright. Talus breathed, his head spinning slightly. " Only question is, where are we going? "

It was an important question.

If they kept climbing higher and higher eventually they strike the peaks, and up there they would find more trouble than just orcs. If one could believe the stories anyway.

 

[Finn]

Finn rested on the deck unmoving for a moment. Back pressed against the wood. Eyes finally cracked open, looking at Talus’ face lit by the fire of the balloon and starlight.

“The wind steers us.” She sat up and looked at some ribbon markers tied along the ropes of the balloon. “Looks like our heading is northeast. I haven’t figured steering out yet.”

She’d been close in the cave. But then she’d come across Talus and become distracted.

 

[Talus]

Northeast. Talus ran a map of Arethil through his mind as he tried to figure out what they would be heading towards. He knew roughly where they had been, and from there he could sketch out in his mind just how things were actually laid out.

His stomach dropped.

North East would take them to the Blightlands, at least eventually. The great charred plains of the North controlled by Molthal and so filled with Orcs that they would never be able to survive. Beyond that was Ocean, and before it was...almost nothing of note at all.

No great cities, no rivers, nothing. Just tiny villages and vast expanses of jungle that would kill them just as surely as the orcs. "We need to go west."

Talus told her.

"There's nothing good in the east, and the north..." Talus didn't finish his sentence, just looking out ahead of them grimly.

 

[Finn]

She stood wearily. Fingers pushed down her sore muscles along her legs as she straightened. “I’ll need supplies for steering. Most of the canvas I had for a sail was left back in the cave. We can’t do anything until then unless you have magic to control the wind.”

Walking over to a small wooden, enclosed cabin aboard, she opened the door. A hammock swung lightly inside with the movements of the ship. Drawings and schematics decorated the walls. Charcoal sticks rolled along the ground, half-used. Herbs and other dried goods were fastened to makeshift shelves.

“I’m going to get some rest. The wind may change during the night. We may get lucky.”

 

[Talus]

Talus was somewhat shocked to see the Cabin actually had a small home inside of it. His eyebrows raised for just a second, and then he slowly nodded.

The brief thought of College Magic entered his mind, but Talus knew that he couldn't change the wind for long enough for it to matter. They would simply have to trail northeast until the wind itself changed. Slowly the Apprentice slid himself down against the side of the railing, letting out a breath.

"What do you need for more canvas?" Talus asked before she slipped Into her little cabin.

For now he was still too injured to travel on his own, but perhaps if he showed her that he could be useful then she'd be more inclined to let him travel with her. A strange flying ship beat walking for weeks on end, even if she only brought him so far as the next major village.

 

[Finn]

Finn leaned on the thin door of her cabin and looked at Talus. She felt as tired as he looked. "Anything. Bedding would be best. I think I have the rest of the rigging. We'll see what we can see first light."

Finn was used to not having a plan, traveling where the wind literally took her. She could tell Talus wasn't the same. He was a boy who'd probably followed orders his entire life. She wondered if leaving this all up to chance was making him squeamish.

Without waiting to hear anymore protests, she slipped inside the cabin and closed the door firmly behind her.

 

[Talus]

Bedding.

Where the hell were they going to find bedding? The likelyhood of landing in a village or anything of the sort was probably next to nothing. He doubted that they could get material like that pretty much...well anywhere near them.

Especially if the wind didn't change.

Without saying anything else Finn walked into her cabin and closed the door, practically slamming it shut. His eyebrows raised again, lips thinning for a moment as he whispered to himself. "Kind of rude."

Talus said quietly as he pulled his jacket a bit tighter.

The blood on it had dried by now, and good Anirian Wool would keep you warm anywhere. At least that was what he told himself as he drifted to sleep.

 

[Finn]

Small light filtered in the re-purposed porthole of her cabin. Hammock swung gently. Finn stretched and stifled a yawn. Sock-clad feet swung over the side and she hopped down.

Fingers ran through her messy hair.

She left her jacket off, shoulder bare with intricate tattoos trailing up her arms. Grabbing some dried food from one of her shelves and a waterskin, she opened the cabin door to see if she could get an idea of where they were and where they were going.

And to make sure Talus hadn't fallen off in the night.

 

[Talus]

Talus lay against the prow of the ship, his eyes already open as he gazed around them.

Peaks jutted into the sky to their left, to the right the slopes of the Spine leaned downward into a vast expanse of forest and jungle.

He had managed to sleep for most of the night, though as the sun had dawned on the horizon it had quickly become too bright for him to actually stay asleep. Eventually he had simply laid there, allowing himself to rest as he observed their surroundings.

All that time had allowed him to come to quick conclusion; He had absolutely no idea where they were.

As far as he could tell they had traveled several dozen leagues in a single night, going further than any horse could have.

 

[Finn]

Finn offered the boy some water and food.

"Hungry?"

She was mildly glad he hadn't frozen to death during the night. She knew from experience that it could get cold outside the cabin. Walking to the front of the ship, she looked over the edge. The girl shrugged on the jacket, covering the tattoos over her arms.

"There's a small town ahead," she lowered a spyglass and clipped it to her belt. "We can land in a clearing a little ways off. Don't want to draw too much attention. "

Of course, he had the option to stay when she landed. She'd actually prefer that - in a way. The introvert liked her solitude.

 

[Talus]

A small town? Talus stood from his spot at the prow almost immediately. His jacket had small bits of frost on it, though it didn't really bother him. At the Academy he had been put in a room with Hal, and the lad had a way of making everything around him quite cold.

Even separated by an entire room, their quarters had always been freezing. "A town?"

He asked as he came up besides her, narrowing his eyes until he spotted the small thatched roofs in the distance. A small sigh of relief escaped him, though a rather grim thought occurred to him just a moment later.

The Orcs had been heading in this direction.

Quieting his mind, Talus decided it would be best not to bring that up.

"I have some gold." He said abruptly. "We might be able to buy the supplies you need."

 

[Finn]

"Why would you give me coin? I half assumed you'd be anxious to get off this thing and see if anyone in the town could help you get back to your people."

The girl walked to the levers and began lessening the fire. The balloon began losing altitude, bringing the craft slowly downward, toward that clearing. Looked like the landing would be good. Much better than when she'd first flow and often gotten stuck in trees.

 

[Talus]

Talus let out a grunt as he held himself to the rail. "Travel back to my people would require a horse."

He told her, not mentioning that he would also have to travel in the exact direction of where they had just come from. That would mean running into the orcs and likely getting himself killed there.

"I'm in no condition for that." Talus grimaced at his wounds. "Much less a walk."

Which was more likely. "But if I can help you finish this thing, you can take me west to a river town."

Once there he could take a ship, a much safer and also faster option.

 

[Finn]

"Alright," she said quietly, as she brought them down with a gentle bump. Cutting off the fire, she took one of the ropes and hopped over the lip of the craft and onto solid ground.

"Can you get the other rope?" Finn's chin tipped toward the front. Since she'd cut them, they wouldn't have a long reach. She needed replacement rope too. Walking over to the knight, she offered him her hand. It was rough from her metal, wood, and rope work. Fingers thin but strong. With old charcoal-stick stains between thumb and middle digit.

"You buy the supplies and I'll get us as far West until you can get safe passage home. Deal?"

 

[Talus]

He shook her hand. "Deal."

Thankfully Talus did actually have a rather large purse full of gold. Apprentices did not get paid of course, rather they were provided with everything that they needed.

The gold had in fact come from gambling.

He was not much of a gambler of course. In fact before this trip he'd never even touched a cup of dice, but some of merchant guard had taught him how and it turned out he was actually quite good at it. After three weeks he had earned himself nearly twenty six Anirian Galleons.

It had also earned him the ire of most of the guardsmen, but he figured he could take the good with the bad on that score.

Twenty six Galleons bought half a farm back home, he was sure they could manage some canvas out here.