The sun was coming up over line of the horizon as we pulled away from the sky dock. I was out on the front of the ship watching Bartertown sprawl out in front of me. I love the city. The city makes me feel good. There is always something going on. There is a party and women in every tavern.

I could see Niall Zomay coming up in front of the ship. I jumped up on to the rail and gave a shout. I waved down to my family and friends working the fish ponds in the court yard. Then it was behind us and getting smaller. I grabbed a rigging rope and leaned out over the edge of the ship to watch it shrink away. We were off on a new adventure.

We sailed through the air following the river. The T’skrang fishing boats were just dots on the line of blue. We passed different pieces of forest on the right and mountains on the left. Just as we got to the lake we turned and headed north. The sun was low in the west when we sank down to some open prairie ground to anchor for the night.

We were up early again and after a few hours we entered a long pass. The cliff walls were high enough that we flew a couple hundred feet off the ground and were still well under the cliffs of the pass. There was nothing to see on deck but walls of rock. I went down under deck to help Suulin. I found her in the kitchen; Vridich and Hanna were talking in the dining room.

We were about done making lunch when the ship lurched violently from a strong wind change. We could all tell that something was wrong. We heard the call for all hands on deck and scrambled out of the hold. Suulin ran up to the aft castle with Dremnin and Stilicho. I saw Urgral struggling on the main deck with a piece of rigging. I moved to go help him when the deck moved out from under my feet. I slammed in to the railing and crashed to the deck. I looked up at Dremnin to see what happened just in time to see a boom swing out of the rigging and slam into Stilicho and Suulin. It was like they had been hit by a giants club. They flew to and slammed in to the railing. It looked like the two became tangled in each other’s arms and legs. Dremnin started running to them. Then they went over the side. I jumped to my feet screaming man over board. I then saw Dremnin do the bravest thing I have ever seen. He snatched a piece of rope that snapped out of the rigging, the other end still tied to the broken boom. Without waiting for someone to help or even finish his knot he dove over the side. I got to the railing and grabbed the rope that was already tight. I looked over the side and could not believe that he had caught both of them. I called crew men over and we threw ropes down to the captain and Suulin. We pulled them up and on to the boat. There was no time to celebrate, we were still in danger.

Stilicho and Dremnin went back to the helm. He ordered the officers to perform a head count. We found out that we had lost a crewman. A woman named Veranda. She had been one of the ones we saved from the slave ship. I did not know much about her but I felt a loss. We decided we could do nothing for her now. We got out of the storm and waited for it to pass. We went back and found her body. It was badly broken from the fall.

That night we took shelter just outside of the entrance to the pass. There we barred her in a tomb made from the mountains loose rock. We placed her short sword in the top of the pile of rocks. Stilicho said some nice words after we were done and Suulin sang a song. Dremnin marked the location on his map.

The next morning we made the last push to Haven. We docked and made good with the Harbor master. We were making arrangements to go ashore when Urgral told us that he needed to talk to The Unchained. We all gathered around Urgral. He told us that his payment for his last training was to deliver a message to the mayor of this town. Also we may need to help him with a problem. I told Urgral that I would be glad to help him with whatever he needed.

(Next time I will ask more questions before I say yes).

Ardor Zomay Skram
4th Circle Tail Dancer