When he was set down Rucks was almost relieved, the original sharp pains he had been feeling had become a constant throb in his head from trying to walk. Hopefully someone her could fix him up - it's just that prospects looked slim. He looked over to the person who was supposedly the medic, the uninteresting one called Simnia said her name was Anisa? She was short too, Rucks wagered she was the shortest of them all but he wouldn't put money on it - unless he figured out a way to fix the betting that is. What would have happened if one of them jumped instead of him? Would they have been better off? He soon came to a half-arsed conclusion that he had a smaller distance to fall because of his larger height.

The one that this other short girl was attending too was certainly the most interesting crew member so far, a bipedal cat! At least, she looked like a cat. She seemed to have had one of her ears ripped off. The one Rucks could still see appeared to be large, with a cup-like shape. Maybe only having one wouldn't bother her? His eyes then turned back to Arisa, she asked him a question - something she seemed particularly fond of."Why?" He asked, probably not the best start to answering that particular question but still, "Why is it you sit here now? The promise of treasure? The idea of adventure? Something like that right? Now what would you have done if you were late to this little voyage? Turned around and gone back home? Or would you risk it and take that leap?"

His eyes took up a sullen tone after saying that, maybe he'd made the wrong choice? Mother would be disappointed if she knew he hurt himself after this. He bit his lip once more - it was becoming a habit - and awaited a reply.

Dariq followed after the unlikely captain and stifled back a chuckle as the man burst out into yet another fit of curses. Once he and Garrett were both in his quarters Dariq, in one fluid movement, drew his sword and jammed in in the door frame under the handle, just to make sure no one walked in and Garrett found something important to tell him. 'Aye sir, 'really I am.' He said afterwards 'is it about the balloon? I can assure you I had high hopes we weren't gannin' tae die like.' He said with a nervous smile, since he knew Garrett was not in the best of moods, he had cursed more in the past twenty or so minutes more then he had in the past month.

"I take it by the way you're talking about those balloons that they are a bit more than scratched?." Maithien chuckled, entering his quarters. He walked over to a chair and desk he had nestled in a corner of his cabin and sat down. "Oh, that is so much better." He sighed. The only thing better would be when he finally got to crawl into his bed and drift to sleep, but not now, there was work that still needed to be done now. "It is not you cutting open one of our balloons that has me foul Dariq." Maithien dismissed with a wave of his hand. "What has me foul is the band of assailants that tried to kill us."

"We both know who those men were, who they work for." Maithien remarked, though he didn't mutter their names himself. "Keep your eyes peeled Dariq, we can't afford to have anything else surprise us on this journey." He frowned. "This is important" At this Maithien grabbed a book in his coat pocket containing among other things some maps. He flipped it open and continued to speak. "There aren't any towns nearby for us to land in, so we'll need to find a clearing to land in if things are as bad as I am assuming."

Maithien sighed and tossed his book onto his desk lazily. "Just do what needs to be done my friend, I would like to get to Braelv as soon as possible to pick up the package before some other disaster happens.." Maithien then dismissed Dariq with a nod of his head. "Oh no, wait!" He suddenly corrected. "Also, please bring me some alcohol. And keep and eye on the crew, blood loss and adrenaline wreaks havoc on your mind."

"And please make sure that that dwarf lady doesn't destroy our engines."

(( Removed? ))

Well, it looked as if no one was going to help her after all. Still, Simnia lingered in the hallway, at the same time determined to get this ship and everyone on it as far away from the dock as possible, and unwilling to take the full weight of responsibility on her shoulders. But!

She rolled up her sleeves, took a deep breath, and stomped her way down the hall. She would do it! She would move the ship!

But who was steering?

The thought occurred to her just as she entered the engine room and looked up at the walls of pipes and gaskets. Even if she made the ship move, was the captain ready at the helm? Could the captain even drive this thing? What if she launched the ship right into a mountain?

"Argh! Get ahold of yourself!" she hollered to the empty room, and with thoughts of those injured comrades whose well-being now rested in her hands, Simnia followed the lines of piping with her eyes. She ran to the back of the room, found the rotors and the steam tanks, and when she turned a crank the room began to heat up. Steam! They needed more steam! Just like the train engines, after all.

The pipes began to clink and hiss. Simnia increased the heat, found another steam tank and turned that on as well with a spin of a wheel. This was easier than she'd expected! In her confidence, she rushed to another part of the room and yanked on a lever -- and metal all around her began to groan and strain. That wasn't a good sound.

"Uuhh . . ." The dwarf's eyes widened and she put the lever back to the original position -- apparently it didn't do what she thought it did -- but the groaning didn't stop. Was it supposed to do that? But slowly the odd sound stopped, replaced with the familiar hiss of steam, and Simnia ran to find the switches that would turn on the engines.

They were labeled with words she couldn't read.

A string of eloquent curses issued from her mouth, while steam hissed and the room grew hotter. She thought about going back to find someone who could read, but a part of her knew that any second those bandits could come crashing in and killing everyone onboard. So, she chose the switches in a highly scientific way:

"Eeny meeny miney moe . . ."

She flipped a switch, then another, and yanked on another lever . . . and held her breath.

The nerve! The captain was acting like what she had done was wrong! Obviously, it didn't matter to him that he had saved his life, perhaps the whole crew! She only managed to splutter "The antagonist is supposed to die-" before the captain simply strode off. No manners! If it was anyone else, she would have simply walk up and given them a piece of her mind. . As it was, she decided it was better to stay quiet.

The sloth had managed to rouse itself from sleep again, and now Katewyn found that there were tears in it's eyes. The captain was not a hit with the sloth, it seemed. "Atleast someone agrees with me." She said, more to herself then the sloth. Deciding to go back to her cabin, Katewyn managed two steps before the whole ship just shuttered. The engines went to life, and as a result, Katewyn hit the deck face first.

When she stood up, her nose had started bleeding. With a final look of annoyance above deck, Katewyn vanished into the belly of the ship, to her cabin.

Aria smiled, turning her attention to the front of the staircase as they descended. She drifted off in her thoughts, nibbling on her lip. She had finally found a crew, and it seemed like a lively one. She felt, happy knowing she could have their backs and they would have hers, but still a shadow of worry ghosted across her mind, nagging her into thinking ore about what the man had said. She thought they had lost her trail. She berated herself slightly for not covering her tracks, her father would have been so ashamed of her. It had taken years for her to be able to sneak, and after all that she could still be caught.

'Note to self: Don't group up with suspicious captains and large crews who still have yet to show fighting skills.' She was abruptly shaken from making amusing nicknames for her crew by something hard landing on her foot. She winced, looking up at whoever had stepped on her poor appendage. Katewyn brushed past her, and Aria simply shrugged, rolling her eyes with a fond smile. The woman had saved a few of their lives, and who could yell at a woman with a sloth hanging off their shoulder?

They continued down the stairs, entering a room not soon after. After setting Rucks down carefully, Aria sent Simnia a sheepish grin while rubbing the back of her neck. She had surprisingly never been forced to fix many machines, most likely because of the suspicion she would purposely break something important. Which was true to be honest, she would sabotage any machine she could get her hands on. Slowly Aria slumped into the space next to Rena, sending her an apologetic glance. Her foot was starting to ache, and the cut on her cheek stung, but no injury she had could compare to the hurt she supposed Rena was experiencing. It looked terrible, and Aria had to stop herself from reaching out to examine the wound. The boat jerked a little, surprising Aria, before a triumphant grin settled on her features.

"Well, sounds like we're off. I hope you folks are ready for some adventure!"

The Compass' engines were indeed working, though some of the pipes were now damaged due to some misuse. But that was unimportant at the moment! Bit of love later and everything would be alright. Of course the crew would first have to realize that the pipes were damaged in the first place, but that was a problem for another time. The ship was moving, and soon they would make it to a clearing to repair the frayed balloon.

It took a few hours, but the ship made it past some bothersome forests and to some clear plains. It was a rather unremarkable area, covered in tall grass and weeds. Maithien had dared but once to set foot on the ground. He had grown feverish on the ship, his want for rest had disappeared in a metaphorical puff of smoke surprisingly fast. The only thing Maithien told his crew before getting off the ship was to repair the balloon, though he didn't specify who he expected to accomplish the task. He was too busy enjoying the grass. However it only took him all of five minutes of tripping over weeds and stepping on sharp rocks for him to retreat back to the confines of his quarters on the ship.

Luckily it didn't take too long for the balloon to get repaired, though if you were to ask Maithien who did it he wouldn't be able to answer. Although he would have been much happier to not have to stop at all Maithien supposed there wasn't much he could do about the hand he had been dealt. He just had to suck it up and sail to Braelv.

At nightfall Maithien was happy to finally find his ship docked, safe and sound in the town of Braelv. The town was one of the few dotted around the outskirts of Riviqin. Ships would sail to and from the floating city to the towns. The goods transported from Riviqin to the towns would be sent out by train to other towns and cities. Meanwhile the goods sent from the towns to Riviqin by ship were sold in the city.

Maithien was currently sitting on a stool on the deck with a lamp, looking at a map of Braelv and trying to figure out how best to make it to his destination. Will want to stay away from the southern side, last time I was here there was nothing but gangs. Indeed, that was a fun adventure. But not one to focus on now. Deciding the rest of the crew may have an idea as to the best route Maithien got up from his seat, began walking down the stairs to below deck, and started yelling for his crew. "Everybody out, please!"

Head-over-feet, Simnia toppled against the wall of the engine room while the rotors hummed and the gears churned. She skittered upright again, stared around her wildly, and realized that she had indeed caused the machines to begin working. Now that the gears were running, it was easier to see what was connected to what else, where those lines were going, how the steam was moving through the pipes. As the engines warmed up the room grew hotter and louder, and Simnia pulled one last throttle which she was now confident would increase speed. The floor tilted under her, and the ship wobbled because of the damage in one balloon, but they were moving.

After a few minutes of checking the settings and ensuring that everything was running properly, Simnia rushed out and up the stairs to the deck above, where she crawled up the banister and leaned over to see the city disappearing behind them. The wind rushed all around, and ahead were only clouds and sky. Rightly proud of herself, she descended again to maintain the engines and continue her new duties.

And then, an order came down from the captain that they would be making a stop. Stop? Stop? She hadn't considered that, really -- but the logical and right assumption was that what she had done to make the ship move would also make it slow down, if done in the opposite way. And so, gently, she eased a lever down and released a button, so that whoever was driving this thing (who was driving this thing?) could ease into port. Wherever that was. Simnia couldn't see a damned thing down here.

She went above deck to watch the balloon being repaired, and to see the captain putzing around in the grass like he'd never seen grass before. She puffed her cheeks and went below deck again, not at all interested in the dirt, and waited there for orders to start the engines. The second time was a cinch, and while the ship was moving, Simnia even felt confident enough in the engines to leave them for a time, to seek out food and shipmates.

And then, Braelv. After easing the ship into the port, as soon as the engines cut out the captain's voice hollered down the stairs. Simnia was tired and aching from all the lever-pulling, her dress smelled like sweat and apricots, and her head was ringing from the constant noise of the engines. But she clambered up the stairs and stepped out onto the deck again, to immediately gravitate toward the port bow and the view of the strange and foreign city.

Dariq was already off the ship, leaping from it as they were reaching the port. He paid the dock master for their safe harbor and set off to hunt for a drink, drank by all but those who lived in the skies. Seeing that Braelv wasn't a floating city he set off in search for the stuff.

Being an elf, Dariq could never fit in anywhere but, he did have a knack for looking like he belonged. So, with that in mind he had no fear that he would be jumped like some stupid tourist and set off southward. He bought some flavored bread, seemingly a local delicacy, to him it tasted bland. But he had been to all corners of the world since meeting Garrett and had tasted some of the richest and wildest flavours the world had to offer, unlike maithien who rarely tried anything stranger then... Say.. Flavored bread.

He walked into a shop, it was a small, dark shop, filled with smoke and had a narrow passage leading to an adjoining bar. 'No doubt a front for some riskier venture' he thought, having some.. Personal knowledge on such things. But what would be considered odd, especially to a sky dweller was that it was colder then outside. That was what Dariq was looking out for. "'Ey deer, chu gots any 'oh dat lovely grookroot?" He asked the quiet old lady behind the counter who was silently staring at him, she responded by pulling out a flask, about 8" tall and tear drop shaped with a claver little mechanism on the top that helped to seal the flask tightly shut. The flask itself a clear but the liquid inside was a deep brown, blackey colour with bubbles rising from odd places to disappear intoe bottom of the liquid. The flask also still had some ice and small rivulets of water on it. Dariq took it from the silent woman, paying its usual price and smiling as the cold flask cooled his hands.

With that done he set off back northward to the shop, hoping to find a more hospitable bar after reaching the ship and getting and ice box, hoping that the bar would not mind filling the box with ice, preferable for no extra charge, for grookroot was best served cold. While Dariq had not yet opened it to have any he could jus trembler the buzz it gives and the sweet sickly taste that lingers too long in the throat. He chucked as he remembered the brown drink the sky landers drank, gave the same buzz but was bitter and foul.

Arturos had arrived on The Compass rather early and delighted in taking in his new surroundings. He went to his cabin to get acquainted with his new living space and promptly fell asleep sprawled over his bed. All through the confrontation Arturos slept like a baby dreaming of wild adventure and fighting off bandits or wild tribesmen with his cane. He gave a startled snort when a bellow from the fine Captain awoke him and he decided he should come up before they left the dock at least. Straightening his attire and adjusting his pith helmet he grabbed his trusty cane and somewhat bounded up onto the deck and gave a strangled startled snort for this surely was not the original port or was it.

"Ah my friends all is well! Is it? Ha ha indeed it is!"

Taking another quick glance affirmed that this was not where he had come aboard this fine ship and the lovely banner was gone too. He couldn't have been asleep for so long. Standing up straight he gave a pearly smile.

"Ah yes so off we are? To adventure!" He pointed his cane and stuck what he thought was a heroic pose.

"As it were is there anything I may attend to? Or possibly a bite to eat." He said to no one in general just hoping to strike a conversation and gain exactly where he was at the moment.

Aria had been on deck, staring of into the surrounding sky when she heard the captain shout. Pushing off the railing, she stretched her arms above her head. It had been a rather uneventful trip for her after they took off, the occasional high flying bird making the mistake of smashing into the ship being the only surprise.

She padded down the stairs, entering her quarters. Quietly, she grabbed her bag and sword before turning back around and quickly jumping up the stairs two at a time. She grinned, sling her leather bag over her shoulder. Looking around, Aria noticed someone she hadn't seen on board before. He was an old looking man, who appeared to be speaking to no one in particular, but she could hear his words. Stepping over to him, she grinned.

"'Ello. I a'ven't met you yet, either that or I have terrible memory. My name's Aria, and I believe we're in Braelv. 'M afraid you missed the first part of the adventure, as we had a nasty run in with couple of bandits."

She stuck her hand out for him to shake, eyes twinkling. She hadn't spoken much with the other crew mass after they left port, and she was extremely glad to have company. Being alone never had felt very good, even when you're a thief. The man seemed like a fairly easy person to speak with, unlike some of her crew mates. Namely ones who found interest in attempting to break her foot via stepping on it.

"Good evening Simina." Maithien greeted with a smile on his face on her heels up the stairs. "I don't believe I ever said before. But excellent job on the engines." And indeed so. If it hadn't been for her it would have added days on their flight. Maithien felt sick at the thought of losing time. He went to give Simina a pat on the back for her good work, but he had forgotten how much shorter she was than him. So his hand merely whiffed above her head. Maithien coughed awkwardly and then stayed silent. Hoping she didn't notice that had happened.

"Ah my friends all is well!" Oh! An excuse to leave this conversation!

Turning around quickly Maithien realized that it was Arthur. Where in the world had he been all this time!? One of the few fellows that bothered to show up before the rest of this... feminine lot. For what little Maithien knew of Arthur, which was he had a nice hat and he had bothered to both sign and turn in the papers Maithien had given out. He liked him. Bactracking to the papers Maithien recalled that most of the contracts and papers, signed or otherwise, were left at the docks. Which made him frown for a moment.

"Hello Arthur!" He said. Quickly pacing his way towards the excited man. And away from the dwarf he may or may not have offended.

"I believe we're in Braelv"

Believe? Did no one on this ship listen to him? Or bother to look at a sign? "Indeed, Braelv! Interesting place. But we hopefully won't have to spend too much time here. Mainly need to get something. Though we will of course need to get a Doctor for our birdman I suppose." At this he jutted his thumb behind him. Though to be honest he didn't really have a clue where that psychopath was. "With luck we we'll be out of here and will have found the treasure before you all start greying."

Maithien abruptly stomped on the deck and shouted once more. "Everyone out!"

What a boring trip! So much for the plans of adventure and treasure. She had actually missed a championship hunt for this waste of time. All Katewyn had experienced was small skirmish before they had even all boarded the ship. Now she couldn't even get a decent twelve hour sleep without her waking up to the loud tramping of feet. Her interest had been excited through only two things. Her sloth ( She had named in Maithien, in a fit of anger. It seemed to only respond to that name. ), and the red headed swordfighter. If only she had been less. . . Bubbly. She was too happy! It was a silly thing to say, but she fit in too well. How could she even stand being near a dwarf?

Yet now was not the time to stew over such matters. With Maithein on her shoulder, she strode up to the deck where she was being shouted for.

A compliment! A real, honest, well-deserved compliment! Simnia grinned and she held herself proper with pleasure -- that is, until she felt a breeze over her head where the good captain had whiffed an open hand. For a moment she stood like a dummy, wondering what that was supposed to be, if he'd been trying to smack her and missed; or maybe it was some gesture that meant he was being sarcastic; or maybe there'd been a mosquito buzzing over her head and he'd smacked it. But there was no explanation offered, and before she could even thank him for his compliment he had his back to her, which really made her think he'd been fishy. He was a fishy sort of man. She made beady eyes at him, but she'd liked the compliment all the same. She'd let him slide. This time. What he said next didn't quite help her opinion.

"Everyone out?" The dwarf frowned, and she glanced between the captain and the gathering crewmates, whose safety she was beginning to believe wasn't remotely a part of this captain's concern. That'd be why he had everyone sign those papers.

"Now -- now WAIT A SCREECHIN' MINUTE," Simnia hollered, loud enough for the whole ship to hear. She hiked up her skirt and stomped up to Maithien, and she tipped her head up and glared at him. "Now before we go traipsin' down into a city we don't know nothin' about, I think you, sir, have a little explainin' to explain. Like who were those people tryin' to kill us? What is this treasure, EXACTLY, that we're huntin' for? What's in Braelv? Why do ALL of us need to get out if you're just picking something up? WHO IS DRIVING THIS BLEEDIN' SHIP?" Because that last was her biggest concern. She was down in the engines with no clue what was going on outside, with blind hope that they weren't going to crash into a mountain. "I think your crew would appreciate a little communication from their captain . . . SIR!"

She puffed her chest, planted her feet, and glanced around at the other crew members. Surely she wasn't the only one demanding of an explanation!

Arturos smiled brightly and bowed toward Aria taking off his cap as he did so. This was the first time for him at least meeting his crew mates for this voyage. Standing up again he placed his helmet upon his head and said.

"Greetings Aria! I am Professor Arturos Ertines though my friends call me Arty a lot easier to say in a pinch and less of a tongue twister as well. Ah Braelv I remember my army days we marched through here it hasn't changed much eh still a one ship town."

Arty stepped back as Maithien approached and let him stamp and shout it was his ship after all and he could do just about as he pleased. He cocked his head as the little woman or was she just woman no most likely a dwarf stepped forward and in a huff at that. Arty listened intently to her and gave his new friend Aria a questioning and quizzical look. His head went from the dwarf to Maithien and to Aria in circuit and many times making his helmet flop aimlessly on his head. When she was done Arty tapped his cane on the deck a couple of times and stepped up next to her.

"Oh dear. I do not want to cause trouble myself sir but in a certain since the miss has a fair point. Brutish and very direct I should say but to the point none the less. Also all in all you are the fair Captain and us your crew but the uh.....excitement I missed everyone else seems a tad concerned. A slight explanation never hurt anyone.....almost always."

Arty flashed his even pearly whites again and hoped he had helped at least a little bit.

Maithien saw Miss Katewyn emerge from the stairs in the corner of his eye. She had that animal with her still. He was still perplexed as to where it had come from. And frankly he was offended a bit at the thought that his ship could be infested with an army of unknown animals. But oh well, he supposed the thing wasn't too bad. As long as it didn't bite. Maithien gave a small nod to Katewyn. And then-

"WAIT A SCREECHIN' MINUTE!!"

Maithein jumped noticeably and quirked his head behind him to see Simina marching towards him with a look on her face that, dare he say, would have made his father pause out of fear. Was she that offended over him messing up a simple pat on that back? He hoped not, he frankly needed an engineer. "What's wro-" Maithien tried to say. However he was cut off when the angry little woman started shouting at him more. She didn't have to yell, he really wasn't that much taller than her.

Simina launched into a tirade of twenty questions about the journey, The ship, the men that attacked everyone at the docks, the treasure, and even about leaving the ship. The working part of Maithien's brain thought that all of her questions were completely fair to ask, in fact he was actually very surprised and even kind of worried that no one else had bothered to inquire about such things minus a few very small times. But unfortunately the nonworking part of his brain was currently in charge. So at the moment he just had a very surprised look on his face and was stuttering and occasionally pushing out some half formed words. "Dar..Dariq flew?"

Luckily Arturous jumped into the conversation and calmed things down. Which also helped Maithien get his thoughts in order to speak. "Uhm, Right." Maithien nodded dumbly. "Fair enough?"

"So, Let's see.." Maithien tried to recall all the questions he had to answer. "We'll start with the treasure I guess, root of all this. Back before the war, you know, the war. There was some rich ground dweller that got killed or captured. As far as I can tell their inheritance is still up for grabs. I think they had a far lesser known holding where they kept most of their wealth. Of course the documents stating where this holding is found have been obscured by a war, along with a few centuries added on to that. The package is some information that should help us find it."

"The idiots that tried to shoot us.. Dariq and I had had a few previous run ins with them. They were possible candidates for shipmates. But they did a few things to make me nervous so I told them they weren't welcome. I didn't see them again until our lovely battle." Maithien said with a frown.

"Most of you can stay on the ship if you have too.. I just thought it would be good for everyone to get to stretch their limbs while they still can I guess. Like I said we need to get that one fellow a doctor so someone will have to take him.. And I'm not sure how that lady who hurt her ear is doing now that I think about it also. Though I guess I can make Dariq take em." Now that Maithien was thinking about his first mate he would have thought Dariq would have shown up on deck by now, where was he?

"I wanted people to travel together so no one would be late coming back to the ship. In case someone got drunk or something. Plus, I didn't really want to do the deal alone I guess.. Sounds boring. But now I admit I didn't think someone may just want to rest on the ship." He said. Namely that someone at the moment being Simina. Now that he focused for a moment he realized that it was possible she was tired from, as he had put it, the excellent work on the engines. Plus he hadn't really bothered to check on how the rest of his crew was faring either. Perhaps a bad call on his part. "Sorry." He said in a somewhat quieter voice.

While Maithien spoke, Simnia grew quieter. Her rigid shoulders hunched, and her screwed eyes softened. And then, he apologized. A human apologized to a dwarf! She stared up at him in sad wonder. For a moment she looked over at Arturos -- the odd one that had appeared out of the ship with a supportive word -- and at Aria and Katewyn, who had been through quite a lot without so much as a reason why, until now. The dwarf was glad she had forced the captain's confession, for all their benefit, but she still felt a little ashamed of her roaring.

The dwarf huffed a sigh and laid her fists on her wide hips. The look she gave Maithien was motherly and somewhat disappointed. "My point, dear captain, is the fact that if you want our help you'll have to tell us what we're helping with, instead of ordering us about without reason like we're blind and deaf. Thank you for that clarification. It still troubles me that you'd set off in a ship without a proper engineer, though." She soured just a little -- but she stepped away and turned toward the rest of the crew idling on the deck, and assumed the captain's voice had been too quiet for all of them to hear. The dwarf decided to take it upon herself, once again, to make an announcement:

"We're gonna be bodyguards for the captain, as he goes off into the city to make a deal for an old artifact that'll lead us to the spot of a long-buried treasure. This thing is a thing any bandit would kill for, so polish yer weapons and stoke yer guns. If anybody's got an extra weapon, I wouldn't mind it, myself. We may well get ambushed, and I won't be runnin'." She grinned up at Maithien, gave him a solid wink, and gestured to Arturos and Katewyn and Aria to follow (as soon as they'd prepared themselves, of course) as she marched off the ship and to the unfamiliar dock of Braelv.

As soon as she'd set foot on the dock, her confidence paled. What if they were ambushed? Was it really better to die a free dwarf than to live as a slave, after all? She glanced back up the gangway, and decided it was her first duty to protect the captain and her fellow treasure hunters -- though chances were it was they who would end up protecting her.

Dariq Returned to the ship to here the dwarf lass barking orders. "Everything alright 'ere capn'?" He asked Garrett as he jumped onto the ships railings. looking down at the dwarf with both his height and that added by being up on the ship's railings. "I dinnae like returnin' jus' tae 'ere some toddy dwarf announcing to the world that we is gannin' aftae summat valuable and den' orderin' the whole crew of tae ship." He said coolly. "You are on our side, ain't ya, ya little missus?" he asked with a noticeable amount of aggression behind his voice. With this he leapt from the railings and onto the deck, with a dark look over his shoulder at the dwarf he began to head below deck to store his exotic liquid in the larder, in an icebox. Just before he went below he said "Sir, remember. You give the orders." and disappeared off to look for where to keep his Grookroot.

Rucks managed to walk - or rather stumble - back to the ship with relative ease. Compared to his journey off of the ship that is. He had managed to make it so an actual honest to goodness doctor and he didn't even need an appointment! What a time to be alive, the city was bustling but it seemed to not have much need for medical attention. The doctor was - as far as Rucks was concerned - a miracle worker. He'd examined his ribs - Rucks swore they were broken - and suddenly, he said they were just bruised! It was a strange revelation, the pain seemed to let up quite a bit. The doctor claimed it was some form of placebo. But he must have been using it as some way to cover up the magical words he must have been speaking.

Rucks therefore took quite the spring in his step. He was very nearly skipping and often you could see his leg twitch as he had to stop himself actually committing himself to such a task. He was back on the ship now but had little to do, he had to admit it was quite the vessel. He walked over to the opposite rail from the dock, the view was incredible. Nothing like Rucks had bothered to see from his old home. Vast lands were beneath this sea of sky, a seabed of prosperity. Yes, Rucks could see why people referred to the sky as some form of sea. If only he had thought of it himself.

He hadn't realised it himself but he had climbed onto the railing and was only holding onto the ship via a single rope, leaning out over the vast expanse. He was too indulged within his own world of sky pirates, adventure and treasure. Looting and fighting, drinking and singing. It was something a child might have come up with and It was enough to coverup the now waning pain of his ribs. Some form of medicine seemed to be helping with that. Doctors really were wizards.