Dialysis book: Chapter 15: The airship

“This vacation is going to be awesome,” I said.

“It will be better than that, we are going to eat all the food and paint the town gray,” said Shade.

“You paint the town red.”

“Red and gray are the same color to a dog,” said Shade.

“Then let's paint the town gray!”

Spivy shook her head, “I mean, I guess that’s the plan.  You really want to go to the elven dominion?”

“Of course, that place is wine, cheese and silly elves doing silly things,” I said.

Spivy shrugged, “You might not know much about the elves.”

“But I will learn on the next leg of our awesome vacation,” I said.  Shade barked.  Kailee spotted us and walked over.

“I don’t see him,” she said, looking perturbed.  She didn’t want to leave a quest undone but there was no person here to collect the brass bell.

"I'll miss you most of all, Kailee," I said, taking her hand.  We were on the platform on the mast that stood in the center of town.  The airship to the elven dominion was approaching and would be here in just a few minutes and travelers waited on a platform that was located halfway between the top and bottom of the mast.

Up close, the mast was even more like a fire watching tower.  A simple staircase ran up the outer edge of the mast, and there was a large platform at the halfway mark that took up the entire breadth and width of the tower.  There was a hatch located in it that could be opened to allow for cargo, though that was currently closed.

We were standing directly underneath where the airship would park, and that was more than a bit concerning for me.  The only other airship I saw looked quite heavy, and having it suspected directly overhead wasn't ideal.  Then again, I was about to get on that ship and fly a few hundred feet in the air so perhaps getting crushed shouldn't have been my main concern.

Unlike a modern airport, no one particularly cared who waited on the platform though etiquette said that non-travelers should depart the platform before the airship started taking on passengers.  As such, the dozen people waiting were surrounded by a dozen or so more all talking to pass the time.

"You're just lucky that the quest has specific conditions," said Kailee, eying my back and retrieving her hand.  "But the client paid for a rush job and then didn't pick it up, meaning that we get to keep the gold and the item is yours."

"Unless they show up in the next ten minutes or so," I said.

"Of course," replied Kailee, who was ostensibly here to complete the quest.  I'd already been paid because I returned with the item to the guild master.  It just so happened that when the crack of dawn happened and the quest giver hadn't shown up we decided to go wait by the airship mast.

That was just logical.  We had an elven item, and the quest timing meant that they must be taking the dominion airship.  It wasn't a huge leap of logic to see that the quest giver wanted the brass bell to take with them to Dominion, so we waited and I looked at my fellow passengers.

Unsurprisingly for the trip to the elven kingdom, there were quite a few elves ready to go.  The local elves wore mostly local fashion, which was a mix of browns, blues and greens due to the various dyes that were commonly available.  It was kind of jarring to see that much uniformity in clothing compared to my average day in the office.  The field workers didn't even bother with the dyes, so their clothing was all just boring brown.

Sort of like the patched heavy leather shirt I was wearing.

Not the elves going to Dominus.  They were wearing proper elven fashion and that ran the gamut from stark black and white to a variety of flowery pastel colors.  The black outfits were bordeling goth.  At first I couldn't see rhyme or reason to who was wearing what, a thin blond elf was wearing the starkest black imaginable while a brooding dark skinned elf was wearing a pastel robe, I eventually realized it was the ears.

All of the short eared elves were wearing flowery outfits, while the long eared elves wore the 'goth' elf outfit.

"Moon Elves," said Spivy.  "They prefer the more stark outfits, the ones with short ears are 'wood' elves, and they typically wear flowery garb."

"Why did you emphasize wood," I asked.

Spivy considered, "It is probably a translation issue, the wood elves are properly called the Dramisu in Old Elvish.  It means elves of the forest.  Simply put, they are elves of mixed bloodlines."

"They are mutts," said Shade, the pure breed Sheprador, as he wagged his tail.

“I’m pretty sure that’s racist,” I said.

Shade looked hurt, “You said mutts were the best kind of doggo.”

“They are elves,” I said.

“Oh,” replied Shade.  “Do people really care that they are mixed breeds?”

I sighed.  “Way too much.”

Spivy shrugged, "After the rise of the System Lords, some of the ancient elven customs about the sacred lineage of the elves was considered less significant, and they kind of descended into anarchy until their current king rose up about 800 years ago.”

“So he was some sort of powerful elven king, person of legend and all that,” I asked.

“He was kind of a goober in his early years,” said Spivy.  “Being king for 800 years does change you however.”

That was mind boggling, “Their current king is 800 years old.”

Spivy shook her head, “Oh gods no.  He’s at least a thousand.  Two hundred years old is barely into adulthood, but I’d have to check.”

“That’s not just system information,” I asked.

“Trivia about an individual?  Not really, I have a broad, general understanding of the system to facilitate your integration as an adventurer.  That means I know who the local rulers are, it doesn’t mean I know when they were born or crowned,” said Spivy.  “I’d have to be there for that, and paying attention.”

I shrugged as several people stood up and started walking down the stairs.  They were entirely non-elves and I noticed more than a few dark stares as they walked away from a particularly loud group of elves discussing the superiority of Dominus.

“So how many ethnicities of elves are there,” I asked.

“In Dominus, I’d say five or six big groups,” said Spivy.  “You have the Moon Elves, the Sun elves, the Jungle Elves, the Magic Elves… they do magic, the Sky elves and possibly a few more,” said Spivy.

“Six?” I asked.

“Wood elves, but no one cares about them,” said Spivy.

I was in a small town on the frontier of the only significant human kingdom around, even here the population wasn’t homogeneous but there was a certain degree of cultural sameness that flowed out of small town life.  In town people tended to think of themselves as being from Darven, not necessarily an orc or a human.  They were all just trying to live life and they had plenty of distrust towards outsiders.

The city was going to be interesting.

As we waited, I continued examining the various elves waiting for the ship.  None of them were looking like they were missing an item however so I wasn’t worried.  We had the brass bell, and I would eventually figure out what to do with it if no one spoke up for the relic.

The airship was getting closer.  I saw the small glowing red dot of it in the distance some time back and waited, and waited.  I was expecting an airplane, or a helicopter.  In reality, this was a boat that flies and while it was one of the fastest modes of travel here, it was not fast by American standards.

Still, it was a lot more impressive.

The core of the airship was a long, thin rectangular wooden hull that was stretched behind eight large flying beasts.  The front and rear were curved so that the ship could make a water landing, or perhaps land in the snow if needed.  There were even short runners for that on the bottom, not that those were needed here.  The first airship I’d seen literally looked like a giant boat with a dirigible on top of it, so that looked far more fantastic.  I was trying to gauge the aerodynamics of the elven airship, but as it got closer and I could see the beasts more I noticed they lacked wings.  Instead, the first thing I noticed was the antlers.

"Wait, is that thing being lifted by… reindeer," I asked.

"Yup, each of those reindeer could probably lift the ship by himself, but you need 8 if you are going to get any real speed over the long haul," said Spivy.

"So elves transport themselves using magical reindeer on a wooden sleigh," I chuckled.

"No, that's an airship," said Spivy, looking at me oddly.  "They only use sleighs for short range trips."

"This place is awesome," I said, content with the world.

“Time is up," said Kailee, plopping down next to me.  "If the quest giver shows up now you can hand over the item, but you aren't required to."

"So ask them for more money?"

"That's how it usually goes," said Kailee, eyeing me.  "Mind you, if you really wanted to keep it I don't know why you are going to the Dominion."

"I'm going to sell it," I said.  "I have to pay for my vacation somehow."

“Seriously,” said Kailee.

“I mean, I’m a good working adventurer,” I replied flatly.

"Speaking of that," said Kailee, handing me what appeared to be a laminated card.

"My own adventuring ID," I said, looking at the card.  It was my picture, but the name read wrong even as I boosted my language skill.

"Sort of, I needed to give that quest giver an ID, so I used Heywoods," said Kailee.

"The dead adventurer from the inn," I said looking at the inn.  He was at least from the elven dominion.  "Won't people know the difference?"

"Dominus is mostly elves, the local guild master probably won’t care" said Kailee with a shrug.  "Elves in general don’t care very much about non-elves."

"And I need some form of identification to travel to a different city on an airship," I said, noting the timing.

"That's the long and short of it," said Kailee.  "I did update the picture, so I wouldn't worry about it very much."

I shrugged.  If I needed it, I had an ID now.  If not, I'd just avoid using it.  Darven was in the back end of nowhere, so I didn't have a real feel for how the rest of the world worked.  My two nights in civilization so far were less than great, though it helped that I came from a mountain hike.

I had a feeling if I switched from a plumbed toilet to the outhouse behind the guild hall, I'd have been more upset.  As it was, I was digging holes for my business, and an actual outhouse wasn't nearly as bad as history made it sound.  It wasn't great, but a solid improvement to a hole in the dirt.

Kailee smiled at me and then stepped off of the boarding platform.  I half wanted to hug her, but she made it clear that despite our activities in her bedroom she was the guildmaster and I was an adventurer in her employ.  It would be improper if I started groping her on stage.

Shade sat next to my leg so I scratched his head.

"And we are sure I do not need to be in a cage," said my dog carefully.

"Yes, they don't require companions to be caged," I said.

"Which would be Max anyway," said Spivy.

Shade relaxed, he wasn’t a big fan of motorized travel on the best of days.  Loading him into my SUV for the trip to the mountain had sucked.  I couldn’t leave him free because he liked to be safe on my lap, and if I left him in his kennel he whined the entire time.  Now, he could at least roam safely and I could protect him as needed.  His tail was absolutely still, but he didn’t look terrified and I would take what I could get.

As we waited, the airship finally crossed over the town wall heading towards the mast.  The ship bobbed slightly as it moved, in line with the reindeer bounding forward in their cages.  Each of the forty point animals was colorfully harnessed, and massive, but still looked like reindeer.

“Those are the size of mooses,” I said.

“It's an international flight,” said Spivy, as if that explained anything.  Then again, if I had big reindeer, that’s where I’d use them.

Could you ride one of those?

Finally the ship slowed over the mast and four massive ropes were tossed down.  They were attached to a winch of some sort and they dropped right on top of four groups of bored looking locals.  The heavy ropes had iron caps on them that looked dangerous, but at the ten feet mark they caught then slowly lowered to the ground.

The crew grabbed each massive rope and ran them over to another winch.  When they reached it, they shoved the iron cap into a socket and began turning the winch rapidly.  In moments the four ropes went taunt and the ship stopped, ready to take on passengers.

“It is still partially floating,” said Spivy as I looked at everything.  “The top of the mast is loaded up with air cores to keep the ship as light as possible and the ship uses an array of weight aspects to support itself.”

“Like shadow form,” I said, remembering Shade in the tree.

“Yes, typically they are an aspect of shadow cores but there are a number of monsters who use their weight in attacks so it isn’t hard to find something you can use,” said Spivy.  “While parked, you could lift that boat so they have to tie it down pretty well.”

As we waited a lone elf descended from the airship.  She was tall and boasted an impressively long pair of straight up and down ears.  She was wearing a dress that reminded me of a cloud more than anything, with billowy silks that puffed out hiding her shape.

The only thing angular on her aside from her ears was her hat, which was a pastel dyed aviator helmet with goggles right out of a World War One documentary.  Her ears were pressed tightly against it, and she could obviously close them inside the helmet with a pair of flaps.

The other thing I noticed was that she was white.  I didn’t mean caucasian either, I meant white.  Her skin tone was so white that Snow White would have looked tanned next to her.  I’d seen albinos that were less white than she was.

“Attention passengers, we are departing for the Elven Dominion in one hour after taking on cargo.  Seating will be first come, first serve,” she said in a crisp accent which took me a moment to recognize.  It was that mid-atlantic accent that you used to hear in old movies.

I rose to walk up the stairs with all of the elves.  The moment I did all the elves glared at me and the aviator gave me the ‘are you serious’ look my ex preferred.  Glancing around, I realized that none of the non-elven passengers had moved when she announced the boarding.

“Hey,” I said to a dwarf at the end of my now empty bench, “How many good seats are on one of these elf ships?”

He considered for a moment, “There will be twelve.”

“And the rest of us,” I asked, counting twelve elves.

“There’s places, just don’t expect to get much sleep,” said the dwarf.

“That sucks,’ I said

“If you want to be treated like a person, you need to be an elf in the dominion,” said the dwarf, leaning back and closing his eyes while the elves slowly climbed the stairs.  “Fortunately, their gold spends just as well as anyone else and I don’t have to be there long.”

The order of loading was first the elves, they all got to climb the stairs to the side of the ship before embarking.  Then the cargo was loaded, flats of dried herbs mostly but there was a small amount of leather and other goods.  With the elves gone, the platform I was standing on was opened up in the middle allowing for full sized cargo pallets to be winched up into the ship.   After the tenth big pallet was brought onboard I poked Spivy.

“How can the ship hold so much,” I asked.

“It has an inventory system, well, cargo system,” said Spivy.  “They usually only hold lighter goods outside of the ship’s inventory which is more volume dependent than anything else.”

That only took about forty minutes.  As the last pallet was loaded everyone got up and moved to the stairs up and I stood next to the dwarf.  He grinned at me.

“Get ready to run,” he said.

The elf from before walked back down to the platform and pulled out a watch from her pocket.  It wasn’t a mechanical watch though, it looked like a small sundial with its own sun.  She carefully watched the line her portable dial made while everyone waited.  Finally, she pulled out a whistle and blew into it shrilly three times.

“Five minutes, we are departing in five minutes, all remaining passengers must board,” she announced as she stepped aside.

The dwarf rushed forward and I found myself dragged into the mass with everyone else.  Shade yelped as someone stepped on his tail.  He vanished and reappeared in my arms, leaving a pile of dead animal bones where he was.

I grunted under the weight but kept moving upstairs.  I was in good shape, and could reinforce myself with essence so climbing the three flights of stairs even while carrying Shade wasn’t impossible and I got up with minutes to spare.

Stepping onto the airship was amazing, and I would have marveled at the experience except that I was pushed forward the instant I got on deck and nearly dropped Shade.  I found myself still being dragged by the crowd as we pushed past a half dozen nicely appointed cabins.  Each cabin sat two and each comfortable seat was occupied by an elf.

The end of the hall had four compartments for their baggage, that looked suspiciously like additional passenger cabins that had been hastily converted into additional storage.

“They have inventories,” I said, noticing the full space.

“That’s kind of the point with the elves,” said Spivy.

We finally ended in a single room with one long bench down the middle, not that anyone was using the thin, uncomfortable bench.  Instead all the experienced passengers were finding spots against the wall of the room, but only the front and back walls.  Not the side walls.  Even so, the entire room was so thin that I could just about have touched the front and back walls with my outstretched hands.

By the time I got there, there wasn’t any room for me to sit except for on the bench or the sides.  The bench could be sat on, but it was thin enough that it wasn't comfortable.  I had the whole bench to myself, but I wasn’t even settled before another shrill whistle sounded and the ropes started getting winched up.

“You’ll want to sit,” said the dwarf.  Several people chuckled.

I sat on the bench, wondering what I was missing.  The floor didn’t look more comfortable than it was, so I laid back.  Shade crawled under me, easy enough with the open bench and I waited for take off.

Instantly the ship jutted up ten feet as the reindeer powered flight kicked on.  That wasn’t the problem, it was the pause after where we were in freefall for a good three seconds before the next kick up.

Shade at least had four legs.  He managed it better than I did, the traitor.  He just sat there as the ship bobbed up and down without a care in the world.

I fell off the bench.  Actually, being thrown from the bench would have been a better descriptor.  Grumbling, I sat next to the wall and tried to look out the window.  Looking out the window was impossible with the up and down motion, and as the ship rose the walls on the outside got cold.

“This sucks,” I groaned.

“Give it a few hours,” said the dwarf.

“How long is this flight,” I asked.

“We’ll get there tonight,” said the dwarf.

“We’re flying all day,” I groaned.

“Yes, and most of the night,” said the dwarf.  “It gets easier when we get to cruising altitude.”

“Ah, great.”