"Steel Dreams Chapter 16-17" by Charles Davis

Raluna followed the tour guide through the castle’s corridors. She was back in her old clothes. She felt more comfortable. She had woken up late. Surprisingly even after Das. The tour guide had met her at the door to lead her to the airship-docking bay, where everyone else was. She was very excited about the whole situation. She had only been on an airship once before and she loved it. She had always had a strange obsession with wanting to be in the air. She figured it was due to the fact that her wings didn’t work.

The two walked into a narrow and dark hallway. They walked through it for about five minutes. The end of the hallway opened up into the docking bay. Raluna looked around in wonder at everything. It was all in one huge room on the top of the castle. From the ground floor where they stood, the walls rose up several hundred feet. The docking bay was about as tall as the castle itself. It was in the back of the castle, so you couldn't really see it from the front.

Up the walls was a large steel grated platform that spiraled up to the ceiling. The ceiling was a huge glass dome. It would open and close to let ships fly in and out. All along the platform that went up the wall, steel docks grew off the side. Attached to the docks where the ships. There were a ton of them, and each was different. There where little ones, big ones, medium size ones, cargo ships and one-man blimps. Everything that Raluna could imagine. The place was bursting with life. Everywhere, men and women, captains and lieutenants, crew and passengers, walked about working on this, or fueling up that.

“The airship you’ll be on is at the top,” the tour guide told Raluna. She led her up the platform. It was quite a trek up to the top, not just because of the distance, but because of constantly having to avoid running into someone. It reminded Raluna a lot of Redum. They eventually made it to the top. The tour guide led her down one of the docks. “Here it is, The Diamond Feather.”

It was a rather large ship. Not as big as a cargo ship, but still large. It was pointed at either end. The center was a large sphere. Off of either side of the sphere were two wings. On each wing were four large cylinders. They where the rockets that pushed the ship forward. The engines where set up on a hydraulics system and could rotate so that the ship could go in any direction. The entire thing was made out of a purple metal that shined.

“Oh, there you are,” yelled Kal. He was over by the end of the dock. They walked up to each other. The tour guide left. He was dressed in all black. From his lose pants to his puffy shirt. He also had on leather gloves and boots. Up his forearms a black leather strap was tied. Off the side of his belt hung his bow. He had bathed and his long hair gleamed a little more then when she had seen him last. She also noticed that he had a rather strong looking face.

“I thought Fetol had a small air fleet?” she asked him.

“It does,” he answered. “These ships aren’t part of our fleet. Most of them are just cargo ships and transport ships, or ships of visiting guests. None of them have weapons or anything.”

“Does this one?” asked Raluna referring to The Diamond Feather.

“Nope, it’s pretty much just a transportation ship.”

“What if we get attacked?” she asked.

“Well, since it doesn’t have weapons to weight it down, it’s extremely fast. So hopefully we’ll be able to out maneuver them.” Kal could tell this didn’t really comfort her worries. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure everyone makes it through alive.” He led her into the ship and showed her around. The inside was very high tech. Everywhere screens and keyboards blipped and flashed. The corridors of the ship where rather narrow, with exception of the cockpit and the engine room, which where very big. There where a little over a dozen people running around the ship, making repairs and setting things up. Kal told her that they where the crew that had been assigned to them. All people that Kal had worked with before, and some that he actually knew quite well. They eventually ran into Das and Satuk in the cockpit.

“Hey, pretty cool ship,” said Raluna to them.

“Yeah,” said Das looking around.

“When do we get to see it in action?” asked Satuk.

“Very shortly,” said Kal. “But until then, let me show you to your cabins.” He led them through a few corridors until they came to the cabin area. “We have a rather small crew, so every one gets the luxury of having their own room.”

The rooms where small, consisting of mostly a bed and a small bathroom, but it was more then enough. Kal left them and they each got themselves situated in their new living space for a few moments. Afterwards they headed back to the cockpit. Kal was sitting in one of the chairs near the front behind a big control panel.

“Ah, good, you’re here just in time for take off,” he said. “Lush, lets bring it out of here.” Kal and Lush, the man sitting next to him, started pressing buttons and pulling levers. The ship started to vibrate and rise up from the dock. The dome of the ceiling opened up and they passed through. “Ok, everyone wave goodbye,” said Kal as they sped off away from the castle.

“I thought you where a water ship captain,” said Satuk. Kal shrugged.

“They both pretty much require the same things.” Raluna looked out of the main window as the scenery flew past.

“Hey, is there an outside deck?” she asked.

“Yeah, top floor,” answered Kal. She ran off. After a few moments she was outside on the front balcony. Kal could see her from where he was sitting. “Hmm, I didn’t think she would actually go up,” he turned to Das, “you better go get her down, that wind could blow her right off the ship.” Das nodded and also ran off.

He eventually found his way up top after about ten minutes. The door to the balcony slid open and the wind hit him so hard it almost knocked him over. He stumbled out on to the balcony practically kneeling to the floor so that he didn’t get blown over. He walked out a couple of feet and the door shut behind him. He continued to push as hard as he could against the wind. He looked up to see if he could spot Raluna. She was dancing around the balcony with the wind whipping in her hair. She noticed him. She raised her arms and closed her eyes. Suddenly the wind blowing on Das relaxed. He fell down from the sudden loss of wind pushing on him. She giggled and he stood up. The wind was still blowing hard, but nearly as much as it was before.

“I, uh, came up to tell you to be careful, you might get blown off,” he said to her. She giggled.

“I can control wind, remember. Sorry if I startled anyone, but I love the feeling of the wind in my hair.” She gave him the smug smile and continued dancing around. He stood there and watched as she freely pranced around. He hesitated for a moment. He then smiled and joined her.

Kal looked up from his controls. He saw Das and Raluna prancing around on the balcony.

“Is there music playing up there?” he asked. Satuk looked at what was going on and smiled.

“If there is I have a feeling they’re the only ones who can hear it.”

Kal woke up. He stretched a bit in his bed and then got out of it. He always slept well when he was traveling. He took a shower, got dressed and headed out into the ship. There had been some trouble with the engines the other day, he wanted to double check them this morning.

He walked past the rooms of Das, Raluna and Satuk on his way there. He remembered their story. He first didn’t believe it. How could a Kessop forget where Resskunt was? He wasn’t to sure about Das’s story either. It was odd at first after he heard their stories. But after interacting with all of them for a few days while on the ship, he believed. The thing that led him to believe Satuk was how he acted. He had seen people go into various stages of shock, or other things, after they went through something pretty dramatic. It was easy to tell Satuk was going through just that, especially with his occasional mood swings. He had gotten to know Satuk pretty well. Like himself, Satuk had traveled around quite a bit.

When it came to Das’s story he was still a little iffy. He decided to go with it though. After all it was kind of hard to deny that there was something going on with him after what happened back in the castle. He had also noticed that Das seemed to be getting knew things to his personality ever day and with every experience. He had over all decided he could trust the two. It was just the Elf. He wasn’t sure what to think of her. He had met quite a few Elves before, most of them where rather quiet and peaceful. But Raluna was something else, she was a pretty rambungshish creature. But then again, of all of the Elves he had met, he had never met a Jeran Elf. He had met a few Saratans, but never a Jeran Elf. He still wasn’t sure if he could trust her though. When Satuk and Das where spilling their guts to King Ald, she was silent. All he knew was that she escaped from Redum with them.

He had finally reached the engine room. It was almost as big as the cockpit. In the middle of the steel grated room was a large blue glowing ball floating in the air. He walked around and made sure everything looked right. He then walked over to a panel on the floor. It slid open. He knelt down and started making sure all of the wiring was right.

“Watcha doin?” He jumped with a yelp and kicked back on his butt. It was Raluna. That was another thing he was a little nervous about, she was really quiet when she walked.

“Oh, sorry, you scared me,” he said recovering.

“Sorry, I’m quiet when I walk. So, what are you doing?” Kal got up and went back over to the panel.

“Oh, I’m just checking to make sure all of the power is being distributed equally to the engines.”

“What’s that thing?” she asked referring to the ball.

“That’s the energy ball, it’s what gives the ship power.”

“How does it work?”

“Well, the ball itself is actually all magic. We have a group of sorcerers and magic users, of all different types of species that work for us. Basically what that is, is all of their powers put together in one big mass of energy. We then use all of that energy that the ball has and feed it into the ship for power. Not only does it make the ship run really well, it doesn’t have any pollution. It’s how a lot of airships are run, including many of one’s in Dox.”

“I thought the ones in Dox where run off of Saratan wind magic,” said Raluna. Kal was surprised she knew that.

“Yes they do actually, but it’s still magic is what I’m saying.”

“Oh,” responded Raluna.

“How did you know that Dox uses Saratan magic?” asked Kal.

“Oh, a lot of my friends parents got jobs supplying the magic when I was a little kid.”

“Yeah, well, Saratan wind magic is known to run faster then just normal sorcery. Unfortunately it takes quite a few Saratans to create a big enough ball to run a ship on, and there aren’t that many around here.”

“I see. So how long does this one ball last for?” she asked.

“About four to five months before a knew one needs to be created. You sure are inquisitive,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve just always loved mechanical stuff like that.” He thought for a moment.

“So you had a lot of Saratans friends when you lived in Jeran?” he asked. He knew that she was from Jeran because she had told him so back when they where on the mountain.

“Yeah. I also had a lot of Elven friends to,” she responded as she looked at the glowing ball.

“Oh, I always thought that the Jeran Elves and the Saratans didn’t get along with each other.” Raluna shrugged.

“People just think that because of the war. It’s been over for a while though. People tend to forgive and forget.” Kal thought for a second.

“How old are you?” he asked.

“Is this how you talk to most ladies?”

“Oh, no, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Kal responded apologetically.

“Fifty-two,” she said after a moment.

“So you were born right when the war ended?”

“What are you trying to find out about me?” asked Raluna. She had caught on that he was trying to find something out. Kal sighed.

“Oh no, it’s not like I’m trying to find out some secret. I just would like to know more about you if we’re going to be traveling together. I’ve had some bad experiences with travel companions before.” Raluna smiled.

“I understand. But you have to tell me about you first.” She sat down next to where he was kneeling. He repositioned himself in a sitting position and faced her.

“Alright, what do you want to know?” he asked. Raluna thought for a moment.

“Well how old are you?” Kal smiled at the question.

“29 pushing thirty.”

“Umm, how long have you been working in Fetol for?”

“5 years.”

“Wow, you’ve moved up in the ranks pretty quickly.”

“What can I say, I’m good at what I do.”

“Alright, next question. Uhh, what was the name of your last girlfriend?” Kal expression quickly dropped. He tilted his head to the side. He got back in a kneeling position and started looking over the panel again.

“Um, if you’ll excuse me I have some work to do,” he said in a very quite voice.

“Ok, now you have to tell me.”

“I’m sorry,” said Kal with smirk at how he was acting. “It’s just not something I like to talk about.”

“Well if you don’t tell me I don’t know if I can trust you fully.” He laughed.

“You really are inquisitive, huh?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t like things being kept from me.” She thought for a moment. “But believe me, I know what it’s like to have a troubled past. The more people I meet the more I think that there is no such thing as a happy past. But how about this. I’ll tell you my story, and then if you want you cant tell me yours.” He smiled.

“Ok,” he said. So she told him. He listened in great interest as she told him about growing about in the Jeran forest, how she was both Saratan and Elven, how her parents died, all the way up to where she met him. She finished telling her story. She sighed as she started to think about her grandmother again.

“Thank you,” he said after he had fully taken in everything she had just said.

“Ok, now you,” she urged. Kal sighed.

“Well, I guess I’ll start off when I was young. I was an orphan. I grew up in an orphanage in the city Leis on the Ice Continent. I went on a boat trip when I was very young, and ever since then I loved the sea. Unfortunately on the Ice continent, most of the ocean surrounding it is frozen over.

“When I was thirteen I decided I was going to live on the open ocean. I ran away from the orphanage. I managed to make my way to the area of ocean surrounding the Ice continent that wasn’t frozen, through hitchhiking and even walking across the frozen lands by foot. To this day I’m still amazed I made it that far without dying from the cold. Anyway as soon as I got there I managed to find a job on a fishing boat. It was tuff, but it was better then the orphanage.

“One day while out on a fishing trip I noticed a really large vessel sailing by. I had been working on the boat for almost a year and had had about enough of it. So I stole an emergency boat and I rowed over to the large ship. I managed to sneak onto it with out anyone noticing. To my surprise it turned out to be a pirate ship. I hid in the storage room for a few weeks hoping that no one find me. Unfortunately they did. They hauled me out on the deck and were going to through me over board. Before they did the captain stopped them. He asked me if I had gotten on all by myself. I told him yes. He asked me how far I had traveled. I told him about the orphanage and everything. It turns out that he joined the ship under the same kind of circumstances. He made me part of the ship.

“I grew up on there. I learned how to fight, I learned how to sail, and I learned how to kill. I was good at all three. I killed more men in my teenage years, then most soldiers in their forties ever will. We were ruthless, no one lived. When I was eighteen we where on a raid of a certain village. I met a girl who was happening by the area at the time. We took her as one of our prisoners. I was sent to guard her. We were going to sell all of the prisoners off on the black market. Something happened though. Through the weeks we sailed to the place of slave trade, I got to know her. We got to know each other.

“We ended up selling her to a rather horny farmer. Afterwards, I couldn’t get her out of my head. Ever second of every day I thought about her. I couldn’t take it. With out telling anyone, for they probably would have killed me, I left the ship for good. We where docked in a town when I did it so it was easy for me to get away. I stole a horse and rode as fast as I could. I finally reached the farmer’s house. I walked directly in and killed him immediately. I freed her.

“She ran off and stole my horse. I chased after her for about a week. I finally caught up. She didn’t run. She wasn’t scared of me in the least. Her name was Letew. We traveled together for a few weeks. One day when we were sleeping in the middle of a field I rolled over and woke her up. I told her I loved her. She kissed me. From that day on I had given up pirating forever, just for her.

“We eventually married a year later. We had a child ten months after that. A daughter named Sanal. We built a home on the Hill continent right near the ocean. It was the happiest years of my life. I remember we had a special hill. It was in the right spot so you could see the whole ocean. I remember sitting up there for hours reading to my daughter.” He took a deep sigh. It was easy to see he was struggling.

“One day I went to the market which was a few miles away. I returned to see a man cut the head off of my daughter. It was right outside of the front door. She was trying to run away from him. I later found out that my wife had suffered the same fate inside. I screamed as the man took the swing. After she was dead he looked at me. It was the captain of the pirate ship I used to belong to. The same man who once saved my life. The ship was on one of its raids. He had completely forgotten about who my wife was, he also had now idea that she had any relation to me. As soon as he saw me he dropped his sword and fell to his knees at the realization of what he had just done. I picked up the sword and took his head.

“After that, I placed all of the bodies inside the house and burned it, along with everything else I owned. I just walked away from it all. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t become a pirate again. But I couldn’t just stay in one place anymore either. That’s when I came across Fetol. I joined the water fleet there when I was twenty-four.” He lowered his head and looked at the ground. “I still go back to where the house was every year to visit them.” He stayed sitting with his head lowered. Raluna got up and walked over to him. She kneeled next to him and took his head in her arms and held him.

He sat in his chair and stared at the throne room. It had been so long. So lonely. He kept his eyes on the room around him. It was large. The multi-colored walls rose up twenty feet and domed at the top. Down the middle of the shining black and white tiled floor was a long red carpet. It stretched down and ended at the large double doors which was the main entrance into the room. On the other end was a big stand with four stairs going up to it. On top of the stand was a large golden throne in which he sat in.

He looked around the room. All of the doors that were connected to it. Every single one was a different shape, and every single one was a different color. He though it was a nice touch. Everything was interesting to look at. Everything was creative and fun. That’s just what he wanted. If only he had someone to share it all with.

He leaned his head on his hand and sighed. Jerit came in through one of the doors on the side of the room. He scooted himself up to the throne. He turned his big eyes up towards the figure in the throne.

“I hear sigh,” he said, “am you sad?” The man in the throne looked down at him and smiled.

“No, I’m not sad Jerit. I haven’t been sad in a very long time.” He leaned back in the throne. “No, not sad at all. Just lonely.” Jerit thought about what he said.

“Lonely?” he asked at last. The man in the throne sighed again.

“Yes Jerit, lonely. It’s a feeling people receive when they haven’t come contact with another person in a very long time.”

“And this cause sadness?”

“No, Jerit. I’m done being sad. I escaped from that. I could die right now and I would be the happiest man alive.” He looked deeper down the carpet. “It’s just that I wish there was someone here for me to share my happiness with.” Jerit also thought about this.

“I here for you,” he said at last. The man looked back down at him with a smile. He put his hand on top of the Jerit’s head.

“Yes you are. And you always have been. This I thank you for.” He patted his head. After a moment he turned back to looking at the room and let out another sigh. Jerit turned around and reentered the room he had just come from. Suddenly the radar switched on. There was something there.

“If master lonely,” he said to himself, “I bring people.”