The Clockwork Tithing

The Clockwork Nightmare

Chapter 1

The airship roared like a dragon from a bygone era through the skies at top speeds towards the air yard in Bosphorus City. Captain Skysworn, a radiant sun Elf, with glowing copper hued skin, and dark, flowing black hair, with natural red and golden highlights, looked back at Detective Augustus Dascalu. "My clan has been flying these skies since air travel was invented. And let me tell you, I've never seen or even heard of something like this. It's like every airship that passes this area ends up with mechanical failure. You're lucky I trust you enough for this.
The detective glanced at his wife for a moment, before she pulled him aside. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She queried.
"That depends." He laughed. "Are you also thinking about gnomish salmon for dinner?"
"No of course not!" She playfully slapped his shoulder. "Although that does sound good!" She laughed. "No, I think it's gremlins that have been attacking the airships."
Her husband nodded his head while donning a pair of welding goggles, and removed his hat and overcoat. "Agreed. Which is good news, because unlike most spirits of the air, once they fully materialize they are killable." He loaded his revolver as he spoke.
"Careful!" Captain Skysworn shouted over the roar of the engine. "If you shoot my airship, it's coming out of your payment.."
The detective nodded understandingly, before removing his blackthorn shillelagh cane from his bag and turned to his wife. "See darling, you keep saying this isn't useful, and yet here we are, and it might be our best bet again." He smirked as his wife rolled her eyes.
"Alright captain." He began while rolling up his sleeves, and donning the magnetic airship maintenance boots that kept you tethered to the metal parts of the ship. "No matter what happens, keep her as steady as you can, and we will take care of it. However, I'm going to have to charge extra for this bit. I'm sure you understand."
His wife grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. "I love you, but I'm going to sit this one out. You know how I feel about heights." He nodded as he pulled her hand up close and kissed it gently, before letting go and diving out of the jump hatch.
He fell for a good several seconds, before the line yanked taut, and he swung helplessly under the ship, scanning the ship for signs of gremlin activity. After a few moments, he saw a small gray figure with batlike wings, holding a wrench. Its pointed tail flicked back and forth methodically with each flick of its wrist.
The detective pulled the lever on his harness, and the clockwork mechanism roared to life, spinning him closer to the being. As he got closer, he saw multiple gremlins fast at work on the mechanisms of the airship. Drawing his revolver, he aimed it at the first one, who was slightly bigger in proportion than the rest. As he neared them, the noise on the mechanism startled the first gremlin, who dropped its wrench and waved its hands in the air. "No shoot! No shoot! We fix sky boat!" The creature shouted. "Big portal in sky make sky boat break. We fix."
Augustus hesitated a moment, as the line on his harness brought him right up to the creatures. "Portal? What portal?" He asked.
The gremlin pointed in the distance, towards the open sky blanketed with clouds, but no portal in sight. "Portal dead. Still make machine break. We fix."
"So the portal is causing electromagnetic disturbances, even though it's dormant? And that causes ships to break apart near it, and even compasses a mile out to stop working?" He asked the strange creature who just nodded its head, and seemed to be able to understand the common tongue more than it could speak it. "Well, do you have an extra set of tools? Do you need a hand fixing it?" The detective asked.
The creature grinned from ear to ear. "You wrench. Help fix." Another gremlin approached and handed him a wrench.
"Alright, I fix." Augustus laughed as he walked over to the area in question and began helping them repair the ship.

~

After an hour or so passed, Augustus and the gremlins managed to repair the ship, and he convinced them to accompany him back to the captain with the news. Upon returning to the cockpit, Eliza ran and nearly tackled him in a hug. "I thought I had lost you!" She proclaimed. "After all of the ghosts, serial killers, and fiends we've faced, I thought gremlins of all things had killed you.
"Well that's actually what I wanted to talk to the good captain about." He chuckled. "You see, as it turns out, we were on the right track, but we had the wrong culprit in mind. Captain, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine. Captain, Eliza, meet Spindle, Rudder, and Fin. The three gremlins that were repairing your ship due to some electromagnetic interference from a dormant portal that was pulling some of the metallic parts of your ship apart. I checked it out, and from what I can tell, everything checks out. There was a lot of strain in those areas, and we managed to fix it, but from here on out, we should have everyone avoid that air route. Does that sound fair?" The captain nodded his head in agreement, when Spindle chimed in. "We fix! No need us," before all three of them disappeared into a dark puff of smoke.
The group shared a good laugh as they prepared to land in Bosphorus air yard. "Captain, since it didn't end up being half as dangerous as we expected, we can drop that extra charge. Although I'd still have her inspected just in case." After shaking hands and handing over the agreed upon amount, the captain returned to his post, and Augustus returned to his wife.
"Sweetheart if you don't mind, I think I'll run down to the Dwarven pub for a bit before we head home. I think I've earned a drink or two, and it's been a while since I've seen Alaric."
Kissing him softly, she nodded her head. "Don't worry about it. Have some fun, I might stop by the library for a new book anyways." As the airship landed, they made their way off of the gondola, and the couple parted ways. As he glanced back, Auggie could swear for a moment, he saw a small figure standing on the top of the airship waving at him.