Colette's Covenant

Paladins of the Sacellum

Paladins of the Sacellum

The rushing of air beat of Colette's face as she tilted her neck backwards to allow it to swoop into her hair and push at her clothing. She took in a deep breath of the thin air. She had lived in the mountains all of her life, and she didn't think she had ever been this high before. The airships she had piloted in the past were small and weren't designed to fly this close to the clouds.

Beaming, she twisted her body around to face the mast of the ship, using the rigging to keep herself in place as she moved across the yard of the main sale. The man in the crows nest was alternating between watching her and his surroundings. She wondered if he was waiting for her to fall or the captain to yell at him for allowing her up here.

Again.

Colette couldn't really help herself. Being on a ship, even a large one such as this, there wasn't much room for her to run around. Which meant that she had plenty of energy and the only place to put that into was in climbing the masts and nets of the ship.

From up here, she also had a completely unparalleled view of Vasconia. She had never seen her home country like this. The mountains of her home town had faded many days ago. They were currently passing over the unoccupied plains which were home to massive, hairy beasts that Colette had only read about in her primary lessons.

Soon, they would be reaching Gwenael. She was eager to catch sight of the capital city and so had taken to spending a lot of time in the upper parts of the ship. Sometimes, she even sat around the crow's nest so she could play cards or chips with the man on duty there.

"Colette!"

She turned her head and smiled down at Nicolas. He was glaring up at her, hands on his hips.

"We've told you not to climb up there! Get down!"

She beamed and took hold of one of the rigging ropes. Calling out in delight and excitement, she sprinted towards the end of the yard. She heard Nicolas yelling out for her not to dare-

She jumped off of the end, falling down from the top of the ship. She lost her breath as she fell completely away from the ship and towards the land spread far down below her.

Then the line pulled taut. Her body weight landed on her arms as the rope began swinging her in a wide arc around the ship. She was laughing with pure exhilaration as she swung up and around. She came up over the railing of the ship and dropped down to lean against the wood almost daintily. She was still laughing as she tossed her hair from her face.

And beamed over at Ferrant.

He glared at her just a bit enviously. He had spent most of the voyage here at the stern of the ship, leaning over the rail, trying not to lose the contents of his stomach. Not that there was anything left to lose after the first day.

"Hey, Ferrant," she beamed. "Want some more water?"

"Decidedly not," he groaned, trying not to stand up straight. That made the nausea worse.

He refused to follow her into the city to see her throw away her life. However, at the prospect of her joining the Paladins, he simply had to accompany her. This was the first large airship he had ever sailed in though and, apparently, it wasn't agreeing with him.

"Are we there yet?" He moaned miserably, running his hand down his pale face.

"It should be sometime today," she twirled excitedly. "Can you imagine? Gwenael! The epicenter of culture, fashion, and innovation! I'm going to need you to hold my money or I'm going to spend all of it on the first day."