Storms of Truth (HIATUS)

12 (REVISED)

FALORA

Aethermist whispered out of the sides of the airship, regurgitating the clouds it passed; a symbiotic relationship for those who lacked the wings of the Dragon Gods. Notolsald's skylifts disappeared into the clouds. Hands on the railing, she resisted the urge to choke out her wonder at the spray of silver on the edges of the clouds. Pictures painted thousands of words, but she failed to grasp the tales the sky spoke in front of her, pressurising her lungs. At the wheel, Alexavier fiddled with levers and the altimeters. Arrows shifted and steadied with each turn he made of the Vortex. It rode the low-hanging clouds, frozen waves of the ocean below.

Cloudsails shimmered and flew them forward. Dizzy from the ingenuity and structure of the tried and true airship, she frowned when Orilion pursed his lips. In his pocket, the disk Zyle gave him, and he pushed it deeper when he caught her eye.

"Shall we give you two a tour?" Zyle questioned. "It's a long way to Celestan and we have the cloud kingdoms to get through." He hesitated and tipped his head at her when she leaned against the railing. "Are you feeling well, Miss Falora?"

"I'm fine!" Falora gasped and fumbled for her sketchbook to commit it to paper memories. "This is great."

"Why, thank you!" Alexavier called from the wheel. "Though I think what Zyle means is that you are a little breathless." He locked a lever, then moved for them with wide arms. "You're a Lander who's never been up this high. It'll take some time for the strips to take effect." He motioned to the arched door to the lower decks. "We've got a clear way ahead, so let us show you where you two will be staying."

Falora followed the pilot with Orilion as they went below. A small suite occupied the first level, and a small corridor of doors circled into a dome where cloud glass showed the outside. Paintings of aether creatures hooked onto the walls. Some with graceful, feathered appendages, to wicked teeth chomping at the edges of the parchment. Multiple notes pointed to weak points upon some of the aggressive ones. In the middle of the dome, a table with a map stretched across it. Falora kept her sketchbook in hand to try and put her own image upon the aether creatures, and found her lines drifting when Orilion walked past her with a more unimpressed expression.

"Farther down is our storage and freezer," Zyle explained.

Falora ignored Orilion to draw further lines of the aether creatures. "You've hunted these?" Her finger pressed against the skyshark, whose teeth serrated against the paper.

"Ah! That one. Yes, it's a story I like to tell in pubs." Alex bounced over to her. "See, aetherbeasts come in varying sizes depending on high you go." Excitement sharpened his Azari accent. "Only the most daring skyhunters dare reach the Break — the area just below where Arth'lun once rested. And that one—" He prodded the shark. "Was one of the biggest I've ever seen. It could eat an entire island, and we took it down before it got to do just that."

"It was pretty big," Zyle admitted from the corridor. "Most aethersharks don't deviate off their hunting grounds — which marked this one as odd in behaviour. It was larger than usual for what most consider a lowland aetherbeast."

Orilion stopped in front of the picture with his arms folded and lips pursed. "I've seen bigger."

Alex and Zyle turned to him with curious tilts.

Falora sent an elbow into his ribcage. "Aetherbeasts don't come to the mainland," she stated. "I'm sure this one is very big, right?" She scowled at Orilion, who frowned at her. Gods, is he unable to lie to save his own life? "It's rare for such a creature to leave the cloudlands. Back to the amnesiac god, she faced Alex and Zyle. "You'll have to excuse him, his memory is extremely foggy."