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Adrasta typically avoided the larger islands and, usually did not descend below the level of the cloudlands. The only people who usually saw them were raiders. Sometimes they might brave a smaller cloudland to forage for food but such visitations left few witnesses. On the rare occasions that the "sky-squid" did travel to a more vast land, it was usually attributable to powerful storms driving them to seek refuge. Their pods were seldom more than twenty in number and individuals rarely got much larger than a mortal's arm. And while it was not uncommon to hear of some reaching the size of a terrmorah or troll, they were seldom seen. Some even larger specimens were said to attack ships, looking for food, but could be easily chased off with cannon fire.The adrasta attacking the ship was alone, clearly hungry, and monstrously huge. In the dark, its grey translucent tentacles and bulbous body were near-invisible. Dark spots, the size of a writing desk, were its eyes staring soullessly up at the lights on deck. Buried in its mass of tentacles, its black beak clacked and snapped. It had probably been hiding underneath the Dorath edge. Upon seeing the airship pass by in the fading light of day, it had doubtless bided its time until the darkness could conceal its attack.The animal stayed below the ship, as if attacking the defenseless underbelly of a large creature, and reached up and over the top to the terrestrial morsels on the Astinato's deck.With a shuddering splinter, the railing came away before Eris' eyes. Fragments of wood and a few bent screws exploded into a debris shower. As she uncovered her head, she saw a tentacle blindly coil around an adjacent length of deck railing. In front of her,

it was wide open.Leaping to her feet, Eris drew her sword and dashed to look down. She could just see Kelmore being dragged below, kicking against the rubbery appendage that held him around the waist and right shoulder. The body of the adrasta was twice the length of the Astinato but bulbous like a balloon:  elongated like a normal squid but bulbous as if it had swallowed a ball. It looked like it was under pressure from within.A burst of stars erupted around Kelmore like fireworks. The giant animal was momentarily outlined in a spectral flame, causing it to flinch and move the derroni away from its body.But it didn't let go.Whatever Kelmore had done probably had saved him from being eaten that second but had been rash. If the adrasta had dropped him...Eris slashed at the tentacle before it could damage more of the deck's railing. Half a dozen crew were charging about trying to bring down sails before the tentacles could shred them. Others were attacking the adrasta's appendages as they reached to make more food of the ship's passengers. Before she could cut the tentacle deeply enough to cause damage, it withdrew. However, as it retreated, it snapped upwards and outwards, impacting Eris and sending her sailing nearly ten feet. The ship, tilting towards the broken railing, shook as the beast keened. Eris, scrabbling for purchase, found herself sliding towards the edge.A blur of black fur and feathers landed just above Eris' shoulders. Irri's sharp talons caught her tunic. The whimsey groaned with the strain, but held on. The seconds were all Eris needed to regain her balance. In a flash, she kicked off her sandals so her bare feet and small claws could gain purchase on the wooden deck. In moments, she was back on her feet."Thanks," she said.Irri cast a lingering look at the tahvic before snapping her attention back to the attacking beast.Adam charged on deck followed by Kaia. "What the fuck is happening?" His shout was nearly lost in the bellowing of the beast below the ship."Giant flying squid!" Eris shouted. "It has Kelmore!"Adam looked at the writhing tentacles and the broken sections of deck. He hesitated for a moment as Kaia ran past, shouting her brother's name. Then, flexing his muscles and expanding his wings, he took to the night air.Bursts of flame erupted along the aft, port side as a tentacle crushed two oil lanterns. The flaming liquid splattered across the deck and the rear, navigational sail. Some fanned out over the side and vanished into the night. Momentarily, the burning oil illuminated the monster. Adam pulled up, seeing its size, and banked right.Kelmore's shouts, defiant but unintelligible, echoed in the chaos. A large tentacle, as thick around as Adam's waist, surged out of the darkness below.Dragonkin were good fliers in general and more graceful than pegasai but Adam was not exactly in practice. The suckered appendage snapped at him. He beat his wings furiously, twisting his tail and legs to shift his mass to one side as he dodged back down, just missing the hull of the ship. The tentacle struck his leg but Adam's thick hide fended off any injury. It had tried to twist around and coil at his ankle, but he slipped free just in time.Flying beneath the ship, he angled himself between the under-sails. The crew were pulling the ropes, above, that caused them to pull against the folding masts. Avoiding them and the ventral rigging was a trial of swooping and diving between snapping ropes and collapsing wooden frames. All the while, beneath him, was the dark unknown of the Deep Blue. It was like staring into the proverbial void; it would be easy to imagine any number of dark monstrosities staring back.A shower of sparks erupted from amidst two of the adrasta's tentacles. The sputtering flash outlined a human shape.Heart almost in his throat, Adam dove down and spun towards the movement.The smell of singed meat hung in the air but the tentacles swiftly drew the shape towards its snapping, giant beak.Irri, bracing herself against a shattered part of railing shouted to Kaia. "Wait! Hold your fire!" Kelmore's sister had fitted a bolt into a crossbow and was aiming down at the beast."I'm not going to let him die!" She fired the bolt into the writhing mass of tentacles. If there was a response, it was swallowed in the creaking of wood, crackling of flame, and haunting cries of the hungry animal.Eris didn't own a ranged weapon but kept slashing every time one of the tentacles came up over the deck's edge."Irri:  what are you thinking?"The whimsy looked frustrated. "If you puncture them in the side, it should let out gas and force it to descend." She looked as Kaia loaded another bolt. "But you have to aim at the right spot!"The words reached Adam as he thrust himself toward the beast's ravenous head. Flickering lights from above outlined the creature in sporadic illumination. Close to its beak--surrounding it--was a circle of smaller tentacles, writhing like an army of worms. As another tentacle reached for him, he dove beneath Kelmore's struggling body and breathed.Fire and smoke belched from his muzzle, right into the creature's beak. It jetted gouts of gas that erupted in flames as the giant pushed away. It also lost its grip on Kelmore.Adam grabbed him and beat his wings to angle upwards."Adam!"Eris' cry was surprisingly audible over the turmoil upon the deck. Above him, the ship was partially aflame with crew fighting both the fire and any tentacles that tried to latch on to the Astinato. Next to Eris, Kaia shot a crossbow bolt in his general direction. He flinched but it missed both him and the recovering monster.An idea came to him. "Kaia! Your next bolt:  set it on fire!"He struggled to lift the heavy human but found rising with the extra weight, difficult.He thought he hear Irri echoing his instruction as he neared the deck."You ... you came ... for me..." Kelmore sounded weak and, up close, looked terrible. Circular cuts had been sliced into his skin where the tentacles had gripped him. They were all across his face, chest, arms, and legs. He was slurring; he'd lost a lot of blood. His clothing was in tatters.A tentacle whipped past as the dragonkin rose higher. Adam banked to avoid it. "Fire!" he shouted. "Damn it, Kaia:  shoot it with fire!"In that moment he saw Kaia already moving towards the ship's aft. She thrust her next bolt into the flames of the burning deck until it caught. Next to her, Irri did the same with a broken bit of railing. Adam soared over them to land. He tumbled and rolled across the deck, as far from the flames as he could. Exhaustion wracked every muscle in his body as he called for a physician. Kaia ran to the edge and fired.Only split-seconds passed but they felt like minutes.Adam groaned, thinking he'd been wrong, and tried to lever himself upright.An eruption of sound shook from below. Out of sight, the beast roared in pain. Irri, burning railing in hand, hurled the improvised weapon down and out of sight. The same amount of time crept by.Light and heat lit the night. An explosion rocked the ship as fingers of fire caressed and gripped the hull, ripping boards from their nails. The aft rudder sail erupted in a conflagration of flaming cinders while one of the overhead sails the crew had yet to get down, caught fire.Adam slipped, falling over Kelmore's body. The delirious, injured man groaned under his breath. Again:  adam shouted for the ship's medic.No one heard him.The crew fought the flames while Captain Lassiter took the helm. Wings half-unfurled, she used them to aide her leverage and fighting the sluggish airship as it banked towards the sheer mountain cliffs. Someone shouted over the cacophony how "the whimsy" had thrown a burning log into the beast's mouth shortly before it exploded from within. Adam trusted that whatever the truth, the battle was over.Shaking and shuddering, the Astinato lurched towards the Dorath edge. It trailed embers and lit the approaching cliffs with its flames. Some were put out but others were merely fanned as winds from behind pushing the air ship towards Dorath at increasing speed. Damaged and burning, it shuddered as pieces fell off into the darkness. Lassiter wrestled with the controls as the crew deployed some of the sails they'd pulled down, earlier.Everything shook as they lurched skyward. The mountains racing towards them, jagged like black teeth in the maw of some looming giant, grew closer and closer.With a shout, Lassiter pulled up forcing the injured vessel to lose nearly everything not nailed down on the upper deck. Flames were fanned back over the forecastle from a small fire along the fore but, with only a few yards to spare, they cleared the cliffs.Leaving the Deep Blue behind, the injured ship scraped along another ridge behind the first but managed to stay aloft. Racing between cliffs and deep, unexplored canyons, the Astinato cleared the mountains. They had narrowly come to the other side.Barely under control, they plummeted towards the foothills.With a roar of flames and the cracking of wood and iron, the ship crashed. Holding on and lashed to what remained of the railings and masts, the crew were shaken like dolls in the hand of an intemperate child. They hit the grasslands with a crash, leaving a long furrow in the sparse, sandy soil.After another minute of grinding to a harrowing halt, they were down.The crew of raiders were nothing if not professional. Cries, calling out their names and positions, quickly allowed Lassiter's first mate to take charge of damage control. Quickly, teams were formed to put out fires. The captain led the on-board treatment of the injured and taking count of anyone missing.Whether by providence or skill, only one crewmember was accounted as the latter.She said nothing to any of

them but made certain their medic saw to their needs, immediately. Kelmore was first and, after a few sips of a soothing draught, fell into a dreamless sleep. Adam treated himself with a half dosage of a curative salve he'd bought before leaving town. Like those in apothecaries (was that the word?) back home, they smelled terrible and felt oily. But when rubbed into his wings, arms, tail, and back, soothed the ache in his muscles. Any internal damage, likewise, was tended-to by the mild healing magics of the alchemical healing.Eris had suffered burns and lost some of her fur. Patches of black flesh were exposed and bleeding on her left arm and hip. He gave her the rest of the salve.The two sat, side by side, as Irri joined them in silence.Within ten minutes, the fires were out. The ship was in darkness.A few stars, showing through layers upon layers of clouds, shone down upon them. They sat on the deck, huddled for warmth as cold winds whipped across the plains. The moaning of the night breezes climbed up against the foothills and cliffs as if possessed. And yet none of them had any trouble falling asleep that night.Morning was cold and biting. Eris woke first, finding Irri leaning up against her and Adam cradling them with one wing arced to ward off the wind. The skies were completely overcast, now, and swirls of snow spiraled in the heights. While she took care not to rouse the other two, Irri's raven eyes flicked open as Eris stood."Mistress--"Eris put her finger to her lips. Standing, she shivered. All around, members of the crew were tiredly changing shifts from the night watch. While few lived in northeastern Dorath, that didn't preclude beasts and creatures of a more fel nature from capitalizing upon their misfortune.Irri made to follow as Eris sought her belongings but she waved the small whimsy off. Shortly thereafter, she found her packs and retrieved a thick cloak. Where her burns had been, fresh skin had grown over the scars. Even a bit of the fur was starting to grow back. She covered herself from the unexpected cold and shivered.Kelmore was at the aft, sitting with a sleeping Kaia. He nodded to her and she returned the gesture. There didn't seem to be much of anything to say."I wanted to throw you overboard." Captain Lassiter's voice was raspy and harsh. Eris turned to look at her. The gryphon towered over the tahvic, humorless and tired. "But that would've only made me feel good for a few minutes.""I"m glad pragmatism won out.""Who said it was pragmatic?" the captain asked. She looked along the length of her damaged ship in the lea of the towering mountains and sighed. Her warm breath coiled around her beak. "We're badly damaged," she admitted, "but the Astinato will fly again. Once we have the hull more-or-less hammered into a single piece, we can work on restoring the air crystals' mana. I figure we'll be restored in a week or two.""And what then?"It was Kelmore who'd spoken. Kaia was awake, too, watching Eris and Lassiter."And then? And then we head home. We drop you unlucky bastards off and never speak of this again. If possible, we get winter jobs in the ports and make enough money to repair my ship before spring."It was easy to see the legendary power of the gryphons embodied in the captain. Part lion and part eagle:  she was more devoted and resilient than anyone Eris could remember having met. It was either that or stubbornness; the two were hard to tell apart."No," Kelmore said. "Leave if you must, but my sister and I are going on."Lassiter scowled and dismissed his statement with a wave of her hand. "You'll die before the snow sticks. Look at the peaks:  they're already capped in white!""Then I thank you for your service. We'll make our own way from here."Despite the sibling's differences, Eris wasn't surprised to see Kaia's resolute expression matching that of her brother. Still, he bore the scars from a hundred, maybe more, small lacerations. Whatever healing magics they had used upon him had done a good job but hadn't erased all traces of injury. Eris suspected he was still far from healthy."You'll freeze."Kaia looked from the gryphon to her brother and answered for him. "If that's the will of the gods, then so be it."It didn't sound as impressive coming from her as it would have from her brother. Eris doubted the rogue meant it. But she was defending her blood and little would shake her from such a position once she'd owned it. Eris nodded and faced Lassiter."And I shall be going with them." She looked over her shoulder at Kelmore's grim but satisfied look. "I've slept out in the cold, before; camped for winter. I knew we might find snow and packed accordingly." She blew a long breath through her nostrils. "They'll stay alive. I'll see to that," she said. "But I ask you to take word to the guild of our whereabouts.""They'll come for you?" Lassiter asked."Not necessarily," Eris admitted, "but if I send payment with you, they will.""And if I keep your gold to pay for my ship's repairs?"Eris laughed. "Trust me:  it's not that much. But the mercenaries guild looks after their own members. The payment will be enough for someone to come looking if you tell them where. Then, we'll likely be signed on to wherever they're going, next, and pay off our debt with service in the field." She squared her shoulders. "We can handle ourselves."A quiet voice chimed in. "Although, then you'll miss the reward of what we find here in Dorath."Irri had come up, quietly, and heard the full conversation.Lassiter laughed. "Is that seriously supposed to persuade me?"The whimsy shrugged. "It is merely the truth. If we depart, heading along the hills until we find the first gate and its stairs, we will reap all the reward. After all, while you took us on speculation of making such a find, yourself, you won't be able to claim your payment unless you are with us.""You will owe me--""Nothing," Irri said. "Not unless you get us to our destination. That was the agreement, I believe."Eris smiled. "She's right," the tahvic stated. "But far be it from me to overlook a cost-saving measure.""You'll pay me or I'll not bear your message back to your guild," the captain snarled."And you'll never get another mercenary contract in Kellendar again," Eris promised. She said it with conviction even if she wasn't sure it was true. "Do you really think anyone will want to hire the Astinato, or you, if word gets around that your last fare never returned? It isn't like no one knows we're with you."That brought the captain to a narrow-eyed fury. For a moment, Eris thought she might draw her blade and challenge them right then and there. She also noticed the nearby members of her crew watching, carefully. If she gauged Lassiter correctly, she commanded based upon the loyalty of others and the strength of her good name. There were few good choices, here, and most of them knew it.Finally, after several long minutes, the captain nodded."We shall start making make-shift repairs. For ten days we will ready the Astinato for a slow flight back home. You can use that time as you wish. If you can find your destination, we will aide you in reaching it. If you are not here, however, we shall assume you dead and return home." She narrowed her eyes. "It will, like as not, be the truth and no one will dispute me over it."Eris nodded and stuck forth her hand."Deal," she said.Stiffly, the captain shook on it.Later, they had to explain, twice, to Adam what they were doing. Clearly, he favored going home. Eris, however, wanted to see Kelmore's quest through to its conclusion. Eventually, overruled and tired, the dragonkin acquiesced."Very well," he said. His tone, though, was darker than Eris had heard in a long while.