Next: Chapter 2
Fenrich City - The Port.
The Port isn't really much of a 'port' in the traditional sense. No ships or docks, no water. Fenrich City was itself situated up in the hills beyond the Ka'tar Plain, out of the reach of most any of the beasts there, but as landlocked as could be.
Despite the seeming impossibility of a dock it is a place where cargo is managed, traded, loaded and unloaded. And it serviced one of the most unimaginable wonders of the world, an impossibility of a 'ship', known as Fortress Caerhayes by the inhabitants, but to the average citizen it was just 'The Floating Castle'.
Keeping such an extravagant piece of magic and technology aloft was one thing, but keeping the staff fed and supplied was another. But it was good business, and most people were glad when the Fortress loomed overhead. Prices were quickly jacked up, and a huge influx of money from the royal coffers would be brought down by appraisers and purchasers. The cash would keep Fenrich quite well-to-do as the Castle drifted off, the aloof nobles within doing whatever it is that royalty often did.
Jennet Plumleaf, an average field mouse from the farm community of Karie, had been on edge for hours. One advantage of her small size was that she tended not to be noticed, and she'd used this to her advantage, sneaking into a wagon convoy bound for the city some days ago, and done her best to stay hidden.
She'd been successful, but at the cost of any good meals. She'd poked a hole in one of the bags to steal a bit of grain, but that was about it... her nerves were on high alert the entire time, and then, a few hours ago, everything had stopped. The voices had vanished, and it had been agonizingly silent ever since, with only some low and menacing hum that Jennet's acute hearing couldn't place.
She sniffed at the air, trying to detect anyone or anything nearby before briefly poking her snout out of the rear of the wagon.
Nearby, couple of very decorated carriages have just stopped. A strict voice, coming from a well-dressed - in a serious military kind of way - kangaroo lady, overseeing a gaggle of daughters of nobility. "Half an hour, ladies, stretch your legs. We have a lot of route to cover today still, so do not be late. You do not want to start with extra demerits before your studies even start."
One of the younger ladies, one Olyvia Ethelinda von Royceston the Fourth (and few assorted titles that go with that name) is having different thoughts. The young squirrel is considerably smaller than a lot of her classmates, and can easily vanish in the crowd, even with her fancy dress... though granted, everyone in this group is in some kind of fancy, impractical dress that's for show more than anything else.
Olyvia flicks a dark red strand of hair out of her eyes, then once the bunch of bored young nobles head towards what passes for an Inn in this town, she takes a quick dash for a nearby shadow behind some crates.
'Okay. Now to find something fun to mess with...' Her eyes locate a tree nearby... and a big fat beehive up on one of the branches. 'That could work.'
Jennet pauses, but the voices are distant enough that they don't seem to be about her. Then, she pokes her nose out further, sniffing before finally pushing through far enough to look out from the wagon. She finds herself in a walled off area filled with supply crates and various wagons, all unconnected from any animals or hitching equipment. The lack of guards or people is a bit strange though, but it is enough to slowly convince the mouse to slip out of the wagon completely.
She dusts herself off, taking a moment to stretch as the long trip has made her very sore, and tired. Adrenaline and fear can carry someone a long way. But just how far, she doesn't actually know. Where she is, or... what next? Those are questions she isn't sure how to approach just yet.
A few moments later, a well-dressed squirrel girl in a hurry climbs and jumps over one of the walls, grinning as she does. Once she lands, she locates a set of boxes near an opening, and makes her way crouch inbetween them, effectively out of sight from most directions... and more importantly, within sight of the wagon she just used a branch to leave a beehive in.
Taking a few deep breaths, she settles down to eagerly watch the results of her shenanigans.
Jennet creeps through the maze, ears twitching at the sounds of someone scampering around, but that sound soon stops as well. She's not alone. Was she followed? Do the Bluefangs know she's here? She creeps closer to try and deduce the identity of her pursuer...
She crawls in her ragged clothing, a sturdy pair of overall that have seen a great deal of wear even before her journey, and a shirt that is practically just a rag at this point. She peers over to the disturbance, spying... something crouched in hiding.
Olyvia does not notice being noticed, her attention raptly in watching the wagon as slowly her travel companions start making their way back towards it. Her grey, groomed, bushy tail giving slight, excited twitches is the only movement from the noble squirrel at the moment.
Jennet watches a moment longer, then slips to the side. The squirrel seems too well dressed... too fancy... they're not paying attention, staring at another wagon?
She slips around, getting closer, but still trying to stay out of their sight before she raises her voice to a whisper. "Hey, squirrel. Where is this?"
Olyvia blinks, almost lets out a squeak, stops herself at the last second, then shoots a glare at whoever is addressing her: "ShhhT! Not now, I don't wanna get caught!" She then continues looking at wagon, grinning in anticipation.
Jennet quiets down for a moment, scoping the place out with her ears, then speaks up again, voice still low "Caught by who? This place has been vacant for the past few hours. I can't hear anyone here but me... and whoever you are."
Olyvia lets out another hiss, glancing between the wagon as her travel companions near it, and this new distraction of a... mouse? She frowns as she gives the obvious low-life a look: "My friends! Or well, not really friends, just those... other people I was traveling with. I don't want them to see me, or they'll realize..." She glances back at the wagon; someone is about to open the door: "Just shut up and watch, okay?"
Jennet blinks, then frowns and shifts into position behind the squirrel. This is the first companionship she's had in some time that hasn't tried to grab her. And the only one who might be able to give her some answers about where she is now. She breathes out a huffy "Fine." and then stays quiet.
Olyvia focuses back to the wagon. As few of her future classmates open the wagon doors, they get in... and very quickly get out, with the accompanying screams. The squirrel starts giggling, holding her paws to her mouth. "Heh heh, serves those stiff dorks right!"
Unknown to her, the commotion coming from the wagon also takes the attention of the on-shift Guard watching over the platform she and Jennet are on, causing this story to take a different turn...
Jennet is worrying, taking the time to figure out what her next step should be, and isn't really watching what her momentary companion is up to to... until the screaming starts. She sits up, eyes going wide in fear as the guards start calling out towards the touring students. Her hand reaches out to grab Olyvia by the neckline of her dress and pull her backwards.
"Shit! Shit! Hide! Quick!" She pulls the squirrel into the shadows of one of the wagons, putting a hand over her mouth.
Olyvia gah's at being touched, but if only from the sheer surprise of someone touching her, doesn't fight back. "Mrrrph?!"
Jennet makes a gesture to shush Olyvia, gesturing to shrink down and hide, hissing into her ear, "You trying to get caught?"
Olyvia blinks in surprise, and somewhere in the back of her mind it occurs to her that maybe this mouse saw something she didn't. She whispers back: "Mmph? Wha?"
Jennet waits in the darkness beneath one of the wagons, staying quiet. Her heart beating very quickly as she waits for things to get quiet again.
Olyvia out of sheer surprise, or confusion, or just wanting to see where things go from here, does the same.
Jennet keeps quiet, waiting for what feels like an eternity, but is probably only a few minutes. Whatever commotion Olyvia caused, the Guards were likely uninterested in finding anything beyond the young nobles, who they rather swiftly shoo away rather than continuing their tour of the lift.
Once they get all the nobles off the lift, the proceed to do the lockdown protocols. Everything goes quiet again, until the large mechanical noises being, as the gates are locked, and the clamps securing the platform to the ground released.
Jennet blinks, "W-what the heck is that?"
Olyvia opens her mouth, then closes it: "I d-don't know. I didn't cause this!", she hisses. Even with that, she glances around nervously as things feel like they are moving around and under them. "W-what is happening?"
The final part of this leg of the tour was a demonstration of the miraculous wenching mechanism that would pull the supplies up into the Floating Castle overhead... something that Olyvia might know had she been paying attention to the tutor...
Jennet pulls herself out from the shadows to run back towards the open area, though not quite rushing out into the open. She glances around carefully, seeking any of the guards or those students in hopes of finding some clue of what is going on. The continued grinding noise draws her attention to the large chains that rise upwards... "Wh-what is this place?"
Olyvia follows Jennet to look around as well. "Um..." What catches her attention is seeing considerably more sky than just a moment ago. She finally thinks to look up and just stares, not even noticing to brush her dark red hair out of her face. "... We are going up. Or the clouds are coming down on us."
Jennet's eyes follow the chain to its source, a great looming mountain of an object. "Wh-what?!" Is all she can say again, before her eyes fall back to the ground, glancing around for an escape. She drops down to all fours to rush to the wall. She pulls back to look along the length of it, then back to the squirrel, "W-we need to hide again."
Olyvia swallows: "But... But but I need to get back to..." Ignoring the mouse and the relative neatness of her dress, she scampers and quickly climbs the hefty wooden wall enough to see through a crack.
At the long distance to the ground somewhere below.
She looks a bit green as drops back down next to the mouse, then nods at her. Without another word, the two slink back to the shadows between the crates.
Jennet shifts back, pressing herself against the crates with the rising fear in her gut, until at last all the weeks of terror of what lay behind her gets to her, and she drops down to the ground, curling up to weep.
Olyvia for her part mutters to herself: "... What went wrong? What is this place?" She harrumphs: "Guess I gotta ask someone to get me down, even if that means those extra demerits." She brightens slightly: "On the other paw, alibi. No one will connect me to the beehive now."
Jennet has curled up in the fetal position, clutching her thin tail, feeling helpless at the moment. "All that running... all to nowhere."
Olyvia blinks and looks at the mouse, who currently looks even smaller than her. "Wait, what? Running? Nowhere?"
Jennet seems in no condition to answer questions right now, a lot of fear and stress that has been building up in her for some time now apparently overwhelming her.
Olyvia looks at Jennet for a moment longer, then returns to her own sulking as she stares at what little movement she can see from their hidey-hole.
The Castle overhead grows ever closer... not that it appears as much of a castle from this angle. From below, it's like looking at an upside down mountain, a crag of sharp stone pointing downward, though the smoother portions of it give away the artificial nature of it all, Some portions jut outward to form 'buildings', complete with small windows. Great exposed gears and and corkscrews of metal grind together ominously, like a giant pocket watch.
The chains themselves lead up to a 'small' square hole, like a tiny maw growing ever closer to the platform, clearly preparing to take them within.
Olyvia glances up from her 'introspection', blinks and just stares upwards in quiet awe. "Um... Are we supposed to be lifted into a hole? What is this?"
Somewhere in the back of her mind a small voice is telling her that she knows where this sort of system exists, but that voice is being thoroughly ignored right now.
Jennet slowly comes back to her right mind, though she's not exactly of much help as she pushes herself upright to stare up into the darkness, "Is this even real? What is this place?" The flying castle has been hear of, seen from a distance from her smaller home community, but what it actually is... that's a little more vague.
Olyvia opens her mouth, then closes it. She just looks at the looming... hole, as it closes up above and closer to them. "What... do we do? Hide?"
Jennet slowly nods, "Wh-what other choice do we have?" She truly doesn't know. She just knows she shouldn't be here... and desperately wants not to be found out.
Olyvia just shakes her head slowly. "We uh... y-yeah, we hide." She settles to be as invisible as possible between the crates, sighing: "...hide, and maybe we can find a way out."
Jennet shifts back as well, slipping into the shadows with this strange new companion... "It's going up... it'll have to come down eventually..." She says half-heartedly, uncertain if that is even true.
Olyvia nods: "Yeah..." She's not sure what to expect, if anything, right now.
Next: Chapter 2