You finished all the planning inside an hour and Gilda informs you that the two are to be boarding the ship tomorrow. No one ever tells you something ahead of time do they?
“We better get off to bed, we have to be up early so you can find a hole to sleep in while I go harass the troops one more time.”
<....>
“The little fuckers have things too easy for a long time so I’ll be back later.”
Gilda walks out of the door leaving you alone in her office. You examine the display case’s contents closer and notice an engraving on the damaged claw that you can't make out. You have a quick realization that you are going to have to pack your stuff for a journey even if you have to lug it up that path of certain death. The realization of time compounds to your panic.
After hurriedly navigating your way around the tunnels you find yourself back above ground. Although you have spent your entire life switching between underground and aboveground the transition always makes you dizzy for some reason. Once the daze wears off you head for the gate and the path of imminent execution.
The gatekeeper position is really just a punishment because most soldiers fly in, scratch that all soldiers fly in because you haven't done a lick of training. The way down the path is much easier than the way up although you still dread having to climb back up. The way down proved no different than every other day as you avoided falling to your death.
You walk through the strangely empty town square to your house. When you round the corner to your cliffside residence you find that practically the whole are hovering off the cliff looking off in the distance. You remaining eye is may be functional but you difficulty making out detail at extreme distances, another skill all other gryphons have but you don’t.
You walk into your house and climb into your attic to grab the telescope you bought after the results of your post-accident vision test. You set up the telescope on your front porch and begin searching. Trying to follow the gazes of others 50 feet above you is difficult.
After getting some prize views of the fog in the valley below you found something very hard to miss. It was a airship, so truly massive it matched the scale of the mountain top it was flying past. You zoom in with the telescope to get a good read of its name “GKS CEA---” you know it is big from the specs you saw but you were apparently unable imagine its true scale.
You know the giant ship is a night’s travel from here yet the average gryphon can see it with their naked eye. You are now very excited to get to ride the goliath in the same way a cub would be.
Yeah you have some packing to you don’t you?
~~~
By the time you had made yourself a meal, packed your suitcase and properly cared for your metal talons the sun was down. Damn that Air Force tradition of having to be armed when boarding a military vessel just to prove you are ready to die. One of the strange things is most of these rules are Airship centric. You decide to get some sleep and get moving at sunrise.
Your biological clock wakes you up at what should be 5:00am although your window shows no signs of sunrise. You get out of bed and wander downstairs, the grandfather clock says its 5:00am. You decide to get ready for work anyway.
Everything was fairly normal until you stepped out the front door. Before you said you could comprehend the size of the ship, that was a lie. The massive ship covered most of the sky, its shadow plunged the town into darkness. Pretty much the entire sky is covered by the ship’s gondola/armour plating. Guess you still have to go to work under a riveted sky.
You actually had to use your lantern the entire way to the gate.
The gate itself was no brighter as the ship is so tall it still blocked out the Sun. The ship’s size is so unbelievably huge you mind has trouble comprehending the size of the thing. You decide to ignore the ship as best you could and look for Gilda.
After wandering around above ground for a while and getting to know this part of the base you finally spot Gilda hunched over some form of machinery. She pulled some levers on the contraption before stepping away from it. You decide you approach her but a sudden loud electric noise shocks you into inaction. The machine was surrounded with some sort of magic field and pulled off towards the ship. Gilda turns around and accidentally knocks your paralyzed form to the ground.
“... Sorry about that.” The expression on her face tells you something kept her from yelling at you.
<What the fuck was that?>
“I don’t get it either, it has something to do with enchanted alloys and nethicite crystals.” She extends her talon to you.
<You’re beautiful>
“We don’t really have anything to do for the next week. No orders, plans or responsibility and I have to share this freedom with you.” as she talked she kept your face close to hers, in response you chest grew tight and you felt a warmness in your cheeks. A small smile forms on Gilda’s face.
You take a step away from her on shaking knees in a feeble attempt to maintain your masculinity. Gilda laughs at you and motions for you to follow her.
“They want us... well me on my best behaviour so we get to be treated like royalty.”
<I wonder what else is special about you.>
“It’s kind of been a while since I took days off.”
<I haven’t done real work for two years.>
“This’ll kinda be like a luxury cruise... on the star killing machine of our fleet.”
<It's like I died two years ago.>
“These things are built like flying cities so this is gonna be awesome.”
<Guess there is a reason I look like a walking corpse.>
“Come on let’s go.”