//------------------------------// // Chapter forty-one, Sandy Situations: Common Power. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -A day later, The Ardent Survivor, Captain’s Room, Gene- “We now have the cat that was crazy enough to kitten sit Jade when she was younger.” It seemed my thoughts were mirrored in Jacky’s expression. “Well, I just hope she doesn’t cause too many problems.” “If Savannah somehow survived Jade as a kitten, I’m sure she can survive us and take care of herself. She's a top twenty bar brawler for Palicoast. Kuril was top five and Jade was working her way up into the top hundred.” Here Jacky sighs audibly. “She’s also handy with medical issues and can cook a little bit, don’t expect five star meals like what mom does.” “Well we can’t honestly expect anyone to be that good, with some exceptions being cutie marks and or other magical cooks.” Honestly there were a lot of good chefs in the world, but I doubt anyone has tasted a witch’s brew that was meant to be eaten. ‘Witch’s brew’ tends to have negative connotations, unless it was Kuril you were talking about. “Savannah certainly has personal space issues too, in the fact that she doesn’t seem to know what personal space is.” What Jacky wasn’t saying was that Savannah was easily keeping Nefer, Flotsam and Belfry in line. Kitten sitting certainly gave Savannah an almost preternatural sense for when someone was getting into or causing trouble. “So how do you feel about her going into the field with us while we leave a butterfly, a sea pony and a plant cat all alone for who knows how long?” “We’ll try to keep it short to twelve hour scouting intervals, besides we’ll be parking in a major Saddle Arabian city. All the wood on this ship is reinforced, so it’ll be pretty hard for someone to attack without us noticing or getting our three crew members off it first.” I was actually including Nefer in that. Nefer was cheerful and small, but you should never underestimate his possible ingenuity or intelligence. “Belfry would make an excellent guard actually, now that I think of it.” “Really, why? Also I’ve been quiet about it, but what gender is that butterfly exactly?” Jacky was talking, but I was getting a bit lost in her eyes. Her feathers were also quite clean today, she preens fairly well for not having wings to dig her beak into. “Well?” “Oh… um… in general female butterflies are typically larger, known to have rounder wings and er… butts. The takeaway is that he’s male and he likes you for some reason.” I coughed into my left claw trying to not think about it. “Anyway, you remember how I told you that Belfry secreted a scent strong enough to confuse giant ants, that’s also something males are more known for. Thinking on that further, if we take it to the logical conclusion we might be able to teach Belfry to spray our enemies with horrible scents to act as a warning. After the warning, he can spray something that is effectively disabling and more toxic. We’d have to train him to do that and he seems like a smart bug, so I’m sure he’ll pick up on what I’m trying to get him to do.” “You have my go ahead to train him to do that Gene.” Crossing her arms and leaning back in her hammock, Jacky was still clearly against Belfry being on the ship. “Just remember that I don’t like him nearly as much as everyone else, even if he has saved me a couple of times.” “Are you still mad about that giant pinecone?” Why did I ask that, I know how she’s going to react to such a question. “Where did he even find that giant thing and how did it gain the safe velocity it had to only smash me into the deck?!” Yep, that got Jacky started. She was ridiculously sturdy and had about as much a high tolerance for pain as Jade. The fact that she can even walk around and rant about it meant that she’d be fine, even after her recent run in with a demented sounding mouse from the way Savannah explains it. “I know my curse was involved, but seriously? Why is it always pinecones, poisonous horse chestnuts, all the nonnative trees to the given area falling out of the sky on me, getting bombarded by moderate sized olive branches dropped by a pack of overly aggressive ducks and there was even an excessively thorny rose bush from Fillydelphia that somehow ended up smashing into me when I was five! I was on an island hundreds of miles away from the place, the only reason I knew it was from Fillydelphia was because of the tag still attached to the bush in question!” Note to self, when romancing Jacky further, don’t buy her any roses. “Calm down Jacky everything will be fine.” She needed a hug to cool down and I was the griffon to give it to her. Pretty parrot aside, this was always comfortable. She probably needed some crackers to chew on… or would that be stereotypical and stereotyping? She started to relax and hug me back. “Quick question, do you like crackers?” “Most parrots do, but not all, I enjoy flavored crackers and anything without an additive zing to it tends to be just horribly bland.” Noting that down too, Jacky was becoming a lady I’d follow into the depths of an endless abyss. I would do so not because she’s strong, not because she’s beautiful, not because she’s intelligent, but because she’s always got heart under all kinds of duress and suffering. “Wait… why do you ask Generic? No, never mind, let’s just go get me a snack. It’ll be a few days before we arrive in Saddle Arabia.” -One week five days later, Saddle Arabia, Neighgrabah, Jacky- Several delays include buzzing buzzard attacks, literally raining live cats and dogs, being attacked by a hungry Roc that apparently just ate an elephant and we probably had angered a Sylph along the way somehow as we kept getting blown off course. Generic had been particularly attentive of my needs lately, even when he was busy teaching our guard butterfly. Yeah, there was no way for that to sound very threatening, unless you saw for yourself what that butterfly could do to someone. In any case, Belfry was definitely capable of generating slightly hallucinogenic chemicals to spray at targets. That led to me spending a few hours thinking I was a gerbil. However he did it, Gene’s training certainly went by pretty quickly. Not surprising given the butterfly was moderately intelligent while still being animalistic, kind of like those bees I met. Gene had flown ahead when we arrived and talked to a few Saddle Arabian ponies about airship parking. We had arrived at the walled in city of Neighgrabah with the assumption that airspace around here is to be respected. We’d be correct about that. We just landed The Ardent Survivor outside the city, because parking is free outside the city. Inside the city walls is different story and particularly expensive. Saving on cost was a good thing and we parked close to the city wall. The ship couldn’t be easily approached from the side the wall is on and all other sides could be protected easily, however, we also parked far enough from the wall so that nobody could jump onto it. Our current objective was to discretely find information on our target. If it was known we were looking for a genie, we’d have people coming out of from all over to try and take it for themselves or the information we have on one being present. I’m sure people would even kill to find information on this, even if the genie only grants twisted, faulty wishes. “You sure you guys will be okay?” I turned back to Flotsam who nodded as I made my way down the ramp, I tripped to get a face full of sand. “I’m okay... the sand broke my fall, with most of my face and beak.” “We’ll be perfectly fine Jacky and the ship will be intact when you get back, can you grab me something to read while you’re out?” Flotsam looked over to Nefer who was playing around with potted dirt, if I remember right he bought some fruit back in Palicoast to grow small fruit trees. Thanks to some encouragement, they were actually growing. “I’ll make sure Nefer and Belfry don’t get into trouble.” “I’ve heard that before!” Giggled a bright and cheerful Savannah as she walked down the gangplank. “Wow is it hot out here? Nope, that’s just me being beautiful!” Savannah strutted forward, slowly shifting her hips side to side while coming up to me. She was wearing a Saddle Arabian cowl that covered her eyes in the bright morning sun and had on a red silk shirt that didn’t cover her belly and loose fitting pants. Light durable clothing made for the desert, she was certainly prepared. I had on my black skullcap, my feathers were pulled back into a single large braid instead of my normal braids and I was wearing a bright purple vest and cloth pants. Gene just had a grey scarf wrapped around his head to keep the sun out of his eyes and that was about it for him. We walked along the wall towards the city gates. First order of business, get into the city and slowly look around for the bizarre… good place to hear information and we’d be doing so quietly without asking questions to start off. Someone else could drop something we needed to hear if there were rumors going on around here. “Halt… ah, the griffon asking about parking.” One of the four gate guards moved forward, two outside and two on the inside of the gates. Good system, but Jade would climb over or go through the high walls. “State your purpose here.” “Business.” Both Gene and I were completely in sync with another, even in bland tones. “Pleasure…” Savannah purred as she sauntered forward past the guard while sliding her tail up under the pony guard’s chin. She flicked him with the tip of it when his nostrils flared, the guard blushed and rubbed his nose while backing off. “I’ll be doing some business with my associates. We’re looking to enjoy the market place and a few bars, but I also wanted to have some fun. Tell me, do they do belly dancing classes where you can earn money while taking them?” “O-of course beautiful, I mean ma’am… I’m sorry that was clearly unprofessional of someone in my station.” The guard was having a hard time looking at Savannah’s feral grin as she stretched out her arms upwards. “We need to check you for contraband before you can go in, we will also be checking you on the way out.” “Go ahead, I’ve nothing to hide handsome.” She fawned over the guard who was starting to cower at having earned her attention. “I believe that will be my job ma’am.” The female guard next to the male one stated with a no nonsense attitude. “Name? We need to write it down.” “The wild… Savannah!” Savannah threw her arms up theatrically into the air as she moved over to the mare and rubbed up against her sensually. “You’re certainly an adorable mare, do you want to search me… somewhere more private maybe?” The mares face exploded with a darker red, we had thought that to be impossible given her fur was already bright red to begin with. “M-m-ma’am… I would respectfully ask you to control yourself.” The female guard wasn’t having any luck with Savannah’s attention either. Savannah started scratching the poor mare gently behind an ear making her groan out somewhat. “Please stop... you can go on through already!” “Aw… but I thought you wanted to get your hooves all over my body!” Here Savannah gave the poor guard a sad eyed look. “Just go, you’re clothes are too thin to be concealing much of anything anyway!” The mare guard was turning even redder, something I thought was impossible, while clenching her eyes shut as Savannah sauntered off with her paws on her hips and humming to herself. The guard turned to us. “Is her name really…” “Unfortunately, yes, that is her name. Apparently she’s trying to get a patent on it and the court systems are dragging their heels on it.” I stated dryly, like the atmosphere around here. It was hot, oppressive and I wanted to get into the shade of the city to start doing some information searching. “Even when I told Savannah some rather bad news, her personality is just too strong to let it get to her. As a travel companion... she likes to invade personal spaces.” “That... was hot.” The male guard stated. “Shut up you!” The mare pointed at him. “Ahem, right... name?” “Blackcap.” My answer startled the mare for a moment and she gave me a long curious stare. “Is that part of your actual name?” Nodding to the guard, I waited for her to check me over. “You wouldn’t happen to have a…” A knife fell out of the sky interrupting the guard, said knife embedded itself in my thigh from behind me. I just looked at it and shrugged, the only sign of pain I showed was a small hiss. “Curse…” The female guard stated as she looked beyond, trying to see where that knife came from. “Doesn’t that hurt?” “Yes, but can we hurry this along please?” I stated in a completely conversational tone. “By the way I do have a curse. I happen to attract bad luck, lots of it. So I apologize in advance for anything that explodes, is set on fire, or does both and then turns into a tornado.” The mare checked me over, then got me a medical expert to have the knife removed. I was of course going to keep said knife as it had embedded itself into my leg after all, might as well make the most of it. “Well there’s nothing of great concern here… pirate… so against my better judgement you may go through.” The guard gave me a sharp searching look, I think I might have passed some sort of test when I didn’t react. “Watch yourself on the streets here Blackcap, there are plenty of reasons that we will let some weapons by us. Thieves roam these streets and if your business is with them, then you better not be caught stealing... even if from them.” “Don’t plan to stir up trouble, but be prepared to duck and cover when it eventually finds me.” I sauntered on in and Gene finished talking to his guard almost when I did mine. We moved forward into the bazaar to look around a bit before trying to find a tavern or bar to hear some local rumors. -Savannah- A small mare suddenly bumped into me and then ran off, I smiled after the hungry waif and waited. Eventually the cloaked street mouse came back to me glaring, she held up the decoy pouch she got off me. I held up a pouch full of money that I pilfered off of her. “Nice try, I used to know a little rogue that tried to steal my money all the time.” I snickered as I crouched down and hugged the child. She squirmed a bit upon contact. “Let me buy you some food sweetie, then I’ll let you go...”