With the Kid down on the surface traveling to who knows where, we were left on the Bastion to our own devices. With it being the middle of the afternoon, there wasn't a whole lot that could be done. The Bastion had nothing wrong with it, as I made sure of time and time again, and there was still no gust of winds that were strong enough to push us along.
Zia was busy checking the food stores down in the Distillery, seeing what she could cook up later on. She may have never touched her harp much throughout our trip, but she definitely became a much better cook than any of us. She was quite the prideful one when it came to serving us a good meal.
Zulf went back to scouring the land some time after the Kid left, seeing what could be used as landmarks on that map of his. He stood close to the edge, scanning the horizon, skyline, and terrain with that spyglass. He made sure nothing escaped his view.
He stopped every now and again though, either taking a quick break, or using that time to continue sketching his map. Not once did he ever mention a city being a spotted since there wasn't any for him to see at that time.
Me? Well, I went to back to working on that old pocket watch I mentioned before. Didn't make much progress, but I got the thing ticking. I just needed to figure how to fix the mechanisms inside it so the hands would start moving again, from there I'd just need to wind it and it'd be in working condition for me to use. Shame I never got around to fixing it up though...
It was about an hour later, sometime before the evening would roll around when Zulf spotted something interesting on the skyline. There was something coming our way, or...a whole lot of things coming our way to be exact. Turns out our arrival didn't exactly go unnoticed as we managed to catch the attention of some of the land's occupants. The Bastion ain't really a hard thing to miss when it's the only landmass floating in the sky.
Zulf slowly pulled the spyglass down and away from his eye, leaving his mouth hanging agape as he made several futile attempts to express his own astonishment at what he had just seen. Through just a simple scan at the edge of the horizon, he had seen something that was once the talk of old world fables, that being horses with wings. But what he had seen was nothing of the sort, it wasn't fake. It was real, and it was coming towards the Bastion.
He had seen at least a dozen of them, maybe two, of those winged horses, all of which ranged in a plethora of colors ranging from the darker scales of the color spectrum, to the brightest of colors from head to hoof. Even stranger, the manes atop their heads were colored either to match their coats, or to compliment its colors. What perplexed him to the greatest deal though was that some were were wearing hats and goggles.
...Goggles for Pyth's sake!
The overload at seeing something as confusing as that almost caused his brain to go into a complete shutdown while he tried to comprehend the information, but he pulled himself away from the sight before such a thing could happen. Right now, there was the issue of those things coming this way, and there was no way to tell if they had hostile intentions or if they wanted to see the strange anomaly that stood in their sky.
He had to do something...anything just to show them they mean business and they won't be pushed around if it came down to it.
He quickly folded the spyglass back together and stuffed it into one of his coat's many pockets. He then whirled around, away from the edge and sought out to find Rucks. Knowing him with his habits as of recent, he was likely back in the forge working at that old pocket watch of his.
As he raced over to the building a short distance away, he bumped into the Squirt who happened to come across his path at the improper moment. The little Windbag spun around violently in place as Zulf ran by him, leaving the poor thing to its plight as it collapsed into the dirt with a soft thump.
And sure enough, as he neared the forge, out came Rucks.
Noticing the frantic pace at which he was traveling in, Rucks stopped in his tracks outside the building, awaiting his approach. As he quickly neared the aged man, he quickly pulled the spyglass out from his pocket and practically shoved the thing in his chest. "Look towards the skyline to the Northwest, we have some company headed our way. You wouldn't believe me if I told you what's coming, so it's best to look for yourself," he quickly stated before running off towards the Arsenal.
He left Rucks standing there in a mild state of confusion, an eyebrow cocked as he looked over the spyglass in his hands. He didn't know if he his lack of sleep finally caused him to snap, or if he was being serious. Either way, he would see for himself.
Zulf then burst through the Arsenal's door, intent on finding something worth using that would show they meant business of their own too. His thoughts were keen on choosing something that didn't look too menacing, nor looked too primitive and cheap. A Machete? No no, a bit too intimidating and I would have to get extremely close to use it. A Pike...? No. A Musket? No, thing only has one shot to fire before I have to reload.
He then stopped as he neared the far left end of the weapon rack. There he found the perfect weapon for him to heft for a while: the Kid's Cael Hammer; a tool turned weapon from when he once worked as a mason on the Rippling Walls. Zulf smiled as he held the weapon with both of his hands, letting the larger square end face outwards. "Perfect."
With a fire of determination sparking behind his eyes, he stormed out from the armory. From there he noticed Zia and Rucks standing at the entrance of the Distillery, the Anklegator, Pecker and the rest of the creatures remaining off to the side next to them, minus the Mechanical Bull of Pyth, which was nowhere to be seen with them.
With the hammer in hand, he rushed over towards them, planting himself a ways ahead of them as to act as a human barricade in case things went south. From there, he waited...
As the sound of many beating wings came closer and closer, he forced a scowl to become etched onto his face and spaced his feet apart from one another as to show a bit of a combat stance. He may not have been trained to fight like many of the Ura, but he still had the fighting spirit which many of them had.
And at last, they appeared.
One by one, the winged horses appeared over the side of the Bastion, rising a few feet above the dirt before landing with a soft clop of their hooves. They all seemed to be looking over the Bastion with, surprisingly, a mixture of awe and amazement, completely ignoring him with the hammer which he held.
Zulf softened his stance and expression as he watched the situation unfold before him. He was a bit confused and amazed himself as he stared at them with the same curiosity they shared with the Bastion. By just looking at their faces he could see the arrays of emotion they were expressing, emotions that a human such as he, Rucks, or Zia would be capable of. The body language and facial movements...
It was all the same.
Zulf let the hammer loosen up in his hand and with a soft thump, let the larger end hit the ground below. The small thump seemed to catch the attention of pretty much all of them, as he then felt the eyes of many upon him. The silence wasn't one that was tense, but more-so a silence that required the attention of many; their attention.
Zulf cleared his throat and loosened his coat's collar, wanting to provide himself a bit more air than what was normally required. Something like this was a bit of a long shot, but with what he had learned already, there may be a chance he could communicate with them if they spoke their language. The same for them with him, Rucks and Zia.
"Welcome to the Bastion," he said.