Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter forty-three, Wishing Wisely: Jumping in.

-A month later, Zebrica Jungle, Jacky-

So a month ago Belfry made his third wish, since then we’ve been just living our lives and dithering a lot on the other wishes we could be making. I had convinced everyone that if it could be done within our lives or it was a dream worth chasing after, then wishing for it would make chasing said dream hollow.

Belfry’s third wish went to his place of birth, The Garden, which would now be less likely to fall out of the sky and cause a world ending cataclysm. Had we never found the genie, our set up to stop one of the crystals being messed with was worthwhile in case anyone else had tried to reach that specific crystal before the wish was made to protect the place.

I at least made a promise to Belfry to at least try to bridge a bond between us naturally, because wishing for it wouldn’t have gone over to well. Our pet giant butterfly was just happy with me just trying.

From that point it took a bit to get back to Nagrabah to have Gene’s leg looked at, Flotsam has been completely apologetic about it and we told her she could have the next three wishes. We ignored Evoker telling us that he could simply fix Gene’s leg and let it heal naturally.

Gene’s leg has gotten better since then and Flotsam has passed on being the second to use the genie wishes we had earned, she still had a few things to work out and I’ve been meaning to discuss those issues with her. We’ve just been a bit busy lately, mostly with avoiding expressing our thoughts to each other.

Sammy was actually getting pretty good at using the cannons and loading them in target practice, she was also trying to learn how to throw her weight around better and she seemed skittish about making her wishes.

The one who had the lamp currently was Savannah, she was reclining on the deck with the magical oil lamp at her side and one annoying genies sticking out of.

“You’ve been holding onto me for a month, make a wish already!” Evoker’s anger at Savannah had her grinning. Torso boy wasn’t happy that Savannah was taking her dear sweet time, I was giving everyone the time necessary to make their wishes. One of my wishes was on reserve to save someone after making a bad wish, if the genie twisted a wish horribly enough then my last wish was locked into place.

“I’m still going through my options though, you can’t rush such an opportunity you know!” We were certainly not going to think too hard about the zebra herd Savannah stayed with for a night while we were getting supplies at a nearby zebra village before starting a small vacation in the jungle. “Not with a genie like you where we have to be quite descriptive with our wishes.”

I knew Abyssinians were supposedly loose when it came to partnerships, but I hadn’t believed it at the time. Kuril and Jade were actually oddities and had colored my views of Abyssinians a bit.

We weren’t moving and were sitting somewhere in the jungle for a reason. The mystical or cursed book we were after could wait, we were camping out and doing some bird watching, fishing and in general enjoying ourselves next to a river in a clearing big enough for a landing close to our target. Flotsam was even enjoying a book of herbal cures the last I saw of her.

I was giving them a vacation from my luck, all while I was being bitten by bugs, having trees fall on me and was getting attacked constantly by wild animals whenever I got off the ship to have a look around. The river was mostly safe during the day, but at night it was best that everyone stayed on the ship.

Sure it was a bit dangerous to fish around here what with the Komodo Dragons the size of small houses, but in general it was peaceful for a place full of deadly flora and fauna if we’re not taking me into account.

“Gene, Savannah, keep watch and make sure Nefer doesn’t wander off too far. I know he enjoys the fertile soil around here and that it’s becoming his hobby to collect soil from the places we visit, but you have to remember that it’s dangerous for him to leave our sights here.” Calling that out, I headed to go below deck. “I’m going to talk to Flotsam.”

“It’s about time, stop dancing around the issue already!” For being the oldest out of us, Savannah wasn’t one to talk about issues or responsibility.

“That’s basically what I’ve been telling you!” Evoker screeched at Savannah, the genie was clearly annoyed and clutching at his horns in aggravation.

“You’re different though, you’re not actually a part of this crew and made it readily known what you were about from the start!” Savannah yelled back in his face.

“You do have a valid point there.” Barely heard Evoker grumble this as I started down the steps carefully and with trepidations, I haven’t had the best luck with stairs most of my life. “Should have kept my mouth shut.”

Going down and reaching Flotsam’s room, I knocked first and hoped she was willing to get some things off her chest.

“Come in Jacky.” Flotsam somehow already knew I’d be coming, I walked into the room to see her eating an apple and she closed the book she was reading. She put it off to the side and finished with the seedless apple. It was one of the apples from Sweet Apple Acres that I had in storage, she had a good taste in fruit.

If the apple had seeds in it, then I would have to worry about my crew member mental health and the fact that she could be poisoning herself on amygdalin.

“So what’s the matter Sammy?” I sat down next to her and brought her into a one armed hug, she liked physical contact as far as I could tell and she seemed to stiffen up when I hugged her.

“One thing is you… it’s been a whole month and you still haven’t gotten mad at me for anything.” Why did Flotsam think I had anything to be mad about? She pulled up a portion of her tail and hugged it to her chest with her hooves. I kept my right arm wrapped around my friend’s shoulder. “I just don’t understand how you can forgive me so easily for breaking Gene’s leg and spraining one of his wings.”

“You apologized multiple times for that already, it was an accident and we’re friends because you care that much about it!” I continued to hold Flotsam reassuringly, she didn’t look me in the eyes and flicked her mane a bit. “What are the other things on your mind? Aside from reminding me that I still haven’t punished Gene for getting Belfry drunk.”

“Why did you have me launch that Daring Do mare beyond the entrance to the Caves of Intrigue and past that powerful flamethrower that that Teatime guy somehow cobbled together?” Ah, that, Flotsam probably knew how I felt about Daring. “I heard you didn’t like her and yet you wanted her to get out why?”

“It’s true that I don’t like Daring, mostly because she’s the reason that my sister is in whatever the state she’s currently in right now. I think it’s as close to dead without actually being there considering how Eir can’t find her.” Things were still up in the air whether or not Jade had actually heard me or not, I also had to send mom a message about confirmation of Jade being around somehow the next time I saw Ratatoskr. “That said, Daring has a job that’s important to the safety of the world at large. Considering Daring was using my sister’s expertise on destroying a number of world ending artifacts she’s come across, I’d say it was important. Without my sister around, she has to keep said dangerous artifacts from being used and out of the wrong hooves, hands, claws and what have you. She may not fix the damage she causes in her adventures, but she’s a hero that my sister was friends with.”

“So were we expendable?” Flotsam’s question made me wince. “Also Why would Eir be able to find your sister if she were dead?”

“My sister has an open offer to end up in Yakhalla. Given that Eir is a Valkyrie, generally a mover of souls who fall in battle or are worthy already, she’d easily be able to find my sister’s soul if she were dead and I’m glad that she couldn’t.” I gently rubbed Flotsam’s back. “I don’t think any of us as being expendable and if anyone is to die first… then it’ll be me. Things worked out alright, any injuries that happen around me that are not permanent is considered a good thing. Anything else you want to discuss Sammy?”

She seemed a little less tense now, even as she twiddled the fins at the tip of her legs.

“The genie that is doing a good imitation of giant elephant currently on our ship.” That wasn’t exactly hard to see coming Ms. De Brie, I just quirked a brow and waited for her to continue. “Still, how would we have fought off that scorpion or gotten away without the genie?”

“Hey, I’m still packing a cannon behind my back and the ammunition for it, I also have a bow that can launch just about anything that can bend its string. As for getting out, that would have been the actual tricky part. If there was a way in, then there might have been a way out other than what we did.” We could have fought Scorpio, I wasn’t going to bend on that. As for being stuck in Scorpio’s lair… we were just lucky the lamp even had a genie at all and was summoned by lighting the lamp instead of rubbing it. I tried not to imagine what Teatime could have wished for. “So what about the genie did you want to talk about?”

Flotsam frowned and looked to the floor. She took in a deep breath and then exhaled softly.

“We meet a genie and one of the first things it tells us is that it can’t take away our curses. Do you know how devastating that was to me? It should have devastated you too and yet you continue on with being able to smile!” Yeah, that was pretty disheartening Sammy. “We can wish for a lot of things, but the things we could possibly want the most can’t be wished for at all.”

“No love, no killing, at least not directly, no extra wishes, no necromancy and he can’t take away our curses because they are stronger than his ‘cosmic’ powers. Finding out that last one was sad, but I’ve lived with my curse for this long that it’s like he said… it’s intrinsically tied into who we are.” Those were the rules in a nutshell and the genie was useless for what I wanted it for initially. “I would like to believe I’m comfortable as I am, I’ve even made some good lifelong friends that make it all bearable and you’re one of them. The fact that I couldn’t get my wish fully, doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on pursuing my goal of getting my sister back.”

Looking up to the ceiling, Flotsam had a thoughtful look on her face.

Jade wasn’t dead, somehow, so I no longer needed a wish to save her.

As for indirectly killing someone? I was sorely tempted to wish Teatime to the bottom of the deepest trench in the middle of the ocean. Only I wouldn’t do that, because I think he’d figure out a way to survive that and end up with the Sieve Precarious.

There was nobody I really wanted dead except maybe the assassin that went after Jade, but I was not running a crew here that cuts throats at the slightest of provocations. I held myself to slightly higher standards than that.

“I know genies tend to be mostly about teaching most beings valuable lessons about being careful with what you wish for. As such the wishes we have to make in the scope of being careful are, for the most part, entirely mundane, selfless or are too stiffly made to misinterpret.” Stating that, Flotsam turned to look me in the eyes. “The first two types of wishes are easy to make, it’s the one where we have to overcomplicate things to not leave any loopholes that would pretty much get us stuck with having to fix a problematic wish. Speaking of complicated wishes, did you know Ballad Din wished to be a prince? The odd thing about the wish is that the genie didn’t use magic to make the wish to immediately come true, but instead guided him into becoming a prince through his own personal efforts. The genie hadn’t exactly fulfilled Ballad Din’s wish until he got married to his princess. Everything the genie did, even after being set free, was leading up to ultimately fulfilling that one wish and until that happened he had to keep nudging Ballad Din in the correct direction. As such, even when the genie was given freedom from having to grant wishes, he wasn’t free from the wish made prior to Ballad giving him his freedom.”

“Okay… and where were you going with all that?” I was honestly curious where she was going with this.

“I need a hug from my best friend in the world, one who will continue to guide me on wonderful adventures and will inevitably talk me out of making a dumb wish to change my species entirely so that I’m no longer a sea pony.” She just stared at me after that her eyes filled with sorrow. “I would like to also cry into your shoulder Jacky, because I know something would be wrong with making a wish like that. I sorely want to make a wish to be something else so badly, but I don’t actually want to make it.”

“If you need a hug, I’m here for you Sammy.” Wrapping her hooves around me Sammy burrowed her head into my shoulder and cried, I just held her feeling awkward about this. “Why do you want to be talked out of it?”

“I don’t want to stop being me or a member of your crew, you make me feel like I belong somewhere even when I feel like I could be doing so much more for you!” Comforting Flotsam wasn’t so hard, I rubbed her back as she dug her snot nosed teared filled face into my shoulder. “I want to continue being a sea pony. So please, convince me to stay as I am Jacky.”

“If you stay a sea pony, you can eventually become an inspiration to others by proving that life couldn’t break you.” I placed my talons on her shoulders. “You should never stop struggling to keep your head above the water Flotsam, I practically do that daily!”

-One hour later-

“So what do you think of my first two wishes?” A grinning Savannah asked. Her first one was crazy and would take time to see if it worked.

“I’m surprised that we’re all not in bed with you.” I said flatly.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Savanahs turn to work the Genii over?

[Shadowshame]

What exactly did Savannah wish for?