Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Sixty Seven, City of the moon:I.

-Airship Maule, Jade-

“I started my plan of gathering some unique individuals for some lessons in friendship.” Sure they were basically echoes or ghosts of their future incarnations now, but they were still my friends. “My first target was a very shy cat who, while supportive of the efforts to knock the thing possessing Anubis off its high horse, she didn’t like all the fighting that was going on and was always a nervous wreck in a physical confrontation.”

-Ancient Anugypt, priestess interview somewhere in the desert, Quiet-

“You’ll be a good priestess, also thanks for listening to me about all my current woes!” It was so sad that Jade was separated from her family and lovers. She was quite strange for a priestess and was nothing like a noble or someone you’d expect in such a position. “You should continue to do that! Just listen to someone’s plight and get a feel for what may be wrong with them, then get them to talk about it. I’m sure you’d do wonders with doing the same with animals.”

I did kind of like animals and my friend Mr. Sting was someone that I have actually done wonders with. When I told the priestess of my friend, she smiled brightly.

“You have a scorpion for a familiar… you don’t know what a familiar is do you?” At Jade’s question I shook my head no. “You are to stay near me during skirmishes so I can protect you, all being a priestess entails to me is being yourself and being a good friend. You’re kindness and empathy will get you far in life on its own Quiet. Since you are already well acquainted with both those things, let me teach you a thing or two about familiars…”

I would learn much from her, like how to clean and patch wounds. She was fairly wise about a great many things and her plans were fairly strange, but would prove to be highly effective.

-Priestess interview several days and a few skirmishes later, Brash-

“So I have to get all the stuff in a single day and bring it back to you?” I asked as the strange cat that looked like a feline version of a jackal asked me to get some strange things. “Easy for someone’s whose going to be the greatest Sand Sprinter to ever live!”

“Yes, but can you do it with someone whose pace is not as quick as yours?” She asked wryly, this Jade was capable in a fight unlike my friend Quiet who rarely attacked and her friend Mr. Sting did most of the fighting for her. I didn’t exactly know that the smaller a scorpion was, the more dangerous its poison. Well I didn’t know that until I had met this cat, but it made sense why Mr. Sting’s poison never killed anything… he was fairly big. “Anyway, this is my task for you and Grassy, you are going to be working together and I should note that Grassy goals are slightly different than yours. You need to gather all these things in a single day and get them back to me, she has to be present to make sure of the quality of the things your gathering for me. If you both succeed you are both priestesses. If one of you fails, then you both fail.”

“Oh trust me, I won’t fail!” I would soon find out how hard the task she had given me actually was.

“Just stay courageous in the face of a daunting task. It is not only the strength of one’s body that one can accomplish great feats, but also of one’s mind when clearly focused on what needs to be done.” Jade said with a knowing insufferable smile on her face.

-Priestess interview a minute later, Grassy-

“Are you sticking me with her because she’s not liable to do it correctly the first time?” The grin on the cats face wasn’t exactly making me feel any better if I was right about the task ahead for us.

“The thing about me being a priestess is that I'm just being myself, by being yourself you can aid others with your skills to the best of your abilities. I expect Brash to fail at least twice, but I never said that she couldn’t try infinitely.” That makes sense to me Jade. “Though I will actually need all that stuff before we reach the ‘city of the moon’ so I can make something special for facing down against King Anubis. We can’t actually start preparations for our invasion without my thing being ready before that.”

“So tell me honestly… what’s going to happen when we get there?” There was something that this Jade wasn’t quite telling us about all of this, she was mighty sketchy on the details.

“Something that will take several days to do, a full week at least. I need at least six priestesses to help me do it, also we’ll need a large number of flail-tails and freed up jackals for this thing too.” Jade seemed pretty certain we could take the impenetrable city. “All while keeping the enemy pinned in the city of course.”

“What about the walls though? The city is pretty much impenetrable thanks to them and they have the advantage.” She just smiled at me worried and crouched down to pat me on the head, but I continued on anyway. “It’d be pretty hard to keep us in good supplies or to keep a siege going for long enough to wear them down. If we let up at all, then they’ll just resupply and wait us out. I don’t know if you know this, but we flail-tails are not exactly great at sieges.”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. Those 'impenetrable' walls won’t be standing once my plan is fully carried out.” Still had some misgivings about this Jade character, but Baast seemed to think she was alright. Any friend of my friend can also be mine as well I guess, it doesn’t hurt that Jade gives good hugs. “Trust me on this. If you and Brash can successfully do this thing for me, then Anubis will be much easier to deal with in the long run. Fighting a death god is going to be terrifying enough as it is, Brash has the courage and you have a decent nose for the truth of things. Use it.”

What did she mean?

-Priestess interview, several days and another skirmish later, Cheerful-

“So this is what you want me to make?” I looked over the simple design, she called it a dog house shaped box or that it could also be bird house shaped if you made it smaller and put a small hole on it for birds to fit into and build nests in. She said we’d absolutely need it for taking down the walls. I believed her immediately, mostly because it was just a hunch on my part that Jade was on to something and she seemed to really know what she was doing. “I can do it, but why do we need the sleeping big nosed dog on the top of it? Also what’s with the wild haired bird?”

“Call it artistic flavoring and paying homage to two gods of comedy that I know of.” Well Jade had my number, I really liked art and the joy such colorful crafts can bring. I like bringing joy in any way I can and paying homage to comedy gods was right up my alley! To think my fur used to be such a dull brown color a year ago, now it’s a permanently peppy bright pink! Art was my life, but I was being asked to do something specific and I’ve never actually brought someone else’s idea of art to life… I would just do my best. “It’s basically a small palanquin. The box itself will contain something of great importance, if Baast will see fit to let me put it in there for when we reach the ‘city of the moon’ to put my plans into motion. It would help greatly if you could seal it off from being opened after the thing is put in there, also make it absolutely hard for anyone else to get into it.”

“Can do, red for the doghouse, gold for the bird and the dog and a small shrine in the interior design to hold something of importance. Anything else?” I was eager to please and then she drew a long pole with a rectangular shape at the top.

“This is a marching banner, a pole with a strip of cloth at the top and I was wondering if you can put the design of a certain goddess on the cloth that we’ll attach to it. I will be carrying this pole during our plans for the ‘city of the moon’ and will be using it to set the pace.” She then drew out some more things. “We’ll also need horns shaped like this for the end of it, can you craft all this despite the fighting going on? Oh and we’ll need some drums on an open palanquin like the dog house to keep tempo with my pace for everyone else to follow, we absolutely need to be marching in unison for what I have planned to work.”

“No problem, I aim to please and it seems like you want everyone to be happy. Music is fun too, but I will always prefer my arts and crafts with colorful dyes!” Oh this was going to be so great, I just know it! “So do you have a name for this box? I mean, most forms of art have a name.”

“We’ll call it… the ark of the testimony.” There was very fun looking evil grin on her face, which had me grinning as well as it was rather infectious. “We’ll have some fun while bringing the joy back to everyone together Cheerful!”

-Priestess interview in the middle of a skirmish, Bright-

“So as you can see Bright, I need a bright mind like yours to organize the arrival of our ever increasing forces and you'll discuss how to do this with the princess later.” Jade said this as she used that unwieldly weapon of hers to knock down several jackals while swinging it wildly over her head. With a tug, the spinning object slammed back home into her palm. It was quite magical to watch in action despite the thing being so hard to control. “I really love going around the world. Sandy be a friend and cover for me for a bit, I need to finish my talk with Bright here and then I can get to talking with Princess Clarity. So, any questions so far?”

Jade ignored Sandy grunting in the background as she struggled with a male jackal as they went rolling about in the sand. She also ignored when Sandy started fighting three or more at a time, when not possessed jackals were for more competent in combat when they could think for themselves.

So Baast's forces were getting a better edge over them with time.

“Yes, while I can understand from a standpoint that it would save us on some supplies, do we really need to do it that way?” I was a little confused by Jade’s reasoning on bringing in our forces in a staggered manner when we reach the ‘city of the moon’. “Why not have our forces come all at once?”

“You’ll see, maybe you can even learn of the reason before I do it? You might even learn enough to know the how of it afterwards.” Jade chuckled vibrantly. I get the feeling that there’s something more to this stuff she’s having some of us chosen ‘priestesses’ randomly do. So far, it doesn’t seem very important to the war effort in the slightest. “The best way to learn is by trying new things. Failure also teaches, though what we’re going to do isn’t going to fail. So… you and Princess Clarity?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about and I don’t like what you are insinuating one bit!” She smiled at me, was I blushing? I certainly felt like I was blushing. “My relationship with Princess Clarity is completely professional!”

“Sure it is, I’m sure one day you’ll be wise enough to act on things.” Blinking after Jade as she rejoined the fight for a bit, I had a lot to consider of the odd sun priestess. She certainly does that 'sun salutation' thing as an exercise often enough to prove that she was a priestess.

“Can I get more help over here?!” Sand Shroud shouted.

“Oh, you’re doing fine Sandy, just duck and swing your right arm outwards right… now!” Jade called out before turning back to me as a jackal flopped onto the ground between us. She was made of sterner stuff than I to ignore the trouble we were currently in. “Just remember, knowledge is nothing without the wisdom to use it correctly and I think you are someone who is wise. Now if you’ll excuse me, Sandy looks like she could use more backup.”

She raised the thing she called a yo-yo in her paw left paw and took off to fight the jackals swarming our group. The army had split off into several groups to go liberate other areas while we kept Anubis’s forces focused on trying to deal with us.

It was hard to imagine all walks of life coming together for the cause of saving Anugypt. Even if history might eventually forget us, I would never forget what we will achieve.

-Priestess interview a day later, Clarity-

“So some things can never be fully explained, like what I’m going to do if you agree to my plan. You’re in a position to be so much weirder than those around you. All beautiful and loving beings such as yourself need some eccentricities right?” On this Jade would receive an agreement from me. “There’s a mystique to taking nonsense and making it work for you. If you can’t make people happy, then bewilder them into not trying to bring you down without making them angrier.”

“Like how you and Baast are both leading us. Things have turned out fairly well thus far, at least we’re not making a bloodbath of this and are actually getting assistance from the jackals we’ve set free of their magically induced slavery.” I was well aware that I wasn’t much of a front line fighter or even much of a warrior, but I was giving it my all to at least be more useful than other princesses that sit on their rumps behind a bunch of armed guards while expecting others to do all the work for them. “So can you assure victory at the ‘city of the moon’?”

“Yes… somewhat.” Stated Jade nervously, Baast acquiring her assistance has vastly helped our war effort. “Anubis himself is going to be a huge pain to take down though, everything else is far simpler than him.”

“Quite.” Leading from the front was not what I was doing, I preferred to lead from the middle. Far enough from being in the front to know when to retreat and enough trusted warriors at my back to protect me from behind if outmaneuvered. “We’ll go ahead with your strange plan.”

I might not be the brightest being in warfare, but I was at least able to spot some minute threads and tug at them to see what others couldn’t.

Author's Note:

Next: Jade's plan gets enacted, it's fairly obvious... and is being spelled out no less.

The 'Sonic The Hedgehog' movie is good. A clean, family friendly, movie with lots of easters in it and Jim Carrey doing what Jim Carrey does.

Comments

[Shadowshame]

Jim Carrie does a perfect egg man voice if you listen there are points where his maniacal voice sounds just like the character from the newer video games

[Booster Spice]

Staging the arrivalof the various factions sounds like Jade is aiming for Lobster Jerico?

[Herald of Opera]

So, an effigy of Snoopy in his Sopwith Camel pulling a Kamikaze attack? Sure, that should be enough to get them to the point where the Orbital Friendship laser can do its job.