Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Eight: Caring Cozy Coast: Aftermath Diagnosis.

-Jacky-

“Are you sure we can’t go to black skull island?” There was sure to be some kind of treasure there to dig up and it would be relaxing to me at least.

“No Blackcap, Jade’s in no condition for us to go on an adventure or get sidetracked!” You may be upset Fizzle and a little uptight at the moment, but I was just as upset that Captain was ailing and out of action. “She needs us to be around to take care of her and she needs rest, we’re going straight to where Kuril thinks she’ll be able to relax.”

“Hey, at least we left Klugetown without any permanent disfiguring injuries.” If the captain hadn’t thrown me first, then that might have been me provided I could do magical alchemy at the time. I would have done the exact same thing and would have thrown her to safety.

It wasn't long after that she took that punch to the spine, but to be fair I did tell her he was coming.

“Tell me Blackcap, was all that effort really worth it?” I can understand you having doubts Fizzle. Look at it this way, it was an adventure and you can’t possibly expect everything to go smoothly. I certainly didn’t and it went pretty well. “Jade’s practically going to be paralyzed from the neck down for more than a week! If we were to take her to a professional hospital, which I will remind you one doesn't exist in Klugetown, I’m sure we’d find out that her spine is cracked.”

“I think it was all worthwhile. We saved a damsel in distress and helped a guy get together with someone he loved. Plus we have an airship! That’s a pretty expensive thing to get out of an adventure.” The adventure was pretty low key and I got to hit someone with a chair and a desk, I even fought a pig or two. It all still worked out in the end and it could have gone far worse than it did with me around. “The captain will be capable of walking again, provided she doesn’t take another skeleton shaking blow to her back. She just needs time to heal Fizzle.”

“She’s going to wake up to pain Jacky.” That’s what the painkillers are for Fizzle, though I could understand how you felt about Captain being hurt as she was. She was my Captain after all. “I feel a bit helpless knowing that I can’t help her with that.”

“Look at it this way, you get to play nurse for her and can even ensure she gets better before she does anything else.” There was the thought provoking look I was trying to bring about in Fizzle, she was silent for a long while. “I’m upset that she’s hurting too. Don’t forget that she’s my friend as well.”

“Fine… are we still on course?” Of course we are Fizzle, I’m not bad at navigation and steering. Though I could do a little more work on landing an airship safely.

“We’re almost where Kuril wanted us to go, we should see it soon if you want to go take a look over the side. Otherwise go see how everyone else is doing.” She nodded to me and then went below deck.

I stayed at my post and would be busy making sure we all got to our next destination in as safe a manner as possible. I’m thinking of my luck in that regard, hopefully we can land this airship intact and be capable of takeoff again.

We renamed this ship The Ardent Survivor, we were absolutely going to try and keep this one from crashing.

Knowing our collective luck, Sekhet might just get a new skull ornament when we return home. A smile crossed my beak as I thought of what I called home, Airship Mauled would always be my last port of call in any adventure.

-Kuril-

I sat at the bedside staring at my daughter, her breathing was a bit abnormal. As soon as she woke up, she was going to need to immediately ingest the painkillers. Someone had to be here to do that for her and it may as well be me.

Holding her hand was all that I could do for Jade right now, she looked so frail to me. She hardly ever got sick and she was so full of life, now though... I just stared at her troubled form.

We sorely needed a hospital for Airship Mauled. As mayor, I needed to figure out how to get one built.

We needed a lot of things really. An income, more people, more businesses and a steady food supply that isn’t reliant on a somewhat lazy goddess that’s taken on a job of being my secretary. It made me wonder what Sekhet and Maries were getting up to back home.

-Sekhet-

An explosion happened and I poked my head up over the wall.

“Bring it on Celestia, you will not take any more from me!” I shook a curled paw at the sun princess. “You want a war, I’ll absolutely give you one!”

“Isn’t this a bit ridiculous Sekhet?” The Maries all asked at once. “Starting a war over a slice of cake, we honestly don’t see what you see in such sugary treats. Fruit pies are better.”

“See, you have those who speak blasphemy on your side, you’ll never win!” Celestia shouted while pointing to the chimera.

“Maries, I respect your existence, but she ate my cake and that means war!” I shouted and the Maries just backed out of this. This must be getting too dumb for them.

“I’ll take whatever you can dish out sphinx!” Despite my currently being bigger than her, Celestia came nose to angry nose with me.

“Hey everyone, I made caramel cake with chocolate chunks and cinnamon!” Both us goddess level beings immediately stopped getting into each other’s faces and went to sit down and stare at Fresh Start with begging eyes. “Why am I not surprised at all, that that’s what it takes to get you two to stop fighting? Sekhet gets first slice, because 'somebody' ate her cake.”

“That’s completely unfair! I’m your princess, shouldn’t I get the first slice? How was I supposed to know it belonged to someone? It was just sitting on a plate out in the open with a beautiful candlelight vista behind it of the setting sun, with a fork and a sign that says doughnut eat in front of it.” Yes, because I put that sign there Celestia, you’re just as goddess as I am about food. “It’s not a doughnut though and it was a very enjoyable slice of cake.”

“I didn’t know the princess of the sun was that illiterate, how has your nation held together for this long without need of a more literate goddess like me?” If one were looking at me, they’d easily tell that I was quite mad at the sun princess.

“Hey, I’m only illiterate when it suits my needs and gets me a slice of completely unguarded cake!” That’s not a defense Celestia, that's you admitting your guilt.

“You knocked us out and we were the ones guarding the cake for her!” My fateful friends the Maries intoned.

“Yes, as you can see, that poor unguarded cake would have fallen to the mouths of an evil chimera if I hadn’t stepped in! So it’s a good thing that I did.” At this point I don’t even think that you’re hiding it at all Celestia. You are just dragging this out just to be amusing to me and are hoping for a lighter punishment. “Just think. You, the evil chimera, might have eaten it and then you’d be in trouble with this massive sphinx. It’s a good thing I saved you from the temptation and the siren call of that most impossibly attractive snack. In fact, you should be thanking me for eating it!”

“That’s it, everyone in this room is being asked a riddle!” My angry shouting shook the walls, try and be cute now Celestia. You can’t escape as I’ve magically disabled teleportation, flight and all means of quick escapes from the area. “No ifs ands or buts allowed!”

-Fresh Start-

Celestia’s first true meeting with Sekhet did not go how I expected it would, I thought our burgeoning town would be leveled to the ground in a pitched battle of violence and destruction. Instead it’s just petty squabbling at its finest.

I can now never look at Celestia in awe, especially with knowing that she’s actually quite evil when it comes to unattended cake.

-Kuril-

I had to think about all of that, on top of being Jade’s mother, a witch and a restaurant owner.

So many things to deal with at once, but I’m sure I could manage by dealing with one thing at a time as they come. Nobody said doing any of these things would be easy and trying to do them all at once would be just plain nuts.

I sure hope Cheerilee and Fresh Start could last another week or two without us.

-Some time later, Jade-

My first thought was ‘pain’ upon my eyes snapping open and I moved to scream only to have something forcefully shoved into my mouth. The thing in my mouth tasted absolutely horrible. I was going to try and spit it out, only for a hand to clamp down on my mouth tightly.

After that, I looked up at my mom. She was standing over me using her right hand to hold my mouth shut. She gently rubbed my throat with her left hand until I swallowed the horrible tasting thing she forced upon my horrified tongue.

Why did medicine always have to taste so horribly bitter?

“Sorry about this my little tom cat, but how would you rate your pain upon waking up. Left eye for one and right eye for something much higher.” Well mom here’s my response, I winked my right eye multiple times. “Okay, pretty bad, give the painkiller dosage a minute to kick in. You’ll be feeling much nicer and I’ll take my hand off your mouth then. Just breath gently through your nose Jaded, you need to save your energy if you are to get better quicker.”

Define better mother. Aside from the sharp constant and slowly dulling pain, I couldn’t feel my arms or legs very well at the moment. That my limbs still hurt let me know that I wasn’t going to be permanently disabled. Just disabled for a while.

“Did… you…” I started croakily as soon as mom removed her hand, how long had I been out?

“Did I what my little tom cat?” she ran her hand over my head and pulled some loose strands of green hair out of my face.

“Did you get… the number of that donkey cart?” My mother smiled fondly at me and caressed my cheek, she even started giggling a bit.

“I can tell you’re going to be just fine Jaded, but don’t try to get up please.” Mom, I don’t think I could even if I wanted to at the moment.

“Don’t… think I can.” I was gently pulled into a hug.

“It’ll be okay, you need to rest for a week or two.” Oh sure, because that’s the natural amount of time someone would take to heal from injuries that leaves them mostly paralyzed.

“What about… Fizzy N’ Jacky?” I was far more concerned about them than myself.

“What am I going to do with you? You’re always more concerned about your friends, which actually makes me pretty proud of you. Jacky took some minor injuries fighting some of those pigs off, but that’s her natural state of existence anyway.” Mom don’t make me laugh, giggle or snort. It vaguely hurts, that strong painkiller must be really kicking in now. “Fizzle’s a bit drained of her magic and she’s hurting emotionally because you’re hurting physically. She’ll hopefully be fine once you start getting better.”

My ears twitched. I was hearing the soft sounds of shifting tides, the song of seagulls going about their day and a salty sea breeze permeated the air. It all sounded and smelled so familiar. I looked beyond my mother at my surroundings, I was not on an airship and I wasn’t in Klugetown given the bright colorful buildings.

“Where are we?” Why did I feel as if this place was familiar? At least it felt familiar. “Also, could I get something for the taste in my mouth?”

“Since we were in the neighborhood and you needed a better environment to rest and relax in. I had us brought back to Palicoast for a temporary visit.” This would be one of your better ideas mom, it would certainly be a really nice place to relax. “Now hold on while I go and get you something to drink. You’ve been out for more than a day so try to stay awake for a little while, Fizzle will be really happy to talk with you.”

I wondered if our old neighbors were around. They likely were, as not much really happened around here in the place of my birth. I wondered if I was in the local hospital, it didn’t seem white or dreary enough for one.

“Jade… you’re awake!” The tremor in Fizzle’s voice brought me out of my introspection. She came over to me and gently nuzzled her face up against my neck.

“It’s good to see you too Fizzy, what happened?” Sitting down beside me, Fizzle the adorable pony started telling me a story about how mom got quite mad and tore into Gonnan's hide. It was kind of hard to believe my mom could do something like that. “So you helped mom take Gonnan down a peg using your powerful imbuements. What happened after that?”

“We left after she picked up all the weapons. We don’t exactly know what happened, but Soricini came back badly roughed up.” So casting with sunlight caused a localized blinding solar flare. It made me wonder what casting and sustaining with air would exactly do. I was going to remember this. “He told his men to set us up with an airship, he also had a long talk with Tarsus and his daughter. I think everything worked out. The Shapeshifting Siesta are doing A Capella on a street corner near here, Mr. Huge is just tap dancing though. They are telling people to not trust less colorful changelings nearly as much, it sounds like it’s going to be their disclaimer. I think Merriami Sorex is going to join their group as a dancer, she’s doing much better than you are with a few good meals from Kuril in her.”

“Here you go Jade, some water to get that taste out of your mouth and some warm soup.” My mother held a water filled cup out to me straw first and I greedily sucked down some water to get the taste out of my mouth. She gently pulled it away and sat down next to me. “Don’t take in too much, too fast Jaded. Now open your mouth and get a taste of my version of medicine, its soul food for your tongue.”

“You really know how to spoil me mom.” I took in the broccoli cheddar soup and smiled, tasted euphoric like always. “How long are we going to be in Palicoast, a few days?”

“Try a week or two Jade.” Mom spooned me another bit of soup.

Author's Note:

Welcome to some peaceful slice of life chapters or adventuring around Jade's old home town.

Magical Alchemy list.

1. Fish Bones (simple).

Cast: Water breathing (Temporary passive water terrain survival buff). Breathing water as if you had gills, permanence can be achieved with repeated casts.

Sustain: Swimming efficiency and deep water survivability increases.

Self-Sustaining: Luminescence. Once used as a sustain effect, bones glow softly on their own.

2. Fish Scales (simple).

Cast: Fish Scale Skin (Temporary defense buff). Possible permanence with multiple casts, more effective underwater. Can be used to water proof objects.

Sustain: Water Projection (Continuous offensive ability). Able to spit or project volatile volumes of water, drains fluids from body with excessive use. You can actively control the volumes of water you project and how focused that projection is.

Sustain 2: Blood Projection (Dangerous offensive ability). Capable of performing a powerful projection, but only from open wounds. As one would imagine blood projection is exceedingly painful, taxing on the body and ultimately dangerous to the user. The intimidation factor might be worth the agony in the right situations, but it will always be a detriment to one’s health.

Self-Sustaining: None.

3. Raven Feather.

Cast: Survive a fall, fall on something safely or possibly target launches and falls on something by user’s choice or at random (One time air terrain survival buff, possible offensive spell). Target tends to end up freezing twenty feet above something living.

Sustain: Projecting thoughts. Not able to receive thoughts, but you can project them to others. Can project mental images.

Self-sustaining: none.

4. Sunlight.

Cast: Solar Flare. Creates a blinding light. Can only be used during the day time while standing in sunlight.

Sustain: Smoke signaling. Causes smoke to appear as if something was burning.

Self-sustaining: Warms the planet.

5. Knife.

Cast: ???.

Sustain: Rogue Enhancements (Continuous passive buff). Heightened dexterity, agility and environmental awareness. Strengthens all mobility based buffs.

Sustain side effect: Inability to sleep or relax.

Self-sustaining: Trains muscles and exercises body for similar maneuvers used while wielding the sustain effect.

6. Knife Sheath

Cast: Traps one target temporarily (One use support spell). Time limit for stopping a target is the same every time for sheaths of similar design. Sheaths for different or larger weapons ‘probably’ improves time limit.

Sustain: Increased protection against knives, arrows and other small bladed weapons (Continuous passive buff). Warning: Does not protect against anything larger, or anything else for that matter.

Self-sustaining: None.

7. Alicorn Feather (Celestia).

Cast: Wings of sunlight (Limited air terrain mobility buff). Target is given wings of pure sunlight. Darkness, shade or shadows can weaken the flying power the wings generate, at night they'd be far less effective. The power of the wings can be combined with a knife's or similar sustain effects for improved flying ability. The wings might be extinguished by water and could be useless while it’s raining. Does not protect the user from gravitational or high speed stress and lack of oxygen at high altitudes like a pegasus would be by their magic.

Sustain: Redirect sunlight (Defensive support buff). Is only useful during the day and allows for blinding opponents or aggressors with light.

Self-sustaining: Minor protection from darkness (Automatic defensive buff while feather is on person). Needs to be charged with sunlight and to have been used as a magical alchemy sustain at least once to work.

8. Phoenix Feather.

Cast: Cleansing Flames (Support healing spell). Finds and stops negative foreign bodily ailment or ailments that are magical or mundane, does not heal damage. Can possibly stop positive ailments.

Sustain: Protection from the cold (Continuous defensive buff). Immunity to cold, increased defensive ability against ice and relative elemental based magic.

Self-Sustaining: None.

9. Jade’s Cloak, Cloaks in general.

Cast: ???.

Sustain: ???. (Effect seems to do nothing, need more information.)

Self-Sustain: Makes sneaking easier (Moderate stealth buff).

10. Cupcake (Banned by Kuril).

Cast: You don’t want to know.

Sustain: Likely none.

Self-Sustain: Delicious.

11. Frog Mucus (Banned by Kuril).
Cast: Magical wide area sticky substance bomb (Hard to get out of clothing).
Sustain: ???.
Self-sustain: ???.

12. Griffon Feather.

Cast: Feather Falling (Limited air terrain support buff). Lowers gravity’s effect on an individual for a minute.

Sustain: Double Jump (Continuous Mobility buff). Can jump off the air one extra time after leaving a solid surface and only one time.

Self-sustain: None.

13. Fish Oil.

Cast: Ignition (Multipurpose offensive and support spell). Ignites itself and anything around it except the user.

Sustain: None.

Self-Sustain: None.

14. Candle Wax.

Cast: Stiffness. Slow down a target, can have a wide area of effect for reduced effectiveness.

Sustain: Heat resistance (Limited continuous defensive buff). Does not stop heat damage entirely and candle takes heat damage in place of the user.

Self-Sustain: None.

15. Pepper.

Cast: Sneezing cloud (Limited continuous Defensive spell). Wide range spell that doesn’t affect the user, causes continuous sneezing on contact and doesn’t necessarily need to be breathed in to take effect.

Sustain: None.

Self-Sustain: None.

16. Tricorne.

Cast: Charisma boost (Limited status buff). Gives one the ability to walk around with confidence.

Side-effect: May instill need for showboating in user.

Sustain: ???.

Self-Sustain: ???.

17. Wood.

Cast: Bark skin (Temporary defensive buff). Make skin and fur tough like tree bark, like most casts can become permanent with multiple consecutive uses. Increases durability of objects when targeted. Causes mildly uncomfortable chafing on a living target.

Sustain: Hair growth in sunlight (Limited utility effect). Only works in direct sunlight.

Self-sustain: Magically enhanced building material.

18. Waffle Mallet.

Cast: ???.

Sustain: Random confusion effect chance (Weapon specific offensive buff). While sustained, the hammer has a low chance to cause confusion and or dizziness upon any impact. Said chance goes up significantly when hitting the head of a target. The strength of the impact doesn't matter, effect can still happen with the barest of taps.

Self-sustain: none.

Combination 1: Candle Wax + Oil (any) + Pepper = Chaos Candle. Candle hollowed out and filled with the other two ingredients mixed together equals devastating results.

Cast: Sneezing flash bomb (Offensive one use spell). Blinding, sinus wrecking and volatile magical cast.

Sustain Cast: Weak jet propulsion device (Limited air terrain support buff), Flamethrower (Limited offensive spell). Doing this will slowly destroy the candle and chemicals used in it. Exhaust fumes has a lesser effect of casting with pepper.

Sustain: None.

Self-Sustain: None.

Combination 2: Feather + stick + arrowhead (material any) = Arrow. Arrow + poison = special status ailment added to casting effect based on poison used. Pukwudgie Poison (Paralysis for a few hours).

Cast: Arcing Arrow Beam (Offensive spell). Fires a beam that is effected by gravity as if it were an arrow, it can only damage one target and that’s the first thing it touches. If it grazes a wall and then hits you, it will do nothing to you.

Sustain Cast: Spray of multiple weaker beam shots.

Sustain: None.

Self-Sustain: None.

Combination 3: Sustained Fish Scales + ambient ice magic = Ice projection.

Combination requires outside source of ice or freezing magic to wield. This combination has no cast or sustain capability. The wielder of the fish scales can alter projectile size and shape until the ice magic runs out or a sufficient amount of water from the fish scale wielders body is lost.

Comments

[Eroraf86]

“That’s it, everyone in this room is being asked a riddle!” My angry shouting shook the walls, try and be cute now Celestia. You can’t escape as I’ve magically disabled teleportation, flight and all means of quick escapes from the area. “No ifs ands or buts allowed!”

sphinx op plz nerf