Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Sixteen, Fishing with Vikings: Introductions ensues.

-Jacky-

“Come on Captain, you got him on the ropes!” How was I supposed to know the squirrel was a god, he was just so adorable, cute and innocent looking.

“What are you talking about, he’s kicking my ass all over the room Jacky!” Ducking back out of the doorway as Jade shot past me, I winced as she became embedded in Fizzle’s wall. That’s a really strong squirrel.

“Well maybe he doesn’t like the fact that you made fun of his teeth Captain.” This was kind of on me because I brought rata-whatever here, but what Jade said had been pretty mean.

“But his name literally translates to Mr. Face Plow… agh!” There goes Captain sliding into a roll across the floor and Fizzle was trying to help her fight off the exceptionally angry squirrel.

They weren’t doing all too well against the super strong squirrel, not to mention they were still somewhat sick and still healing from the injuries they got on their trip. They were being bruised quite badly, the Captain probably needed to have her bandages reapplied and Fizzle was now starting to whimper from the floor where she was tossed.

“Okay, that’s enough out of you!” I pulled out a clean plunger, put it to the bow and shot the squirrel mid leap, the plunger nailed him head on and stuck him to the wall with his entire body trapped by the suction cup. “Look Mr. Face Plow or Rata-whatever your name is, I thought you were cute and friendly when I dug you out from under that ship. My friends are already injured enough, and they’re sick. What kind of god are you if you beat up people for the slightest of sleights against you! Look at them, they are already bad enough and you’re just making their recovery time take longer. You should be ashamed to call yourself a god!”

The flying squirrel’s anger abated and he looked ashamed of himself, he hung his cute little head with those adorable long ears and his tail straightened out considerably. I think I chastised him quite well, he looked quite remorseful about his overreaction to Jade’s words.

“Yeah, not exactly the greatest of the gods to me or Fizzle at the moment Jacky. I’m going to stick with Sekhet if it’s all the same to you.” A very understandable thing Captain La Perm, but I had something to say to you as well.

“Captain I know you were trying a joke to brighten up your mood and while it was admittedly funny, you hurt Mr. Face Plow’s feelings.” Putting my fists to my hips, I gave my captain a disappointed look.

“Says the parrot who said the same name that you stated sounds insulting to him.” Yes Captain, that happened and I did just say that, but you didn’t need to point it out so bluntly . “Again his name is Ratatoskr, I guess we’ll call him Rata to make things easier on ourselves.”

“I’m good with Rata.” One does not need to go exploring the world nearly as much when the world kept coming to you here at Airship Mauled, it was interesting to see so many strange and wonderful things like the hunky griffon Vikings outside. I didn’t even know a squirrel could be a god or so physically capable until a few minutes ago. I turned to the cute squirrel struggling to push the plunger off of his body, the suction was the only thing keeping him on the wall and it was holding strong. “Are you okay with being called Rata?”

The red flying squirrel god stopped struggling for a moment and looked a bit thoughtful, then he rolled his eyes and focused on me before nodding his head in acceptance to the idea. Okay, we are now definitively calling him Rata!

“Next time Jade, don’t antagonize a god. Not even Rata.” Fizzle sent Jade a glare, but she soon got up and moved over to Jade to cuddle up against her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, if covered in bruises and some minor scratches. Oh and I think my chest wound is bleeding slightly.” The Captain was more than a little frazzled looking as she leaned into Fizzle’s hug. “What about you Fizzy?”

“I’m fine Jade, but seriously stop challenging gods with the ability to physically paw us our butts.” Well to be fair Fizzle, Jade couldn’t possibly have expected that something so small to be capable of lifting and throwing you both around. I watched Fizzled lift up Jade’s shirt and then she turned to me. “Jacky go get the medical kit so we can wrap more bandages around her, I can see red peeking through these.”

I thought that Jade and Fizzle were cute together, but right now there was something I needed to tell them after pulling Rata off the wall.

“Okay hold on a second while I pull Rata down.” I gripped the plunger with both talons and pulled, with a loud pop Rata was free and patting down his fur. “After I’m done getting the medical kit, I’m going to try and find a handsome Viking griffon to talk up.”

“I suggest you be careful with that.” Jade warned while wince and clutching at her chest. “Viking’s can be a little weird at time.”

-A few days later, Jade-

“I’m definitely feeling so much better now, so did anything happen with the Vikings that I might have missed Sekhet?” I would never look at squirrels the same way again, but at least Ratatoskr became friendly after we apologized to one another.

Still Ratatoskr was known for his mischievous streak and he had yet to really do anything like that, it had me kind of on edge. Speaking of small animals, where was my favorite turtle friend Snickers? She’d usually be bugging me for affection by now.

“Not much, they are still arguing with Quetzalcoatl about what he is, also the restaurant seems to be getting a large crowd every day and you’re mother’s cooking is a hit. The Vikings are paying well for the food at least.” That’s when Sekhet did something unusual, she came over to me and gave me a quick hug. “The fighting isn’t horrible and it’s actually entertaining for me to watch some pros go at it without permanently harming themselves, they actually recognize my importance as a war goddess around here. It’s actually a pretty incredible feat for them to not do more than scarring wounds really, given they’re using axes, spiked maces, spears, flails, knives and broadswords.”

I turned from Sekhet to let her finish eating her food to go sit with Maries, we would be waiting on Fizzle this morning. Our injuries were almost better and we were healing quite well.

“What’ll it be today Jade?” Ready with a notepad, the morning maiden Fresh Start was already right next to me and waiting.

“I’m waiting on at least Fizzle before I order.” She nodded and went to take care of some Vikings ordering breakfast here. I turned to Maries and had to ask. “Have the Vikings been bothering you?”

“No, surprisingly they’re very friendly towards us, but they expected more vicious personalities.” Goes to show you that the Viking didn’t know our favorite chimera very well. “We’re kind of surprised that they are rather respectful and polite for battle hardened warriors.”

“With the way they’re treating Quetzalcoatl you wouldn’t know it.” Jacky took a seat next to Maries’ right and joining us at the table was a very average looking griffon. “That guy can’t catch a break, he looks like a number of monsters in their culture.”

“Hello there, what’s your name? I’m Jade.” Before the griffon could comment, Fizzle sat down next to me.

“Have you asked about the Helping Hoof Inn yet?” Not yet Fizzle, I was more interested in who our normal looking guest was at our reserved breakfast table.

“I was about to find out about the griffons name, I haven’t even gotten a chance to bring the topic around to how Arizona and Grace are doing.” I and Fizzle had kind of been shut in for a few days and mom has been taking care of us between feeding hungry Vikings, so we didn’t know the status of the inn that couldn’t hold the number of Vikings that were currently in The Witch’s Fare. The Helping Hoof Inn wasn’t nearly that big. “If you would like to tell us who you are.”

“Well okay, hello everyone I’m ‘Gene Eric the Swift Reaction’.” He sounded normal, far too normal for a Viking.

“Quick question Generic, are you even a Viking?” It was a pertinent question from me for the avian that looked absurdly normal as his name suggested. He had brown feather, brown fur and green eyes, in all he was an average sized griffon with no overly incredible defining features. “If not, then what are you doing here?”

“Of course I am, I’m a decently fast Viking and I get around with my two brothers in arms.” He had no accent and sounded just normal. Okay he was by far the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen appear in Airship Mauled. Ratatoskr or the flying purple pony eater don’t really hold a candle to this guy. I’m horrified by his seemingly perfect normalcy among all the other muscular and buff Vikings around here. “I’m just as good as any griffon, only I have a slightly better reaction time to things going on in my environment.”

“Nice to know, so Helping Hoof Inn for the two who’ve been resting and out of the loop for a bit?” Well out of the loop as far as all we’ve been doing is sleeping, eating, bathing and using the litter box. I had no idea what was going on with the Vikings aside from meeting Generic.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on, you’re missing all kinds of awesome fighting!” Here came Arizona, it looked like a cow was being added to our table. What next a dragon? “If you’re wondering the Inn is doing fine and I’m making sure nobody does something stupid to Grace. I’ve been kicking flank left and right with my bare hooves, this is looking to be the best week ever for me!”

“Yeah, I’ve never met a warrior so young that can hit so hard. I am ‘Flamberge the Fiercely Flammable’!” A red bipedal dragon raised his sword high and smiled at us, he had two natural horns and a helmet with two horns on his head and like Generic his eyes were a sharp green color. “This is my sword that’s always on fire!”

His sword looked like a wave bladed sword… and it wasn’t currently on fire, but the design made it look like it was.

“It’s not on fire though.” Fizzle dryly stated while staring at the blade.

“That’s because it’s sleeping.” Flamberge was receiving a bunch of flat stares from everyone except Generic.

“Your sword… is asleep. Yeah and my horn is on vacation, a very long one at that.” How deliciously sarcastic of you Fizzle, the deadpan tone was appropriate to this given situation.

“That’s quite amazing, I didn’t know unicorn horns could take vacation.” At Flamberge’s somewhat excited words, those who naturally lived here at Airship Mauled look to one another. “I do hope it comes back though, I don’t think most unicorn horns get vacations.”

“They may be tough or swift, but nobody has ever said they were very bright.” Arizona whispered to me and Fizzle before taking a seat. Stashing his sword away Flamberge sat down as well.

“Ah one of my two brothers is already here, Gene it is nice to see you have made friends with the locals we crashed our ships near!” This Flamberge guy was a bit flamboyant, also that sounded like a nice nickname for Generic. “Now if only the third of my brother in arms was here, then we’d be able to tell you how incredible we are!”

“Did somebody call for “Fortitude the Fantastically Fragrant’?!” Oh gods and goddesses what was that horrid smell, this Fortitude guy must have had a fortitude to go around smelling like that. I heard yaks could get bad, but this was beyond anything I’ve ever smelled before! Smells like this could kill flies on contact.

“Why do you smell like a cut open durian?!” I barely managed to gasp out. Fizzle was trying to cover her nose with both hooves and Arizona looked quite sick to her four stomachs. “I just got better from being sick, I don’t want to be sick again!”

“How do you even know what a cut open durian smells like Captain?” Jacky started turning as green as the black furred yaks eyes, he was a hefty looking guy with a huge shield on his back. “It’s an accurate description though…”

“I am 'Fortitude the Fantastically Fragrant'.” The large yak said, but didn’t elaborate on why he smelled like a bunch of rotten eggs. “Yak like me smell strong, Fortitude be strong too!”

“It seems we three are together my brothers in arms.” Generic, I have no idea what we did to get saddled with your friend's stink, but please help us. End our suffering... please! “Excuse me, but it seems the locals we are guests to can’t stand your stink Fortitude. A bucket of water, if someone will.”

“I’ve been waiting for someone to ask, but darn it you Viking are actually quite a polite bunch!” It seemed like Fresh Start was waiting for this moment, she threw a bucket of water at Fortitude getting him all wet and the smell suddenly died off. That was followed by two more buckets splashing him.

“Fortitude smell less strong!” The yak was just stating the obvious out loud, Fortitude didn’t even seem to care he had been hit by multiple buckets of water.

“Now that that is taken care of, what can I do for you?” After we ordered some food from Fresh Start, Flamberge stood up and gathered his two brothers in arms.

“Together we three are the Vibrant Vikings!” At Flamberge’s exclamation, Generic rose his fist on the right and Fortitude raised the shield from off his back on the left. As for Flamberge he raised his sword into the air, it still wasn’t on fire. “We are adventurers unparalleled!”

“Never heard of you and I know a thing or two about Vikings.” The three looked sad that Jacky was less than impressed.

“Well that’s great, but I’d rather talk about the fishing trip me and Maries are going to go on.” I turned to the three heads that were giving me their full attention. They didn’t have much else to do. “So do you want to go fishing at a lake, the sea or a nearby river?”

“The river, it is simple and safe.” Maria started, only for Mara to cut in. “Ponyville’s lake has krakens in it and I’ve heard how good you are with them.”

“I heard there were a lot of eels at Ghastly Gorge and I’m interesting in seeing them at least once.” After Marie spoke the three heads froze. They all of looked thoughtful and then Maries spoke as one. “Wherever you feel like going Jade, we’d all be fine with it. We would certainly like to learn how to fish from you.”

“We’ll go river fishing then, I’ll need time to get the fishing poles in order.” I’m sure they could figure out how to use one.

Comments

[Draskos]

Yeah, I suppose tail fishing would be rather rude to say the least.