Pine’s brow furrowed as she studied the map.
“That won’t be much use to us, Evergreen.” Will said as he lazily swung on the chair”Even if you looked at that map for the rest of your life you wouldn’t know where we are until the stars come out.”  Though he acted as if he didn’t care, Pine could feel waves of tension rolling off of him. It had been two hours since the Basilisk, their parents’ ship, flew away. Only an hour until their parents would unlock the door and deactivate the autopilot, so they could control their own ship. ‘Their ship’, she liked the sound of that. It reminded her of the hours they spent working diligently on it day after day. It had finally paid off. The bronze stern was decorated with swirls and the rigging was of tough dried aetherwood bark they had painstakingly braided into the thin diameter that it required. The wood was slightly buoyant because it was infused with sehrli, which had taken three years to gather. Once the body of the ship was done, they had set to work on the engine and artillery. That was when they had found out that Will was a born engineer and midshipman.
She sighed and said to her cousin, “I know, but its nerve racking. This helps.” She looked at the older of the two. His fiery red hair glinted in the orb light. His eyes, now closed, she knew was as bright as a emerald. Really? This is what the other girls were crazy about? She thought. Finally the Basilisk was gone, wrapped in the morning mist. The airlock on the door hissed open and she took a deep breath and stepped outside. Their parents could no longer see them, move them or control their skiff. They were free! She laughed in the humid air. Her auburn hair, now tied back, whipped in the wind. Her bright blue eyes shone in the sun. Her roughened, calloused hands grasped the wheel and tapped the contract button on the screen. The feature was one she had designed and added herself. It caused the skiff shrink and contract till it was the size of a large surfboard. When she had first tried it, while still on the Basilisk, the skiff had gotten stuck on the setting and it was days before she figured out how to reverse it. She was forced to revise the button to make it an illusion, but by golly it was a good one. She looked down at the clouds and wondered what was down there. The only land she had ever been on was the old sky base, but that was abandoned during the last pirate-colonial war, over a century ago. That was where they had found the aetherwood to make the skiff.
The illusion faded as the cabin door opened and Will thudded onto the deck. He stretched then grinned at Pine. They were the best of friends ever since birth. They did everything together and couldn’t stand to be separated for long amounts of time.
“Been a while since we’ve been free, hasn’t it?”
“It has been forever since we’ve been free,”
Will laughed heartily and sat down with Pine, who was swinging her legs. Blowing out the air in her cheeks she directed her gaze on a knot in the floor.
“What are you most excited about? I am excited about the pets. I hope that I’ll get a phoenix or an audio-hawk or HEY! do you think there might be a komodo dragon there? Maybe they will have a squirrel with a hook for a claw.” Pine rambled on.
“Yeah I hope that there is a cool animal but, I will get whatever animal that comes to me. Hey, maybe you’ll get a pig.” Will chortled. Pine rolled her eyes.
“Yeah? You’ll probably get a beetle with one antenna.” They went on like this until a tremendous rumbled issued from the stomach of Will.
“Let’s get something to eat!”
“Of course that’s what you’re thinking about at a time like this.”
Suddenly the whole skiff shook and Pine stumbled.
“What… was ... that?” shivered Pine.
A huge phoenix figurehead appeared out of the mist, followed by a sky-barnacle coated Dragon 1272. Dragons were the oldest sky warship that still operated.
“I will get the prow turret running.” hissed Will.
She hurried up the bridge and waited until Will was safe down in the bilge. She tapped the contract button and jerked the steering wheel. A warning shot fired from the opposing ship. Then a dozen flashes blinked in the mist almost blinding her. She veered away from the ship as green bursts shot from their cannon. In her peripheral vision she saw a grappling hook fall short of their bulwarks. A few more hooks followed almost instantly. The last hook landed on the deck and as it was drawn back to the other ship it caught on the side guards. Her stomach lurched as the airship was reeled towards the enemy. She applied as much pressure to the helm as she could without breaking it. But it was in vain for they were steadily being pulled back to the pirate ship. The illusion broke and it was returned to its full size.
In a burst of courage Pine leaped from the bridge and landed on the deck. She jumped up and slashed the rope with her dagger that she always had with her. It took a bit of sawing but the rope was cut. While all this happened, Will was firing stun orbs at the pirate ship. A few actually made a difference but the rest where just annoyances. Finally, a lucky shot flew through the air and landed on the helmsman. The ship plummeted. Will aimed a fire bomb at it and it exploded in flames.
Pine turned as the door burst open and Will ran to her and held her by her shoulders.
“Are you ok? Are you hurt? Please don’t say they hurt you.” as this happened he checked her all the way down her body.
“I’m fine,” she said as she shrugged him off. She looked in wonder at the bright array of flames, “You did that? Wow.”
“I guess we learned our lesson, huh? No more slacking off?”
“Yeah,”
“Ok you will work tirelessly at the wheel and I,” at this he smiled, “will relax and manage the cabin. See you in two hours.”
She waved him off and went to the wheel.