Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Two - A Tale of Two Prison Colonies

Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Two - A Tale of Two Prison Colonies

Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Two - A Tale of Two Prison Colonies

Things didnt exactly go as easily as I may have wanted.

For one thing, Id thought most of the work wed have to do would be around the crashed ship. I kind of expected to be able to reach the ship first.

I hadn't foreseen that our path would be blocked by not one, but two bands of townsfolk.

To the right was a group of cervid. They had leather barding and some cloth over their backs and wrapped around their front. Tassels hung from the mens antlers, and the women wore more elaborate clothes, dyed and decorated with little beads.

To the left was a group of sylph, maybe a dozen in all. They had clothes made of similar materials, leather and cloth of the same material, and they seemed to be centred around a sylph woman in an elegant set of robes.

Neither group looked all that happy to see us.

I took a deep breath, then stepped up. Hello! Im Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch! I hope we can all be friends!

The two groups eyed each other, and two of them stepped up. One of the cervid men, with a particularly impressive set of antlers, and the sylph woman in the robes.Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

I am Kevin Marques, mayor of Mistrust, the cervid said.

The sylph woman stepped up to his side with a dignified huff. I am Celia Fallfront, mayor of Mistrust.

I blinked. The town has two mayors? I asked.

It does, Mayor Marques said. It is the most effective way of getting things done here, or so weve found. Mistrust might not be the grandest or richest place, but we do well for ourselves, at least when ships arent crashing down onto our fair town.

That last bit sounded very pointedly aimed at us.

I winced. Was anyone hurt?

No, Mayor Fallfront said. But it was a near thing. A house was set aflame on the edge of town, and one of the ships that fell landed in a farmers lot.

I gasped. Someone lost their home?

Nearly. We put out the flames before anyone was hurt, but the damage was done, Mayor Marques said. Which leaves only the matter of reparations.

I was about to tell them that wed gladly pay, when a taloned hand grabbed my shoulder and tugged me back a step. Let me, Amaryllis said. Mayor, and Mayor, I am not the keenest harpy that has ever hatched, but I can put two and two together when it suits me. Whats the meaning of this ambush?

Ambush? I repeated.

We were right on the edge of the circle created by the five cry towers. There was a bit of greenery around them, maybe a dozen or so metres of cleared space, with a few trees and some bushes. Circling that was a beaten-dirt road that split off every which way into the town proper. We were still right on the edge of that little strip of park.

They were waiting around for us to show up. This looks like one of the only paths out of the area, or at least one of the paths onto the main road dividing the town. My concern is more about why theyre trying to ambush us.

The sylph mayor harrumphed. We are hardly trying to ambush you; we are merely guarding our peaceful town. Your arrival has caused quite the stir, and disrupted an otherwise ordinary day.

Were sorry, I said. We were tasked with delivering a cry to the Lonely Island. We didn't know that wed be followed, or that the cry would attack us with airships and such.

So youre trying to deflect blame? Mayor Fallfront asked.

Not at all, Bastion said from right behind me. He stepped around me, and came to stand by my side. The captain was merely informing you of what happened.

Mayor Marques hummed, his head tilting back a bit. It was rather imposing to have someone so tall nearby. He was taller than Emmanuel had been, with much bigger antlers. Once, we both settled in this area as two camps. We both had something the other needed, so an alliance was formed, though it was initially tenuous.

But its better now? I asked.

Oh, certainly. We had two mayors because we were two towns. But some folk trusted others, and the settlements grew closer. The cry were here long before us, of course, and their towers became the centre of our community.

Thats so cool, I said. But if youre just one town now, why are there two mayors still?

Some issues are unique to either the cervid or sylph, and while we have grown closer, we are not all in agreement about everything, so rather than elect one leader, we have two.

I nodded. Thats kinda cool; I like it. People getting along is something I can get behind.

Does the town have difficulties, what with the population being made up nearly entirely of convicts? Bastion asked.

The mayors both sniffed. Ill have you know, Fallfront said. That most of the population here are the children of those originally exiled. Or their childrens children. The vast majority of the convicts here are or were the non-violent sorts. Oh, we have a few thieves, but everyone knows who they are, and when something goes missing we know who to poke at to get it back. We dont abide the dangerous sort of criminal. Mostly, we have people who disagreed with how things were being done, in Sylphfree or the Trenten Flats.

I gestured to Bastion to drop the subject. We didnt need to antagonize the townsfolk. I figured most of us were safe, but Bastions job was literally the sort of job that might lead to him arresting some of the people that were here.

Ah, there it is, the cervid mayor said.

The first of the two crashed cry airships was slumped before us, its hull leaning up against a few trees. The engine at the back looked like it had burned itself out, but not before leaving a blackened streak across the grass.

The ship was rather barge-like from up close, without much depth to its keel. The sails were torn up and shredded, likely when the airship crashed through the bit of forest around us.

Is it safe to go aboard? I asked.

Probably not, Amaryllis said as she moved past me. But it still has some balloons.

She was right. There were a big chunk of the ships balloons still left, though it had torn open in a few spots, and looked like a plastic grocery bag that had spent some time as a kittens chew toy.

Right! Okay. Lets see what we can do with those remaining helium sacs. And, uh, are there any cry crew left on it?

No, Mayor Marques said. A couple of cry were seen flying away from it before anyone from town came to inspect this one. The local cry poked at it too. I think they found one cry stuck in the frame of the other ship that they took with them.

Oh, I said. That was good to know.

I was a bit surprised when Oda stepped up next to me, then wiped at his whiskery teenager mustache. That engine looks dangerous. I dont know how rockets work, but it was giving off a whole trail of flame earlier.

So we take our time, and we make sure to be careful, I said.

What do you plan on taking here? Mayor Marques asked.

Mostly the balloons, I said. Ours were perforated, so we need more helium. Maybe they have some tanks of that here, but I dont know. We could use some of the tarp that the sacs are made of too.

Ah, he said. Well, that sounds like a rare and valuable resource then.

Amaryllis sighed. Broccoli, go take care of overseeing things. Ill handle the mayors.

Alright, I said. Amaryllis really was the best at negotiating that among us. Id just do my part to help gather the things wed need to get the Beaver back in the air.

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