Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Three - Sanity Check

Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Three - Sanity Check

Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Three - Sanity Check

The work of getting the Beaver fixed and ready for flight was tough, but not impossibly so. We found two intact helium sacs at the first cry airship, and one at the second. They were considerably smaller than the sacs the Beaver Cleaver had by default, but Amaryllis and Awen did a bit of math together and figured that theyd be enough, if just barely.

The better news was the intact helium tank aboard one of the ships. It was a big brass cylinder that took two to lift, but we managed, especially as some of the townsfolk from Mistrust didnt seem to mind giving us a hand.

Initially, they werent super open to helping us, but they were quite neighbourly after we proved we didnt intend to cause any trouble.

Amaryllis seemed fairly pleased with her negotiations. We were going to lose a lot of the produce we had. As it turned out, Mistrust lacked some very basic things, and the mayors were both interested in getting all of the potatoes and turnips and onions we had in our pantry, even those that had started to sprout buds.

The town would soon have more vegetables to eat, which seemed to excite them a lot. When I asked Mayor Marques about it, he said that they had a few local crops for their gardens, but not many. Mostly carrots and some local plants theyd discovered were edible.

By the time noon rolled around, we had all the new balloons mounted within the wrapping tarp of the Beaver Cleavers original balloon. With one of the burst sacs repaired and refilled, the Beaver was slowly gaining back some of its buoyancy.

It would be a bit of a rough flight though, with us relying on our gravity generator to reduce our weight. Awen was in the engine room monitoring the machinery while some of our other mechanically-inclined teammates scurried over the ship and patched things up. It wouldnt do for a bad bit of sewing to open up a tear.

Your crew is quite competent, Mayor Fallfront said as she came to stand next to me.

I grinned and nodded. We have some of the very best, I said. Maybe not the most experienced, but theyre all people Id consider friends, and thats important, I think.

Hmm. Where will you be flying next? Not somewhere too distant, I imagine?

Sylphfree, I said. Its not too far now, and were late to arrive already. I think well make it though.

The mayor hummed again, then looked at me critically. You might want to be careful. Sylphfree is a beautiful nation, with some excellent people. Smart, talented people, but they value certain virtues more than others. Propriety is greater than kindness in the eyes of many a sylph.

Oh, I said. That wasnt great. She didnt seem to want to explain much more than that, though, and soon returned to the other mayor. The town was organizing things so that their best gardeners would get some samples from our pantry. Amaryllis had also traded away a bunch of other foodstuffs, things they couldnt get here. Flour and grains and such. I think they were hoping to find some seeds they could plant too.

We ended up meeting mostly outside. I slapped together some sandwiches with what we had left--we really would need to restock soon--and handed them out to everyone in the crew.

By the time the sun was clearly starting to dip, we were just about done fixing up the Beaver as best we could.

The detour to the Lonely Island had cost us about a day, I figured. Maybe a tiny bit less since we had flown as fast as we could after the Grey Wall, as opposed to just taking our time.

Still, it was my failing as a captain that was leading us to be even later to our appointment. I didnt regret the fun we had, or the great adventures helping people that needed helping, but it was still my fault that wed be late.

As we were packing things up and picking up the tools that had gotten scattered around, I noticed a familiar cry hovering closer. Moonie!

Hello, Moonie said. I wanted to greet you one last time before you took off again.Th.ê most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m

I grinned and bounced over to the cry to give it a quick, tight hug. Its nice of you to come say bye. Did you make any new friends?

We are... uncertain if we have made friends, but we have certainly met new and interesting cry. This place is better than I had imagined or hoped for. There are still many things to do, and the cry who are here are very different from the cry I know, and even more different from each other.

That sounds nice, I said. You get to meet not just new people, but strange new people.

I dont think we do anything that weird, do we? I asked.

He shook his head. You dont realize how wild you are, all four of you.

Four of us? I suppose he was counting Bastion in our party. Which was probably fair. He was pretty close, and he had come on all the scarier adventures lately. Were just people trying to do our best, I said. Even if that sometimes means doing things that are scary.

Youre all insane, Joe replied with the certainty of someone that knew they were right. But its not a bad sort of insane.

I pouted at him. I wasnt nuts.

Joe chuckled as he stood up and stretched his back. Well, Im getting back to work. Someone needs to organize our tools and such, and it sure wont be Oda who does it. Keep us safe, captain.

Have fun, I said. And dont work too hard. Take regular breaks! I called out.

I felt like a bit of a hypocrite there. Breaks were for people who wanted to slow down.

I wasnt sure exactly what to do. It didnt feel like a good time to start making noise. Maybe I could take a few hours to just... train things.

A final glance around showed that things were pretty calm, all said and done, so I headed to the rear of the Beaver and down a level.

I found Awens room empty; the girl was likely in the engine room again, or tinkering on her cool turret thing. Amaryllis room wasnt empty. My bird friend was on her bed, face buried in some pillows and the rest of her laid out flat.

Uh, I said.

Im sleeping, she said.

Are you sleeping... well?

Yes, Broccoli, Im sleeping well, Amaryllis said into her pillows.

Do you need anything?

I just spent a few hours negotiating after a very stressful morning. Not everyone is as capable as you at dealing with chaos.

She sighed and pushed herself up to stare at me from the corner of her eyes.

I desperately need a nap.

Okay then, I said. Uh, nap well.

I stood around in the corridor of the ship for a moment, then sighed. Maybe I did have a problem. I couldnt sit around and do nothing. If I could at least train, maybe, or help someone with something.

I thumped a foot on the ground and stomped off to find something to do. I might, maybe, have a wee, tiny sliver of insanity in me, sure. But that was something I could bother with later. Right then and there, I needed a distraction.

Id find someone who needed a friend, or my name wasnt Broccoli Bunch.

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