Jack Of All Trades ✓ | steampunk, dragons, trickery

Chapter 15.2: Smack into a Storm

Jack sighed at the memory, fogging up the window. It was a build-up of incidents like that which made him want to escape. He could remember telling his father once to punish him because it was his fault, but his father said it was the servant's for not disciplining Jack right.

There was just something wrong about that. Anything to escape from that. Jack Ogswold's wish to live as a prince was my escape. He pressed his lips together. Maybe that was why he thought he could get away with anything because after that, he got away with murder.

It was all messed up. He killed Jack Ogswold because he was betrayed. But did Jack ever desire, truly, to return as the true prince? Did he want to live like his father? A man who claimed the royalty had no faults?

Soft voices came from behind. Espin seemed to be telling Margorie about all that had happened up to this point. Jack decided to let him talk. He was too tired to go through his entire life and rehash it. Right now, he wanted to move forward.

Soon, the voices died down. Margorie wrapped her arms around Jack. "I'm here, okay?"

Jack grunted in response. He still didn't think she should come along. The Enchantress had turned Eli and Jett into dragons with such ease and she was doing it to more people. 

Even now below, just on the outskirts of Birdbury, people were turning into crystals and then those crystals shattered to create dragons. The dragons began attacking other people. Those who ran, jumped into the ocean, but they couldn't escape. Water dragons swimming in the depths swallowed them whole.

The airship rattled. Jack sat up and gazed ahead. A tall black cloud with lighting sparks zipping across it, loomed above the sea of gray clouds. The towering cumulous twisted in circles. Thunder purred in a distance and rain splattered on them.

"Alright!" Gray said, "That's the only way you can get to Dragon's Wood from above. It's like the doorway into another realm, so to speak. Buckle up and hang on, kids!" He shifted levers, pulled nobs, gripped the steers, and turned the ship to its side. Margorie squeaked and Jack gripped the side of his seat. There was an opening between the twisting clouds that occasionally came around again. Rain splattered on the shield.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Jack shouted as thunder boomed around them.

As they neared, the black cloud mushroomed, and the same churning clouds appeared above them. Lightning flashed and a gush of rain flew at the airship. Gray grunted, holding the ship steady as she bunked.

"This is how I got there!" he shouted over the howling wind, splattering rain, and another crack of thunder.

Jack looked over his shoulder at Margorie who seemed sick. "You've done this many times?" he asked Gray. Hazel slithered off his head and wrapped around his neck like a scarf.

"Just once, hold on!" He quickly pulled levers and pushed the steer. The airship bucked forward and sprinted toward the opening as it came around again. The timing had to be perfect, or they would have difficulty making it into the eye.

It was cutting it close. Rain plundered at them, lighting flashed, and thunder cracked. Jack felt as if the earth had split in half. His ears were ringing after the sound.

"Almost there!" Gray laughed and steered the ship sideways to fit it in the slot between two giant black clouds twisting and turning.

Something crashed into them from behind. Jack lurched forward. Gray lost grip of the ship and the steer twisted and turned on its own. They missed the opening. The ship was turning. Red lights flashed all around. There was a hiss of steam being let.

"Look out!" Margorie shouted as the twisting cloud loomed before them with lightning bolts as thick as a person ripping across.

"Gray, damn it!" Jack pulled at the buckle, but it wouldn't come undone, twisted somehow. Gray was on the floor, caught between the seat and the wall, struggling to get up.

"I can't move my leg!" he was hollering and sobbing. "I can't move my damn leg!"

Something else hit the ship, steam hissed, the world began to spin. Jack felt his stomach in his throat and his body felt weightless.

Knife! He took out his knife and slashed the buckle off, grabbed the steer, and sat in the pilot's seat. The meter was showing fuel going down mark by mark. They were losing steam, literally. But he hoped it would be enough to lift the ship to opening again. Suddenly, Margorie was beside him in the passenger's seat pointing.

"There!" she said. Sure, enough the opening was coming around again. Jack lifted the ship. He didn't know what lever did what but thankfully Gray was conscious enough to tell him which maneuvers he should use.

"Th-The left, no right, yes, my left your right. The green one. Blue!"

Jack scowled at all the jumbled instructions. Why did Gray have to go and make this thing so complicated? At last, they were aligned with where the opening would come around.

"I can see it! It's coming, get ready." Margorie had her face pressed against the window, straining to see where the opening was. The steam was going down fast.

"Come on!" Jack hollered and pushed the steer forward.

"Wait, a little more!"

"Marg!" Jack gripped the steer. "Dungshit, you, we don't have enough fuel!"

"Just wait."

Time seemed to slow. Jack tasted sweat on his mouth and the wind was pushing the steer left or right so he had to hold it tight in sweaty, slippery hands as hard as he could to keep it facing forward. His eyes peeled on the hole as it came around. He pushed the steers forward and ship neared. All the while, the rainstorm was just as vicious as if trying to throw them off balance.

"Now!" Margorie yelled and Jack pushed the steers to maximum and pulled all the engine levers forward, thrusting the ship into the opening. Thunder cracked around them, shaking the ship. They neared the opening. Sweat beading on his forehead, Jack gritted his teeth, and willed the ship to move faster.

Come on, come on!

Lighting flashed before his eyes, blinding him. He felt hands over his own, taking control of the steer. As he blinked, trying to regain his sight, he glimpsed the opening about to swallow them. Margorie had saved the day. Relief welled over him when his chest began to glow with the purple light of Spinel.

"Get off me, stupid dragon!" Margorie's voice came in his ear.

"Jack, get the steer, get it!" came Espin's voice.

Confused, Jack blinked his eyes, and gripped the steer, but then Margorie jerked the ship to the left. The airship was struck with lightning. Fire touched his cheeks. Jack looked for Margorie, but the passenger seat was missing.

"Margorie!" he called as he fumbled for something to save them. Rain splattered in his face. Red light beeped. Something wrapped around his wrist and dragged him to the edge of the ship. Hazel jumped with its body wrapped around Jack and Gray. She inflated like a parachute and the ship exploded behind them.

"Dungshit!" Jack shouted, craning his neck back to search for his sister, but she was nowhere to be found as far as he could see.

"Margorie!" he called, but there was no answer. He cursed again and knew he would kill that dragon fairy if his sister was dead.