The Adventures of Exodus Creed & Co.

In Which Exodus' Adventures Begin

It was a hot summer day. The air was thick and fierce, and Exodus was trying not to suffocate in his school uniform as the day wore on and on. The clock hands seemed to mock him, ticking by so slowly he was sure time had slowed just to infuriate him. He pulled at his necktie, hoping to loosen it just a little without his teacher, Ms. Eberhardt, noticing, and her beady eyes locked onto him like a cat locks onto a mouse. He put his hand down and sighed, sure he was about to melt into a puddle on his chair.

His classmates weren't doing much better. Only the bully, Raster Bear, had succeeded in completely removing his school jacket and tie and even dared to unbutton the top two buttons of his dress shirt. The girls would glance at him and giggle, but Ms. Eberhardt had said nothing about Raster's 'scandalous' change of outfit. He frightened her. He frightened everyone. He never followed the dress code rule, which had been firmly (and literally) pounded into Exodus' mind.

As Ms. Eberhardt droned on and on about the history of their little floating island of Gundaroll, Exodus tuned her out and tried to focus on not slipping off of his chair. The air conditioning had gone out at the school months ago, and the principal was too much of a penny pincher to fix it immediately, saying they would all survive until next Summer when they would get a new one.

"Open the windows, you'll be fine!" He roared, trying to be heard over the din of despondent wails and shrieks of "just let me die!" from the students (and some teachers) after he made the announcement. Raster had said something dramatically in Arabic, and the girls had wailed, and one teacher simply sighed and walked out and hadn't been seen at the school since. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if they had been allowed a large fan, but there was only one in the school, and the principal kept it in his office.

As Exodus sweated and suffered with his classmates in the heat of the classroom, he gave up trying to listen to anything Ms. Eberhardt was saying and stared blankly out the window. Thick clouds floated lazily by on the hot breeze, surrounding Gundaroll like giant cotton balls. A few birds flitted by the window, their feathers gleaming in the sunlight, and the smell of spices and fresh fruit drifted up to set Exodus' mouth to watering. The market was just below the school, on the largest flat bank on the bottom of Gundaroll. The island was constantly spinning, not very quickly, of course, but definitely moving. If you stood still and closed your eyes, you could feel it very easily, and if you were a tourist, you would have a massive amount of trouble keeping your balance. But there wasn't much to see or do on Gundaroll, so there were rarely any newcomers, let alone tourists. Even the residents would look about them sometimes and wonder why they remained on the floating, moss covered rock with the tainted waterfall falling towards the earth until it disappeared below the cloud banks. But no one ever left. Why?

That is an excellent question.

Exodus planned to leave the moment he was eighteen. Until then, he was an orphan, stuck at the Proper School for Boys and Girls. Of course, being an orphan wouldn't change when he was eighteen, but at least he could leave without a grownup shrieking at him to 'get the flimflam off my ship you little cockroach!"

Full of dreams of freedom and escape on a beautiful airship, Exodus sighed and blinked blearily at the cloud filled sky. As he stared, he thought he saw the dark outline of a ship, her gleaming hull sleek and shiny as a silver dollar, and crew members scurrying about her decks and rigging like little ants. He smiled, convinced he was dreaming with his eyes open, and then shrieked like a girl when Ms. Eberhardt slammed her ruler down on his desk, narrowly missing his fingers.

"Are you awake now, Mr. Creed?" Ms. Eberhardt snarled, as his classmates snickered and he turned bright red. He was only twelve, and just growing into his voice.

"Yes, Ms. Eberhardt." He answered, unable to keep the disappointment from his voice. Ms. Eberhardt sniffed and glared at him with her cat-like eyes before stalking back to her desk and continuing her lecture in the same dull tone. Exodus stifled a groan and glanced once more out the window.