Skyrun

Chapter 34; The islands.

Days passed and as the ship limped through the sky, the crew steadily grew more disheartened.

It was in the air all around them, Liam felt; a sense of foreboding that the ship's engines might give way any moment and they would be sent plunging through the clouds to shatter on the ground below.

At the very least, Liam's shoulder was healing nicely and thus now, if he died in a ship wreck, the wound wouldn't bother him.

It was the little things that mattered, truly.

But despite all that, Valentine had given him permission to leave her quarters and to enjoy life above deck; mainly, keeping a lookout while Spyglass took over the duties Liam once performed. And while climbing up to the crow's nest put a  bit of a strain on Liam's shoulder, it was certainly better than laying about in bed all day with nothing to amuse himself other than the looming thought of the wolf broach hidden away in the captain's jewelry box.

The thought of that alone was enough to drag his thoughts back to his family.

Were they all right? Did they worry about him? Did they think he was dead? Did they miss him? Blimey, he supposed that Eliza would, yet his father and brother might have had a cup of ale to celebrate.

His mother, however, might be a different story and Liam's chest ached when he thought of the pain in her eyes as she realized he was gone.

'She probably thinks I ran away', he mused ruefully, 'I always threatened to do so and what with them grounding me and all... they probably think its their fault.'

And perhaps it was. Yet after all these months on the skies, Liam was willing to accept the fact that, perhaps, it was a good majority of his fault as well.

 That was a truly terrifying thought; by the gods, one might think he had matured as a person or some rubbish and he couldn't very well go about doing that too often.

He had a reputation to uphold, after all.

Sighing, Liam tipped his head back to let the sun beat down on his cheeks, warming his skin with the gentlest of touches. From up here, the wind whipped at his face and tugged at his clothes with urgent, invisible fingers. And as he felt the power beneath it, he recalled back to one summer when his cousins had journeyed from their citadel to visit, bringing with them new and strange ideas.

That had been the summer when cousin Archer had told them of his idea to build a flying machine-- and while Pip and Eliza had only laughed at the notion, Liam had been intrigued.

Perhaps now, however, he would never get to use the flying machine-- in part because Archer was presumed dead at the bottom of the Abyss, yet mostly because Liam had the feeling he may never return to his homeland or see his family ever again.

This adventure might very well kill him, and while a good majority of it might have simply been light-hearted romp through the skies, the mechanical sky dragon that had nearly made short work of his life was a reminder that being a pirate was not as easy as it sounded.

And now, as he turned his gaze back to the deck below-- surveying the damage that still riddled the airship with holes in its planks-- he had a suspicion that perhaps he might very well die in this search for hidden treasure.

It was a dismal thought, to be sure, but Liam decided that if he was going to die he might as well die on an adventure.

Sighing, he was nearly ready to turn back to his look out duties when a scurrying sound suddenly attracted his attention and he whirled about just in time to find Ezra  climbing over the side of the crow's nest, an apple clenched tightly in one dark hand.