Catch up with chapter 40…

Start the adventure from the beginning.

A low moan ripped from her lips. “No, no… why isn’t the storm over?”

She slowly came to the realization that the Profound Name listed strangely to its side. The air balloon that kept it aloft looked withered and sad, like an old plum long past its ability to be eaten.

As she tried to push herself to her feet, she realized that the rope around her middle kept her tethered to the ship and prevented her from moving about. She fought with the thick ropes until she was free.

“Marshall?” she asked, as she looked around for him.

He had saved her last night. Had protected her. Had she groaned again as she realized he had been there while she was sick.

“Are you feeling better?” Marshall asked.

She looked up and watched as he braced his hands and feet in awkward positions, making his way from the front of the ship back toward where she was struggling to stand.

The flooring of the boat was at the wrong angle. The boat dipped, as it had many times during the storm. Mary gasped and grabbed anything she could hold on to, only instead of the boat dropping out from underneath her completely, they banged hard against something before lifting up again.

“What was that?” she asked.

“We’re being dragged along the ground. I don’t know how we made it, but no, we did not fall out of the sky last night. However, I think this might actually qualify as a crash landing. I have no idea how to stop us from getting dragged along any further. It’s not like there’s an anchor or anything on this boat.”

“How long have we been like this?”

Mary looked out. They seemed to be back in the middle of the plains of Kansas. There were no outcroppings of rock to be spotted, and what trees there were, were few and far between.

“We’ve been slowing down,” Marshall said. “We’ve been bouncing around like this for at least an hour, but we’ve been slowing down. I suspect the ship will come to a stop soon.”

“Soon?” Mary asked.

Marshall shrugged.

“Soon is definitely not quick enough. How fast do you think we’re going?” she asked, as she looked over the railing to watch the prairie lands pass by beneath them.

“I can’t be certain, but we’re going at a pretty good clip.”

Mary looked up at Marshall. “Could we just, you know, jump out?”

“I don’t know how safe that would be,” he said.

“We jumped out of a moving train. Just how much worse could this be?”

Marshall’s brow furrowed as he contemplated what Mary said. “Maybe we could. Are you sure you’re up for it? You were none too pleased the last time.”

“It wasn’t as if you had given me an option last time. Marshall, please get me out of this boat,” she pleaded.

“Well, alrighty then.”

Marshall adjusted the rope that he still had tied around his middle, but before he could take a further step closer, the boat lurched—and suddenly, it was no longer moving.

Mary was thrown off her feet and landed against the side of the gondola with a thud.

“What was that?” she cried out.

“Looks like we’ve stopped,” Marshall said, as he glanced over the railing.

“Oh, thank heavens,” Mary said, as she clambered to get unwrapped from the ropes. She fell—more than controlled her movements—across the side of the gondola that was lower, and without really looking, she jumped.

There was no need to fall and roll before coming back to her feet, since they were barely a few inches above the ground.

“Oh, how I have missed you,” Mary cried out as she fell to her knees, grabbing handfuls of dirt and grass in her hands.

“What stopped us,” Marshall called from the gondola.

Mary cast her gaze about. “I can’t tell… well, it appears that one of the ropes is caught on something—maybe a rock or a root. There’s… I can’t really see from this angle.”

Mary slowly continued to look about. The Profound Name shifted in the wind and began moving again.

“Marshall, hurry!” she cried out. “You must jump before it takes off again!”

The Profound Name seemed to pick up speed.

“Marshall!” Mary yelled after the boat.

And then—he was on the ground next to her.

She let out a sigh of relief. There was no way she would have been able to survive without him, lost in the middle of the prairie as they were.

“Are you all right?” he asked as he stepped up to where she still knelt with handfuls of earth.

Her eyes were full of sadness as she looked past him.

He turned to see what she was looking at. The Profound Name bobbed along the ground, picking up speed as it moved its way through space, away from them.

“Captain Forsythe will be so very sad,” she said, finally dropping the contents of her fists and dusting her hands off on the patchwork skirt she wore.

“You know,” Marshall said as he watched after the airship, “kind of reminds me of one of those little kids’ balloon toys, bobbing along tied to the end of a stick.”

“How are we ever going to tell Captain Forsythe about his airship?” Mary wondered aloud.

“I doubt that we do. Maybe he’ll finally find his way to the west coast without his airship,” Marshall said. “After all, he never seemed to be able to get past Colorado and the Rockies with it.”

“He did seem destined to sail back and forth across the airways of Kansas,” Mary said.

“Maybe,” Marshall chuckled, “maybe it’ll just float its way back to him.”

What’s in store for Mary And Marshall next? Tune in next time…