ᵴᴛᴏᴙᴉᴇᵴ 📖 discussion

Clouds. That’s the first thing I see. Well, I assume it’s clouds. I’m falling through white material, but I can’t feel it. Finally, after what seems like several minutes, the clouds give way to the view of the ocean far below. As I fall, still hurtling toward the ground, an airship flies into view. It seems like I’m on a direct collision course with it. I brace for impact, but I’m almost certain the fall will kill me anyway.

As I fall, I try to remember what got me into this situation. However, my mind seems blank, like I haven’t existed up until a few moments ago. All I know is that I don’t belong here. Before I can try to dig through my memories, I collide with the deck of the airship, and everything goes black.

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“Wake up.” A boot kicks me in the side. I try to move, but realize I can’t. I can barely open my eyes. Through my eyelashes, I see a small, angular shape. Whatever it is kicks me again. “Wake up!”

I’m finally able to open my eyes, but I still can’t move fully. For a second, what I see above me doesn’t register. Then, I realize it’s a face, but not a human one. It’s a sort of… lizard? I can’t tell. I suddenly feel a sharp shock in my spine, and my body shoots upward to a sitting position.

“Spick, you were really out of it.” The creature lowers its hands, which have residual sparks coming off of it. He looks me in the face now. “Do you talk, or just sit there, staring like a spicking fish?”

“What are you? Where am I?” I decide that since I can talk, I should get as much information as I can.

“It speaks! Fine. I’ll humor you. Tell you the answers to the questions you ask. But after that, you have to answer my questions. Deal?” I nod, and the creature continues. “The name’s Hik. Just Hik, none of that weird last name business like other races have. As for what I am--and that’s a pretty rude thing to ask a fella--I’m a kobold.”

“A what?”

“Clean your spicking ears, kid. A kobold. Little dragons?” He gestures, like he’s trying to see if I understand. I don’t, but I nod anyway. “Azzemon’s arse, you’re dense.” Hik gestures to the sky around us. “As for the where’s… welcome to Ipiotara. You’re aboard the good ship Diametra. Any more questions?”

I nod, and Hik sighs, exasperated. “Fine, fire away. There’s not much going on up here at the moment anyway.”

I start to think about what questions would be most important to ask. “You said something about other races. What did you mean by that?”

“Bardek’s Beard… you really aren’t from here, are you? There’s scores of other races here. Humans seem to think they're the best, though. If you’re gonna make it anywhere here, you’re going to have to know which race is which. Otherwise you might find yourself drinking your food through a straw for the rest of your life.”

I let that sink in. “Will you teach me?”

Hik sighs. “Fine. Since it doesn’t seem like you have any more questions, it’s time for me to ask mine. Number one… who are you? Where did you come from? And, what are you gonna do to pay to fix the dent you made in the Diametra?”

I sigh. “That’s the problem. I don’t know who I am or where I came from.” I root through my clothes for any sort of currency. I pull out a few silver coins. “As for the payment… would these work?"

Hik’s eyes sparkle. “Now you’re speaking my language! Silver will do quite nicely. Well, now you’ve paid off your debt to me. If you want, I can let you off the moment we dock, and you can be on your way. Or you can stay on the ship, I suppose.”

I realize that if I leave, I’ll have no idea what to do or where to go. So, I opt to stay on the ship. “I’d rather stay here. This way you can help prepare me for the day when I’m actually able to set off on my own. In return, I’ll help out with the ship any way I can.”

Hik strokes his chin, deep in thought. “Hmm… as captain, I-”

The door to the cargo hold opens, and a very short but very wide, bearded man steps out. “Hik! How many times have I told yeh? Stop pretendin’ to be the cap’n! Remember, yer still under my command!”

Hik sighs. “Yes, captain…”

The captain turns to me. “And who would this be?”

Hik spends the next few minutes explaining the situation. After he finishes, the captain turns to me. “Be ye some sort of angel? Yeh did fall from the sky…”

“I don’t know, sir.” This captain is quite intimidating. He’s short, shorter than me, but is quite large and muscular. I have no doubt he could break me in half if he wanted to.

The captain sighs, stroking his long, bushy beard. “No need fer the formalities. Yer not on my crew at the moment. Just call me Torkyl.”

“Okay. Thanks, Torkyl.”

“Fer what? I ain’t done nothin’ yet.”

“For not being mad that I dented your ship.”

For the first time, Torkyl laughs. It’s a loud, boisterous laugh. “Don’t mention it! My tools have been gettin’ rusty! Finally, I have somethin’ to fix! Yeh know what, why don’t yeh join my crew, at least until we reach port? Hik, teach her about the world. It’s clear she’s not from here.”

Hik sighs, then looks me over one more time. Something new must have caught his eye, because he rushes toward me, a gleam in his eye. He grabs a medallion on my chest, which hangs from a chain on my neck. I’d never noticed it until now, even though it’s actually kind of heavy. “Ooh, what’s this? Can we sell it? It’s shiny!”

“Give me that!” I take it back out of his weak little hands. Torkyl looks on, clearly amused at Hik’s antics.

“Hik, why do I always have to tell yeh? Shiny don’t equal steal!” Torkyl looks at me. “What is that, and does it do anythin’?”

I hold it in my hands, then close a fist around it and close my eyes. I feel a tugging in the pit of my stomach, pulling something upwards. I open my eyes, and a bolt of lightning strikes the deck. Startled, I look up, but the sky is as clear and blue as ever.

Torkyl’s composition falls entirely. “What just happened? Who are yeh?!”

“I don’t know! It just happened!” My voice sounds more panicked than I’d like it to.

“Well, don’t do it again unless I tell yeh!” As he says this, a rumble shakes the deck of the ship. Torkyl goes pale. “Oh, no.”

“‘Oh no,’ what?” Hik seems as confused as I am. His eyes frantically look around, then he bolts into the cargo hold. Clearly, he knows something I don’t. I turn to Torkyl, who is making a series of strange, religious-looking gestures with his hands. I feel an urge to help however I can.

“What do you need me to do?” I ask Torkyl. He looks at me, and a little bit of hope fills his eyes.

“When the dragon appears, do the thing again.” He looks me in the eye, and his old joviality is gone, replaced only by seriousness.

“Dragon?!”

“Yes, dragon. Don’t know what type yet, but we’re probably dead no matter what.”

At that moment, the dragon decides to show itself. It rises up from under the ship, its head several feet above the deck. Now, when I say dragon, you’re probably imagining a big, dopey lizard from a children’s story. All of those storybook descriptions are pure lies. This dragon was easily three times the size of the ship, and its wingspan blotted out the light from two of the three suns, casting a great shadow over the deck below it. Its eyes--and it had six of them--gleamed with a cold, vast and incalculable intelligence.

Torkyl sits down, his head in his hands. “Just my luck… we’re dead. We’re all dead…” He turns to me. “Now would be a great time fer some lightnin’...”

I gulp, then close my fist around the medallion. I feel the tugging again in my stomach, and I picture the dragon in my head. An indescribable sensation comes over me, and I feel my body changing shape. Opening my eyes, I find that I can see more than I could before. I can now not just see things, but I can see the heat coming off of them. I notice that there are more people in the hold of the ship that I don’t know. But I can’t focus on that right now. I turn to the dragon, who looks considerably smaller than before. With a jolt, I realize that it’s me who got bigger. Four of the dragon’s eyes turn toward me, confused. I swipe at the dragon with… a massive clawed hand?

I use one of my six new eyes to scan my own body. I’ve… turned into an exact copy of the dragon, and I feel great. The dragon regards me with a cold stare, then roars in my face. A challenge. I return fire, beating my wings and doing my best to lay claim to the Diametra. The dragon gives me a look that plainly says, nice try. I sigh, then launch myself through the air at the dragon. I feel my draconic teeth sink into its neck, and it shrieks in rage. Its claws rake my chest, opening huge gashes. Purple blood oozes out of the wounds, and I release my hold on the dragon’s neck. I can feel a strange energy charging up inside of this dragon, so I decide to return fire with what’s about to happen.

The dragon spews a white-hot fireball out of its maw, narrowly missing my head. It wasn’t prepared for me to shoot a fireball of my own at it, and the ball hits it square in the chest. The dragon screams as the fire starts to eat through its flesh, and it spirals down, down, down toward the ocean far below. I land clumsily on the deck of the ship, turning human before the impact so as not to damage the ship. Torkyl peers out at me from a barrel he was hiding behind. His eyes are wide, and his jaw hangs open.

“Maybe yeh are an angel… yeh saved my life. How’d yeh do that?”

“I don’t know. It seems like it’s the medallion.” I open my hand, the medallion emitting a thin orange smoke. “...that can’t be good.”

“No magic item would be able to handle calling lightning and turning into a dragon in the same day. I’m surprised that medallion didn’t explode.”

I look at the medallion, and somehow I feel that its power has been all but depleted. It’s going to need a long time to recharge completely.

As I sit here and ponder what the heck just happened, the door to the cargo hold opens again, and Hik steps out clad in what appears to be some sort of suit of magical armor, fit for his dimensions. Magical energy glows around it, and the little creature actually looks imposing. Hik assumes a fighting stance, his eyes scanning the surrounding area before he looks at me in confusion.

“Where’s the dragon? I’ll kick his ass. I’ll do it!”

“Gone. Our strange new friend took care of ‘im pretty quickly,” Torkyl says, laying a hand on my shoulder. “With that strange medallion of hers.”

Hik actually looks disappointed. “Aw, spick… I wanted to try out my armor… she’s still never seen any battle.”

Torkyl sighs. “Damn artificers… it’s not a real battle to them unless they get to test an invention…”

Hik cracks his armored knuckles. “Well, when you’ve got a prototype as pretty as this, you’d want to test it, no?” Hik flexes his gauntlets, and lightning crackles between his fingers.

“What is that?” I ask, intrigued. “Did you build that?”

Hik grins, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. “Sure did. From scrap to full suit of armor. She’s got loads of useful gadgets hidden inside her.”

Torkyl interrupts Hik, turning to me. “We need to figure out what we should call yeh. Yeh got a name?”

“I already told you. I don’t remember anything about who I am.”

Torkyl strokes his beard. “Then do yeh want us to name yeh?”

“Sure. Just don’t name me some sort of Dwarven curse word.”

Torkyl’s eyes twinkle. “And how would yeh know if we did that?”

“Fair point.” I laugh. “But I’m serious.”

“I know.” Torkyl grins. He pulls out a piece of paper and writes down a few names. “These here are the names of some old human friends of mine. Most of them are already dead. No need to be worried, most of them died of natural causes.”

I look through the list. Most of them are fairly normal names, at least I think they are. Then my eyes settle on one: Lilli Stardove. “This one.” I point to it, and Torkyl’s eyes lose a little bit of their happiness.

“I was afraid yeh’d choose that one…”

“What do you mean? What happened to her?”

“Nothin'. She lived a great life. It’s what ended up happenin' to the people around her…” The confusion must have registered in my face, because he sighs. “She was cursed by a hag. The curse was that any man to fall in love with her would have somethin' terrible happen to him. She spent her whole life afraid to love someone, instead devotin' herself to findin' a way to dispel the curse.”

“And… did she?”

“Almost. She sent me a letter saying that she thought she’d found a way to get rid of it, but by the time I got to her house, she was gone and her place was ransacked. I still don’t know what happened to her.” I notice a single tear on Torkyl’s dimpled cheeks. He notices that I’ve seen it, and quickly wipes it away. I decide that I should probably leave this where it is for now, and maybe ask him later.

Torkyl sniffs. “Sorry about that. Yeh probably don’t want to hear about my lost lov--friend.” I realize that he was about to say “lover”, but must have decided against it.

“Do you want me to choose something else?”

Torkyl shakes his head. “Don’t change what feels right, just fer me. Maybe just change the last name? It could help me forget.”

“You know what… how about you just call me Lilli? No last name. Makes it easier.”

He nods. “Bless yeh, lass.”

The door to the cargo hold opens once more, and a few more people step out. They all appear to be different races. One, a crimson-skinned man with two sets of horns, immediately locks eyes with me.

“Who’s this pretty one?” He asks, a forked tongue showing from his mouth at the sound of the S. He starts to walk toward me, but is held back by a huge woman who grabs him by the collar of his shirt. And when I say huge, I mean this lady is massive. She has white skin with numerous black markings that create a slightly asymmetric design on her body.

As the crimson-skinned man struggles against the woman, Torkyl steps in front of me. I see the crimson man give up, and he goes limp in the woman’s hand, his pointed tail curling around his own legs. Torkyl nods to the woman, and she drops the man to the deck, where Torkyl promptly kicks the man in the stomach.

“Ozadius! How many times do I have to tell yeh to get yer head outta yer arse? Yer gonna end up in prison one of these days with how yeh treat women.”

Ozadius flicks his forked tongue at Torkyl, his tail swishing agitatedly. He locks eyes with me again, and with a shudder I realize that his eyes are bright yellow, and reflective like a cat’s.

“Oh. So she’s a new crewmate. How boring…” Ozadius looks away and grimaces, then turns to me and grins--as if I didn’t just hear him--showing long, sharp fangs. “Well… like the Cap’n said, the name’s Ozadius. But you can just call me Oz.”

The large woman steps forward, and speaks in a rough voice that sounds like stone grating on stone. “Don’t call him that. He doesn’t deserve a nickname.”

Oz pouts, his tail flicking from side to side. “Come on, Gerea. No one likes a party pooper.”

Torkyl strikes Oz on the head with a small hammer he pulls off of his belt. “Shut yer trap, Oz. Fer the rest of yeh, this here’s Lilli. She’s the newest member of our crew.”

Oz cackles. “Funny how life works, isn’t it? You find a girl who falls from the sky, and she has the same name as your old flame--”

Oz’s barb is cut short when Torkyl slams him into the wall, holding him by the neck. Ozadius’s hands scrabble at his neck desperately, but Torkyl does not budge. He leans over and whispers something to Oz, and all the fight leaves Oz’s body. Torkyl releases him, and Ozadius slinks back through the door into the interior of the ship.

Torkyl clenches his fists. “I swear to Oghinin… I’m gonna kill that son of an otyugh one day…” He turns to me, then raises his hands in an apologetic gesture. “Sorry about him. How about I introduce yeh to the rest of the crew?”

“I would like that very much. And don’t worry about Oz. Once he sees firsthand some of the things I can do, he’ll be scared to go anywhere near me.” I gesture to the claw marks in the deck. Seeing this, Torkyl laughs.

“Ain’t that the truth. He’s the biggest-” the large woman, Gerea, clears her throat, interrupting Torkyl. “Ah, yes, sorry Gerea. Anyway,” he turns back to me, “this here’s Gerea, Mylo, Vorallon, Wringer, and Cimme.” He gestures to each person as he calls their name, first at Gerea, then at a small, wiry boy who looks three or so years younger than me, then to a tall, pale man with blond hair, and a figure that appears to be a human-sized crow in a baggy robe.

The final person he gestures to, Cimme, seems mostly hidden under a cloak, with only her mouth and chin visible from under her hood. She has pale, gray skin with a soft, beautiful complexion, and her eyes shine out from the darkness of the hood. She steps into a shaded area and pulls her hood down, revealing the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Her long, silky white hair falls in just the right way on her shoulders, accentuating her pale gray complexion perfectly. All I can do is stand there and stare, struck dumb by this girl’s beauty.

Cimme must notice my expression, because her eyes flit back and forth tentatively. She starts to walk toward me, then looks warily at the rays of sunlight separating us. She looks at me again, clearly weighing her options. It suddenly registers with me that she must not like sunlight. I decide to make her decision a lot easier and walk toward her, joining her in the shadows. She smiles at me nervously, and my heart skips a beat. Finally, she speaks, and her voice is the most soothing I have ever heard, like waves lapping against a beach.

“Lilli… it’s very nice to meet you.” She finally looks up, gazing into my eyes. I hear excited mumbling from the other crewmates behind me, and Cimme shoots them an annoyed look. They shut up rather quickly, though I don’t quite know why--not that I care. All I care about right now is Cimme, especially since she seems to regard me with interest. Suddenly, it must start to register to her that everyone is watching us. Cimme’s cheeks turn the faintest shade of pink, but it’s extremely obvious with how light her complexion is. She pulls her cloak further over her head, and she too disappears into the interior of the ship. I start to follow her, but Torkyl lightly places a hand on my shoulder, holding me back.

“Whoa, girl. I’m not sure what it is, but somethin' about yeh made Cimme like yeh. And she don’t like anybody. If yeh really like her, and it looks like yeh do, treat her right, got it?” I nod, and Torkyl pats my shoulder. “Give her space. I’ve never seen her flustered like this. Give her time to warm up to yeh more, then she’ll become more comfortable around yeh.”

I nod to Torkyl, and decide against going into the hold right now. I’ll take Torkyl’s advice and give Cimme some time. She seems to like the dark, so maybe the night will bring her back out. As I sit with my thoughts, the sun is blotted out again. I whirl around, instantly on edge and ready for combat, but it’s just another ship flying near us. I breathe a sigh of relief, but notice Torkyl is still tense. That’s when I notice the flag the ship is flying.

The flag is jet-black, and ragged around the edges. The white skull of a creature I don’t recognize is adorned with two spears, crossed in an X. A universal symbol. Pirates. Could this day get any worse? I’m out of whatever power the medallion gave me after the dragon incident, so I’ll have to rely on the help of my now-crewmates. I tap Torkyl on the shoulder.

“What’s the plan, Captain?”

Torkyl seems surprised to hear me call him “Captain”, but quickly composes himself and begins barking orders.

“Gerea, get the cannon! Mylo, get Lilli some sort of weapon and get Wringer belowdecks. Vorallon, use your bow to hit them from a distance, but keep your scimitar handy if they try to board. Oz… go easy on the killing, all right?”

Oz pouts, but it’s clear he isn’t really that upset. He pulls out two twin daggers and assumes a threatening position, his tail curling in anticipation. Noticing he and I weren’t in Torkyl’s commands, Hik speaks up.

“What about me and her, Cap’n?”

Torkyl gets a devilish gleam in his eye. “Hik, remember yer armor? Now’d be a great time fer yeh to put it to the test.”

Hik’s beady eyes widen. “Finally!” He disappears into the cargo hold, where clanging and whirring can be heard. As he’s down there, the pirate ship turns. It seems that it’s making a pass around us so it can come up alongside the Diametra. I almost don’t notice when Mylo hands me some sort of pistol and a short, curved sword. I take them, clip the pistol in its holster to my belt, and prepare to engage. As the ship comes along our starboard bow, I see the crew aboard it. There’s a lot of them, and most of them appear to be different species. They all look gnarled and tough, like they were born on that ship and will live the rest of their lives on it. It strikes me that they’re probably fully prepared for that possibility. I notice the name on the side of the enemy ship: Scurvy Goldfish. I have to hold back laughter at the stupid name, but quickly lose the humorousness when I look back at the pirates. As they move abeam so that their deck is parallel to ours, the pirates grab their own weapons and leap the gap between ships.

Before their feet even hit the ground, Oz is on top of the pirates. He moves with a speed bordering on bestial, and slashes at their ankles with his daggers, causing them to cry out and land much less gracefully on the ground. However, a few pirates avoid Oz’s whirling blades and get past him. Oz growls, but decides to finish off the two pirates he’s already downed: Something that looks like a humanoid rat, and a small, wiry, snaggle-toothed creature.

The pirates that got past Oz run toward me. One of them, a large, bear-headed man, gets hit with an arrow to the side of his neck. He reaches up to feel the shaft in his neck, before his eyes roll back into his head and he collapses to the ground. I scan the area, and see Vorallon in the crow’s nest, nocking another arrow into his bow. I give him a discreet nod, and he gives me a thumbs-up in return. Another humanoid rat-looking thing charges me, but I raise my sword and manage to keep him at arm’s length. However, his crewmates are closing in on me as well, and I know I can’t hold them all off. Vorallon takes another one down, but four still close in. They pause, and one of them sidles up to me. I raise my sword and slash at him, but he does a quick move and disarms me, my sword clattering across the deck. He laughs, a horrible noise that echoes through the sky.

“Lass, ye mighty reckon ye can beat me? 'n in a duel too? Ye must be new t' this area. Clearly ye don’t know the tales o' Hitchcock Gastly, scurviest pirate in the sky!” He smiles, a disgusting sight. His teeth look like he hadn’t brushed since he was six, and his gums were nearly black with disease. Hitchcock gets real close, up in my face, and I have to physically resist the urge to vomit. He smells horrendous, especially his breath. “Listen here. Ye get down on the ground 'n beg, 'n maybe ye can convince me t' spare yer life. Now, start grovelin'!”

At that very moment, the door to the hold bursts open, and I see two shapes emerging. One is quite feminine, definitely Cimme. The other is much harder to comprehend. It’s somewhere around eight feet tall, and looks metal, yet reptilian. As my eyes focus, I see a dragon-shaped helmet mounted on top of the huge metal body. I blink. “Hik??”

“The one and only!” The suit of armor gives me a joking salute, and I hear Hik’s voice, echoing from somewhere deep within the armor. Hik turns towards the pirates, and the armor’s arms go slack. It appears Hik has taken his arms out of the gauntlets and is fiddling with something in the armor’s chest. A compartment slides open with a whirr, and seven nets fly out, catching the remaining pirates underneath them. They struggle and squirm, trapped face-down, but can’t escape from under the heavy, weighted edges of the nets. However, Hitchcock somehow manages to extricate himself from the nets, and tries to engage me again. Before he can take a step, Hik is on him. I’m surprised at the speed the armor is capable of, running 30 feet in the span of a second or two. Hitchcock doesn’t notice any of this, mainly because he’s too focused on his latest prey… me.

“I be nah done wit' ye! No net be goin' t' stop the King O' the Seas!” He gloats, the expression on his face making it clear he thinks he’s intelligent for making a nickname for himself. I see Hik creeping up behind Hitchcock, a small device in his hand. It appears to be powering up, and he signals me by moving his hand around in a circle. Keep him going, distract him, anything. I turn to Hitchcock and decide to go on the offensive.

“You say you’re the King of the Seas, but why are you in a crew with a bunch of mule fodder like this?” I point to the pirates, limply laying on the deck, defeated. “They couldn’t even escape from a net!”

Hitchcock’s face turns beet red. Well, redder than it already was due to his nasty sunburn. He grimaces, giving me another view of his rotting teeth.

“This ain't me usual crew! Naw, these ones be…” he clearly begins to try to think of something, “rap-scall-i-ons. They be the troublemakers o' me fleet, so I's decided t' keep an eye on 'em. Aye, that’s it.” He seems happy with his lie. Unfortunately for him, I’m having none of it. Hik gives me a thumbs-up, and I move in for the kill.

“But a pirate, especially the King of the Seas, wouldn’t be caught dead with a ship in his fleet named the Scurvy Goldfish, right? Can we both agree that it’s a stupid name?”

Hitchcock stamps his foot on the deck like an angry child. As he does, Hik jams the device to Hitchcock’s neck. The pirate seizes, an electric shock coursing through his body. For a second, it looks like the salty codger has met his match, but he whirls around and kicks Hik away from him. He turns back to me and spits at my feet.

“Poppet, ye aren’t leavin' this ship alive anymore. Ain’t no one insult Hitchcock Gastly!” He draws his sword: a long, jagged piece of metal that it appears he hasn’t ever bothered to clean. He swings downward, and I close my eyes, preparing for what might be my last breath. But the impact never comes. I open my eyes again to see Hitchcock, eyes bulging, slowly move his head down to the dagger in his massive gut… and Cimme, pushing it deeper and deeper into his wound. She stares him dead in the eyes, and sneers.

“Stay away from her, you filthy old man! Take what remains of your sorry excuse for a crew and leave while you still can. And if I ever see your bucket-of-bolts ship anywhere even close to here, I’ll make sure this knife takes the grand tour of your body. Understand?” She twists the knife, causing Hitchcock to scream. “Good enough.” Cimme grins and kicks Hitchcock in the gut, much like he had done to Hik a few seconds ago. Hitchcock stumbles backwards, onto the deck of his own ship. The other pirates scramble out of their nets and join him.

As the Scurvy Goldfish moves as quickly away from us as it can, Cimme moves to my side. She places an arm around me, and I feel my skin tingle at her touch. I turn, looking into her eyes. They’re as beautiful as ever, but are tainted slightly by concern. Cimme starts to look me over, checking for any injuries.

“Lilli, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” I answer her, hoping to assuage her fears.

“Good. I couldn’t bear to see you come to harm.” Cimme kisses my cheek, then steps back tentatively, unsure of how I’ll react. I feel my cheeks heat up with a blush, and Cimme giggles. “I thought so…”
I feel my face redden even further, but I can’t help but smile. Cimme begins to lean in, as do I. Right before our lips meet, Hik yells from inside his armor.

“Hey! Little help?”

Hitchcock’s kick landed Hik on his back, and his huge, heavy armor rendered him immobile. Cimme and I look at each other, sigh, and help to extricate the little dragon from his invention. As Hik exits the armor, he grins, his fangs sharp and shiny. “She works great! Now, I gotta come up with a name for her…”

Cimme giggles again, a beautiful sound that sends butterflies through my body. As Hik lugs his armor back into the cargo hold, Cimme takes my hand. I look at her, and see that her cheeks have a tint of pink to match mine, but she’s smiling too. She pulls me in and embraces me, locking me in a kiss. For what feels like hours, the world slips away into redundancy. All that matters is this beautiful Drow in front of me. That moment is all but ruined when Torkyl pushes himself between us.