354
The Dreadnought floated in the waters of Kabberjaw, the deck rising a mere 20 meters from the water’s surface, while the top of the observation helm was about 80 meters up there. It was a big ship. 400 meters long!
Kabberjaw was bigger.
A lot bigger.
Up close, it seemed less like a skeleton, and more like a landmass.
One claw of Raptor, the main one, and just the part sticking up above the waters, was about 55 kilometers long. It dwarfed the Dreadnought, by a lot. The city that was carved into the dark grey ‘stone’ of the claw dwarfed a lot of cities back home. It had towers and streets and it wasn’t only dark grey stone, but also white stone and light grey stone and good brown dirt, and a whole lot more vegetation than Mark had been capable of seeing at first glance. If you were coming upon the place, without knowing anything, you might think you had found a lost metropolis rising on a rocky shore.
From far away, there was no mistaking this was a dragon’s claw.
Maybe 1% of it was inhabited, and most of that inhabited area was right in front of Mark, down there on the other side of the floating wooden dock. The waters down there were super deep, and rather clear. Mark could see at 5 kilometers down, or more. He wasn’t sure how far he was seeing.
There were fish down there. Lots and lots of fish, because the edge of Raptor was rightthere; a straight black drop into the deeps. Green kelp and colored coral grew on that surface. A lot of green. A lot of colorful coral. Some of that coral glowed. It was eerie and awesome.
Eliot stood on the deck, looking down over the railing with Mark, speaking to everyone, “Normally, the ship could never get this close to land, but that isn’t land. It’s a claw, and the side of the claw ends about 5 kilometers below the surface, where the underside is pretty flat. It’s a talon; the only cutting part is over there in the east. From there, it’s a 34 kilometer drop through open waters to the bottom of the ‘ocean’.”
Mark wanted to go swimming into those clear waters. He understood why Derek had done so earlier. Derek was containing himself right now, though.
Derek asked, “Do you think they have secret hiding holes underneath the waves? Like you swim down and up and then you’re in an underground castle area?”
“100% yes,” Mark said. “There are probably hiding holes drilled into the side of the claw, hidden by greenery.”
“Or by those bright corals,” Tartu said, staring.
“Oh yeah; has to be,” Sally said, looking down there, too.
Lola said, “Be a littlemore presentable, children. There is a delegation.”
The team straightened up.
About 30 meters beyond the Dreadnought lay an ancient and heavily-repaired floating dock that was itself about 100 meters long. There were other docks in the area, but this was the largest one so David had pulled the Dreadnought up to this one. A bunch of fishing boats latched onto the left side of the dock, but the right side was empty for some reason.
There were fish everywhere down there, under the shadows of the floating dock and all of its spreading kelp and greenery, while fishermen on the docks rapidly vacated the area. A greeting party stood further down the way, on ‘land’.
The whole thing seemed incredibly, unbelievably dangerous to Mark, with his ‘normal’ sensibilities about water and monsters and warning after warning said at a very young age to never go into open water. Were there monsters at all? If there were, there weren’t a lot of them.
Why were there so few monsters?
Mark had no idea.
“Maybe the monsters are lurking in those places down there?” Mark asked.
Eliot said, “Monster scanners are clear— Well. There are somemonsters. PL 5 ‘monsters’, if you even want to count those. Just big fish, really. Everything else is non-existent.”
“How?” Isoko asked, not really expecting an answer. She was standing next to Mark in normal mode, which she was holding onto as best she could. She had mostlyexperienced her Powers enough to not randomly hurt the people next to her, but she was still walking a tightrope.
The others stood on Mark’s other side, just in case.
Tartu asked, “We’re really all going out?” He was worried. He wanted clarification, “Just so I’m aware, this is the decision being made. That we’re going out there.”
Lola said, “Let’s do an hour, and then come back. We will not be spending the night, and if we do, it will be on the Dreadnought and not in their accommodations, if they should choose to offer some.”
Tartu relaxed a fraction at that.
“Isthere a night?” Sally asked.
Eliot said, “The scanners say that the light in the sky is varying so maybe there’s a daytime/nighttime cycle, but we arenear the Northern Crossing in the Summerand high above the Earth. It is very possible that there is no nighttime here at all, if we base our light levels on light coming in from the actual sun… which is not how it really works at all.”
Tartu said, “Sometimes it’s like that.”
Sally nodded—
“They’re coming,” Isoko said, flickering with Platinum, going Full Platinum and startling herself. “Whoops!” She kept her vector to a minimum, splintering the deck of the ship but otherwise releasing herself into the air, to hover ever so slightly. “Whew, okay!”
Mark looked at her. “You good?”
“I’m good. No sandblasting here! … Or not much.” Isoko said, remaining Full Platinum and in the air. “… Don’t think I can turn it off right now. Too nervous… ah, everyone down there is super nervous now. Sorry, guys.”
Eliot was already fixing the deck.
Mark looked at the welcoming committee, saying, “They were nervous to begin with. Everyone is. Eliot; stairs. Quark, another Protect, please.”
Quark was in a floating black orb behind Mark, made of adamantium and filled with hands. Quark flicked those hands and 4 seconds later a layer of adamantium scales condensed into Mark’s black flesh and then settled down, into his body. Where was the Protect, and where was his body? Mark had no idea. No one else did, either.
Tartu looked away from Mark, feeling lost, saying, “I still have no idea why it does that.”
Mark stared forward, saying, “Don’t worry about it for now.”
And then Mark stood tall, centered, and present.
The Dreadnought was anchored in space so it wasn’t moving, even with the ocean waving at it. It was more stable than the floating dock down there. So when Eliot opened up a hatch and some hovering steps solidified into a staircase leading down to the docks, the staircase was more solid than the dock. It was like stone reaching down into waves.
The people on the dock were used to having sea legs, but they were notused to casual displays of power like Eliot’s hovering stairs. They kinda startled as stuff started moving on the ship, and then forming a staircase leading down to the docks. The middle woman said something, the woman on the right muttered something more, and then the three of them kept coming, with the man on the left so very, very interested in everything happening in front of him.
The man on the left was Asian, his vector feeling like he was wearing his finest clothes, but he lookedlike he had gotten himself together as quickly as possible. He wore tan slacks with black grease on them in the shape of handprints on his thighs, and a loose shirt that also had some grease on it. His hands were technically clean, but permanently stained, and he was excited and nervous at the same time. He saw Eliot and zeroed in on Eliot right away. Mark didn’t know that guy.
The middle woman was obviously in charge. She was probably Chief Ariku Naet, and she was wearing a traditional dress of red and gold, with her hair in a bun and her feet wearing funky wooden shoes, like two pieces of 2x4s stuck together, allowing her to walk about 10 centimeters above the ground. She seemed at ease in those weird shoes, even with the docks moving with the waves. The Chief was highly interested in everything happening in front of her, though she looked at Mark with more than a little trepidation.
The last person was a very dark-skinned woman who was wearing combat leathers with little hooks on the shoulders and hips. It was a weird stylistic choice… but it probably had a reason. Maybe hooks for a combat chair in a fighter craft? Seemed likely. She had a distinct animosity toward the Chief, but she was keeping it in careful, deep check, while at the same time viewing Mark as a sudden ally that she didn’t expect to have. She grinned in a small way, hoping no one would notice.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Mark told Eliot, “Left one is interested in you for some reason, Eliot.”
“I think he’s a shipwright,” Eliot said, “So that makes it mutual.”
Isoko said, “Middle one is the Chief, right? How do we know her?”
“Yes, she’s the Chief, and my drones picked up her name from long-distance. The right one is the woman we heard on the radio. Raptor Guard Leader Nomvula Dlamini,” Eliot said. “South African, unless the name is from somewhere else.”
“Reveal refugees,” Lola softly said. “Either directly or indirectly.”
Mark could accept that reasoning.
… And then Mark stepped down onto the floating stairs, leading the way, his people following.
No one was staying on the ship except for Derek.
Soon, Mark stood on the final platform, before the floating dock.
The greeting party stood before him.
Mark bowed, and said, “Greetings. I’m Mark Careed, and this is the rest of my team. This is Eliot Cybersong, who will be making the things you need, as per agreements with Elkatracks. Up in the air is Isoko Kanno, capable of healing a lot of people at once. A lot of us are healers, actually, including Derek up there, who wants to go exploring and to learn about your people and help them, if he can. We’d like to come over, stick around for a few hours and do the task, which is extra, and then leave on to Stronghold and complete the actual contracted task.”
The people took the words in stride, their emotions spiking in a good way when Mark mentioned Elkatracks, healing, and only being around for a few hours.
Mentioning Stronghold brought about mixed reactions.
Chief Ariku happily said, “I am Chief Ariku Naet, guide of the 8,200 souls of Raptor. Here is our Raptor Guard Leader Nomvula Dlamini, whom you spoke with on the waters. She is the best waterfighter in the waters. And over here is Liang Wen, our master shipwright, who can do miracles with crystals. We would greatly enjoy healing, and we greatly accept your offers of the creation of mundane items. To be completely above board, though, your agreement with Elkatracks does not extend to us, as we are still a subsidiary of Stronghold, though we would be grateful if you could see to helping us, as well.”
She bowed, and her people bowed with her.
Mark said, “We agree to expand our agreement with Elkatracks to Raptor. Please show us what you need, and the supplies you have to be transformed.”
The Chief rose, a thrill of victory in her heart, and said, “Please follow me, good sirs and madams.”
Mark looked down at the floating dock as the representatives of Raptor moved back, and he said, “I’m gonna crash through that dock, so I’ll go on the water.”
Mark hopped off of the edge of Eliot’s platform and spun a few rotors into the water, keeping himself afloat and away from the other things in the area, water twirling down into swirling vortices below him. The right side of the dock had been cleared for whatever reason, so Mark wouldn’t even have to navigate around boats. He could just float forward, above the water, and not even break the water’s surface to cause too much noise, and so that is what he did.
The trio from Raptor glanced at him, and then rapidly accepted whatever he was doing as ‘fine’, though Ariku and Nomvula were reevaluating him. Wan was more interested in talking to Eliot, who was there beside Sally. Soon Wan was talking to Eliot while Sally ‘oversaw’ the meeting.
Wan asked about hovercraft, because he was a hovercraft specialist, and Eliot was happy to talk on the subject.
Mark moved above the water as he asked the Chief, “So how long has Kabberjaw been around? I’m from Earth, raised under Curtain Protocol, but I’m learning a lot since I got out from under that, though I never would have imagined a place like thiseven existing.”
The Chief easily reoriented to walking beside the waters, on the dock, next to Mark, saying, “Civilization has lived on Kabberjaw for thousands of years! We can trace our roots all the way to Stronghold, and far, far into the past, to Daihoon, and ancient kings and empires, but yes, Kabberjaw has always been a big secret. It was only recently that Raptor was recolonized, though. Most of the younger generation and the kids are from here, but my parents were from Stronghold.
“When the Reveal happened the path to Earth and Daihoon crashed open, and many, many people fell through the cracks from those worlds into Endless Daihoon. Very few of them survived, but of those that did, many of them came here, thanks to the efforts of dragons like Odanci, Elkatracks, and eventually the influx of dragons from Daihoon.
“Do you know the tale of Farhowla?”
Tartu, back there and listening, instantly caught onto that name.
Derek did, too, but he didn’t care.
Mark was gradually coming to the conclusion that if it was normal information, that Derek either already knew it, or he could figure it out within minutes. ‘The Dragon Farhowla’ barely registered to him, but it did register to Tartu, a lot.
Mark said, “I do not know of Farhowla, but the name rings a bell.”
“It is a long tale and I would tell it if you would listen, but there are a few who would berate me for several hours if they were not allowed to tell it themselves… And I say that most of the people here are from Raptor itself, but a few families havelived in Raptor for millennia, and our Storyteller, Ena Raptor-Kin, is one such person.”
Mark reached the end of the dock, where deep waters lapped against Kabberjaw’s black claw, which had been carved into to make an oceanfront road. Mark said, “I would love to hear it, but first I would like to—”
Mark stepped onto the stone.
He felt a little jolt of something…
“Hmm,” Mark said, stepping onto the ground solidly… And then he ignored that and said, “I’d like to have Eliot start working on things, and then we can go over more help that is needed. For instance, I can tell that some of your people are rather injured right now and scattered around the place, and I saw at least three fishermen who had missing fingers and one guy on a peg leg. We can heal all of that. If you like, I can start.”
Chief Ariku looked at Mark’s feet, curious as to whatever had happened there, and then she looked up at Mark’s face. She started to say something, but then she seemed to actually hear his words. “You… You can restore limbs?”
“I am rather sure we do healing magics a lot different than you, because we have gods that have gifted most of us Powers, and we tend to use them liberally in good ways, because that is what is expected of us. So we generally heal people wherever we go as a matter of course. For those so granted the ability to heal, it is expected that if they see injured people, that they heal those injured people.
“We tried to stop by Purple Palace on the way to Kabberjaw to get a feel for what to expect in this place, but they did not accept anyone onto their lands, or we would have done the same for them.” Mark finished with, “So normally I would just heal everyone as a matter of course, but I don’t wish to intrude.”
Chief Ariku was flummoxed.
Raptor Guard Leader Nomvula spoke up, “Please heal whoever you can, if you can. We will bring them out and start efforts.”
“No need for that much disruption,” Mark said, looking up to Isoko. “Isoko! You have the range, yes?”
“I got most of it!” Isoko called back, floating about 40 meters up there. “Some people outside of this part of Raptor probably won’t be touched.”
Isoko flooded Raptor with a gentle sea breeze and a Union on the barely-salty air. Good and Bad went out, connecting to everyone in a vast tangle of overlapping Unions, pumping in the Good, breezing away the Bad.
The representatives from Raptor all startled as the sky churned, and fishermen and otherwise who were sticking their heads out of open windows all tried to get away. But there was no getting away from Isoko’s range.
Like blowing dust off of old bricks, a soft miasma flickered out of the world as a soft light soaked in. Mark felt as people began to feel better all across Raptor, or at least within Mark’s range. Daily life seemed to be hard here, or maybe they just didn’t have good healers? That was the case with historical Daihoon, anyway. The power of the New Pantheon, with Freyala and Hearthswell especially, had been a Big Deal.
For the people of Raptor, Isoko’s healing was an equally Big Deal.
Chief Ariku breathed deep as some internal part of her relaxed, and as her spine unbent in a way she didn’t even realize had been hurt. Her feet felt better, too.
A thousand other nearby people experienced much of the same, including Nomvula and the Shipwright Liang Wen, who flexed his hands as some sort of arthritis cleared up. Some small heart issue cleared up, too, because he was suddenly standing a lot easier on his left side.
Mark brought Chief Ariku’s attention back toward him, as he said, “Isoko can keep that up for a long while, though there will likely be some side effects with the plants in the area.” He pointed at a nearby tree.
Everyone from Raptor looked at the tree.
The leaves were shifting from deep, end-of-year green, to Spring green, with new branches and roots reaching out into the world, stretching toward the sun and flowing over the stone planter box it resided within.
Mark said, “I imagine most people are healed 80% by now, barring actual limb restoration, and we should probably deal with those individually, since they can require specific healing.” Mark didn’t have to tell Isoko to stop; she got the message. The breezy Union stopped and Isoko was feeling amazing, her vector full of light and joy. She could probably feel the people all around them, and further than that. Based on the miraculous joy that Mark was sensing, Isoko was probably feeling it a lot more. Mark said to Chief Ariku, “Shall we continue to the requests for Eliot, and individual healing of limbs?”
Chief Ariku was overjoyed, but also super wary. She was verging more into ‘worried’ by the moment. If Isoko could do that, at that level of range, then what elsecould she do?
Leader Nomvula was worried, but she had plans for if Mark and them got out of line. She easily said, “Please let us go to the courtyard where the materials have been prepared.”
And so they went.