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One moment Loki is trying to kill the snake-monster before it gets any closer to civilization, and then next -
She jabs at its face, but with momentum intended to meet resistance, and there is none. With momentum intended to compensate for a dodge on the part of the creature, but it surges forward. She's engulfed, and then there is no snake, and there is no ground, and she's falling.
She gasps. The air is clean; she doesn't need to heal poison out of herself with each breath. She sees - floating land, of sorts, there, some kind of oddly geology-themed ship maybe. She could, potentially, turn Lævateinn into something with enough surface area to steer herself onto it rather than fall farther and suffer worse from the fall, but she just recently perfected a new...
She's a bird, a swift, and she catches the wind, and her spear is a twig clutched in her feet, and she wings her way to the land.
Rockeye's first glowfic. Loki (a Bell) falls on Nick in Cloudbank.
purposeful_glory
cloudwanderer
"Some sort of big predator dropped you here? That sounds... Well, if I accept you appearing out of nowhere, a monster putting you here isn't that much further out there. And you were fighting this monster because it was trying to kill you, I suppose?"
purposeful_glory
"Well, it wasn't after me in particular until I went out to meet it, but I didn't want it loose in a city. I'm not sure if it was a predator. It was aggressive, but herbivores can be that too."
cloudwanderer
"Keeping it away from a city seems reasonable, good job, very noble of you. I don't understand what you mean about predators and herbivores though." The allspeak seems to be using the same word for 'predator' and 'monster,' if loki notices that kind of thing.
"How do you know Anglish, anyway? I don't imagine it's a common language on Asgard."
"How do you know Anglish, anyway? I don't imagine it's a common language on Asgard."
purposeful_glory
"It's not. That's something called Allspeak. Which may or may not contain awkward translation glitches - once I went for quite a long time without noticing that it was switching the genders of all gendered words on me - but serves for most purposes. I'm using different terms for 'something that eats other creatures' and 'something that is dangerous to people'. A ladybug eats other creatures; a bilgesnipe is dangerous but only eats plants."
cloudwanderer
"So you have some sort of universal language, and whatever sent you here was 'something that is dangerous to people.' Alright."
That seems to be about enough strangeness for him, at least right now. He consciously decides to go back to explaining the ship. Next up: Ballast and lift! The ship floats partially by being made of the same rock as the floating islands, and partly because of those gas sacs - they're filled with hydrogen, and can float on air much the same way a boat floats on water. They also have a tendency to catch fire, which is why there are no torches or lanterns here.
His preparations for flight are apparently complete. The engines sputter into motion with a loud roar, and he goes to a little room at the front of the ship with good views of the surroundings and lots of strange looking mechanisms, which he starts operating and explaining.
That seems to be about enough strangeness for him, at least right now. He consciously decides to go back to explaining the ship. Next up: Ballast and lift! The ship floats partially by being made of the same rock as the floating islands, and partly because of those gas sacs - they're filled with hydrogen, and can float on air much the same way a boat floats on water. They also have a tendency to catch fire, which is why there are no torches or lanterns here.
His preparations for flight are apparently complete. The engines sputter into motion with a loud roar, and he goes to a little room at the front of the ship with good views of the surroundings and lots of strange looking mechanisms, which he starts operating and explaining.
purposeful_glory
It's all very cunning. Once she has enough information to form questions, Loki asks some.
cloudwanderer
He attempts to answer them! It's fairly clear what each thing does and how to operate them - that thing will drop some water, making the ship lighter. That one speeds up or slows down the engines - but his explanations of how they actually work seem to be assuming a level of education Loki does not have.
purposeful_glory
Well, she's pretty bright, she can follow along for the most part and fill in with clarifying inquiries. "Using water as ballast is clever," she opines. "If everything else is hard to come by."
cloudwanderer
"Water and air are pretty much the only things we have plenty of, yes. It's also conveniently liquid, which makes it easier to handle."
He uses a compass to point the ship south, activates a panel that's supposed to keep it pointed the same direction, and lets the engines settle into a low rumble. They're descending steadily, but not particularly quickly.
"I could just vent some hydrogen and go down that way, but I prefer to have some speed under me. Something this big can't maneuver easily from a dead stop, so if I fell towards something it would be hard to get out of its way. Let's go show you what plants need how much water." He proceeds to the rooftop garden.
He uses a compass to point the ship south, activates a panel that's supposed to keep it pointed the same direction, and lets the engines settle into a low rumble. They're descending steadily, but not particularly quickly.
"I could just vent some hydrogen and go down that way, but I prefer to have some speed under me. Something this big can't maneuver easily from a dead stop, so if I fell towards something it would be hard to get out of its way. Let's go show you what plants need how much water." He proceeds to the rooftop garden.
cloudwanderer
Watering the plants takes not quite all of the rest of the morning. The ship is fairly small - When she's done, she could easily find Nick near one of the engines if she looks for him.
cloudwanderer
"Well, I tinker or read or update my wind charts. You could read my books, I guess, but they're mostly technical and boring. Star charts, engineering manuals, that kind of thing."
cloudwanderer
"In my workshop. I'll show you." He shows her. She probably recognizes some of the tools and devices in here, but the books are on shelves along one wall. There is a single wooden chair.
"Enjoy. I'll be working on the water tanks."
"Enjoy. I'll be working on the water tanks."
purposeful_glory
"Thank you."
Books are a lovely way to pass the time, especially when she doesn't want to get down to serious work on spell invention with only a little paper to hand and when she may be fetched home by more conventional means at any moment. What are her choices?
Books are a lovely way to pass the time, especially when she doesn't want to get down to serious work on spell invention with only a little paper to hand and when she may be fetched home by more conventional means at any moment. What are her choices?
cloudwanderer
Several books about navigation and handling lighter-than-air objects, a weather almanac, a long row of handwritten volumes consisting of detailed notes, charts, and calculations. A book filled with lists of usual weights and prices for various objects and substances. Books on farming and how one should grow plants. Lots of books that detail how the sort of mechanical devices all over the ship work and the best ways to build or fix them - though again, these seem to assume the reader has some amount of background education.
purposeful_glory
Well, she flips through the pricing books to get a sense of how much the common currency is worth, first, and then reads a navigational book which may after all continue to be useful if she gets around by turning into a bird. She's very well-educated, just not locally.
cloudwanderer
The navigation book tells her how to determine her approximate latitude by the stars (the star charts are, indeed, completely unrecognizable). It tells her how to estimate her altitude based on the kind of clouds around her. It also lists the warning signs and effects and how to avoid various dangerous weather patterns.
There seems to be a lot of dangerous weather. In addition to regular thunderstorms, firestorms occur when strong updrafts mix the oxygen layer and the hydrogen layer. The result burns, making heat, which feeds the updraft, and also spawning rain clouds. There are also down-plumes and up-plumes, which can suck you into the lethal lower atmosphere or spit hazardous air up into the middle layer, respectively.
There seems to be a lot of dangerous weather. In addition to regular thunderstorms, firestorms occur when strong updrafts mix the oxygen layer and the hydrogen layer. The result burns, making heat, which feeds the updraft, and also spawning rain clouds. There are also down-plumes and up-plumes, which can suck you into the lethal lower atmosphere or spit hazardous air up into the middle layer, respectively.
purposeful_glory
...Good to know. She is very glad she learned to turn into a bird before being snake-monstered to this planet. And that she has her healing spells.
cloudwanderer
The navigation book also makes general statements about what kind of animals and people live at what kind of altitude and longitude. In general, most people live near the equator because it's the calmest and safest. High altitudes produce food, low altitudes perform crafts and manufacturing.
Neither the navigation book nor the farming book (if she reads it) make any mention whatsoever of seasons.
Neither the navigation book nor the farming book (if she reads it) make any mention whatsoever of seasons.
purposeful_glory
This isn't an especially conspicuous omission, especially with everyone living near the equator.
She does read the farming book. This place is sparsely populated enough that making a living is probably difficult for a wandering storyteller, or even if she cares to reveal her magic a wandering healer and illusionist, and she'll probably have to leverage her strength towards their manual labor industries at least to start out.
She does read the farming book. This place is sparsely populated enough that making a living is probably difficult for a wandering storyteller, or even if she cares to reveal her magic a wandering healer and illusionist, and she'll probably have to leverage her strength towards their manual labor industries at least to start out.
cloudwanderer
The farming book is very useful and describes how plants grow, what they need to thrive, what plants are best for people to eat, how to deal with plant diseases and pests, and many other things plant-related.
The world isn't that sparsely populated. They pass near several floating islands with houses or villages built on them, and two other ships. As they go lower islands get more common, common enough that a swift could easily fly island-to-island and rest in between.
About halfway through the book, Nick comes in and reminds her that some of the plants on the rooftop garden need more water in the afternoon, which is now.
The world isn't that sparsely populated. They pass near several floating islands with houses or villages built on them, and two other ships. As they go lower islands get more common, common enough that a swift could easily fly island-to-island and rest in between.
About halfway through the book, Nick comes in and reminds her that some of the plants on the rooftop garden need more water in the afternoon, which is now.
cloudwanderer
As she is watering the plants, a large, mostly translucent tentacled thing suddenly slams into the ship from above. It opens a circular mouth full of lots of sharp teeth, smashes a few panes of glass, and starts trying to eat the ship's mostly-for-maneuvering wings.