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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.
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purposeful_glory
cloudwanderer
"It should take care of the wing and then some. Especially since I managed to sell my temporary replacement. I haven't taken a good look at my internals yet, though. If something important on the inside is subtly destroyed I could be taking a loss. But accidents happen, right?"
cloudwanderer
"Heh. I guess it's not really an accident. Wildlife attacks happen, then. Well, in an hour you'll have a decent startup fund. Do you have a good idea what you want to do around here or was it a wasted trip?"
purposeful_glory
"I'm considering the logistics on taking up squid-hunting, actually, with that price tag. In the shorter term I'm thinking inventing."
cloudwanderer
"Meat is pretty valuable in general, but squid in particular is only so ridiculously expensive because hardly anybody human is stupid enough to try to hunt them. You stand a much better chance, obviously, but if you take them down regularly you'll flood the market. There's other airborne wildlife that most people don't bother, though - I can suggest a particular book if you want to take up hunting, and you can prowl bookstores for it. Unless this town has a library? Not all of them do."
purposeful_glory
"I don't remember spotting one, but I could have missed it."
cloudwanderer
"You can always check later. The book you want is Logs of Life Lighter than Air by Isabella Sand. It's boring to read, but it has very accurate and detailed descriptions of those kind of animals' behavior and morphology and so on."
Nick's squid buyer arrives. She looks rich, given the very fancy-looking clothes and the guards. Squid tentacles are hauled out. Money changes hands. After being excruciatingly polite until the rich lady leaves, Nick comes over to give Loki a small pile of coins - mostly wooden, but with a few copper squares and one small silver circle. He explains which coins are what denominations. "I'll be here for a couple of weeks fixing my ship, if you want to talk to someone who's less than a total stranger. Other than that, I think this is where we part ways. Good luck in all your ventures, Loki."
Nick's squid buyer arrives. She looks rich, given the very fancy-looking clothes and the guards. Squid tentacles are hauled out. Money changes hands. After being excruciatingly polite until the rich lady leaves, Nick comes over to give Loki a small pile of coins - mostly wooden, but with a few copper squares and one small silver circle. He explains which coins are what denominations. "I'll be here for a couple of weeks fixing my ship, if you want to talk to someone who's less than a total stranger. Other than that, I think this is where we part ways. Good luck in all your ventures, Loki."
cloudwanderer
It turns out the squid-buying lady really really likes her squid. She will pay double for more squid-meat, as much as Nick can get. Squid-hunting is a very risky proposition, but for that kind of money it might be worth the risk. Plus, he just recently met someone who might make the whole adventure a lot more survivable.
Over the next few days, Nick does some careful figuring. It is actually possible to return to the same place you came from, just difficult. Predicting the prevailing winds and careful dead reckoning might do it. Of course, he also needs to actually kill the thing.
He finds Loki.
Over the next few days, Nick does some careful figuring. It is actually possible to return to the same place you came from, just difficult. Predicting the prevailing winds and careful dead reckoning might do it. Of course, he also needs to actually kill the thing.
He finds Loki.
purposeful_glory
Loki has rented a small apartment and is spending some of her time hauling things onto and off of ships (faster than a normal person, and therefore for a high per-weight rate) as an odd job to make rent without denting her nest egg, while the glazier puzzles over telescope diagrams.
"Hello, Nick," she says, setting down the last crate in a haul. "What brings you here?"
"Hello, Nick," she says, setting down the last crate in a haul. "What brings you here?"
cloudwanderer
"It turns out that Baroness Hath - you know, the lady who bought the squid off us the other day - likes the taste of squid tentacles a lot more than she expected to. She's made me an even more generous offer if I manage to bring her more."
"I figured, you're the one that fought it last time, and quite well too. So I wanted to ask if you would like to go squid-hunting. The money you have so far was just three tentacles' worth. A whole squid at the new price will make us both rich enough to buy a workshop. Same split as before as long as you pay for half the supplies."
"I will warn you that this is somewhat risky, though. It's tricky but doable to come back to the same town we left after we find a squid. But if the squid eats one of us, or breaks through the floatstone shell of my ship... For that kind of money, though, I'm willing to risk it. What do you think?"
"I figured, you're the one that fought it last time, and quite well too. So I wanted to ask if you would like to go squid-hunting. The money you have so far was just three tentacles' worth. A whole squid at the new price will make us both rich enough to buy a workshop. Same split as before as long as you pay for half the supplies."
"I will warn you that this is somewhat risky, though. It's tricky but doable to come back to the same town we left after we find a squid. But if the squid eats one of us, or breaks through the floatstone shell of my ship... For that kind of money, though, I'm willing to risk it. What do you think?"
purposeful_glory
"I will be happy to kill a squid, if you think you can find one for us."
cloudwanderer
"I have some ideas, but this scheme is still in the planning stages. I just wanted to make sure you're willing before I spend a lot of time and effort preparing. Did you look for that book?"
cloudwanderer
"Please find it if you can. I need to refill consumables, expand my coldroom to fit an entire squid, and buy lots of ice. I'm going to disassemble my greenhouse, too, it'll just get smashed if we get into a fight with an adult squid. Would a walkway or platforms around the outside of the ship make it easier to fight a squid? I could build some. I'm already going to make a net launcher to try and tangle it up."
purposeful_glory
"An open space to stand on is all I need. The net will help keep it from dying when it isn't above the ship, I suppose."
cloudwanderer
"I was also considering a barbed bone-spear. Penetrate deep enough with that and it won't be getting away, dead or alive. I should find some idle hands, get the ship rebuilt sooner rather than later. I'll find you again in a couple of days."
cloudwanderer
"You have a ten centimeter knife. What are you going to do, throw it?"
cloudwanderer
"Asgardian technology of some kind, then? Alright, if you say so. Find that book if you can, please, it might tell you how to kill the squid without puncturing its lift bag." Nick turns to leave.
purposeful_glory
Loki goes looking for the book after collecting her coins for the crate hauling.
cloudwanderer
The town has a public library. The book she wants is not in it. A certain bookstore does have it, and this particular bookstore will let you sit in a comfy sort of cafe area and read things for a much smaller fee than buying it outright. (Paper is expensive, so the book is also rather expensive)
cloudwanderer
There is a lot of dry description on how squids develop, what they eat, where they live, and so on, interspersed with detailed anatomical drawings.
They develop from eggs. Adults have a large main body with a bulbous gas sac above and forty to sixty long, flexible tentacles below. Their eyes are on the bottom of their heads. The brain, mouth, and other organs are in a compact section that has some chitinous armor in adults. Identifiable weak spots near vital organs include the center of the mouth, the eyes, and two joints in the chitin shell that might open a bit when the squid moves.
The squid that attacked Nick's ship was apparently a young one - of the drawings in this book, it looked most like the five-year-old squid. Adult squids are a good four or five times larger, are noted to be faster and more aggressive, and also have sharp claw-like structures on the ends of their tentacles, which typically come with a paralytic poison. Squids are noted to be fairly intelligent, and like to attack things that look like Jellywings, slow creatures that resemble living balloons and eat certain species of floating plants.
They develop from eggs. Adults have a large main body with a bulbous gas sac above and forty to sixty long, flexible tentacles below. Their eyes are on the bottom of their heads. The brain, mouth, and other organs are in a compact section that has some chitinous armor in adults. Identifiable weak spots near vital organs include the center of the mouth, the eyes, and two joints in the chitin shell that might open a bit when the squid moves.
The squid that attacked Nick's ship was apparently a young one - of the drawings in this book, it looked most like the five-year-old squid. Adult squids are a good four or five times larger, are noted to be faster and more aggressive, and also have sharp claw-like structures on the ends of their tentacles, which typically come with a paralytic poison. Squids are noted to be fairly intelligent, and like to attack things that look like Jellywings, slow creatures that resemble living balloons and eat certain species of floating plants.