"A ship? Surely you've heard of ships. Unless you're from further away than I thought."

"I'm from Dream. Dream is very far away and it has ships and flying ships and everything. But I've never seen airships in Real before."

He very nearly falls off the pile of debris out of excitement.

"You're from Dream? Another world? Oh me oh my. That explains some things I've been seeing. Sadly I do not have my own airship... I could maybe make one with enough stuff." 

"Is that why you're looking for useful stuff? I can help! But only if I get to fly around too, and look for exploding animals and explore and whatever else is fun here." 

"If you can help me get stuff to build a ship with I'm sure we can come to an arrangement to that effect. I won't like it not being entirely my ship, but what can you do, eh?"

"If I were in Dream I could get you an airship really fast! And I could get my own airship so yours would be yours and mine would be mine and we could race each other! But this is Real and Real is weird."

Lots of bouncing accompanied by a pout. "What sort of stuff do you need?"

"Hmm... If it's gonna be a good ship, lots of stuff. If not... A nice gas bag, wood and cloth and stuff to make the frame, something to make a rudder and ballast controls out of... There's actually kind of a lot to think about to make one proper? I have blueprints back at my house, though. We should go read them."

"Okay! Let's go!"

He stuffs the metal thing into the bag. "Away we go!"

He clambers up to a square hole in the wall a couple feet up. "We go through here. It's one of the wind tunnels to bring fresh air in. It doesn't work very well, but at least we can use it."

Tav climbs up after him.

It's not actually very cramped for kids their size. "Second left, then the first down after a right, and then right again... You know what just follow me."

The chute is made from a curious sort of rock. It's not warm or cold at all and almost looks like it's made of tiny bubbles.

Slightly delayed following, due to him peeking down the other tunnels and looking around and around. Does poking at the rock do anything?

He can collapse one of the minuscule bubbles, letting it crumble into tiny sharp edges. That one was already cracked. "Hurry up, slowpoke!"

A few bubbles broken, and then he catches up.

"Don't poke the floatstone too much. The stuff in these ducts is probably dead anyway, but it doesn't help."

"Doesn't look like it's floating. What happens if I poke all the floatstone?"

"Oh, it's floating. It's just also a wall so you don't really notice. And there's more all around. We fall into the Deeps if we lose all our lift, is what happens."

"We're floating right now?" Tav perks up. "Are we reeeally reeeally high? Can I see?" 

"Once we get to the edge, yes. Do be careful when you do. Right now we are deep in the hive."

More crawling through vents.

Crawl crawl. After a while he starts asking where each vent they pass by goes.

"Other alleys and stuff. They're not actually great for getting around but they're kinda sneaky."

And they finally exit the vents, onto a street. If you can call it that - it has large open sections in between the flat parts where people walk. Rough buildings all alongside, with plants growing here and there. Above and below, too. Stairs, ladders, ropes trailing everywhere. People walking around, not sparing a second glance for two grubby kids. "Here we are, Moche street. You want to see the edge? This goes right to it."

He looks around with undisguised curiosity, and by some miracle doesn't start scrambling up ropes or ladders. "Which way is it?"

"Right this way, honored guest."

Down the street. Past bustling shanty after bustling shanty.

The sunlight is getting brighter... There's open space ahead... Thronged with, yes, airships! Hot air balloons, house-sized stone constructions with engines sticking out, giant arrangements of canvas and wood and rope unloading cargo. "Behold, the weaving district docks!"

Airships! Tav pads closer, ducking around people and cargo, examining the constructions in detail. 

"Ahh, the mighty fleet. Busy busy busy. A lot of these airships are looking for somewhere cheap to dock and do things... We're kind of out of shantytown now, though. If adults look at you funny, back off, okay? They don't like urchins 'round here."