“Trigger happy lot, eh?” I wheezed and Amica’s mouth twitched but only slightly.
“Gave us quite a run for our money, you Skypian bastards.” The commander marched up to us with a deep laugh. “Not so strong now with so many guns pointing at you?”
“Not quite.” I closed my eyes as the sun sank below the horizon, “I feel a lot stronger, don’t you agree?”
I caught the weak man’s gaze with my own and his will crumpled instantly. “Lower your weapons. That’s an order!”
Even with the word of their commander, the recruits were jumpy and they didn’t remove their fingers from the triggers of their stun-guns. I moved my gaze around to all of them, but felt my power strain slightly. Controlling so many of them would be a hassle under any circumstances, but I still felt the need to gloat. “Congratulations commander. You just invited a group of rogue Skypians to tour your training camp as well as gave them permission to cross the Skybarrier.”
“I didn’t give you—”
I picked up the holoscreen and handed it to him. “You just decided to.”
After he tapped the necessary information in, I grabbed the holoscreen and looked back at the group of men I was controlling. “Sleep.”
They fell like flies, but that wasn’t the problem. We had three minutes to return to the dock before our train would pass us by and I didn’t have enough energy to control more than one person at a time after knocking out so many men. “Amica, run!”
I dashed ahead of him but made sure he was close behind as we dashed through the complex and into the stairwell. “Able, Able, Able!”
“What?” I snarled back at Amica, trying not to stop since we had only seconds to spare before our ride would arrive.
“Able! If you’re not going to listen, I’ll stop running!” I turned around for a second and flashed my eyes harmlessly at him.
“I said what?!” I turned back around and kept running.
“Will you go out with me?”
“Is now really the time?” I shook my head as we rounded the corner that led to the waiting holorails.
“Knowing you, this is the only time!” Amica retorted. “I figured since you kissed me and all that you might like me at least a little bit too. Would you—”
“Amica!” I screamed at him, my mind thinking as swiftly as it could about so many things. Amica, my boyfriend… the thought gave me mixed feelings. I liked him, but he wasn’t the only one I liked. What would choosing him mean for me? Then again, I had nearly been driven insane by the thought of him dying. This could also ruin our friendship. There were too many risks for me to say yes.
“The train!” Amica screamed and I cursed as I was forced to turn midstride to make it to the still moving, albeit slowly, train. They had the side door open and Zuhara O Kande was leaning out to help us in. “Able, your answer!”
“Yes!” I screamed as I jumped at the train and crashed to the ground with Amica landing heavily on top of me. “Yes, I’ll go out with you.”
Amica smiled at me and looked like he wanted to say something, but I didn’t have time to wait and see what he was going to say. I had to prepare the train to cross the Skybarrier.
“Brace yourselves!” I cried as I rushed through the cars to the front. “This is going to be bumpy!”
I barely had time to pull out the manual controls and disable the barriers surrounding the holotrain and increase our air fan outputs before we hit the lower level atmosphere. I had to grab onto the chair with all my strength as the train rocked and creaked, threatening to overturn or worse under the pressure. I hadn’t had time to put on the side stabilizers so we had only prayers to keep us upright. When we hit the final oxygen barrier, the train slowed down for one second and I stood, thinking the trial was over only to be flung with bone cracking force into the wall as we shot forward. I was stunned for a second, but as the train started squealing from the speed it was at, I managed to scramble up and reduce our thrusters.
“Damn.” I hugged my injured appendage with a thought towards Amica. If I hadn’t been distracted, I would have remembered that without the friction of the lower atmosphere, the train would gain speed rapidly and would have been prepared for the slingshot affect.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked as I wormed back to our dining car through the mangled mess that was Raven’s room. “No broken bones or anything?”
“I broke my nail!” Raven wailed, but I ignored the diva to look at Amica. He was conscious, but holding his head with both hands.
“Amica?” He gave me a thumbs up and Zuhara O Kande reappeared to hand out icepacks and some sort of herbal tincture.
“For the nerves, each one, three serves.” I took a small sip before handing the bottle on to silent Nihilo. He pointed and I winced at the crippled mess that had been his hand.
“Zuhara O Kande.” I nodded at her to help Nihilo. “Where are the twins?”
“In the bedroom chamber,” Amica’s voice was slightly slurred, but once he took a swig of Zuhara O Kande’s tincture seemed to feel a lot better. “It’s jammed. We tried to get it open, but when we pry it apart, we still have the electric part to deal with and that is better left to your expertise.”
“Raven, come here.” I beckoned and as I removed the control panel and connected the right wires, Raven put all of her weight and supernatural strength to freeing the bedroom chambers. The car groaned for a second and after an ominous snap, the girls’ bedroom came to a rocking standstill. As the door slid open, two very angry girls burst out with large jagged teeth bared and hands contorted into ambidextrous claws.
“Siniste, Dexter, are you okay?” I asked and after a minute, they stopped bowing up. Dexter muttered something vulgar under her breath and for once her sister didn’t chasten her. “Give me a minute to fix the locking mechanism and you can all go to check out what damage was done to your rooms.”
The actual lock wasn’t broken. A small piece of wire had singed, but after I cut it off and reconnected the remains, the lock lit up. Raven left us quickly, muttering to herself as she saw the mess that had been her vanity. Zuhara O Kande sat down beside Nihilo, murmuring quietly over his hand and the girls, after taking a swig of Zuhara O Kande’s tincture, headed to access the damage done to the equipment room.
“Zuhara O Kande,” I called and she looked up for a second, “we’re going to my room for a while. Make sure no one bothers us unless it is an absolute emergency. I’m locking my door otherwise.”
She looked at Amica with narrowed eyes, but nodded and turned back to Nihilo’s hand. Amica followed me to my room and helped pick up the few items that had been shifted. When we were finished, I locked the door and Amica opened his mouth, but I placed my finger over it to silence him.
“I don’t know why because my mind says this is a really bad idea, but it seems I really do like you. I’m not promising anything and if this goes sour, we could easily loose our friendship, but I’m willing to try.” Amica started crying and my heart twinged at the sight. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just… so happy!” He warbled and my restraint snapped.
I sought Amica’s mouth fervently with my own and we fell back onto my bed, both searching for each other’s belt. We finally had to stop for a moment and regain our scenes as someone tried to access my room, probably to get me. “We’re moving a bit quick aren’t we? I mean we just started dating a few minutes ago.”
I raised my eyebrow at him and pulled back from where I was sitting partially on him. “You want to stop? I’m fine with waiting if you want to.”
“No!” Amica muttered a little too quickly and blushed. “I mean we are both guys… this is kind of important to us.”
I didn’t let him protest again as I coddled his head, kissing him as deeply as I could. My throat ached to bite him, but my body ached for something a bit different.
“Briefs?” He looked at me with a very curious look in his eyes. “I would have figured you for a boxer’s guy.”
“Normally,
I wear neither. I like boxer briefs, but I haven’t had much choice since we have yet to reach Skypia and restock.” Amica looked at me and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He smiled after a moment and reached for me.
Then any last thoughts or reasoning died.
We didn’t wake until the sun had set the next day and when we did, any embarrassment from the night before was gone. Amica was sore though and I realized my Skypian strength had left bruises on his pale body. I winced and tried to help my lover, who was trying his best not to move too much and cause any more damage.
“I’m sorry,” I winced as I realized we had went ahead without knowing any of the consequences or necessary preparations. “I’ll go get something to numb the pain from Zuhara and—”
“No…” Amica managed to turn his face to look at me. “I’m fine. I just need some more rest and a bath. A long, hot bath.”
“Mmhmm,” I murmured, but my gaze was stuck on his stretched out neck that was yearning for me to bite it. Amica noticed my craving right away and reached for my neck to pull me down to him. I bit him and sated my thirst with an almost euphoric sense of pleasure.
“Hey, you lovebirds! We’ve reached Skypia.” Raven trilled. I looked at Amica and with a flash of my hypnotic eyes, erased the pain from his mind. We had reached our goal and I wanted to explore my new playground with my favorite person.
Skypia
As our holotrain came upon the dock, I was shocked as we were ordered to stop because all of the thirty spaces were taken. When a space finally opened, the docking fee popped up and I stared at the outrageous price in absolute shock. “Siniste… do we happen to have any money stored away?”
“Eris kept our money in the safe under the conductor’s seat.” Siniste answered eagerly and I rushed to see if we had the money to afford it before claiming the scarce docking spot for our train. As I opened the ridiculously easy combination lock, I gasped at the excess of gold and mythril coins he had stocked. I typed in our train and after a few minutes we received the okay to dock.
I headed back down through the train, knocking on everyone’s bedroom doors as they shifted through. Everyone came out eagerly and ready for real baths, new clothes and any treats they thought they could afford with their salary. Raven was the only one not to come out and meet me so I just shrugged and passed out a mythril coin to each of my loyal companions.
“Your dear former conductor failed to pay you so I took the liberty of covering it and giving you a bonus for exemplary performance. Be careful not to draw too much attention to yourselves. I’m registering all of us as humans so act as such.” Everyone, but Zuhara O Kande, who was acting like her normal otherworldly self, fingered the coins with absolute joy. One mythril coin was the equivalent of a thousand gold coins. I had made them rich and I couldn’t even tell them that there was a whole thirty more packed into the safe which was now being guarded by a multitude of passwords only I could undo.
Raven finally popped out, still powdering her nose and in the shiniest red and gold dress I had ever seen. “I’m not ready yet.”
“You look stunning.” I bowed and offered her her coin. “A humble present from an admirer.”
She looked at the coin for a second before squealing and jumping on me in a painful hug. By the time I had peeled her off, we were fully docked and an inspector was boarding our train. “How many humans on board? How many Skypians? Any returns to the great Imperial Sky Fortress?”
I frowned at the name, but didn’t think much of it. “Seven humans. No Skypians. No returns.”
The guy pulled out test strips, but with a flash of my eyes, he pricked his pure human blood onto all seven of the strips. “Thank you and welcome to the great Imperial Sky Fortress. You have docking rights for a week. If you need any mechanical maintenance or other luxuries added to your engine, feel free to contact the Skycity train yard located to the left of the Sun Tower. Have a nice night.”
“Return by daybreak to check in, but besides that, go run free. I’m going to check into having maintenance and cleaning done on the train.” The others had already run off before I finished talking except for Amica. “I assume you’re coming with me?”
“If you don’t mind.” Amica blushed and I shrugged, stealing a quick kiss.
“I would be honored, but I meant what I said about spending the rest of my night bartering for repairs for our train and possibly a wash cabin. I think we deserve one, how about you?” Amica’s face turned a darker shade of red than I thought possible and I smiled at what his mind had gone to. “Not what I was thinking, but I like that idea too.”
“No! I wasn’t—” He stopped talking as I pinched his butt.
“Don’t lie, it shows on your face.”
It took two hours, three mythril coins later and a displeased train master to have our train under repairs and with a very nice bath house and water canister for prolonged riding being prepared. Then I only had a few hours’ worth of free time to wander around the city before the sunrise. As I stepped off the cement-like Skybone of the train yard and onto the regular whitish-gold colored Cloudland, I fell flat on my face. Amica snorted at me, trying to stifle his laughter.
“What the hell is this stuff?” I tried to stand and had trouble on the extremely bouncy but still partially malleable surface.
“What I grew up on. This is cloudland.” Amica walked on it easily and reached a hand out to help me steady myself. “You’ll get used to walking on it shortly. Everything in this world is Cloudland or Skybone and there is very little Skybone. Skybone deposits are very rare and mining it is dangerous. We only build houses, bridges and certain other necessary accessories with it. Whatever you do though, never step into the Stormsea. It’s the dark blue you see around the edges of the cloudland. Well… unless you somehow attain a pair of Skyskaters.”
“Why?” I asked, moving wobbly but still forward.
“You’ll fall straight through the sky to land as a bloody smattering on the Earth below.” I shuddered internally at the thought, but I had a sexy guide to keep me safe in this foreign land so I should be good. “Now come on. You can’t see the city well from here. Once we pass around the Sun Tower you’ll be able to see every inch of Skycity.”
I followed him, still unsteady on my feet, only to freeze and gasp at the almighty beauty that awaited me. As far as the eye could see, were golden clouds spreading out with tendrils into the light blue sea of the sky.
There weren’t any streetlights or any of the mess that humans had polluted the Earth with, only people and buildings. They weren’t truly buildings though; they appeared to meld into the golden air itself and their shimmering white expanses were all made in the design of shifting clouds. I glanced over the small buildings with mild interest, but it was the large castle that reached into the sky, appearing enormous even though it was miles away, that stole from me my words.
It was the only building in the entire scene before me with color. It was the color of the night sky, laced with tendrils of cloudland that moved almost playfully over its massive gothic walls. It was a work of beauty and it stood proud and stark under the twinkling stars, their white light dancing in playful designs over its shiny expanse.
“That used to be the Midnight Palace. The Queen of Skypia lived there. She would invite commoners, people she had never met to come and dine with her when she became lonely. They say the halls are empty now. No human dares enter its arches for fear of her ghost haunting them for the remainder of their lives.” I ached to run over to the massive building and see what beauties lay undisturbed within it.
“No Skypian is allowed within a thousand feet of it.” Amica warned me and I winced. Even with our cover as humans, it wasn’t within my best interest to explore the enormous masterpiece.
“What is it made out of? That isn’t Skybone.” I settled for a simple question to sate burning curiosity.
“Skystone. No one knows where it came from and there are only two structures built from it. The Midnight Palace a
nd the Night-Light Bridge.” He pointed and I looked at the massive bridge that stretched farther than I could see. “No one knows who built them, but the bridge itself spans across the sky and reaches all four of the great Cloudland continents. They are one of our seven wonders.”
“What are the others?” I asked heading towards the giant bridge, wondering if it was possible to chip Skystone and take a piece to study.
“The Sun Tower, we just came from.” He pointed behind us and I turned to look at the also giant tower. It stretched far into the sky with swirling designs in a language I couldn’t read etched into every inch of its expanse. “It reaches as high into the sky as Skypians can stand and is entirely covered in the language of the sky. Even the inside is covered with the symbols. Humans have been trying to decipher it for centuries, but the Skypians refuse to teach them. Not even someone as close to them as me.”
“What about the other four?” I inquired as the hulking bridge loomed before me. I hadn’t noticed before, but it was made entirely out of coils, giant twisted coils with only one section flattened to allow for a road.
“I don’t know. They reside on the other continents. I lived on this one.” Amica shrugged as I tapped one of the coils. I grabbed my hand back in surprise as the black stone turned a brilliant blue-green where I had touched it and pulsed outward, down the expanse and out of sight.
“Does it usually do that?” I asked, having a feeling it didn’t.
“No and unless you feel like hypnotizing some Earth Guards, I think we should run.” Amica grabbed my hand and we headed back into the city and to the shopping district. I glanced at the shops a bit bored, stopping only when Amica wanted to by some sweets to gnaw on. I was only interested in the things that only Skypia could provide, especially Skyskaters. I had heard so much about the fabled, nearly magical technology of the sky that I had to find some and see how they worked.
“Able,” Amica tapped my shoulder and I looked from my browsing at him, “try not to look so much like a tourist. I don’t mean to insinuate that you can’t handle yourself but… Skypians aren’t like simple pickpockets and they don’t work alone. If they think you’re easy bait—”
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