Key Our Cars

“Thanks for saving us Mr. Biminey.  Are we going to take the floating ship back home now?  Timithi told me how much fun he had flying so high like a bird.” Soozin’s young face looked up at the tall artificer with a question.  A sad look almost but not quite hidden in the depths of her eyes, as if she knew the truth about her brother.  The truth that Biminey hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell her yet. 
He shook his head, “I don’t know sweetie, you remember it crashed?  We didn’t get it to move again after they took you, it might be broken.”
One of the other citizens that had been captured, a man approaching the beginning of his middle years by the name of Speadle spoke up,”Be a damn shame if we can’t get that boat back to town.  My brother in law sits the council and I know they’re going to be wanting it.  Something like that there, it would make trade of light goods and passengers a hellish sight safer upriver.  Course they’d probably charge an arm and leg for it but I bet I can get a discount once you turn it over to them.”
Biminey cocked an eyebrow, that kind of thinking didn’t fall in line with his own plans at all.  But in thinking it through he realized that Speadle words might be truer than he would like to hear.
He glanced around the top of the tower, the dragon kin maid Elisssa sat on the raised edge of the walls running an oiled cloth over the runed warhammer the strange carvings glowing a dim red at her touch.  Stak, the wolf kin, stood on another edge, hands resting lighting on the pommels of the cutlasses he bore, keeping watch over the plaza below.  Torel, the cat kin, was talking quietly to one of his kind, a female shifter leaning in a posture of lost hope, words of encouragement as he dressed a long infected wound on the woman’s leg. And then there was Dra’kin, another human like himself, holding himself aloof and slightly apart from the others. 
Dra’kin’s eyes met Biminey’s and the warlock shook his head in negative.  Biminey found himself giving a nod. Dra’kin flicked his eyes to the side and moved to another corner of the top of the tower that was empty. 
“Don’t worry Soozin, we’ll get you home, ship or no ship, you can bet on that.”  Biminey handed her a pouch holding some dried fish and a waterskin and followed after the thin warlock.
Dra’kin stared out over the remains of the city, “Girl’s right Biminey.  You get that thing moving and we get it back to town, them in power are gonna take it from us.  I don’t know about you but I kinda like the idea of a personal airship and I don’t like the idea of anyone taking what’s mine from me.”
Biminey nodded, “Yeah I hear ya.  But between me and you?  That ship ain’t moving till I figure out a way to gain control over the elementals that power it.  And the chances of that happening here,” the artificer swept a hand over the view of the ruined city, “are slim to fucking none.”
“So what do you need?”
“Information friend, my craft is powered by information.  And I ain’t got any on elementals.  Maybe I find the true names of the creatures and control them, maybe there’s some magic device.  Or maybe you don’t control them, you just send them from point A to point B.  And maybe the gods damned thing is broken and this a pointless conversation we’re having.”
Dra’kin grimaced, “Let’s go with the thought it isn’t broken and then we work from there.  What about the temple of Eris back in town?  That place has more scrolls than there are fish in the seas.”
Biminey leaned on the spear he’d taken from one of the dead sealies, “That was my plan.  I know they have a lot of information in the restricted areas about this place. Getting access to it, that’s going to take some doing but I’ll bet you one airship that we’ll find something there that might help.”
“I might be able to help in that regard.  I have an…acquaintance who finds things that aren’t quite… lost… for a fee.”
Biminey snapped his fingers calling his familiar over.  The mechanical hand scurried over the rooftop with the faintest of clicks of metal on stone.  “Then it sounds like we might have the start of a working plan.  What about the others?”
Dra’kin sighed, “I’d like to keep this to as few as possible but realistically I know if we’re going to keep that thing and put it to good use, we’re going to need comrades.”
“Well let’s not put the horse in front of the cart, we’ve got one fuck of a long way to go to get home and there’s a lot of shit between here and there, shit with big teeth and bigger bellies that would like nothing better than to gut us, bleed us out and put us on a spit for the roasting.”
Dra’kin smiled one of his rare smiles, “You have a succinct way of putting it friend, that there is.” He put out his hand, “Here’s to us getting home again.”

The sun’s fading light illuminated the two of them as they shook hands, little knowing they were taking their first step into destiny.
Dennis