Location: In the skies over the Deep Woods
Time: Afternoon
Ah... how do I look? Do I look like an airship captain yet? I feel a little more free to move now that I've hung up my skirt. Of course, I couldn't bring myself to abandon all of my frills and ribbons... and besides, if that idiot Louie, who I glimpsed at a distance on another airship, can get away with wearing fine silk and capes, I can keep my bows. After all, my neck ribbon calms me... and keeps me from wasting bullets shooting that particular vampire from the skies.
Ahem… now, back to our mission, and my first 'official' log in this journal. We are currently sailing high above the Deep Woods. It's a deep, dark forest that stretches for miles below the Devil’s Claw, dark and green and ominous and of such an enchanting quality that it leads one to want to stare at it for hours. But that is definitely not a good thing to do; I caught Hatter at the bow striking quite the majestic pose this morning… just in time for us to fly through a swarm of bugs. If his coughing and gagging were any indication he swallowed quite a few of them; rather then going to his aid I pressed a hand over my mouth and ducked back around the corner so as not to be seen watching him. Oh, I suppose if I had seen him staggering around sometime later in the day, blue in the face, perhaps, that I would have mentioned the incident and called for a day of rest for him to recover. As it was, he did nothing of the sort; if anything, he seemed somewhat more alert and eager to push our airship to top speed. Strange… I don’t think I’ll ever look at the Hatter the same way again.
There are many somewhat humorous things that happen on this airship; I continue to be ignorant as to whether this is just how airship journeys are in general, or if there is some special condition applied to our vessel in particular. The White Rabbit offered the theory that perhaps it’s because we all hail from Wonderland, a particularly peculiar part of Gaia, but something about that rings hollow. Gaia, after all, is an odd place in its own right. But now back to the airship; we have had, I suppose, a relatively good journey thus far. The weather has been perfect; sunny and with a strong breeze filling the sails. The fuel seems to be holding out and keeping the airship afloat with its magic. As for food, I’ve been keeping rations filling but not overindulgent; that Dormouse is a grazer if I’ve ever seen one. Diedrich has proven to be, much to my surprise, an adequate guide. Whether this is due to luck or skill I still can’t tell; still, I’m grateful for it.
Crew health has been, for lack of a better word, “iffy”. On day one, the Dormouse fell ill with a bad case of inverted hearing. I feel as if this diagnosis posed more danger to group morale then to the Dormouse’s health; after three hours of listening to the Dormouse talk about the sounds he could hear inside of his head I was relatively sure Cheshire had constructed a plot to kill him. I split a candy bar in my pocket with Cheshire instead in exchange for a stay of execution; the Dormouse has been serving admirably as ‘cook’ thus far. The moment he fails to be useful, I fear Cheshire will forget my offering of chocolate… oh well. It’s about time the Dormouse got over his childish fear of cats anyway. The White Rabbit was apparently caressing the ship’s mizzenmast two days ago, which the Devil’s Claw apparently did not like the attention, as it gave him a splinter for his time. I’m sure that wouldn’t have laid him too low, had not some pesky children on the ground shot him with a poisoned dart. Who decided it was a good idea to arm children with poison I’ll never know, but the White Rabbit’s condition decreased rapidly. Add to that the Cheshire Cat’s spontaneous pinky combustion while attempting to consume a sandwich, and I had no choice but to stop the ship for a break.
That’s when it happened. I was standing at the helm, squinting through the haze in an attempt to make an educated guess as to which of the massive trees would be safest to tie up to for a few days, when the ship suddenly gave a mighty shudder accompanied with an angry whine from the engine room. I stiffened and tightened my grip on the helm, fearing that it might be ripped from my control by some crosswind, but was surprised when the ship’s speed rapidly decreased, the timbers beneath my booted feet shuddering as if my vessel was in great pain. I scanned the horizon and my confusion grew; there was nothing we had hit, and we were not yet low enough to be scraping the treetops with our belly. The increasing squealing was mechanical, however, and I came to the conclusion that there was obviously something wrong with the engine. "Rabbit!" I barked, gripping wood suspiciously. "Go down and check the…"
I stopped myself, deadpanning. I’d forgotten; the White Rabbit was below deck, napping and attempting to recover from his recent medical misfortunes. As were the Cheshire Cat and the Dormouse… only the Hatter and I were operational. And I hadn’t the slightest idea where he was hiding. I sighed heavily and tugged the brake, relieving the ship of its struggle to keep a forward movement and moving to the side of the ship, the wind tugging at my pigtails as I watched us slow to a halt. Once we were only drifting I released the anchor, allowing it to drop into the tree tops.
"Diedrich…" I called, watching the anchor’s descent with a frown. There was a scuffing noise and a flash of green in my peripheral; I spoke before the Grunny could. "Scurry down there and tie us off, ok? I’m going to go check on that engine thing… something’s obviously wrong with it, and if I need to roll Rabbit out of bed I want to know why."
"Huh? But I’m a guide! And guides can’t fly!" he objected, red eyes bright.
"And you won't have to be able to if you hold on tight." I said dismissively, turning away. I caught a glimpse of Diedrich looking at the descending rope of the anchor critically and snorted, irritation trumped momentarily by amusement. "Get going, Diedrich…"
I distinctly heard grumblings from the toxic green creature, but I feigned deafness and moved below deck as Diedrich set himself to his task. More then slightly enjoying being obeyed, I passed by the crew’s quarters and moved in the general direction of the engine room. The temperature steadily increased, and I swiped a hand across my forehead as I reached to grip the handle of the engine room’s door. Instead of moving inside I paused, taking a sniff and immediately regretting it. There was a putrid smell in the air, a horrible smell that I was mostly certain hadn’t been prevalent when we’d left the port of Barton Town. It was a rotting smell, a smell of death; my muscles slowly tensed, and I considered sneaking back to my quarters and retrieving my primary weapon before moving forward. Or, even better, kicking the Dormouse in first to spring any trap that may have been set. But I told myself that was silly; I shook my head to push the feeling aside before slowly swinging the door inwards.
The smell was stronger inside but I didn’t twitch; the source of the smell was immediately obvious. There was a dead cow jammed into the engine, head hanging back with the most pathetic expression on his black and white face and legs splayed almost comically.
"Eww…" I muttered, unable to help scrunching my nose as I stepped forward, sweeping my eyes back and forth. I was alone in the engine room, but I couldn’t help feeling that I hadn’t been for long. There was the distinct feeling that someone else had just left… only, there was but one door in and out of the room. Could someone have sneaked past me? "Impossible. But what…" There was a soft sound behind me, almost like a fluttering of wings; I snapped around to stare towards the source of the noise, but there was nothing there. It made me antsy, but I kept my demeanor calm, turning back to the cow and stepping forward cautiously.
Footsteps. Behind me, solid and familiar. My ears twitched, but I didn’t turn to face the figure behind me as I knelt to peer at the cow closely.
”There’s a cow in the engine.” the Mad Hatter felt the need to point out. He was standing in the doorway, shoulder leaned against the wood and arms crossed over his chest. There was no hint of alarm in his voice; he sounded only mildly interested in the scene before him. I knew better; Hatter had probably ghosted my journey into the belly of the ship and drawn similar conclusions that I had. However, if he was acting relatively calm I was confident the danger, for there had surely been some, had passed."I noticed. And I didn't put it here this time, either."
”Oh? That's too bad... I rather enjoyed watching the White Rabbit get that much closer to a heart attack.”
"You and me both." I sighed, gesturing for him to come closer with a finger. The man in the hat complied, and I waited until I felt him standing at my back before gesturing to the sets of puncture wounds that dotted the bovine. "Look at these peculiar bites. There's not a bit of blood coming from them... and..." I reached out without trepidation to poke at the cow, examining it further. "I'd dare say there isn't any blood in the rest of it either. What could have done this..?"
”That... is the work of vampires. More then one, by the looks of it.” Hatter said dryly. I blinked and craned my neck back to look up at him; his blue eyes caught mine and he shrugged slightly. ”I've had dealings with vampires in the past... I've learned to recognize their work.”
"I didn't know that..." I muttered as I rocked to my feet and socked him out of spite. "Some best friend you are, keeping all of this information to yourself... ah." I stopped any further tirade as I looked about carefully once more, giving Hatter time to make a face and rub his arm. "So that means there's a vampire on the ship..."
”There was... but he or she isn't here anymore.” Hatter muttered, looking amused at my precaution. ”If they had been meaning to stick around and threaten us directly, they wouldn't have bothered with a trick like this. They'd have just attacked us head on.”
"Attacked us head on...?" I lifted an eyebrow. "I know the vampires are responsible for setting that jelly god on fire, but why would they take the time to do all this? I mean... our rescue mission is for the tea."
”For the tea!” Hatter replied with enthusiasm and a slightly maniacal gleam in his eye. He changed gears instantly, calm again. ”I don't know... we are carrying supplies the Demigod needs. Perhaps all in an airship are seen as a threat. Still... something seems strange about this, I agree. It doesn't fit right.”
"Right... ah, well, I suppose we'll have plenty of time to figure out what the vampires are up to, if anything, later. I'm calling for a three day rest, starting now." I sighed, pushing my sleeves up. "Er, well... I suppose, starting immediately after we dislodge this cow."
There was a long, unenthusiastic silence; then the Hatter and I had a 'moment' by releasing a heavy sigh in unison. Needless to say, the next six hours were miserable ones... not just because of the cow, but because of the furious Rabbit that eventually had to stumble down and piece the engine back together. It's been an odd day... hopefully a few days of rest will settle things, and get us back on track.
HH
