Dialysis Book: Chapter 16: The Joy of Flight

I exhaled, my white breath vanishing through the open windows the moment I breathed.  The icy chill blasted over me and for a moment I forgot where I was when the entire airship bucked, and I was lifted off my ass and then dropped back down.

"This is terrible,'' I groaned, watching Shade who had not moved from his spot under the bench.  I'd figured out why everyone moved to the side, there were tie down straps there which would have been useful if I had anything to tie myself down with.

Still, the spots on the floor were more comfortable in almost every circumstance, except if you got stuck on the sides.  They were less insulated and while the entire compartment was cold, the sides were totally frigid.

"How can the elves tolerate this," I said as my teeth chattered.

"It's not that bad," replied Spivy, who was still resting in my hood.  We could talk considering I had the hood down over my head at the moment.

"It is freezing, how are you not cold," I said, examining the fairy.  Her normal outfit was a form fitting sack dress that left her whole back, and more importantly wings, exposed.  It covered all the important bits, but it was so thin and open it was practically worthless for warmth.

"Essence," said Spivy, yawning.

"I'm using essence," I said.

"You are a human, you are barely efficient at it.  All the essence you are throwing into your constitution is barely making a dent at this temperature.  I am a fairy, I am much more efficient so my body heat is quite nice at the moment," said Spivy.

I glared at the fairy, who's round-faced smile made her look like a pretentious child.  Spivy's proportions were roughly human, but she was clearly not when you saw her up close.  Her arms and legs were shorter than a human of the same size would be, and her head was larger.  None of that was terribly apparent unless you were looking for it, but she was currently resting in my collar while I tried to will some warmth into my body.

I glanced up at Shade, who was still sitting there unperturbed.  He'd followed me to the side, but after the third course adjustment sent me flying he moved back under the bench where he was sitting patiently, unmoving against the world and unaffected by the temperature.

"Dude," I said.

"What," asked Shade innocently.

"How have you not moved," I stated.

"I have a climbing skill," said Shade.  That allowed his feet to stick to anything if he spent the essence.  While climbing trees was challenging, keeping his but firmly on the floor apparently was not.

"Dude," I groaned.

Suddenly the ship bucked again and I gripped down on the lone ring preventing me from hitting the ceiling, except I didn't move.  I didn't move on the three follow up bucks either.  The ship was still experiencing just as much turbulence as before I was just not moving.

"I shared my skill shard with you, it is quite bothersome," said Shade as he yawned.  "But you are my friend and you are going to hurt yourself without my help."

"Good boy," I said, moving back to the middle of the compartment where it was at least marginally warmer.

"This is boring," said Shade standing up, uncaring as the ship bucked wildly again.  "We should see if there is anything to do."

"I don't think we are supposed to leave the compartment," I said weakly, also standing.

"I need to take a walk," said Shade.  "I was trying to be polite about it but you don't get hints well, Chum."

"Then go," I said.

"Not in here, people are watching," said Shade.  "I like to do that in private."

"I'm watching," I said.

"You don't count," said Shade.  "You are my best friend, and I can trust you to have my back.  I do not trust these people with my poops."

“As you poopie marshal,” I groaned.

"It is a sacred trust," said Shade.  "Besides, the door requires thumbs.”

"Fine," I said, walking over to the door and opening it.  The blast of cold air made me instantly regret opening it.  “How is it colder out here, the windows are open.”

“Shut the door,” yelled the dwarf.

Shade diligently stepped out.  Besides, I might want to use the bathroom as well.

There was a catwalk running around the ship that allowed access to the various other compartments.  Shade sniffed several times and started walking towards the back.  My dog marched forward like he was on any other walk, not caring one bit about the fact that he was on a wooden platform hundreds of feet in the air.

I grabbed the safety rope and followed him.  A blast of wind tore through every part of me, and I forgot what gender I was.

"How is it this cold," I said, trying to keep my teeth from chattering more.  "We aren't that high up."

"Like hell," said Spivy, smacking the side of my head and pointing.  "That is the tallest mountain on the continent.  We are really high up in the mountains at the end of fall, in a few months this ship won't even transport non-elves because people will freeze."

I looked around at the majestic view.  We were in a mountain range, I mean we were before when we were in Darven but that was the edge of the range.  Now we were in an actual mountain range and there were massive peaks as far as the eye could see.

I’ve driven through the smoky mountains before, multiple times.  They were gorgeous, and smoky.  This mountain range was vastly taller and went on as far as I could see.  We’d left the low mountains to reach the high mountains, and that gave us the highest possible viewing angle.  From here I could see over the clouds and at several points those clouds were pierced by peaks that were far taller than even mount everest.

“How are they so tall,” I asked as we watched Shade bite down on a handrope and lift his leg.

“This range belongs to King Rogen, leader of the elves,” began Spivy.

“My mountain now,” yelled Shade.

“Please, tell me more about Shade’s mountain,” I asked.

“Take that up with the King.  Those are magical mountains that provide a barrier between the elven forest and the lowborn kingdoms,” said Spivy.

I considered that for a moment, “Lowborn means Human doesn’t it?”

“Actually, any non-elves, but specifically the human kingdoms are on the other side of the mountain, they are the only other powers on this continent,” said Spivy.

I looked over at the largest nearby mountain, and tried to assess it compared to a massive earth mounting like Everest.  It looked significantly taller, I’d seen pictures of mountains before but the angles here were sharper and the mountain was significantly taller than the cloud layer.  I had the feeling that the taller peaks I could see were all taller than Everest, and I could see a dozen such mammoths.

Spivy watched me eyeing one of the nearby massive peaks.  “There is an Earth ley line that runs under the mountains, it leaks mana at points and those points expand massively turning into those tremendously tall mountains.”

“Is mana different from essence,” I asked.

“Very,” replied Spivy as Shade continued walking down the rope catwalk between the various chunks of the airship.  Without the climbing shard, this would have been suicidal.  As it sat, we easily handled every bump and tug of the ship.  “Essence is the energy of your body, Mana is the energy of the world.  Your essence is derived from mana, but that process is more than a bit complicated.  You can use essence to generate mana, if you know a spell and have a means of converting your essence into mana.”

“Like a convertinator,” I joked.

“No, that sounds ridiculous, who would use that sort of name,” said Spivy as she shook her head.  “Normally you use your core to convert mana, but there are arcane locus that can convert essence into specific kinds of mana.  Lava essence is rare enough that most cores can’t handle it.”

“Lava is an element,” I asked.

“Of course, so is portal mana for that matter,” said Spivy.

“So a wizard would use portal mana to get us back to earth?” I asked.

“Yes, and they will need a locus to manage it.  The less natural an element is, the more difficult it is to manage that kind of mana,” said Spivy as we watched a massive creature in the distance.  It was clearly a dragon, and it clearly saw us and avoided the ship.

“Is this safe,” I asked.  The dragon could have eaten any of the reindeer in a single bite.

“Certainly, the elfs paid him off or we would have already been attacked,” said Spivy.  “To make portal mana you have to distill other kinds of mana into portal mana, which is why you need a wizard.  They work with various kinds of artificial mana.”

“There is no portal mana in nature,” I said, understanding.

“You are the clever one,” said Spivy as we continued walking around the ship.  We got to the other side and she pointed past the massive, hulking reindeer.  I saw a forest.  A big forest.  With massive trees.

“Tree mana,” I asked.

“Life mana,” replied Spivy, “Mana is more fundamental than ‘tree’.”

“Should have guessed,” I said as I examined the area and my vision seemed to sharpen slightly.  It was like the greatest squint in my life.  “Hey, I zoomed in.”

“You are getting better at essence manipulation, your individual systems can be influenced by essence but it normally takes a bit longer for an adventurer,” said Spivy.

“Bet any kid from here could do it,” I said.

“Not really,” replied Spivy as a blast of wind hit me and my hand seized up on the rope.  That was reflexive and unnecessary.  My feet were anchored to the walkway like they were fused to the board.  “Most people aren’t really focused on manipulating their essence.  They know how to use it for their life and jobs, but they aren’t going to focus on eyesight.”

“That’s silly,” I said.  “Everyone should practice their essence.”

“Everyone can exercise,” said Spivy, eyeing me.  “In your world, did everyone exercise?”

We did not.  America was in an obesity epidemic and we had access to more workout spaces and equipment than anyone.  But like the people here, if you didn’t need it why bother?

“Point,” I replied looking around.  “This is a very pretty place.”

“When you are flying high overhead, of course it looks that way,” said Spivy.  She was grabbing my earlobe and looking out the slit in the hood.  “From up here it all looks very peaceful, like you could do anything.”

“You can’t,” I asked.

“I never could,” said Spivy as she stood with her fists pressed up against her hips, “Greetings adventurer, I see you want to travel to Dominius, the City of Elves.  Would you like any hints on what you should do when you get there? Or perhaps you have some skills I could assist you with?  Are you planning on dying stupidly, well then Dominus is the place for you!”

“So better to be a criminal,” I said.

“At least I get to decide what I’m doing,” said Spivy.

“So speaking of decisions, what are we doing with the brass bell,” I said.

Spivy leaned back into my hood, “Well, I have some contacts here.  Obviously we should sell it, but you should wait until I confirm how much it is worth.  Don’t want you selling it for 10 gold when we could be getting a hundred out of it, and the elven shops will lowball you.”

“How rare do you think it is,” I asked.

“It is a relic, those can be worth quite a bit of gold.  I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but I’ve seen relics go for as much as a thousand gold, and some have gone for even more,” said Spivy.

“How long will that take,” I asked.

“A few days, probably longer,” said Spivy, adopting a far away look.  She was checking on a menu when she did that.  “You have a few choices when we get there.  You could try to use Heywood’s id and get into the local guild.  They will probably have a few quests.  Pick an easy one and do it, then you get a free room and board for a week.”

“Otherwise I’ll be spending most of my gold on an inn,” I said.

“Yup,” replied Spivy.  “I’ll be around, I am your helper fairy so I can find you easily enough.  I might slip you a spot to contact me in town near the guildhall.  If I do, come there daily.”

“Cloak and dagger, I love it,” I said.  I didn’t really, but I would be lying if I didn’t like the adrenaline surge I got from this sort of activity.

“After I get the price straight, we’ll sell the brass bell and you and Shade can live in comfort until you get bored enough to go back to Earth,” said Spivy.

“Sounds like a plan,” I replied wondering if I should bring Shade into it.

“I agree,” replied Shade in a sharp bark.

“He figured out how to use essence to improve his hearing,” said Spivy as Shade walked back over.

“I liked the part about eating monsters and living in comfort,” said Shade.  “We could get a place with a doggy door and a garden and I could poop in it.”

“Alright, it's cold out here, let's get back in the main room.  Now that you can sit where it is sort of warm and the rest of the trip should be more fun,” said Spivy.

“I’m still disappointed about the airship,” I said.

“I am sorry Chum,” said Shade.  “It did not even pee on it, this was so disappointing.”

“Good dog,” I stated.

“Elves have the worst airships,” said Spivy.  “You should ride on a gnomish one, they have afterburners.”

“That’s kind of neat,” I said, sadly shivering.

“And insulation,” said Spivy.

“Interesting.”