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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Sixty - Yrounded, Young Lady

  The sun was well on its way to setting by the time we finally slipped over the Darkwoods and began to cross a wide open field, one filled with a myriad of foot-tall stumps.

  “Get ready to drop the anchors!” Clive called across the deck.

  Steve and Gordon were already at the anchors on both sides, hands grabbing onto the levers that would loosen the meism holding them in pd let the iros fall to the ground below and hopefully grab onto something.

  “Awa!” Awen called. “There’s something over there!”

  I rushed over to her side of the ship and hung off the side to look out ahead. We were only a hundred or so meters away from the ground now, but we were still moving along at a det pace.

  I followed the dire Awen ointing in and squinted.

  “Buildings out ahead!” I shouted. “Off to port!”

  Clive nodded. “Aye!” he replied.

  I went back to hanging off the side of the ship, one hand holding my hat in pce while my ears flopped back with the wind. The buildings out ahead weren’t anything impressive. A lot of long, low houses made of wood set in orderly rows, a couple of warehouses and one bigger buildihe middle.

  The maery around it, and the presence of a rge sawmill gave away their purpose. A lumber yard.

  That expined all the cut-down trees, at least.

  “Drop the anchors!” Clive said.

  The engine roared, and the propeller started to spin in the opposite dire as usual.

  The Beaver tilted strangely and pitched as we started to slow down.

  With a great rattle, the anchors dropped, their s jangling as they fell to the earth below.

  “Stow the sails!” Clive said.

  Every sail alongside the ship pulled in, taking away the Beaver’s great big wings that caught in the air.

  I hopped over to one of those that o be manually stowed and started spinning its k as quickly as I could.

  Then, finally, with the snapping of ropes and the rumble of the ehe Beaver came to a lurg stop. The anchors caught onto something and the ship wobbled about for a moment before settling.

  A gnce over the edge showed that we were only a couple of dozeers from the ground now.

  The engine sputtered and choked off as Clive cut the gas. It was surprisingly quiet when there was no wind whipping at us and no engine rumbling away in the background. “Let’s k him down,” Clive said.

  Steve and Gordon got to work winding up the s leading to the anchors, and the Beaver started to lower his way down to the ground below. I wiped the back of a hand ay brow, then grinned over to Awen. “We made it,” I said.

  “Ah, I guess so,” she agreed. “That was a bit... a lot stressful.”

  I gave her a quick hug, because that was the best way to reduce stress. “No worries, we’re safe now,” I said. “I’m going to go che Clive and the others.’

  Awen nodded a bunch, theured towards her . “I’ll be down below,” she said.

  I waved her off as I skipped across the deck towards Clive. The older harpy was leaning on the wheel, looking quite tired. “Ah, Captain,” he said when I approached. “That was a good bit of flying, if I do say so myself.”

  I nodded. “I’m really happy you’re onboard, Clive, I don’t think we would have made it down here in one piece without you.”

  “Bah, I’ve been in worse scraps. Mind you, I inch youhen.”

  “I imagine,” I said. “Will the Beaver be alright now?”

  “Aye, he should be just fine. If the weather’s kind tomorrow m we take off and head down south. I’ll have to look at the fuel for the engine. I think we burhrough a k of it there. Still plenty in the bunker, but not as much as I’d like for a trip as long as ours.”

  “You mentioned Needleford earlier,” I said.

  “Aye. tle port. Quiet and out of the way. Lots of lumber and the like passing through. Should be able to get a det pri fuel there if you do the iating,” he said.

  “Me?” I asked. He knew a lot more about ships than I did.

  He nodded. “They don’t like strange folk, and they think that harpies are mighty strahey’ll be kio you.”

  Oh. That wasn’t very all. Not much we could do about it now though. I gnced up and to a sky turning e. In an hour or two the sun would set and we’d be ed in night. “We’ll o set up a rotation for the night,” I said. “You should get a full night’s sleep though, your job’s too important to do half-awake.”

  “If I was a few years younger I’d protest,” he said. “But I’ve learned better since. I’ll take a night’s rest if I afford it.”

  “Cool,” I said. “You certainly deserve it after the day we’ve had. I just hope that our bit of flying is a lot smoother. And... and I'm sorry about leading us so badly off course. I didn’t mean to.”

  Clive waved the ent away. “It’s fine, Captain. No one was hurt, and the worse that happened was that we got blown off course a fair way. It’ll cost us a day in the long run, but that’s all.”

  I hen paused as I saw Steve looking over the side of the ship with narrowed eyes. “Captain!” he said.

  “You get some rest,” I told Clive before jogging over. “What is it?” I asked.

  I really didn’t o. The thing b Steve ainfully obvious. There was a group of humans heading our way, maybe a dozen in all.

  They were on foot, all of them in rough work clothes and with axes by their sides. They had scruffy beards and looked to be a bit nervous as they took in the Beaver in all of his bright yellow glory.

  “Ah, darn. I think we nded in someone’s field,” I said.

  “Should we prepare to pull the anchor?” Steve asked.

  I shook my head. “Nah. you go get Amaryllis and Awen? And maybe tell mister Bastion too.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Steve said before running off.

  I eyed the group for a bit. They were still a ways off. It would take a while before they arrived. They didn’t look like they were out to cause trouble. We’d probably just spooked them by nding so close.

  Running my hands down the front of my skirt, I made sure everything was nid , then I adjusted my hat while pg one foot atop the railing.

  I pushed some stamina into my leg, then shot out ahead and through the air. My feet came out ahead in a wide V and I kept a hand atop my hat to keep it in pce.

  I nded a dozeers away from the lumberjacks, rolled twice to bleed off some momentum, then came to my feet while pushing a bit of magito my ing aura to make sure my battledress stayed nid presentable.

  Doffing my hat, I brought it around with a flourish and pressed it over my chest as I bowed.

  I think that maybe wearing such a feathery hat was making me a bit theatrical. “Hello,” I said. “I’m Captain Broccoli Bunch, of the Beaver Cleaver,” I said. “I hope we haven’t nded on your field?”

  The lumberjacks all looked over to each other. They were big guys, all of them well-muscled and looking quite tough. I probably seemed rather silly ing up to them with nothing while they had axes and such, but I wasn’t there to fight.

  They seemed to elect a leader among their group, an older man with shrewd eyes and a beard that was turning grey at the edges. He stepped up past the rest of them and came to a stop at the front of the group, the head of his axe thumping into the dirt.

  “Ahoy,” he said. “Pleasure to meet you, Captain Bunch. I’m, Edmund, of the East Mattergrove pany’s Woodnd Harvesting Division.”

  That was a mouthful for a pany name. I o him and pced my hat ba with only a bit of wiggling to fit my ears bato their holes. “. I hope we aren’t b you by nding here?”

  “Not really,” he said. “At least, not for now. If you pn to stay, that’s aory.”

  I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. We got caught in a bit of wind over the Darkwoods,” I said. “It dragged us over here. The ship’s pilot is really good though, and mao nd us safely. We’re pnning on heading to Needleford tomorrow m.”

  Uanding fshed in his eyes, and he gestured to his friends who all seemed to calm down a bit more. “The skies over the Darkwoods be mighty dangerous,” he said.

  “We sort of realized that,” I said. “It was my mistake that got us caught up in them, but it might be for the best in the end.”

  He nodded. “Well, it’s one way to get to Needleford. Usually you’d o skirt near Port Royal then all along the Seven Points. Where’d you hail from?”

  “Fort Sylphrot, en route to the Brads,” I said.

  Edmund frow that. “You went way off course then.”

  I smiled sheepishly. “Oops?”

  He ughed once, a big barking thing, as rough as he looked. “No matter. Most days I’d say that you ought only keep a watch ht. But we’ve been having troubles tely. Dryads in the woods have attacked our camp a few times. We’ve... iated a sort of peace, but it’s cobweb-thin.”

  “Dryads?” I asked. I’d only ever met one dryad. Oak had been nice. Especially his . “How e they’re causing trouble? And if you’re at peace with them, why is it so thin?”

  Edmund rubbed at his . “It’s a bit of a long story, I think. Just some nasty busihat’s blown up into nastier business. Now we have officials from the East Mattergrove pao sue for peace, but it’s not going so well.”

  “Huh, that’s unfortunate,” I said. “I met a dryad once, he was actually kind of nice.”

  He looked at me strangely. “Niever met creatures more tenacious and violent than those walking trees. Good warriors, some of them. I’ll give them that. But nice isn’t how I’d describe them.”

  I shrugged. Maybe we’d met different dryads, or maybe they’d met some under different circumstances.

  “If you want, captain, you could dih the gentlefolk from the pany. I'm sure they’d appreciate some pany that ain’t as rough as us.”

  I gnced over to the Beaver and saw that Amaryllis had made her way down already. Surprisingly, Bastion was with her, and there e dder extending down the side all the way to the ground, with Awen climbing d-by-rung.

  “You know, that might be nice,” I said. “We have a bit of good food aboard. If you guys have a couple of good cooks we could make a big meal of it.”

  Edmund’s eyebrows rose up. “I’ve never had bun food, but I’ve heard good things about it. I wouldn’t say no to a meal that isn’t something we fed here mixed with some oats.”

  I grinned up at the man. “Then we call it a little party. I love making new friends! And maybe you tell me about your dryad problem. I haven’t spent all that much time around the tree folk, but I maybe lend a hand.”

  ***