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Romps and Reconstruction in Loka: Steam, Magic, and Mysteries in the Frozen Wasteland.

Summary:

Meson and Noria are not the only settlements in Loka that the Advocates are after. Having broken their truce with the Kingdom, the pirates prepare to invade Muon…

Setting:

Muon

Participants:

Kaizo? (Male Rabbit)
Kelketek (Male Fox)
Nezaru? (Male Ringtail Lemur)
Renna? (Female Fox)
Rhyis? (Male Grey Myotis)
Xeones? (Male Tiger)

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The skies are a bit cloudy today, and they have been for a little while. For the moment, things seem rather calm, though there does seem to be some sort of commotion around the telegraph office, and a few soldiers are running around.

Xeones is just getting done selling a side of Goshorun ribs to a local meat vendor when he hears the commotion. The tiger isn’t immediately concerned - this is Muon, and there’s always going to be some sort of activity in a city such as this. In fact, Xeo is getting ready to head back out of the city, and go hunting again…

Kaizo sits in his airship at the docks, seeming quite disinterested in the day and somewhat annoyed at his second lieutenant being gone for so long.

Rhyis, currently, is in an average-looking building delivering someone’s mail. For some reason he’s been asked to come inside rather than simply hand it off at the door. Said building is about a block and a half away from the telegraph office, though its inhabitants can’t hear any of the commotion at the moment. Along with Rhyis are two pasu, one a rat and one a tiger. Both have primarily white or grey fur. At least to the outside world, nothing too important seems to be happening with them at the moment..

The soldiers start to step up, rank and file. A commander walks back and forth, looking them in the eyes, and barking some sort of orders.

Nezaru walks behind the soldiers, looking at them before passing by casually and walking into a nearby building. The creature definitely looks like he’d work for the advocate even though he doesn’t… anymore.

Xeones is intrigued by this display - and organized military forces in general. They’re so…different from tribal armies. Inflexible. At least, that’s what the tiger believes. His work done, Xeones supposes there’s no shame in sticking around for a little while longer to watch the show.

Rhyis is totally unaware of what’s happening. Walls don’t exactly tell him much about what’s happening on their opposite side. Inside, the bat is sitting at a desk situated near the front door and slightly off to the side, calmly writing in a particularly elaborate script while both pasu stand behind him, occasionally telling him more words to put down. Although the bat’s skilled at writing, this font does take a decent amount of time to write to ensure legibility.

The soldiers seem to have received their orders by now. They talk quietly among themselves for a few moments, thoughts or words exchanged, and then move off quietly through the city, heading for the Aerostatic terminal. They’re trying to make it look routine - overlook-able - like an everyday item of business; perhaps someone higher up the chain of command needed something checked out. This isn’t actually the case, but they don’t want to attract attention. Mostly because attention can kill you.

Nezaru peers round the corner and tilts his head as the soldier’s pass. Curious. They’re faces are painted with worry and it shows to him all too clearly even through his mask.

Xeones isn’t fooled by the ‘inconspicuous’ act - especially since he saw them disperse. Figuring that he has some time to kill, and that something interesting may happen yet, the tiger shrugs, and begins walking at a leisurely pace in the same direction.

Kaizo is currently asleep in his airship, two guards outside the door to his cabin and two by the entrance of the airship itself while the other crew can only be thought of as taking “Shore Leave”. He seems oblivious to the happenings in the city for now.

Not much is changing around Rhyis, although he does finish writing. The bat carefully folds the paper in half before sliding it into an obviously handmade but seemingly well-drawn security envelope. The markings are much larger, making it rather insecure for anything that isn’t written in a mildly large, elaborate font. Although the envelope may not be commonplace on most markets, given the design of the markings it seems Rhyis has drawn up quite a few in the past.

There’s a certain hushed tension among the soldiers, if you’re sensitive to such things. A certain very faint nervousness, which they have been trained to subdue and overrule… They keep moving, a couple of lizardythings in particular staying together. They’re making a pretty good speed: there’s also an element of hushed urgency here, and they’re keeping an eye on the surroundings as they go. It won’t take them long to get where they’re going.

Nezaru silently stalks the soldiers, intent on seeing them but not being seen himself.

Xeones has no idea where they’re going, unlike the soldiers in question, and he stays far enough away that he shouldn’t be any more suspicious than the average Muon citizen. Possibly less! He can’t hear anything being said, or notice facial expressions at this distance, though.

Some of the airships on the horizon seem to stop their approach in the forest before Muon, hovering there while lowering a platform into the trees and to the forest floor.

Rhyis carefully folds the lip of the envelope down. There’s no self-adhesive on it, so the bat instead seals it by dripping wax from a nearby lit candle over the tip. After a sufficiently large glob is produced, the bat reaches down into his loincloth and pulls a metal press up. After pushing it down on the wax, a disturbingly intricate seal is produced. This particular stamp must’ve cost a decent chunk of Vira to commission. There’s no discernible design of anyone famous or any special trademark. Rather, there’s just lines headed in seemingly random directions. Although extremely difficult to accurately identify, it’s just as difficult to accurately forge.

The soldiers don’t seem to notice Nezaru; or, if they do, they aren’t doing anything about him. On reaching the airfield, they spread out to approach from different angles - two or three at a time, though they haven’t enough numbers to properly surround it; the lizardythings pause and exchange a word or two at the edge, in the shadow of a convenient building, in a moment before they start moving in, glancing around quickly. They’d be boarding the airships; any airships known to be safe, and allied with the King, would simply be told that they must leave, now, as quickly as possible, with no delays of any sort. The soldiers would probably be pretty insistent about that. Otherwise, they’re likely going to be taking custody of some of the ships, and doubtless a group of them - including, in fact, those lizardy things, who’ve got long narrow swords, and another fellow with a musket - would eventually wind up approaching Kaizo’s vessel.

Kaizo stretches and walks over to the exit of his ship, past his guards and to the entrance. “Have our guests arrived yet? Maybe some unpleasant news for me? Hm?”

Xeones stops when he sees the forces massing around the terminal, watching at a distance. So many soldiers - yet he doesn’t recall ever seeing such a thing as a military airship. Where are they all going then, he wonders…

The soldier raises his musket, looking grim. “Maybe. Stand aside. We’re coming on board.”

Kaizo rolls his eyes and stares at the soldier. “You’d point a musket at a rabbit with a bad arm? You must be a poor soldier indeed to require such a thing… and besides shoot me here and you might cause a bit of panic… I’ve never seen the king’s men run with their tail’s between their legs…”

Rhyis slides the letter with /extreme/ delicacy into his mailbag. It’s almost painful to watch just due to how slow he’s moving. However, soon, it’s placed inside and wedged between some other normal-looking mail. From the top, it doesn’t appear to stand out. After sealing the bag he places his stamp back into the side of his cloth, then heads for the door. Without a word to either pasu, both of which now dispersing about the room, the bat presses it open and heads into the street. Upon seeing the telegraph building the bat tsk’s and dramatically points his head the other way, then begins walking down the road. As much as he hates loud machinery, he’ll never, ever, be on even terms with a telegraph. The bat purposely heads deeper into the Naraka district just to avoid walking in front of the building on his way out.

The soldier shrugs, unimpressed, face still just as heavy as ever. “That’d be our problem, not yours… Step aside.” It might be pretty obvious what they are, as a group, trying to do, now, if you’re in enough know: secure the airships, and destroy any they can’t secure that aren’t allied with the King. The lizards shift a little, one’s tongue flicking, ready with their swords just in case.

Several of the king allied airships start taking flight and dispersing in different directions. Most of them aren’t military, but just mercantile ships that have been paying their proper taxes. A few military ships do take flight however, and they start to approach the ones unloading into the forest.

Kaizo seems to be in a bit of a bind, wondering if he’d manage to draw his sword in time to out do these nuisances to his perfectly decent day.

Xeones watches from the sidelines, leaning up against a wall with his arms folded. Things are indeed starting to fall into place. The military doesn’t have enough airships - so they’re taking more. Seems simple enough. The tiger can’t imagine some people will take this well, though…like that bunny fellow over there. Xeo rubs his chin as he watches.

The musketman shifts impatiently. “Last chance.” He doesn’t seem to be moving that musket, and his finger is on the trigger. He’s also pointing it at Kaizo. “Put up your hands, why don’t you? Make the day nicer for everyone.”

Nezaru pops up from the rafters and plants a knife in the musketeer lizard’s tail before slipping back under.

As the airships from the forest are approached by the King’s military ships, the loud crack of cannons breaks the silence of the sky, the ships beginning to exchange fire. It’s not clear who shot first, but both are now actively engaged, the sunlight poking through a hole in one of the balloons.

Also, the musketman is human. There are only two lizards, and they both have swords.

The camera cuts away from that group, leaving their fate ambiguous! What’s not ambiguous is this: There’s a war going on. The airships in the air are firing at each other, and as more take off, the battle is getting bigger. A stray cannon ball blows through the building in front of Rhyis.

Rhyis grumbles to himself a little as he walks down the side of the street. Upon reaching the first available intersection he turns and walks even further away from the telegraph office. Once it’s out of sight he calms down a little, but he’s still visibly disgruntled. Eventually the bat rounds another corner and starts walking in the direction he originally wanted to head; due South, with another block of buildings separating him from the place that’s probably putting tons of Keero out of a job. His grumbling is soon interrupted by the sound of LOUD gunfire. Of course, to the bat, even though the ships are in the distance the noise is almost ear shattering. Both wings reach up and fold his ears down as he breaks into a run in whichever direction is opposite the source of the noise, be that South or not. That run is cut short when a large metal object suddenly enters the bat’s field of vision via way of building. At this point, the bat simply bolts in the opposite direction, now heading towards anything that looks safe, be it a factory with reinforced walls or simply an open area where he can spot incoming flying metal balls of death and squish.

Xeones’ eyes widen in alarm when shots start going off, and looks up in time to see a cannonball hit the building across the street from him, nearly taking the head off of that poor bat. He covers his head as some of the debris falls around him, and decides that he’s seen enough of this little military exercise. Xeo takes off in the same direction as the bat. Wait…he knows that bat. “Rhyis?! What’re you—”

The constant crackle of gunfire is coming from all directions. A rush of people from the Advocates are flooding the streets and clashing with the king’s men. Blood is pooling in the gutters, and the screams of people fighting and dying ring in the ears. Even with warning, it’s a terrible fight. Without it, it would have been a massacre. A few of the airships appear to have escaped on the horizon, and the Aerostatic terminal has managed to erupt into flames as an old hydrogen-powered zeppelin catches fire.

The lizardy guys managed to avoid the blast! But now they’re fighting directly against Advocates trying to get their ships up in the air.

Rhyis can’t hear the tiger yelling towards him. Apart from the fact that his ears are folded down, they’re ringing QUITE loudly. The loss of his most sensitive sense starts bringing panic onto the bat, but for the moment he’s able to contain himself enough to avoid tripping over his own feet or various debris. Common sense says the bat should take flight, but that’d require uncovering his ears. Gunshots, though, are still quite noticeable. Upon hearing them the bat lets out an audible squeak and spins about, now heading right for Xeones without even trying. There’s a decent chance he’ll smack into the tiger..

Xeones doesn’t expect the bat to skid to a halt, and the tiger isn’t inclined to stop running, with the streets already starting to fill with fighting. When he /does/ notice the stationary bat, tearing his eyes away from a gunfight starting a few blocks away, Xeones doesn’t have enough time to stop, and ends up hitting him just short of a dead run, sending the feline sprawling.

Kelketek’s head pokes out of a window, and he looks around. He sees an entangled tiger and bat, and pads over to them. “Are you alright?” His fur is slightly singed as he pokes at the two of them.

Rhyis yeeps and whines as he flops onto his bum. He’s dazed, but he gets to his feet fast. The bat nods (and almost gives himself whiplash in the process) to the fox while bending over and tugging one wing away from an ear to try and help Xeones stand. “I’m fine ‘cept my ears! Upupup, Xeones!” Clearly, the bat’s normally-sane stance gets a little.. Less so, when there’s lots of guns around.

Xeones blinks a few times, and stands back up with Rhyis’ help, looking around. Where did this fox come from? “Yes, fine. What’s going on? It’s as if Dozakh Zulm has broken loose,” he states, referring to the chaos. They should probably get out of here…

Kelketek ohs, “No, that’s not til later.” He stands up, “This place has become rather unpleasant. Would you like to run away with me?” He looks to the tiger and the bat, “I know a very fast way to get out of this city.”

Rhyis nodnodnods! This time, he actually does give himself whiplash. The bat who’s a little for about a second before regaining his focus. “Absa’freakin’lutely! Where to?!”

Xeones looks at the fox quizzically - for someone who just showed up out of seemingly nowhere, he’s rather well prepared. “That seems a good plan, but…who precisely are you?” The feline decides that this isn’t honestly the most pressing matter as a stray musket-ball soars down the street, hitting the building next door.

Kelketek looks to the tiggy, “No one of importance. Come along, then! We should make our escape.” The fox begins to scurry down an alleyway with PURPOSE! A pirate jumps around the corner to attack the fox, but he just kinda grabs the guy, shoves him into a wall and keeps moving like nothing happened. The pirate is all dazed and confused, stumbling around.

Rhyis yeeps when the pasu appears! Then, just, kinda blinks a few times when he’s dealt with so easily. The bat decides not to ask questions. He starts running after Kelketek, one wing holding Xeones’ paw and tying to drag him along if he isn’t already moving. “Okay!”

Xeones is surprised when the bat starts pulling him along, but the tiger isn’t going to argue with escaping from clear and present danger! He briefly considers tazing the stunned pirate as they pass, but decides that it might be wise to expend his energy on something more important. After all, he doesn’t know what kind of roadblocks the fox will run them into.

Renna pops up suddenly around a corner then! Practically colliding with Kelketek or whoever’s going first. Oof. “Damn!”

Kelketek, as he’s running, catches the vixen by placing a paw on her shoulder, and uses her momentum to turn her around so she doesn’t run into him, but runs in the same direction as him, with a bit of lurch in the movement. X.x Still, it keeps them both moving. “You still have an airship, right?” The vix has never seen this fox in her life, though.

Rhyis doesn’t know they’ve never met, so he doesn’t think anything of it. That being said, he’s still impressed by how easily he got the other fox to run with him. He runs a bit faster, trying to close the small gap between himself and the foxes while still dragging Xeones behind him. Evidently, when running for his life, the bat’s /fast/.

Renna’s startled practically out of her skin: someone appears out of almost thin air, spins her around and asks if she still has an airship, all inside of three seconds. o.O After a moment of utter confusion, though, she realises she’d better just keep running. It takes a moment or two for the oddness of this encounter to percolate. “Y-yeah— wait…”

…Well, if she stopped running suddenly she might fall over. That’d be bad.

Xeones is pretty sure he can run on his own, and that he’s not going to get lost, but if it makes the bat feel better to literally pull him along…so be it. He’s well aware of the keero’s aversion to explosions. He is, however, confused by the newest addition to their party, having only caught sight of Kel spinning her around - not that there’s more to know. “And who is this?!”

Kelketek looks to Xeones, “Oh, I don’t know. Just someone with an airship.” He looks to her. “Anyway, I think we should leave with it, don’t you?” He keeps leading them in the running toward where all the explosions are— the Aerostatic terminal.

Rhyis slows when he realizes they’re headed /towards/ the loud boomy sounds. Hopefully Xeones pulls him along, now! “Hey, wait, isn’t this a TERRIBLE IDEA?!”, the bat calls out. He tries to wrap one wing around to hold both ears with mild amounts of success.

Renna pants a bit from all the running, and looks like she has a shallow cut on one arm: nothing fatal or disabling, but probably a bit painful at least. “…I, uh, no better idea. Sure.” She eyes Kelketek sideways. “Who are you, anyway? I’ve never seen you before in my life.” Since we might have slowed down for the bat for a moment, anyway.

Kelketek looks to Rhyis, “Why, of course! But unless you have a better one…” He looks to the vixen, “No one of importance. Don’t mind me, just here to leave.” They run out into the terminal. “That one’s yours right?”

Renna follows along, running. …okay. Okay, okay. She’ll figure this out later. It’s not like it makes the evening that much more unreal. “…yeah.”

Xeones keeps pulling the bat along when he slows. “Airship seems the best way out. Unless you would rather fly, Rhyis?” The tiger’s question seems rhetorical, though, as he keeps heading for the landing pad. As they near, the feline looks up at the battle raging overhead. This…will not be a simple exit, but it may be the only one they’re going to get.

Renna looks up too, and… ducks her head, and keeps running. Maybe she’ll survive.

Rhyis has to be pulled rather hard by Xeones to keep going, but he’s probably not going to do much to slow the tiger. After the comment about flying, Rhyis starts running faster to better keep up. “Nope! Can’t do that with two wings, let alone one!” The bat tries to keep himself as close to Xeones as possible after a few more steps to make them a smaller target. Luckily he has the common sense not to trip on the feline’s feet, though a sudden stop might end awkwardly.

Kelketek leads the group up onto the gangway of the airship. Their are some soldiers inside, who are freaked out about the sudden boarding, and then are slightly more freaked out when they’re quickly disarmed and told to take a seat. Which, after the rather freaky quick disarming, they decide is probably a good idea. The fox looks all pleased with himself, and then calls to Renna, “These gentlemen are kindly going to let us have the airship back. Maybe we should go to Acre or Helio.”

Renna ducks inside the craft’s inside, glancing around. She stares at the disarmed soldiers, and then at Kelketek. “…Who the hell… gad, never mind. Fine. Fine.” She goes around trying to get the engines started, a slightly finicky procedure, especially with things potentially tossed about by soldiers having been onboard. “…can we let them off somewhere?”

Xeones slows to a stop right outside the airship, giving everyone inside a rather odd look. He’s more or less oblivious to the altercation, though he is surprised to see the men seated inside. It is then that the tiger realizes he’s never been on an airship before, and he has no idea what to expect. But, his choices at the moment are, ‘get over it’ or ‘die’, so he chooses the former, heads up the gangplank.

Kelketek looks to Renna, and then back at the soldiers, “Well, I guess we can. They’re just doin’ their jobs, though. Oh! Anything you need us to do to help fly this thing?” He looks at the soldiers and the tiggy, and the bat.

Rhyis blinks a few times at the sight once he’s dragged inside. He’s confused, and would really rather not be on a noisy flying thing, but he’s got the same narrow choice Xeones has. Great.. The bat eventually focuses on Kelketek, then at Renna. “I’m sure I’m the least mechanically-talented pasu in this group. Don’t give me anything important!”

Renna threads around, sticking a hand into an engine to tweak it a bit. “…gimme a monkey wrench… nah nah, here is.” She uses it to tweak at something inside the engine, and does a couple of other things (getting a bit of oil on herself), and then manages to coax them into life, looking at all the people crowded into her ship. “…sit down, maybe?” She’d cast off, close things up, and so forth, then go up to the controls (wheel, etc) and start moving up and out a bit, peering around to try and find the least risky way out of this mess, seeming kind of tense/jittery/stressed out/or just generally a bit taken off of her feet by the quick-fire events.

Xeones takes a seat himself - looking around at the interior of the ship. It’s doubtful he’d be able to help with the mechanical aspects, though his powers might be helpful, in a pinch. “This…may be an obvious question, but how do we avoid the much larger ships trying to shoot us down…?”

Renna uh, uh, “I’m an unsure.” She sort of hangs on to the wheel, peering about.

Kelketek looks out the door, and places his paws against it, “We could just fly into the tailwind, and go really fast.” He closes his eyes, and slides his paws along the window. The airship starts to pick up speed. This does, however, put some strain on it.

Renna uhs. She just sort of tries to hang on, and fly us out of here, avoiding cannon balls, collisions, and other hazards, and keeping a bit low for a low profile’s sake, while definitely not running into anything.

Rhyis yeeps and nearly falls over once the winds hit. He quickly plops himself down into the nearest sittable thing, be that a chair or a tiger, and holds onto the nearest grabbable thing. ..Be that a chair or a tiger. “Sit! Right! I can do that!”

There might be a chair or two, but this is almost a bit of a lived-in space, so the seating could be a little ad-hoc.

Xeones helps guide the sitting bat into the seat next to him, to avoid being crushed - though this doesn’t do much to prevent the myotis from clinging to him with his wing-claws. “Ah! Ow! Alright, that is not, entirely, comfortable!” It beats being blown out of the sky by pirates, though…

The wind around the ship is pretty strong, and clouds also seem to be shifting around it to conceal things. It’s not too long before the group of them are out of range of most of the canons from the other airship. The fox takes his paws off the windows, letting the ship handle itself now while he fiddles in one of his pockets for something.

Rhyis keeps his claws held tight in Xeones until things slow down. The bat soon relaxes and gives a long sigh as he does anything he can to avoid looking out any windows. For the moment, that means fiddling with his mailbag’s clasptie. “Are we out of range?”

Renna kind of slumps back a bit up there as we manage to skim out of range in some miraculous fashion, holding onto the wheel for a moment (one doesn’t sit down to fly this contraption.) That whole experience was… kind of overwhelming. She still tries to steer, for the moment, until she feels confident enough to let the ship bore on without guidance for a little bit.

Renna’s also lost her hat in the kerfluffle, if she ever HAD a hat to begin with.

Xeones relaxes a bit as well, though the curious tiger makes the ‘mistake’ of looking out the window. He’s more than a little shocked by how high up they are. But, after a moment, the vertigo passes…thankfully. He looks back at Muon, craning his neck to try to see behind them. “What…just happened? Who is the army fighting?” He’s never seen the Advocates out and about, before.

Kelketek pulls a little case out of his jacket and flicks it open, pulling out something and injecting his arm with it, closing his eyes. “The army is fighting the advocates.” He mmphs. “The world is changing now.”

Rhyis doesn’t look up, though his ears flicker a bit at the sound of metal as he slowly drops his wing off his head. That wing carefully unzips his bag and fumbles around softly inside, seemingly counting how many letters he’s got on him. “I hope that doesn’t mess with my mail routes..”, Rhyis says without thinking.

Renna lets go of the wheel and sort of staggers a little, and then glances around. Moves over a little ways towards Kelketek, using a couple of handholds, though not getting all that close. “…what was that?” Meaning what he injected himself with, though also maybe everything. And then puts a paw to her head for an instant. “Wh… where then? /What/ th… ow.” She winces, looking at her arm, having shifted it somehow and gotten a bit of oil in the cut.

Kelketek puts the stuff away, his eyes a little glassy, “I’m afraid your mail routes are shot, as territories are being redrawn.” He puts the kit away, and looks to Renna, “That, my dear, was a war. A sight not seen for a long, long time.” He looks at the arm, “Are you alright?”

Xeones is a little shocked by the responses, though he /did/ just see it with his own eyes. He has heard of the Advocates before…but he can’t fathom how they could attack this far north. They’re not /that/ powerful, are they? Instead of asking that, however, the cat’s curiosity gets the best of him, and he asks something apparently more tangible. “What was that in the needle?” Leave it to the tiger in the room to ask awkward questions.

Renna pokes at her arm, shakes her head. “Oww… nah, nah. I have to get my sleeve…” She goes across and fumbles around in a chest one-handed and pulls out a knife for that, so she can wash that arm off. She seems a bit shaky, slightly stunned maybe, and of course she’s a bit crowded and can’t really sit down and let her head clear properly with all these soldiers and everyone.

Kelketek looks over his shoulder at the tiger, “Modern medicine.” The fox then looks out the window. “Where do we want to go, though. Acre, Helio? We could probably avoid the conflict entirely in Estenne, but that would be no fun…”

Rhyis doesn’t seem to have heart Kelketek’s comment about mail. Maybe it just didn’t register. “I do have a rather important letter to get to Gilead. Helio might work nice.” Both ears perk up slowly as he gets used to the rhythmic noise of the engines. Loud, yes, but he’s doing his best to tune them out.

Xeones somehow suspects it’s something more, but the tribal tiger doesn’t know enough to honestly question the response. He is, however, a little worried about the bat. “Rhyis…there may not /be/ anyone in Gilead or Helio to get your messages. The Advocates are based in the middle of the lake, yes? How do we know that they haven’t attacked Gilead? Or Helio? Or even Acre?” Surely they’d attack those before attacking the northernmost city…

Renna gets the sleeve ripped off/sliced at the shoulder, pulls it off, gets water (she has a tank of it, apparently) and kind of washes the cut off, wincing. Once that’s done she finds some clean bit of fabric to tie around it, and throttles the engines down a little, so we’re more drifting. Then she settles down in a bit of a niche for a moment, where she can lean against a bit of the structure and let things not happen for a minute or two.

Kelketek keeps looking out the door, “Because Helio and Gilead are the biggest strongholds for the King. The royal guard is there. The biggest section of the army is there.” He looks out the other window at the fighting in the distance, “But if you could ensure you were the only side with good air support….”

Renna asks, “…this isn’t air support. Is everything falling in pieces?”

Rhyis’s face visibly looses a bit of color when he starts realizing exactly what’s happening. Kelketek’s words seem to perk him up a bit, though. “I might be able to help there.. I’m no genius when it comes to airships, but Xeones’ cousin is, and I know a lot of gifted pasu with strong magic. Maybe I can get them to work together from the ground if we can get somewhere safeish fast enough!” The bat shoots Xeones a look that reads ‘just hug it out for goodness’ sake’.

Xeones frowns a bit. “You are seriously considering dragging Raziel into this? Of what use could the Betrayer possibly be?” The tiger folds his arms stubbornly, though his mood isn’t as dark as it could be. “It is good to know that things are not as bad as I feared, however. Where will we go, though? Gilead, or Helio?”

Kelketek looks to the vixen, giving a frown, “No, this one’s not air support. But there were bigger zeppelins back there, now tied up in conflict. They didn’t look like they had enough warning to really get the big ones out of the way. But they apparently got /some/ warning, which means Leviathan is not going to get to just waltz up like he had planned, as even if they lose those ships, the pirates will lose a lot of their own, too.” He hmms, “Helio might be better. Gilead is likely to see combat first. If anything is to happen, better to be behind the lines.”

Rhyis tilts his head over at Kelketek. “Leviathan? You really believe those stories? I thought they were just around to keep young pasu from going out at night.” The bat looks around the room at anybody else who’s awake, trying to judge their facial reactions.

Renna tries to get herself a glass of water. She ends up deciding it’s easier to stay where she is for the moment, and puts a paw against her head, leaning against it for a moment. “…I can’t think. Can we leave the soldiers somewhere? There’s no room.”

Kelketek looks at the soldiers, “Let them out near the rail line. It’ll make it easy for them to follow their way the rest of the way toward Acre. We should fly a little closer to there first. I don’t want them to starve or anything.”

One of the soldiers raises a paw, “I, too, would prefer we didn’t starve.”

Renna says, “Fine. Fine. Don’t want to starve them. . .”

Renna nods some, and finally actually gets herself some water.

Xeones shrugs at Rhyis’ question. “I cannot say. Leviathan is a mysterious figure, and it is quite possible that he is a myth. But after seeing the Advocates lay siege today…” He shakes his head. “He just may be real. At the very least, they are led by /someone/ powerful.” He pays little mind to the soldiers, through he does snicker at the comment.

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Previous - Trouble in Gilead
Next - Onward to Helio

Advocate Insurrection (Main)