Moving to the First Gear City
The weather fit the mood: miserable but excitable. It was cold, rainy, windy, and the lightning fanned across the sky in endless forks with the thunder rolling on and on until it began to irritate. Jayden vomited over the edge of the railing and watched as it plummeted several hundred feet to the ground. Jayden loved having the opportunity to travel on an airship, but not in the storm. Normally ships were grounded in weather like this, but they couldn't land here, not in Craig's Crags, even if the edge, they were too far off course. Even the detour should have had them sailing 50 elecs to the escuusorial. Jayden retched again. The route was usually straight south, and crossing Araia, with a nice layover, but the storm sent them eastward, across Brinn, but the winds blew them further north than was safe. It's safe to cross over the mines of Brinn, but not the Crags. Jayden had heard the story of Craig's sacrifice in the Crags from The Bear, who'd heard it from someone who'd heard it from someone who'd heard it from someone else.... Of the monsters that lived in the Crags, that Craig, whomever he was, stayed behind to defend the path while his companions died for their lives.
"You're gonna leave a trail for them to follow us," the captain had approached Jayden, and though was close by, he had to yell over the wind and the rain pounding on the long balloon above their heads. "If the rain doesn't wash away the scent before they pick it up, they might track you forever!" The captain laughed as he put a consoling hand on Jayden's shoulder, and then trudged on down the deck as Jayden retched again, hoping they were hiding from the rain in their caves, and the rain would last here, not for him on his journey, but here. Jayden knew noses.
Jayden wiped his snout with his arm and regretted the stench it would leave in his fur as the ship lurched and he fell backwards treading on his tail. He considered he might have been better off hiring multiple carts or a Giant instead of the airship, but this was cheaper for the amount of stuff he had to move. He was definitely a pack animal. And pack was what he had done. He wasn't going to start at EMC Academy White City with nothing.
Like many Wolvienn's in Væensal, Jayden grew up in Lælyin. His family's den was next door to the Prime's Den. And so his magickal aptitude was recognized quite quickly in his puppage: his howl shattered all the windows on that end of the castle, and many of the other pack dens around his own family's. The Great Bear wasn't mad, he was impressed at young Jayden, and gave the family dralcons equal to one quarter the cost of repairing the damage, which was not a small fee that the Bear accepted to cover. He was uplifted in the pack.
But that was a long four years ago. Now that he was approaching five years old, he was off to the Academy. And the journey wasn't going well. Jayden dry heaved again, spat, and watched the wad disappear into the air below.
