“It was a foul place,” Clorandine recalled, wrinkling her nose. “Although they were nice enough. There was a northerner named Freegale that used to run the place, he and a couple others kept it pretty clean and nice. There was a bandit problem outside the town then, and I guess it caught up to them eventually.”

  “When you are this remote,” said Luneth, “it is difficult to get quality adventurers to do your fetch quests. It really breeds a bandit problem over time if not resolved. In the Moonsea we send young adventurers around to the villages when they come of age so all the quests can be resolved each year.”

  “It is a good tradition,” Clorandine said, smiling.

  “Kind of like what we’re doing now?” I suggested.

  “No.” Luneth reached out and laced his fingers in Clorandine’s hand. “In my youth I walked the moon paths. Clorandine, you recall. The best loot of all is those you meet along the way.”

  Wow they were sappy, and really in love. I wondered if I’d feel that someday, with someone. Then I remembered busting out of little bro / King Arthur’s castle in the lowsky and flying back, hoping to find the Fool’s Errand. Or was it just Valietta I hoped to find?

  In the evening we drew close to Needles. My stomach rumbled, but I still slowed down to wait for the night, cloudswept in the corners but a clear midnight orb speckled with tiny lights overtop us.

  “I did not realize you were a Driften Waker,” Luneth said as we waited.

  “It’s true, King Arthur even did a [Tech Scan] of him and confirmed it,” Clorandine offered.

  “Among the moonfolk we say that when the driften wake is the time for Driften Wakers. So that you are here at all means the world beasts in legends stir.”

  “What are these driften anyways?”

  “World beasts.” Luneth shrugged. “We say that Weywyrd rides the back of a yet-unseen driften like a vast hurricane, and that each of the Great Skies is the slumbering home of a driften. Although I think they are no longer slumbering.”

  We flew quietly in. Luneth pointed out some of the areas of interest in the little village.

  There was an airship dock of wood and cobbled scrap. Actually that was the biggest part of Needles. A rusted metal sign greeted you from the edge of the docks that read WELCOME TO NEEDLE FALLS. Only three airships were docked there now. One of them was the Fool’s Errand. It looked empty.

  I looked closer, deploying [Scavenger’s Eye] and picked up a telescope! I knew about the item already, but it was good to see Kola Junior! He was hunkered down in the crow’s nest.

  “I found a friend!” I whispered to Luneth and Clorandine. “Let’s say hello.”

  Kola was ecstatic to see us, but stayed quiet. He seemed to know the score.

  “Where are the junkers?” I asked. “The ruffians, or whatever?”

  Kola handed me the telescope and focused my vision downfield. The town consisted of one main thin street threaded through the only solid land in the area, the jagged calcified towers that were called Needle Falls. Outside a multi-story building made of scraps of metal I saw some people in armor standing about.

  “Where’s that jail?” I hissed and Luneth pointed me to further down the road.

  “There’s the sheriff’s, it’s that crappy hut, then behind it is the jail. Nothing fancy I agree, but stone walls will do it for most people.”

  I handed the telescope over to the others so they could take a look. Meanwhile, I peered at the other two ships docked. One of them was very likely the raiders’ ship, a good-sized scrap-ship with deck cannons and side cannons that had been patched up with metal over time. The other was a small sloop likely meant for fishing with a net still hanging over one side. These villagers hadn’t stood a chance when the raiders came in. They had overwhelming firepower.

  For that matter, I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tangle with their ship, brimming as it was with weapons.

  “So what’s the play?” Luneth asked.

  I considered, as they were both looking at me as though I was the leader. “Luneth, why don’t you go make contact with the people in the jail, let ‘em know we’re back and we’re going to try something soon. I don’t really know what, though. In the meantime I’m going to see if I can sabotage something on that scrap ship. Clorandine and Kola--why don’t you search the Fool’s Errand and make sure nobody’s lurking in there watching us?”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The scrappy vessel was called Folly’s Regret. I flew over to examine the engines and found them blackened with like soot residue. [Tech Appraiser] informed me they were midrange engines. I was chagrined to realize I’d never actually examined our ship’s engines to compare them. Perhaps the ones on Folly’s Regret were poorly cared for?

  I needed some way to really foul them up, that was quiet. I looked over and saw the silhouettes of Clorandine and Kola creeping down the starboard cabin corridors of the Fool’s Errand. I just didn’t know enough about how these things worked to really do anything. Maybe if I had Val’s power drill…

  I flew back and met them in the dining room low in the Fool’s Errand. It was quiet in there.

  “Nobody’s here,” Clorandine reported.

  Kola scurried off, probably intent to resume his post in the crow’s nest.

  “Nobody at all? Did you see a little green kitten?”

  She shook her head.

  “Aether glancers,” I cursed. “They took my cat!”

  “We’ll get it back. Have you considered we could just stop in and pretend to be passing through?”

  “Then what, though?”

  “We ask all the questions we want! Then we can ask these villagers politely to let out your friends.”

  “And if they don’t do it? What then?”

  “We’ll make it right,” Luneth said from behind me. “They’re ready to go, but not many have a way to slip past the bars. Count on Lorlux, but the others are gonna need some help.”

  “Do you have a plan for that Daniel? Clorandine asked.

  “I’m starting to,” I said and began to outline what we would do.

  Before we departed the Fool’s Errand again I took the opportunity to put away some clothes. I was still wearing several pairs of things and had my pockets stuffed with clothes. As nice as it would be to have a shower and use the sauna, it would surely make steam, and that would be a dead giveaway. Clorandine looked at me pleadingly, but I shook my head.

  “We gotta take care of these guys. Maybe they’ll have a shower at the inn they’re all at?”

  It was not an inn. To call the sty a tavern was generous. The Free Hook it was called showing a dangling fishing line with a gleaming hook on its sign. Clorandine and I walked up confidently while Luneth hid away. There were five or six people out here in scrappy armor. A few drank, some played at some type of cards.

  “I’m looking for a place where I can grab a drink. Know anywhere like that?” I asked.

  One of them hiccuped and pointed inside the Free Hook. Clorandine and I exchanged glanced and she gave me a little nod. Her hands were folded neatly at her side, not far from where her katana was sheathed. I hoped it would not come to that, because these were pretty bad odds. Brufo being overwhelmed flashed vividly into my memory.

  We went in through a beaded curtain. Inside the lights were low and smoke tangled into the ceiling. At a long bar slung out with stools at intervals a bunch of tough-looking raiders drank. They all looked at us as we came in. In the back, a stool scraped as someone stood.

  A huge, hulking man, armored with a cyborg arm and dark salt-and-pepper hair. Half of his body was basically an exoskeleton. He wore scrap armor. There was also a glass sphere embedded into the cyborg arm on the bicep that contained something small and green. I squinted. Mossy!

  This aethering dude. This aethering aether sucker stole my cat. He must have seen my face darken for he strode up and introduced himself. He was a good foot taller than either of us. He had a patch of facial hair.

  “Ahn. Ahem. I’m called Mowd round these parts, and nobody crosses this port without my say-so.”

  I straightened up. “We’re just crossing toward Melpompne.”

  “Oh are you? I ain’t see no ship come in!”

  “We are from the Moonsea,” Clorandine ventured. “Daniel is my ship.”

  “I’m Daniel,” I said lamely. “This is…my passenger Clorandine.”

  Mowd gestured to the bartender and held up three fingers. Soon enough three glasses of pale, dancing liquor had been poured and the big raider invited us to take a seat.

  “Why didn’t you say so!?” Mowd boomed. “If you’re from the Moonsea you'll love this stuff!”

  He plinked his metal finger on the glass tumbler.

  “Moon dragon milk. Haha, it’s not actually their milk, I think. Is it?”

  Clorandine chuckled nervously. I looked at her for her input and she shook her head no sharply. What was I supposed to do, refuse to drink it?

  “I have never met a moon dragon,” I admitted.

  Mowd glanced slyly at me as he swished his drink. “Say, you don’t look like a moonfolk, Daniel.”

  “If you can believe it Mowd I’m from LA, a place ever further than the Moonsea.”

  “Ellay? Ain’t Ellay the place that the King Arthur fellow said he came from before he founded Avalos!?” Mowd bellowed this to the bar.

  The answer was loudly affirmative, then all attention became fixed on our conversation. I saw Luneth floating on a light fixture above the bar, having crept through the ceiling. He winked at me.

  “We don’t appreciate a conquering lord none at all,” Mowd growled. “Antho, Kapp and Rettey were good crew mates who didn’t deserve to be electrocuted by a crazy old legend.”

  Mowd waved a cyborg hand to quell the many sailors with blades half-drawn to slay us where we sat.

  “But what’s done is done eh!! After the king slew the old lads, he made me Duke Mowd of Needle Falls! To Daniel and Clorandine!! In addition to being the strongest lout in Needles now I also own the place on paper!”

  I raised my glass. “To Duke Mowd! To King Arthur!!”