Kinderling 53

 In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress.

In the morning, I was surprised to be awoken by a wonderful smell coming from the vicinity of our little cookfire.  I was still burrowed under my blankets keeping warm, but I knew it sure wasn't Mama cooking.  Nothing Mama cooked smelled that heavenly.  Eventually I couldn't stand it and took a peek.  

Sitting on the floor of the cavern near the fire was none other than the Star Sailor himself.  He was so tall that even sitting on the floor, his head nearly brushed the stone ceiling.  Mama and I had picked this place to move to when the Elves arrived because it was comfortable for us, but would be out of the way of the Elves.  They wouldn't want this area because most of them wouldn't be able to stand up straight.  Of course, we Kinderlings didn't have that problem.

"You are awake, I come bringing gifts."  He said, using a metal hook to remove the top off a pot.  The sweet, slightly spicy scent coming from the pot was amazing.  I stood to get a look inside, expecting some sort of gruel or stew, but instead found some form of bread.  "These are cinnamon rolls.  I came across them in my travels and since the tree that gives us cinnamon does not grow anywhere near here, I thought it would be a sufficient bribe to get you to talk to me."

"Why ever would you need to bribe me to talk to you..."  I paused, not knowing what to call him.

"If you are looking for a title or honorific, I have none."  The Star Sailor said, "I am not royalty, nor am I any sort of Lord... nor Lady for that matter."  He smiled at his joke.  I almost fainted, it was the first sign of genuine merriment that I had ever seen from an Elf.  "I was born a simple Shepard if you can believe that, many many long centuries ago.  I would gladly gift you with my name, but it's quite possible I never had one or the knowledge of it died with my parents.  The poorest of Elves couldn't always afford such luxuries as names.  If you would, you may call me Sailor, or Star Sailor.  Whichever you prefer."

I was confused, "How does one live without a name?"

"Quite easily, I assure you."  The Star Sailor smiled.  "It turns out, a name has less in common with air or bread than one might think."

Now I wondered if he was just messing with me, but before I could decide, the odd Elf continued.

"On our journey here from the Elven lands, your mother made comment on my ballista, and said I should talk to you about them."  

I wasn't sure what a ballista was, or why Mama would think I would have anything to say about one, but the scent coming from the pot sure was intriguing enough that I felt sufficiently bribed to talk about all manor of things I knew nothing about.  

With his knife, the Star Sailor fished something out of his pot and handed it to me on carved wooden plate.  It was round, and had a swirl pattern starting in the center and working it's way around a few times till it reached the edge.  It seemed to be made of bread, with the swirl being a dark reddish brown sticky substance.  Not unpleasantly sticky, but sticky just the same.  The scent was incredible.

I watched the Star Sailor for cues on how to go about eating such a thing, but was stymied by the size difference between a Kinderling and an Elf.  He took his in one hand and easily bit off nearly half of it.  I, on the other hand, was doing good to hold mine in both hands.  The thing was almost as big as my head. 

My first bite was all bread, mostly crust.  It was a little hard but it was nice, sweet, and not unlike a lot of the Kinderling sweet breads that we have during festivals or holidays.  I decided I needed a taste of the dark swirl and made sure I got some of that in my next bite.

It was incredible.  Sweet, vaguely spicy, but packed with flavors that the scent only hinted at.  Before I knew it, I had eaten so much that I was uncomfortably full.  I had managed to eat my way through a surprising amount, but more than half was left.  That, I wrapped up for later.

The whole thing made me think of Mizzy, which made me feel guilty that I was out here having fun, consorting with Elves, meeting new people, learning new things, eating new foods, and Mizzy was back at the Garrison probably worried about me, thinking I might be dead or worse.

"Well, that was definitely a sufficient bribe." I smiled patting my poor swollen belly, "Now, about those ballista things, let's have a look shall we?" 

"We would have to go to my ship, of course."  He replied.  Then after a few seconds seemed to realize I didn't know what it was that we were going to look at.  "A ballista is a large weapon. I have four mounted on my ship to help ward of Dragons and other dangerous creatures that live among the stars."

Oh, it's a weapon.  Everything started to make more sense.  I might not know what a ballista is, but I do know a thing or two about weapons.

The Star Sailor guided me to his ship.  Just to keep up, I used my monster-go-stick and lazily floated along beside him as we walked.  I have to admit, I had been really wanting to get a closer look at the ship.  Sailor didn't really need to bribe me with food, he could have just offered to let me on board.  From the moment I saw it, I couldn't help but dream of building one of my own.  Only smaller of course.  Much smaller.  The monster-go-stick was the largest flying device I had managed so far, and when I crafted it, I felt like I was reaching the limits of my capabilities, so I wasn't sure if it were even possible.

"Your mother's flying device, a go-stick I think she called it, she says that you are the one who crafted it."  

"Yes, it's one of my better inventions."  I replied.

"I see you have a larger one, and it appears to be much more powerful."  The Star Sailor said. "The small one your mother had surprised and intrigued me.  This one...  I'm at a loss for words.  The magic involved is different than what I use for the Sky Ship, but it is similar.  It seems familiar.  I wasn't aware that non-Elves were capable of so much."

"I believe I was pushing my limit with the monster-go-stick.  Although I don't know for sure.  I've made heavier objects fly faster than I can with this."

"Fascinating."  was the reply.

The Star Sailor's ballista were enormous.  Mind bogglingly so.  When he showed one to me, I got a little light headed and sat down on a nearby log, not thinking to wonder what a log was doing sitting on the deck of a sky ship.  

"What kind of thing does this thing throw?"  I asked, boggled.

"You are sitting on it."  The Star Sailor smiled.  "We use the ballista to defend the ship from dragons and other large creatures that live in the sky.  We go beyond the clouds, to the tips of the mountains and beyond."

I looked down befuddled.  The log I sat upon was one of this thing's projectile!

"The problem we have is, as powerful as the ballista is, it is difficult to score a hit because the projectiles move so slowly."  The Star Sailor explained.  "Would you like to see it fire?"

"Yes."

The Star Sailor whistled out to his crew to load the instrument of doom.  The process included a huge wench attached to what I imagined was the back end of the weapon.  It was used to pull back the string, in this case a thick metal cable, on an enormous metal bow attached horizontally to the other end of the weapon.  It was all perfectly understandable once I climbed high enough that I could get a proper look at the thing. 

"It's just bow like Mama carries.  Only it's huge and instead of arrows it uses whole trees."  I said.  

"Not quite whole trees, but yes, the bolts are carved from small trees, especially grown to be straight and strong specifically for this purpose."  

It took a while, but the weapon was finally loaded. 

"You know, if it takes that long to load, you're likely to get eaten by the dragon before you can even get ready to fire a shot."  I quipped.

"When we are in the sky near a place where we might encounter a dragon, we keep all four ballista loaded.  When there is no threat, we unload them because keeping them loaded is hard on them.  If one were to break, it would leave a quadrant of the ship unprotected till we could replace it."  Star Sailor said.  "With the things we come across in our travels, being unprotected is out of the question."

When they finally fired the infernal contraption, the crash of sound was startling.  I didn't know what to expect, but the loud clink-clank-bang-crunch wasn't it.  The enormous bolt flew in a massive arch across the water and hit the beach the crew was aiming at.  It was all pretty impressive, but I could see why the Star Sailor said they had trouble scoring a hit.  The bolt it threw was indeed slower than I would have expected, and that arch was bound to cause problems.

"It's too bad we aren't at the garrison.  I think you would love some of the devices that me and my friend Tilly have come up with."

"We have a Sky Ship.  There is no place that we should miss, we have the means to travel!"  With that, the Star Sailor whistled to his crew and commanded them to make ready to depart.