The Halfwing

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Felix and Kite had just finished up the last of their shopping, using the equipment money Elora had promised to them. True to her word, the elf had completed all twelve guild postings in a single afternoon and brought the earnings to their inn a full hour before they were due to meet.

They bought enough potions from the marketplace to last them for days, some leather pauldrons to go under Felix’s cloak, and—not one to look a gift horse in the mouth—Kite even bought herself a string necklace with three green sapphire-cut miniature wind crystals.

“I didn’t expect you to be the type for jewelry and things,” Felix noted. “Not saying it looks bad though. I just thought you’d hold back a little on the spending, since the money was Elora’s to start with...”

“And travel all that way unprepared? I don’t think so, not even to prove a point.” Kite said, shaking her head. “But you’re right that I’m not usually into accessories. The shopkeep said this would make my spells a little stronger, and so I thought ‘ah, what the heck’, and grabbed it.”

“I see… It’s good to be prepared.”

“And, who knows, it might be the difference when push comes to shove, you know?”

“Fair point.” Felix thought back to the battle against the candle-headed monster. “Better to have and not need than the reverse.”

“Still… I guess she wasn’t all talk, the elf.” If nothing else, Kite was now convinced Elora was capable and true to her word, though you wouldn’t hear her say that out loud to her face. “Still suspicious as hell though.”

“You can say it a little nicer than that, Kite.” Felix jabbed his friend with an elbow. “We should thank her for reserving those rooms at the inn, at least. It feels like it’s been days since we slept soundly.”

“Well, you got me there.” Kite agreed, stretching her arms out over her head. “What, with the prison escape, and the assassins hunting us. Not to mention sleeping on the ground half the time.”

“You’re telling me…”

The one night they were able to sleep at an inn, Felix was kept awake half the night tossing and turning with a nightmare. He still hadn’t figured out what it meant, or why he had it, but similar dreams visited him on occasion.

Oftentimes it was memories he could sense were the other Felix’s. Kite had asked him once if he wanted to get his memories back, like the old days when he was just becoming the hero, but he had responded with a resounding ‘no’. His sole focus had been on getting home.

That hadn’t changed, exactly, but a curiosity now existed within him, especially since running into one of the Mad God’s minions. It left him wondering whether the other him really had finished what everyone claimed he had.

The world is still a messy place, isn’t it, Hero?

As that sense of unfulfilled duty lingered, they continued their stroll to the shipyard where they had agreed to meet Elora. It was a windy day in the place that earned its name well, and the sun had only just crept above the bottommost cloud layer.

They’d be heading to an island much too far to walk to this time.

“Something wrong, pal?”

“Oh… It’s nothing.” Felix realized he’d been staring into space. “I was just feeling a bit of guilt, I suppose.”

“Guilt?” Kite tilted her head. “For what?”

The shipyard’s main terminal came into view, as did the elf standing outside of it. Her composed and punctual nature was already apparent as they drew closer. Seeing her like that, alone against the brown backdrop of the building, stirred something melancholic inside him, strangely.

“I’m not sure… a lot of things?” Felix replied. “But there’s no use dwelling on it too much. Elora is waiting.”

“Whatever you say…” Kite continued to eye him.

“You two certainly took your time to get here,” Elora said plainly, leaning against a post.

Like she had when she met them at the inn, Elora’s gaze went to Felix, who’d taken off his hood. Her face read a mixture of complex emotions as she studied him. Her collapsible spear was looped to her belt, and the gold trim on her green thigh-high boots gleamed in the morning sun.

“Whatever was the hold up?”

“Huh??” Kite’s brow furrowed. “You’re the one that told us to—“

“—When we met at the inn yesterday, you said we smelled ripe, and told us to hit the bath,” Felix spoke up before Kite could start an argument. “We took advantage of the inn’s amenities and took a dip this morning before setting out.”

“Oh.” Elora crossed her arms nonchalantly. “That’s fine then, I suppose...”

They actually hadn’t arrived that late; Elora only said it to see how Kite would react, but now she felt a little guilty for doing so.

“By the way, thank you for the accommodations.” Felix’s genuine smile made Elora’s face flush with even more guilt. And a flash of something else. “We’ll be in your care during the journey too.”

“You, you’re still…”

“Hm?”

“Nothing. Don’t mention it.” Elora sighed deeply. “We should get going; there’s only one airship to where we’re headed per day, and it leaves soon.”

“Airship?” Felix and Kite said in unison.

“My, how else did you think we’d be getting there from the shipyard?" Elora chuckled dryly into her fist. “On griffonback?”

Kite clicked her tongue. Meanwhile, Felix suddenly remembered the white feather in his pocket, gifted to him by Moon. He still didn’t know what the griffon had meant by giving it to him, only that it felt too important to leave behind.

After crossing through the threshold of the terminal and paying for their tickets at the counter, they were led onto a circular floating pad that was powered by a single large propeller underneath and a green wind crystal in the center.

“This is the sky lift,” Elora explained briefly. “Reserved for us wingless, it will take us to our transport.”

It rocked a bit under their combined weight, but it was wide enough that they didn’t feel at risk of falling. It was moments like these where Felix became extra conscious of the axe on his back and his center of gravity. He had caught Elora looking at it before, too, once he had taken it out from under his cloak.

One thing they hadn’t seen yet was all the airships, only the sky surrounding the cliffside terminal. As the birdman at the ticket counter saluted them through the building’s small window, the sky lift began to float away from the platform into a wall of fluffy clouds.

The mist brushed their faces as they passed through the clouds at a gentle crawl, lest they lose their balance. It took over a minute, but they finally broke the pinkish cloud line, and the shipyard came into view. Felix nodded to himself, impressed.

“Amazing…”

Like a port in the sky, dozens of airships hung in orderly rows before them, along with flying birdfolk captains and their crew. Some were docked at floating platforms much like the ones they stood on, but those were smaller vessels.

The much larger ones were moored a little further out, like the one they were floating towards, a wooden galleon with propellers on the back, suspended by an enormous balloon. Painted on the side of the airship, in Common, was the name of the vessel.

“The Halfwing,” Kite said aloud. “Weird name.”

Common was the primary spoken and written language shared by most nations in the world. Even Windia, for all its differences, spoke the same language. However, its signs and lettering had followed a script all their own since the moment Felix and Kite arrived. Seeing the ship’s name written in characters they could actually read came as a surprise.

“We’ve arrived,” Elora said as the sky lift began to move vertically instead of horizontally. “And just in time, too. Any longer and it would have left us behind to try again tomorrow.”

“That would’ve been unfortunate, to say the least,” Felix said. “The sooner we can get there, the better. For the village’s sake, and ours. ”

“Hey, elf, what do you know about Cloudspire?”

“Is that any way to ask someone a question, I wonder?” Elora snorted at Kite’s inquiry. “You may address me by my full name and title, or keep your curiosities to yourself, Miss Harpy.”

“As if.” Kite scoffed. “Besides, you keep calling me ‘harpy’, and in a place full of other birdfolk. I’ve got a name, you know.”

“My, I hadn’t bothered to ask.”

“It’s Ki—err—Kate.” Kite flubbed her intro before trying to play it off. “And don’t you forget it!”

“Well, Ki—err—Kate, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

“You guys…” Felix sighed. “We’re not even onboard yet…”

“Hmph.” Kite and Elora crossed their arms, turning away from one another.

Bewildered by the two young women and their penchant for disagreement, Felix turned his attention to the galleon as they approached the deck’s side entrance. The ship was even more massive the closer they got, the passenger ship’s crew finally appearing as they peeked over the edge of the sweeping deck.

They all stood in a line, saluting them as they stepped aboard the vessel. It all felt very official, as the crew consisted of many different types of birdfolk and from all walks of Windian life. One came and took their suitcases while another offered assistance to help them each aboard.

“Thank you,” Elora nodded, accepting a winged hand. Felix and Kite did the same.

“Welcome aboard the Halfwing, passengers. Your bags will be moved to your rooms right away.” A sharply dressed male harpy gestured for them to follow. “Now, if you’ll come with me, the reception area is just down the lift to the lower deck. Shall we take your weapons as well?”

“Well, that’s…” Felix’s mind immediately went to Crow’s ambush. He was relieved when Elora spoke up.

“If it’s all the same to you, we’ll keep ours.” Elora waved a hand, her expression unchanging. “We shall not cause any trouble. Right, Miss Harpy?”

“The only troublesome thing is that mouth of yours.” Kite retorted. “But we’ll mind ourselves, don’t you worry.”

“Very well.” The crewmember smiled lightly.

With that, they followed him through a set of doors towards the back of the ship, and down a pulley lift to the next floors. Now that he was thinking about it, Felix wouldn’t mind doing a job like theirs, if not for his fear of heights.

“We could probably work doing something like this if Ferris wasn’t such a big chicken.” Kite took the words right out of his mouth, leaving the fact that they were also on the run unsaid. “Don’t you think?”

“It would be a lot more stable than what we’ve been doing.” Felix agreed. “But…”

Putting down roots in some place like Windia was out of the question for Felix. To get a job that required extensive year-round travel like that one would be a commitment to stay a while. He had kept his family waiting long enough for his return to the farm, and the current quest they were on would pay many times more than the wages from any regular job.

“I more or less understood your financial situation from the moment we met, but what were you two doing in Windia in the first place?” Elora probed before letting the mask slip a little. “And so far from your brother in Aberdeen…?”

Elora’s eyes bore into Felix’s. That’s when he realized he hadn’t told her once where he was from, and he sure as heck didn’t tell her about Dante. That caused him to break into a cold sweat.

It was like she was waiting for him to slip, somehow, but that’s when Felix mentally connected two images together as Dante’s voice replayed.

“She was chosen by the elves of Crestalis as their champion, and joined your party before setting out on the journey.”

Wait a minute…

The mural in the Hall of Heroes. The elven woman depicted amongst the four of them. Kite noticed the shocked look on Felix’s face as well.

“Hey, Elora. By chance…” Felix began. “Are you…?”

The pulley reached the reception hall before he had a chance to finish his question. That’s when a voice called out to them from within.

“Ah, Ferris, Kate, we meet again, my old friends!” The Storyteller, holding what looked to be a flagon of ale, smiled brightly. “Ferris, you sly dog! I leave you for a few days, and you’ve already got a pretty flower on your other shoulder. Mind telling me the story of how you met?”

“You know this vaguely irritating fellow?” Returning to her usual self, Elora asked as they approached the table he was sitting at.

“A thorny flower! That’s all well and good, but to think that I’d chance upon such illustrious company.” The Storyteller smiled. “It’s an honor, Champion of Crestalis.”

“You know her?” Kite asked quizzically, mostly to continue looking into her new companion. “Is she famous or something?”

“Why, of course!” The man chuckled. “That spear, that green hair, why, anyone who’s been around the world listening to stories as I have would be able to tell you the same...”

Everyone froze as he confirmed the very question Felix had meant to ask before.

“Miss Elora of the hero Felix’s party.” The Storyteller smiled wryly. “Isn’t that right?”