.^^ Red Plate Armor ^^

— Cassidy —

I leaned against the railing of the ship, looking northeast. "You can't see it yet, there's still a month and a half left of the trek." Sandy laughed.

"Scanning for Dragons, actually, thank you very much! I've a brain in my head, I assure you!" I chuckled.

She smiled and leaned against me. "I'm sure you do, lovely... and very nice armor, by the way, I like what the armorer did with the red Dragon Scales." She nodded at my plated armor, which wasn't very heavy, surprisingly.

When he realized I could carry it without slowing myself down, he made me Full-Plate, along with an under-layer of mithril chainmail and Wing-Leather, and then the Cloak, made from the natural hide of the dragon. It was beautiful, even rust-red, and it didn't restrict my movement at all, which I liked. "Beauty and practicality, my favorite things." I agreed.

"Yes, true, and your sister outdid herself with the Forest Dragon's Wing-Leather." She did a little spin, showing off her new black and green clothes. She'd refused the idea of armor, stating her frequent shape-shifting as the reason she couldn't wear any. Robes and coats were her limit.

"She did very good, yes, but then the model helps." I nodded, eying her appreciatively.

She stopped spinning, and blushed, leaning against the rails again. "Well, no need to be spicy about it, we're in public." She muttered.

I smiled and laid an arm over her shoulders, kissing her cheek. "Are we? I hadn't noticed." I chuckled.

She leaned into me with a smile, and looked out over the sea again, far below the rails of the AirShip. "It's nice up here... I wish I could afford to travel this way more often." She chuckled softly.

"Yeah... five gold per person really is a crazy price, but you could afford it, if you wanted. Luckily, you won't have to, soon. My sister has something in the works, and knowing her, it'll shake things up around here, and maybe even for the better, if her luck holds." I knocked on the wooden railing, and she gave me an odd look.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Superstition... I accidentally challenged the universe by saying the equivalent of 'what could go wrong?' So I canceled the Jinx by knocking on wood." I knocked again, just to be sure.

She giggled softly. "You think you Challenge the Universe when you say something Prideful?"

"Yes. The universe loves to knock people down a peg, I'm sure of it." I nodded.

She hummed. "If you say so. And I look forward to your sister's design coming to fruition. She spent most of our time in the Feywilds developing it. Missed out on a lot of the fun, because she was in the DemiPlane of Knowledge, but I'd say it was worth it, from what I saw of her plans. I think her idea of Scale was a bit off, though. What would anyone want a 80ft long AirShip for? Seems terribly small."

I chuckled. "You'd be surprised... either way, let's just relax, Hmm? We have a month and a half of flight ahead of us!" I picked her up, and walked over to the cabin, tossing her down into the bed, and cuddling, staring either out the window or down at her blushing face, buried in my chest.

"I suppose you're right... I usually spend the time working on deck, but I don't know the first thing about working on one of these ships." She sighed, and relaxed, laying next to me and reading a book, a novel of some kind from her homeland.

I nodded and opened the grimoire I'd been given by Tommy, before we left. Reading it was like stepping back into my mother's Forge, and learning to Tinker all over again. The things I thought I knew, I learned; I was like a child that had discovered the use of mud as Paint.

As I read, I was building something new, which I wasn't sure what to call, yet. It looked like a lever-action rifle on the outside, modeled after an octagonal barrel Henry .45-70 Lever-Action, but the firing pin was the beginnings of the visible differences. Instead of a cylindrical pin, it was a tiny needle, connected to the mass of crystal that inhabited the wooden parts of the gun.

That crystal was the Volcanic Anthracite crystal that I was making light-hammer produce, then molding into shape, and filling it with Mana. The center was hollow, filled with the liquid form of the Anthracite, just like papa's spear. It would leech energy away from the people it wounded, and use that to heal me, the holder, or to power the bullets.

The barrel was properly rifled, but with tiny, nearly invisible gas exhaust ports that would lessen the muzzle flash and sound of the rifle, effectively suppressing the gunshot. It would still be loud, but at least it wouldn't roll like thunder anymore.

The metal I used was a mixture of Adamantine and Red Dragon-Horn, from the Elder Dragon we'd caught and Killed. Tommy had worked almost all of what the armorer couldn't use, and created ingots of dragon-keratin.

The butt of the rifle had a metal plate on the bottom, which I inscribed with the ThunderStone spell, so that I could smack someone in the head with the butt, and probably knock 'em the hell out.

The wooden interior I built with a set of marksman's hydraulics, to lessen the kick of the 800 grain rounds. It was done in one day, as something I'd done before, though that was on a metal stock. The bullets I spent a longer time getting right, and then replicating the spell on light-hammer's chamber, so that it would recreate two different bullets on command.

The first and most common would be a simple hollow-point .45-70, for unarmored foes. It required nothing fancy, beyond the 800 grain I was placing behind it for extra Oomph. The second was an explosive round, which packed a miniature thunderstone inside a vial of concentrated Laernean Hydra Poison, distilled and turned into liquid Semtex, in my opinion.

The final bullet, the only one I had to load a portion on my own, was a sniper bullet, for maximum penetration. Three stages, like a rocket, each with a small dose of shaped 400 grain, and a tiny thunderstone primer. The final stage, the only one that would hit the target, (unless he was standing within ten feet of the barrel,) was built to drill through armor as thick as the Red Dragon Horn, (the densest material I had), then deliver the enchanted mithril needle laying inside.

Each piece would dissolve after it was spent, externally policing my Brass so no one could pick one up and discover its secrets. I also used smokeless powder, and I toyed with the idea of replacing the powder with another material, but I didn't have anything else that I trusted, at the moment.

The needles were nearly the most important part of the bullet, and the part I loaded into the chamber to start the process. They were individually enchanted to cast a number of my father's spells, including 'Dissolve', 'Fireball', 'Flash', and so on; each of them AOE within 20ft of the needle.

Realizing the fact that we were going to something of a birthday party, and offering staffs seemed to be the expected gift, I also put work into a staff that would simply heighten the abilities of the wielder, nothing more. Or... I tried.

A tube of liquid crystal in the center helped build momentum in the swings, and it would also absorb evil energy, using it to naturally create plants nearby it, like I'd seen Sandy do at times, also healing the wielder, which I figured would be a good feature as well. Not many fancy effects, no crazy powers, but any ability you had, the staff I made would amplify it and focus it.

Only a Wizard or Artificer would recognize the 'Enhance Ability' spell ingrained in the Black Dragon Horn, etched with mithril to hide the Runes underneath, which gave it its magical ability. I had discovered that even if I couldn't use the spell myself, enchanting an item with the spell was easy, so long as I'd seen it cast. I admired my handiwork, then went up on deck to test my rifle out a little, and to test the staff with Sandy.

Sandy caught the staff, and hummed, spinning it slowly in her fingers. "Properly balanced, seems nice enough... sturdy, made of Dragon Horn... is it magic?"

"Only a very little. No spells, only focusing the natural gifts of the wielder... takes evil energy and uses it to grow plants." I grinned and spun hers, which was better suited for me, because of its height.

She cocked an eyebrow, and then disappeared. I smelled for her, and grinned at the near-perfect path it showed me. The staff whipped in an arc, and she blocked, becoming visible with a surprised look on her face. "How'd you do that?"

"Practice, and I'd know that lavender perfume anywhere, my dear." I smirked, and when she blushed, I swept her feet out from under her.

She landed lithely, twisting like a cat in mid-air, and then leapt at me, swinging the blackish-red staff at me in a series of complicated movements that confounded my eyes, so I stopped relying on them, and just went with the things that worked, my nose and ears.

She didn't land a hit on me, for a solid five minutes, but I couldn't say I was winning, because I hadn't come close to touching her, after that first parry. She got aggravated, after a bit, and I flinched when the staff started glowing, the heat of her mana turning it white-hot.

She paused again, and hummed. "So that's what it does... curious... are my emotions causing it or the leaking Mana?"

"The Mana." I nodded.

The staff suddenly cooled, as she stopped feeding it, but the Horn was apparently irrevocably turned rust red, just like my armor. "Interesting... I don't know if my niece has the control necessary to utilize this, but it's a very good staff. You should be proud." She smiled.

I bowed sarcastically, and tossed her back her staff. "I'll do better next time. Now I'm going to test the new Rifle." I grinned giddily. "Captain! Mind if I test out a new magical weapon?"

The Captain hummed at me suspiciously, when she saw my weapons. "Pretty... but make sure anything you do goes far away from my ship."

"Not a problem. Any enemies in the area?" I grinned expectantly.

"No... why?" She narrowed her little eyes, looking up at me suspiciously from very low to the ground.

"Target practice." I nodded, and went to the side, lacing a leg into the railing and wrapping my gun's sling around my elbow and shoulder. Looking for anything below granted me little to nothing, for almost two hours, but I was patient, always patient. You couldn't defuse a bomb by being quick, that's not how it worked.

Soon enough, my patience was rewarded, and three naval vessels were spotted below, exchanging magical spells, crossbow bolts, and ballista javelins with a set of equally sized ships with no flags on their masts.

"Those would be pirates?" I asked the Captain.

"Yes, it would seem so. They're pretty common in Northern Waters. Why?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I found a target." I shrugged, and aimed through the short, x4 scope.

"They're nearly 600 feet down, and off by... eh maybe 600 feet? You think your weird little crossbow can reach that?" She laughed.

"It's reached much further." I grinned at her shocked look, and fired at the mast of the middle ship. The Kick was stronger than I'd expected, even with the reducing hydraulics, but not enough to hurt, so I toughed it out, and looked through the scope to see the damage I'd wrought.

The mast was gone, the blizzard spell having frozen half of the quarter deck, and plenty of the crew. I nodded, and moved to the next ship, aiming again at the center mast, this time firing the 'Lightning Strike' spell. The mast disappeared, and four of the pirates turned to Ashe, the rest receiving a harrowing jolt that made all their weapons white-hot, warping the inferior steel.

I nodded and looked at the third, who were now surrendering, and huffed, leaning back into the ship. "Cowards. Ah well, I know it can reach a range of 600x600 from above... I suppose horizontal testing will have to wait until I'm on land."

The Captain wiggled a finger in her ear slowly. "Uhm... next time you decide to let loose a bolt of thunder... please warn me? I have very little ears, and very good hearing... or I did, until just now."

I grinned. "Sorry. I did my best to make it quieter, but there's only so much one can do to silence thunder, you know?"

She nodded. "Indeed. Well, I'm sure they appreciated your help, but do fire from the Bow, if you intend to fire Again? Less danger of any issues, there."

"Understood, Captain." I nodded, and untangled myself from the railing, heading to the Bow for more tests of the different firing features, resorting to pitching thunderstone's off to the starboard side and shooting them like skeet, enjoying the resultant rolling thunder echoing over the ocean.

Then I misfired, one of the bullets having been not fully formed when I pulled the trigger, and a shock of energy discharged into my bracing hand. "Fucking son of a-!!!" I halted, clearing my throat as one of the passenger's kids stared at me from his position atop the crane, where he'd been watching me fire. His mother dragged him away quickly, bowing to me in apology.

I chuckled as they made their way back to the rest of the deck, and began cleaning the chamber, which was caked with a small amount of soot and shrapnel. Luckily, as a magical item, it wasn't damaged at all, it was just dirty.

As I looked up, I gasped at the sight of black cliffs in the distance, crawling with giant crabs and sea-creatures, and nearby a small colony of 20 or so water-dragons, lounging in the sun lazily like sea-lions.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Sandy chuckled, leaning against my shoulders.

"Yeah... Wow." I chuckled, as the cliffs reached us, and we rose up about 600 more feet, sending them flying past under us. Then, the Rocks ended, and black sand spread as far as the eye could see, even from this height.

"Welcome to the Land of Black Sands. It'll be another week before we reach Jerel. You should probably not shoot anything, either. Don't call attention to the AirShip." She smiled.

I nodded. "Yeah... sounds smart. So all the sand is black? The sand in your house was gold."

She grinned. "Yes... it's a mixture of basalt and obsidian, because of all the volcanoes on this continent. But you'll see where the Golden Sand lies, don't worry."

I pondered the meaning of that, and then paused. "No way... that's why this is the richest nation in the Imperial Domain? Golden Sand?!?"

She snorted. "No. We do mine nearly all the gold, but the sand isn't gold in anything but color."

I glanced down and saw an odd sight, a very tall man farming what looked like carrots or something, in the sand. "Wait... so you can farm in this sand?"

"Of course? It's full of minerals plants need, why wouldn't you be able to farm?" She asked, confused.

"What about water?" I asked, gesturing at the complete lack of rivers and streams.

"There's water everywhere underneath us. Trust me, this desert is teeming with life in all forms. You'll see it when we get closer." She assured me.

I nodded. "Alright... I suppose you'd know more than me..."

"And don't you forget it!" She laughed, and kissed my cheek.

As the week passed, I realized that I had seen only a few dozen people, in the entire time. Only a very few people braved the sands; yet this was supposed to be a prosperous nation, and a vast people, a whole culture. I thought of the possibility that they were all underground, perhaps, in hidden caverns, but I couldn't fathom the complexity such a system would have to entail, to span the entire country, and not shatter and fall in on itself, or flood with lava, when these volcanoes, (of which I saw several thousand,) decided to erupt.

On the last predicted day of our journey, there still wasn't any sign of any sort of cities or civilization at all, until we crested a volcano's ridge, and were introduced to the vision of a beautiful Caldera/Oasis. A few dozen people were visible at all times, some picking fruit from the groves of trees that filled the entire Caldera around the Lake, and some gathered at the base of the tower that we were approaching.

About 50 feet tall and made of stone, it was the first man-made structure I'd seen in the entire time we'd been over this continent, but it didn't fit in. In the beautiful, untouched landscape, the white stone stood out like a beacon, and an ugly one at that.

I frowned. "Well, that's disappointing."

Sandy laughed. "It is ugly, isn't it? Welcome to Tel-Mithras, the Lonely Caldera... more people than usual." She raised an eyebrow at the dozen or so people at the base of the tower. As the ship docked, more appeared, apparently coming out of the tower, which was some sort of waiting area. Now they numbered close to eighty or ninety, a full load for this ship.

"You're funny." I replied dryly, and followed her as we exited the gangplank, down the stairs on the outside of the tower. As we got to the bottom, people started going up, and many palates of goods were being replaced, food and the like, then the crane got to work, and the loading process both reversed and repeated itself.

A loud voice cut through the general din of work, and I whipped around, confused and on edge with so many people around me. "Oi! Aunty! You made it in one piece! Ma sent me for you!"

A tall girl, nearly as tall as Sandy, walked through the crowd, which parted around her respectfully. Her skin was darker than Sandy's, much more so, though it had the same charcoal backlight to it, and her facial features were similar, in the way relatives are, but her hair was a mass of curly brown ringlets, unlike Sandy's short bob of straight hair.

Sandy grinned. "Little one! It's been a little while, huh? This is my partner, Cassidy, from the Golden Coast. Cassidy, meet Fire Breaker, or Iris, my niece."