Chapter 2

Cassidy leaned over the edge of the outer railing of the airship as it drifted listlessly over the ocean. They had been flying for hours now and had to be approaching Biscotti soon, or she hoped so anyway. Several others were out on the deck as well, enjoying the ocean view and the steady breeze as the ship moved onward. Though some were just bored and enjoying the only form of free entertainment on the flight.

“I think I see fishies mommy,” came an excited voice bounding around the corner from where Cassidy was leaning before being sopped suddenly as the body attached to that voiced reached the end of the lead attached to the harness around her chest.

“I kind of doubt you can see fishies up here sweetie. Unless they’re really big.” The second voice came from the mother Miqo who held the other end of the lead attached to her daughter in her hand. “There’s a bench over there sweetie lets go sit down and you can play.”

“Ok!” Another bound was cut short preemptively by a shortening of the lead.

“Walk like a big girl, you’re almost thirteen you know,” the mother commented as she and her daughter walked calmly off toward the bench she mentioned.

“I forget you guys age up a little earlier than we do,” Callie startled Cassidy a little as she approached from the inside of the ship.

“Geez scared the crap out of me,” Cassidy said with a blush.

“Don’t be mad cuz I got you good,” Callie said playfully ruffling Cassidy’s hair. “So, when did you age up?”

“Ten but I was an early bloomer,” Cassidy leaned into her girlfriend. “How about you?”

“Oh I didn’t until I was eighteen going on nineteen.”

“Oh geez.”

“Yeah that’s late even for us. We went over to the sunrise kingdom that year too. You should have seen the human’s faces.”

“They just aren’t used to it. Humans grow up totally different than we do you know.”

“Oh believe me I totally know,” Callie said playfully shoving Cassidy. “I just told you I went over there didn’t I?”

“I know I was just saying is all,” Cassidy said defensively.

“You ever wonder why that is? We’re the only race that stays kids that long you know.”

“Well it was a long ass time ago when the old Beastkin changed themselves with world tree magic or whatever. They got to design themselves over again so there’s probably some reason for it. They didn’t write down what that reason was though.”

“Must have been obvious to them. They didn’t even have diapers back then so just imagine. All that mess and they still thought it was a good idea.”

“Gross,” Cassidy giggled. The two leaned against the rail, Cassidy stealing glances over to the mother and child from earlier. The thirteen year old child was idly playing with a stuffed griffon, prancing it along the rails playfully while her mother kept a grip on the lead going to her harness in case she might fall over. It was a strange sight to a human, but to any Beastkin it was pretty common. A unique trait among all of the different Beastkin was something of an elongated childhood. Beastkin children essentially maintained a toddler mindset until they “age up” into adults, though their bodies still grew at the normal rate. At the absolute latest this elongated toddler state lasted until twenty, and when they do age up their mind matures into an adult over the span of a few months. Each subspecies of Beastkin had a different average age that this happened, Naga having the lowest and Biscotti having the highest, though variation from this average is pretty common.

Additionally the larger gear that came with caring for larger children is also pretty common. Cassidy could remember the numerous similar harnesses she went through in her youth and could catch the telltale peek of the colorful diaper underneath the girl’s cutesy outfit. The whole thing was pretty nostalgic. Cassidy caught a glance of the mother staring back at her.

“Oh sorry,” Cassidy apologized as she had been caught staring. “Cute kid.”

“Mmmhmm,” the mother went back to observing the sea but kept a wary eye on Cassidy.

“Great now she thinks I’m a creep,” Cassidy mumbled to Callie.

“You can be a creep to me all you like boo bear,” Callie said planting a cheer up kiss on Cassidy’s forehead.

“What kind of line was that?” Cassidy said with a smirk.

“I’m working with what I got here,” Callie laughed back. “Why were you staring anyway? You don’t got kittens on the brain do you?”

“Oh god no! Not for another era at least. Just nostalgic I guess. Wasn’t that cousin of yours aging up at her birthday party last time we were here?”

“Yeah.”

“Explains a lot. I remember when I aged up, it was a big deal. I’d go mental if someone ruined that for me.”

“You’re overreacting. She aged up like six months beforehand, and even then it’s not that big of a deal. Plus that happened like two years ago.”

“She’s not the type to hold grudges?”

“She’s not,” Callie said indicating that others might be. Cassidy gave her a quizzical look. “Oh relax you’re so tense about that still. It’s just one little hiccup.”

“More than a little hiccup I think.”

“Well just don’t fuck up the wedding and you’ll be fine.”

“Callie!” Cassidy complained shoving Callie who was laughing.

“Oh come on. See that’s what I’m talking about. If you’re all stiff and on eggshells the whole time you’re not gonna open up to anyone. Stay loose and happy. Show em why I love you.” Cassidy looked at Callie and did an angry blush.

“Ugh how can you go from the worst to the best so fast?” The two enjoyed a playfully giggling bit of rough housing for a moment until they were interrupted by the sound of a loud splash.

“See mommy I told you. Fishy,” The child Miqo said playfully as she pointed to the large “fishy” that was currently emerging from the water and coming to the same level as the airship.

It was a flugewhale, a giant predatory fish that was relatively rare but also just as deadly. It had a long slender body that was as long as the boat it was flying next to and about as tall as a person. The body was blue and cigar shaped ending in a very large flat tail fin. Jutting out near the head of the creature were two long rigid bones that gave the creature's silhouette a T shape. Running from the tip of these bones to just where the tail fin started was a thick but translucent scaly fin, which shimmered in a faint blue glow.

The creature was using these fin wings to glide in the air and stay level with the airship for an extended period of time. The blue shimmer on the fins was an indication that it was using magic to aide in this effort. It probably wouldn’t be physically possible for the creature to glide like it did without the aid of some kind of magic, and it wasn’t uncommon for larger creatures such as this to use specialized forms of magic.

The creature rotated slightly to reveal its white underbelly. At the head and on the underside, constantly looking down, was a large eye situated so that it blinked horizontally. Just below that was a large radial mouth inlaid with rows of razor sharp teeth. At the back of this mouth was a long spear like beak with pointed barbs at the tip. The creature would sail above the sea, peering down into the water with its one eye. Upon finding its prey it would dive bomb it, piercing it with the beak in its mouth. The beak was lined with barbs so that the prey was trapped on it as the beak retracted and dragged the prey into the waiting maw.

It was a terrifying thought to be sure, but thankfully these creatures were relatively peaceful to those that lived on the land. While not normally aggressive they could be dangerous to airships. The beak in its mouth could punch a hole straight through the hull, and the creatures weight would send the ship plummeting to the water below, and with a giant hole in the hull it would be less than buoyant.

Needless to say the appearance of the flugewhale caused some tension on the deck and most people hurried back inside.

“But the fishy mommy,” the child whined as she was dragged back inside by her panicking mother.

“We can look at the fishy from the inside dear,” the mother said in a panicked whisper.

Cassidy remained on the deck with Callie and the two stared at the creature as it stared back with its one eye. Cassidy wished she had her staff with her but it wasn’t allowed out of her bag while on the airship. With her staff she was confident she could at least scare the thing off with a fireball. As it was she only had the small focusing crystal in her ring. It wouldn’t do as much as the larger one in her staff, but maybe she could hit it’s beak with a lightning bolt or something.

“Easy there little girl let’s not make it angry,” came the calming voice of a human dressed in light military armor. He held a metal staff of his own like a walking stick. Two similarly dressed Miqo approached behind him, one carrying a bow and the other a sword and shield. Their weapons were drawn but not at the ready.

Cassidy had only now noticed that the ring on her finger was discharging a bit of lightning as she had subconsciously been preparing to fire a spell out of it. She quickly shook her hand dissipating the built up magic.

“Keep the heading and speed steady,” The human, apparently the leader of the group, spoke into a glowing rock on his cuff. A common communication application of runes that offered communication over some distance.

The group of soldiers, Callie, and Cassidy watched as the flugewhale let out a cry after flying with them for a while and adjusted it’s rotation to glide away from the airship. The tension in the air noticeably lifted from the soldiers present.

“Quite the fighty attitude little one,” The human directed this comment at Cassidy laughing.

“Little one?” Cassidy asked back.

“Oh. Oh gosh I’m so sorry.” The man was apologetic.

“Captain just transferred over,” one of the Miqo added. “He’s not quite used to it. Can’t tell the kids apart from the adults.” The two Miqo started laughing.

“When’s the last time you seen a kid shoot spells captain.”

“Well how am I supposed to know,” The captain said defensively as the group made their way back inside. Cassidy just remained with a heavy blush on her face. It wasn’t the first time she had been mistaken for a kitten by a human, probably wouldn’t be the last, but each time was no less embarrassing. It was embarrassing because there was some truth to it. She had missed the growth spurt that many Beastkin got after they aged up, and so she was a bit on the small side. This made her only slightly larger than the child that was out on the deck earlier. It would be easy to mistake her for an actual child at a distance or if one didn’t know any better like the captain did.

“Damn were you really gonna try and shoot that thing?” Callie said impressed.

“Well I guess,” Cassidy said, still a little flustered from the mistake.

“Badass babe,” Callie said respectfully. Cassidy couldn’t help a happy grin at the compliment. She suddenly forgot about the embarrassment she had earlier, maybe that’s what Callie was going for. “I could’ve taken it too you know, if it got close.”

“Neither of us need to be fighting flugewhales babe. But yes I’m sure you could take it,” Cassidy said planting a kiss on her girlfriends cheek. As the two looked out ahead they could see the faint shape of Biscotti rising from the horizon.

“Almost there,” Callie said pointing to the vague shape ahead of them. “Finally.”

“Yeah finally,” Callie said sarcastically.

“Oh relax. Family awkwardness has to beat getting eaten by a flugewhale right?”

“I dunno being eaten sounds pretty good right about now.” Callie ruffled Cassidy’s hair.

“Come one lets go get our stuff ready pouty pants.”