The Forgotten Zodiac

Riahn looked around, then nodded. "O-Oh, right!" He grabbed Malya and pulled her up, then tried to get her off the ship. If they didn't get off soon, they would be crushed under burning pieces of ship. That sounded quite painfully; he'd probably abandon her before he let that happen to him. Not that he would want to, but most people were cowards at heart.

Vael was pushing himself to his feet, holding his arm together again. He seemed to be in a similar shape to Malya, except he managed to shake it off within a few seconds. He jerked his head up as the ship creaked again, and he spotted the mechanic boy with the captain. "Riahn! Throw her to me!" He called up, not sure he would be heard over the fire. He let his broken arm drop, moving closer to the ship and holding out his good hand to catch Malya with.

Riahn heard the voice and looked around immediately. He'd heard Vael's voice, but the apprentice wasn't able to locate the speaker immediately. Once he found Vael, he helped Malya get her legs over the side, then shoved her hard. He really hoped it was enough force to get her to Vael. If it wasn't... Ooh, that would stink.

Vael caught her with apparent ease, lowering her gently to the ground. "Come on, Riahn, you too!" He shouted. "Don't be afraid, I'll catch you!" He held out his hand again, clearly breathing heavily. Malya's head was bleeding; he tried not to look at it, focusing instead on catching Riahn.

Riahn looked at Vael nervously, then launched himself off the ship. He worked on a freakin' airship. If he was scared of heights, it would have shown already.

((SO. Shall Isabella come jump off, or shall she find her way out the back?))

Vael caught him, but Riahn's momentum nearly caused him to topple over. He straightened up again, letting go of Riahn and going back to holding his arm together. "D-do you think the gifted girl is coming?" He asked, coughing a bit. The ship was so very close to falling apart...if she was still below deck, she'd likely die...

((You pick?

Also, where is elfy guy.))

((Bu-hun... I do not feel like elfy guy right now. I will feel like him maybe later.))

Just then, Isabella appeared on deck. She looked around desparately, then spotted Vael, Malya, and Riahn. She looked down nervously, then threw herself off. Before she could fall, for she didn't throw herself toward Vael, a gust of wind caught her and broke the momentum. She landed in a crouch and looked up at them. "That ship nearly killed me." She said, glaring at them all.

((Ohkay. And I like Honey Bun better. :I))

Vael blinked. He had prepared himself to catch her. "I'm afraid you're wrong, it's that Iyoui that nearly killed you. We need to leave this place, not even all this fire will kill that thing. Unfortunately, I dropped my blade..." He said nothing of how he knew what an Iyoui was. Or how he had managed to catch both Riahn and Malya without screaming in agony about his broken arm. And he was still talking normally. "Regardless, we need to leave. Now."

((That was just complaining.))

Isabella was hardly the type to notice the condition of other people, let alone how they knew the things they claimed to know. "I'm not wrong. I wouldn't have been here if it weren't for you and that moronic ship." She looked around, then moved for the forest. "This isn't going to cause a forest fire, is it?"

Riahn looked around, then shook his head. "It shouldn't. I'm pretty sure it won't." Actually, he had no idea if it would or not, but it sounded reassuring for both Isabella and him. He followed after her quickly, completely aware that the ship could explode and being nearby might be... Bad.

((Oh. Ohkay.))

Vael managed to put Malya over his shoulder, walking after the other two. "Actually, there's a 37 percent chance that a forest fire will occur because of the ship, if no one comes to clean it up. The smoke has probably already been seen by the sky patrol, though, so I wouldn't worry too much."

Isabella gulped and looked back at the ship, then hurried forward. "What about exploding?" Before Riahn could answer, she pointed at Vael. "He needs to answer, not you." She didn't really trust the mechanic apprentice to answer, but it wasn't really his fault. He knew nothing about the outside of the ship and how those things worked because he was focused on the inside.

"Well, I don't think--" Vael said, then paused in his speech to think. "Actually...yeah, it'll probably explode. There were a couple barrels tied down to the deck that we were delivering...Malya was really upset when I nearly dropped one...it's probably safe to say that it's explosive. Let's move a bit faster then, shall we? I mean, the stuff was sealed in an air-tight, water proof container, but I'm pretty sure that air-tight, water proof containers aren't fireproof." He picked up the pace, ignoring the swelling and bruising in his arm and focusing on not dropping Malya instead.

Isabella gulped and hurried forward, throwing annoyed glances back at the ship. "So you've been kidnapping people, carrying explosives, and crashing. Anything else you'll do to completely destroy my happiness?" It sounded spoiled and petty; but she supposed, in a way, that's what she meant.

"I could drain you of blood in 8.7 seconds, if it'll please you," Vael said, sounding very angry indeed. He was clearly flustered and annoyed; he had just said something that didn't make any sense, if he was as he said he was. The entire crew of the ship had thought him to be human.

It didn't really matter, though, as the explosion behind them threw them all off their feet, despite them being a fairly decent distance away from the ship.

The girl had just rolled her eyes when she was thrown to the ground, practically face first. She immediately stood up and looked back, viewing the carnage behind them. "If it pleased me, it would hardly destroy my happiness. That's rather flawed logic."

Riahn fared better than Isabella; he managed to stay on his feet, though he did sway visibly. He was used to running around the bowels and hull of an airship in flight, so an explosion on land wasn't nearly as bad. "How would you do that? Wouldn't you have to cut her in half?" He asked, legitimately confused.

Vael, his balance offset by carrying Malya, tumbled to the ground. He would have gotten right back up again, but he had landed on his broken arm. The bone was now protruding out of his skin, though there didn't seem to be that much blood. Just a slight ooze of crimson. Vael gritted his teeth and forced the bone back into place, before sitting up with an annoyed look on his face. "No, I'll drop her into a bucket of leeches," He said, hoping Riahn hadn't noticed his arm. It would be best to keep quiet for as long as possible...

Vael climbed back to his feet, scooping Malya up again. "Let's get out of here, the fire will only be bigger now."

Isabella shook her head. "That doesn't count. The leaches are draining me, not you. Besides, your threat implied immediacy, and there are no buckets of leaches lying around." She was determined to nitpick everything Vael said right then, simply out of annoyance.

Riahn didn't notice the bone. He was to busy being worried by the fire. He wasn't a fire person, at all. It did nasty things to people, most things on ariships, and everything else.

Vael ignored her, moving on. Where would they go, though? To the nearest city, he presumed, but it would be easy to get lost in this forest, and he didn't know which direction they were currently headed in. Navigation was easier when you could see everything from high up. They came to a break in the trees, and Vael looked up and around, trying to decide where to go. Just barely visible over the tops of the trees was...a mountain? Vael recognized it easily, and started marching in the direction of the mountain. "Just keep walking, child. Or stay here and burn. Your choice, I imagine."

Isabella kept walking, but she didn't speed up or appear worried. The girl had already decided that she didn't like Vael; so his threats, despite the fact that they were actually natural disasters he was making her aware of, didn't motivate her. In the least. She did, thankfully, have the sense not to comment; or the conversation would have going on as senseless bickering forever.

Riahn, on the other hand, nearly doubled his speed, wide-eyed and looking nervously back at the airship and flame every few seconds. "You don't really think it would catch up to us, do you? I mean, it couldn't actually surround us and burn us alive, right?"

"Well, no," Vael said thoughtfully, in regards to Riahn's question. "Unless someone set up a trap. Spread gasoline around in a wide circle in this direction, so that the fire would trap us. That would take some planning, though, and the ship might not have gone down in the right spot, even...it's a gamble for whoever would set up such a trap."