Three. The magic number. I don't know why, it just is, ok? Also, ignore the fact that the second statement is a fragment... please. Thanks! :D

Before Lucy realized it, the captain had come up beside her, looking at the orange and yellow flames as they burned in the city.  "It won't be long now," he said, almost as if to himself; he then turned to her and spoke in a more direct voice, hair falling to his forehead after the sudden shift, "Lucy, I'll need to take the shuttle-bug if you can prep it for me now."  And with that, he turned and went to the lower deck.

Lucy had never known the captain to be in such a hurry, he was usually very laid back and never really gave direct orders like that.  She stood there in shock for a moment, both from the fires and from the sudden change in her captain's mannerism.  "ASAP, if you would please!" came the shout from below, jolting her to her senses yet again.

"Yes, of course!" She ran down the stairway and opened the door opposite hers.  It was here that the "shuttle-bug" - thus named because it was a small aircraft and also for its four wings, two on each side, which flapped quickly to keep the aircraft aloft - was located.  She moved all the junk-mostly just old metal scraps and tools - to the side and checked the fuel gauge.  Usually it was kept at full fuel, especially since this was the only aircraft which they owned which wasn't the actual ship, and thus acted as the escape boat should anything horrible happen to them.  Well, something that was horrible, but not too horrible.  It wouldn't do them much good if they all exploded in a giant fireball, now would it?

She quickly scanned the room for the fuel canisters, and, upon finding them, was relieved to see that they were still full.  Without so much as a second thought, she uncapped them and started draining the canisters into the fuel containers in the sides of the craft.  She had just finished fueling and checking the vehicle when the captain came into the room.

"Is she ready?"

She turned and saw him, two bags in hand, full of clothes, if the sleeve hanging out of one them was to be any sort of an indicator of their contents.  She suddenly wished that he didn't have to go; in fact, she didn't even know why he wanted to go; she had never seen him in such a state before.  He was still in his evening best, which wouldn't do well for him, especially since his chosen mode of transportation didn't have any sort of canopy, let alone a fully enveloped flight deck.  It could pretty much just hold all four of them, and that was it.

"Well, wish me luck! Oh, and if anyone asks, I was at the dance when the explosion happened."  The captain stated his last orders as he hopped into the cockpit and pulled the lever to open the hatch in the room, immediately causing the wind to rush up into the room, throwing around papers, small doo-dads, and, worst of all, Lucy's hair.  She held it back as she shouted to her captain.  "You know that thing won't make it very far!  Why do you have to leave?"

The captain just laughed and shouted as he turned on the ridiculously loud engine, "That is for me to know, and for you to find out, though, I can assure you that I am innocent of whatever they decide to accuse me of doing."  And just like that he waved, pulled another lever, and fell from the room opposite hers into the air over the burning metropolis.

Without so much as a second glance back, Lucy exited the room, pulling the lever to close the door, causing her hair to come down in a complete rat's nest, but she had other problems to worry about now.

She had no idea what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to do it, or even if she was the one left in charge.

At that point George came down from the main deck.  "You alright, Lucy?" he asked a voice which was much nicer than his usual voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came her stark reply.

"We were wondering if you had any orders.  Finnian and I ain't ever been one for making orders, just taking them.  Think you could figure this out for us?"

Her voice was cool in her response, "Yeah, just give me a moment to think."

"Okay, I'll be up here with Finnian and these other guys then."  George turned to leave.

It took Lucy a second to catch on to the second grouping of people in his last statement.  She ran up the stairs.  "Other guys?"

When she reached the main deck, she saw a group of men, all dressed up in some sort of uniform.  All of them red, and, from the looks of it, military of some sort.  The usual captain's hat was a dead give-away, along with all the emblems and medals on their chests.  They were talking with George and Finnian about something, but Lucy couldn't hear the conversation over the sound of the wind.

"What's going on here?"  Lucy tried not to sound too scared as she walked towards the men, walking quickly, but making sure that she didn't look like she was rushing.

"Ah, we were just looking for your captain, miss-"  the man in uniform paused to show that he was waiting to hear her name.

"Lucy," she spat out curtly.

"Ah, yes,"  the man ignored her tone of voice, and put on the nicest smile she'd ever seen.  "We've been tasked with bringing in your lovely captain for some questioning at our headquarters located not far from here."

Lucy took a deep breath before saying what she had to say, trying to steel herself before their eyes.  "I'm afraid that my captain was at the guild hall.  He had a guild meeting tonight, and he wanted to be early tonight."

"I remember your captain never being on time, let alone early."  The officer raised an eyebrow, though still kept the same smile.  Apparently he knew the captain, for in fact, he was always late, wherever he went.

"He knew this one was going to be an important event."  She could tell that he wasn't buying it, so she threw in something extra.  "There was also a certain woman whom he was excited to see."  That changed that that military-dog's expression.  The smile momentarily fell from his face, leaving a slightly confused look, and then it returned to his face, just like a dog to its vomit.

"I see.  Well, this does change things.  I will be back in some time.  Just a few things I need to double check on when I get back," and with that, a small nod, and a hand motion, he and his guard boarded their small jet aircraft, jetbikes, she believed they were called, a relatively new technology, and flew off her deck.



(Hiya!  Sorry about the day delay, but a full day of work and being with family kinda stole my day.  Anyway, I decided to try write or die, an online app which helps with the writing process "Putting the prod in productivity" as they put it.  If you want, check it out here: http://writeordie.com/  I ended up writing 1106 words in only thirty minutes, which I think is a record or something.  If I were doing nanowrimo, that would have been over halfway done, yeah!

Anyway, I hope today's part was exciting and stuff.  Hopefully you all will have a great labor day weekend! yeah!  If you guys ever have any comments or questions, let me know, I'll be happy to answer any and all (for the most part ;) ) Laterz!)

Part two of a most epic tale

It's not like I want to yell at him, Lucy thought to herself.  He really just doesn't understand otherwise.

"Well, I guess this means that I won't be able to repair it then, huh?"  Finnian's response came out thick and slow, as it always did.

"You got that right." Lucy sometimes wondered why the captain even let him stay on the ship, but then she always remembered how good he was with making repairs to just about anything; if he could see what it was supposed to be, he could make it that way.  Too bad that seemed to be the only good part of Finnian.

"Well, I think that's enough yelling at the grease monkey," George had come around from the other side of the winch and was wiping his hands with a grimy cloth, sporting the same style of blue jumpsuit as the two of them, though his was obviously much shorter than theirs, seeing as he stood barely up to Lucy's shoulder.  "Last I heard, Cap'n wanted you down in your room getting prettied up for the Guild meeting tonight.  You know how much he enjoys having a pretty lady on his arm."  The smile that came across as he said things like this always sent a weird shudder down her spine, but Lucy had learned to ignore it.  As far as she knew, George just enjoyed getting under her skin.

 She repositioned herself into a regular standing position; she hadn't even realized that she had started leaning over in her anger, and then proceeded to walk down into the lower deck to her room.  Not that there was any other deck.  Being the only girl, she got her own room, whereas Finnian and George had to bunk together.  She fell atop her bed, glad to have repaired the pipe, listening to the hum and drone of the engine next door.  She slowly felt her eyelids close in on each other until at last they met each other in the middle of her eye, soothed by the ship's noises and movements.

It was at that precise moment that she both felt and heard the explosion.  The shudder that went through the ship was so intense that it threw her out of bed, three feet above the ground.  She managed to land on her feet, and quickly looked around, expecting to see a hole leading into the engine room and fire coming from it, but there was no such hole.  Running into the hallway, she didn't see any signs of fire at all from the engine room, so she ran up to the main deck, where she was met with orange light and her crewmates.

The flames quickly caught her attention, though they weren't where she expected them to be.  She walked over to the railing at the edge of the deck, unable to comprehend what her eyes were telling her, for there, in front of her, stood the metropolis, burning.  All of it was burning.

"I guess this means the meeting will be cancelled tonight."  The captain's voice startled Lucy; she quickly turned to see him dressed in his evening best.


(ok, so not the longest post, but a post all the same... I accomplished something today! yeah!  Oh, and go check out http://moorewriting.wordpress.com/ he's got some pretty cool stuff, especially if you like fantasy.  I feel like I'm falling behind my wife, she's already written like 6 pages in her notebook, and I've maybe written 3 or 4... oh well, mine will be more actiony ;) maybe, who knows... hope you guys are having a great one, and I'll catch ya on the flippin' side of awesomeness (it's where everyone flips and stuff) )

Lucy in the sky... with a pipe wrench

It was an exceptionally windy day.  Lucy's fiery hair flew all about her as she retested her safety harness for the third time.  The wind was pushing her around more than she was comfortable with, otherwise she would have just taken the ladder to the burst pipe to replace it.  Her dirigible of an airship was beat up pretty bad, and this definitely wasn't the first time she'd had to replace a fuel line pipe, but it would definitely be a bit more complicated with the wind billowing by.  

"At least I caught it right as it happened," she muttered to herself, "this way we won't lose too much fuel."  She watched as the gas, which was spraying out of the pipe, ascended beneath her feet; just a few more seconds and she'd be at it's level. "I'm here!" she shouted to her crewmates, Finnian and George, hoping they'd hear her before she passed by the leak, wasting more time by hauling her back up to the right position.

A few shouts from above later she felt the shudder of the winch as it stopped it's descent.  Perfect. She had stopped at just the right height. She followed the pipe with her eyes, all the way down to the stern of the hull and then back to the break.  All the other pipes had forked off and gone to their appropriate places, which was good.  If the break was in any other place, the other pipes would be at risk of breaking should the gas get on them and then freeze.  However, if it had been any further the other direction, it would have likely been inside the ship, which could have horrible consequences as well, especially with the fire that was always on in the boiler room.  She shook her head, trying to focus on the problem at hand, and not the catastrophe that could happen in the boiler room.

She reached to her belt and grabbed her lucky pipe wrench, pulling it out of the leather holder she had made for it.  She pulled the wrench up to her chest as she was buffeted by a strong gust of wind, causing her to sway back and forth in her harness turned swing.

A moment later the wind died down, and she fitted the wrench to the shut off valve right before the pipe which was broken.  She turned the wrench until she couldn't see any more gas coming out of the line, and then turned it more, just to be safe.  Any sparks when replacing the pipe could be the death of the whole crew, and she didn't want to be responsible for her death, let alone everyone else's.  She stuck her ear to the pipe, listening intently for any noise that would give a hint of escaping gas, but all she heard was the wind as the ship continued to chug through the sky.  

She knew she only had a few minutes before the water cooled off and would stop powering the engines, so she quickly grabbed the foot-long broken pipe with her wrench and unscrewed it from its holdings, and put it under her arm as she reached into her bag to grab the replacement pipe.  It was at this time that another violently strong gust of wind attacked the ship and threw her into the ship so hard that the broken pipe hit one of the water lines, and dislodged itself from the safety of her arm.  

Lucy, instinctively reached for it, but it was already too late, gravity had released her of her responsibility to bring it back aboard the ship.  At least she was ok, the safety harness was still holding her close to the ship.  She looked down, and then felt a pang of guilt as she realized that they were over a major metropolis.  "Well, hopefully I won't break too much property." She muttered to herself again, absent mindedly and returned to her work, quickly lodging the new pipe into place tightening it down with her wrench.  She carefully put the wrench back into its home and yelled back up at her crewmates "Bring me up already!  I'm gonna get thrown off the side of the ship at this point!"

She watched as the copper hull appeared to descend as she was hoisted up to the main deck.  She was greeted by Finnian's nasally voice. "Alright, let's have that pipe so we can fix it in case we have another pipe which decides it wants to go out with a bang."  He reached out his hand, which was much larger than his voice would warrant, expectantly.

Lucy unfastened her harness and held onto the railing on the side of the ship as another gust blew past.  She answered as she looked down and rearranged her blue jumpsuit, which had become quite twisted up from all the wind.  "The wind blew it out of my hand."

She looked up to see Finnian's face scrunched up as it always was when he was thinking hard.  "What do you mean the wind blew it out of your hand?  Wind won't catch something that small and heavy."

Lucy felt her face get red as her rage came on, "Well, it didn't technically blow it out of my hand, but it blew me into that jerry-rigged piping of yours that's outside the ship instead of inside, which, by the way, you said you would fix the next time we were in port, and then the pipe caught onto the water line and decided that it would rather fall to its certain demise than be on the same ship as you!"  She breathed in, refilling her lungs from that outburst, and felt the anger cause the hair on the back of her neck rise and her breathing and heart rate increase drastically.  Apparently I'm more upset about the jerry rigging than I thought.  

Nothing but silence and a blank stare came from Finnian's face.  Then a few blinks escaped, signalling that he was still alive and processing information. GAH! Sometimes it feels like the only way to get through that thick skull of his is to yell at him.

(Hiya folks!  So, not quite a continuation of the fable-esque story, there don't seem to be too many people interested in it it seems, at least, not yet.  Maybe at a later time... once I have thousands of followers! >:-D or something like that... anywho, this is part one of a story that I'm doing.  My wife and I are both writing a similar story with the same starting sentence and the same title (this time).  We both thought it was a pretty hilarious title and premise, so we decided to both go about it in our own way.  

This is my first real attempt at a steam-punk story, so any (nice) criticism would be greatly appreciated, and any other comments would be acceptable as well... possibly even encouraged.  Well, I hope that this Monday has been good for you (or whatever day you happen to be reading this, which will most likely be Tuesday or after since I'm posting at 11:26 PM XD), and I look forward to writing more interesting things for you to read later.  Peace off!  )

(well, it would appear that the one vote has it... This is such a historic moment in the saga of all that is great... a moment truly worth a thousand words... not sure if I'll write that much, but we'll see what I can squeak out before I have to go to bed.)

Ungsten reached out with his hand and felt the wood of the spear in his hand.  It was rough and felt a little old, but so did everything else in this town.  He easily found the smooth parts where people had held it previously and ran out into the street after unlocking and opening the door.

The people were just passing him now, and he looked back to the shop from which he had run to try and find his father.  Apparently the few seconds he was gone in the shop was long enough for Papa to lose himself in the crowd.  Either that or it was just difficult to see past all the flashes of blue, brown, white, and other faded colors as people ran by him in the street.  People looked back in horror, trying to run faster than the quickly approaching shadows.  It was clear that they wouldn't be able to outrun these enigmas, as they seemed to gain speed as the crowd became more and more frightened.

Ungsten wasn't one for strong language, but he still felt the bitter sting of a curse escaping his lips as he started running through the crowd, trying to get to where he had last seen his father before the shadows did.  Arms, legs, elbows, all were fighting him and his face as he tried to run almost perfectly perpendicular to the crowd.  For crossing such a short street, it felt like an eternity.  Making it to the other side was another eternity, and he had just started running toward his goal, when he felt a strong tug on his side.  He held his hands and spear between whatever was pulling him and prepared to fight off whatever the thing was that would distract him from his quest, but quickly let down his guard when he saw that it was his father who had pulled him aside.

"Don't you ever leave me like that again!" He heard his dad shout at him over the noise of the crowd.  His father pulled him deeper into the alley that Ungsten had just realized they were in.  He was quickly pulled behind some boxes, and he watched through a small hole in between the boxes as the people finished running past and the shadows flitted by.  He almost let out a gasp when one of the shadows stopped briefly to look down the alley, but his father must have sensed that he would make a noise and quickly covered his mouth with his hand and pulled him away from the peephole. 

It wasn't long until sounds of screams and blades filled the air.  It was hard for Ungsten to just sit there, especially now that he had a weapon in his hand.  "We need to go help them," he whispered to his father, which got him a long stare in return.

"What we need to do," came the stern reply, "is go home and get your sister and mother out of the house.  That is our responsibility. These people may be our friends, but your mother and sister are our family."

Ungsten could see that arguing this point with his father would have as much effect as trying to have a nice, civilized chat with a donkey.  So, when his father shifted to a nearby doorway and tested the handle, Ungsten moved just behind him, pointing his spear toward the entry to the alley, just in case anything decided to peek in on them. 

Fortunately, the door wasn't locked, and his father quickly passed the entryway and motioned for Ungsten to follow.  He entered the house, but forgot how long his spear was, and accidentally knocked down a clay mug that had been on top of one of the boxes while doing so.  His father quickly grabbed him, shoved him inside, and slammed the door shut as quietly as one can slam a door.  Another stern look told him that his father wasn't too pleased with the noise.

"We need to move quickly and quietly from here on out.  One more outburst like that, and you can find your own way home."  His fathers tone was unsurprisingly unpleasant.

It was at this point that Ungsten wasn't sure what he should do.  His father clearly wanted his help, but couldn't risk him making more noise and drawing attention to them.  There were also people to save, and it sounded as if the towns guard hadn't even been able to be rallied together yet.  What was a poor boy like him to do?

(Anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me.  Should he go with his father, try and find his own way home, saying that he'd meet up with his father somewhere outside town, go to help the people in the town, or something else?  I'm trying to see if I can get a poll set up with the options, but feel free to write what you'd like to see happen if it's not up :)  I hope that your week is filled with good times, friends, and a healthy dose of Truth mixed into everything.)

A giant awakens from its slumber... or maybe just a human... not sure yet

Hey-o! all subscribers and non-subscribers (and all you who somehow manage to not fall under those two categories).  I'm glad that you're here, reading this now.  It means that you enjoy my writing (or just really want to let me know that you're my friend and don't want me to feel bad) and since you are reading this, I thought I'd let you in on what I'm going to be attempting to do now with this blog.  I'm not sure how successful it will be, but I'm wanting to do something similar to how this blog originally started.  However, this time instead of leaving it completely open-ended, I will instead post a series of options, and let you all vote on it.  I'm not sure how long I will leave the voting open (it might vary, depending on my mood/schedule... consider this your fair warning), but I will most likely do what most of the people want me to do... unless someone suggests something so completely awesome that it is even better than what I thought of (though, I don't think that's a possibility... I mean... I am pretty ingenious ;) ).  Think of this as a Fable in book form, if that helps (though a Fable with a more interesting story... and harder final bosses ;) ).  Anyway, without further ado, here be my new story! (the rhyme was actually unintentional)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Our story begins, like most other stories, with a boy.  A boy who had untold potential.  Again, just like most other stories.  He is even currently on a farm, working the fields.  Cutting down wheat so that his family might eat, and even bring in extra so that they might buy the provisions necessary for the coming winter.  The past few harvests had been thin, and his family was starting to feel the repercussions.  Mostly, this was represented by the tightening of their belts, but the house was starting to get a bit drafty, and the stove didn't burn as brightly as usual.

Today was just like any other day.  There were birds in the sky, soaring beneath the canopy of the white, puffy clouds.  The bits of sun that came through the sky were hot, but didn't hold the bite that it used to, foretelling the coming end of the harvest season in the nearby town of Caunden and its surrounding farms.

Ungsten, the hero of our story, and the owner of a very bad name, wiped his brow as he stood straight up, taking a small breather as he surveyed his surroundings.  His father was not too far ahead of him, doing the same work as he.  "Isn't it about time for us to be finishing up?" Ungsten shouted ahead to his father, feeling the familiar sensation which felt like his stomach devouring everything in his mid-section.  His father didn't even look up as he answered him, "Finish this row, and then we can take what we don't need to town to sell." 

Town.  Ungsten loved town.  Or at least he had fond memories of town.  When the crops were more plentiful and his papa was able to spare a few coins for a new toy, or even a tasty treat from the bakery or the sweet shop.  Now, though, all the money was spent on fruits and veggies, and the occasional chicken or leg of a pig. 

With the promise of the end of work, Ungsten went back to work with renewed vigor and quickly surpassed his father, finishing his row within the hour.  His father, finishing just shortly after him, started tying up the bundles of wheat.  After he finished tying the first one he threw some rope to Ungsten and pointed to the remaining row of wheat waiting to be tied.  Another grueling thirty minutes of work in the hot sun, and Ungsten was more than ready for some water.  "Go and fetch the cart, I'll get the bundles together so we can both load them in," his father said between swigs from his water skin.

Ungsten dashed off towards his home, where he was sure to meet his mother and sister.  They had probably already started to prepare dinner.  Slightly out of breath as he reached the front door, he walked in and announced "Father and I are going to town to sell our extra wheat.  We'll hurry back, but don't wait on us for dinner, go ahead and eat when you're ready."

"Okay, dear," his mother said as she turned her head toward him and smiled.  "We'll keep it warm on the stove for when you get home."  And with that, Ungsten turned and left the small shack that he and his family called home. 

He walked to the stables for the horses, which he had helped build, and got them hooked up to the cart.  He drove them along the bumpy road that ran through the fields of grain which seemed to wave goodbye to him as the wind blew past him. 

He finally reached his father, who was just bringing in the final bundles of wheat to the pile.  Ungsten brought the cart to just past the pile and hopped down gingerly, eager to be on the road to town, he definitely wanted to be back before nightfall.  He and his father quickly loaded everything into the back of the cart and were off in no time flat.  The breeze that kicked up felt good on his sun-darkened skin, which was wet with the sweat from his work, and it didn't take much for him to enjoy the quiet as his father drove the cart.

He opened his eyes to find that they had already entered town.  He didn't realize it, but apparently the rocking of the cart and the work of the day had made it extremely easy for him to fall asleep.  He and his father went to the typical stores, had the same conversations and haggling deals as before, and came out with the same amount of coins as usual, and these coins bought the same amount of vegetables, which his mother and sister would use to make meals for the next couple of days.

And then, as they were walking out from the shop, something that wasn't usual happened.  Screams, shouts, and running people came from their left, and dark shapes, which also appeared to be running, chased after them.  Following his first instinct, Ungsten ran the same direction as the crowd, though he was still well ahead of them, and ran into the first solid building he could find.  He slammed the door behind him and locked it in place.  He wasn't about to let those things in here.  It was only then that he thought of his father.  He had to go back out and make sure he was okay. 

Looking around to see if there was anything of use to him, he realized that he had entered some sort of barracks, for there, right in front of him, lay some swords, bows and arrows, walking staves, shields, and spears.  Again, reacting to his first instinct, he reached out and grabbed...


(Ok, so this is where we get you guys to decide! :D  Should he grab a walking staff, a sword and shied, two swords, the bow with arrows, or the spear and a shield, or should he just leave? You decide! yeah!  leave a comment below with your decision and I'll write what happens! :) Enjoy your weekends everyone! )

-Drew