Prompt #2: Up in the Clouds

There was a buzzing in the air and not just from the propellers of the ship. The sky that day was beautiful and clear. The clouds thin and buoyant. Terra was the captain’s first mate on the airship the Exhibition She had been taking the first watch on the ship that morning when she saw it. There was land ahead. Now, on a sea-ship this would be a common occurrence, but for this ship it most improbable. Actually, it was almost impossible.

“Land?” She questioned herself. She looked more closely through the telescope into the distance.

"Land, land!" She shouted, rousing the captain and crew from their slumber.

Terra stood astonished, still gazing at this-this sky island. In her five years of service on that ship she had seen many outlandish and outrageous things. She'd seen creatures with wider wingspans that twice the ship's length. She'd seen where the northern fae kept their gold hidden from common human thieves. She'd seen the land of Paolop where the people shined like glittering obsidian. She'd seen a man with hair as long as a tower is tall. She had never once seen an island in the sky that was not made-made.

Just then, the captain shuffled out to the bow of the ship with his heavy coats and a brown face painted with curiosity.

"What's this about land?" He asked.

Terra handed him the telescope. "Just look. See for yourself."

It takes him a moment to spot it, then: "Well hell. That is land."

"I saw it just as the sun was coming over the horizon. If we coal the steam a bit more, we could probably make it there before noon.

The Captain patted her heartily on the back. "Good work mate." He turned to the rest of the crew who were still a bit blurry-eyed from sleep. "Lop some coal in the steamer, rotate the propellers 12 degrees south and prepare to land."

Everyone immediately started to scuttle away, across the dull brass surface of the ship's deck, to do their assigned jobs. The second hand, a boy named Kneop, was the only one left hesitantly lingering.

"Um, sir," he hesitated.

"Yes, boy?" the Captain asked, distracted.

"Well, it's just.."

"Spit it out, now."

Kneop babbled out, "How do we know that this 'island' is safe. There could be any manner of creature or kingdom there. Do we know what it's like? Do we know what it's called? Do we know what's on it?"

"Take a breath, boy." The Captain hands the telescope back to Terra. "The answers to your questions are no, no. and no. But as long as we find something shiny enough to trade, I'll take those chances."

With that, the Captain stalked back away from the bow, toward the control station, leaving behind a bewildered Kneop.

Terra placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll be just fine. We've been in weirder situations. Besides, this is a sky island. We just have to check it out."

Kneop nodded pensively. "Of course, of course."

And that's how it came to be that, around midday, the airship Exhibition landed on the odd island in the sky.

After a quick meal of venison and warm beer for fuel, the crew climbed from the ship and went to work. Izzy, the cartographer, set immediately to mapping the land as the sailors treked across it. Kneop was to make observations and, being one of the only literate members of the crew, write them down for later research. It was Terra and the rest of the crew's job to, in the words of the captain, find "something shiny."

An hour into their exploration and Kneop's worries seemed to be for naught. There did not seem to be any other living thing on the sky island. All that was visible for miles and miles was a layer of fine, tall brown grass, warmed from its close proximity to the sun. There was only rolling hills for as far as the eye could see.

The crew busied themselves with combing through the tall grass in search of anything of value. Terra was doing just this when she heard Izzy's concerned voice behind her:

"Captain, there is something very strange happening."

"And what might that be?" The Captain asked, perturbed.

"I'm making all the correct calculations, like I always do, but the further we go, the less things add up."

"And what in the seven bloody skies does that mean?"

"It means, it seems as if this island is moving. Like, the actual topography is shifting from one minute to the next."

"Ah," the Captain stroked his left eyebrow, a sure sign that he's in deep thought. "And is there any way you can be sure of this?"

Izzy seemed to shrug. "I wasn't prepared to map a moving landscape. That requires more complicated equipment, which is back on the ship."

The Captain paused in thought before shouting, "First Mate Terra!"

Terra stood. "Yes, sir?"

"You're the best navigator of the lot of us. You think you can get to the ship to grab the land surveying equipment and get back to us in one piece?"

Never one to turn down a challenge, Terra said, "I believe so, sir."

"Perfect. Go on then. Keep your eyes open."

And with that, Terra set off back East, toward where they had left the ship. She walked and walked for as long as the crew had walked earlier in the day, then double that. She checked the compass to be sure she was on the right track. She could not, for the life of her, find the ship. It seemed impossible that she could have lost such a large vessel, but after an hour, she decided to cut her losses and head back to the Captain and crew, no matter how embarrassing it would be.

So, back again, another half hour she walked alone, miserable in her failure. By the time she got to the spot where her crew should have been, she was frustrated to find that they were not where she had left them. Thinking that they had moved on without her, Terra started up swearing all of their names in her head. And their mothers too.

Then, she saw Kneop's notebook . Now, that was very strange. Kneop was never one to leave his things behind, no matter what. Out of equal parts curiosity and worry, Terra picked up the leather-bound journal and opened it to its final page.

Odd, unexplained shifts in landscape. Kneop wrote. An unnamed sound, like a humming. Strange, centralized warmt-

The entry ended there. Terra took a moment to feel her surroundings again. It was true. The land did feel warm, almost organic. Sort of as if it was...alive! At that last thought, Terra felt a distinct pulling at her foot. She noticed that the grass all around her had separated a bit as she was distracted, as if of its own accord. By the time she thought to resist, she was ankle deep in the earth that didn't seem to be earth after all.

As she was slowly devoured, Terra's last thought was that her last and final meal hadn't even been all that great.