Borrowed Time

Chapter Eleven - A Rube In Time

The village was dismantled, and any signs that the Romans or Caledoni had been at this place were destroyed. We were ready to set sail to find a new home in the northern parts of Caledonia. We had packed enough food and clothing to last us a few months, so we had time to find a suitable settlement, one that would have a bog nearby with any luck. The animals had settled nicely on the smaller of the three land masses of the airship.

I was pretty proud of my airship, and as it lifted off the ground and began to soar my family started to cheer. We were airborne, and ready to start our lives anew away from the Romans.

I had been with my new family for eight full months, and had celebrated my twentieth birthday two days before we had made our voyage. I figured my parents would have found out I was gone by now. As a tradition, my parents and I went out to celebrate my birthday, and I am sure finding my dust covered apartment empty would freak out my mother.

As we flew over a range of mountains, the sky began to shimmer in a glowing green hue, and it felt like we were traveling through jello. It was déjà vu for me; this is exactly what had happened to bring me to my family in the first place.

"What's happening?" Circinn asked, looking around at the mist.

"We are traveling through time." I said.

"So your machine works!" Aifric shouted.

"Yes, so it appears." I was afraid, but no one seemed to be dying in front of my eyes, at least not yet.

The airship began going faster, as the egg timer gained momentum, spinning quicker than I had seen it do before. I looked out across the mist, and began to see pictures in it of other times, and other lives. I had heard about such things from others who had traveled through time. I felt the pull to go to these places, to experience them for myself. The faces in the mists would stop and wave at me, calling out my name.

The mist shimmered yellow, as lightening began to strike. We began to plummet down, and the egg timer stopped its rotation. It caused the wire to go taut stopping the cogged pedals from their cycle.

We broke through the jello slowly at first, the sound of metal grating against stone, as the airship began to shake. Our ability to breathe became harder, and felt as if a pillow was being shoved against our faces as the airship pushed its way out of the warp.

The airship burst out of the green haze into a white sky, throwing stone and grass as we went. I could see the ground below us at our bow. We were nose diving towards it, and I knew we would all die if I didn't do something fast.

I pulled the lever up, calling out to Circinn and Aifric for help; I could not pull it on my own. We managed to stop our descent from landing us nose first into the ground, but our landing wasn't an easy one. The airship touched down, and bounced back into the air.

We managed to guide it back down without breaking the land mass apart. The airship skidded across the field, sending up snow and dried hay in its wake. We ground surfed along, destroying a better part of the farmer's field before we came to a stop at the edge of a wood. I sighed in relief, as everyone cheered.