A Timely Knight

A Firefly on the Windscreen

They flew right beneath the clouds, slow but steadily traversing the open country. The engine let out a loud crack, releasing a puff of steam that hovered for a few seconds before morphing with the clouds above. The sound of the blimp's heavy wings rhymed with each breath the night took, softly cutting through the darkness as it carried them far away from the familiarity of Slatehallow and into the uncertainty of Ravenport.

Eldon laid against the enormous windscreen, marvelling at the view ahead of him. Nothing but open space. Not a single soul in sight. A meandering river ran across the field, dividing it and travelling all the way north, where it disappeared beneath the golden goliaths ahead.

The Breathing Mountains, Makina's natural lungs, supposedly housing the largest collection of flora and fauna on the planet. Eldon didn't doubt it. One look at the vastness ahead was enough to understand one's own insignificance.  How could anyone possibly behold such magnificence and even dare diminish it?

Traversing the mountains could take up to forty days by foot, nature's way of enjoying itself. Now, and thanks to the Marquise's flying machine, they'd do it in a matter of minutes.

If Eldon admired the sight beneath him, then Tim marvelled at the one before him. Tim, the Blimp, that's what they used to call him at Ward. An appropriate nickname, considering he loved the machines since infancy. He wanted to pilot them for a living but Don Anthony had other plans for him. 

Tim fulfilled his duty to the Levers, of course, abandoning his dreams of piracy and adventure and becoming the Don his father wanted him to be. But as he played with the control panel, delighting in every single button and pedal, Eldon could clearly see Tim's love for the machines survived still. 

Pulling his eyes away from his friend and focusing on the night sky, Eldon wondered how their adventure would end. He just abandoned his entire life in Slatehallow and didn't even care. Knowing he could very well be dead in a matter of weeks, he accepted his boss's decision to fire him from the Museum, after he, overnight, asked for a four-week leave of absence.

His relationship with Harvey ended long before Tim's arrival, so when Eldon told his lover he'd leave Slatehallow, an unsurprisingly cool and perhaps even relieved Harvey accepted his decision. Overall, and having no deep attachments to anything in the Hallow, Eldon was able to leave at a moment's notice. Tim, however, had no such privilege.

The Don of the Lever family, Tim had far more responsibilities than Eldon. He rushed back to Vanderport to settle his affairs and leave his factory in the hands of his most capable foreman. The Marquise stayed behind with Eldon, a week in which they so not much of each other, before finally leaving Slatehallow together. They flew for a day before landing on Coalwood to reunite with Tim.

Now, four days into the journey, mere hours separated them from Ravenport. There, they would meet the Marquise's Master, Petronilla Eugenia Massey, the famous engineer. They'd train as hard as possible for four or five weeks while trying to confirm the Marquise's suspicions about the enemy's presence in Ravenport. Tim would also actively aid in the construction of the blimp, their ultimate weapon against the bird. Eldon, for his part, would look for answers in the Marquise's private library.

"Emmu, come and see this." Tim's bright voice took him out of his thoughts. Heading towards his excited friend, he listened to a bunch of words he failed to understand, like valve, rudder, and stabilizer. Eldon simply smiled and nodded, more entertained by Tim's endearing speech than by the inner workings of the machine. "So you see, this blimp has four wings, even though it doesn't really need them. But they actually work! That's why it flies with such speed! It has TWO different flying systems! Isn't that fantastic?"