Half Valley Wharf: Morning
In the distance, on the northern cliffs, the lighthouse's beam is just barely able to make itself seen through the dense, chilly fog muffling the piers. Water laps and sloshes quietly between pilings and docked vessels, accompanied by the dull clunking and creaking of driftwood and dock. Out in the estuary, buoys fitted with wind whistles moan as a moderate breeze plays through them. A pair of shapes stand by a larger one, and are all but engulfed in the dark silhouette of something between a large boat or a small ship.

Wearing her ha-clohi, heavy black coat, and carrying a large, bulging pack on her back, Anisa makes her way to the shapes. "I still don't see why you wouldn't let me bring more. You never know how much clothes you're going to need on a trip!" She hmphs a little at the larger rabbit following close behind.

"You'll thank me after we're days into a muggy jungle," says Gibson, patting his sister on the shoulder and smiling. His own pack is well-filled, and his skedat-shell whip is affixed to his arm. Bringing up the rear are Wanda and Royce, burdened rather more lightly, though to hear Royce tell it, you'd think he was carrying the inn along with him.

"Hurry up you two! We have to get going," the white rabbit calls out to her brother and the mouse. She spots the shapes up on the docks. "Spencer? Kurt? That you guys?" She squints.

As the party draws nearer, the Lapi twins come into focus. Two full quivers, one over the shoulder, and one at the hip, hang from Spencer, and his unstrung longbow rests over his shoulder as though it were a fishing pole. He taps his foot impatiently, then looks up as he hears Anisa. "Great! You're here finally! We brought a pack Drokar!"

Kurtis looks up from where he's been fiddling with stuff on the Drokar's saddlebags. He has changed into breeches and a long loose hooded tunic in place of his bulkier red robe, cut up the sides and tied at the waist to allow him to move around more freely. A pack smelling strongly of herbs bends him down a bit, and various flasks hang from his belt.

Anisa jogs to meet up with the two quicker. "A Drokar? Can we fit it on the ship?" She stops as she reaches the dock, and lowers her pack down slightly. "I brought a few things, too." She starts digging through her pack, a mischievous smirk on her face. "Tell me what you boys think of… this!" With an attempt of flair, Anisa clumsily whips a machete from her pack. "Pretty neat, huh?"

"Whoa!" Spencer dances back a bit, then makes a big show of feeling at his head to see if his ears are still on. "Careful with that! I wanna live to see you hack a green swath across the Pearl!"

The white Lapi sets her ears back slightly, "I'm not that bad with it! Quit overreacting!" She stashes it back inside the pack, and nods to the boat. "Is this it then?"

Kurt nods at Anisa. "We can load Periwinkle aboard the Skimmer Crane, and be off whenever. Old Kildon's an early riser, and the sooner we go, the better. Our parents are going to kill us when we get back."

The healer lowers his head a bit, and mumbles, "And after they're done, Watts is gonna kill me all over again."

"Correction – your parents are gonna kill you." Anisa winks with a grin. "Mine are up in the sky, miles away! Come on, let's go!" She heaves her pack back up onto her back, and starts off on the dock to the ship. "Who's Kildon, by the way?"

Spencer leads his Drokar along towards the gangplank. "Sheesh! Thanks so much for your appreciation! We go sneaking off to the Star knows where, risking life and limb, and you laugh!" Spencer makes a face, then continues, "Kildon captains this here tub. He's run the ferry service to the Pearl since before I can remember."

"An' if your folks don't box yer ears, maybe I oughta," comes a sharp voice from up on the deck of the ship. "Tub indeed!"

Spencer winces.

Anisa smiles in false demure, "And I'm so glad you're willing to risk life and limb for lil' ol' me – " She cuts herself short at the voice, and halts, perking her sensitive ears at the source.

A tall white heron in a black vest descends the gangplank, his wings folded behind his back. He cocks his head, squinting at the rabbits down his long beak. "So yer here finally. Who's payin'?"

"The big ebon fellow in back there," grins the white Lapi. "He's the loaded one." She keeps on down the dock, headed for the ship.

"Right then. Getcherselves aboard, hop to it. Bunch of troublemakers. And no puking on my deck, got that?" Kildon immediately heads for a belabored-looking Gibson, who works at digging the shekels out of his pockets while his pack straps get in the way. The rest file aboard the weather-beaten boat as one or two crewman take care of undoing the moorings.

Anisa arches a brow as she makes it up on ship, plopping her stuff on deck. "My, he's sure a charming fellow, isn't he?" Anisa whispers to Wanda in Skeek. "So, where's our cabin?"

The Skeek spreads her hands apart, gesturing grandly at the misty deck. The ship is broad, riding high in the water, and a single structure near the aft houses a wheel, some hanging instruments, and not much else. A pair of Wimmers, a pelican and a gull respectively, coil up ropes and unfurl sails. "I think we're standing in it, sugar," comments Wanda.

The Lapi's smile slowly fades into a frown, and she sighs. "Well, I guess they can't all be like airship service." She digs through her pack, and pulls out a small sack of carrot chips, then plops down on top of the sack. "When do we shove off?"

"Cast off!" "Aye, sir!"

The gangplank is hauled up after Gibson's business is taken care of, and it isn't long before the rabbits and the mouse are gathered in a circle beneath one of the lanterns hung outside the cabin. Periwinkle stands nearby, placidly munching a handful of grass given to him, and heedless of the ocean around him, thanks to a set of blinders.

Anisa sits on the deck, her back braced against her pack and her legs stuck out in front of her, wiggling her toes idly. "You know, I just thought of something. Once we get there, what exactly are we gonna do?" She looks askance at the other rodents. "I mean, is there a castle or a dungeon or master villain's hideout or something the map pointed out?"

Gibson rubs the back of his head, looking up at the sky. "Well … I was under the impression we'd just look around … try to see what we could see. Explore, and maybe find whatever it is those lunatics are after. If we're first to get to it, we'll be able to keep it out of their grubby mitts. Or so the theory goes."

Royce hunches forward. "Well, if it helps any, I think I've managed to gouge some sense out of the first chapter of this book."

The sister rabbit shrugs. "But if we don't know what to look for, how will we know when we've found it?" She turns to look at Royce, "What did you find?"

The black rabbit grins. "I'm sure we'll know it when we see it."

Royce leans back again, one of his ears drooping over his face. He takes the tip into his mouth, mumbling around it thoughtfully as he tries to reconstruct everything in his head. "Well, the first chapter is about an exodus of some people a long time ago. It seems to cross over a lot with the bits of history they taught at the Temple, and leads me to believe that this isn't a dialect of Standard I was looking at, but rather something that diverged from it." He pauses, then spits out his ear. "And let me know when this starts to get too complicated for you, sistwerp."

Anisa glares at her little brother, jabbing him with an oversized rabbit foot. "Don't chew your ears; it's a bad habit. And I can understand just fine, thank you." She leans back onto her pack. "Now go on."

Royce grunts as he nearly tips over, but continues. "Well, these fellows made it out to some 'sanctuary'. Near as I can tell, the Pearl was it; the symbols seem to correlate. Anyhow, they eked out a living there, and right around the end of the chapter, they noted that they'd discovered some ruins … though they don't really describe it as ruins in this, but that word doesn't translate quite directly. They called them works of wondrous power, and that their experiments proved dangerous, but yielded better lives almost immediately. They're pretty vague on exactly what they had, though. The next chapter seems to jump to a much later point in time, and I've only just started on it."

Anisa scratches the bottom of her muzzle in thought. "Ruins? I guess that's what we're looking for then. What all have you read so far in the new chapter?"

The splotched rabbit shakes his head, his forehead creasing. "Not far. It's much harder to translate than the last one. It's like their society made a shift in some direction, then went back to the book to add what happened after the fact. They changed a great deal, and seemed to think a lot of it. It also hints there's an easier way to translate the language, but I can't figure it out yet. Something like 'leaves of knowledge, pressed in crystal like wildflowers, will be preserved for years to come for anyone of any mind.'"

At the mention of crystals, Anisa clasps her paw around the pendant on her neck. "I wonder what the big deal is with crystals?" She shudders, remembering her dream a few nights previous. "Did it mention where these ruins were, so we'll know where to look?"

"'The epicenter' was all I could make out in reference to location," says Royce, frowning. He looks out to sea, as though hoping to catch a glimpse of the island already. "And that's not too reliable, because the way they say things in this, it suggests the epicenter somehow moves. I don't get it either."

"Moves?" The white Lapi sets her ears forward in curiosity. "How can it move? It's just an island! It has to be in the middle if it's the epicenter."

Royce throws his paws up in the air. "That's what I thought too! It's crazy-talk. I don't think I'll get it until I read farther, and chewing through this is like trying to get through Dad's 'extra hearty' tuber stew."

Anisa makes a face, being reminded of the barely edible stew. "That's pretty tough then." She sighs, and slides down to where her body's lying on deck, only her head propped up by her pack. "You may get enough time, though. How long will it take to get there?"

Spencer sneezes, then rubs his nose, and rummages through his bundle for an extra cloak to drape over his shoulders. "I heard tell it takes about a day with good winds, maybe two if the winds are against. We should be out into the channel between the mainland and the island before long, and when the fog clears up, I bet we'll be able to see it."

The white Lapi's ears droop slightly, "Then I guess we still have a ways to go." She yawns. "Not much to do here in the meantime. Maybe I'll catch a nap."

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," yawns Wanda. She makes sure her pack doesn't roll any with the gentle rocking of the ferry, and then lays her head on it. "Always pays to catch a wink when you've got the time."

Anisa pulls her arms and legs inside her oversized coat, using it for a blanket of sorts, and turns over onto her side. "That it does." She yawns, and settles her head onto her pack. "Wake me when we get there, guys."

---

The ferry isn't much sloshier than the airships Anisa's ridden, so the swaying of the deck is more soothing than sickening, and it's hard to tell how many hours have passed when Anisa is shaken from her dreamless slumber by a small, mousy paws. "Wake up, sugar. You should see this."

Heavy eyelids fight the bunny as she groggily rises with a yawn, shivering at the cold air. "Huh? See what?" She forces her eyes open, a slight sleepy glaze still lingering.

The bright sunlight is blinding, but once adjusted to, reveals the Skimmer Crane to be quite some distance out to sea. Skies of bright blue allow Primus to glare down on the small ship, warming it a little. In the distance, a dark brooding mound rises from the horizon.

Anisa squints, staring off into the distance. "Is that it? The Pearl?" She puts a paw over her eyes to keep the glare out. "Either it's smaller than I thought, or we still have a ways to go."

Wanda nods, but looks up at the sky. "I think it is, but I was more concerned about that." She points the opposite direction. Several miles into the distance, the distinct outline of a large airship can be made out. Off at one of the railings, Gibson stands peering at it through a borrowed spyglass.

All of the hairs on the white Lapine's body stand straight on end, and she sprints to the railing to stand beside her brother. "Who… who is it?" She stares off after the ship, pointing her ears at it nervously.

"I dunno," answers Gibson, still peering. After a few seconds, he lowers the spyglass, his brow furrowed, and offers it to Anisa. "I can't think of any friends with airships, at least."

Anisa puts the spyglass to her eye, and looks off at the ship, chewing on her bottom lip in agitation.

The small, black-rimmed circle of magnification reveals more than her newly tuned ears can at this range. It's really quite a magnificent vessel in shape … but curiously, the envelope is unmarked, and the customary banners most airships sport are absent. Instead, it's the hull that looks most distinctive, the fore fashioned like a bestial paw with fingers mostly clenched, pad down, with claws stretching downward like the spines on a Babelite ship. It doesn't look meant to land, and the large, armored envelopes on the top lend support to the theory that it's a high-altitude craft.

The white Lapi's fur feels as though it could jump off her skin as she keeps her gaze set on the spyglass. "From the way it looks, I'd have a hard time believing that it could be friendly." She lowers the telescope, and hands it back to Gibson. "How much longer until we reach the Pearl?"

"Four … five more hours?" The black rabbit collapses the spyglass, tapping it with a finger thoughtfully. "We've still got a lot of time to go … but that big, heavy ship has to use the same winds we do, and the winds up there might not even be favoring it. It's still pretty far off too. I think we'd make it to the Pearl an hour or two before it does."

"Unless they have an air mage," says Anisa with a grimace, "and if it's who I think it is, we've already established that magic is no problem for them." She sighs. "Do you recognize it at all?"

Gibson shakes his head ruefully. "Good points, all. And I'd remember that one if I'd ever seen it before." Royce sidles back from his vantage point closer to the cabin. "That's one monster of a ship. If they have an air mage, he might be working just to keep their envelopes buoyant, nevermind giving it a tailwind."

Anisa nods, "Here's to hoping you're right. Nevertheless, I'd like to beat it there by as much as possible. It seems like whoever's after us is pulling out all the stops."

Gibson nods… then squints. He hastily opens the spyglass again, and glares through it. "Yeah … yeah, that they are. There's something smaller headed this way."

The white Lapi blinks, "Something else is coming too?" Her ears perk up curiously. "Can you tell what it is?"

"It looks like… a Vartan."

"A Vartan?" Anisa gives a confused look at Royce, then snags the spyglass away from Gibson to take a look. "What would a Vartan be doing out here?"

Through the spyglass, the Vartan looks like she's trying to close the gap. Her wings are broad and powerful, and her build equally strong. Her manner of dress is simple, and tends toward earthy tones and functionality … tough gear for traveling and weathering the elements. She looks to be able to keep that pace up indefinitely, and she's closing, slowly but surely.

The white Lapi frowns, "Is she friend or foe? There's no way of telling!" Still chewing her bottom lip, she hands the glass to Gibson. "We'd better be ready just in case. Tell the captain!"

The black rabbit nods grim agreement, and makes for the cabin.

Anisa runs from the railing to her pack, and rummages around until she find her machete. Pulling it out and holding it clumsily, she stares off in the distance, watching the speck get closer.