AU: Terrors of the Skies (Open to multiple)

[Ginny Campbell]

Captain Ginny Campbell leaned over the railing of The Queen Mab, long blonde hair whipping behind her as she looked down at the clouds. At times it was difficult to believe that the ship was the moving object and that it wasn't instead the clouds darting away out of their path.

Faintly she could hear the call of seagulls, a sound that meant land couldn't be far away. The Queen Mab and her crew had traveled over the ocean (very, very far over), and the sight of land would be a welcome one.

Particularly since they needed to replenish supplies and make sure that the airship was still in working order. Fortune smiled upon them that they hadn't been in need of repairs while out of sight of any land.

The pirate captain lifted one gloved hand, beckoning to her navigator.

"I think land is near. What do your maps say?"

Perhaps they had finally made it to their destination: Papua New Guinea. The pirate captain had heard of marvelous birds with mystical powers and beautiful plumage, and if she could capture a handful she was sure that she could make a tidy sum.

But that was assuming they didn't encounter any of the local sky-demons, the Yakiri, first.

[Erika Young]

Across the ship, a passenger was staring out at the clouds, the same stoic look on her face that'd been there since they left port. It hadn't exactly been a cheap barter for passage, but she didn't particularly care. And she hadn't paid her money to be talked to by anyone, so she had largely ignored any attempts at conversation. Still, today was slightly different, seeing as it was the first day that she'd actually come up from below deck, and from the look of things, this passenger never did anything without a reason. Her head turned and scanned the ship, before gazing upward at the expanse above.

The dark skinned woman was garbed in black, her long black jacket open just enough to reveal the black leather underneath. If one didn't know better, one might assume she was the pirate and not the passenger. The jacket was long sleeved, although one of them had long since been torn off. The woman's right arm was no longer her own, a replacement made of twisting gears and steel hung where it would have been. Inside her jacket, if one was paying attention, they could just make out the intricate end of a katana tucked into a scabbard. Her other hand was covered over by a fingerless black leather glove.

Her hair looked like it had been cut with the sword, and it probably wouldn't surprise that many people if it actually had been. A patch covered her right eye, a long scar extending from the bottom of her cheek, up under the patch, and up a little further toward the bottom of her hairline. If there was anyone on this ship that looked like they belonged on a pirate's ship, it was certainly this woman. Her good eye scanned the sky above them, before looking to her left.

Way off in the distance, was what appeared to be a storm cloud. One might normally accept it as that and move on, if it weren't for two small factors. The first being that it appeared small, unaccompanied by any actual storm. The second being the fact that it was moving toward the ship. Quickly. She began moving quickly, practically jumping up the stairs to where the captain was with her navigator. She gave the navigator a quick glance before she snapped her normal fingers to get their attention, pointing behind them at the cloud.

"I think we have more problems than how close we are to land," she said, her voice rough as she stared past the girl toward the rapidly approaching "cloud."

[Ginny Campbell]

Captain Ginny craned her neck around at the unexpected voice. She didn't know why the older woman wanted to travel with them, and with the amount of money offered her normal nosiness had faded in the face of greed. If it hadn't been for the fat purse in her treasury she might almost have forgotten that she even had a passenger, the other woman had been so silent during their voyage.

Seeing her above ground now, and interested in the approaching island, was surprising.

The blonde pirate tugged a telescope out of one coat pocket, peering in the direction her passenger was scoping out so intently.

From this distance she could barely make out the long tails with diamond-like tips, and the huge bat-like wings.

And they were glowing.

She didn't need to see the beaks full of fangs to know these were the feared sky demons.

"All hands on deck!" She hollered, hand moving to her holster. "We're under attack!"