The Skylands

I’ve heard stories about The Surface. Fantasies really, land as far as you can see, no edge in sight. My boots clanked loudly against the metal floor. The wind was strong today, I buckled my cap and slid my goggles over my eyes. I walked out of the passageway and was greeted by the railing that lined the outside of the city. I leaned over the railing and looked out at the endless expanse of clouds and sky. A flock of Morlos flew not far from me, the four-winged beasts were impressive. They were as big as a military crawler. You could probably fit a dozen men on its back and still have plenty of room to spare. Its long neck and wide mouth along with its half-dozen eyes made it an excellent hunter. How the people of the southern islands tamed those beasts is still something no one else has been able to figure out. Many consider them the rulers of the skies, even by themselves they are quite dangerous but their flocks usually number in the thirties or forties.

“What's that?” a passerby asked his friend.

I looked to where he was pointing and could see the clouds in that area moving unnaturally. Something was moving in the clouds, something big.

“Is it another city, why weren't we told we’d be flying near another city?” another asked as a crowd began to form along the railing.

“That's because it's not another city, we would’ve seen smoke by now if it was,” I replied loudly.

“Then what's moving out there?” someone asked.

I leaned forward a little more, and I wrapped cloth around my face to protect it from the cold winds.

“Well,” I said, my voice slightly muffled.

“There are only three things that are big enough to move clouds like that. A city which we already know it's not, an island, which last time a checked don’t move, or….a Sky Whale.” As soon as its name left my mouth the behemoth of a beast rose from the clouds.

It resembled a creature of old, the largest animal to swim in the old seas. The sky whales dwarfed their ancestors. Its six fins rose and fell, lifting it higher and higher. I had seen one before but even now I still found myself amazed at the sheer size of the creature. It had fully emerged from the clouds and was flying in the skies without a care in the world. This was the true master of the skies. This one was on the smaller side but it was still roughly half as large as our floating city. Our city wasn’t small either, it’s able to fit over ten million people.

“Wow! Mom look! It's a sky whale! A Sky whale!”

“I see it honey I see it.”

A Child was excitedly telling his mom all about the sky whales, and how seeing one brings luck. He wasn’t the only one, the entire crowd was in an uproar at seeing the rare creature. You’d be lucky to see one in five years. A long and loud sound echoed throughout the sky, it dropped and rose in pitch, like a song.

“It's singing! Mom! The stories are true, they really do sing!”

Again the crowd talked excitedly among themselves. It was truly a wonderful moment, a moment I wouldn’t mind lasting for quite a while. What was that? I saw a small flash around the sky whale's head. I took out my binoculars and zoomed in. Another flash, then another, at this point others in the crowd started to notice it too.

“Did you see that?”

“What were those lights?”

As I focused the binoculars on the whale I finally made out what those flashes were.

“Explosions?” I said to myself.

Just then a huge explosion that was clearly visible to all of us watching appeared on one of the whale’s fins. All of us stared in shock at the scene before us. Just a few moments after the explosion a loud boom thundered through the skies, followed by the high-pitched cries of the Sky Whale.

“My God” someone whispered.

I didn’t need the binoculars to see what caused such a reaction. The fin that the explosion appeared on was now falling through the sky, no longer attached to the main body. I squeezed the railing with both hands as I saw the small fleet of Airships flying just under the whale.

“Whale hunters” I spat out the words like they were poison.

“Damian!”

I turned and found a large man wearing an oil-stained shirt calling my name.

“Chief!”

“Let's go boy, they’re launching the airships and we need to be on them!”

I ran up to the chief, the head of the engineering crew of the airship Charger.

“Are we going after the hunters?” I asked

“Damn right we are.” the chief said with a grin.

“We’re gonna show those bastards they can’t just do whatever they want in our skies. Now let's go! Unless you want to miss out on all the action.”

The chief and I ran towards the hangars, My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it wasn’t beating at all. This would be my first combat mission, I may not have made the cut to be a pilot or a Sky Marine but there's still a chance I could see combat with this. A huge smile was on my face, and there were no signs of it going away any time soon.