The LAAAND of the GIANTS!

“Welcome! To the LAAAAND of the GIANTS!-“

“Shut up Gary! Sit down and check the pressure gauges!”

Gary sat down with a smirk on his face. He thought he was hilarious. Unfortunately, everyone else was too busy to even pretend to laugh. Krista was making sure the navigation was correct and that they weren’t flying into something. The compass spun in wild circles while the maps made no sense. Her stomach lifted to her chest as the ship dropped for a few seconds.

“Sorry,” Xavier said. The responsibility of keeping this airship in the sky was his one and only job. Pulling on a few levers, he released steam in the balloon above and the ship set in the right alignment forward. Cold sweats creeped over him as looked on the steam power fuel meters.

Captain Theodora pulled up on the flight controls but they veered left. A large object struck the side of the ship, denting the side panel. “You better check on that Gary!”, she yelled. She tried pulling up again as something else kissed the airships bottom, giving it a boost skyward.

“On it!”

Gary moved toward the panel and checked for leaks. A bend pinched a small hole open, shaking the panel loose. With a quick squeeze of his adhesive gun, a glob of sealant quickly hardened over the problem. Using the miracle that is duct tape, he slapped a sheet over it and steadied himself back to his station.

“Got it!” Gary said.

“Good! Now sit down! We got to get somewhere safe!” Theodora commanded.

Getting low to avoid anymore surprises, the airship cruised above a canopy of flowers. She spotted a clearing a few hundred yards away and started to slow her speed. A burst from above sent them downward into the flower petals below. Theodora pulled the controls back while pushing down on her foot pedal to bring in the airship bottom-up but there was no response.

“Everyone brace yourselves!” She yelled.

“No shit!” Gary replied.

The airship spun to the left as it struck a flower stem, ploughing into the ground on its side. Steam filled the cabin, blinding everyone. As it finally came to a stop, the smell of grass filled their senses. Theodora opened her eyes. Dirt caked the inside of the cabin and she had to push away chunks of green and yellow off of her. Fresh air woke up Xavier, lifting his head toward the large hole in front of him. Krista screamed.

“AHHHHH!”

“Well, that’s different.” Gary said.

Walking over to Krista, Xavier saw what she and Gary had noticed. A large, severed head of an ant sat on top of Krista’s station. Theodora lifted her dirty goggles to get a better look. The ant head was a creepy soccer ball with eyes. She lifted it off the counter and threw it away from Krista.

“It’s gone. You okay, Krista?” Theodora said.

“Yeah. I think so. I mean, we knew what we would find up here but…I guess….it’s different when you see it up close.” Krista replied.

“Did anyone else notice that a huge bee just dented the shit out of us?” Gary said.

“Yes Gary, we did.” Theodora replied, walking away from the group. She pulled out her flight plan and looked it over.

“So. We flew up the bean stalk, same direction that Jack did. Check. We traveled up to the clouds until we saw land. Check. Pulling into our destination, we spotted the castle. Check. As we flew in that direction, we got hit with a swarm of bees. Check.” She rolled the flight plan into a ball and threw onto the ground.

“You guys should see this.”

Xavier stood outside of the airship, fixating on something in the distance. As the rest of the crew joined him, the tales told of this land to them did not compare to the first hand experience. Tall marigold flowers stretched out in front of them for miles, disappearing into the distance like a forest. Bees the size of cows flew overhead, buzzing like saws in wood mills. Towards the horizon stood the castle. Large but familiar. Compared to the alien world around them, it almost seemed inviting.

Krista pulled out a small map and a pen. She paced around the area getting her bearings and wrote a few notes on the parchment.

“Here we are, about a hundred and fifty miles away from the castle at our size. According to Jack’s diary here is where the entrance is and here is where the golden harp will be.” Krista said. She continued to make notes as she circled the areas of importance.

“Well alright, then. Gary, we are going to have to get the airship working or else we will be stuck here forever. How long is it going to take to repair?”

Gary stared at Theodora.

“Gary?”

“Um. Well, we will need to at least try and patch that hole, maybe take some material from other parts of the ship.” Gary said.

“Or we could create another hole on the other side to balance it out.” Xavier chimed in.

Gary pointed to Xavier. “Yeah. We could do that. Might be easier. The balloon looks okay so we should be able to balance out the airship, though we will be sluggish in the air.”

“There is another problem.” Xavier said. “The steam engines were damaged by the bee crash and will need to repair them if we are going to have any power.”

“Yeah. Plus, the controls are broken. They will need to be fixed too.” Theodora replied. “You two get started on that. Me and Krista are going to go over to the castle and see what we can find.”

Krista’s face lost all color. “Okay. Sounds good.”

Theodora walked over to the back of the airship and pulled open the cargo bay. “Thank god these weren’t damaged.” She said. Krista walked over and was relieved. It would have been a long walk without some help.

Theodora and Krista got on their motor bikes and checked the steam engines. They revved them up and got ready to ride out.

“We will be back, hopefully with some gold and a harp. It would really suck to have come all this way for nothing.”

They rode off into the distance, bringing up dirt and grass in their wake. Xavier looked on, trepidation on his face.

“You think they are going to be okay?” He said.

“Sure. Captain can take care of herself and Krista is pretty resourceful.” Gary replied.

“You think we're getting home?” Xavier said, now turned to Gary.

“I’ll tell you one think. If we don’t, I’m going to spend all of my time learning how to ride a bee like a horse.”