Chapter 68 part 3

"Why would someone go to that continent and not let everyone else know?" Heanith asked, dashing Ralph's hopes about the situation.

Hannah looked stunned. Showing she hadn't thought of that herself. Though, Ralph suspected that she might have been thinking of how the American continents had been inhabited when explorers became aware of their existence. Since others who had learned of them hadn't spread the word like those explorers did after that.

"What if they don't realize that there's another land out there?" Ralph found himself asking, even though he knew he really should keep his mouth shut about this. It wasn't his place to say anything further about this anyway.

Besides, if they went to this other continent, maybe they'd be able to find something about the griffin canyon that Charlie had been looking for. Although, how they'd get her there, if that's where her griffin canyon was in the first place, after they were stuck there, he wasn't sure.

He just knew that it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look anyway. Though, he would prefer having an escort of armed people with them when they did go taking a look at it. Although, it also wouldn't hurt to locate Charlie before then. If only so they could be absolutely certain, if they find the griffin canyon, that it's the one they need rather than just thinking it is.

"How wouldn't they know about this continent?" Heanith countered. "It's the center of the world. How could they miss it?"

"One way is the fact that they might have a culture that prevents them from venturing out onto the waters no matter what they might want to find," Ralph replied, not really sure exactly what he was saying, just that his mouth was moving without him wanting it to. "Another could be that they just aren't aware that this is the center of the world."

Heanith blinked, looking rather confused at Ralph's statement, though Ralph wished he could ask what he'd said without looking like an idiot. He wasn't sure what words he'd used, just that it seemed to have left an impact on Heanith. Though, he couldn't say if it was good or not at the moment.

"You know, part of what he said has a point," Tim said coming up from behind Ralph. "Until we arrive there, we won't know what to expect. If that continent is inhabited, they might think that they're the center of the world rather than this area. Maybe they even have a legend where they think this continent was lost and sunk or something."

Ralph wasn't sure why Tim didn't startle him like Hannah had, but he couldn't think of a reason to complain. His heart certainly wasn't upset about that fact.

Heanith opened her mouth to say something, but Tim apparently wasn't finished. "Plus, whose to say that whoever is in charge there would be welcoming of strangers. If we go there, we should have more to our numbers than what we have now. The best way would be to seek an ally that we can trust."

Heanith sighed. "I knew this was going to come around to meeting with your marquis again. Why should I believe that he's any different from any other noble?" Heanith seemed like she was done, but then she quickly added, "And don't tell me that he's at odds with other nobles. All nobles are trying to take over another's lands. If not by taking out their bloodline, they'll try to marry into it. None of them are really interested in letting others get ahead of them. Especially if they think that you might be a threat to their power."

"Not everyone's the same," Hannah remarked. "If you assume everyone is, then that means you are too. If you don't think you are, then that means others might not be that way either."

"But I'm not a noble," Heanith countered, as if that was her secret weapon.

"Nobles are human too," Hannah replied calmly, much more that Ralph thought he'd be if he was the one talking. "If someone who isn't a noble can be a good person, then why can't a noble? Even in the middle of the chaos going on in the queendom, a good person can still be found. Those who aren't will also be more likely to find that person a threat to their way of life, since it exposes just how bad they are."

Ralph felt like Hannah's statement could have been better. Most of it was good, but there were parts where it felt a little cringe-inducing. He wasn't sure if Hannah was aware of it or not, but he certainly noticed it.

Heanith sighed, looking deflated somehow. Like she was about ready to fall over because of the air having been let out of her. As it is, Ralph couldn't help but think that her sigh sounded like the air being let out of her as well.

After a few minutes of quiet, Heanith just shook her head and said quietly, "Fine. Just let me know where to land this. Though, I'm not sure if we shouldn't try to land this in a river or something."

"Don't worry about that," Tim replied confidently. "If you can figure out how to make this thing hover, we can figure out a place to put this. All we'll need is some rope and some planks and we can make a rope ladder to climb down from here."

Heanith shook her head again. "I'm not sure how well that'll work, but we should at least have enough material to work with for that."

"We'll get started on it right away. Just start practicing getting this airship to stay in the same spot. If you need us to raise the sails, just let us know. I'm not sure if it'll create more problems with them like they are, but I don't really know how this thing works anyway. You're the expert on it," Tim replied, pulling on Ralph and Hannah as he started to leave.

Ralph didn't mind Tim wanting to get started on it right away, though he wished that he'd at least let him leave on his own. While Hannah didn't say anything about it, he was pretty sure that she felt the same as well.

Yet, he didn't really feel like saying anything either. He wasn't sure why, just that he wasn't in the mood to interact much. Which, naturally, was when Hannah became interested in something that he'd said earlier.

"Did you really see a building on the side of one of the trees in this forest?" she asked, sounding more interested than she had been in convincing Heanith to go to the marquis' place.

Ralph sighed. Part of his wanted to say he just made it up, but another part didn't feel like going to that much effort. As he figured there'd be follow up questions if he did say that he hadn't seen those buildings on the trees.

"Yeah, I saw them, but don't ask for any other details, I didn't see much there," he said, hoping that would be the end of it.

"What didn't he see much of?" Wes asked, coming up from below the deck.

"Apparently there's buildings being built on the trees of this forest," Hannah supplied. "Ralph said he saw them after we'd already passed them, so he wasn't able to get much detail, but he's sure they're there."

"Maybe we should turn this around so we can take a closer look," Amelia suggested, her head sticking up from below the deck. "I wouldn't mind seeing if they were close to what was on Star Wars with the Ewoks."

"Probably not a good idea," Tim replied. We don't know if they saw us or not, and we're much bigger than they are. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to give them another shot at noticing us."

"Well, on the positive side, we convinced Heanith to at least meet with the marquis," Hannah said, eliciting surprised looks from Wes and Amelia. "We just need to work on making a rope ladder so we can climb down after we arrive."

"How long should it be?" Amelia asked, sounding a little doubtful. "Maybe we should think of something else."

Tim shook his head. "It'll be fine. I think as long as we make it as long as the middle mast, we should be good. I mean, its' not like we'll need it as long as one of those… uh, sequoias? Anyway, we're probably going to be maybe above the oak trees, so I think maybe seventy feet should be good, just in case we need it a little longer."

"And where would we get enough materials for that?" Amelia asked dryly, sounding like she was tired from just listening to Tim speak, much like Ralph felt at that moment as well.

"Heanith said she should have enough for what we'd need," Hannah answered. "And if we need just a little more, I'm sure we can use our own magic to cover any shortfall.

"If we use the lumber from what Heanith got before we had to abandon her cabin, we should have enough," Tim added.

"Uh, did you load any of that on here?" Wes asked, sounding a little concerned. "I know I didn't. I thought it just got loaded into the cabin and left to be used later."

"Let's look around," Amelia said, smiling, though Ralph was pretty sure she was saying that just to show support for Hannah's stance on the issue. "Maybe we'll be surprised at what was already brought on board here before Heanith showed it to us."

"She did mention that she needed a few planks or something to finish this, or at least I think she meant this when she mentioned that," Ralph mused, mostly to himself.

"Well, let's go see what we can find. I'm sure it won't take long before we have a rope ladder ready to go," Tim cheered. "Besides, I think Heanith expects us to have finished with the ladder before we arrive at Denshia's home."

_

Beth sighed, she'd learned to read and write in the language of this world fairly well, though Kystia seemed to have ideas of what else she needed her to 'learn.' Even though Beth only understood the deal to be about reading and writing.

Kystia, however, seemed to think that it also could include her etiquette lessons. Which included 'proper' dancing, proper greetings of different ranking individuals, as well as how to appear when eating a meal.

In regards to the dancing lessons, Kystia pulled out a random male servant to dance with Beth. She wasn't sure what the servant thought about the matter, but none of them complained or argued about it. That fact alone made her wonder if maybe the servants were used to Kystia being this way or if they'd had to be her partners during her dancing lessons as well.

"Did you do this with Hannah, Amelia, and Tim?" Beth asked after the latest lesson, feeling like her legs were getting more used to the movements.

Kystia grinned and shook her head. "I only thought of it just before you got back and then there wasn't time. I'm sure I'd be able to do that for them when they get back, but they're taking longer than I'd expected."

"How long did you think they'd be?" Beth asked, a knot starting to form in her stomach. She didn't like the sound of how Kystia said it.

Kystia merely shrugged. "I thought maybe four moths at most. Though, I guess if they kept taking the wrong paths, that might add more to it, but then there's also the problem that it what your friend saw in that book wasn't true, then how long would they wait before coming back?"

Beth nodded at the logic Kystia used. She couldn't say how much food and other supplies her friends had taken with them, but she doubted that it'd be enough to last the four months Kystia had estimated. Unless they found another source of food, which she doubted would happen since there wasn't supposed to be anyone up there.

However, she at least knew that her friends were resourceful. It was possible that they'd found something that grew wild on the mountain that they recognized as edible. Even though she couldn't imagine what it could be, she at least recognized it as possible. Possible to occur, even though it wasn't likely.

"What would you say…" Beth started to respond when she heard a horn sound. It wasn't one she was familiar with, but Kystia suddenly looked alarmed. And frightened. "What is it?"

"That's the alarm," Kystia replied unhelpfully. "Something's coming and it could be a threat."

Beth understood immediately. She wasn't sure what to do about it herself, but she at least understood that it might not be good news for Kystia. Especially since they didn't know what it was about.

"Stay with me and I'll keep you safe," Beth told the girl as she turned to head towards the door. "I don't plan on approaching any danger, but I'll make sure that nothing'll happen to you if I can help it."

"Okay," Kystia replied, her voice rather small.

Beth imagined that Kystia was acting strong because that's what her understanding of how girls were supposed to act in this world. Beth had a feeling that whatever she was used to being something attributed to girls in her world was attributed to boys in this one. And the same from boys in her world versus girls in this one.

If she was wrong, she hadn't seen an instance to indicate that so far. As such, she had a feeling that Kystia wanted to cry, but likely there was a thing in this world about girl's not crying because they weren't supposed to be weak or some nonsense like that.

As far as Kim was concerned, crying wasn't a sign of weakness. It was merely a body's way of dealing with high stress situations. At least in this situation it was, as it was clear that Kystia was frightened, even if it wasn't for herself, those feelings wouldn't go away simply because she wasn't crying.

Beth quietly led Kystia towards where her own room was, the room she had before she'd been made Kystia's bodyguard. She wasn't sure where else to go, but she had at least figure out how to turn it into a place she could hole up in the event they were attacked by the marquis' enemies. She wasn't sure what the likelihood of that was, but she wasn't going to discount the possibility just because she didn't know.

Kystia kept up with Beth, seemingly almost effortlessly. Even to the point where she nearly caused Beth to trip over her a few times. Which Beth had to assume that it was because she was so scared. Otherwise Beth was pretty sure she'd have gone off on the girl the fifth time it happened.

Yet, keeping in mind the girl's emotional state, Beth was able to keep herself from making the situation worse for Kystia. Which Beth was certain would only hurt her and her friends more than anything else.

However, as they were swiftly moving down a hallway, Beth had to stop. Not because of any 'enemies' blocking the way, but because of what she saw outside a window. It was a three masted ship moving along the castle walls, only a few people visible on its deck in the moonlight.

The biggest shock of it was the fact that there wasn't any body of water large enough for a ship that size to travel through, let alone have the deck visible above the wall.

"What is it?" Kystia asked, worry laced through each word. "Did they breach the gate?"

Beth shook her head. "I'm not sure how to describe it, but I don't think we're under attack."

"How do you know!?" Kystia cried, tears starting to leak out of her eyes, despite her best efforts.

"Let me show you," Beth said, crouching down to pick the girl up so she could see the ship through the window. "That's what I think caused the alarm. I'm not sure what's going on, but I have a feeling it's not an invading force."

Kystia was quiet for a few minutes, her head moving back and forth as she studied the scene before her. "Couldn't they be waiting for us to drop our guard before attacking?"

"I guess it's possible," Beth allowed, not sure how to deal with that theory. "But I think that if they were going to attack, that they'd likely want to go with a more subtle approach. Not one that would draw our attention like that and raise our guard in the first place."

"What should we do?" Kystia asked in a small voice, a voice Beth heard often enough when her siblings would have a bad dream.

"We'll wait right here," Beth replied, hoping this wouldn't turn out badly. She really didn't need to end up the one responsible for Kystia's safety. Not when she herself had other problems going on in this world, such as whatever organization wanted to dethrone the queen. "We can see what's going on from here and if things start turning bad, we can still make a run for it."

Kystia nodded, leaning against Beth as she held her up so she could see out the window. Beth would consider it a good chance that whatever this was, it wasn't a hostile action against the marquis. Not just for the reasons she mentioned to Kystia, but also because she didn't think that there were any signs from those whom she could see on the deck that could be considered hostile. If anything, they seemed almost relaxed.

When they tossed something over the side of the ship, after it stopped moving, Beth felt that that moment was the moment of truth. Whatever intents that ship had would soon be revealed. Though, one thing that also helped buoy her spirits was the fact that no one else came out onto the deck. Which either meant she was right and they weren't hostile or those few were considered all they needed.

Which wasn't a thought she planned on sharing with Kystia.

"How long do you think it'll be before we know something?" Kystia asked after a few minutes, sounding uneasy about the matter. "It's taking a long time."