Stranded in the Sky

This is a continuation of the events of "Chosen by Stone", first of the Fable Imbued storyline.

I took slow, heavy breaths as the skyship continued its ascent. The faces of those who had come to send us off gradually grew smaller, eventually becoming indiscernible. Part of me wanted to jump off and return to the comforts I had known my entire life, but I knew deep inside that this was my chance, my moment, my destiny.

I turned around and saw Athena quietly sitting on her own. She was looking down, with her face showing her obvious disappointment that her mother had once again managed to give work precedence to own flesh and blood.

It was no secret that Amelia Emmon, Forstilus' great Secretary of Technology was the ultimate workaholic. After her husband died, she would often spend days at her office beefing up the city's force field or fixing a bug in the nation's automation systems or developing the next breakthrough to improve the lives of Forstiluns. Her dedication to her job (and the resulting benefits to society) may have led to her being extremely popular with the people, but also to her estrangement from Athena.

So, I sat beside Athena and tried to console her with the prospect that our training would give us some time away from the complex issues back home, and that it would be a fun experience. "I mean, we're the only two people out of everyone who's 18 to be chosen. It has to mean something right?" I remarked, seeing that she was now more at ease.

Moments later, the skyship passed through the force field that protected the city, revealing the giant mass of land hovering above. The onboard AI announced that our ETA was "23 min 7s". Since we had some spare time on our hands, Athena and I decided to explore the skyship. The lower deck comprised of a central common room that had everything you needed to live (food and drink dispensers, a meeting table, couch, etcetera). On one side, a door led to the living quarters that could house about 50 people, fully equipped with showers at the far end. The other had an armory, a technical console and a hatch leading to the cargo deck. The upper deck was where all the action was: the command room, a strategy table and, well, a store.

Soon, it was time to finally see Fabler Island as we begun our descent. It had a hollow volcano structure in the middle with streams flowing down the sides, that led to a lake. The evergreen Dewglow trees that covered the landscape looked more beautiful than in the pictures that were released on Forster. There was even a flock of kronolyps flying in the sky. It was simply breathtaking.

As we touched the ground, the doors opened and Wolfson gestured at us to head on out first. Then, Athena said, "I can't believe we're actually on Fabler Island!" We turned around expecting to see Wolfson and the rest of the fablers, but we were shocked that the skyship's doors were actually closing! We bolted back, asking Wolfson what was happening, to which he told us that our first test was to find the headquarters hidden somewhere on the island. The skyship then disappeared before our very eyes.

There it was, we were two city folk left alone on an island we knew nothing about...