It took another couple days to reach their destination. They proceeded east across the Mediterranean, then north across the open water of Euxina along the west coast. After reaching that crossing Baba Yaga’s Hut turned Northwest toward Wallachia, eventually passing through a dangerous and high pass of the Carpathian Shield, one that had nearly killed them the last time they passed through.
In the hour before reaching the pass, an airship was sighted far to the east, on the frontier with the Khanate of Muskovy. They couldn’t be sure if it was a Muskovite ship or not. The best of their telescopes could only make out oblong dots moving along against the mountain background.
…
After a white-knuckle passage with the Captain steering slowly through gaps between the mountains, guiding the airship against chaotic winds and updrafts, they exited the pass.
Then after another several hours over heavily forested foothills the captain spoke: “Madam Baroness, we have reached the clearing.” Gordon was pretty clear and articulate today. “I will anchor. Landing Baba Yaga’s Hut last time left us open to attack.”
“As you will captain.”
The nose of Baba Yaga’s Hut dropped a grappling anchor, designed to take hold of trees and the like. With Beatrix’s deft work, the anchor grasped the intended tree top, a flat topped black oak. The grapple did its job. the uppermost branches were entangled.
The hulk of the airship, Baba Yaga’s Hut, turned nose-first to the slight wind. Spotty sun glinted off of the polished brass rods that comprised the icosahedron. It was on the cool end of summer weather for mid-altitude alpine environs.
The Baroness Kekszemu Etelka stood before her gathered crew in Baba Yaga’s Hut’s lounge and addressed them. “Constable Pool and I will descend to the surface and penetrate the dark forest.” The cobalt-haired noblewoman walked a few steps across the grated floor. Taking in her left hand an ancient rifle, and passing that to her right, taking another. “Constable Pool and I will go to ground and find these unknown…unrecorded people…”
So it was done. Two faux ancient “elephant guns” with a pistol and rounds each, plus Etelka’s brass and steel semiautomatic. They also each brought a light pack with supplies, including food and a waterproof tent. Each carried a telescope borrowed from the cockpit. Pool, of course, had his journal, but this time, so too did Etelka who intended to record their first contact with the forest people.
Etelka and Pool descended on the airship’s cargo lift. It swung gently side to side as it dropped and, lower, brushed past heavy, unyielding oak branches. The pair held the cables tightly as the triangular lift tilted and slid off the obstacles.
The ground in the clearing was dry. Pool remembered it from the last time. A very wide clearing, filled with dry scrub and ancient Roman ruins. There were sun-bleached bones out there, lying where they had for centuries, tangled in the dry grasses and scrub.
They surmised that it had probably been an outpost, on the edge of “we can’t conquer that”. Etelka speculated at the purposes of the stumps of the buildings and Pool attempted to find proof, at least in his mind, to support what she said.
There were bricks and really old masonry and north south aligned rectangles. Some of the upper bricks and mortar showed tell-tales of burning, as did many of the strewn and scattered bricks and blocks.
The smell of earth and the decaying vegetation, that dry straw smell, overpowering the dirt and sand, was everywhere.
As the cargo lift was cranked back up into the gondola of the airship, Etelka and Pool discussed their plans.
Work in progress. Mistakes and misspellings are present. This is a very rough draft. Copyright 2021 Ion Fyr
#science fiction #sci-fi #fantasy #short story #writing
Ion Fyr 