'The bustling and creaking of the ship permeates the atmosphere, the constant noise almost soothing. The room provided is compact, but not cramped. A bed in the corner that was made with spaces for wings to be put and a table I am using to write. The window looking out of the air ship gives a great view of the landscape, you should try riding on one, Nichdtie, I think you'd find it wondrous. Though I did pull an unlucky straw with the room as it is behind the engine, so sometimes fumes of exhaust block the window. But even with that, the view of the night sky is breathtaking. Currently the mountain range is far off in the background. Imagine that! Our home, that expands further than the eye can see from our village looks no bigger than the village now! The sky is still as huge as ever, though. It may very well reach the ends of our world. I still have three days till I reach Merchant City, I will write to you again once I experience the Big City. Until next time bro, Dtiedro.'

"There, I think that'll make a great letter," I muttered. The first of the letters I promised to send to my brother. 'Well, I promised him, he couldn't respond.' Though nothing I wrote was an exaggeration. The night sky is so vast here, I wish to spread my wings and fly through it, but I've got to control myself. It's almost time for food to be served. The famed air ship transport system of Merchant City, a free ride to or from Merchant City from any port around the continent. Making a journey of a year into just a week and a half for the longest distances. A decision that was made by the Original Council of Species almost a century ago.

Back when the different species started to spread out from their respective kingdoms, after centuries of isolation, they made a city unaffiliated to any one species as a place for the continent to come together and start interacting. They named it, very creatively, Merchant City in hopes that it would encourage traders to come through and share their culture. And in order to ensure complete fairness to all species the Leading Council was formed. The Council has a representative of each species to give everyone a voice in matters. The representatives serve one month before another set of elections is held so that the representative is always what the citizens want.

There's an exception, however, being the elves, or dark elves as they are commonly known. I don't know the exact reason, I should've payed attention in history lessons, but the dark elves are feared and despised. I don't really have a preference as I've never met one, or even know what they did, but it doesn't concern me.

As being part of the Dragonborn race, my species values the space to roam, which is easy as long as we have the sky. Unlike the rest of my species, though, is my brother, Nichdtie, and me. Normally names for children hold no real meaning other than it's a name. Ours were for a reason. In our tongue, dtie means wing, nich is zero, and dro means four. My brother was born without wings, making him a newt. Now that's not rare, every once in a while a newt is born, but it's me that makes us special. I was born with four wings, completely unheard of. But what's more important is how unlike my red scales, the second pair of wings are purple. The same color as my brother.

I was born cursed. I took his wings. I'm the reason he's a newt. I'm the reason he was sad all the time. I'm the reason he stared at the sky wishing he could know what it's like. It's my fault he was too depressed to leave the village….

Smack!

Pain spread across my mind after I successfully slapped myself. 'I started spiraling again, I gotta be careful about that.' I thought as my stomach began to rumble. 'I should go eat some dinner while I'm thinking about it.'

While I said the air ship was free, that applies only to the room and ride. If a passenger wants food or a bigger or better room than they need to pay for it. I'm fine staying in the basic cabin, but I didn't want to spend a week eating rationed food. I don't mind cashing a bit for this luxury.

I open the metal door leading out of my room, thankfully with no creak as it's an annoying sound, and take a left to head to the intersection of hallways. There I found a map that showed me the directions to the eating area. I take the path and found the large room with tables and lines for food. The myriad of species from passengers picked up along the trip is crazy. Being from a small village I've only ever known other Dragonborns, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go out and start talking to them. I just want to eat and head back to my room.

I found the meat line and piled my plate with the scrumptious food. I'm glad it's a single payment per day for a buffet. I sat down at an empty space near the middle of the room. It gave me a pretty good view of the area, and that's when I noticed the VIP lounge up on the wall. It was a large window outlined in what looked like gold. It allowed the wealthy to… watch the common people eat as they do? That's weird. I don't want to think about that stalkerish behavior. Though one of them caught my eye. One of the Harpie species, she seemed to have the parts of a dove. She was beautiful with elegant white feathers attached to her arms, and silky hair, also white, flowing down her back. Even from this distance I could see her sharp eyes and serene look.

Way out of my league, don't even think about it.

'Though was it just me, or did her piercing eyes look at me? Never mind, let me just eat while I have the chance.' So I dug in and devoured my plate. Once it was completely cleared and I was stuffed, I put away my plate and walked over to the entrance before I took one more look at the avian. Her seat was empty this time, though, so I just went back to my room. And slept. Or as much as I could. Sleep doesn't happen for me much lately, but at least the thoughts of the avian soothed me a bit.

Morning rose to find me awake. Despite wanting to stay in bed, my wings needed to be stretched so I headed out to see if there is a gym. Going to the same map as yesterday, I found the gym on the opposite end of the ship. While I walked there, I looked at the decorations adjourning the hall. Pictures of beaches and forests. Mist cresting a valley, and a hill separating a river. They would all be beautiful if it weren't for the fact that they were all in different shades of blue. You'd think that was weird, but it matched everything else in the hallway. Everything was blue. Weird, but it's free so I can't expect the biggest of design choices.

Finally, after a few minutes of walking and blue, I made it to the gym. Being the first cracks of dawn I didn't expect to find anyone else among the rows of equipment, but to my surprise there was a woman running on a treadmill in the corner. Based on the amount she was sweating she had been here a while. Though what she was, he had a hard time telling. Her arms had some grey feathers, but they were small and very few could be seen. Her legs seemed strong though. So while she seemed to be a harpie, she wasn't one he knew about. Interestingly, her hair didn't match her feathers. Her short hair was blond, a shade of yellow so vibrant it looked like it belonged on a daisy. She was tall, too. Like really tall. I'm not the tallest of my species, but I'm still over six feet tall, yet despite the distance she seems at least a couple inches taller than me.

I'm not one for disturbing people, so I just quietly go over to one of the stretching bands to flex my wings and wake them up. To do so I had to take off the cover I wear to hide Nichdtie's wings. It's just a basic brown tunic to cover my back. I promise the rest of my clothes are better. Ok, they aren't, just some wool shirts and flexible pants to make movement easy. It's not my fault my village is poor.

Finally snapping out of my inner thoughts, I attach the bands to my wings and start flapping them. The strain was refreshing, it kept my mind off of my thoughts. Call me a muscle head, but strength takes work. Speaking of working, 'where did the Harpie go?' The avian running disappeared while I was distracted.

"What're you doing?" came a voice from behind me.

"Woah," I exclaimed as I spun around, "where did you come from?"

"I believe I asked you a question first," she responded. Her voice sounded tired as her eyes seem to examine me.

"You've got a point there. I'm just doing some light stretches to wake up my wings." I fold up Nichdtie's wings while saying this to keep them out of sight. I don't want someone to know I'm a thief right off the bat.

"I can tell you can fly, but can you run well? I'm hoping you can try to outrun me," came her reply.

I responded, "Running isn't my forte, but I can give it a try."

"That's fine, I just want a challenger," came her response before she lead the way to the treadmills. I stepped up on one and pressed the power button. We set our systems together so the speed increased at the same time. It started at a slow jog before a run, and from a run to a sprint. The speed continued to increase, I could barely think past keeping oxygen going in and out of my lungs. I couldn't keep up. I looked over to see how she fared, but she barely started to sweat. 'I'm doomed, she's too good.'

Having thought that, I pressed the stop button. "I concede, you're too good for me to challenge," I admitted.

"Well at least you know how to lose with dignity, thank you for the attempt. I'm Soiclupt Abonded, what about you?" She asked.

"My name's Dtiedro Wrassinh, I'm sorry, but are you a Harpie?" She shifted uncomfortably at the question, almost seemingly like she wanted to cover her arms.

"Yes, I'm a Harpie."

"I had thought so, but it was hard to tell. I didn't know a Harpie could run like that, you're amazing." At this point we moved away from the machines and moved to the hallway. I think we both thought breakfast sounded good.

"I am more of a special case seeing as I have ostrich parts. Meaning I can run really well, but I can't fly like you." Again it felt like she wished her arms to disappear.

"Huh, that's interesting. I never heard of a Harpie ostrich family before," I exclaimed.

"That's because.. one doesn't exist, my fami-" she got cut off by a shout from down the hall.

A truly smooth voice called out, "There you are, Soiclupt, you've been gone all morning." I recognized the striking white hair and pure white feathers from the previous night. The most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on.

Soiclupt responded, "Sorry, sis, I wanted to work out for a little bit."

'Wait. Did I hear her right? She called her sis? Ummmmmmm.' My thoughts couldn't make sense of it. They looked so different. Soiclupt was tall and lean while the dove in front of me was more average height and dainty. That doesn't even mention the hair color difference, the feathers, or anything else really. It was then that the dove turned her beautiful eyes towards me.

"My apologies, I completely ignored you there. My name is Cuuswin, Soiclupt here is my younger sister. I hope she hasn't been bothering you."

"Oh, not at all. We were just heading to the eating area for some breakfast," I said.

"In that case, come to the VIP area with me," Cuuswin offered, "there is a lot more elbow room to enjoy."

I like the sound of space. "Okay, that sounds great!" I answered. We once again set off down the hallway towards the eating area. Right before we got to the general public area, Cuuswin lead us to some stairs that took us to the VIP section. When we entered, I was surprised. Instead of everything being in shades of blue, there was red carpets, elegantly carved chairs and tables, a little pond thing in the corner for some reason, and not a single hint of blue on the walls. "Wow, this is completely different from the rest of the ship. If you don't mind me asking, how can you afford this?" I questioned Soiclupt.

She answered, "Our father is a leading merchant. He sent my sister on a delivery for one of his clients and I came with to make sure she stays protected. He's the one that supplied her lifestyle on the ship."

"Oh please, Soi, don't be like that," her sister chimed in, "he sent the money for both of us."

"Only because I'm accompanying his precious gem. On my own you know I would've had to pack my own food for the trip," Soiclupt shot back.

Cuuswin replied, "Whatever the case may be, we get to eat amazing food."

'Interesting family dynamic that seems to be going on.' I thought as we got our food. The whole while, the sisters had their back in forth. Even though they looked different, I could tell they were sisters and cared for each other. Though their conversation tended to mention how their father favored Cuuswin.

"I'm telling you it's not like that, Soi, he's just being generous this time because of the piece we're delivering," Cuuswin claimed as we sat down to eat.

My curiosity got the best of me. "What is it that you're delivering?" Cuuswin and Soiclupt suddenly got serious expressions.

"If you want to know," Cuuswin whispered, "you have to keep quiet about it."

"I promise," I whispered back. Cuuswin leaned her head in, making me all too aware of how nice her hair smelled and the shine it had.

"My father tasked me with delivering a piece of Cratezt's box to the Merchant City stronghold for safe keeping," came her answer. But I'm confused.

"Who's Cratezt?" I asked and was given stupefied expressions in return.

Soiclupt blinked a couple of times before saying, "You really don't know who he is, do you?"

"I live in a small village, I was only taught what I needed to know to survive out here," came my response.

"Okay," Cuuswin cut in, "since you don't know, let me tell you the story of Cratezt and the Great Species War."

'It was that story that set my journey forward. I didn't know it, but things were only going to get worse. What was once a sightseeing trip turned into destiny. And I'm not sure whose it was I was following. Nichdtie, I wish you could experience what I did. It changed me, and it could've changed, maybe even saved, you. I'll write to you again. Your brother, Dtiedro.'

End of Chapter 1

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