"Ennis!" I turn around, already out of the building and back into the courtyard.
"Who are you? What do you want?" It was that boy who ran into the middle of the clearing, right before I was about to kick that piece of shit Gierna in the face. Yeah, I'm still mad.
"My name's Etios. The blonde kid who was getting the life kicked out of him earlier? Who you saved?" I nod, still on guard, not entirely sure where this is going. "That was my boyfriend. Or, well, sort of. I don't think he knows I like him. I wanted to thank you. And the speech you made to the teacher-you surprised her enough to actually let go of the spell that was keeping you two in place. I also think that you shocked the entire hall into silence for a week, at least." The tall kid goes silent-he's obviously not used to talking so nicely for so long.
"You know, if we were being really cliche, this would be the bit where I said that I was just doing what anyone would do. But you know, this isn't something that anyone would do. So, thank you. But I've been in that kid's position before, and I know that what I would have given to have had someone to back me up."
There is a long and somewhat awkward pause. Then the tall kid-Etios-goes, "Before I make a complete asshole of myself-Pronouns?"
I can feel the grin spread across my face. "They/them. Would you believe that you're the first person to actually ask me that?"
"Honestly, yeah. But given the envi-"
Etios is inturrupted by the voice of a very angry teacher storming across the grounds. "Harlow! Naelthi! With me, now!"
Two weeks later...
After that incident, Fort Nope had become increasingly crowded with visitors, from Etios and his not-boyfriend (whose name is apparently Tenexier), Dabir, a dark-skinned boy around 13, and his cousin Azima, who I had met earlier in the year. Keely occasionally got a visitor named Iris, who she grudgingly helped with Elvish. However, the only people who actually took up residence in Fort Nope remained solely Keely and myself.
Keely and I stopped at the notice board in the dorm that we were supposed to be sleeping in every morning, and then took our separate ways to each class. We didn't really have any classes together, but sometimes I saw Etios when our classes were paired up for Lethal studies.
As cause of the fight, both Etios and I were put on probation for a week, and the Gierna girl for a month. We weren't allowed to actually participate in any of the Lethal classes, which I didn't mind too much.
"Hey... Ennis, look at this!" Keely dragged me over to the notice board. "There's a field trip coming up... I know you've been dying to get off-campus. Should we take a look?"
It turned out to be some sort of educational history trip, to tour where in the world the War had been fought. AKA, exactly my kind of thing. Each group of 10 or 11 students were randomly grouped with a teacher, and they got an airship to help learn to pilot on the way to the tour destinations.
Keely and I immediately put our names on the list.
Two days later...
"Can you believe this?" I looked at the notice board, with Keely, Azima, Iris, and a couple other girls behind me. "We're all practically in the same group!"
The notice board reads:
Airship #42:
Keely Anasova
Ennis Harlow
Tenexier Oeyar
Dabir Akinyemi
Iris Meloni
Azima Jackson
Etios Naelthi
Vrede Blom
Aleress Medici
Setana Oeyar
I recognized everyone on the list except the three last names, but the last one had the same last name as Ten, so they were probably related.
"We need to go to hanger 16," Iris said from behind me, then pulled out a map. "It's not far, we'll meet up with everyone else soon. In other words, we've probably got about half an hour to get our bags the rest of the way packed before we're scheduled to leave. The trip is longer than I expected-look, we're gone a couple days."
"Good point, babe," I said, then Keely and I practically ran back to Fort Nope, and luckily we had started packing as soon as we had signed up. A couple minutes later, we stepped back outside and headed in the direction of hanger 16.
"Do you know who..." I fished the list of people on the airship back out of my pocket, "Vrede Blom is?"
A look passed over Keely's face that I couldn't quite catch. "Yeah. She saw my hair on the first day, and wasn't nearly as subtle about it as you were."
"Ouch." I whistled, low and under my breath. "I don't have to have a chat with her, do I? You're practically my best friend, Keely. I don't want to find out about this when things escalate out of control."
"No, it's fine!" she said hastily. "We're better now than we were. Her reaction was more along the lines of 'always nice to see another magical creature around'."
I can feel my eyebrows start to crawl towards my hairline. "Huh. Who would've guessed."
The rest of the walk over passed in silence, with the occasional eye-catch of some random person on the way. ("Hello, gorgeous." "Thank you? Who are you? Do I know you?")
I see Azima and Dabir waiting by the airship, their bags in hand.
"Everyone else is already calling bunks," Azima said. "I told Dabir that we were going to wait. He didn't have much of a choice in the matter."
A smiling teacher leaned out of one of the windows of the airship. "Azima, Keely, Ennis, and Dabir! Are those you four? We're waiting for you before we can leave, so hurry up!"
Keely snorted. "He's new, isn't he. Actually excited to be locked in a floating airship with 10 teenagers, can you imagine?"
I smiled crookedly, then made my way up into the ship.
As soon as everyone had stowed away their things, we were all told to meet in the main room of the airship.
"Now, guys, this is a very rare and special trip," said the teacher. "We don't do off-campus field trips often, so this is a first for me as well as all of you. My name is Professor Troiano, and I'll be taking role call. Iris?"
"Here."
"Keely?"
"Hi."
"Etios?"
"Here."
"Ennis?"
"That would be me, sunshine."
"Azima?"
"Yep."
"Tenexier?"
"Present."
"Aleress?"
"Here."
"Vrede?"
"Hello!"
"Setana?"
"Here!"
"Dabir?"
"What?"
"Alright, then, we're all here," finished Professor Troiano. "Now, this will be a four day trip, and with three days of touring and one day for the trip back. We'll be staying on the airship for as long as we're not actually touring the battle sights, so make yourselves at home. We're lifting off in-" he checked his watch, then jumped, "Now! I have to go get to the cockpit, excuse me!" and with that, he left. Wow, what a fabulous chaperon. Very responsible.
The group looked around at each other in amusement, but no one was talking.
"Well!" I said, deciding to go first. "My name's Ennis, since all of you clearly don't know me-"
My short introduction was cut off when Keely held up her hand. "Did you hear that? It sounded like a snicker."
"Yeah, Keely, that's because it was funny. But-"
"No, not from anyone standing here. From over there." She pointed to the stack of supplies in the corner. "Last I checked, pre-prepared food doesn't laugh."
"Ok, Mikah, we know it's you. Not funny, you're not supposed to be here. Get off," said Azima, addressing the barrels of food.
Who the hell is Mikah? I mouthed at Keely, and she shrugged. "Azima? Sweetheart? Everything ok?"
With that, one of the barrels rolled out towards the center of the room and stopped only when it ran into the brick wall that was Etios.
"Aight, so you're Ennis. Nice to have a name to go with that face, hon. How you doin'?" The kid that had evidently snuck on board
grinned up at me.
"Mikah, what the hell are you doing here? Get off the ship, we're about to take off!" Iris said, looking at Mikah like he was from another planet.
"It's simple, babe, really. I saw a hot chick, decided I wanted a piece of that action, and decided to follow. I ended up here, and everyone is hot. Hi, ladies!" He grinned at several blonde girls (Vrede, Aleress, and Setana?) and waggled his fingers.
"Does anyone here have any idea what this idiot is saying?" I asked under my breath, but evidently not quietly enough.
Mikah raised his eyebrows. "Babe, you're hot. But seeing as those are definitely the hum of some wack-ass starship engines, I'd say you'd better get a translator fast, because we're off the ground."
Shit. "Does anyone want to be the one to tell Professor Troiano that we picked up another passenger?"
3 days later...
"We need to take a pitstop soon," said Professor Troiano, glaring at Mikah "We're lower on fuel and food than we thought, given that we have one more person than expected. And one of the engines is starting to act up. I'm sure it's nothing, but if it gets any worse, I'll let you know." With that, he set off in hopes of finding what was wrong with the engine.
"Mikah, please get your fingers out of my hair if you would like to keep them," Aleress said calmly once the teacher was out of earshot.
"Damn, sweetheart, what's the problem? I wanted to play with it, is all..."
"Mikah," I call cheerfully, "Sweetheart is my nickname for everyone. Now do what she says or else she will hurt you, and I won't particularly care." Once the annoying boy had moved away, I made quick eye contact with Aleress, checking that she was alright.
We had bonded after one of my ear piercings had fallen out, and she magicked it out from down the side of the bed where it had hidden. Then I found out that she was also in Saelin, and we hit it off fairly well.
"Wait, hold up guys..." Iris said, looking at everyone in the room with concern. "Do you hear that? One of the engines has stopped..."
"How the hell do you know that?" Dabir asked, looking around.
"It's way quieter than it should be for a giant flying hunk of metal," said Vrede, looking around. "It sounds better this way, honestly."
"Kids!" Professor Troiano's voice crackles into the room, the spell working to throw his voice. "We have a situation-One of the engines has stopped working."
Told you, Iris mouthed, and Dabir stuck out his tongue.
"We're going to have to stop in the air-luckily we're right over one of the bigger islands, and there's a lake directly beneath us. So if we do have to make a controlled decent, we'll have a smoother landing. I'm getting on fixing this as soon as possible, so stay calm, please!" Professor Troiano's voice faded from the room.
"OH SWEET JESUS WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
"Mikah, shut u-"
An explosion rocked the ship, sending teenagers everywhere. I saw Etios grab Tenexier before the room filled with smoke.
"Is everyone alright?" I heard someone say, coughing.
"We've just had an engine explode, the Prof's probably dead, we're miles away from the school, NO, we're FINE!"
"Ok," said-Iris? Setana? "We know that Mikah's still alive. Joy. Anyone else? Damage report?"
I wave at the smoke in front of my face, and catch a glimpse neon blue hair to my left. "This is Ennis, I've got eyes on Keely. Sweetheart, you alright? Can you hear me? Keely!"
A small hand flips me off. "M'fine, Ennis. You're not my damn parent."
Azima's voice sounds through the smoke. "Dabir and Iris and Azima all alive."
"Etios and Ten over here. I've got Vrede as well."
"Setana and Vrede all uninjured," said the first voice.
"Great," I say, "Now, is anyone near a window? We need to get this out, and don't talk too much, we don't want to inhale the smoke!" I've already got the top of my uniform covering my mouth, and I think that I see Keely does as well.
About thirty seconds, fumbling, and someone banging what sounded like their shin into a table, the window's open, and the smoke starts to clear.
I see Iris standing next to the open window, then rush over to look out of it. The engine was completely gone, and we were only barely staying upright. The island below us was spinning slowly-no. We were.
I pull my head back in. "Guys, in case you haven't noticed, we're spinning. We still have two other engines going, but not enough fuel to make it back to school. I think-" I run over to the captain's chair, the one that Professor Troiano had called withing the first three minutes of the trip, and check on the wiring. "Yeah, communications are down. Does anyone magic enough to get a communications spell back to them?"
"I might," said Setana, "Not sure. Is this island inhabited? Maybe we can get supplies to fuel the ship?"
Keely joined me by the window. "This is Mermish territory. That lake below us? We could see if we could get things from them. But if anyone's attracted to girls, they've got to stay on the ship-you'll be no use to us."
"Well, damn." I can't go down there. The looks on Tenexier's, Dabir's, Mikah's, and Setana's faces say that they can't go either. "Ok, who wants to go beg expensive airship fuel off of mermaids?"