Hawk's Story

Into the room shambles a man with long black hair and a red bandana. "And how is my best pupil doing today?" He asks looking at Shade with a large smile opening his hands wide with a broad smile and looking over the room.

"Jeez, what happened you guys look so serious and that brown coated fellow suddenly hoped overboard saying something about walking. I can appreciate the desire to have a lone adventure kept company only by the wind and your own thoughts, but doing it out here is just plain strange." Hawks says stroking his beardless chin contemplatively, but he soon shrugs possibly not thinking the topic worth further consideration.

Then when he actually takes appraisal of the scene he realizes what they are doing and smiles. "Well now, it's been a while since I've seen something like this, I remember back when I was wandering around. You've found a good tool to call in the ladies my apprentice, I'm glad you are well on your path to becoming a stud." Then he suddenly pats his fist on his hand.

"I figured I should tell you guys we'll be making landfall in about an hour." Then he turns to head back to the helm.

Instead of giving a verbal response to Shade Hawk walks over and takes the guitar from his hands. "Hmmm, it's a bit lighter than I expected and then he suddenly started playing. At the end he shakes some of the sweat from his hair and looks at the pair with a proud smile.

"A man needs to be able to do at least this much." He says handing the guitar back to Shade. Surprisingly enough he actually looked the part,and he was good. But his true love the gambit demanded his attention so he walked to the helm.

"Well if you really need me I can stick with you guys for a bit I suppose." He says waving a hand as he walks away.

As he was asked about the ship hawk smiled a bit at them, it was a knowing smile, one that said it was time for him to reveal something amazing that they would never have expected. "The Gambit doesn't need a crew," He tells hem honestly and places his hand on the wall. "Because the Gambit can fly itself, or to be more accurate this ship is alive." He tells them with a broad smile. After all, even if Hawk was an amazing scientist his specialty wasn't in machines, but instead in phenomena.

"At some point during its construction the Gambit became a living object. Only a few of the council know it. Hrask and Rahel at least, Rahel told me not to tell Tink since he'd tried to dissect or disassemble it, and Hrask told me not to tell Lar since he might blow it up." He explains as he gazes fondly at the entire room, which in essence according to him was alive.

"Well that aside because of that I don't need a plan, not that I would concoct one anyways. If I am not there the ship will simply leave and when I need it again I'll call it back. It's as simple as that. The Gambit is my companion and MY ship." He tells them confidently sitting down in the chair he decides not to head for the helm, after all no need to keep up appearances now that the secret was out.

“I’m fine with rolling with you guys for a while, but don’t rely on me as a permanent act. A man of my caliber can’t be tied down anywhere for long. Especially not in a new land ripe with adventure.” He says beating a fist against his chest. “Though I should tell you now, Hawk is a name I am proud of a predator of the sky, I will change it for no one.”

After the airship finishes its decent Hawk tosses down a rope ladder and climbed out of the ship. After all, even if he could make the jump it wouldn’t be pleasant if he landed wrong and there was no point in showing off under the current circumstances. “Hmmm, so we’re the first people from out continent to be here in over 40 years huh?” He muses a hint of pride in his voice, after all his airship was also the first vessel to make the voyage as well.

Once everyone was out Hawk turned to the ship and said. “Alright Gambit, you should take off again, try to hide in cloud cover so no one will mistake you for a monster.” He instructs as the ship takes off back into the sky and he looks towards a distant town of in the distance. From here he couldn’t see much about the town, so he decided to let the others decide what to do next.

However before they even began conversation a scream was heard. Nearby a pack of displacer beasts the size of large tigers surrounded a man and woman. The man was large, at least 6’5” and muscular, but he also seemed only, probably in his 50s and he seemed focused on protecting the woman on the ground behind him.

She was beautiful, but despite her useful appearance an aura of maturity emanated from her that made her seem much older than an initial glance over would suggest. However, that maturity was doing her little good at the moment. The beasts were surrounding the pair and getting ready to strike.

The man tried to raise his hands to ward them off but his forearms were head together by a large set of shackles. The pair was almost certainly going to become lunch for the large beasts.

The hulking beasts turned their attention towards the new threat, after all it was more dangerous, and meatier. Rain had managed to strike down one of the beasts as a fortunate gust of wind had redirected her aerial lancing to where the creature had actually been, 3 feet from the actual image. Neil's pillar of fire managed to singe a couple of them, but before it surrounded the man and woman he had already picked up the woman and lunged out of the way, placing him on the outside of the wall.

All in all the man was surprisingly mobile given shackled arms and what looked to be metal weights on his lower legs. The woman regained her composure and stood. Then he closed her eyes and began to concentrate. The beasts paid them no heed and charged at the party. One lunged at Shade following 2 feet behind it's image to try and disorient him. Several attacked Lalo and Rain aiming to overwhelm them with shear numbers and bulk.

Finally two of them suddenly appeared 5 feet in front of where they were running and lunged at Neil with opened jaws. The remaining three didn't move, but instead collapsed to the ground panting, as if they had been soffocated, black smog escaping from their mouths. Hawk also moved into action getting up beside Neil and firing his shotgun which seemed to cause the creatures to flinch and would give Neil and opening to fry them if he so chose.

Sighing Lara shook her head. "Actually Steven and I were on fine terms, in an informal way. The boy is painfully rude though." She says, though a hint of a smile crosses her face as she thinks back on times long passed.

Then the next moment a large shadow loomed overhead, and along with it a voice called "Hey need a lift?!" It was Hawk, apparently after the fight he had gone to get his airship and he tossed the rope ladder over the side waiting for the rest to join him on the ship.

"If Steven said we should go to that town there might be a reason, and without Narsh I have no way of knowing whether or not it is related to the prophecies or not." Lara admits though she turned towards the ship with a puzzled expression. "...well he had said that you would arrive in a flying whale." she mumbles to herself as she adjusts her disheveled cloths and then begins climbing the ladder.

Though part way up the ladder she stops for a moment and looks at Rain. "A piece of advice child, it's fine to befriend Steven, but don't go any further than that. Romance and prophets are not compatible." She says and then continues her ascent.