The monkeys cheered as we fell. I looked from Val to Sleipnir, and chose Val. I flew over to her and grabbed her as the serpent man fell helplessly. I turned back toward the ship, which was careening above us, smashing trees indiscriminately. When the air sacs popped they made a sound like bubble wrap.

  As I turned, Val hissed, “Don’t you dare take me back there! You need to get Sleipnir back to the ship! He’s the engineer!”

  “I can’t carry you both. I’ll go back for him.”

  Val kneed me in the stomach, freeing herself. She fell onto a floating tree’s top branches.

  “I’m not going you idiot. Go get him and come back for me. If the ship crashes we’re all dead. None of it will matter.”

  Val pulled out the pulse hammer’s fob and transformed it.

  [84% power remaining] Tech Appraiser informed me as I looked at the pulse hammer. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Several winged monkeys were around and they stared curiously from other trees as the hammer took form.

  “I’ll come back, Val. I promise.”

  I plummeted after Sleipnir. Looking around wildly.

  [Scavenger’s Eye: searching]

  My vision changed and a few things were highlighted in the treescapes, old shipwrecks and lost cargoes. In other words, salvage. A shipwreck wouldn’t be a bad place to hide if you fell into a deep and hostile jungle.

  I flew through a couple of the shipwrecks as I searched. I saw plenty of loot highlighted. I wasn’t about to collect it.

  Then the trees stopped. It was a reverse tree line. Below me churning gray clouds. I glided over the reverse tree line, activating Scavenger’s Eye again in case I could find some trace of him. Flying monkeys flew beside me in formation. Then I saw the silver serpent Sleipnir collapsed on a branch. I flew over. “Sleip, get up, come on.”

  His glowing blue eyes opened and refocused on me. He raised a hand.

  “T--The King is coming…” he said haltingly.

  One of his eyes emitted a shower of sparks and went dark.

  He was a robot!

  I began to heft Sleipnir onto my back so I could fly. Then I saw the notification.

  [Area Boss approaching: The King of the Jungle]

  Ahead of us a huge, cyborg ape stood imperiously upon a tree, his chin raised. He had a braided teal tail and mane. Two metal wings were grafted to his back.

  Suddenly he roared, and turbines in his shoulders flared red, taking in air.

  The King flew at me fist first. I slung Sleipnir over my shoulders and took off with [Wind Rider]. But not fast enough. I heard the hiss of hydraulics as his iron fist expanded. He hit me like the black car of my doom on Earth and I went flying. I was alive! I only focused on holding Sleipnir as I sailed through the air, barely conscious. Even if I fell into the storm, as long as I had him I could fly back up.

  I bounced off a tree, then another one, then hit an air sac which exploded in a burst of air, sending Sleip and I flying straight up. I looked back, shaking off the blow. The King of the Jungle was right behind me.

  I remembered Lorlux’s maneuvers. It was time for mine. I dodged in and out of trees and wrecks. The King wasn’t subtle. Several times he nearly overtook me by breaking through trees and wreckage. Surely I couldn’t fight him alone.

  I flew erratically upward, trying to lose him. I needed to figure out the path the airship would have taken. It was confusing in here.

  “Which way do we go?” I asked Sleipnir.

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  Sleipnir did not reply.

  After several more minutes, I finally lost the King. I next was able to locate the Fool’s Errand, helped along by all the flying monkeys staring in the same direction. When I found the Fool’s Errand it was stopped entirely. It rested on a precarious mix of trees, vines, and a very small floating island. Some flying monkeys landed nearby and began screaming.

  I dropped off Sleipnir. Brufo and Lorlux came out on deck.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “He’s broken or something. Can you fix him? Also, watch out for monkeys. The [Area Boss] is no joke. I need to go get Val.”

  I didn’t wait for their reply. flew off again, back to Val.

  When I found Val she was facing a handful of flying monkeys. They were harrying her with dive bombs. As I came in they scattered. Since I could fly, I could chase them properly.

  Val was scratched up. She wiped some blood off her cheek.

  “Daniel’s taxi service!” I announced. “Boy am I glad to see you.”

  “Did you find him?”

  She smashed a monkey that got too close with her hammer.

  “Yes but he’s broken. I didn’t realize he was a robot.”

  “Well, chrome dragon, not really a robot.”

  “He seemed like an electric, metal robot to me, but okay.”

  “Chrome dragons are an ancient and venerable race, Daniel. Are you hurt?”

  “I found the [Area Boss]. It’s a giant ape jet guy. Are you?”

  “Let’s get the aether out of here.”

  I extended my hand, to grab her.

  I was quickly finding that ‘Daniel’s taxi service’ AKA flying people around with [Wind Rider] was a bit awkward. When I had flown Valietta back up from the Dream Fish, I had carried her in my arms. I had slung Sleipnir over my shoulders.

  There is a third option. As she grabbed my hand I went to pull her into my arms again, like I’d carried her the first time. But she pulled and swung herself around and came careening to straddle my back. Effectively she was riding me.

  “This is better,” she said as we flew off.

  “Better for who?”

  “This way if someone comes for us I can fight!”

  I had to give her that. We went unchallenged through the jungle.

  “None of these aethering monkeys want to tangle with the us! Did I say that right?”

  “Spoken like a natural Weywyrder.”

  “The magnificent Valietta and her noble steed Daniel!”

  Approaching the crashed airship again, this time droves of flying monkeys had settled onto the top rails. They began screeching as we came in. Many of them wore looted junk. One carried a tape recorder and the one that guarded the topdeck door had a telescope slung up on its shoulder like a baseball bat. I began to have a bad feeling.

  They showed us inside. There were several monkeys wandering the halls here as well in human clothes.

  Val marched up to a monkey wearing a blue ball gown backwards. “Take that dress off!!”

  The monkey bared its teeth at her and a scuffle ensued. More of them came into the hall to gawk at the fight. Val ended up with the dress. She had the monkey gripped by the neck. She tossed the monkey to the crowd of its fellows.

  She put the dress over her shoulder and pushed through the crowd. “Let’s go find Lorlux.”

  As we went deeper into the airship, a delicious aroma filled the air. In the kitchen we found Brufo seasoning a stew. Beside him, a monkey wearing a black toque sauteed bananas and mangoes.

  “Who’re your friends?” I said dryly.

  Brufo looked relieved when he saw me with Val beside me. “Oh, Daniel, good you brought her back. Unfortunately we’ve found the Area Boss…by way of him finding us.”

  “He’s not flying around punching everybody?”

  “Not at all. Honestly he seems curious more than anything else. Lorlux is entertaining him in the dining room for now. Why don’t you go see them? I’m going to serve this stew as soon as this bozo is done with his stir fry.” He indicated the monkey with his toque. “He can’t hear us.”

  We went to the dining room. I hung back before we turned the corner.

  “Maybe I should just go back to my room. This guy tried to beat the aether out of me like an hour ago! Not just tried.”

  “If he fights you, I’ve got your back. We all do.”

  “I just don’t want to cause any trouble.”

  “I don’t want you to leave.”

  I nodded. I took a deep breath and turned the corner. In the dining room I beheld the most dignified set of monkeys I have ever laid eyes upon, listening along with the King and Sleipnir’s inert body propped up into a chair, with rapt attention as Lorlux told a swashbuckling story.

  “...but the people of Baol did not realize until it was too late…Oh, hello Daniel.”

  Lorlux was swift to rise to his feet when he saw us and try to defuse the situation. The King stood, nostrils and turbines flaring.

  “You-Runner!” The King roared. “Yes-You-Runner!”

  Lorlux placed a hand on the King’s arm. “He is crew. Crew of ship.”

  The turbines began to die down.

  “You-Runner-You-Crew?”

  “That’s right. Have your men afford him a place at the table.”

  The King looked very mollified to have his flying monkeys referred to as men.

  “You-Go,” he said pointing to two of them. They scampered off.

  We took their places. I watched the King nervously.

  He reached all the way over the table, extended his hand.

  “Me-Kola. Kola-Read-Three-Book-To-Learn-Talk.”

  “Me-Daniel. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.”

  Brufo and the monkeys arrived with the soup. He had done his best to instruct them as waiters for each monkey carried a dish and some set down their dishes immediately and some looked to him for further instruction. The monkey wearing Brufo’s toque stood beside him for his oration.

  “We have prepared for you [Broth of Mending] served alongside sauteed bananas and mangoes.”

  The rest of the monkey waiters loudly shoved their dishes onto the table and the monkeys began to eat furiously. It was similar to a food fight. For my part I sipped greedily at my broth and silently strategized. I was probably going to have to fight him again.