The Great Magical Mishap

Chapter 4 - Furious Flight

It wasn't long before they reached their goal. Thankfully, the kraken hadn't been quite as fast as the Bon Voyage. The gap between them should give enough time for the ship to take off safely, for as far as flying with a heavily damaged airship in a storm could be safe. The ship went through an alcove and entered what appeared to be a lagoon, surrounded by reef and high rocks. It was close to a perfect circle giving it an unnatural look. 

"We've arrived! Get the ship right in the centre!" the Captain shouted, which wasn't an easy task given the current conditions. They sailed right into the smallish circle of water. Any wrong move would likely impale the ship on the rocks jutting up from the water. It would require incredibly precise maneuvering to get the ship to the centre undamaged, which is why it arrived in the center with some additional damage. Peggy came hopping up-deck with a harpoon gun in hands. 

The Captain approached Pat. "Normally I would've given you the honor of sending us off since it's your first flight," he said to Pat, "but I'm afraid we don't have the time for it right now." As the Captain walked off, he shouted some orders to whichever bones remained of his skeleton crew.  

Pat looked thoroughly confused at the whole ordeal. "Harrold... I think it's about time to tell me how an airship works." 

Harrold took him to the bow of the ship. "See that purplish circle over there?" he asked Pat as he pointed towards a purplish circle. 

"Yes, what is it?"

"It's an air intake from a Purplish." 

Pat looked at him with narrowed eyes. "A... what now?" 

"It's a sea creature. I've only seen drawings of them, as they rarely get out of the water themselves. They don't look particularly interesting though. They usually just look like a large flat purple circle, with a single air intake in the centre which also kind of looks like a purple circle."

"Right, but what's up with the name? Just... Purplish?" 

Harrold had once heard the story of how the Purplish was named. The captain of the first ship to encounter one wanted to share the enjoyment of naming this purple creature with his passengers. However, the ship happened to be en route to the largest fashion show in the world. This meant, to the surprise of no one besides the apparently naive captain, that the friendly naming discussion quickly turned into a not so friendly discussion about what particular shade of purple the creature was. 

It's unclear if the captain was getting annoyed and wanted to spite his passengers or if he was simply trying to mitigate the quickly escalating discussion, but he eventually decided to compromise by naming it Purplish. It would forever be known as a great example of how trying to please everyone usually resulted in pleasing absolutely no one. 

"I like it," Harrold said, "It's more descriptive than most names."

"But what does this Purplish have to do with us flying?" Pat asked. 

Harrold considered if he should explain the process. Given the way it worked, it would probably only result in many more questions. He didn't want to engage in a conversation about whether it was humane or not, how someone discovered this or how the hell they would be able to survive the process. 

"It has something to do with violent allergic reactions," he said matter-of-factly, deciding he didn't want to withhold the truth, but also wasn't in the mood for further questions. 

The discussion on whether the use of Purplish was humane or not had been held so many times that Harrold was completely sick of it. Defenders of airships, basically anyone with money, would describe the process as the best example of nature and technology working together to, literally, achieve new heights. Animal rights advocates would counter that message by stating that it's animal abuse.